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Imagining a closed system within which everything is reusable isn’t too difficult; it’s nature at its finest. What rises from the Earth takes an exact measurement of nutri...
An intimate understanding of the local ecology is necessary for successful agriculture—and it may be important to extend this knowledge to the smallest of lifeforms. Accordi...
The idea of septic systems may conjure up images of muddy, foul-smelling yards and clogged drains. Yet, a house with a properly installed and maintained septic system won’t ...
Their names and faces most likely won’t show up on television, like those on John Walsh’s “America’s Most Wanted” program. They’re not going to be posted on Post O...
"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."
Rather than starting at the beginning of this adage, we as a society have chosen to say the phrase over and over, but then take action on the wor...
Not that long ago, bottled water was all the rage in the US and Europe. It seemed to be the healthy and stylish thing to do: avoiding the vagaries of tap water and instead dro...
After flushing their toilets, most people prefer to ignore what happens next. Yet there are significant environmental issues with standard toilets including transporting waste...
The death of a relationship is the death of its dildos, a gay woman knows. Even straight men know better than to break out that old strap-on with their new paramour. I do not ...
In 1997, researcher Charles Moore discovered an enormous swamp of garbage, roughly twice the size of Texas, floating in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California. Now kn...
"The packaging for a microwavable TV dinner is programmed for a shelf life of maybe six months, a cook time of two minutes and a landfill dead-time of centuries." - David Wann...
Plant material is easy to compost. (See my piece, Composting 101, for step-by-step instructions.) But what to do with protein waste like leftover bones from fish, beef, pork a...
Making compost in your backyard is not time-consuming, unsanitary or difficult. It just takes a bit of education and preparation. Backyard composting not only improves your so...
When does a company that sells plastic toys actually have a lower carbon footprint than a store that sells organic, compostable necessities? When all of the plastic in the t...
For your garden, playground or path, you may be considering rubber mulching, made from recycled tires rather than felled trees. It has several advantages beyond the ecologic...
Mass feedlots and slaughterhouses are inhumane and dangerous—and they generate disease and pollution along with their cheap meat. But corporate agriculture giants are driv...
When I told a friend that I wanted to write something about electronics waste (e-waste), he called me “Sister Mary Margaret,” grumbling that I remind him of the nuns fro...
One summer afternoon, when my nephew Michael was 3 or 4, he came for a visit. We were going to camp out in the backyard that night, but had made no plans for the day.
I live...
The excitement generated by a recent study stating that 90% of petroleum-based plastics can be replaced with plant-based bioplastics is understandable—since it would mean re...
Let me start by saying what sustainability is not. It is not endless consumerism based on the pharmaceutical industry, plastic bags, traffic jams, war, clear cuts, chemicals, ...
During the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, corporate leaders from the planet’s biggest firms were patting each other and themselves on the back for thei...
As a convenient, affordable way to conserve energy and lower electricity bills, compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) have gained increasing popularity. That’s no surprise, ...
In school, your children are surrounded by other kids and that means peer pressure. They want the latest clothes, music, school supplies and electronic gadgets. But there are ...
In a country so polluted that many athletes wore masks while competing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Chinese environmentalist and water-pollution expert Ma Jun has become a...
Walking to work the other day, I suddenly had to stop for a garbage truck that didn't respect my right of way. Sometimes things happen for a reason, like this near-fatal exper...
Tackling the growing global stockpile of artworks and art’s potential drain on the environment, numerous artists are using sustainable materials and methods (often turning r...
Last week, in the journal PLoS One, a group of scientists from the Maryland-based National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases published a new study about ...
Reward or penalty, carrot or stick—which provides the most motivation to recycle household waste?
Recycling programs not only vary from country to country—different loca...
Since the first plastic bottle was recycled in 1977, the United States has steadily grown local access to recycling programs. In 1988, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SP...
Who among us would collect the pills from our neighbors’ medicine cabinets and randomly swallow a handful, or unscrew the top of a shampoo bottle and drink it? Yet with the ...
Turning back the tide of ecological destruction may seem a daunting task, especially when viewed from the perspective of one individual up against multinational corporate gree...
If you dumped my trash onto the floor, you wouldn’t have to fear an encounter with something wet and possibly smelly. That’s because I compost all my kitchen wastes. I’...
I come from a cloth diaper tradition. That’s what my mom put me in. I toilet-trained relatively fast (not something that frequently comes up in polite conversation, granted)...
I had reason to rent a storage locker recently, and in the process of organizing my small but carefully selected book and magazine collection, I came across an old issue of ...
In the early 1980s, bottled water became the new hip craze. Celebrity-studded magazines featured svelte stars toting pedigree brands to advertise the 0-calorie beverage, which...
I’ve been moving for the last year. No, for the last three and a quarter years. At the end of March 2006, I filed for divorce after 24 years of marriage and two then-teenage...
Not all solutions to our clean-water supply problems require enormous and complex man-made engineering endeavors. The water cycle was here on Earth before man, and it has work...
Only one-percent of liquid freshwater is on the surface of the Earth; 99% is underground, held in what are called aquifers, water-bearing rock layers that serve as vast natura...
While new electronics—whether the slimmest notebook or highest-resolution HDTV—create excitement, they also raise environmental issues. Consumer electronics not only add t...
The name of Argentina’s capital city Buenos Aires means “good airs.” But, ironically, there is little good air to be found when pounding the pavement in this otherwise b...
Paper or Plastic? That’s a grocery-store question that has grown long in the tooth of late, at least where I shop. Cashiers automatically jerk open a hanging piece of plasti...
The water on this planet is finite. Even so, although we use it, we never lose it. Rather, water cycles through the environment and returns to us. In one simplified example, w...
I live in a small 210-year-old stone springhouse abutting a vast nature conservancy. A nearby road connects two disparate, more populous areas about five miles apart. During e...
While the infamous Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989, Berlin's less famous walls have never been better. In fact, foam thermal insulation added to the city's buildings is part...
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) stink—literally and figuratively. They are livestock agribusinesses that congregate animals in confined lots where the food is...
If you’ve experienced a natural disaster, you know firsthand about the accompanying loss of life and property. But natural disasters also take their toll on the environment ...
Seems it never rains in Southern California Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before It never rains in California But, girl, don't they warn ya It pours, man, it pours....
Don't buy so much (or any!) wrapping paper this holiday season. There are many alternative ways to decorate the birthday, anniversary, holiday and other presents you pass arou...
Test your eco smarts with this fun and educational eco quiz. (Answers at end.) 1.) When dinosaurs roamed the earth, scientists believe a species became extinct every one thou...
It is important we all do what we can to reduce our negative impact on the environment. Here are a few easy lifestyle changes you can make now to help:
Lower your thermost...
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