Following Failed Trade Talks, the Debate Rages On When a world conference on the once-sleepy issue of trade came to Seattle late last November, the press got the soundbyte they were looking for: 50,000 demonstrators crowded the city, leaving a trail of shattered windows and police barricades in their wake. But despite a handful of […]
Waste Exchanges Save Energy and Landfill Space Ancient wisdom teaches that one person's trash is another person's gold. The pundits never predicted, however, that the “gold” would take names like “diphenylacetonitrile” and “Povidone K-30 BP/EP.” There's no magic alchemy involved—just a growing business called waste exchange. Waste exchanges, also known as materials exchanges, are services […]
Telecommuting is a High-Tech Energy Saver In what has to be considered a major change in American corporate life, more and more office workers are “commuting” in their bathrobes, moving from bedroom to home office to begin their work day. Telecommuting is a “no brainer,” right? How could it not be good that millions of […]
From America’s Dirtiest City to Its Greenest “Chattanooga,” proclaims a 1924 promotional brochure whose cover features artistically rendered belching smokestacks, “is a divine masterpiece in the making.” Unfortunately, the roaring fires of this industrial riverfront city came to symbolize something other than progress. By 1969, just before the first Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency […]
Undersea Noise Experiments Threaten the Sensitive Hearing-And Communications-Of Marine Mammals Finned marine mammals like these dolphins are especially sensitive to sonic disruptions. Anyone who has ducked beneath the surface of the ocean is familiar with the sensation. The screech of gulls, the laughter of children in the surf, even the distant whine of pleasure craft […]
With GIS Environmental Software, the Proof is in the Plotting This GIS map treates the Pacific Northwest as an ecosystem of varying rainforest environments. At the front lines of environmentalism, often the first and biggest challenge is proving that there is a problem. The systematic environmental poisoning Rachel Carson described in Silent Spring made headlines […]
The Pentagon Uses Radioactive Waste as Armor and Bullets As many as 700,000 American soldiers served in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but it wasn’t until last year that the Pentagon finally admitted that some of those servicemen and women may have been exposed to chemical weapons. During the Gulf War, depleted uranium was used […]
Wangari Maathai’s Movement is Built on the Power of Trees On a winter day in 1999, Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai was doing what comes naturally to her: planting trees. As in Thailand, where a Buddhist monk who protected trees by ordaining them was thrown in jail, Maathai’s activities made the authorities uneasy. The seedlings […]
America’s Parks are the Scene of the Crime for Plant Theft Park biologist Mike Owen had been on the job only two months when he got a startling phone call. It was the park manager. Come to the parking lot, he said. What happened next would inspire a book and, coming this fall, a movie […]
Global Climate Change Threatens the Insurance Industry When winds reach 120 miles per hour, houses begin to crumble, walls break and roofs fly away. With global climate change, winds like this are coming more often. In the U.S. during the last three decades, the number of weather-related natural disasters has increased five-fold. Last year was […]
