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"It's Alive!"    Back To Top

Biotech Field Trials

Right now, many of our fresh fruits and vegetables and whole foods are largely GE free. But, the biotech industry is quickly and quietly running field trials on many of these. Click on the links below to find out what is already on the market as a GE product and what is being genetically engineered in experimental trials. Read More

Hazards of Genetically Engineered Plants

Genetically engineered (GE) plants are created by splicing foreign genetic material into plant genomes, creating new organisms that could never arise in nature. The most common form of gene-splicing is quite similar to the process of viral infection. Read More

Learn the Basics

To be effective in bringing about change, it''s important to be conversant with the basics of genetic engineering. Download Friends of the Earth''s Activist Tool Kit. Read More

Sustainable Alternatives

One way to avoid genetically engineered food is to buy organic. But buying Certified Organic produce and products at your local supermarket can be both expensive and limiting, especially when they don't carry what you want or need. Read More

A New threat to Rainforests    Back To Top

Eating them out of House and Home

Soy traders encourage farmers to cut down the rainforest and plant massive soy monocultures. The traders take the soy and ship it to Europe where it is fed to animals like chickens and pigs. The animals are then turned into fast food products. Read More

Everything about Rainforests

Tropical Rainforests are a world like none other and their importance to the global eco-system is paramount. Read More

Getting Real about Biofuels

Agribusiness, oil, energy and auto companies are deceiving consumers and profiting by furthering the myth of a biofuel solution to global warming. Read More

The Amazing Rain Forest

Rain forests cover only 2% of the Earth's surface, but they provide habitat and nutritional support for almost half of the Earth's known living species. Tropical rain forests exist in a belt around the Earth's middle. The center of this belt is the Equator. The top edge is the Tropic of Cancer, and the bottom is the Tropic of Capricorn. Within this belt, the temperatures average 80 degrees all year, and the annual rainfall is between 80 and 200 inches. Most of the trees in a tropical rain forest are broadleaf trees that remain green throughout the year. Take this "virtual" tour from the Arbor Day Foundation to learn all about life in the rainforest. Read More

All Aboard!    Back To Top

Adapting the Highway System to Rail

A fantastic plan (and we do mean "fantastic" in all its meanings) to replace the U.S. Interstate road system with trains! Also serves as a great primer on high-speed rail. Read More

Forget Flying, Amtrak Is In

Amtrak ridership is at an all time high - last year 26 million passengers took the train instead of driving or flying. While this may not compare to the hundreds of millions of passengers on Europe and Asia's high-speed rails, there is a clear trend toward increasing rail ridership in the United States. This video looks at Amtrak's Acela, the closest thing in the United States to high speed rail. Read More

Make !@~$ High Speed Rail Already

In April, a train built by the French engineering firm Alstom screamed along the Ligne à Grande Vitesse, the Paris-to-Strasbourg high-speed rail system, at a record- breaking 357 miles per hour. Read More

New Urbanism, New Trains

We are really at an incredibly important fork in the road: either we continue spending on roads and runways, and see our mobility decrease and get more expensive, or we could refocus our priorities on sustainability, mobility, prosperity and national security - and build a new national high-speed train network. Read More

An Invisible Threat    Back To Top

Heavy Metal Bad For Your Health

The term heavy metal refers to any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations. Examples of heavy metals that are harmful to humans include mercury, lead, and arsenic. Chronic exposure to these metals can have serious health consequences. Read More

How Safe is What's in a Tuna Can?

This July 2007 investigative report by Lawrence Goodman for SELF magazine and MSNBC provides essential information on the debate over warnings about mercury contamination of canned tuna and other fish, and how much is safe to consume. Turns out a lot of studies downplaying the health risks were funded by industry groups. And guess who federal agencies like EPA and FDA listened to when setting acceptable levels of mercury consumption? Read More

Mercury Contamination in Fish

Eating fish contaminated with mercury, a poison that interferes with the brain and nervous system, can cause serious health problems, especially for children and pregnant women. Check out this information from NRDC on mercury's effects and its sources, tips for eating fish more safely and action opportunities you can take right now to reduce the threat from this hazardous pollution. Read More

Mercury Pollution from Cement Kilns

Over 100 cement kilns release at least 12,000 pounds of mercury pollution annually, yet the EPA still has failed to issue strong protections limiting cement kiln mercury emissions. Earthjustice is challenging EPA's failure to protect the environment and our health. Read More

Mercury Rising

The Fall 2004 issue of Waterkeeper Magazine highlights the growing threat of mercury contamination in our waterways and fish from the nation's coal-fired power plants and talks about some of the actions that Waterkeeper Alliance and our local Waterkeeper programs are taking on this growing threat. Download PDFs of these important articles here.
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Born to Be Wild    Back To Top

National Parks Service Views Visitor Center

Have you ever gone to a place that was beyond the end of the road? Wilderness is part of our history and heritage, passed as a legacy to future generations. Indispensable to the American past, wilderness will remain essential to the American future. An interactive exploration of wilderness. Read More

Where We Work

Designated Wilderness Areas are federal lands, but the efforts to preserve wilderness happen on the state level. See what's been done-and what's being done-in your state to protect wilderness. Read More

Wilderness 101

Wilderness is, on its most basic level, land that has not been previously developed or inhabited by humans. The Wilderness Act of 1964 sets forth the legal definition of wilderness as ''an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." The Act goes on to describe wilderness as ''an area of undeveloped federal land" which ''generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man''s work substantially unnoticeable." In accordance with the Act, wilderness is designated by Congress on federal public lands as the highest form of protection for federal lands. Read More

Bring Back the Electric Cars    Back To Top

All About Plug-In Hybrids

On this highly popular but long page five fundamental topics are addressed: 1 What are plug-in hybrids? 2 Plug-in hybrids are cleaner. 3 Plug-in hybrids are cheaper. 4 Plug-in hybrids are domestic. 5 Plug-in hybrids already exist. Read More

Confusion About Alternative-Energy Vehicles

Confused by "flex fuel?" Perplexed by "plug ins?" With the ever growing number of options among alternative fuel-powered vehicles and the rapid growth of technology, it's getting tough to understand how it all works and what's best for you as a consumer. Michael Omotoso, J.D. Power's senior manager of global powertrains, was willing to help unravel the confusion." Read More

Electric Car FAQ

Answers to questions like: Why would I even want to plug a car in? Isn't an electric car simply trading a tailpipe for a smokestack? What about pollution from the power plants? Won't plugging in cars lead to building more coal and nuclear power plants? and more. Read More

More Electric Car FAQ

Are PHEVs available today?
Does plug-in technology work?
What distance could a PHEV achieve on battery alone?
Won't PHEVs just replace air pollution from autos with air pollution from power plants?
What about performance? Won't PHEVs be slow?
How much more will I pay for a PHEV, versus a comparably-sized conventional hybrid? Read More

The Electric Car on PBS Now

PBS NOW talks to director Chris Paine about his upcoming documentary ""Who Killed the Electric Car?"" The film looks at the hopeful birth and untimely death of the electric car, an environmentally-friendly, cost-saving salvation to some, but a profit barrier to others. Also, interviews with other experts, facts, and tips about electric cars and hybrids. Read More

Build It Green    Back To Top

About Green Roofs

A green roof system is an extension of the existing roof which involves a high quality water proofing and root repellant system, a drainage system, filter cloth, a lightweight growing medium and plants. Green roof systems may be modular, with drainage layers, filter cloth, growing media and plants already prepared in movable, interlocking grids, or, each component of the system may be installed separately Read More

Building Materials: What Makes it Green?

