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  • A Green and Pleasant Continent

    Europe’s Green Parties Unite Thirty-two national Green parties united on Saturday to become the European Green Party, predicting that a unified voice will gain them influence and votes in the coming elections. The Greens, now the first pan-European political party, will run under a common banner and with a common agenda focused on environmental protection, […]

  • Prize and Shine

    Prizes Go to Community Programs Doing Environmental Good Competition for the U.N.’s Equator Prize — rewarded for community initiatives that reduce poverty and preserve environmental health — was so intense this year that there were seven winners instead of the normal six. The prize, awarded by the Equator Initiative, amounts to $30,000 — plus a […]

  • Jesus Christ’s Supercar?

    Hybrid SUVs to Hit U.S. Market This Year While a “green SUV” may sound like an oxymoron, Toyota and Ford plan to roll out new gas-electric hybrid SUVs later this year that warrant the label “greener” — or, at least, less egregiously wasteful. Ford’s hybrid Escape will hit U.S. showrooms this summer, while Toyota will […]

  • Umbra on fabric softening

    Dear Umbra, With winter upon us, I’m thinking about a serious matter: fabric softener. During the summer, I don’t use any. However, with snow looming, static cling is on my mind. Long story short, which is better: liquid fabric softener or dryer sheets? AllieShippensburg, Penn. Dearest Allie, Your home will be a happier, healthier place […]

  • Umbra on diaperless parenting

    Dear Umbra, I have a baby on the way. Due to prodding by my wife, I have begun to think about things such as diapers. Babies make a lot of boom-boom, and wrapping it all up in a bundle of plastic diaperness, tossing that in a plastic sack, and then tossing the lot in a […]

  • Nativity Scene

    Native Peoples Speak Up for Their Lands Indigenous peoples are rallying for their lands and their rights this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where a major U.N. convention on biodiversity is taking place. Representatives of native peoples are demanding the right to reject development projects on their ancestral lands, saying that multinational companies should not […]

  • The Gas Is Always Greener …

    American Cars Conspicuously Absent from List of 2004’s Greenest Vehicles An annual ranking of the year’s “greenest” and “meanest” automobiles released today found America’s Big Three auto manufacturers absent from the former list — and well-represented on the latter. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, widely considered a top source for info on eco-friendly […]

  • Low-carb diets have a high impact on the planet

    Lose That Extra Weight … While Eating the Foods You Love!” Pleased to meat you. For decades, such headlines were fixtures of supermarket checkout lanes, to be taken no more seriously than claims of alien abduction. But times have changed. High-protein, low-carbohydrate diets have become wildly popular because they help adherents lose dozens of pounds […]

  • Greensylvania

    Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) unveiled a $22 billion state budget yesterday with numerous eco-friendly provisions that promise to protect green space, return abandoned mine sites to productive use, improve state parks, and revitalize aging city centers, asserting that such measures would spur economic development. Enviros hailed the budget, saying it would make Pennsylvania the […]

  • Nano, Nano

    A new paint set to go on sale in Europe in March promises to absorb the most noxious gases from automobile exhaust. Invented by British company Millennium Chemicals, Ecopaint contains spherical nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, suspended in a base of polysiloxane (a silicon-based polymer). Hey, wake up, the good part is coming! […]