Oh, Canada!
The widely held notion that Canada is taking excellent care of its wild, pristine lands far better than the gluttonous citizens in the United States is nothing more than a misperception approaching myth…
Farming Infertility
Country Living May be Hazardous to Your Potency When epidemiologist Shanna Swan began comparing fertility in urban versus rural men, she thought she knew what she would find. Just as corn, sorghum and soybeans grow better in central Missouri’s hills and hollers than in a polluted parking lot in urban New York, Los Angeles or […]
A Fuss Over Farmland
Punctuating a disturbing land-use trend across the country, the Denver Post reports on recently released census figures showing that Colorado has lost more than a million acres of farmland since 1997, among the most of any state in the nation.
Let Nature Take Its Course
The New York Times reports that critics of the U.S. Forest Service are calling for the agency to allow more wild fires in unpopulated areas to burn without intervention as an ecologically sound method of clearing downed timber and brush while preserving resources for more threatening blazes.
Hemp, Hemp Hooray
Makers of food products containing hemp won a victory last week in federal appeals court. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a federal rule by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that would have banned the sale of foods containing sterilized hemp seeds and oils containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), well-known as the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Beating Around the Bush
In a triumph of Bush administration doublespeak, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently cautioned women and children to watch their consumption of fish because of mercury contamination, while at the same time announcing plans to ease restrictions on the very mercury emissions that caused the problem in the first place.
Does drinking hard water result in an unhealthy buildup of minerals
The presence of calcium and magnesium in your water will make it “hard.” These minerals are dissolved in rainwater as it moves through soil and rock. According to a 1980 study done by the National Academy of Sciences on the mineral nutrition of drinking water,
I’ve heard I should avoid buying wood products made
“Old growth” is often defined as trees that have been growing for approximately 200 years or longer. The problem, according to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), is that the lumber industry classifies trees by lumber grades, not age, and because old-growth wood
Why is gasoline so much more expensive in Europe than in the U.S.?
There are multiple components to gasoline prices, according to the Energy Information Administration, an independent statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy: the cost of production and delivery, including the cost of crude oil to refiners and refinery processing costs; marketing and distribution costs; retail station costs; and taxes.