Monday, 29 Jul 2002

Yeah, Baby

To Marlene Sandberg, "changing diapers" means something different from just putting a clean Huggies on baby. Sandberg, who is Swedish, is working to change not just individual diapers but the whole product. In the mid-1990s, after reading that every Swedish baby produces a half-ton of dirty diapers per year (which then persists in landfills long past when the baby has babies of its own), she left her job as a corporate lawyer to invent an environmentally friendly diaper. Now the company she founded, Naty AB, is making tentative inroads into a highly competitive field, where woman are (oddly) scarce and the competition is entrenched. Her Nature Boy & Girl diapers are more than 70 percent biodegradable, and they are made with less plastic and other synthetics than regular diapers. Some environmentalists have praised her product, while others still have concerns. Cloth-diaper advocate Maeve Murphy of the London-based Women's Environmental Network said, "[T]his is still a single-use product that gets thrown away, and as such, it's a waste of resources."

Give Those Ranchers a Hand

In an unusual shake-up of traditional alliances, ranchers and environmentalists are banding together in Colorado to fight a common enemy: urban sprawl. In Custer County, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, three conservation groups and six ranchers have signed a covenant limiting the kind of development permissible on the land -- no trophy homes, no golf courses, no condominiums. The result? An 11,000-acre swath of green that will ensure that ranchers still have the wide-open lands they need for their cattle, while also guaranteeing that subdivisions and other signs of creeping suburbia will be kept at bay. The Custer County deal is the largest and most ambitious of a recent flurry of alliances between ranchers and enviros in an effort to protect the open spaces of the West.

Zoo Zoo Zooma Zoom

Sure, that little kitten at the animal rescue shelter is cute, but have you ever considered an orangutan? Hopefully not -- but far too many people have, fueling an illegal primate market in Nigeria, the country that conservationists say does the most trade in endangered species on the African continent. The animals are brought to market by poachers, then purchased by affluent customers who want them for public and private zoos worldwide. Along with primates, Nigerian poachers sell other highly endangered animals -- fish eagles, desert foxes, gray parrots. A baby chimp costs about $500, and even extraordinarily rare gorillas can be bought for the right price (about $200,000). Nigeria is a signatory of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but that hasn't stopped traffickers from hawking animals in Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Michigan Seems Like a Nightmare to Me Now

It's about 2,000 miles from Michigan to California -- and about a world away. Linked by market forces (California is the nation's biggest car market, Michigan the nation's biggest car manufacturer) but separated by cultural chasms, the relationship between the two states has always been rocky. Now, in the wake of last week's landmark Golden State legislation to limit carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, the two states are more at odds than ever. "There's more than a little concern among the car companies about how bad the relationship with California has gotten. There needs to be a stand-down, but the more we want to talk, the more radical and out of control they get," said one Detroit industry executive. Meanwhile, many Californians, noting the popularity of gas-guzzling SUVs and the even more profligate Hummers, say it's the industry that's out of control.

Onion Jack

Times are so bad for organic farmers in the United Kingdom that the whole market for organic foods could collapse, according to research published today by the National Farmers Union. According to the data, one in three organic farms in Great Britain is losing money. If there is hope, it lies in the Organic Action Plan for England, a national effort to improve the market for organically grown goods that was also unveiled today. The 21-point plan includes substantial government financial assistance and a commitment from supermarkets to increase British farmers' share of the organic market. The latter is a critical component because, although the demand for organic produce in the U.K. has grown dramatically in recent years, about 70 percent of such produce sold in supermarkets is imported (compared with just 30 percent for conventionally grown produce). That makes the U.K. more dependent on imported organics than any other European country.