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Author |
Published |
Section |
The agricultural lobby vs. the public interest, part 5435
Factory farms fight to avoid reporting on toxic emissions |
Jason D Scorse |
26 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This article in the WaPo shows yet again how insidious the agricultural lobby in this country is, and how we need leadership that will take it on. This time it's the factory farms fighting laws that mandate that they provide information on their emission of toxic gases (from animal waste). Breaking the power of the agricultural lobby should be a top priority for the environmental community; at every turn it fights for corporate welfare and against environmental progre ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, air pollution, industrial ag, lobbying, politics, waste (all these topics) |
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Meat Wagon: Cow-feed misdeeds
More trouble with ethanol waste as cow chow |
Tom Philpott |
25 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. Remember the good old days, when gigantic meat and dairy producers stuffed cows into feedlots and fed them corn? Sure, cows evolved to eat grass, and corn wears out their livers (and makes their digestive tracts friendly to E. coli 0157, a strain harmless to cows but deadly to humans).Yet we may soon look back fondly on those days. The government-mandated spike in ethanol production has made corn ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, food, waste (all these topics) |
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Take It Back! No, You Take It Back!
NYC mayor says he'll veto an electronics-recycling bill |
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19 Feb 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 1:42 PM on 19 Feb 2008 The New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a bill last Wednesday that would require electronics manufacturers to take back products for recycling. But on Friday, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he'll veto it -- and that if his veto is overridden, he'll choose not to enforce the law. The council estimates that more than 25,000 tons of TVs, computers, cameras, and oth ... |
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| Topics: business, local politics, New York City, news, politics, recycling, waste (all these topics) |
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Scrambling to Go Green
Cadbury eggs will come with less packaging |
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19 Feb 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:16 AM on 19 Feb 2008 Cadbury Schweppes, the maker of the Easter season's omnipresent sugar-yolk-in-a-chocolate-shell, has unveiled an alleged "eco-egg." No, the goopy white innards aren't organic; no, the chocolate isn't fair trade. The "eco" aspect comes merely from the eggs being sold unboxed, reducing packaging waste. So which came first, the greenwashing or the egg? sources: The Guardian, BBC ... |
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| Topics: business, food, greening biz operations, greenwashing, news, waste (all these topics) |
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Journey to the bottom of the Earth
CBS airs final segment of Antarctica series tonight |
Katy Balatero |
13 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| CBS has been televising a series this week on climate change impacts in Antarctica. Monday's broadcast spotlighted how climate change has affected Adelie penguin populations. The segment last night focused on scientific research in Antarctica and what it might mean for our understanding of global warming (see video below). You can tune in tonight at 6:30 pm EST to find out about waste and recycling issues in our least-inhabited continent. |
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| Topics: Antarctica, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, recycling, scientific research, TV, waste, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Take the challenge
Slim down with the 'Waste Diet' |
Kristina & Jason Makansi |
05 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| There are people who talk about reducing, reusing, and recycling -- and then there's Maren Engelmohr. Engelmohr, a St. Louis architect with an impressive set of green credentials, her husband, and her two children are embarking on a year-long 'waste diet,' and are challenging you (and me) to do the same:The Waste Diet is a campaign to encourage people to reduce their Household landfill waste. Our household is committing ourselves to not sending any wa ... |
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| Topics: green living, recycling, waste (all these topics) |
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Making sustainability sexy ...
