Good Neighbor Alcoa
When John von Gonten came down with sinus & respiratory problems & severe headaches, he suspected Alcoa, located eight miles from his property.
Unearthed
Mining Trouble
In recent years, high commodities prices, lax national laws and corrupt governments have intensified interest in mining Latin America’s vast ore lodes. But miners are increasingly pitted against indigenous movements demanding, sometimes violently, social investments and environmental protections.
The Hydrogen House: Fueling a Dream
In Scottsdale, Arizona, Bryan Beaulieu, an engineer and inventor with 20 patents in structural systems, recently built a $2 million solar-and-hydrogen-powered "dream" house. Though not Scottsdale’s most expensive residence, the 6,000-square-foot luxury home is—by far—the most environmentally sustainable.
The Fight Against Mad Cow
Mad cow disease has been making headlines once again (see “It Can Happen Here,” Features, July/August 2001). The brain-degrading disease that is contracted through consumption of contaminated flesh has been found in two isolated cases in American cattle, and the threat of mad cow continues to loom large. It is for this reason that U.S. […]
Katrina Foreshadowed
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 […]
Destructive Reform
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 […]
Mining Threatens New Zealand’s National Bird
"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.
Talking Turkey about Biofuels
A factory stands in Carthage, Missouri with a singular purpose: transforming turkey byproducts—beaks, feathers, bones and all—into oil. "It’s real," says Alan Libshutz, president of the small New York company that developed the process. "You put turkeys in the front and you get oil out the back."
Harnessing the Waves
The notion that ocean tides can be harnessed to create pollution-free electricity is making a crucial jump from drawing board to reality. State and federal regulators have approved a plan to install six underwater turbines in New York City. It’s the first grid-connected, multi-turbine source of tidal energy in the world.
Musseling In
In a rare show of mussel power, scuba-diving scientists on the Allegheny River are moving thousands of endangered bivalves to make way for bridge reconstruction in Forest County, Pennsylvania. But increased housing construction on the shores of the "wild and scenic" waterway is causing environmentalists new concerns.