Quite a bit of attention has been focused on the issue of green building materials. What makes a given product green"? How do you evaluate the relative greenness of different products? How do you find green products? More important, perhaps, manufacturers are asking, How can we make our products greener? Read More

Green Building Legislation

The American Institute of Architects offer a map displaying states with legislation mandating the use of green/high-performance building standards for new state-funded building projects and renovations. Read More

Green Building Rating Systems

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. Read More

Join a USGBC Chapter

Individuals who want to become involved with green building on a local level can join their USGBC local chapter. Chapters are the local voice of USGBC, and chapter members are key to raising awareness about green building. Read More

Clean Up The Mines    Back To Top

1872 Mining Law Summary

A summary of provisions in the antiquated 1872 Mining Law which is still the overarching law of the land. Read More

Metal Desert

The global economy digs into the driest places in the world. Mines in South America have been worked for hundreds of years by poor people in tiny desert towns hidden away from sight. Read More

Mining Reform

The 1872 Mining Law was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. Before Custer's Last Stand, it was passed to promote the development and settlement of publicly-owned lands in the western United States.... 19th century America wasn't concerned with environmental protection. So the mining law doesn't contain environmental protection provisions. Communities and environments have paid the price. Read More

The Aluminum Can's Dirty Little Secret

Industry "greenwashing" obscures the real environmental costs of aluminum production, according to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI) and the International Rivers Network (IRN), two non-profit environmental organizations. Read More

The Mining of the West

A 4-part series from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Craters so huge they can be seen from space. Thousands of miles of rivers and streams polluted by acidic runoff. Miners can pay the government no more than $5 an acre for the chance to make a fortune or go bust -- and stick taxpayers with millions of dollars in cleanup costs. It is the legacy of an 1872 federal law that still allows miners to take precious metals from public land for next to nothing. Read More

Consider the Alternatives    Back To Top

Bioenergy

Biomass offers America tremendous opportunity to use domestic and sustainable resources to provide its fuel, power, and chemical needs from plants and plant-derived materials. Read More

Energy Costs and Conservation Facts

Things you should know. Read More

How Geothermal Energy Works

Heat from the earth can be used as an energy source in many ways, from large and complex power stations to small and relatively simple pumping systems. This heat energy, known as geothermal energy, can be found almost anywhere-as far away as remote deep wells in Indonesia and as close as the dirt in our backyards. Read More

The History of Renewable Energy

The story of renewable energy is one of the invention and refinement of technologies for extracting both more energy and more useful forms of it from a wider variety of renewable sources. Many energy experts believe that the age of fossil fuels is only an interlude between pre- and post-industrial eras dominated by the use of renewable energy. Read More

The Next President's First Task

An inspiring manifesto from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in April's Vanity Fair. A plan to "abolish carbon as an energy source," and replace it with a "decarbonized" economy. Because carbon dependence "is subverting everything we value." Read More

Do Your Share(s)    Back To Top

Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility

ICCR is a thirty-five-year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors including denominations, religious communities, pension funds, healthcare corporations, foundations, asset management companies, colleges, and dioceses. As responsible stewards, they merge social values with investment decisions, believing they must achieve more than an acceptable financial return. ICCR members utilize religious investments and other resources to change unjust or harmful corporate policies, working for peace, economic justice and stewardship of the Earth. Read More

Proxy Voting - An Overview

The term proxy means "written authorization to act in place of another." The proxy statement is the document used by companies seeking approval from shareholders of issues relating to corporate governance, recognizing that most shareholders will be voting remotely "by proxy" rather than in person at each company''s annual meeting. Read More

The CERES Principles

These are a model corporate code of environmental conduct created by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), a coalition of investors, public pension trustees, foundations, labor unions, and environmental, religious, and public interest groups. Read More

Down the Drain    Back To Top

Ditch The Water Bottle

At least 1.5 million barrels of oil are used every year to supply Americans with a basic commodity already available in their homes: water.
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Sewage Pollution Threatens Public Health

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that every year, in each county across the nation, the amount of untreated sewage that enters the environment is enough to fill both the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden" Read More

Water Bottle Facts

Truth is, tap water generally is just as safe, clean, and healthy as bottled water, and in many cases more so.

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Water Quality at U.S. Beaches

How to find out whether state and local authorities test for beach pollution, and what they do if they find it. Read More

Drop by Drop    Back To Top

Environmental Benefits of Water Efficiency

Water efficiency, together with reducing pollutants such as pesticides, can be an effective way to reduce pollution caused by excessive watering and water use. Read More

Water scarcity

America''s demand for water is outpacing supply in many places. Scientists are now as worried about shrinking rivers and dwindling water supplies as they are about water pollution. Unless we change course today, tomorrow might offer insufficient water to sustain healthy rivers and provide for human needs. Read More

Water Use Calculator

How much water are you using at your home? Calculate your water use and get a water budget for the inside and outside of your home. A water budget tells you the right amount of water you should be using. Read More

For The Birds    Back To Top

A Future for Birds

For millennia, birds have inspired people with their colors, songs, and behavior. But an increasing portion of the world’s almost 10,000 bird species, from the largest, the ostrich (Struthio camelus), to the smallest, the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), are suffering declines. Others are extinct or nearly so. The question is: Given the many threats facing feathered creatures, will the bird life of the future closely resemble that of today? Read More

Bye Bye Birdie

The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) reports that tens of millions of birds are disappearing across North America. Watch this video report. Read More

Disappearing Common Birds Send Alarm

Birdsongs that filled the childhoods of countless baby-boomers are rarely heard wafting on today''s spring breezes....Once-familiar avian spectacles now elude young birdwatchers...It''s not your imagination... A new analysis by the National Audubon Society reveals that populations of some of America''s most familiar and beloved birds have taken a nosedive over the past forty years, with some down as much as 80 percent. Read More

For The Birds

A vision of what can happen if bird fans work together. Read More

Go Organic    Back To Top

Fact Sheets: Organics & Organic Labeling

Exactly what is and is not covered by the USDA Organic label, plus other information on certfication and standards. From the National Organic Program (NOP). Read More

