You are here: Home / Archives for E - The Environmental Magazine

About E - The Environmental Magazine

EarthTalk is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine. Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Discussing the impact of motorized vehicles in wilderness areas

By

May 12   Leave a Comment  

A key element of the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act now making its way through Congress would allow motorized vehicles and equipment into wilderness areas, undermine 1964’s Wilderness Act which expressly bans motor vehicles on these last wild vestiges of untrammeled American land. (Comstock)

Destroying what you claim to love

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , ,

Coming Soon: Oil drilling on the Arctic Ocean’s outer continental shelf

By

May 7   1 Comment  

Despite U.S. Geological Survey warnings that drilling in waters north of Alaska could have deleterious effects on ocean habitats and wildlife, the Obama administration proceeded with a lifting of the moratorium on off-shore drilling. Pictured: An Oiled brown pelican awaits cleaning in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Including plenty of darkly-colored animals!

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , ,

The “Fair Trade Your Supermarket” campaign

By

May 7   Leave a Comment  

Fair trade is a system of exchange which ensures that farmers, artisans and other producers throughout the developing world are paid fair prices for their work and have direct involvement in the marketplace.

Fair is fair

Filed Under: Food and Drink Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Cloud computing has a substantial footprint

By

April 28   3 Comments  

Greenpeace wants companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to make smarter, cleaner energy choices now that "cloud computing" services have ratcheted up power consumption considerably. (Media credit/Wichary via Flickr)

Power numbers through the roof

Filed Under: Computers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Are there health or environmental concerns with LED lights?

By

April 15   3 Comments  

LED bulbs appear poised to displace compact fluorescents (CFLs) as the king-of-the-hill of green bulbs, but a study published in late 2010 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that LEDs contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially dangerous substances. (Thinkstock)

The dark side of lighting

Filed Under: Electronics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Fuel efficient car choices for 2012

By

April 8   1 Comment  

Increased environmental awareness, high gas prices and a continually slumping economy have combined to make fuel efficient cars are all the rage today. Pictured from top to bottom: the Electric Mitsubishi Miev, Toyota's Plug-in Hybrid Prius; General Motors' gas sipping Chevy Sonic.

Save money and the environment with your next car purchase

Filed Under: Automotive Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wanted: Young farmers

By

March 17   Leave a Comment  

Convincing young people to take up farming is a hard sell but a necessary one: For each American farmer under the age of 35 there are now six over 65 and one quarter (500,000) of all American farmers will retire over the next two decades. (iStockPhoto)

Can you dig it?

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , ,

Are there natural bug repellents?

By

March 17   3 Comments  

There are several companies now selling natural insect repellents, many of which use essential oils as their active ingredients. (iStockPhoto)

And do they work?

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , ,

Looking at the Just Label It campaign

By

March 10   1 Comment  

At present the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't require labels for foods with genetically modified ingredients, but labeling proponents believe consumers have a right to be able to make informed choices about which foods they put into their bodies and support with their pocketbooks. (iStockPhoto)

Do you know your food’s genetics?

Filed Under: Food and Drink Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Cuba’s foray into offshore oil drilling

By

March 10   Leave a Comment  

Finding significant off-shore oil reserves could turn Cuba into an oil exporter, possibly even thawing relations with a still oil-hungry U.S. Pictured: The Scarabeo 9 oil rig while still under construction in China in 2009. It is now 30 miles off of Cuba's coast and just 60 miles south of the Florida Keys. (Wikipedia)

Possible source of economic power for Communist island

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , ,

SMOG levels improving in Los Angeles

By

Feb. 28   Leave a Comment  

Tougher state and federal air quality standards, combined with cleaner burning engines on new vehicles today, have cut air pollution from cars and trucks across California by more than 85 percent since the 1970s, with peak smog levels in the city of Los Angeles dropping some 70 percent. (Thinkstock)

Is it possible?

Filed Under: Earth and Environment, Life in the West, Los Angeles Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Why Solyndra failed

By

Feb. 28   1 Comment  

Low natural gas prices, competition from China and other factors helped sink innovative American solar panel maker, Solyndra, despite its having received $535 million in government loan guarantees. But the Obama administration is not deterred and has renewed efforts to force utilities to derive significant percentages of their power from cleaner, greener sources. (Media credit/Zachary Graham via Flickr)

It was SO promising…

Filed Under: Earth and Environment, Life in the West Tagged With: , , , ,

Looking at disease clusters

By

Feb. 19   1 Comment  

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) defines a "disease cluster" as an unusually large number of people sickened by a disease in a certain place and time. Toxic exposure by industrial activity is usually suspected or blamed. Along with the National Disease Clusters Alliance, NRDC reported in 2011 that it had identified 42 disease clusters in 13 U.S. states.

Does where you live make you sick?

Filed Under: Health and fitness Tagged With: , , , , , ,

New automobile fuel economy standards

By

Feb. 19   Leave a Comment  

In a plan formulated by the Obama administration, auto makers will double the average, unadjusted fuel-economy rating of their cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 from today’s standard of 27 miles per gallon. Congress is likely to sign the new rules, which will start taking effect for the 2017 model year, into law this summer. (ThinkStock)

How’s 54.5 MPG sound?

Filed Under: Automotive Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

There’s BPA in cash register receipts?

By

Feb. 12   1 Comment  

Laboratory tests found high levels of BPA on 40 percent of thermal paper receipts sampled from major U.S. businesses and services, including McDonald’s, Chevron, CVS, KFC, Whole Foods, WalMart, Safeway and the U.S. Postal Service, among others. BPA in paper receipts also contaminates paper recycling and is showing up in napkins, toilet paper and other common papers with recycled content. (Thinkstock)

Bad news bears

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , ,

How green is the state of our union?

By

Feb. 12   Leave a Comment  

Obama's State of the Union address was, in the words of one prominent green leader, "a strong defense of the importance of clean energy to America’s long-term economic prosperity." (White House photo)

All-in-all, not a bad year

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How much energy is used by cable TV boxes?

By

Feb. 1   Leave a Comment  

Set-top boxes in the U.S. consume 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, equivalent to the annual output of six coal-fired power plants. Part of the reason is that they typically operate at nearly full power even during the two-thirds of the time when they are not in use. (Thinkstock)

Short answer: A lot

Filed Under: Electronics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fact: Carbon emissions are making our oceans acidic

By

Feb. 1   Leave a Comment  

Ocean acidification is likely to affect the ability of some shellfish to produce and maintain their shells. This process will not only wreak havoc on the shellfish we eat, but also on smaller marine organisms that are key components of the lower end of the marine food chain. (Thinkstock)

Goodbye coral. Goodbye shellfish.

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Water usage in the bathroom

By

Jan. 24   Leave a Comment  

Some 60 percent of our household indoor water usage happens in the bathroom. Toilets are the biggest water hogs, with older models using as much as eight gallons per flush. A shower, even with a low-flow shower head, can use up to 40 gallons of water, and a bath can use up to 50-60 gallons. (Thinkstock)

It’s more than you thought!

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Analysis: Cutting down forests for biomass fuel

By

Jan. 24   Leave a Comment  

In theory, burning any kind of plant material for energy is a carbon-neutral endeavor, but chopping down forests for ethanol is unwise because they cannot be regrown quickly. And tree plantations don't provide the clean water, storm buffers, wildlife habitat and other ecosystem services that natural forests do. Pictured: A wood biomass plant. (Thinkstock)

This will trouble you…

Filed Under: Earth and Environment Tagged With: , , , , , ,