The CEO of Wal-Mart–that king of the big box retailers long condemned by environmentalists for irresponsible development, violations of clean water laws and other crimes against nature–announced last week that his company is embarking on a new $500 million-a-year initiative to green its operations.
New England’s coastal towns are some of America’s oldest, and few have a more storied or colorful past than Mystic, Connecticut in the southeastern part of the state. Wedged roughly half way between Boston and New York City, Mystic Harbor is filled with sailboats and surrounded by gently rolling hills and quaint, historic buildings.
In a report released last week, the World Conservation Union announced that without intervention, half of the world’s coral reefs would be gone by 2045. "Twenty percent of the Earth’s coral reefs, arguably the richest of all marine ecosystems, have been effectively destroyed today," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, who runs the marine environment program for the Swiss-based nonprofit that published the report.
I always found it amusing that New York Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio—"Joltin" Joe," as the sportscasters dubbed him—went on after retirement to stump for kitchen coffee makers. But one thing Mr. Coffee never jolted us with were the real facts about America’s favorite hot beverage.
Americans are putting more of the other-other white meat—fish—on the table than ever before. The average person eats 15 pounds per year. That’s probably good news for a country grappling with growing rates of obesity and heart disease. Eating fish has complex environmental consequences, but several organizations help consumers isolate a range of tasty, sustainable options.
To most casual drinkers, coffee has as much to do with songbirds as chalk does to cheese, but a growing movement centering on coffee’s many political dimensions is beginning, like the caffeine in the cup, to wake up a disinterested public.
E‘s 2004 book Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Change (Routledge), based on a special feature in the September/ October 2000 issue of the magazine, reported on many of the connections between intense storm damage and global warming now under discussion in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Colin Woodard described […]
Congressman Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, introduced legislation that would sharply curtail the power of the Endangered Species Act (see "Fall of the Wild," cover story, May/June 1999). Pombo has long been a vocal critic of the legislation. In his September 19 announcement of the bill, Pombo assailed current legislation for having […]
Several organizations have issued consumer guidelines for fish you can enjoy with a clear conscience, fish to avoid, and fish that are cause for concern. "Monterey Bay Aquarium. Has detailed info about each fish and how it’s raised or caught, the health of its population, and links to PDFs of studies. www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp. "Environmental Defense Oceans […]
"Clean and Green" New Zealand struggles with many contradictions, including high cancer rates (see "Clean and Green New Zealand is a Study in Environmental Contrasts," May/June 2003). Today, New Zealand’s endangered national bird, the kiwi, is facing further peril.