Organic Dairy Report & Scorecard

See how your dairy products stack up: rankings from the Conucopia Institute. Read More

Organics 101: A Brief Introduction

The Organic Consumers Association explains, "Excluding the last few decades, organic agriculture has been the only form of agriculture practiced on the planet. Under its simplest definition, organic agriculture is farming without synthetic chemicals." Read More

Shopper's Guide Wallet Card

A list of the "Dirty Dozen" fruits & vegetables with the most pesticide residue—on a handy downloadable card. When you make the switch to organics, start with one or all of these foods. Read More

Sustainable Agriculture: An Introduction

Organic farming is sustainable, but sustainable agriculture isn't necessarily organic; and what about local foods vs mass-produced organics?? A lot of questions. Here are some answers, at least about the farming and the sustainability. Read More

God's Green Earth    Back To Top

Faith Based Sustainability

As a Unitarian Universalist and a liberal religious faith, I'm confident that environmental stewardship is important in my religious community.... But beyond us, within larger religious communities where we often part company on the basis of creed or dogma, a growing stewardship movement appears to herald something of a cosmic shift in mainstream theology. Read More

Inherit The Earth

In the beginning, Christians believe, God created the Earth. And on the sixth day, mankind was created to be a caretaker of it. It's a charge some churches are now taking to heart. Read More

Religion and the Environment

Whether we are actively religious or not, religious belief permeates the very fabric of our existence. Namely, it influences -- if not directly shapes -- our legal systems; and therefore our constitutions; and therefore our nations' policy choices, both at home and abroad. It is then only logical to surmise that religion also influences how we -- individually and collectively -- view our role with regard to protecting the environment. Read More

The Question Is...

Do Congregations Have a Duty to Take Action on Global Warming? Read More

Going, Going...    Back To Top

Endangered Species Where You Live

Learn about some of the most endangered species in your area with this interactive map from Sierra Club. Read More

Extinction Crisis

There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation. Read More

How Quickly Are Animals & Plants Disappearing?

Extinction is as old as life on Earth — about 3.5 billion years — but scientists calculate that we are losing species at a rate of somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural "background" rate of extinction. This means that technically we are going through a period of "mass extinction," the sixth that we know about over the hundreds of millions of years of the fossil record. But unlike the previous five mass extinctions, this one is largely caused by the actions of a single species - Homo sapiens. Read More

The 6 Great Mass Extinctions

There is little doubt left in the minds of professional biologists that Earth is currently faced with a mounting loss of species that threatens to rival the five great mass extinctions of the geological past. Read More

The Web of Life

Today, we know that species are going extinct at an unparalleled rate and that relationships between species are changing because of man-caused actions. How much disruption can the web of life take before a catastrophic shift takes place? Read More

What is Biodiversity?

Scientists estimate that there are between 15 and 100 million species throughout the world. This astonishing diversity supports our own existence, by giving us food, fuel, medicines and other products we need on a daily basis. Biodiversity also helps us by providing "nature services," such as the forests that help clean our air, or the wetlands that clean our water and control floods. Read More

Green Collar Jobs    Back To Top

Green the Law

For the first time in history, a U.S. law addresses both the climate crisis and the poverty crisis by investing in green-collar job training. The Green Jobs Act authorizes $125 million annually for greening the nation''s workforce, enough for training up to 30,000 people every year for jobs in emerging ''green" sectors like the solar and wind industries, green building construction, biofuel production and more. Even more unprecedented, it allocates $25 million for ''green pathways out of poverty," providing targeted resources for low-income individuals who have the greatest need for training and career pathways in the clean energy economy. Read More

The Grass IS Greener after Training

Since 2003, Sustainable South Bronx has trained 70 former drug addicts, welfare recipients and convicts for jobs in landscaping, ecological restoration, green roof installation and hazardous waste cleanup. This group, which is funded through private grants, has helped almost 90% of its graduates find jobs. Read More

The Green Collar Job

Most green-collar jobs are middle-skill jobs requiring more education than high school, but less than a four-year degree -- and are well within reach for lower-skilled and low-income workers as long as they have access to effective training programs and appropriate supports. We must ensure that all green-collar jobs strategies provide opportunities for low-income people to take the first step on a pathway from poverty to economic self-sufficiency. Read More

Greener By the Dozen    Back To Top

Green Purchasing: EPP for Business

Environmentally Preferable Products (EPP) are products or services that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose. Such products or services may include, but are not limited to, those that contain recycled content, minimize waste, conserve energy or water, and reduce the amount of toxics disposed or consumed. Read More

Greening the Office

Clean Air-Cool Planet's office sought to minimize our contribution to the waste stream, support environmentally-responsible companies, and conserve energy and natural resources. We offer the information here to help you in your own efforts at creating healthy, sustainable, "green" spaces. Read More

Harnessing Institutional Procurement

Through their purchases, governments, corporations, universities, and other large institutions wield great influence over the future of our planet. Nearly every purchase an institution makes, from office paper to buildings, has hidden costs for the natural environment and the world's people. Shifting just a portion of institutional spending away from harmful goods and services to more environmentally friendly alternatives can benefit ecosystems and communities around the world as well as save money. Green purchasing can also send a powerful message to the market, showing manufacturers that institutional consumers of all kinds increasingly demand more sustainable options. Read More

San Francisco Chooses EPEAT

Mayor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Directive 08-01 which will measure and reduce the environmental impact of information and communication technology (ICT). Based on the experience of commercial buildings, approximately 20-25% of building energy is attributable to ICT. Because of this impact, ICT has significant potential to enable innovative solutions to the environmental challenges of energy use and can be an effective tool to advance sustainable economic development. Actions called for in this Directive aim to reduce municipal government''s ICT-related greenhouse gas emissions by 24% by 2012. Read More

The Federal Green Purchasing Program

Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE). Yes, it's the government, but then EPP is all about the government. Definitions, standards, and resources galore! Read More

Grow a Green Marketplace    Back To Top

Co-op America's Responsible Shopper

Are you buying from environmentally sound companies? It's hard to know for sure. Get some help from Responsible Shopper, Co-op America's database, which alerts the public to the social and environmental impact of major corporations, and provides opportunities for consumers and investors to vote with their dollars for change.
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How Can You Tell if it's Greenwash?

Are all green marketing claims lies? Some help from Joel Makower, a green consumer expert, on telling what's really green from what's phoney. Read More

Live Consciously

What you do matters. It's just that some things matter more than others. Sometimes it's hard to figure out just what to do—the marketplace offers a dizzying array of choices, and when it comes to environmentally and socially responsible products, we often have to make comparisons based on incomplete information. Get help by learning how to be a Conscious Consumer from the Center for a New American Dream. Read More

Six Sins of Greenwashing

"Green-wash (green'wash', -wôsh') - verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service." Here are six ways to find out if marketers are telling the truth about their environmental claims. Read More

What is the Greendex?

