E Magazine articles from September 2003

E Magazine archives from September 2003

All bottled up.(E Word)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Could someone please tell me: When on Earth did water go from being an essential liquid upon which all life depends... to a commercial "beverage?" It happened at least sometime before the Fall 2001 Natural Products Expo in Washington,...

Throw the bums out.(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... fs As an old subscriber to E, I think the cover illustration of the May/June 2003 issue is absolutely fantastic! Right on the money! Make it into a downloadable poster and let the power of the people display it. Pam Boyer-Pfersdorf,...

What about the greens?(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... How could you do a cover story on green politics without mention of the Green Party? The Greens are the only party whose guiding principle is ecological wisdom. Worthy groups such as the League of Conservation Voters can only nibble at the...

Talking about religion.(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Your article "Religious Wrong" (Features, May/June 2003) was excellent. I'm glad your editors had the courage to publish it. Keep up the good work. J. Garber, Addison, IL I just read your article "Religious Wrong." If the copy didn't...

Scrambling the egg debate.(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I was both pleased and upset after reading your article about free-range eggs ("Happy Eggs," Eating Right, May/June 2003). As a vegan and avid animal rights activist, I am glad that animal welfare conditions are starting to improve, but I was...

Rubber duds?(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I appreciate that E is always on the look-out for products that offer benefits to the environment, but I seriously question your decision to hype Rubberific Mulch in the May/June 2003 issue (Tools for Green Living). Why would anyone concerned...

Does air travel crash and burn?(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... In the May/June 2003 Ask E section, Phoebe Hall's conclusion of airplane efficiency contradicts other comparisons of modes of transportation I have encountered, including one that said air travel uses 40 percent more fuel per person than...

Water in the hydrogen economy.(Letters From Our Readers)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... In E's May/June 2003 Advice and Dissent, Jim Bell of San Diego suggested a "fatal flaw" in the proposed hydrogen economy: a reduction in the planet's water inventory as molecular hydrogen is lost to outer space. But this does not seem a...

Getting rid of rats.
September 1, 2003... Two shipwrecks, an endangered seabird, animal rights activists, hordes of ship rats and a helicopter--all on a small island 12 miles off Ventura, California. The Channel Islands National Park and Island Conservation recently united in a $1...

Phoenix: is paradise becoming hell on Earth?
September 1, 2003... As the Earth breaks into a global warming-induced sweat, animals are reportedly migrating into northern latitudes once regarded as too cold for them. They must be tripping over the one species headed the other way, as human beings continue...

Dangerous tans.
September 1, 2003... More than 28 million Americans patronize tanning salons each year, with young women constituting the fastest-growing group of users. A recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found a staggering 51 percent of high...

Cooking schools save the scraps.
September 1, 2003... Learning how to cut vegetables in the proper French julienned design demands the precision of a surgeon. In the nation's top culinary academies it's not unheard of for an instructor to pull out a ruler and measure a julienned carrot or baby...

Kitty the killer? The raging debate over feral cats.(Currents)
September 1, 2003... Revered and reviled, pampered and persecuted, the domestic cat (Felis catus) has stirred up passionate sentiment since it first came to five among human beings 4,000 years ago. Though it may no longer be worshipped as a god or burned as a...

The "birth dearth": when it comes to analyzing world population, it's a numbers game.(Currents)
September 1, 2003... It's easy enough to make the world population explosion go away: Start with the "birth dearth" that could cause Europe to lose 24 percent of its population by 2060, and cut Japan's in half by 2100. In England, women have an average of 1.7...

Russia's global treasure: a national network of protected land needs help.(Currents)
September 1, 2003... When most Americans think of Russian nature, they think of environmental catastrophe--Chernobyl, oil spills, pollution. Yet Russia, with one-eighth of the Earth's land area, has one of the world's premiere systems of strictly protected areas,...

All that glitters ... gold mining leaves a toxic trail.(Currents)
September 1, 2003... The discovery of gold in the spiritually important Little Rocky Mountains in northern Montana is a curse that the Native-American community, of Fort Belknap has lived with for more than 100 years. During the 19th century, the mountains were...

A sea of troubles.(Updates)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... As if any more evidence was needed that the undersea world is in deep trouble (see "On the Blue Frontier," cover story, July/August 2001), a new report from the Pew Oceans Commission documents in great detail the problems caused by...

The other ANWR.(Updates)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Now that oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has at least temporarily been put on hold, environmental organizations are shifting their attention to the 23.5 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve (NPRA) in northwestern...

Bush to renege on mercury?(Updates)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... One of the few bright spots in the Bush administration's polluting "Clear Skies" initiative is its provision cutting power plant mercury emissions nearly in half (see "Got Mercury?" cover story, May/June 2002). Now even that accomplishment is...

