E Magazine articles from September 2006

E Magazine archives from September 2006

Soil's well that ends well.(soil fertility )
September 1, 2006... Tamsyn Jones's very informative cover story this issue serves to remind us, among other things, that great civilizations of the past have prospered or withered depending upon their relationship with their natural environment. Vibrant, healthy...

Recycling redux.(ADVICE & DISSENT: Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... E maintains its 100 percent record in presenting and thoroughly researching interesting topics with the May/June 2006 cover story "How to Recycle Practically Anything." We pay for more than 9,000 curbside recycling programs through our tax...

Helping horses.(ADVICE & DISSENT: Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Thanks to Josh Harkinson for his informative, emotionally charged article on horse slaughter ("The Killing Floor," Features, May/June 2006). I used to go to Baltimore's Pimlico track to watch the horse races and try to make some money. I never...

Religious leaders take action.(ADVICE & DISSENT: Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... The May/June 2006 issue included an article about some prominent Evangelical Christians who are addressing global warming and protection of the Earth ("Messing with God's Creation," Currents). They are not the first to do so. John Wesley,...

Cookware concerns.(ADVICE & DISSENT: Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Thank you for your article "Don't Panic!" (Your Health, May/June 2006). It's about time that this information was disseminated more widely so we can prevent poisoning by cookware. However, a few important facts were missing from your article....

Turning on the gas in Ghana.
September 1, 2006... Before she started using gas for cooking, Ghana native Malia Idriss used to get up at four every morning. She would light the wood fire, heat the water and make sure her children got breakfast before heading to school. The smoke sometimes...

For Hawaiian sea turtles, a last resort?
September 1, 2006... 0n the Big Island of Hawaii, the black sand beach at Punalu'u in the rural district of Kau is renowned as much for its dramatic beauty as it is for the giant sea turtles that return each year to nest there. But Sea Mountain Five LLC, a...

A green vision for Baltimore.(montgomery park building)
September 1, 2006... One of the first things a traveler sees off I-95 upon entering Baltimore (after the huge Resco garbage incinerator) is the behemoth, art deco Montgomery Park building. This 1925 cement warehouse with large windows was Baltimore's most visible...

Saving sharks in Baja California?(Center for Shark Research)
September 1, 2006... In El Portugues, a small fishing camp in Mexico's Baja California Sur, moustachioed fishermen with tobacco-colored skin glide to shore in 21-foot panga boats and unload their modest catch of small sharks and devil rays. It seems innocuous...

Saving the sound: the northeast's vital estuary is in recovery.
September 1, 2006... On a side street in Norwalk, Connecticut, just a block from fully rigged sailboats bobbing in the harbor, Soundkeeper Terry Backer pulled back the grill on a storm drain and revealed a mesh box hanging from four straps and sagging under the...

High-volume organic: should we applaud when Wal-Mart goes crunchy?
September 1, 2006... With 3,700 stores in all 50 states, Wal-Mart is well known as the country's top seller of diapers, toothpaste, DVDs, breakfast cereal and... organic lettuce? It may not hold that honor yet, but it's well on its way. In March the giant...

Across the great divide: Jordanians study the environment--in Israel.
September 1, 2006... When Said Saleh Abu Ghosh chose to pursue a master's degree in desert studies, he knew there would be a price to pay. Not the price of hard work or intense competition, but as a native of Amman, Jordan, Abu Ghosh was facing backlash by way of...

The new accounting: taking better stock of the environment.
September 1, 2006... Although looking at natural resources in terms of dollars and cents may call to mind greed-mongering capitalists lighting cigars with hundred-dollar bills, in reality a failure to account for the financial value of a nation's natural resources...

Hummers on the homefront: at 4,600 square feet, is it an eco-house?
September 1, 2006... It's home-show time in Portland, Oregon, and people are lining up to gawk at the "Oregon Dream" one of eight show homes in a yearly promotion organized by local builders. They shuffle on tile floors, gape at distant ceilings. Women linger by a...

Reef madness.(coral reef animal protection )(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... This May marked the first time any species of Caribbean coral was designated as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (see "Clouds Over the Coral," Features, March/April 1999). The two species added, staghorn (Acropora...

Heavy metal songbirds.(protection)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... As if songbirds didn't have enough to contend with! Not only is their Latin American winter habitat threatened as forest canopy coffee growing gives way to full-sun plantations (see "Grounds for Change," cover story, November/ December 2005),...

Admitting oil addiction.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... President Bush famously admitted in his State of the Union address last January that "America is addicted to oil." E took a look at our addiction in "The Outlook on Oil" (cover story, January/February 2006). Now the International Energy Outlook...

The scoop on dirt: why we should all worship the ground we walk on.(Cover story)
September 1, 2006... It's one of nature's most perfect contradictions: a substance that is ubiquitous but unseen; humble but essential; surprisingly strong but profoundly fragile. It nurtures life and death; undergirds cities, forests and oceans; and feeds all...