You've read the news—everyone wants to be green now. But do you really know how your personal choices are adding up? National Geographic and GlobeScan measured and monitored environmentally sustainable consumption in 14 countries around the world to give people a better idea of how consumers in different countries are doing in taking action to preserve our planet—FYI: Brazil ranked 1st; the U.S. last. Lots of interesting information, plus tools to see how you stack up. Read More

Growing Warmer    Back To Top

Gardener's Guide to Global Warming

Plants across the nation are affected by global warming. You've probably seen that many plants in your backyard are blooming earlier. Global warming will mean that many native and iconic plants may no longer find suitable climate conditions in major portions of their historic range. NWF's Gardener's Guide to Global Warming can tell you if your state tree or flower is affected, how the USDA hardiness zones have changed, and what you can do to fight global warming in your own back yard. Read More

Gardeners Play an Important Role

There are many things you can do in the garden that will help combat this serious and potentially devastating environmental problem caused by our voracious appetite for fossil fuels. Read More

Hardiness Zones Have Changed

Many of the hardiness zone maps that gardeners rely on to identify which plants to choose for their gardens are already being adjusted to account for the impacts of global warming. Read More

Here Comes the Sun    Back To Top

Green Energy Ideas for Your Home

Solar energy comes from the sun. A biology class will tell you that in addition to affecting climate and weather, sunlight provides the energy that sustains most life on earth. It also can be harnessed to provide heating, lighting and electricity. Read More

How Solar Energy Works

Solar energy power from the sun is free and inexhaustible. This vast, clean energy resource represents a viable alternative to the fossil fuels that currently pollute our air and water, threaten our public health, and contribute to global warming. From the Union of Concerned Scientists. Read More

Solar Energy Overview

Solar energy technologies use the sun's energy and light to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry. Learn about the many different uses for solar power here. Read More

Solar Technology FAQ

This is a database related to the four solar technologies: Concentrating Solar Power, Photovoltaics, Solar Heating and Solar Lighting. From the U.S. Dept of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program. Check out their Home Page too for lots of other info on Solar power. Read More

What Is Renewable Energy?

The United States currently relies heavily on coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are nonrenewable, that is, they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally damaging to retrieve. Learn about Renewable Energy resources, like Solar, from this FAQ from ASES. Read More

Home on the Refuge    Back To Top

The Federal Duck Stamp Program

The sale of Duck Stamps has raised more than $700 million that has been used to acquire more than 5.2 million acres of habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Read More

Urban Sprawl

Sprawling human settlements -- rapidly growing, low density, automobile-dependent communities that consume land beyond the edges of existing towns and cities -- typically displace all but the most adaptable species of fish and wildlife. Read More

Wildlife Refuges and Global Warming

Global warming is the single greatest threat imperiling the National Wildlife Refuge system as a whole. Read More

Hook, Line and Sinker    Back To Top

Bottom Trawling

Destructive trawling and dredging nets used for commercial fishing have destroyed and continue to ravage entire seafloor environments, which are necessary to conserve, protect and restore healthy oceans and healthy fish populations. Read More

Bycatch

Many fisheries catch fish other than the ones that they target and in many cases these are simply thrown dead or dying back into the sea. In some trawl fisheries for shrimp, the discard may be 90 percent of the catch. Read More

Gillnetting

Starting in the mid 1970's monofilament drift gillnets have been used commercially to catch pelagic fish along the west coast of Baja and the Sea of Cortez. These nets, indiscriminate and destructive, kill an enormous amount of bycatch along with the targeted species. Read More

It's a Plastic World    Back To Top

Bioplastics Could Capture 30% of Market

According to a new market study, the bioplastics market is achieving a fast growth of 8 to 10% per year. Read More

Facts on Plastic

From Modbury, South Devon, "Britain's first plastic bag free town" an exhaustive collection of videos, facts, weblinks and photos about plastic and its hazardous effects on the environment. Read More

Sustainable Plastics

The impact of 40 years of unbridled plastics production, use, and disposal on the environment and public health is now becoming well known and documented. Petro-plastics (plastics made from fossil fuels) are non-renewable. With few exceptions, they are nonbiodegradable with devastating affects on ocean life. Many petro-plastics impact human health. The three worst polymers are polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl), polystyrene (known by its trade name styrofoam), and polycarbonate (think Nalgene water bottles). See Figure 1. The recycling outlook for conventional plastics is bleak and they are the fastest growing part of the waste stream and among the most expensive discarded material to manage. This is good news for bioplastics, many of which can be composted in properly managed facilities. And composting is on the rise in the U.S. While plastics recycling has stagnated, the portion of U.S. yard trimmings composted has increased from 12% in 1990 to 56.3% in 2003. Read More

What and Who In Compostable Products

Demand for sustainable packaging, established standards for compostability and biodegradability, and increasing number of organics diversion programs are driving demand for compostable products. Read More

Make New Dirt    Back To Top

How Landfills work.

Community refuse disposal areas are nearly as old as public waste management itself. Read More

How to make compost

Most gardeners have long understood the value of this rich, dark, earthy material in improving the soil and creating a healthful environment for plants. Understanding how to make and use compost is in the public interest, as the problem of waste disposal climbs toward a crisis level. Read More

The Good Dirt

Composting made simple Read More

The Thin Brown Line

On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil -- the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth. Read More

Over The Top    Back To Top

A Picture's Worth 1000 Words

Mountaintop removal mining is destroying Appalachia. Here you can see the pictures that show how this destructive form of mining is killing the culture, communities, streams, mountains and forests of this unique region. Read More

King Coal Pillages Beautiful Land

From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: In May 2002 I flew over the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia. From the air, I came face to face with one, but only one, of the enormous costs we pay for our nation''s dependence on coal. Leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives-this is the coal truth. Half of our electricity comes from coal. In the Appalachian chain, ancient mountains are dismantled through a form of strip mining called mountaintop removal. We're cutting down these historic landscapes-where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed and that are the source of America's values and culture-with giant machines called draglines. These behemoths stand 22 stories, cost half a billion dollars, and practically dispense with the need for human labor. Read More

Moving Mountains

Not since the glaciers pushed toward these ridgelines a million years ago have the Appalachian Mountains been as threatened as they are today. But the coal-extraction process decimating this landscape, known as mountaintop removal, has generated little press beyond the region. The problem, in many ways, is one of perspective. From interstates and lowlands, where most communities are clustered, one simply doesn't see what is happening up there. Only from the air can you fully grasp the magnitude of the devastation. If you were to board, say, a small prop plane at Zeb Mountain, Tennessee, and follow the spine of the Appalachian Mountains up through Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, you would be struck not by the beauty of a densely forested range older than the Himalayas, but rather by inescapable images of ecological violence. Near Pine Mountain, Kentucky, you''d see an unfolding series of staggered green hills quickly give way to a wide expanse of gray plateaus pocked with dark craters and huge black ponds filled with a toxic byproduct called coal slurry. The desolation stretches like a long scar up the Kentucky-Virginia line, before eating its way across southern West Virginia. Read More

What is Mountaintop Removal?