In Ireland, plastic bags are out of fashion |
Sarah van Schagen |
04 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| By making the unsustainable alternative a faux pas ... In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plast ... |
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| Topics: green living, Ireland, waste (all these topics) |
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Gasoline will be free
Sheryl Crow chats about TP, Rove, and the price of oil |
Sarah van Schagen |
30 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Sheryl Crow talks about the One-Square Scandal: Last spring, you were held up as a parody of environmental correctness when you proposed restricting the use of toilet paper to one square per bathroom visit. What was that about? I think it's a fantastic and eye-opening example of how the media is operated by political figures, of how Karl Rove was humiliated in the media and how, within 24 hours, he was ab ... |
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| Topics: celebrity, energy, gas prices, music, oil, waste (all these topics) |
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GreenPrint now free
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David Roberts |
29 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| GreenPrint, a piece of software that helps individuals and businesses reduce printing waste, is now free. FYI. |
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| Topics: waste (all these topics) |
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Massey watch
W. Va. Supreme Court to get out of bed with Blankenship, reconsider his case |
David Roberts |
29 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A while back, loathsome mountaintop-mining outfit Massey Energy was hit with a $50 million judgment in a West Virginia court, in a ruling that they had illegally driven other area mining companies out of business. They appealed to the W. Va. Supreme Court, which overturned the ruling in a vote of 3-2. Later, pictures turned up of loathsome Massey CEO Don Blankenship vacationing on the French Riviera with W. Va. Supreme Court justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard ... |
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| Topics: business, coal, energy, litigation, shenanigans, waste, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Tastes great, less landfilling
On battling (plastic) bottled-up rage |
Ashley Braun |
23 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| My favorite surprise gift this past Christmas was an aluminum water bottle from my older brother, the family member I'd vote as 'most likely to make fun of me for being an environmentalist.' After all, when I emailed the family my Christmas list with hopes of secondhand books and recycled running gear, he replied saying, 'Please tell me you weren't always this much of a hippie, what the crap is this?' These immortal words preceded his gift of a shiny new aluminum wat ... |
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| Topics: recycling, US EPA, waste (all these topics) |
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How Do You Say
Australia will phase out plastic bags |
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10 Jan 2008 |
News |
| "Plastic Bag" in Australian? Australia will phase out plastic bags Posted at 4:20 PM on 10 Jan 2008 Following in China's footsteps, Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett has announced a goal to phase out plastic bags in the country by the end of 2008. sources: The Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters From the Archives Sub Woofer. Iditarod sled dog race forced to change starting point. How a Bill Becomes a Blah. Richardson drops out of presid ... |
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| Topics: Australia, news, politics, waste (all these topics) |
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Save a tree, hug a Bush
White House to go online with 2009 federal budget |
Kate Sheppard |
10 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| We may never know whether tree-loving or penny-pinching is his primary motivation, but it appears George Bush may finally, actually, maybe be doing something good for the planet: Looking to save $1 million, 20 tons of paper, or close to 500 trees, the White House said today President Bush's 2009 Federal Budget will for the first time be posted online. The E-Budget will be available for downloading at the Office of Management and Budget Web site on Feb. 4. T ... |
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| Topics: economy, politics, waste (all these topics) |
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When the Trash Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie
Streets of Naples fill with garbage, Italian army called in |
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07 Jan 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:41 PM on 07 Jan 2008 The ongoing trash problem in Naples, Italy, has become so bad that the Italian army has been called in to bulldoze piles of rubbish that were blocking entry to city schools. Garbage collection stopped more than two weeks ago, for the simple reason that all of the area dumps are full to overflowing. The city of 2 million creates some 8,000 metric tons of ... |
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| Topics: insanity, Italy, news, waste (all these topics) |
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A season for stuff
Shop till you drop? There's a better way |
Guest author |
18 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This guest essay was contributed by Annie Leonard, the activist and writer behind the new online film The Story of Stuff, which looks at 'all our stuff -- where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.' ----- It's that time of year again. The bells are jingling and the registers are ring-ting-tingling, too. Black Friday has come and gone, and Cyber Monday orders are in the mail. Now we're wasting time in parking-lot traffic jams and long checkout lin ... |
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| Topics: green living, holiday, shopping, waste, consumerism (all these topics) |
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Little shopping bag of horrors
Retailers beef up the packaging |
Maywa Montenegro |
17 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| For Christmas last year, I received an iPod Nano (through which I now get my weekly fix of podcasts from NPR Environment, PRI Living on Earth, and of course, Grist). That the Nano weighs a mere 1.74 oz. and is so slim it easily gets lost in an overstuffed pocket is pretty impressive. Nearly as impressive, however, is that I walked out of the store toting this pygmie player inside an slick, white, matte, double-ply plastic behemoth of a bag, with sturdy woven cords ... |
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| Topics: waste, shopping, consumerism, green living (all these topics) |
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'The Story of Stuff'
Another reason to procrastinate about my Christmas shopping |
Katy Balatero |
11 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| From the producers of 'The Meatrix' and 'Grocery Store Wars' comes 'The Story of Stuff,' a short video about production and consumption, just in time for the holiday shopping binge. Click here for the full movie (sample clip embedded below). |
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| Topics: business, consumerism, green living, recycling, shopping, waste (all these topics) |
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Ethanol and E. coli, part II
Use of distiller grains in livestock rations has exploded |
Tom Philpott |
05 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Yesterday, I posted about how feeding cattle distillers grains -- the leftover from the corn-based ethanol process -- seems to raise the incidence of E. coli 0157. I was a bit vague on precisely how much of the stuff was making it into the livestock-feed supply. Thanks to the indefatigable Ray Wallace, I now know. The answer is: a boatload, and growing. Ray pointed me to an account of a letter sent by the National Corn Growers Association to the USDA. In it, NCGA ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, waste (all these topics) |
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Sea you later
Bycatch is the ugliest thing you never see in the fish market |
Erik Hoffner |
05 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Unwanted fish tossed back into the ocean. Photo: Brian Skerry. Commercial fishing creates a mind-boggling amount of waste, at least 7.3 million tons (PDF) annually of discarded fish ('bycatch') which are either unwanted, illegal to keep, or mangled in the gear. And this number from 2004 is a conservative estimate, not fully accounting for several major fishing countries. Marine photographer Brian Skerry has some very intense imagery that illustrates this ... |
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| Topics: fishing, oceans, waste, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Maybe not such a great idea after all?
