Wildlife researchers have discovered a new best friend. In studies from Alberta to Vermont, specially trained dogs are now being used to gather valuable information about bears, foxes and other elusive species from their droppings. The idea of using dogs to systematically detect wildlife "scat" was initiated five years ago by Samuel Wasser, director of […]
Right up there with air and water, one of the last things in nature we should be tampering with is our food — at least not without due consideration of all the ramifications.
The Growing Confusion About Eating Soy Foods While it may still be a newcomer to American diets, the soybean is an old friend in China: 5,000 year-old records show that it was a staple in the Chinese diet even then. During the U.S. Civil War, soldiers brewed the beans as "coffee berries" when real java […]
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 […]
Ecotourism is an idea whose time has come, but it’s too early to declare victory. For the traveling public, the challenge is to find the environmentally and socially responsible companies that can provide a great holiday. And that’s where the concept of certification—eco-labeling—comes in. All tourism certification programs are voluntary, market-driven initiatives, which means companies […]
Three Native Americans from the Gwich"in tribe of northern Yukon were honored with this year’s North American Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from the effects of oil drilling. The Gwich"in consider the land and wildlife intrinsic to their culture. Winner Sarah James hopes the prize’s publicity […]
Natural Alternatives to Toxic Coloring Agents I was born to be a redhead, but that’s not the color I got. The first time my hair dried to the glorious shade of red on the box of dye, I was hooked. I’m not alone: more than 50 million women in America dye their hair on a […]
Jerry Russell Illustration The United Nations declared 2002 the International Year of Ecotourism to promote this fast-growing segment of the $3.5 trillion travel industry partly because of the great potential it has for helping the world’s economically depressed areas. The UN also hopes the industry will take stock of how well it is doing so […]
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 […]
Beyond Good Hospitality Ten years ago, the Sheraton Rittenhouse Square didn’t even have smoke-free rooms. Now the Philadelphia hotel has air that’s swept clean of such pollutants as mold, pollen and bacteria every 34 minutes. What’s more, the cut-glass front desk is 100 percent recycled, there’s a stand of oxygenating palms in the atrium lobby, […]