Mountaintop removal mining is a form of strip mining in which coal companies use explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1000 feet off the tops of mountains order to reach the coal seams that lie underneath. The resulting millions of tons of waste rock, dirt, and vegetation are then dumped into surrounding valleys, burying miles and miles of streams under piles of rubble hundreds of feet deep. Mountaintop removal mining harms not only aquatic ecosystems and water quality, but also destroys hundreds of acres of healthy forests and fish and wildlife habitat, including habitat of threatened and endangered species, when the tops of mountains are blasted away. Read More

Park it Here    Back To Top

Eden Place Becomes Community Anchor

Standing here at 43rd Place and Steward on the south side of Chicago, the visitor has a panoramic view of the railroad tracks that cut through these neighborhoods, hauling freight noisily from the West Coast to the East Coast. Seven years ago, that visitor would have beheld a 35-year- old illicit dumpsite adjacent to these tracks.... ""I think the words say it straightforward: this was a site that has been lost for 35 years, and we were able to look past that. What we're doing now is sculpting out of this tragedy something that is a thing of beauty, a place of peace and solitude. A lot of the senior citizens, they just like to come and sit and watch the plants grow, they like to watch the children when they're in there learning. Read More

Six Parks We Can All Learn From

People everywhere are searching for ways local parks can better serve their communities. In the pursuit of great parks, here are six places to learn from. Read More

The Benefits of Parks

Green Space in urban areas provides substantial environmental benefits. Trees reduce air pollution and water pollution, they keep cities cooler and they are a more effective and less expensive way to manage stormwater runoff than building systems of concrete sewers and drainage ditches. City parks also produce important social and community development benefits. Read More

The Urban Green

The total area covered by urban parkland in the United States exceeds one million acres, with parks ranging in size from the jewel-like 1.7-acre Post Office Square in Boston to the gargantuan 495,000-acre Chugach State Park in Anchorage. And their usage dwarfs that of the national parks -- the most popular major parks, such as Lincoln Park in Chicago receive upwards of 20 million users each year, and New York's Central Park gets about 25 million visits annually - more than five times as many to the Grand Canyon. Read More

Save the Coral Reefs    Back To Top

Explore the Coral Reef Ecosystem

Learn about Biodiversity and Coral Reefs, Mapping and Monitoring, the Biology of Coral Reefs, Threats to Coral Reefs, and other reef topics from the UN Atlas of Oceans. Read More

Get Up Close & Personal with Reefs

Maybe you can't get to a tropical island and see a reef yourself. But you can watch videos of reefs and conservation efforts on Reef Relief's Video Channel on YouTube. Read More

The Threat of Coral Reef Bleaching

Corals host tiny algae called zooxanthellae that give them their color and a food source. When stressed by excessive heat or cold, many corals expel their algae and "bleach." Corals are very sensitive to temperature changes and thrive within a narrow band of heat and cold: a temperature increase of one degree Celsius (1.8 degree F) can trigger them to bleach. After severe bleaching, they often die. Read More

What are Coral Reefs?

Coral are extremely ancient animals that evolved into reef-building forms over the last 25 million years. Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse regions on Earth. Only tropical rainforests might provide homes for more species of plant and animal life. Even though they cover only a tiny fraction (less than .2%) of the ocean's bottom, coral reefs contain more than 25% of all marine life. Read More

Save the Living River    Back To Top

America's Most Endangered Rivers: 2008 Edition

Every year American Rivers publishes the invaluable America's Most Endangered Rivers™. The 10 most endangered rivers for 2008 include the Rogue River in Oregon, the southwestern Gila River, the Minnesota River, and 7 others. Read the report, and take immediate action to protect these most precious resources. Read More

Celebrating a Living River

Residents of Philadelphia now have a scenic, thriving oasis right in their own back yards, thanks to years of hard work by partners in both the public and private sectors. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being invested to transform Pennypack Creek from a waterway fragmented by a series of obsolete dams to a living, thriving river that is becoming a centerpiece of the community. Read More

Living River Initiative

The Santa Fe [New Mexico] Watershed Association invites your support and participation in reviving the Santa Fe River from the dry ditch that we see today to a flowing, vibrant perennial stream that brings life to our community."" Includes conservation measures, info on the Santa Fe Water Bill check off program, and an explanation of ""environmental flow"" which keeps river water in the river, instead of diverting it to agricultural, industrial, or municipal use. Though this is about one particular local river, it's information should be useful for many other U.S. rivers and their communities. Read More

Restoration Success Stories

From American Rivers, river restoration successes large and small. Read More

Save the Wetlands    Back To Top

Crisis for America's Wetlands

In summary, the good news is that, at least until recently, the overall state of the nation''s wetlands had been improving. The bad news, however, is that every year we are still losing more than 80,000 acres of wetlands that are important to waterfowl and wildlife. The really bad news is that wetland loss has likely accelerated, and we are on the verge of having to watch wetlands disappear from the landscape much more rapidly unless we act now. Let''s take a closer look at what''s going on with the nation''s wetlands. Read More

The Wonders of Wetlands

Wetlands are important, valuable areas we need for a balanced environment. There are waterlogged places all over our world that we label ""wetlands."" Issues about these places are popping up everywhere, in newspapers, on television, and on bumper stickers that show: ""Save the Wetlands"" and ""No Wetlands, No Future!"" What is all the fuss about? Aren't wetlands just bug infested, swampy, smelly, muddy wastelands? Many people throughout history have thought so. But fortunately people now realize and appreciate the value of these natural habitats. Read More

Wetland 101 and A Lot More

Don't get bogged down. Come on inside, muck around and learn something. This on-line course from Environmental Concern has been designed to give you a basic understanding of wetland ecology, types, functions and management. It is the perfect first step for anybody interested in learning more about wetlands. Read More

Wetlands Vital In Natural Disaster

Rebuilding efforts are still underway more than two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed the Gulf Coast. But beyond the homes that are slowly being constructed, crucial coastal wetlands are also being brought back to life. Had these coastal wetlands been preserved before the storms, they could have provided a much-needed buffer during 2005''s Gulf Coast hurricanes, biologists said. Wetlands, saturated with water and plant life, form a transition between the Gulf of Mexico and the mainland. Read More

