Latest Articles
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Yeah, Baby
To Marlene Sandberg, “changing diapers” means something different from just putting a clean Huggies on baby. Sandberg, who is Swedish, is working to change not just individual diapers but the whole product. In the mid-1990s, after reading that every Swedish baby produces a half-ton of dirty diapers per year (which then persists in landfills long […]
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Give Those Ranchers a Hand
In an unusual shake-up of traditional alliances, ranchers and environmentalists are banding together in Colorado to fight a common enemy: urban sprawl. In Custer County, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, three conservation groups and six ranchers have signed a covenant limiting the kind of development permissible on the land — no […]
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Zoo Zoo Zooma Zoom
Sure, that little kitten at the animal rescue shelter is cute, but have you ever considered an orangutan? Hopefully not — but far too many people have, fueling an illegal primate market in Nigeria, the country that conservationists say does the most trade in endangered species on the African continent. The animals are brought to […]
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Michigan Seems Like a Nightmare to Me Now
It’s about 2,000 miles from Michigan to California — and about a world away. Linked by market forces (California is the nation’s biggest car market, Michigan the nation’s biggest car manufacturer) but separated by cultural chasms, the relationship between the two states has always been rocky. Now, in the wake of last week’s landmark Golden […]
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Onion Jack
Times are so bad for organic farmers in the United Kingdom that the whole market for organic foods could collapse, according to research published today by the National Farmers Union. According to the data, one in three organic farms in Great Britain is losing money. If there is hope, it lies in the Organic Action […]
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Put a Tiber in Your Tank
In the last two weeks, tons of dead fish have floated to the surface of the Tiber, the famed Italian river that was once one of the lifelines of the Roman Empire. According to environmentalists, two-thirds of the fauna in a three-mile stretch of the river have been wiped out since July 15; even eels, […]
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Fool Standards
Automakers are gearing up to take California’s landmark new vehicle-emissions law to court, even though they could face a public opinion backlash by doing so. Industry reps say they are “very confident” that the courts will agree with their argument that California is encroaching on federal jurisdiction by trying to set its own fuel-economy standards. […]
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Great Burial Reef
It’s not a great time to be the Great Barrier Reef. When sea temperatures around the famed Australian landmark hit record highs early this year, 60 percent of the coral on the reef suffered from heat-related bleaching, according to marine scientists. Warm water temperatures caused the algae that live on the reef to leave, disrupting […]
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Radar Strange
Ever since Sept. 11, sophisticated surveillance systems have been the talk of the town, and fans have proposed installing them in all sorts of places — airports, subway systems, sports stadiums. But rainforests? Yep. Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso flew to the jungle city of Manaus yesterday to inaugurate the Amazon Surveillance System, a $1.4 […]
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A review of Cradle to Cradle
The idea that growth can be good is anathema to most environmentalists. Yet that's exactly the argument made by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in Cradle to Cradle. Take a look at nature, the pair says, and you'll see that growth is not only good, but necessary -- that nature's very abundance is what environmentalists (and the rest of us) depend on and celebrate. The key is the right kind of growth -- and the key to that is better design.