Edison's legacy: the emerging link between light exposure and cancer.
September 1, 2006... While American women have a life expectancy that is two-and-a-half times greater than women in some developing countries, they are five times more likely to develop breast cancer. According to Dr. Richard Stevens, a cancer epidemiologist at the...

Love that lasagna: organic food hits the freezer.
September 1, 2006... Organic food is firmly established as the fastest-growing segment of the food industry, boasting 20 to 24 percent annual growth for the past several years. Sales are projected to reach $32 billion by 2009. So it's not surprising that we're...

Let it all hang out! There's more than one way to dry those jeans.(dryers )
September 1, 2006... I love warm, clean clothes fresh from the dryer on a cool autumn evening, so when a friend suggested that I hang my clothes outside as an energy saver, I put my foot down. While I consider myself a dedicated environmentalist, the dryer was a...

Office sweet: top companies make the SB20 list.(investment management)
September 1, 2006... Unless they spend a lot of time reading the fine print in corporate sustainability reports, it's hard for green investors to know which companies truly stand out. These days, every company claims to be concerned about the environment. ...

Elephant adventures: South Africa's private eco-reserve.(Lente Roode )
September 1, 2006... When Lente Roode of South Africa received an urgent plea in 2002 to rescue 12 trained elephants that were threatened by political turmoil in Zimbabwe, she immediately obtained trucks and personally led the convoy. She has never been able to...

Sleep easy: natural futons send you to dreamland.(Abundant Earth's)
September 1, 2006... Most people spend about a third of their lives in dreamland. "To sleep on a surface that's laden with chemicals that off-gas is obviously going to affect your health in some negative way," says Brian Hoffman, who answers customers' questions at...

Back to school.
September 1, 2006... Labor Day is coming, so summer camps are dosing and bees are flying in lazier circles on cooler air. The squash season is ending, though apple pie is starting to look like a real possibility, and the kids are outside this morning, waiting for...

Reduce, reuse, reprint.(inkjet printers ink)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Although 90 percent of printer cartridges are recyclable, only 20 percent end up being reused. Planet Green offers a profitable remedy to that statistic. Send the company your used inkjet or laser cartridges and cell phones; they send you...

Rub-a-dub time.(bath products)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Ah, to be young... it's not just the curiosity and carefree lifestyle that's worth pining for; it's also the fun bath toys and products! The folks at Tiny Tillia sure knew that when they came out with their recent line of children's...

Speaking for the animals.(Laura Moretti's 'Animals Voice')(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Animals Voice was published by Laura Moretti as a glossy magazine from 1986 to 1997, and even though it's been consistently available since then online (at www.animalsvoice.com, where there are more than 10,000 links to animal-related...

Prettier paper.(Mohawk Paper Mills Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Paper is a perennial whipping boy of the environmental movement: we cut down trees to make it, we dye it with toxic bleaches, we waste too much and we recycle too little. One company wants all that to change. Mohawk Fine Papers produces premium...

Last of his kind.(Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon )(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... The name "Lonesome George" is apt, because the Giant Galapagos tortoise that stars in this book is almost certainly the last of his kind from Pinta Island. He ambled into history in 1971 when a biologist came upon him shuffling along. No one...

Adventure off Antarctica.(Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish )(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Australian customs officers, Spanish pirates, Uruguayan businessmen, slick defense lawyers and uzi-carrying South African security guards are only a few of the characters appearing in G. Bruce Knecht's latest book, Hooked: Pirates, Poaching,...

Birding under fire.(Birding Babylon )(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... "One day I hope to return, with binoculars but without a weapon," writes Sergeant Jonathan Trouern-Trend, a life-long birdwatcher and member of the Connecticut National Guard. Birding Babylon (Sierra Club Books, $9.95) collects highlights from...

Water (under)world.(Ogallala Blue)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... "We just thought it was going to flow forever." This was the popular belief William Ashworth discovered when he drove across America to uncover the ramifications of the disappearing Ogallala Aquifer. The wellspring, tucked beneath the Great...

A timely look at animal rights.(Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Does animal liberation justify violent means? Is it right to threaten or harm companies or persons associated with animal testing? Should we, as one militant animal rights group puts it, bite back? Lee Hall's answer is no. Hall, the legal...

The tipping point.(Just the Tips)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Do you want to help protect the environment but just don't know where to start? Author Wendy Richardson's new book Just the Tips, Man for Protecting the Environment ($14.95) makes it easy to do just that, one day at a time. Just the Tips is the...

Debating bamboo paper and safer hardwood floor wax.
September 1, 2006... Is bamboo really an environmentally friendly alternative to wood for making paper?--Ali Forte, via e-mail Bamboo is a fast-growing and renewable resource, and it has long been used throughout Asia as a raw material for many goods, including...