Save the Whales...Again    Back To Top

Get the Facts on Whales

Whale fact sheets from Greenpeace USA Read More

International Whaling Commission

The International Whaling Commission is the regulatory body established by international treaty in 1946 to both regulate whaling on the high seas and to promote the ""orderly development"" of the whaling industry. In 1985, the IWC imposed a long-term moratorium on commercial whaling. Read More

More About Whaling

Downloadable PDFs from Greenpeace USA on Whale myths, International Whaling Commission, and more. Read More

Protecting Whales from Dangerous Sonar

NRDC steps up the campaign at home and abroad to regulate active sonar systems that harm marine mammals. Read More

Save Your Energy    Back To Top

Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings

Conserving energy is one of the greatest impacts you can have on reducing environmental degradation. Every time you buy a home appliance, tune up your heating system, or replace a burned-out light bulb, you're making a decision that affects the environment. You are probably already aware that most of our biggest environmental problems are directly associated with energy production and use: urban smog, oil spills, acid rain, and global warming, to mention a few. ACEEE's Online Consumer Guide can help you to take energy use into account in your household purchasing and maintenance decisions. Read More

Consumer Tips to Save Money & Energy

Most people think Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency mean the same thing, but they don't. Energy conservation means reducing the level of energy use by turning down a thermostat, or turning off a light, or turning up the temperature of your refrigerator. Energy efficiency means getting the same job done while using less energy. Efficiency is usually done by replacing an older, less efficient appliance with a new one. Tips on both from the Consumer Energy Center of the California Energy Commission. Read More

Energy Efficient Consumer Web Site

Discover energy-saving tips and resources on ASE's consumer web site, which offers you all the information you need to save money, increase comfort, and even reduce pollution through energy efficiency. Read More

Home Energy Briefs

This series of nine guides from Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), describes what the average homeowner can do to save energy. Practical, detailed information presented in an easy-to-understand, downloadable format. Note: you have to register with RMI to download the free guides. Read More

How to Save Energy

What is "energy"? Where does it come from? And how do we pay for it? When you learn the answers to these questions, you can also learn how to live more efficiently in your home. Increase your energy efficiency with these tips and guidelines to saving energy. Read More

Support Fair Trade    Back To Top

Co-op America's Guide to Fair Trade

Everything you want to know about Fair Trade: certified products, advocacy, the marketplace, etc. in a downloadable guide. Warning: This is a PDF! Read More

Environmental Benefits of Fair Trade

Interactive feature from Transfair USA Read More

Fair Trade Films

Don't feel like reading? A dozen short films you can watch online or off. Read More

Fair Trade Q&A

All the basics from the Fair Trade Resource Network
Read More

Support Sustainable Forestry    Back To Top

Greenwashing in the New Yorker

An ad in the New Yorker shows how easy it is to "greenwash" certification standards for sustainable forest products, as Lloyd Alter, a Toronto-based architect and developer found out. He shares what he discovered in this TreeHugger article. Read More

How Forest Certification Helps the Environment

Forests are more than a symbolic ideal of wilderness, more than quiet places to enjoy nature. Forest ecosystems -- trees, soil, undergrowth, all living things in a forest -- are critical to maintaining life on earth. Read More

Southern Forests

Southern forests are the most biologically diverse in North America and in many cases, the world. Unfortunately, the unique challenge that we face in the South is that 90% of the forests are privately owned and lack any legal protections. Read More

The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon is the largest expanse of tropical rainforest in the world, but it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Since the 1970s, an area of rainforest the size of California has been lost. Most people know that the Amazon is under threat. But few know that today, the principal cause of the Amazon''s destruction is soy. Read More

The Boreal Forest

The forest, named after Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, is threatened by encroaching development. Scientists call the boreal one of the Earth's "lungs"; the other is the Amazon rain forest. Together they "breathe out" oxygen while absorbing millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas thought to contribute to global warming. The forest is coveted by those who want to cut trees, build hydropower dams, mine and develop it, seeking gas and oil. Read More

Target: Zero Waste    Back To Top

The Case for Zero Waste

Waste causes great loss of value and resources. Humans are the only species that create waste. We can learn to identify all types of waste and through their elimination, save money and achieve a more sustainable world. The visionary goal of Zero Waste expresses the need for a closed-loop industrial/societal system. Waste is a sign of inefficiency. Our use of the term Zero Waste includes "Zero Solid Waste", "Zero Hazardous Waste", "Zero Toxics" and "Zero Emissions." Read More

Waste: A Costly One-Way Street

Our current production systems are linear, designed as if there are no limits to our natural resources. Products are born of environmentally-destructive activities such as clearcutting, strip mining and drilling, which result in soil erosion, habitat loss, and severe air, soil, and water contamination. We as taxpayers unwittingly encourage this wasteful and polluting behavior through governmental subsidies at three different stages: (1) When resources are extracted to make the product, financial incentives and tax breaks are given to industries that extract virgin resources. (2) When toxins enter our air and water supplies during the manufacturing process, the taxpayer helps pay to clean up these messes through programs such as the federal Superfund program. (3) At the end of the products'' lives, taxpayers pay again for the cleanup of toxins, which leak into the groundwater from landfills and billow into the air from incinerators. Read More

Zero Waste Systems

This short video explains the basics of Zero Waste. Read More

Teach Your Children    Back To Top

Children's Health

This section provides a sampling of policies that pave the way to protect children's environmental health. These policies can be used as models for creating change in your community. Read More

IAQ Tools for Schools Program

Many schools are old, in poor condition, and may have environmental conditions that inhibit learning and pose risks to the health of children and staff. Read More

Pesticide exposure at schools

Exposure to pesticides at schools has been associated with illnesses among employees and students, although infrequently. Rates of illness from pesticide exposure at schools have been shown to be higher in school staff than in children because staff members are more likely to handle pesticides. Read More

Start at Home

Many of the same toxics and pollutants that threaten kids at school are present in the home too. Use these resources from the Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC) to help make your home safe, clean, and green. Read More

The Cool Cities Campaign    Back To Top

Cool Counties

Cool Counties are leading the way and inspiring other local governments to challenge global warming. The Counties are in every region of the United States and all have unique and diverse challenges. Read More

Global Warming Basics

Cool Cities activists need to have their facts straight. Here's a basic introduction to global warming from Sierra Club. To learn more about global warming, see our 5 Things You Should Know About Global Warming on the Home Page. Read More

Green is Red, White & Blue

Cool Cities are doing their part, but stopping global warming is going to take real steps from all levels of government and the private sector. This TIME Magazine special report lays out the basic framework for where we are, where we need to be, and how we might get there. Read More

Seattle Climate Action Plan

A "greenprint" for a climate-friendly Seattle, the plan calls for new climate protection investments, the formation of diverse and strategic partnerships and action from businesses, government and citizens. Seattle is a great example for any potential Cool City, having beaten Kyoto Protocol targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Read More