Message in a bottle: despite the hype, bottled water is neither cleaner nor greener than tap water.
September 1, 2003... "YOU DRINK TAP WATER? ARE YOU CRAZY?" asks a 21-year-old radio producer from the Chicago area. "I only drink bottled water." In a trendy nightclub in New York City, the bartender tells guests they can only be served bottled water, which costs...

Fussing with filters.
September 1, 2003... With tap water quality increasingly under fire in the court of public opinion, the market for home water filter systems has surged. Co-op America says consumers who are still concerned about their tap water, or who don't like its taste, should...

The world's water crisis.
September 1, 2003... At the recent G8 summit in Evian, France, delegates met to discuss, among other issues, how to provide safe drinking water to the 1.5 billion of the world's citizens who live without it. Everyone within the summit gates enjoyed the free and...

Preventing harm.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... We all want to protect our families and provide them with safe, healthy water and food. That's why it's important to learn what dangerous chemicals go into everyday products, the locations where they're manufactured and what safer choices...

Nontoxic spring cleanup.(The Best Of The Green Guide)
September 1, 2003... Nontoxic Spring Cleanup Many chemicals used in conventional household products pollute our indoor air. Below, some suggestions for a safer, greener spring. WHERE TOXINS HEALTH THREAT SOLUTIONS FOUND ...

New studies on children and pesticides.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The very young are particularly vulnerable to environmental toxins, which can disrupt the development of their rapidly developing nervous, hormonal and respiratory systems, says Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., director of the Center for Children's...

Organic foods.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... On October 21, 2002 the USDA implemented national standards that outline exactly how foods must be produced and handled in order to be certified organic. WHY ORGANICS? For our health: Organic fruits and vegetables contain only about a...

Look at the label.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... To qualify for the new federal organic labels that debuted October 21, 2002 a food must have been certified as produced without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, genetic engineering, sewage sludge or irradiation. Organic meat, eggs and dairy...

Top ten to buy organic.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The foods below are highest in pesticides, and therefore best to buy organic. spinach pears winter squash green beans grapes celery strawberries peaches wheat apples Resource: "A Report Card for the EPA," February 2001, Consumers...

Teflon's sticky side.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... When heated to between 680 and 930 degrees Fahrenheit-scorching heat--the fluoropolymers used in Teflon degrade into several undesirable substances including trifluoroacetate (TFA), a substance highly toxic to plants. Other problematic...

More sustainable labels to choose.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... * Integrated Pest Management (IPM) labels indicate that a Farmer uses biological controls, such as natural predators of pests, and resorts to only the least-toxic pesticides when they are necessary. * Coffee, orange juice and cocoa that are...

Safer plastics for storing food.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Look for containers with recycling codes #1 PETE, #2 HDPE, #4 LDPE and #5 PP (on the bottom of containers). Of these, #1 and #2, used in many larger water bottles, are most commonly recycled and least toxic, along with #4 used in BestYet Clear...

Letters from readers.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... The Green Guide may have saved my life! I read your information regarding mercury in fish, and asked my doctor to do a blood test for mercury. It was high! My husband is a fisherman, so we figured it was the almost daily diet of striped bass...

3 steps to ensuring clean tap water.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... I. Read your water report. Local water utilities are required to send annual "consumer confidence reports" to all homes. Contaminants can include: * Trihalomethanes (THMs), may increase the risk of cancer, miscarriage and birth defects,...

Global warming.(The Best Of The Green Guide)
September 1, 2003... In the last 100 years, the Earth's average surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, and it may climb between 2.5 and 10 degrees higher by 2100, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts. For the estimated...

3 energy-saving actions.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... 1. Install at least one compact fluorescent light bulb. You'll save an average of $38 in electricity bills and replacement bulbs, and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from your power plant by over 700 pounds! 2. Take the Patriot's Energy...

To avoid on deck.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The "pressure-treated" wood commonly used in playground equipment, decks and picnic tables contains chromated copper arsenate (CCA), a form of arsenic. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), CCA can rub off onto skin upon contact,...

Here's how to reduce a child's exposure to asthma-provoking factors.(The Best Of The Green Guide)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Here's How to Reduce a Child's Exposure to Asthma-Provoking Factors ASTHMA FACTOR WHAT YOU CAN DO Cigarette Smoke Make your home and car no-smoking zones Dust-Mite Droppings Wash bedding in hot water every two...

How much water do we need, anyway?
September 1, 2003... Do we really need to drink eight eight-ounce glasses of water a day? The bottled water industry heavily promotes this prescription, but a growing number of experts are beginning to question the standard's scientific validity and even safety,...

What about fluoride?
September 1, 2003... In the parental rush to provide children with only the healthiest, purest, most wholesome ingredients for life, many families opt to serve bottled water along with the mashed carrots and multi-grain Cheerios. Why? Because they're worried about...

