Environment & Climate
The Organic Revolution: Change the System, Not the Climate
What if there were an organic technology that could cut greenhouse emissions in half and literally suck down and sequester carbon dioxide in living soil - bringing the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere down to 350 ppm - the level scientists warn us we must acheive in order to avert a climate catastrophe?
Cook Organic, Not the Planet. Boycott Factory-Farmed Foods.
News
April 4, 2007
Washington state will be the first in the nation to phase out nasty
fireproofing chemicals called PBDEs, which show up in the bodies of
people and wildlife and may cause neurological damage. Yesterday, the
state Senate passed a measure that will eventually ban home items
containing deca, the most commonly used PBDE; the House had already
approved the bill, and now the governor is expected to sign it into
law. Mattresses containing deca will be the first to go, starting in
2008; provided a safer fireproofing alternative is found, TVs,
computers, and upholstery will have to be deca-free Read more
News
April 3, 2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The Bush administration has reopened California's stalled petition seeking to control greenhouse gases after the Supreme Court's ruling this week that the government can regulate emissions from cars.
The action by the Environmental Protection Agency breathes life into California's effort to become the first state to cut tailpipe emissions from cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles. It also could influence the outcome of an auto industry lawsuit in California to block the state regulations, contained in a 2002 state law. Read more
The action by the Environmental Protection Agency breathes life into California's effort to become the first state to cut tailpipe emissions from cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles. It also could influence the outcome of an auto industry lawsuit in California to block the state regulations, contained in a 2002 state law. Read more
News
March 29, 2007
THE DEATH OF RECYCLING
[Rachel's introduction: In this important essay, Paul Palmer argues that traditional recycling has outlived its usefulness. What we really need is a system for designing and manufacturing products with perpetual re-use in mind. We need to recycle the function of products, not just the materials they are made of. This is the true Zero Read more
[Rachel's introduction: In this important essay, Paul Palmer argues that traditional recycling has outlived its usefulness. What we really need is a system for designing and manufacturing products with perpetual re-use in mind. We need to recycle the function of products, not just the materials they are made of. This is the true Zero Read more
News
April 3, 2007
Funny story: Of the 15,000 U.S. chemical plants, as many as 7,000 are
in highly populated areas and at high risk for an accident or attack.
Ha! Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security released the first
comprehensive federal rules for tracking the security of such sites.
Which seems good, until you realize many states have already enacted
even tougher chemical-security laws and are freaking out about whether
their laws -- or any future versions -- will be pre-empted by this one.
While Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said the new rules would
ensure that the U.S. is " Read more
News
April 3, 2007
Years ago, when leaded gasoline was what gas stations sold to motorists, I would be driving through the fertile valleys in California and see the crops growing right up to shoulders of the narrow blacktop roads that coursed the expansive fields. “Doesn't this lead coming out of many vehicular tailpipes get into the soil and contaminate the food that is harvested there?”? I wondered.
Nobody I asked was very informative about this dangerous heavy metal, or other pollutants, coming from vehicles, nearby factories and power plants. The connection between airborne pollutants and soil Read more
Nobody I asked was very informative about this dangerous heavy metal, or other pollutants, coming from vehicles, nearby factories and power plants. The connection between airborne pollutants and soil Read more
News
March 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- As more US consumers turn to solar power during the current energy crisis, US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Reps. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) and Michael Ferguson (R-NJ) today introduced legislation that would affirm the right of American consumers to install solar systems on their roofs and receive fair treatment as energy producers.
The “Solar Opportunity and Local Access Rights Act” (SOLAR) would establish national standards for the interconnection and net metering of solar energy systems, based on the most progressive state standards to date. The legislation Read more
The “Solar Opportunity and Local Access Rights Act” (SOLAR) would establish national standards for the interconnection and net metering of solar energy systems, based on the most progressive state standards to date. The legislation Read more
News
April 1, 2007
If there's one thing you can count on for a year between elections, the state General Assembly will be hard at taking away your rights and giving them to somebody else.
Here in Missouri, the G.A. is trying to pass a bill to make it impossible for local governments -- counties, cities, towns -- to make rules about Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Senate Bill 364 would not only repeal 193 existing regulations and laws, it would make it impossible for a citizen to sue if they have been impacted by a CAFO that moves into their neighborhood.
These CAFOs, Read more
Here in Missouri, the G.A. is trying to pass a bill to make it impossible for local governments -- counties, cities, towns -- to make rules about Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Senate Bill 364 would not only repeal 193 existing regulations and laws, it would make it impossible for a citizen to sue if they have been impacted by a CAFO that moves into their neighborhood.
These CAFOs, Read more
News
March 26, 2007
American farmers, spurred by ethanol frenzy, are planting the largest corn crop in more than 50 years.The demand is so high, reports Farm News, that seed companies are running out of the most popular varieties of corn seed.
At the top of the list are "triple stack hybrids" sold mostly by Monsanto-owned subsidiaries. A triple stack hybrid combines genetic modifications that result in three different "traits." In this case, the corn comes with built-in resistance to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, and built-in insecticides that target two of the corn plant's most fearsome foes, the Read more
At the top of the list are "triple stack hybrids" sold mostly by Monsanto-owned subsidiaries. A triple stack hybrid combines genetic modifications that result in three different "traits." In this case, the corn comes with built-in resistance to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, and built-in insecticides that target two of the corn plant's most fearsome foes, the Read more
Scientific Study
March 24, 2007
The world has come full circle. A century ago our first transportation biofuels -- the hay and oats fed to our horses -- were replaced by gasoline. Today, ethanol from corn and biodiesel from soybeans have begun edging out gasoline and diesel.
This has been hailed as an overwhelmingly positive development that will help us reduce the threat of climate change and ease our dependence on foreign oil. In political circles, ethanol is the flavor of the day, and presidential candidates have been cycling through Iowa extolling its benefits. Lost in the ethanol-induced euphoria, however
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