U.S. Mayors Protect Climate

In November 2007, America's mayors took center stage in the effort to stop global warming as they gathered in Seattle for a summit to spur local and federal action on climate change. Hosted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Seattle summit was the largest-ever meeting of American mayors devoted solely to climate protection. More than 100 mayors from across the country representing millions of Americans met to discuss the impact of climate change on their communities and the steps cities are taking to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. To date, the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement has been signed by more than 720 U.S. mayors. Read More

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea    Back To Top

Marine Debris

Every year, marine debris injures and kills marine life, interferes with navigation safety, has adverse economic impacts to shipping and coastal industries, and poses a threat to human health. Our oceans and waterways are constantly polluted with a wide variety of marine debris ranging from soda cans and plastic bags to derelict fishing gear and abandoned vessels. Read More

North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It's the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean. Read More

Paper or Plastic? Neither

Warning: after reading this, you might never take a plastic grocery bag again. Great information from Algalita Marine Research on the perils of plastic, especially plastic grocery bags, and the environmental harm they cause—especially in our oceans. Read More

Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea

Watch this video from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation which chronicles the problem of marine debris in our ecosystem. Did you know that 80% of marine debris is land-based and 90% of floating marine debris is plastics? See it up close in this video. Read More

Trashing Our Oceans

The very thing that makes plastic items useful to consumers, their durability and stability, also makes them a problem in marine environments. Around 100 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year of which about 10 percent ends up in the sea. About 20 percent of this is from ships and platforms, the rest from land. Read More

The Law of Nature    Back To Top

Citizen's Guide to ESA

Reading the full text of the ESA can be daunting. Luckily Earthjustice and the Endangered Species Coalition have published a Citizens' Guide to the Endangered Species Act. This color booklet briefly outlines the history of wildlife-preservation efforts in this country, and provides an easy to use breakdown of the law. Download the PDF here. Read More

Critical Habitat & the ESA

In order to protect species, the Endangered Species Act must protect where they live. These geographical areas are known as "critical habitat" and must be designated at the same time as the species is listed. Scientific data and economic impacts are two of the factors that are weighed in designating critical habitat. Learn more about it in these FAQ from Earthjustice. Read More

Endangered Species Act In Depth

The Endangered Species Coaltion explains the history and structure of the ESA, and how it works in practice. A very useful overview. Read More

Endangered Species Where You Live

Learn about some of the most endangered species in your area with this interactive map from Sierra Club. Read More

The ESA and the Law

An article by two lawyers that provides some background information on the Endangered Species Act from a legal perspective, as well as some examples of the ESA in practice. Read More

The ESA Works: 100 Success Stories

The Endangered Species Act is one of the most successful environmental laws in U.S. history and America's foremost tool for protecting biodiversity. Currently, the Act protects more than 1,300 species. Use this interactive map from Center for Biological Diversity to learn about 100 ESA Success Stories, like the Bald Eagle, the Whooping Crane, the Peregrine Falcon, the Grizzly Bear, and the Gray Whale. Read More

Wolves in Danger

The wolf's amazing comeback in the northern Rockies is one of our country's greatest wildlife success stories. But it may be dangerously short-lived now that the federal government has issued a rule that permits wolf killing in the northern Rockies. This heralds the beginning of a larger plan to remove the animals from the Endangered Species List and allow large-scale slaughters of more than 80% of the wolf population. At least 37 wolves have been killed in the northern Rockies since federal delisting took effect. Earthjustice, recognizing that our courts are the best chance to reverse this tragic decision, filed a lawsuit to stop the killing on April 28. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has failed to take into account basic principles of conservation biology, disregarded its own policies, and departed from past practice in delisting the wolf. Read More

The Right Tree in the Right Place    Back To Top

29 Reasons for Planting Trees

If "Alleviating the Greenhouse Effect" (Reason #1) or "Many people enjoy planting and caring for trees simply because they like to see them grow" (Reason #29) aren't enough, here's a list with 27 more reasons. Read More

Benefits of Trees

The benefits of trees can be grouped into social, communal, environmental, and economic categories. Trees and shrubs planted in cities or communities provide beauty and shade, moderate climate, improve air quality, conserve water, and harbor wildlife. And we like having them around us. Read More

Citizen Forester

Founded in 1973 to plant trees and restore the pollution-damaged mountains of Southern California, TreePeople has planted and maintained over 1.5 million trees in the Los Angeles area and pioneered more than 200 tree-planting groups worldwide. Here is a profile of their founder, Andy Lipkis. Read More

Tree Planting In Your Backyard

Advice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). A little dry, as you would expect information from the government to be, but tells you everything you need to know to plant the right tree in the right place. Read More

Why Trees?

With cities as the source of nearly 85% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, city trees play a central role in reducing much of the cause and effects of global warming. We tend not to understand the critical importance of trees in our cities, often thinking of them as decorations. We don’t understand that trees need to be cared for and protected, that we need them in our daily lives, we need them very close by. Here are 22 reasons why planting trees or defending a tree’s standing is good for our communities. Read More

They Paved Paradise    Back To Top

5 Easy Steps to Cleaner Stormwater

From the Salt Lake City Stormwater Coalition: easy things you can do to help. Plus follow the links to FAQs about Stormwater Runnoff Read More

Mimicking Nature to Solve Stormwater Problem

Communities across America are cleaning up their water -- and saving money -- with "low-impact development" - With pictures. Read More

Protecting Waters from Stormwater Pollution

An excellent brochure from Washington state that not only explains the problem of stormwater, but shows some solutions-like vegetative swales and pervious parking lots. Read More

Think Globally, Eat Locally    Back To Top

A Few Tips for Eating Local

These come from one woman's own experience, but are perfect for anyone looking to take up the Eat Local Challenge. Read More

And on Your Left, a Grass-Fed Cow

Bobolink Dairy is about 50 miles northwest of New York City in rural Vernon, New Jersey. Owned by Jonathan and Nina White, it produces artisanal grass-fed cheese and wood-fired bread, plus whey-fed pork and suckled veal -- terms of art that make foodies drool. The Whites sell their products at their farm, through a Web site, and at greenmarkets. But like many savvy farmers these days, they also invite the public to visit the dairy. Agritourists can take an hour-long tour for $5, a five-hour cheese-making workshop for $50, or they can just stop by to pick up a few things for dinner. Read More

Guidelines for Eating Well

It's easy to get confused by all the competition among food: organic, local, grass fed, etc. Here's an easy way to keep it all straight. Read More

How To Buy Local Food

A brief description of all the easy sources for local food: farmer's markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), etc. Read More

Too Much Gas    Back To Top

CAFE Overview

The Energy Policy Conservation Act, enacted into law by Congress in 1975, added Title V, Improving Automotive Efficiency," to the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act and established CAFE standards for passenger cars and light trucks. Read More

Fossil Fuel and Energy Use

Oil, coal, and natural gas are collectively known as fossil fuels. Today, eighty-five percent of all energy produced in the United States comes from burning these fuels. Read More

Gasoline Prices

Frequently Asked Questions Read More

Raising Fuel Economy Standards

Requiring cars to be more fuel-efficient will spur innovation, reduce oil dependence. It used to be that horsepower, cup holders and a moon roof were enough to hook consumers when they walked into a car dealer's showroom. Read More

Turn Up The Heat    Back To Top

It Starts With You

Laurie David is a producer turned global warming activist who has brought us An Inconvenient Truth, the HBO documentary Too Hot Not to Handle, and the comedy special Earth to America. She is also the founder of the Virtual March on global warming. Read More

It's Not Just Hot Air!