The perils of plastic: your cling wrap could be leaching chemicals.(Your Health)
September 1, 2003... Open the refrigerator in a typical American home and you'll find milk, orange juice and plenty of plastic. Every day, we reach for individually wrapped cheese slices, dip spoons into plastic yogurt cups and offer babies sips of milk from...

Soymilk gets fresh: now sold in supermarkets, it may put dairy cows out of business.(Eating Right)
September 1, 2003... Once reserved for sandal-clad hippies, soymilk is now officially mainstream, as common in a conventional supermarket as in health food stores. Soymilk's popularity has soared since the health benefits of soy have been widely publicized, and its...

A mighty wind: for wind energy investments, it's the potential that counts.(Money Matters)
September 1, 2003... As the fastest-growing energy source in the world, abundant, safe, renewable wind power seems like a very promising investment opportunity. But Americans looking to jump on the wind bandwagon had best be careful, because no U.S.-based wind...

So sensitive! Take a chemical inventory of your home.(House & Home)
September 1, 2003... Are you feeling tired most of the time? Does your spouse have a continuous cold and your child a mysterious rash? Chemical sensitivities could be responsible for these ailments. And your house--as well as the stuff in it--is likely to be the...

The Chalalan example: partnerships for community-based ecotourism.(Going Green)
September 1, 2003... As we sped up the Tuichi River in a motorized canoe, scarlet macaws squawked by overhead; capybaras at the water's edge defied my perceptions of rodents; and tapir's footprints blemished the spotless sands. This was going to be no ordinary...

Watt's the story? Energy-efficient lighting comes of age.(Consumer News)
September 1, 2003... As Americans, we spend about a quarter of our electricity budget on lighting, yet we're surprisingly ignorant about the basic properties of the lightbulb, let alone the recent innovations in energy-saving lighting design that can cut consumer...

A better cookie.(Tools for green living: resources for eco-awareness and action)(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
September 1, 2003... A recent lawsuit against the makers of Oreos (Kraft Foods) for selling a product with high-cholesterol "trans" fats found in hydrogenated oils and linked to heart disease and diabetes--makes us think twice before indulging in this classic...

Beauty sleep made better.(Tools for green living: resources for eco-awareness and action)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Looking to be wrapped in all-natural comfort? Ecobaby Organics, makers of organic clothing and toys for young children, has a line of bedding sure to keep adults warm and happy too. Using no synthetic chemicals, the company offers everything to...

Caring about cats, too.(Tools for green living: resources for eco-awareness and action)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Planet Dog, the manufacturer of Earth-and animal-friendly products for canines, has introduced a new line, aptly named Planet Cat. This brand includes a feline-friendly version of the popular Orbee Ball ($14.95), a non-toxic, long-lasting toy...

Meet your match.(Tools for green living: resources for eco-awareness and action)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Lonely vegetarians may have a new way to meet company for dinner. VeggieDate.com, an online singles service sponsored by GreenPeople.org, boasts 11,000 personal ads for vegetarians and is "one of the largest and fastest-growing vegetarian...

A new face for an old cleaner.(Tools for green living: resources for eco-awareness and action)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... A standard in the natural cleaning products industry, Ecover has given itself a makeover, coming out with newly redesigned packaging for its full line of products. In business for more than 20 years, Ecover has established itself as a mainstay...

Bio-food basics.(Books)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... A decade ago, the first transgenic food appeared in grocery stores--"vine-ripened" tomatoes. Scientists had flipped a gene in the tomato so the fruit would grow firm enough to turn red on the vine without rotting. Since then, genetically...

Only You Can Prevent Global Warming.(Books)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... If you have guilt about not being of more help to the environment, authors Jeffrey Langholz and Kelly Turner can come to the rescue. Their new book, You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $10.95), gives 51...

(Don't) go fish.(Books)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Readers will rethink the phrase, "There are plenty of fish in the sea" after diving into The Empty Ocean: Plundering the World's Marine Life (Island Press, $26). The book blends detailed drawings by writer and artist Richard Ellis with...

Busting the bushmeat trade.(Books)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In this macabre journey through the chaotic bushmeat markets and disappearing forests of west and central Africa, author Dale Peterson and photographer Karl Ammann tackle the complicated cultural, economic and ethical issues surrounding the...

(Still trying to) save the whales.(Books)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Despite common misconceptions, commercial whaling is still alive and well under the guise of "scientific research." Kieran Mulvaney lends a personal touch to the struggle by Green-peace and others against this ruse. The Whaling Season (Island...

Oil spills, cleaner cleaners and old railroad ties.(Ask E)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... What is the environmental impact of oil spills into the ocean? --Sarah, Baton Rouge. LA According to Alaska Sea Grant, oil spills into water place an enormous variety of animals and plants at severe risk from smothering and poisoning....