According to one study, the average overhead saving for American manufacturers practicing "remanufacturing"-General Electric and Xerox among them-is about 70 percent, a remarkable figure and one that could significantly any company’s competitiveness even with increasing energy costs.
A new report issued by the Minnesota-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) last week found that the 355 U.S. cities across 49 states that have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions according to the stringent terms of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement intended to stem the tide of global warming, face an uphill battle.
After receiving some bad press last week for owning shares in "many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights or unethical practices," the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would be conducting a systematic review of its investments.
Esteemed environmental policy analyst Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute told reporters last week that Americans and the rest of the world are likely to see sharp increases in the price of corn, let alone the popular biofuel ethanol, due to errors in projections made by federal agriculture planners.
Last week the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) issued a report detailing how the world’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, has donated $16 million since 1998 to 43 ideological groups working to discredit the science of human-induced climate change. The group joins a growing chorus of voices asking the oil giant and world’s most profitable company to turn the corner on global warming and start embracing a transition from fossil fuels.
The West Nile virus, which was first discovered in New York City in 1999, has infected 26,000 people in North America and killed 962. It has become a very virulent scourge. Why do you think we are seeing an outbreak of West Nile now, and what is its potential in human hosts?
The fact that nuclear waste is the most toxic substance on the planet may be lost on those who vehemently call for the country to pour its resources into creating more plants. And the U.S. currently has no viable near-term storage options for nuclear waste which continues to pollute for generations.
In what many environmentalists consider an about-face on both endangered species and global warming, the Bush administration last week announced that it would recommend listing America’s polar bears as threatened under the nation’s Endangered Species Act.
A coalition of environmental groups and individual states cheered last week when a federal appeals court overturned a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to weaken limits on smog pollution generated by large power plants and factories in urban areas across the country.
A new report by the international nonprofit WWF details how scientists have uncovered dozens of species of plants and animals formerly unknown to science in the jungles and coastal waters of the Indonesian island of Borneo. Scientists working under the auspices of WWF’s Heart of Borneo program report discovering 30 unique fish species, two tree frog species, 16 ginger species, three tree species and one large-leafed plant species.