Global warming is the most pressing environmental challenge of the 21st century. Because of our reliance on fossil fuels for energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) levels are increasing in the atmosphere and warming the Earth. Without corrective action, a dramatic temperature rise could harm both the Earth''s environment and humans. Read More

Whose Climate Is It, Anyway?

I first encountered lots of young people focused on global warming at the 2005 round of climate-treaty talks in Montreal. Amid the throngs of diplomats and lobbyists and politicians in gray suits were sporadic demonstrations in which dozens of college students and 20-somethings chanted climate-ized versions of John Lennon songs (''All we are saying, is give youth a chance...").... They are pushing an ambitious agenda: freezing carbon dioxide emissions and coal use, cutting the nation''s energy used 20 percent by 2015, and setting the country on a course toward cutting emissions of greenhouse gases 80 percent by 2050. The goals largely mirror those of a new coalition of campaigners called 1Sky. Read More

Up The Creek    Back To Top

Citizen Guide to Stream Restoration

Resources & info from American Rivers Read More

SOS: Save Our Streams

IWLA's Save Our Streams is a national watershed education and outreach program. Since 1969, we have cleaned-up stream corridors, monitored stream health, and restored degraded stream banks. Contact them about joining or starting an SOS group where you live." Read More

Surf Your Watershed

We all live in a watershed - the area that drains to a common waterway, such as a stream, lake, estuary, wetland, aquifer, or even the ocean find yours, and explore it virtually and in person. Read More

Vote for the Earth    Back To Top

'08 On The Record

The League of Conservation Voters' environmental profiles for 2008 Presidential candidates. Responses by the candidates to questions posed by LCV on various environmental topics. Read More

Climate Brain Trust

In June, 2007, Sierra Magazine invited several people to participate in a Climate Exchange roundtable, in which real-world solutions were discussed for stopping global warming. Participants included Al Gore, Senator Barbara Boxer, Carl Pope, Paul Anderson of Duke Energy, and Founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla, now a venture capitalist. Their job would be to come up with a practical agenda for Congress that would stabilize the climate. Read More

Environment High in Personal, Low in Political

Almost everybody claims to care about the environment, but when it comes to voting not many Americans actually do anything about it. A 2005 survey of 800 registered U.S. voters, commissioned by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University, found that 79 percent favor "stronger national standards to protect our land, air and water, with 40 percent strongly favoring them. But only 22 percent allowed their environmental concerns to significantly influence their choice of candidates in federal, state and local elections. Read More

How Green Is Your Candidate?

Interviews and info on the presidential candidates' environmental positions from Grist. Compare the candidates' green positions using a handy chart. And get more in-depth info by reading Grist's interviews with the candidates and checking out fact sheets on their environmental platforms and records. Read More

Political Courage Test

The Political Courage Test is a key component of Project Vote Smart's Voter Self-Defense system. Major leaders of the media, major parties and Project Vote Smart ask candidates one central question: "Are you willing to tell citizens your positions on the issues you will most likely face on their behalf?" The Political Courage Test is administered to all candidates for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative offices. Use it to check out the candidates' positions on the environment. Read More

The Dirty Dozen

LCV's trademark Dirty Dozen program targets members of Congress, regardless of party affiliation, who consistently vote against the environment and are up for re-election in races where we have a serious chance to affect the outcome. Check out the 2008 Dirty Dozen. Read More

Vote 411

A project of the League of Women Voters Education Fund, VOTE411.org is a "one-stop-shop" for election related information. It provides nonpartisan information to the public with both general and state-specific information on the numerous aspects of the election process. Read More

What About Global Warming?

Global Warming is the issue that will define our generation. To that end, the League of Conservation Voters offers this 2008 Presidential Primaries Voter Guide to arm the American people with the information they need to choose our next president and the future of conservation and environmental policy. This voter guide, unlike in years past, will focus on the candidates' plans to address climate change and move America toward a clean, renewable energy future. Read More

We've Got Chemistry    Back To Top

My Chemical Romance

Are dangerous toxins lurking in your everyday products? The health-conscious among us take care to avoid notorious risks such as mercury-laden fish, lead paint and cigarette smoke—all of which contain chemicals proven to do a body bad. But do you ever think twice about the lotion you smear on your face, the can of soda you gulp down or the furniture you nap on? Read More

Superfund Today

The massive undertaking to clean up hazardous waste sites—known as Superfund—has lost both momentum and funding. Communities across America face a daunting threat from hazardous waste sites — some near neighborhoods and schools — 27 years after the federal government launched the landmark Superfund program to wipe out the problem, a Center for Public Integrity investigation found in April, 2007. Read More

The Toxic Cocktail

Governments and industry have failed to control the spread of dangerous chemicals around the globe. So widespread are manmade hazardous chemicals in our environment, in our homes and in the products we use every day, that we are constantly exposed to a cocktail of chemicals. As a result, even our own bodies are contaminated. Read More

Welcome to Solar City    Back To Top

City Strategies: Vote Solar

Cities can pursue several different strategies when it comes to jumpstarting solar energy. Read More

History of Solar Energy

John Perlin provides a historical summary of the 3 major solar energy subjects - photovoltaics, solar thermal, and passive solar architecture. The focus here is on how we have learned to capture sunlight and use it to make electricity, heat water and heat our homes. Read More

State Initiatives: Solar Policy Needs

If solar panels were free and handed out on street corners, what would happen? Unfortunately, not as much as you think. Many states impose significant regulatory barriers to customer self-generation. The solution? We need to re-think the regulatory infrastructure in order to allow for electricity consumers to generate their own clean energy. Read More

Vote Solar on Eco-Talk

Listen to this podcast interview with Adam Browning and JP Ross from the Vote Solar Initiative. Read More

What's Bugging You?    Back To Top

Organic V. Conventional Produce

A University of Washington study analyzed pesticide breakdown products (metabolites) in pre-school aged children and found that children eating organic fruits and vegetables had concentrations of pesticide metabolites six times lower than children eating conventional produce. Read More

Pest Management

Issues surrounding pesticide use have been on the public agenda since the book "Silent Spring" was published in 1962. Read Mo