Our Beleaguered Beaches
Increased Pollution And Lax Water Quality Standards Lessen Summer Fun In The Sun
E Magazine Categories
How Much Water Do We Need, Anyway?
If you haven’t thought about how much water you’re drinking lately, you’re probably drinking enough, says Dr. Heinz Valtin, a retired professor and kidney specialist at the Dartmouth Medical School, who recently spent 10 months studying the question. Valtin cautions that drinking too much water may increase exposure to water-borne pollutants, and may increase the risk of water intoxification, also called hyponatremia, a sometimes fatal condition that is the result of replacing lost fluids much faster than sodium.
Capsizing California
The State’s Rapid Population Growth is Largely Due to Immigration Nowhere in America is immigration more of a battleground than in California, where a trickle of new residents has become a flood. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in 1960 the state held 8.8 percent of the nation’s population and 13.9 percent of its […]
Growing Pains/Malling America
Louden County, Virginia, the third-fastest-growing county in the country, could easily become the outward-most link in the Washington, D.C. "edge city" corridor. The commute to the nation’s capitol is only an hour and a half, land is cheap.
The Perils of Plastic:
If used with common sense, plastics and food can be a safe combination, experts say. But certain types of plastic are made with chemicals that may cause health problems if they leach into food.
The Diet-Cancer Connection
Eating Your Way to Better Health The medical profession has come a long way since Hippocrates first said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Perhaps it’s time to take a few steps back. A full third of the 563,000 cancer deaths the American Cancer Society predicts for 1999 will be nutrition-related. […]
Getting On Our Nerves
Researchers Find a Connection Between Parkinson’s Disease and Pesticides The herbicides and pesticides many people trust enough to spray on their gardens and crops have been increasingly linked to the onset of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder that turns the simplest movement into a battle between the brain and the nerves. The first connection […]
Looking South
As the American economy continues to lag, more and more socially and environmentally responsible investors are looking south to find promising venture capital opportunities. While much of the rest of the world is bogged down in recession and cowed by the specter of terrorism, Latin American businesses are operating in a relatively safe and fast-growing economic climate friendly to sustainable development and still rich in virgin natural resources. A small cadre of environmentally conscious venture funds—most of which feature a nonprofit component—have already invested almost $2 billion in sustainable forestry, organic agriculture, renewable energy and other green businesses in the region, and are poised to make significant returns over the coming decades. Individual investors are still welcome to invest in many of these funds.
The Color of Money
Alternative Currency Promotes Fresh Thinking About Sustainable Economics The angry people crowding the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina last January were armed with casseroles and wooden spoons and making a hell of a ruckus. Unemployment was at historic highs, crime had skyrocketed, and the political system was on the verge of collapse. What was responsible […]
Natural Options
The 10 Most Important Foods to Buy Organic In 1984, Elizabeth Ryan bought a farm in New York’s mid Hudson Valley. The farm and orchard had been managed conventionally for many years, but Ryan decided to severely restrict the use of chemical pesticides. Her farm is now run under a preventive Integrated Pest Management (IPM) […]