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Readers sound off on “sustainable” buildings that ain’t, Clinton’s record, and more

  Semanticable Re: Lofty Ambitions Dear Editor: I absolutely applaud Boyle and Brown’s efforts to create such an amazing living space. Their commitment to reusing materials is exactly the direction that construction, as well as industry, should be headed. My point of polite criticism concerns semantics. With the terms “sustainable” and “green” becoming so trendy, […]

Boys Won’t Be Boys

Canadian Native Group Near Chemical Plant Has More Female Births In most developed countries where such things have been studied, the ratio of girls born to boys born has been slowly and steadily rising for decades. Those unimpressed with the results of male world domination to date might find this heartening news, but the details […]

Alas, Alack, Alaska

Growing Questions About Timber Industry Subsidies in Alaska Alaska’s congressional delegation and Gov. Frank Murkowski (R) are diehard supporters of logging, but according to the state’s own Department of Labor, the “economic realities of the early 21st century point toward less expensive sources” of timber than Alaska can provide to the current “glutted market.” This […]

Strong Enough to Kill Fish, but pH-Balanced to Slow Global Warming

Acid Rain Is Slowing Global Warming Acid rain contains sulfates that inhibit the natural production of methane, a greenhouse gas, and thus may be slowing global warming, said scientists yesterday. While methane comprises roughly 22 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases, the largest sources of methane are natural — of course we have to mention the […]

Hunter Lovins, thinker on sustainability, answers questions

Hunter Lovins. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I am a member of several real environmental organizations, like Environmental Defense and Earth Island Institute. Recently I have founded two new organizations: Natural Capitalism, Inc. (NCI), a for-profit consulting company implementing the ideas of Natural Capitalism in companies and governments around the world, and Natural […]

Umbra on plastic water bottles

Several readers have sent in questions about the dangers of chemical leaching from plastic bottles. A composite version: Dear Umbra, I’ve read some conflicting things about the risks associated with reusing plastic water bottles. For instance, the generally trustworthy folks at the urban-legends site snopes.com have criticized a widely circulated email that claims regular water […]

Think Back Inside the Box, Please

Plan to Reorg California Government Has Greens Up in Arms Even prior to its official release tomorrow, California enviros are protesting the 2,500-page report from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) California Performance Review Board, which will contain more than 1,000 recommendations on changing the way the state government is structured and how it works. Among them […]

Bye-Bye Birdie

Global Warming Brings Catastrophe to U.K. Seabirds Seabirds on the coast of Scotland are facing unprecedented catastrophe, and scientists attribute it directly to global warming. The hundreds of thousands of skuas, terns, and guillemots that populate the coastal cliffs are simply not breeding, and when they are, few offspring survive. They are starving, because the […]

Feet Don’t Fail Me Now

Kerry Delicately Attempts to Go Green and Sway Undecideds The environment rarely ranks high on lists of voters’ concerns, but in a close election, any advantage can be decisive. Thus Kerry’s delicate footwork on green issues. To court the eco-friendly Dem base, he has promised to push for 20 percent of U.S. electricity to come […]

Speech! Speech!

Environment Crops Up in Kerry’s Acceptance Speech John Kerry’s well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention last night saw the often-solemn senator rolling through impassioned lines quickly — some pundits said too quickly — and forcefully. Among those lines were several gems for the green-minded in the audience. The first substantive issue he mentioned was […]