Susan Cowsill, a singer-songwriter (and member of the famous 1960s singing family) says the culture of New Orleans is a big part of her music. But it was with some trepidation that she and her family recently returned home after a nomadic post-Katrina existence in Austin and Houston. "I want to believe what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is saying, that it is safe," she says.
The power behind the White House throne, Vice President Dick Cheney, took a wholly unwanted turn in the spotlight when he accidentally shot an old friend, Republican bigwig Harry Whittington, during a stage-managed quail hunting party in south Texas.
New cars are great, aren’t they? On top of looking all shiny and perfect, they also just smell new. It’s a unique odor, isn’t it? And it goes away after a few weeks, never to appear again. But it’s great while it lasts. Or is it?
I am none too impressed by the new cars and dream vehicles on display at this year’s Detroit Auto Show. American carmakers don’t seem to be grasping that $3 a gallon gasoline will force a sea change in consumer thinking. Once again, the most innovative small cars and ready-to-go green vehicles were from Japan.
The slickly produced FishScam.com website seeks to debunk the idea that the public is in any danger from mercury-tainted seafood. It suggests that mercury levels in the environment have actually decreased over the last 100 years, adding that scientific studies (conducted by the Smithsonian and Princeton, among others) reveal declining amounts of mercury in tuna.
There was big news out of Bloomington, Illinois this week: SUVs are no safer for kids than are passenger cars, largely because of much greater rollover risk! It astonished me to see this in big headlines everywhere, because I’ve been reporting on it for years. It’s true, read my lips: SUVs are not safer than cars.
The issue isn’t whether we’re running out of oil but when will we reach the peak oil production, after which the decline will inevitably clash with demand.
Are hydrogen, ethanol or electricity on track to replace fossil fuels? Major challenges remain.
If you think that a brave new world of agriculturally derived, clean-burning biodiesel fuel is going to wean us off petroleum, you’d better think again.
The Hurricane Katrina fiasco has been blamed on President Bush, on poorly prepared or corrupt state and local governments, and even (by Rush Limbaugh) on a “culture of entitlement” that persuaded people they should stay in their homes and let the feds take care of them. But blaming it on environmentalists? That’s a new one.
