‘Green roofs’ - rooftops with gardens and vegetation - are becoming more popular in the U.S. according to the American Society of Landscape Architects.  Bejing, also, is seeing more installations.  Germany is apparently a world leader in green rooftops, with 50 sq miles of green roofs, adding 5 additional sq miles to this statistic each year.Â
Green rooftops cool temperatures, […]

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its plan to approve a highly toxic fumigant for strawberries”  The new fumigant, methyl iodide, was intended to replace methyl bromide, which is being phased out under an international treaty because it damages the Earth’s ozone layer.  The state of California has declared methyl iodide to be a […]

‘Activists often struggle to keep projects going and fail to produce the radical transformations they originally envisaged. This lack of breakthrough inclines them (and others) to under-estimate the effect of their ideas. But we found that although their influence is more subtle and beyond their control, it is still hugely significant in many cases’  says […]

A status report by the American Lung Association says that air quality in many parts of the U.S. is better than it was a decade ago.  Much of the improvement is due to decreased pollution by power plants.  (Reuters via ENN 4/28/06)  Although the report indicates there is still much room for improvement, it is […]

Yahoo! has joined the Santa Clara Green Power program.  “Yahoo! now purchases 804,000 kWh of clean renewable energy credits, derived from new wind and solar generation sources in California, equivalent to one quarter the annual output of one large-scale wind turbine.”  Green Power is a voluntary renewable energy program to support energy generated from 100% […]

“There’s been a key change in attitude in the last year,” said James Lyons, an official at GE Global Research, a branch of General Electric Co.
“The culture is shifting,” said Alexander Karsner, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy.
Driven by higher oil prices, wind power is being promoted […]

The Brazilian national oil company has abandoned plans to put a road through the Equadorian Amazon in connection with an oil development site.  Conservation, indigenous, and scientific groups fought the road proposal, which would allow development to penetrate the rainforest area.Â
The article mentions that both the road and a processing facility will now be located outside […]

Avian flu panic has lead some people to say we should cull wild birds who carry the H5N1 virus.  A study by experts in the Netherlands and Sweden, published in the journal Science, says that “there is at present no scientific basis for culling wild birds to control the outbreaks and their spread, and this […]

A newly developed automatic switch senses the amount of daylight in a room and switches off unnecessary lights.  The DaySwitch(TM) is anticipated to reduce lighting energy consumption by 30% by turning off lights when sufficient daylight is available to take the place of electric light.  “The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that lighting accounts for […]

The World Health Organization is going to revise their baby growth chart guidelines to reflect the growth patterns of breast-fed infants.  (BBC 4/24/06)
Current guidelines depict the growth patterns of formula-fed babies, who gain weight earlier and faster than breastfed.  As a consequence, breastfed babies are often improperly judged to be “underweight” by the medical profession.Â
Particularly […]