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Umbra on cat-pee stains and dry cleaning

Dear Umbra, I am aware of how polluting regular dry cleaners can be and therefore make a point to wash clothes at home. Recently, however, my charming cat peed on my comforter. I was wondering if you knew of any environmentally friendly ways to clean “dry clean only” clothes or, in this case, comforters. HeidiFalls […]

Smokestacks off the hook?

A flurry of stories today -- see, e.g., here -- report the results of a study that claims carbon (read: auto emissions) is at fault for pollution-related heart problems. The study lets sulfates (read: power plants) off the hook.

Reuters calls the Electric Power Research Institute, which conducted the study, an "independent, non-profit center for public interest energy and environmental research." According to Geoffrey Johnson over at The Green Life Blog, a little more skepticism is warranted.

Free-range pig intestines

Who says organic is for sissies? (Wait, is baseball considered sissy ...? I'm really not tapped into the sports world, being a longtime sissy myself. Anyhoo!) San Diego's Petco Park and St. Louis's Busch Stadium are going to start selling organic hotdogs and bratwursts at the games of, uh, whatever teams play in those stadiums. They expect the dogs to cost about a buck more than the pesticide- and hormone-ridden variety. Hot dogs are still, of course, hot dogs, and even if they come from the happiest pigs on the planet, eating pig guts ain't healthy.  But hey, progress is progress!

Bush taps Nebraska gov to head USDA

Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) will replace Ann Veneman as secretary of agriculture, if Bush's nomination slithers through the Senate as expected. For those not intimately familiar with Johanns' record (who, me?), Bush provided this helpful tidbit: "He's a strong proponent of alternative energy sources such as ethanol and bio-diesel." A corn-belt governor who digs ethanol?  Who woulda thunk it?  

More on Johanns to come ...

Calling Africa to action on climate

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and George W. Bush agree on one thing: developing nations need to do more to curb the threat of climate change. (Of course, they don't agree on the much more vexing question of whether overdeveloped nations -- one highly overdeveloped nation in particular -- should do anything to address the ballooning problem ...)

Linking AIDS and conservation

On the occasion of World AIDS day, it is worth taking a harder look at how the pandemic affects natural resource management. The numerous negative links were just under discussion in Bangkok at the IUCN World Conservation Congress that ended late last month. The U.S.-based African Biodiversity Collaborative Group prepared some valuable reference materials for the megaconference. ABCG claims the key impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on natural resource management are:

• overuse of natural resources including medicinal plants, timber for coffins, and wildlife for food;
• changes in land use as agricultural practices change with falling capacity for heavy labor;
• changes in access to resources and land especially when widows and orphans cannot inherit land;
• loss of traditional knowledge of sustainable land and resource management practices;
• loss of human capacity for natural resource management in government, non-government organizations, academic institutions; communities, donor organizations, and private sector;
• increased vulnerability of community-based natural resource management programs as communities lose leadership and capacity, and HIV/AIDS issues take priority; and
• diversion of conservation funds for HIV/AIDS related costs.

Recognizing these conservation impacts is a must. But there is some danger a list like this one comes across as insensitive toward the staggering human toll of the disease. As we seek to understand the costs of AIDS in multiple sectors -- environment, agriculture, the wider economy -- it is imperative that conservationists not lose sight of the catastrophic human toll. Otherwise they risk sounding like they value pandas more than people.

Roll Out the Green Carpet

As sales of green building products go up, prices come down Construction companies are increasingly turning to green products, and saving greenbacks in the process. It’s still widely believed that eco-friendly products are more costly than their not-so-eco-friendly counterparts, but that state of affairs is changing. Carpet made of recycled plastic and floor boards composed […]

All the Same Toxicity, Now With 90 Percent Ubiquity!

Rocket-fuel chemical taints lettuce and milk throughout the U.S. Here’s some unsettling food news: Perchlorate, an explosive component of rocket fuel, was found in about 90 percent of lettuce samples and 97 percent of milk samples from around the U.S. tested by the Food and Drug Administration. Health officials said the levels of contamination found […]

Moss Def

Moss gathering worries biologists, few others Valued by florists and craft mavens as basket liner and wreath adornment, moss is a hot commodity, according to several researchers raising concerns about the loosely regulated moss-gathering industry. Moss harvesters roam public and private lands scraping the plant from logs and boulders at an estimated rate of 10 […]

Less Salmon, More Dammin’

Northwest salmon to lose critical habitat; Bush admin to keep dams A double dose of salmon news today: The Bush administration yesterday announced its intention to cut by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams designated as critical habitat for threatened and endangered Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead. The plan, which […]