environment

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Toilet Paper-Plagued Idaho River Finally Flushed Clean
By Phil Villarreal on August 18, 2011 11:15 AM   15 Comments
An Idaho truck mishap that left a river clogged with massive rolls of disintegrating, unprocessed toilet paper has finally been cleaned up after weeks of efforts by clean-up crews. The upper Lochsa River was clogged with the waste, foiling sanitation efforts until recently. More »

(dmuth)

Exxon Mobil Pipeline Leaks Into Yellowstone River
By Phil Villarreal on July 4, 2011 1:30 PM   34 Comments
Ah, nature. Chirping birds, fresh air and oil gushing into rivers. Credit the latter to a leaking pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil. The company says as many as 1,000 barrels of crude have leaked into Montana's Yellowstone River, leaving its mark as far as 10 miles away from the pipeline. More »

(Maulleigh)

Survey: Going Green Is For "Crunchy Granola Hippies"
By Marc Perton on April 29, 2011 2:00 PM   114 Comments
A new study from ad agency OgilvyEarth has found that "Green Rejecters," who rebel against everything from reusable shopping bags to hybrid cars, are more likely to be male than female, and consider going green an expensive indulgence for "crunchy granola hippies or rich elite snobs." More »

(Paxton Holley)

Congress Takes Animal Off Endangered Species List
By Phil Villarreal on April 14, 2011 11:15 AM   53 Comments
Usually the way off the Endangered Species List does not head through legislators, but Congress let the Rocky Mountain wolf off the list, angering environmentalists who believe the reclassification was inappropriate. More »

(donbuciak)

Study: Airplane Contrails Cause More Climate Change Than Carbon Emissions
By Phil Villarreal on March 31, 2011 10:15 AM   123 Comments
A new study contends airplanes leave behind water vapor skywriting that yields frightening messages about the effects flights have on the environment. More »

(Steve Rhodes)

Spill Leaves Gulf Of Mexico Floor Covered By Layer Of Oil, Dead Animals
By Phil Villarreal on February 22, 2011 11:30 AM   50 Comments
Although BP has projected the Gulf of Mexico will recover from last year's oil spill by the end of next year, a University of Georgia professor says a layer of oil and dead animals at the bottom of the gulf could devastate wildlife for years to come. More »

(D.P. Rubino)

Closed For 90 Years, Factory Continues To Contaminate
By Ben Popken on October 25, 2010 4:00 PM   27 Comments
Back in the good ol days of the early 1900's, workers at the Hutchinson KS soda ash plant just dumped waste alkaline on the factory's perimeter, creating piles that stretched for acres. Now closed for 90 years, runoff from the piles is creating an underground chloride plume that is contaminating the groundwater, and a confusion of owners and regulations has stymied clean up efforts. More »

Let's Recycle The Swirling Vortex Of Plastic Garbage Into An Island Utopia
By Ben Popken on July 15, 2010 11:00 AM   43 Comments
The North Pacific Gyre is a giant mass of plastic detritus churning around in the Pacific that isn't going anywhere soon, and its killing off fish and birds. The birds eat it and it fills up their stomach so that they don't have any hunger, and then they die of starvation with their stomachs full of plastic. Now one group has an admittedly far-fetched notion to recycle the plastic on the spot via floating factory ships and use the material to build a floating island utopia. More »

(IBRRC)

Oily Gulf Seafood Will Literally Be Sniff Tested By Expert Smellers
By Meg Marco on May 27, 2010 4:09 PM   27 Comments
Oil from the explosion of Deepwater Horizon is flooding the waters of some of the most productive coastal fishing areas in the world, says ABC News, so how will the FDA ensure that no oily fish make it into the food system? They're gonna smell it. With their noses. More »

(seantoyer)

How To Spot Fakes When Shopping For Green Products
By Chris Walters on May 17, 2010 12:08 PM   11 Comments
If you want to buy environmentally friendly products when you're out shopping, you'll find plenty of options these days. The trouble is that "green," like "organic," is considered a very loose concept by lots of manufacturers. The Chicago Tribune put together a list of ways you can spot the fakes on your next shopping trip. Here's an easy rule of thumb: the words eco, earth, green, friendly, gentle and kind are all frequently used to give the impression of being environmentally friendly, but they're essentially meaningless marketing words. More »

