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Gonna Be a Bright Sunshiny Day

A year after voters approved a $100 million bond to boost solar power in San Francisco, planning is well underway to position the city as the country’s largest municipal generator of solar power and other renewable energies. Within five years, San Francisco hopes to add 10 megawatts of solar power to the electricity grid. In […]

The Organic Turkey’s Lament

And other words from readers

  Re: Hitting the Bottle Dear Editor: We would like to thank you for the article by Keith Schneider. Many of the people of Michigan have never heard of Mecosta County. They have no idea that this is their fight also. My husband and I are members of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation; we believe […]

Lip Styx

Think twice before you powder your nose. A cosmetics industry review panel this week approved continued use of chemicals that critics have linked to birth defects in animals. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel said that three phthalates, which are used to make fragrances last longer, posed no threat to human health. Nail polish, hair spray, […]

At Whitman’s End?

Speculation is growing that U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman might resign now that the Bush administration has a GOP-controlled Congress in its holster and its sights set on further environmental rollbacks. Whitman has won favor neither from environmentalists, nor from industry lobbyists. Environmentalists say she has caved to others in the administration on important issues, […]

merlin matthews, Re~Cycle

merlin matthews is founder and president of Re~Cycle, a U.K.-based nonprofit that collects and ships second-hand bikes and bike parts to developing countries. Monday, 18 Nov 2002 WEST MERSEA, Essex, U.K. Today was a bit of a nonstarter, as I was up till some crazy hour, coming tantalizingly close to fixing the wretched computers. Who […]

A Snowball’s Chance

Perhaps the clearest and most visible sign of climate change in America won’t be around for much longer: The glaciers of Glacier National Park in Montana are melting and will be gone within 30 years, scientists say. Dan Fagre, the 49-year-old leader of the U.S. Geological Survey team studying the problem, says, “It’s not just […]

Landscape Goat

There’s no need to use big crews and machinery to control fires in the California hills — just add goats. A park district in the Bay Area is using goats to munch away the brush and low-level vegetation that fuel fires in parklands. Not only are the goats sometimes cheaper, gentler, and more environmentally sensible […]

Umbra on cushion planters

Dear Umbra, I have been cutting out old cushions, filling them with dirt, and planting them for some years now. I found the first two floating in the river (while canoeing). Since then, I’ve gotten them from the trash; I don’t pay anything for them. I use them to grow everything from herbs to prairie […]

Crop Busting

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is ordering the destruction of hundreds of thousands of bushels of soybeans in Nebraska after discovering that they were contaminated with genetically modified (GM) corn. The Texas-based company ProdiGene is attempting to grow GM corn impregnated with medications such as the hepatitis B vaccine. It plowed over a failed […]