Latest Articles
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Umbra on paper towels vs. hand dryers
Dear Umbra, As an environmental science instructor, I’m often asked which is the better choice when drying one’s hands in a public restroom, assuming both options are available: paper towels, with their associated disposal issues, or hand dryers, with their use of electricity, much of which is wasted. What’s the answer? Curious in Iowa,Dawn Dearest […]
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Umbra on what to call anti-environmentalists
Dear Umbra, I am having a problem with the word anti-environmentalists. It seems to me to make these people out to be the good guys for opposing environmentalists. Don’t we need a term that better describes people who trash the environment for profit? Say, enviro-rapist? Maybe something a little more civil? JimDeerwood, Minn. Dearest Jim, […]
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Virgin Rebirth
Meanwhile, wetlands are also a matter of concern in a place that could scarcely be more different from Iraq: the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands Indigenous and Endangered Species Act of 1990 specifies that the policy of the territory is to “prevent a net loss of wetlands to the […]
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The Ides of Marsh
Verdant marshes and wetlands were much of what helped put the “fertile” in the Fertile Crescent, that swath of land between the Tigris and Euphrates that is considered the birthplace of Western civilization. But in the last few decades, those marshes have been all but destroyed by dam-building and civil strife in Iraq. Those marshes […]
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Cleaner Smoke Stacki Thanks to Pataki
New York state now boasts the nation’s strictest pollution controls on power plants, thanks to measures approved yesterday by Gov. George Pataki (R). The announcement was met with joy by environmentalists, who had been pushing for the tougher rules for upwards of three years, but the electricity industry said the move would cost custumers while […]
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Giving the Devil His DU
As many people wonder about the long-term environmental effects of the war in Iraq, the U.N. has issued a report documenting the ongoing pollution problems posed by depleted uranium (DU) ammunition used by NATO forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s. The report, published by the U.N. Environment Programme, found DU contamination in groundwater and drinking […]
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Lack of Interest
Three months ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture settled a case against a Texas-based biotechnology company whose genetically modified (GM) feed corn contaminated natural corn and soybeans. The USDA represented the settlement as a sharp crackdown on violators of GM standards — but in fact, the settlement involved a no-interest $3.5 million government loan, meaning […]
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Urban Bright
In a groundbreaking move, New York state has developed guidelines for ensuring that low-income and minority neighborhoods are not disproportionately subjected to environmental health risks by developers. The environmental-justice guidelines were drafted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to limit the ability of developers to build unpopular and potentially hazardous projects in communities that […]
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Bad Medicine
South Africa’s indigenous forests cover less than one-half of 1 percent of the country — and the wooded land that remains is severely threatened by people who illegally gather medicinal plants to turn a profit. Michael Peter, director of the nation’s Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, said the problem isn’t traditional native herbalists but […]
