mercury
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Accept more poison to get less carbon? Kill this crazy idea NOW
With an increase in industry’s toxic pollutants, will this be the fate of our water sources? In exchange for cutting their carbon emissions, power plants want to undermine the EPA and get permission to increase other kinds of dangerous pollution. They even want the go-ahead to dump more sulfur and deadly mercury into our air […]
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Mercury pollution from dental offices is contaminating your seafood
It seems innocent enough. Your dentist is giving you a new filling. You get some of those little metal slivers in your mouth and he tells you take a swig of water. Rinse and spit. No problem, right? Unfortunately, each one of those slivers is about half mercury. Multiply that simple routine millions of times, […]
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Dark Secret of World Water Day: Coal-Fired Plants Drink 1.5 Trillion Gallons
Here’s a sobering fact on World Water Day: Coal-fired power plants use approximately 1.5 trillion gallons of water a year in the US. In many respects, some folks might use more water flicking on their lights, than chugging back a glass of that wondrous stuff. Makes you wonder: Has the EPA ever tabulated the […]
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Dear Vinod Khosla & Tom Friedman: No amount of sequestration makes coal ‘clean’ [UPDATED]
EVEN MORE UP-TO-DATE UPDATE (3/22): The New York Times profiles Calera, the Vinod Khosla-backed company that hopes to embed carbon dioxide in cement. Dave tells the full story below. UPDATE: Vinod Khosla sent in a response — see the bottom of the post. —— Tom Friedman had a column over the weekend lauding a couple […]
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The hidden costs and benefits of things we take for granted
Raj Patel has an interesting list of “things that aren’t as cheap as you think,” with an always-welcome reminder that many industries and social practices have costs that don’t appear in the sticker price. These “externalities” are offloaded to the public; they represent, in effect, enormous subsidies. Free marketeers hate market-distorting subsidies, right? For the […]
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Fish for Thought
Editor’s Note: Anna wrote this post (and several others) before leaving on maternity leave. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl in December. To eat fish, or not? If you’re pregnant, nursing, or even thinking about becoming pregnant, it’s a Catch-22. Seafood is the best possible source of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, […]
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Sugar and Spice and…Lead and Mercury
Sandra Steingraber is my hero. Her book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, chronicles her own pregnancy from both a scientific and personal perspective. It’s beautifully and lovingly written—yet for a pregnant woman it’s also a tough read. Trained as a biologist, Steingraber meticulously documents the toxic hazards we live with every day, and […]
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Roberts, take 3: New energy sources are cheaper than trying to clean coal
This is the last entry in a series of six email exchanges between two climate-change experts on the future use of coal. The series was originally posted here. Editorial note: The price of energy should reflect its “true” cost, Roberts argues. Non-renewable dirty sources like coal should be priced to take into account their real […]
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To change your tuna, consider the sardine
In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. Hi there, I am desperate for a tuna melt with some chips on the side, but am living in fear for my insides […]