Feeding ethanol waste to cows |
Tom Philpott |
04 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Perhaps the most persistent debate around corn ethanol involves its 'net energy balance' -- that is, whether it consumes more energy in production than it delivers as a fuel. Even the studies that credit the fuel with a robust energy balance, like this one from the USDA, acknowledge that it's pretty much a wash unless you account for the "co-product" of the ethanol-making process. The ethanol process consumes only the starch component of corn, leaving behi ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, food, waste (all these topics) |
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Fry, Fry Again
On used cooking oil |
Umbra Fisk |
26 Nov 2007 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, It's always nice to look through cookbooks and to watch cooking shows that feature yummy deep-fried food, and I have often been tempted to try and cook my own creations. However, no one ever seems to mention what they do with the used cooking oil, especially after deep-frying. What is the best way of disposing the oil? I do not want to tip it down the sink, and adding it to compost will suffocate the earthworms. Perhaps it' ... |
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| Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, food, green living, waste (all these topics) |
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Delay of the land
Drastic delays proposed for Hanford Nuclear Reservation cleanup |
Sarah K. Burkhalter |
21 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest post from Gina Barteletti, publications and volunteer coordinator at Heart of America Northwest. ----- The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing to add more deadly, toxic waste to Washington State's Hanford Nuclear Reservation before existing waste is cleaned up. At the same time, DOE is proposing changes to the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), also known as the Hanford Cleanup Agreement, which could add decades to cleanup. DOE has prop ... |
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| Topics: energy, nuclear power, Washington, waste (all these topics) |
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Enviro movie of the year?
A review of The Host |
Kit Stolz |
16 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| What is an environmental movie? Is it a movie that uses the beauty of wilderness to make us fall in love with the earth, as for example Into the Wild, or Brokeback Mountain? Is it a movie that explicitly tackles an environmental issue, such as Erin Brockovich, or The China Syndrome? Or is it a picture that exploits the power of raw film to open up an environmental theme -- such as the risk of radiation -- with sheer imagination, such as (the original) God ... |
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| Topics: movies, toxics, waste, water pollution (all these topics) |
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The River Defiled
Record amount of sewage dumped into China's Yangtze River |
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14 Nov 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 10:09 AM on 14 Nov 2007 Last year, China's state media deemed the Yangtze River "cancerous" with pollution; to stick with the analogy, it appears the cancer has spread, as a record amount of sewage was dumped into the river in 2006. That's 30.5 beeeeeellion tons of (mostly untreated) industrial and human waste, an increase of 3.1 percent over the year before. sources: Xinhua, Agence France-Presse < ... |
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| Topics: China, news, waste, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Getting Trashed
Britain quickly running out of landfill space, says study |
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13 Nov 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 5:18 PM on 13 Nov 2007 The British, who apparently have a penchant for tossing rubbish willy-nilly, may run out of landfill space in a mere nine years, says a new report. Says Paul Bettison of the Local Government Association, which conducted the research, "Britain is the dustbin of Europe, with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than any other country on the continent." Sounds like they're in a h ... |
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| Topics: news, United Kingdom, waste (all these topics) |
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