Consumer and Animal Protections Update The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety forthe 21st Century Act is a new federal law that restricts animal testing and requires regulators to develop technology-based alternatives. It updates the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which insisted non-animal tests be used whenever possible and established a precedent for developing animal-free testing, […]
Stark Mark
Carbon Dioxide Passes Climate-Warming Threshold Record carbon dioxide levels will surpass the symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million (ppm) this year and will likely never fall below it again in our lifetimes, according to a new study published recently in the journal Nature Climate Change. The findings highlight urgent concerns about global efforts to […]
Green Crisis
One in Five Plant Species May Face Extinction A new report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK, has issued the rst comprehensive assessment of plant life, the inaugural State of the World’s Plants, and found that one in ve plants may be at risk of extinction due to invasive species, disease and […]
Future Fuels: U.S. Renewable Energy Surpasses Nuclear
Beginning in 2011, renewable energy production in the United States surpassed nuclear production in overall quantity and percentage. As a percentage of total U.S. energy generation, renewables are steadily, if modestly, gaining. California’s leadership goal targets the utilization of 33 percent renewable energy sources by 2020.
Rocky Topping: Appalachian Residents Oppose Coal Mining Policies
Even though coal mining forms the economic backbone of several Appalachian states, a recent poll reveals overwhelming local resistance to the technique of removing the entire tops of mountains to secure the coal, and then dumping the toxic remains in valleys and streams. Residents are mad enough to make it an election issue.
Going Out Green: New Mortuary Practices Reduce Mercury Pollution
Resomation, Ltd., in Glasgow, Scotland, has invented a new alkaline hydrolysis unit as a green alternative to cremation. Founder Sandy Sullivan plans to install the first one in America at the Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home, in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Fishy Business: Something’s Spawning Gender-Bent Fish
A French study examining wild gudgeon fish that live directly downstream from a pharmaceutical drug manufacturing plant found that up to 80 percent of them exhibited both male and female traits in their sex organs.
Resilient Communities: Volunteerism Remains Strong in America
More than 60 million Americans volunteered 8 billion hours of their services in 2010, holding steady with the previous year, according to the latest report by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), released late last year.
