Explorations of Gravel Mining, the Antarctic Shelf and "Natural" Cleansers What are the environmental impacts of gravel extraction? Kristina Hayward Berkshire, UK Gravel extraction, often in stream beds, is big business in the United States and elsewhere, and there's a definite environmental cost. Gravel is used to help build patios, parking lots, roads and building […]
Some People Don’t Have ‘The Complexion for Protection’ When, in 1979, Dr. Robert Bullard wrote a study called Solid Waste Sites and the Black Houston Community, nobody had heard of environmental racism (see the special report in this issue). It would be three more years before anyone used that phrase, but Dr. Bullard had plainly […]
Dissection’s Deadly Toll Hits Frogs Hardest For most high school students, dissecting a formaldehyde-soaked frog is an educational rite of passage. But the practice has decimated the population of frogs and other wild-caught animals, and more and more kids are refusing to do it. “I don’t think it’s right to kill animals,” says Amanda Swann, […]
An Exercise in Democracy Pits Conservation Against Animal Rights On the parched outskirts of Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe, Mabale villagers were screaming epithets, flailing arms and legs, and beating drums and pots, creating an unearthly din. This wasn’t some ritualistic African dance—the villagers were trying to intimidate a herd of elephants. The same […]
A "Green" Gas Additive May be Causing More Problems Than It’s Solving When Freda and Jim Kubas bought their Glenville, California home, they thought they would be spending the rest of their lives there. In 1993, they began using their private well and noticed a turpentine-like odor and peculiar taste, so they installed a $4,000-water […]
The Sierra Club Votes Down an Immigration Initiative There are few issues more politically charged than immigration policy, so it’s hardly surprising that voices were raised and names were called when the Sierra Club debated the subject last spring. At issue was a ballot initiative proposed by an insurgent group within the club, Sierrans for […]
There's no longer a police department in Winona, Texas. Just 17 years after a chemical waste company came to town, promising a new era of economic development, Winona is a ghost town, its three-block downtown boarded over. People have left Winona, too. One of them is Wanda Erwin. Four years ago, she wrote an open […]
Polluters That Dump on Communities of Color Are Finally Being Brought to Justice
For many people, camping involves buying the lightest, most waterproof synthetic materials available—gear which taxes the environment with toxic solvents, volatile organic pollutants and factory waste.
To lower stress, many physicians recommend a relaxing hobby like gardening. But cultivating plants indoors may also lower the risk of asthma, allergies and “sick building syndrome.” The Environmental Protection Agency cites indoor air pollution as one of the top five public health threats in America, and the main culprit in the 60 percent rise […]
