Ghosts linger in Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish. Before you meet cancer survivor Ken Ford of Chalmette, you must first meet the ghosts. They come on wings of natural and man-made disasters. They slip in through the cracks of poverty. You can spot them in the worst manifestations of American culture. You hear their voices murmur from history, always challenging the irony of who gets to live, and die.
Fair trade aims to pay low-income artisans and farmers in many parts of the world a “livable wage” in exchange for their goods.
Many environmentalists and well-educated idealists have moved to Portland, Oregon, in recent years, drawn by the pristine natural beauty of nearby areas, by wild salmon splashing in clear mountain streams, thundering waterfalls, elk wandering through old-growth forests, snow-capped mountains and wildflowers dotting the meadows. But after arriving, many were soon numbed by the diversity of threats to the wilderness by man’s consumption: majestic forests cut to stumps to make toilet paper, rugged mountains flattened to extract coal and metals and woodland streams turned green with pollution.
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.
Andrew Millison is helping to spearhead a community sustainability initiative around permaculture in the Lincoln-Dameron Street district of Prescott, AZ.
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?
The Onondaga Nation’s Lawsuit Seeks to Revive a Polluted River…
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.
A moving counter on the home page of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) lets web surfers know that the program is responsible for saving more than 5.3 billion trees since it was launched in 1995. "Keeping our forests healthy is important," the group, launched as an offshoot of the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) solemnly proclaims. "Healthy forests will continue to provide the wood and paper products that are vital to all of us while also ensuring that we have forests and wildlife for future generations of Americans."
On April 22, more than a half billion people around the world will celebrate the 35th annual Earth Day, making it the planet’s largest secular holiday. This will be an opportune time to celebrate progress made and reflect on the many challenges and goals ahead.
