Dear Umbra, I've been looking for a sustainably harvested bunk bed for my five-year-old son for quite some time now. I have found only one company, Pacific Rim, that makes such an item. It seems like a great company, but it doesn't have exactly what I'm looking for. When I search online, all I read about are "super low, unbeatable prices," rather than the really important details, like whether it's any good for our planet. Do you have a list of businesses that carry sustainably harvested wooden furniture (including bunk beds)? Thanks so much, Sleepless without Sustainable(Kathy, actually) Egg Harbor …

Dear Umbra, I know this is a silly question, probably the strangest you've ever gotten, but I'm curious. Where I live, there isn't a place nearby to recycle paper. I reuse most of my paper as scratch paper and have attempted to make my own paper using a blender and a screen. The problem is, making my own paper isn't worthwhile, and I can't possibly use that much scratch paper. Besides, what do I do with the paper after I have used it as scratch paper? My only choice is to throw it out, which I am not happy about. …

Dear Umbra, At a gym I go to, lots of guys pick up bars of soap, use them for two minutes, and then leave them (even though there is a liquid soap dispenser in the showers). Is there any good use for several pounds of partially used soap per day? DennisSeattle, Wash. Dearest Dennis, I have some harebrained schemes for you, but there are some natural limitations on the success of used-soap projects. First, there is the cost/benefit limitation: As I'm sure you know, the environment would be better served if you spent your valuable time convincing the gym owners …

Of the 17 billion catalogs mailed every year to American consumers (that's 59 catalogs for each and every one of us!), a surprising few contain recycled materials. An Environmental Defense survey released yesterday found that only six of 42 major catalog companies are using significant amounts of recycled paper, and most don't use any. Nary a single recycled fiber can be found in the pages of catalogs put out by big-name companies J. Crew, Nordstrom, Sears, and Williams-Sonoma. The same goes for all those L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer catalogs that feature lovely pictures of Mr. and Ms. Perfect roughing …

If the pen really is mightier than the sword, it seems like environmentalists should have worked themselves out of a job a long time ago. Take a stroll through almost any bookstore, and you'll find a nature-writing section full of lushly designed covers, beautifully turned prose, and impassioned arguments on behalf of the land. It looks like a slam-dunk for Team Green. But wander a few aisles over, to the paperback fiction shelves, and you'll see why the battle of the book isn't over yet. Here, where the covers are dominated by buxom women, fearsome weapons, and billboard-size type, right-wing …

No need to throw the dirty diapers out with the bathwater! Santa Clarita, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles, is the first municipality in the United States to institute a diaper-recycling program, which will transform the soiled, disposable sacks of goodies into oil filters, roof shingles, and vinyl siding. Some 20 billion diapers are buried in U.S. landfills per year, representing about 7 billion pounds of garbage. Santa Clarita's $500,000 program may set an example for other California cities, which were required by a state law to cut in half the amount of garbage being sent to landfills by 2000. …

Think twice before you scrap that computer for the latest flat-screen iMac. Pound for pound, the average computer chip causes more harm to the environment than a car, according to a study by a team at the United Nations University in Tokyo. The researchers looked at all the materials (including chemicals and fossil fuels) required to transform raw quartz into a 32 MB memory chip that weighs two grams. They found that 1,400 grams of materials -- 700 times the weight of the final product -- were required to make a single chip. The materials involved in making a car …

If only Bob Dole had known, he could have raked in some environmental brownie points while touting Viagra as a wonder cure for erectile dysfunction: The little blue pill could be the saving grace for thousands of endangered animals, according to research published recently in the journal Environmental Conservation. Tigers, reindeer, and harp seals, among other endangered animals, have been hunted for thousands of years, in part for their presumed powers to improve sexual performance. As Viagra sales began to boom during the late 1990s, however, the poaching rates of at least three species used in traditional Asian impotence remedies …

Dear Umbra, What's the greenest method of disposing of one's corpse? I'm just dying to know. BuchachaAustin, Texas Dearest Buchacha, You are not the only one thinking of the Great Green Beyond; there are more choices about the fate of your corpse than you might imagine. Let's start with the traditional options: Cremation is greener than burial, for (at least) three reasons. First, embalming (which is common although not mandatory) uses noxious chemicals to preserve the body. Second, the impenetrable bunkers that are the latest trend in caskets won't biodegrade anytime soon. Finally, cemeteries are usually high-maintenance parks full of …

Dear Umbra, Recently, nature-conscious religions such as Paganism and Wicca are getting a lot of attention. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, such religions inspire love for the environment and have spawned many eco-nuts (myself included, I admit). However, although most of the common practices seem to be eco-friendly enough, I'm concerned about some of the incense and candles being burned. I've heard a lot of nasty rumors about these things being toxic. Personally, whenever I use candles too often, I get a bit sick. Can you tell me what's true about these rumors? And is burning …