Dear Umbra, After slurping away from a Nalgene bottle all summer, you struck me with the fear of petrochemicals. So I did some quick research on my own. My conclusion is that your Aug. 2 column is misleading, even though I'm very sympathetic to your argument regarding plastics. Upon inspection, I learned that most of my Nalgene water bottles are made of plastic #2, HDPE, which you suggest is relatively benign. Perhaps you should clarify that your criticism and concern is aimed primarily at the newer Lexan product, not Nalgene's entire line of bottles. Indeed, it seems your recommendation could …

A nice treatment of this topic in today's New York Times Magazine, from Florence Williams. When we nurse our babies, we feed them not only the fats, sugars and proteins that fire their immune systems, metabolisms and cerebral synapses. We also feed them, albeit in minuscule amounts, paint thinners, dry-cleaning fluids, wood preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline byproducts, rocket fuel, termite poisons, fungicides and flame retardants. If, as Cicero said, your face tells the story of your mind, your breast milk tells the decades-old story of your diet, your neighborhood and, increasingly, your household decor. Your old shag-carpet padding? …

eBay joins tech companies to launch electronics recycling program Wondering what to do with that old Commodore 64 or Macintosh II gathering dust in your basement? According to an eBay survey, you're not alone -- some 50 percent of American households have unwanted PCs in storage. That's why the online auction giant has launched an electronics recycling program they call Rethink. In a partnership with environmental groups, postal services, and major tech names including IBM, Intel Corp., Apple Computers, and Hewlett-Packard, eBay will serve as a conduit for sales, donations, or recycling of old electronic equipment. Enviros hope the program …

The plain truth is that Americans love to consume, and we do it with more abandon than ever during the holiday season. Nearly a quarter of all retail goods move out of stores and into homes between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and, we suspect, often into landfills by January). That poses a dilemma for the thoughtful and socially responsible holiday shopper. What if one of those "four calling birds" is an endangered species? What if the precious metal in the "five golden rings" was mined in an environmentally insensitive manner? What on earth to do about all the noise pollution from …

Gasp! by Joe Sherman, Shoemaker & Hoard, 417 pgs., 2004. Oxygen may not strike you as a likely protagonist for a book. It's invisible, it's all around you, it's something you inhale 19,000 times a day and take utterly for granted. But Joe Sherman's Gasp! The Swift and Terrible Beauty of Air is a masterfully inventive biography of air, weaving together geology and history, myth and science, to deepen our understanding and appreciation of life's most precious gas. "Understanding air, which is both big and amorphous, and small and right in front of you, demands a few mental oscillations," Sherman …

Low-impact gifts can make holidays more eco-friendly This year, holiday sales in the U.S. are projected to hit $219 billion -- up 4 to 6 percent from last year. That's a lot of ties and trinkets. And while that might be good news for some retailers, it's anything but a holiday for the earth; between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, Americans generate an extra 5 million tons of trash -- not to mention emissions from all those trips to the mall. So this season, many green-leaning folks are getting creative and giving non-material gifts. Whales are adopted, acres of rainforest …

Kevin Doyle. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I'm one of two national program directors at The Environmental Careers Organization (authors of the new book The ECO Guide to Careers That Make a Difference -- see below). At least, that's my current title. I've worked for ECO since 1984, and in that time I've been Pacific Northwest regional director, national general manager, director of programs, director of development, director of program development, and four to five other titles. I like to move around and do different things, and I'm fortunate that ECO has needed an executive to do exactly …

Low-income housing starts going eco-friendly Low-income housing, built in part with money from a special program of federal tax credits, has traditionally been low-cost, low-quality, and low-appeal. But the Enterprise Foundation is trying to change that with its Green Communities Initiative, investing $550 million over five years toward 8,500 units of affordable housing built to eco-friendly standards. Backed by investors ranging from Washington Mutual to Fannie Mae, the initiative aims "to show that, on a large enough scale, building green doesn't cost anything extra," says Enterprise chief Bart Harvey. The foundation has developed its own green building standards, partially based …

London's big Christmas tree powered by fuel cell This year, Christmas is getting an eco-friendly boost in London. All 648 energy-efficient light bulbs on the massive Christmas tree bedecking Trafalgar Square will be powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell generator in lieu of the traditional fossil-fuel-powered beasts used in years past. Roughly the size of a (European) refrigerator, the generator will silently add hydrogen to oxygen, creating enough energy to power approximately three (European) homes, or, in this case, one 95-foot Norwegian spruce. "The tree is an important part of Christmas in London and the switching on of the lights signifies …

Dear Umbra, Please settle our office dispute. Which is better for the environment: real or fake Christmas trees? Some believe that cutting down juvenile trees, displaying them for two weeks, then throwing them in the garbage is destructive, wasteful, and highly unfriendly to the environment. Others say that the Christmas-tree business keeps land that would otherwise be developed in trees, if only for a short while. Besides, fake trees are made of plastic, which is made from petroleum. (But you can keep using them for many years.) TrishaWashington, D.C. Dearest Trisha, Ah, yes, that annual question: What does the Gristmas …