Currents

In a scientist’s photomosaic taken in 1972, wetlands along the Five Mile River included a small island surrounded by thin ribbons of water and covered grasses that typify a healthy New England salt marsh. In a contrasting set of photos from 2000, all that remains of the island is a puddle-pocked mudflat. The photographs depict a troubling phenomenon along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts: Tidal wetlands that have been healthy for hundreds, if not thousands, of years are rapidly breaking up and converting to open water.

Fifteen years from now, 28,000 trucks a day, many of them hauling double or triple trailers, may be speeding up and down special truck lanes on Virginia’s Interstate 81, belching tons of carbon monoxide into the Shenandoah Valley each year. Proponents of "toll truckways," such as the influential libertarian Reason Foundation think-tank, believe they are the wave of the future and the answer to the nation’s transportation needs.

With 120 green or "living roofs" built or planned citywide, including one on City Hall, Chicago is pioneering a trend that has taken off across North America. The impetus came from Mayor Richard M. Daley, a proponent of green technology who was impressed by the green roofs he saw when traveling in Europe—where they’ve been built for 30 years and have become commonplace. "Building green roofs "is a very important initiative for the mayor," says Chicago Green Projects Administrator Michael Berkshire, an urban planner.

Everyone’s familiar with the concept of the "open house," but suppose instead of McMansions you could visit only energy-efficient homes heated by solar or geothermal energy, with electricity provided by the wind? Sounds like an alternate universe, right? Well, you actually can go on such a magical journey when the Colorado-based American Solar Energy Society sponsors the National Solar Tour.

World Environment Day was celebrated June 5 in San Francisco, the first time it was held in the U.S. The event commemorates the anniversary of the first World Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972. The organizer of that meeting, Maurice Strong, has been an energy-sector CEO, an adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the convener of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

The first bioengineered animal, patented in 1988 and called the "Harvard oncomouse," was programmed with a gene predisposing it to cancer. Harvard researcher Philip Leder developed the animal, and chemical giant DuPont owns exclusive rights to the patent. The contorversial milestone brought together religious groups, scientists, farmers, environmentalists and animal rights activists, all opposed to the patenting of life. "The technique of custom-making a rodent, considered the stuff of science fiction a decade ago, has become almost low-tech…so routine at many laboratories that [the president of GenPharm International of Mountain view,California] David Winter calls it ‘dial-a-mouse,’" reported Marla Cone in May 1993 article in the Los Angeles Times. GenPharm’s corporate development director Howard Rosen agrees: "We do ‘custom tailor’ mice."

In the rustic New England shoreline village of Guilford, Connecticut, homes go for $250,00 and up. But if you want a bargain visit Meadow Street, where any one out of nine solid homes, some abandoned by their owners, are going begging, despite price tags of less than $100,000. The reason? The houses have an unwanted neighbor: a Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) substation.

April 24, 1994 will mark eight years since Reactor Four at the Chernobyl atomic power complex in the Ukraine blew up, heaving 50 tons of radioactive materials into the sky. But unlike natural disasters, this one isn’t healing.

Multilevel marketing–otherwise known as MLM, or "network marketing"–is a familiar concept to many Americans, though most would more readily recognize the names Amway and Shaklee, companies which have employed such neighbor-to-neighbor sales strategies successfully for decades. Indeed, both companies have become major contenders in the personal care, vitamin and household products industries. This is due, in large part, to the viability of the network markeeting concept, but also to increasing consumer interest in environmentally safe products, which have gradually become a bigger and bigger part of both Amway’s and Shaklee’s product lines. But now some relatively new arrivals on the MLM scene- such as the unmistakably green sounding comapnies Greenway and Natural World–are looking to prove that the grass is even greener on their side of the fence.

The summer is travel season, and in keeping with the calendar we’re providing an excerpt from the eco-travel chapter of our new book, <I>Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth</I>, just published by Plume. The information below is just a fraction of the travel information contained in the book, which also offers "news you can use" on topics ranging from the healthy home to planet-friendly cars. Click on the link below for further information from the book, and for a handy online order form.