Environment
"Slow Gardening: A No-Stress Philosophy for All Senses and Seasons" By Felder Rushing (Chelsea Green)
Cruise ships and large commercial vessels will be barred from releasing sewage within three miles of the California coast under a rule signed Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Why give fresh flowers for Valentine's Day, only to know they will soon die. Instead, give an easy-care houseplant that keeps on living and giving.
Food plants have jumped the fence from the kitchen garden.
In an area of Akron, Ohio, that residents don't want disclosed live three colonies of wild, or feral, cats.
When Congress approved the Beach Act in 2000, I was hopeful. The law required the Environmental Protection Agency to develop federal standards for water quality that would protect beach users from pathogen-caused illnesses, and it called for modernizing an outdated approach to measuring beach water quality. I believed it had the potential to make beaches far safer for the nation's swimmers and surfers.
A coalition of environmental and civic groups wants the Great Lakes states and the federal government to spend from $3.5 billion to $9 billion to close off the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal from Lake Michigan.
On the afternoon of Nov. 2, the case of Duke the Cat, described by his alleged victim "as the smartest cat that I've ever seen," ended up in Seattle Municipal Court.
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Monday, Feb. 6:
The combined fury of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee may have drowned much of the region's stink bug population, but scientists are still hesitant to say that homeowners will see fewer of them when the weather warms.
I consider myself a pretty good gardener, a common sense "greenie", and a person who does her best to reduce, reuse, and recycle. But, there's something I must admit. For years now, I've resisted composting. It just seemed a bit too difficult and bit too time-consuming. That's all changed. And, if I can make it work, you can too. Let me help you Do Your Part to keep food scraps out of the garbage and turn them into something quite valuable.
The average American goes to the supermarket twice a week and is exposed to bacteria from a variety of sources - from the grocery cart handle to the melons in the produce aisle. Even when your groceries are safely at home, you still have to contend with food-borne illnesses. More than 70 million people get sick from food-borne illnesses in the U.S. each year, and roughly 5,000 of them die as a result of it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And if you're pregnant, diabetic, HIV-positive or over the age of 65, then it's even more risky for you to sample the grocery store's cheese display or skip the produce bags.
The makers of the popular Brazilian Blowout line of hair-straightening products - which can cost up to $500 per salon treatment - have agreed to change their labeling to warn consumers that the treatments can release formaldehyde gas, which is considered a carcinogen and can cause irritation of the eyes and skin, according to a report from USA Today.
If you're planting a spring garden in the U.S. this year, you may want to set aside some extra seed money. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated its plant hardiness zone map for the first time since 1990, reflecting how some crops are moving north as winter grows warmer.
Dear EarthTalk: I was horrified to read recently that our oceans are actually becoming acidic, that the continued burning of fossil fuels is changing the chemistry of our seas. What's going on?