(Martha Kang McGill]

What State Uses The Most Gas?
By Ben Popken on April 27, 2010 2:00 PM   88 Comments
Is your state the gassiest? This graph over at Infrastructurist compares how much each gas each state uses per person. Green is low use, blue is moderate, and red is high. What's interesting is when you look at each state's fuel use per capita, "High-use states like New York actually have low per-capita usage, while states like Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, and North Dakota — all states with smaller populations and large distances required for drivers — have higher than average consumption." More »

Walmart Putting Pressure On Suppliers To Go Green
By Chris Morran on February 26, 2010 11:15 AM   31 Comments
In an effort to de-taint its public image (and cut long-term overhead costs), mega-retailer Walmart has been going "green" for over a decade with eco-friendly changes to its operation. And yesterday the company announced it is asking its suppliers to help them in their latest initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million metric tons in the next five years. More »

(Photo:Scurzuzu)

Target Stops Selling Farmed Salmon. Also, Target Apparently Sells Salmon.
By Meg Marco on January 26, 2010 5:56 PM   58 Comments
Target has announced that, due to love of the planet, they have decided to stop selling farmed salmon. Salmon farms, according to Target's press release, produce "pollution, chemicals, parasites and non-native farmed fish that escape from salmon farms all affect the natural habitat and the native salmon in the surrounding areas." They're switching to "sustainable" wild salmon. More »

TerraSkin, The Paper Made From Rocks
By Ben Popken on December 4, 2009 8:52 AM   54 Comments
Terraskin is a paper that is made entirely from rocks and resin. Its production uses neither trees nor water. The rock mainly comes from construction waste material. The resin is mainly post-industrial recycled material.
Consumers: Adopting Greener Behaviors Or Just Cheap?
By Laura Northrup on October 3, 2009 9:00 PM   71 Comments

—>This month, Consumer Reports is publishing the results of a survey of American adults asking about their adoption of "green" behaviors. Interesting, right? However, we can't help but wonder whether some of these behaviors are more about saving money than saving the planet.  More »

5 Food Tips For A Healthier Planet And Body
By consumerist.com on September 22, 2009 5:02 PM   70 Comments
(Photo: strph)  More »

U.S. Neglecting Clean Water Laws, To Scary Results
By consumerist.com on September 15, 2009 7:58 PM   35 Comments

—>Today's lesson in who Is trying to kill you takes us to municipal water supplies, where violations of the nation's Clean Water Act have now become rampant. According to a harrowing report by the New York Times, polluters have violated the act over a half million times in the last five years, dumping heavy metals (lead, nickel) and other dangerous chemicals into the water, usually without recourse.  More »

Why Store Receipts Keep Getting Longer and Longer
By consumerist.com on September 2, 2009 5:53 PM   120 Comments

—>Ever run to the drug store for a tube of toothpaste and find that your meager purchase results in a receipt the length of War and Peace? Two-foot long receipts are increasingly common these days, as retailers embrace technologies allowing them to microtarget customers. The colossal waste of paper comes at a cost, not only in felled trees but on man hours spent on changing tape and fixing broken printers.  More »

Study: Candles May Contribute To Indoor Air Pollution
By consumerist.com on August 25, 2009 5:56 PM   73 Comments

—>You may want to think twice about covering up that stench in the bathroom by lighting up 25 votives. A new study by researchers at South Carolina State University found that "paraffin-based candles — the most popular kind — emitted toxic chemicals like toluene and benzene."  More »

Attack of the Antibacterial Soaps!
By consumerist.com on August 12, 2009 2:54 PM   117 Comments

—>Triclosan, a chemical widely used in antibacterial soaps, is turning up in dolphins. The agent gets into oceans after traveling from, for instance, your bathroom sink into wastewater streams. Though 90 to 98 percent of the chemical is broken down before it reaches fresh water, even the small percentage that remains becomes significant due to antibacterial soaps' wide use.  More »

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