Dear Umbra, I want to quit smoking. As if the risks to my health weren't enough, could you help out by twisting that knife of guilt into my tree-hugging heart and give me some environmental reasons to stop supporting the tobacco industry? Cough, wheeze, ElaineSaint John, New Brunswick, Canada Dearest Elaine, I don't care whether you smoke or not. In fact, I think anti-smoking hype is often thinly disguised class warfare and would be best put to use as a template to create, say, anti-SUV hype or anti-pesticide-laden-suburban-lawn hype. Still, I hear your pain, and if you want me to …

Dear Umbra, I don't know if you'll have time to answer this question, but while purchasing 8th Continent soymilk my husband noticed that there was Solae in it. After some research on the Internet, we discovered that Solae is made by DuPont and is a genetically engineered soybean, but we were unable to find anything negative about it. Do you know anything about Solae and if it is dangerous? Sincerely, Heather AnneSacramento, Calif. Dearest Heather Anne, Hello, and welcome to my little corner of the Internet, where I have nothing but time to answer your questions. (If I use the …

Hi Umbra, I don't know if the same thing has happened in the U.S, but here in Canada the milk industry has undergone a massive shift to using different containers. Once, you could get plastic jugs or cardboard cartons with fold-back lids or plastic bags. But now, the most commonly available container is a revised carton. It has a plastic spout, as if pouring with the other kind were too hard. Can you tell me which of the containers has the least impact on the environment? Thanks, JessicaCreemore, Ontario, Canada Dearest Jessica, I hope you've been following our column long …

These are tough times for environmentalists, what with the Bush administration's frontal assault on environmental policy, drastic funding cuts and layoffs in state environmental programs, and the aftermath of a war in Iraq fought, in the opinion of many, over our nation's undying addiction to oil. It's thus fitting, if somewhat disheartening, that along come two books whose central message is that it's not easy being green, no matter what the circumstances. Bronx Ecology By Allen Hershkowitz Island Press, 200 pages, 2002 Allen Hershkowitz's Bronx Ecology: Blueprint for a New Environmentalism and Lis Harris's Tilting at Mills: Green Dreams, Dirty …

Cell phone users now have a way to recycle their old phones and support the Sierra Club in the process. About a million mobile phones are tossed out each week in the U.S. as consumers upgrade or switch to different phone service providers, and those old phones leak a bunch of toxic substances, including mercury, lead, and arsenic, into the environment. CollectiveGood, a recycling group, has teamed up with Staples, the office-supply chain, to set up bins in all Staples stores in the U.S., where people can drop off cell phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants (PalmPilots and the like) …

When high-school sweethearts Alicia Gomer and Mark Wittink got engaged in December 2001, they pledged that their wedding would reflect their commitment to ecological issues. Gomer, who is working on an M.S. in environmental science policy, and Wittink, a project director at the Resource Conservation Alliance in Washington, D.C., were "shocked at the lack of green options in wedding planning. We had no idea what a consumptive, high-impact industry weddings can be," Gomer says. About 2.4 million couples get married every year in the U.S., at an average cost of $20,000 per wedding, generating total revenues of some $70 billion, …

Everyone knows you can eat corn -- but can you eat using plates, cups, and forks made from corn? Absolutely, and doing so can help reduce both waste and oil consumption, say advocates of biodegradable corn products. Although it's not quite true that "anything that can be made from a barrel of crude oil can be made from a kernel of corn," as Randy Cruise, a Nebraska farmer put it, it's not far off: Corn can be used to make environmentally friendly plastics and fibers, and has already found its way into products from clothing to food packaging. It takes …

Hi Umbra, I live in Providence, R.I., and I have a basic composting bin; it's about three feet tall, made of black plastic with ventilation shafts on all four sides and on top, but it has no bottom. I want to set this up in my tiny side yard for my neighbors and me to use. However, we have a big rat problem here and I am afraid all this delicious, rotting food will attract them. Is there any way to keep a rat-free compost bin in a city? MichelleProvidence, R.I. Dearest Michelle, Rats are amazing creatures that have adapted …

Dear Umbra, I grew up in a house built in 1812. Until 1962, we still used an outhouse that was built with the house. My mother said that when she was a girl (in the 1920s), a man used to come around and clean it out each year, but it was never done in my memory. The seats were built about 10 feet over the debris and it never seemed to fill up. We did put lime (the kind you buy for your garden) in it. Some people now use outhouses where they camp, but I have heard that they …

Dear Sequin-Wearing Award Ceremony Audience, Folks, we have a winnah! That's right: The results are in from the first annual and perhaps only "Cheer Us Up the Weather Is Godawful and We're at War" contest. We know the weather is beyond our control, but let us all work fervently to limit the possibility that we could have this contest again. If you get what I mean. But, eager readers, back to the matter at hand. In my last column, I put out a call for a clever, meaningful word for "anti-environmentalist" -- a word that would be both withering in …