My grandmother, the family provider in World War II's market of scarcity, pleaded -- or was it flirted? -- with the butcher for meat. My father, who couldn't hit his hat with a hammer, volunteered for military service and wound up in Boston army ordinance helping "our boys" make munitions. On "the home front," my mother taught my sister and me to paste savings stamps in a book to buy war bonds. Image: NARA. Abroad, my Polish cousin, a secret agent, did underground duty in Paris. My uncle, a bombardier, flew the B-17s of "Bloody Hundredth" fame, while his wife …

As if flying didn't already make you nervous: Air quality aboard commercial jets can be hazardous to passenger's health and the airlines, but federal regulators have done little to address the problem, according to a report released yesterday by a panel of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The report said the systems for collecting health data about cabin air quality "are woefully inadequate," making it hard to establish clear connections between health complaints and cabin air. Areas of concern for passengers and flight crews include cabin pressure, ozone and carbon monoxide levels, and possible exposure to pesticides and fumes …

U.S. Senate Democrats unveiled an energy bill yesterday that would place more emphasis on conservation and efficiency than the GOP alternative, while keeping the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drill-free. Currently, about 2 percent of the country's electricity comes from renewable sources; the new bill would require the number to jump to 12 percent by 2020. Democrats also called for higher miles-per-gallon fuel standards for SUVs, but gave no details. Enviros said the bill was a vast improvement over the GOP one, though they worried that it was too light on specifics. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) is scheduled to …

A British supermarket chain said today that it would begin fueling its delivery trucks with chicken waste and used cooking oils. The Asda chain, which includes 258 stores in the U.K and is a part of the Wal-Mart company, generates about 36,500 gallons per year of chicken waste and cooking fat that currently winds up in landfills. But starting in April, the gunk will be transformed into biodiesel to power the company's trucks. For fact-happy readers: According to Asda, the U.K. produces as much as 23 million gallons per year of used cooking oil.

Touting it as an environmentally friendly alternative to cars, inventor Dean Kamen finally unveiled his mysterious creation to the world this morning. The gizmo -- which has gone by the codenames "IT" and "Ginger," but will be marketed under the more prosaic "Segway Human Transporter" -- turns out to be a one-person, two-wheeled, battery-powered scooter that looks something like a push lawnmower. Kamen said the Segway "will be to the car what the car was to the horse-and-buggy," adding that it "makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-pound piece of metal to haul their …

More than 31 million acres of forest in the southern United States will disappear into the maw of urban development in the next four decades, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Forest Service in collaboration with other federal agencies. Wildlife and water and air quality will suffer as trees make way for sprawling growth and timber harvests increase by half, the report found. That's bad news, but environmentalists say it's not bad enough; they criticize the report as going too light on the timber and paper industries, noting that paper mills alone annually destroy 5 million acres …

Italy has declared states of environmental emergency in Venice, Milan, and Messina. Venice is beset with water pollution caused by boat traffic in its canals, while road traffic in the other two cities is producing too much air pollution. The country's parliament may now appoint local commissioners to impose tough new anti-pollution measures, such as closing areas to boats or cars. "Extraordinary measures are needed because of the high levels of pollution," said Federica Cingolani of the Environment Ministry. She said the states of emergency -- the first ever declared by the ministry in cities -- could last for as …

Environmentalists scored significant victories in yesterday's gubernatorial elections, with Democrats James McGreevey and Mark Warner taking office in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively. McGreevey defeated Republican candidate Bret Schundler in a race where environmental issues, especially open spaces and clean air and water, were often front and center. Warner, who will be the first Democratic governor of Virginia since 1994, has vowed to protect water quality, curb out-of-state waste, and clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, voters in San Francisco approved two landmark solar energy measures that will almost double the nation's solar-energy capacity.

Environmental problems ranging from toxic waste to air pollution have long been recognized as having human health effects -- but what about urban sprawl? A study released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says sprawl creates or exacerbates many common health problems, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. The report also blames sprawl for other negative health consequences, including deaths from flooding caused by filled-in wetlands and pedestrian fatalities on sidewalk-less, multi-lane roads. The report calls for the implementation of "smart growth" policies that redesign communities around people, not cars.