Tuesday, 21 Feb 2006

You might like buffalo wings with your beer, or a little fricassee from time to time, but do you think about where your chicken comes from? You will now. Arkansas writer Suzi Parker digs into the dirty secrets of the booming poultry industry, explaining how your love of oven-stuffer roasters is destroying lives and landscapes across the South.

Addicted to Hot Air

Bush hits the road to tout alternative energy technologies

With the American people restless over high home-heating and gasoline prices, President Bush has embarked on a PR tour of electorally important states to promote alternative energy technologies. Yesterday, he touted his plan to increase funding for energy research during visits to solar-panel manufacturer United Solar Ovonic and Johnson Controls, which is researching advanced lithium ion batteries for hybrid cars. (Critics point out that Bush's proposed funding is less than half of what was promised in last year's energy bill.) He reiterated that America is addicted to oil and said, "we've got to do something about it now." (Critics point out that measures that might have more immediate impact -- like a gas tax, or increased CAFE standards -- are not under discussion.) Today, Bush praised workers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., where about three dozen researchers were hastily rehired over the weekend in time for Bush's visit, after having been laid off recently because of budget cuts. (Critics point out that NREL still has a $23 million budget shortfall. Damn critics.)


Looking for a job is a daunting task, and just about everyone -- from life coaches to library books to your Aunt Edna -- has a few tips on how to go about it. But Kevin Doyle of the Environmental Careers Organization says it all boils down to one thing -- just get started already! He shares a few secrets he's learned over the years from mentors and other wise folk to help you jump headfirst into a job that will make both you and the earth happy.

Dipping Alito in the Water

Clean-water cases go before Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will hear two cases with immense consequences for federal clean-water protections this week. Both were brought by Michigan developers who were unable to build on parcels of land when they were denied Clean Water Act permits. The legal challenges amount to a frontal attack on the scope of the CWA; if successful, more than half the streams and wetlands now covered under the CWA could lose federal protection. At issue is the definition of "navigable waters," which the CWA puts under federal jurisdiction. In issuing regulations, the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have interpreted the term broadly, to cover even upstream waters with no hydrologic connection to navigable streams and rivers. Such regulations have been vital to improvements in water quality in recent decades, and even the Bush administration supports the EPA's expansive interpretation. Developers and property-rights groups have long worked to narrow the law's scope. Court watchers are particularly interested in these cases, as they are the first environmental ones to come before the recently realigned Roberts/Alito court.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Remunerate

Eco-entrepreneurs pay people to recycle

What's the best way to get people to recycle? Same way you get them to do anything: pay them for it. Patrick FitzGerald and Ron Gonen founded RecycleBank in 2004 on the notion that economic incentives would motivate recycling more effectively than green principles. Their system rewards households with up to $400 a year in credits to national chain stores based on the weight of the recyclables they generate -- tracked when sanitation crews scan "smart waste" tags in specially supplied recycling bins. In a six-month Philadelphia pilot project involving 2,500 households, recycling rates jumped from 35 to 90 percent in well-off Chestnut Hill, and from 7 to 90 percent in more moderate West Oak Lane. Now RecycleBank has sold its services to several mid-Atlantic and New England municipalities, guaranteeing clients they'll make back the $24 paid per household -- or better -- by averting trash-disposal fees. Slightly cynical, maybe, but hey, we'll take it.