Unearthed

Eighty-five-year-old Liz Moore challenges oil-sands mining operations with her activist website.

Tiger populations are nearing extinction levels in India, despite their popularity with tourists.

The nonprofit Reverb is greening rock concerts with biofuel buses and on-site eco-villages.

The Oregon Institute of Technology offers a renewable energy systems program—the country’s first bachelor’s degree in the study of alternative fuels. And students are lining up.

Prices rose sharply in the early days of the summer driving season. The national average for a gallon of regular grade gasoline on May 21 was $3.22, up 11 cents from the week before. The Center for American Progress report explains that these prices will restrict family vacations, send middle-income families digging deeper into their savings and keep consumers away from restaurants and shopping venues.

All car seats are not created equal. While parents fret over the toxins in plastic toys and teething rings they now have to consider what chemicals may be lurking in their car seat. The Michigan-based Ecology Center released a study in mid-May that looks at the hazards in more than 60 popular models of infant, convertible and child booster car seats.

Despite a proposed $12 million funding increase by the Bush administration earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is still going to cut way back on services and operations at more than 500 national wildlife refuges across the country due to a mammoth $2.5 billion unfunded maintenance and operations backlog.

E has consistently warned about dangerous ingredients in commercial pet foods. Now people are paying attention, following disclosures last March that at least 16 pets died from poisoned food containing highly suspect ingredients imported from China. Some 60 million pet food servings, sold under many different brand names, were recalled.