Busting Big Oil
Sticker Shock at the Pumps Symbolizes the Fossil Fuel Malaise
Sticker Shock at the Pumps Symbolizes the Fossil Fuel Malaise
Unfortunately, you can't buy all the rhetoric. For every company taking very real steps towards sustainability, there's another one stepping directly backwards, but trying to convince you otherwise. These greenwashers topped Earth Day 2000's list… Mobil. Its “Helping the Earth Breathe Easier” ads in The New York Times divert attention from its steadfast membership in […]
Companies in industries not inherently eco-friendly are also realizing their powerful impact on the environment. By rethinking old business practices and implementing innovative new programs, here are a few trying to make that impact a positive one… Delta Air Lines. The third-largest air carrier in the United States, Delta has dramatically reduced its hazardous waste […]
Kudos to those companies that incorporate environmental values into all levels of business, from the vision of their products through their methods of production. These innovative entrepreneurs are leading the way to a sustainable future… New Organics. This ubiquitous brand is in just about every grocery aisle. Storming mainstream shelves, New Organics introduced more than […]
Peter B. Kaplan/The National Audubon Society Collection/PR African Violet Location: Kenya and Tanzania Claim to Fame: Common, fuzzy-blooming houseplant. Problem: Saving the highly-threatened wild versions requires establishing protected forests and conserving them the Noah’s Ark way. That is, by taking a few to grow in protective gardens. Coral Plant Location: Chile Claim to Fame: The […]
An International Trade Imperils Wild Herbs Now that the vitamin aisle at your local drug store abounds with echinacea, goldenseal, ginseng and other supplements, have you ever wondered where your herbal helpers come from? Peering into the distance, Curley Youpee can see an answer in the pockmarks riddling the hillsides of his Fort Peck, Montana […]
Read Nothing About It From the viewpoint of the American press, last February’s Hague Forum on population, a follow-up to the landmark Cairo conference five years ago, was largely a stage set for Hillary Rodham Clinton to look senatorial. Very few U.S. media outlets, with the notable exception of CNN (Turner Broadcasting is also producing […]
Two Views Melanie Mitsue Okamoto, campaign organizer, Political Ecology Group: In the past decade, the anti-immigrant lobby, which includes groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Carrying Capacity Network, has jumped on the “green” bandwagon to invent a new form of scapegoating that targets immigrants as a cause of our environmental […]
Every summer through most of the 1980s, an awful smell wafted its way across the west side of Bridgeport, Connecticut–a stench ultimately traced to the premises of Herman Isaacs, Inc. Once you knew how the long-established company did business, it wasn’t surprising to learn that its operations stunk to high heaven. Isaacs, now closed, was a meat rendering plant; it bought spoiled meat scraps, animal carcasses, and other "offal" and transformed this waste product into an inoffensive, high-protein base for such products as designer soaps, medicines, candy (yes, candy) and a whole lot of other things you’d never suspect had meat in them.
Oddly enough, one reason cows are eating more of each other these days has to do with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a synthetic form of the controversial hormone the dairy industry is employing to stimulate milk production. Marketed under the name "Posilac," Monsanto’s rBGH is the first genetically engineered food product to win FDA approval. Injected into a cow’s pituitary gland every two weeks, rBGH (also known as BST, or bovine somatotropin) can increase milk output by up to 25 percent.