Mushrooms are a source of mystery, fascination, and even fear. They appear suddenly, and are gone just as quickly. They come in a diverse array of colors and shapes, growing in dark, out-of-the-way places as well as on front lawns. Their usefulness as food and medicine has spawned a legion of mushroom aficionados.
The next time your town is having a "bad air" day, and you glare at your local smoke-spewing power plant, give a thought also to the vehicle in your own driveway. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, cars, trucks and buses account for more than 50 percent of smog emissions. Car emissions are indirectly […]
In the fall of 1997, anti-car activists from 50 groups in 21 countries converged on Lyon, France, for a conference that was far more than the usual round of speeches. Although there were some relatively sedate workshops, the real action at "Towards Car-Free Cites" was in the streets, with protesters blocking highways, physically moving illegally […]
Thanks to the Highway Lobby, Now We're Stuck in Traffic. How Do We Escape? © Comstock Jerry Nichols, a musician, nurse and beer-brewer who lives in suburban Connecticut, has a long morning commute that can double if traffic is bad. His solution is unique to him: Zen-like detachment. "I simply tune it out," he says. […]
It’s No Longer Enough to Put Endangered Species on Display and Call it Conservation
I never much enjoyed the zoo. As a child, the prospect of a day’s visit with my classmates sounded fun, but beyond the attraction of a day off from school, singing on the bus, and the cotton candy, the experience was usually pretty depressing. The place stunk like a huge cat box, and the animals […]
The High-Tech Industry is Poisonous to Low-Wage Immigrant Workers In February 2000, Garrett Brown of California’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (Cal-OSHA) found that a high-tech plant in Fremont, California was poisoning its workers with arsenic. Brown learned that American Xtal Technology (AXT), while filling semiconductor contracts for the Department of Defense and the National […]
Nigeria’s Coastline is Besieged by Global Warming New research is sounding the alarm, predicting that climate-related sea level rise is likely to put 80 percent of Nigeria’s coastline at risk of being swept away by the surging waves of the Atlantic Ocean. In a research study entitled, "Perception and Reality: Assessing Priorities for Sustainable Development […]
Middlebury College Recycles Paper—and Its Old Buildings "I had my first college class in that room right there," says Chad Malone, pointing to a ground-floor chamber stripped to a concrete shell and filled with rubble. "Chem 104. This was a terrible building. Cold, cold." Very few people get to trash their old college classrooms (at […]
Henry SiJohn, square-faced and bespectacled, peered across the broad waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the spiritual center of his Coeur d’Alene tribe. The water shimmered a deep blue, making for a pretty backdrop for the numerous weddings held at a posh neighboring golf resort. Once promoted for national park status, the lake has stoked the […]
