Unearthed

The next time you’re about to bite into that sizzling mesquite-grilled burger or blackened bluefish, think twice. That smoky, outdoorsy flavor has an unpleasant history.

When Alaska governor Walter J. Hinkel announced last November that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) would resume the airborne hunting of wolves, killing up to 400 wolves in Alaska during 1993, the public outcry was loud and swift, and the proposed hunt was halted in its tracks.

A visit to most modern hair salons would have anyone believing that the road to beauty is paved with noxious chemicals. But two West Coast hairdressers, Jennifer Archbold and Kristin Kilian, are leading their profession down a more ecological path. In 1991 they set up shop in Albany, California and launched Elemental, one of the nation’s first "environmentally concerned" hair salons.

Ninety-four year old Hazel Wolf of Seattle, Washington, one of the planet’s oldest environmentalists, has some theories about why she’s been blessed with an extended life and exuberant energy. "I once told a television interviewer, ‘I’ve lived so long because I don’t have a television.’ I dared him to put it on the air, and he did." A former smoker, she now eats steamed vegetables, lives simply and stays relaxed. " I only run to catch buses. I tell the bus driver, ‘If I’d kept going, I would have beat you downtown,’" she says. "I even outlived my car."

A mere 28 pounds of metal and rubber, it’s been called "the most elegantly simple machine ever invented." It’s cheap, clean, quiet and healthy, too. But, next to the fondue pot, the bicycle may be the most underutilized piece of equipment we own, quietly biodegrading in our garage or closet, as we wait for next spring. Spring then turns to summer–and "it’s too hot to ride, takes too long, is too dangerous, rumples my clothes, the air’s too dirty, I’m not in good enough shape…"

For 5,000 years, nomadic Cree natives have wandered along Canada’s Great Whale River, a subarctic land of rolling hills, peat bogs and spruce the call "The Garden." Although they have more recently settled in a village on James Bay, th Cree still subsist largely on game animals. The construction of Hydro-Quebec’s proposed Phase II dam in the Great Whale River would wipe out not only their food sources, but their lifestyles, history and ancestral home. "As long as the land is intact our culture is intact…When we say the land is our life, the developers don’t understand this," explains former chief Robbie Dick.

The next time you veer into a mall boutique you never considered entering before, take a whiff. Smell a faint fragrance? It could be one of those nearly subliminal scents that retailers are using in increasing numbers to entice you inside–and spend bigger bucks. Call it the odor of money. alan Hirsch, director of Chicago’s smell and Taste Treatment Foundation (STTF), hopes it will become as prevalent as Muzak.

In 1992, increased ocean temperatures brought more than the usualy number of hungry sea lions close to human fishing activity along California’s coast. As a result, California’s Marine Mammal Center, which rehabilitates sick and injured marine mammals, admitted a record-breaking 793 animals last year: 80 were maimed, blinded or permanently paralyzed from fishermen’s gunshot; most died or had to be euthanized. The sea lions rescued were mostly yearlings having trouble finding food. The Center’s Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, who examined the animals, wonders "how anyone could perceive these animals–no bigger than the family dog–as a threat."

The next time you visit a national wildlife refuge, you may run into a gun-toting member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Last December, the NRA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) signed a little-noticed "memorandum of understanding" encouraging refuge managers and local NRA affiliates to work on "mututally beneficial projects and activities," such as fishing and hunting. One such project, currently the NRA’s focus is "to help make hunting on refuges accessible to physically challenged sportsmen and women," says USFWS spokesperson Patricia Fisher.