Monday, 14 Aug 2006

Switch Getters

Industries pull the switch on mercury switches

The steel and auto industries have agreed to pay $2 million each to remove mercury-containing light switches from millions of scrapyard-bound vehicles. The deal will reduce U.S. annual mercury pollution by at least 5 percent over the next 15 years, according to U.S. EPA chief Stephen Johnson. Bully for the U.S., but a wash for the planet: the mercury will be recycled, refined, and likely sold to loosely regulated industries in developing countries. The toxin was phased out of foreign-vehicle lighting systems in 1993 and domestic cars in 2002, but about 67.5 million mercury-containing light switches remain in older vehicles in the U.S. Ten states already have switch-removing programs. The federal deal was negotiated over two years, as struggling U.S. automakers balked; steel companies supported the plan, hoping participation would help them avoid tougher air-pollution regulations. Mercury, as eloquently stated by one scrap-recycling trade grouper, is "pernicious to kids."


Ah, family reunion time, when you get to sit on Uncle Al's knee once more, and check out which of the cousins have turned into strangely hot tweens. (Wait, does that mean Uncle Al thought about you that way? Shudder.) Before you soak up the sights, though, you've got to get there. Today, a reader worries that carpooling with relatives doesn't make sense -- but advice maven Umbra Fisk says that option aunt half-bad.

Won't You Be My Labor?

Immigration crackdown exacerbates organic-farm labor shortage

Organic farmers are desperately struggling to find workers, caught between rising demand and an ever-more-severe labor shortage. More than half of the 1.8 million farmworkers in the U.S. are here illegally, and increased border patrols have reduced the number of immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Service-sector jobs in the city are easy to find, and the work required by organic farms -- pulling up weeds by hand -- is backbreaking. "No one wants to do this work," says California organic ag foreman Eber Diaz. "I've never seen a situation where it was so difficult to find people." Traditional farmers can get by with up to 20 percent fewer workers by wiping out weeds with pesticides, but for organic farmers, it's human labor or nothing. The situation has made immigration reformers out of many organic farmers; they're pushing for a guest worker program like the one currently stalled in D.C. As for actually paying workers what the work is worth, well, what are we, communists?


Jason Wentworth knows from clean. He owns Washboard Eco Laundry in Portland, Maine, where he offers solar-heated water, energy-efficient machines, and earth-friendly suds. As InterActivist this week, Wentworth airs his dirty laundry as he chats with Grist about growing up on an organic farm, dealing with debt to follow his dream, and convincing people to live simpler lives. Send Wentworth your burningest questions by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish his answers to selected questions on Friday.

Pardon Me Boys, Is That the Chattanooga Cough-Cough?

Add diesel locomotives to the list of things killing you

Recently, researchers discovered they'd been a little off in their estimates of how much smog-forming pollution diesel locomotives generate. How off? Turns out by 2030 the trains will be producing about twice what was previously estimated -- 800,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 25,000 tons of soot, according to new estimates. Oops. The railroad folks rush to remind us that diesel locomotives are still three times more fuel efficient than trucks and emit only about a third as much pollution; indeed, greens are among the biggest fans of rail (for freight and passengers alike). But with new, cleaner diesel trucks and buses rolling out to meet strict regulations, rail will surpass their pollution almost twice over by 2030. The U.S. EPA says they're just about ready to release new regs that would reduce smoggy train and ship pollution "on the order of 80 to 90 percent." We're holding our breath. Or we would be, if smog hadn't reduced our lung capacity so much.