As a nation, we consume nearly 5 billion pounds of seafood per year. That’s about $16 billion worth of influence that consumers can hold over the seafood industry, for good or for bad.
To help seafood-lovers make a positive impact with their dollars, several organizations have sorted and distilled the sea of available information into handy references about ocean-friendly species and suppliers.
• Supermarket Scorecard: Greenpeace recently issued its third annual seafood sustainability report card on the performance of 20 U.S. supermarket chains. Unfortunately, none of the supermarkets aced this test -- the highest scorers received only passing grades. Of the largest chains, Whole Foods and Target acheived some of the best scores, while Publix, Winn-Dixie and Trader Joe’s flunked. Greenpeace was so unsatisfied with Trader Joe’s performance that it launched a campaign and website, called Traitor Joe, to protest the company’s unsustainable seafood practices.
What’s good for our bodies is good for the planet – and what’s bad for the planet is bad for our bodies. This week we’re exploring the idea that caring for the earth must include caring for our own health.
National statistics about water and air quality barrage us constantly, but most of us know little about the quality of our local environment. How clean is the drinking water? What’s the quality of the ozone? Much radon in the ground?
For some of these questions, we’d probably just as soon not want the answers. But whether you're an aspiring activist or just curious what conditions you're raising your family in, this often hard-to-find information is good to have.
The EPA's new MyEnvironment tool provides a great range of information about local environmental conditions, from air quality to cancer-risk levels. A system of interactive maps and charts makes it easy to assess the environmental quality of the place you’re living, or a location you’re considering moving to.
Every Wednesday, we review a selection of new and upcoming books addressing a specific aspect of environmentalism. Today we’re recommending books about water.
Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It (by Robert Glennon, $28, Island Press, May 2009): The author, a law professor at the University of Arizona, defines our nation’s underreported water crisis and lists all the crazy ways we’re wasting the resource (specifically calling out that bastion of sin in the middle of the Mojave: Las Vegas) – but also provides solutions, including reclaiming wastewater (in the charmingly named chapter “Shall We Drink Pee?”) and making farmers more water-wise. Glennon takes a subject matter that can be prohibitively academic and manages to present it with mass appeal, even while refraining from dumbing down the issue’s complexity.
Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It (by Elizabeth Royte, $25, Bloomsbury, June 2008): Royte, who’s good at painting characters and bringing us into a scene, writes in first person about her on-the-ground investigations into why and how the bottled water became a multi-billion-dollar industry. She questions companies’ rights to water sources, as well as the safety of tap water. The result is an engaging book that’s likely to leave anyone who reads it feeling uneasy the next time they reach for their Evian.
Pets are such a source of joy; science has proven that having an animal companion provides many physical and psychological benefits. But America’s more than 160 million owned dogs and cats surely impact the environment. This week we’re sharing tips about how to reduce Fido’s and Fluffy’s environmental pawprints.
Do-Gooding Done Wrong: Actress Jessica Alba issued an official apology for vandalizing Oklahoma City buildings with great white shark posters. Ecorazzi
Bags Be Gone: Achim Steiner, the executive director off the United Nations Environment Program, called for a global ban on plastic bags. People's Weekly World and Mongabay
Fighting for Forests: After recent clashes that killed at least 54 people, Peru's parliament voted to suspend the Amazon land laws that were protested by indigenous groups. BBC
Fast and Furious: Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa hinted that his company would debut a hybrid sports car at an auto show this year. Wired
Plastic Problems: New research links bisphenol A to heart arrhythmias and infertility in females. Science News
For the past three years, Greenpeace has been investigating the cattle industry in Brazil, which is not only the chief source of carbon dioxide emissions in that country—and responsible for 80 percent of deforestation in the Amazon—it is also the largest single driver of deforestation anywhere in the world.
The Greenpeace investigation exposed the Brazilian government's complicity in bankrolling the companies responsible for deforestation in the Amazon, as well as several top-name shoe brands—including Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Timberland—whose demand for leather may be supporting cattle ranches that are illegally de-treeing the Amazon.
Eight to 12 hours. That's how long it takes water flushed down the toilet in San Francisco to end up in the bay.
Most of the time, the water undergoes several stages of purification before it gets there, but sometimes, especially during rainy parts of the year, the Bay Area's wastewater treatment plants get overloaded and raw sewage is discharged into the bay. The segment above from KQED's QUEST looks at how the Bay Area's crumbling sewer infrastructure and poor regulation is causing this problem.
Think you are in the clear because you don't live in San Francisco? The problem is huge: The EPA estimates that there are 40,000 "Sanitary Sewer Overflows" every year. To take it out of Orwell-speak, that means raw sewage gets dumped into supposedly clean water sources more than 100 times a day.
Goats at Work: In lieu of lawn mowers, the Maryland State Highway Administration will enlist the help of 40 goats to keep grass clipped near a road bypass that encroaches on endangered turtle habitat. AFP
Parks in Peril: California could lose funding for 220 state parks if recently proposed budget cuts are passed. Treehugger
Under the Sea: An estimated 13 percent of the earth's undiscovered oil may be located north of the Arctic Circle, most likely in the Chukchi Sea near northern Alaska, said U.S. Geological Survey researchers in a recent report. Los Angeles Times
Green Rules: China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Commerce have drafted a set of environmental guidelines for Chinese companies working on overseas projects. Wall Street Journal
Sicko: According to new research, environmental pollution may be correlated with liver disease. Reuters
New EPA head Lisa Jackson is taking another look at the natural gas industry's policy of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fracking involves pumping millions of gallons of water and chemicals into crevices deep in the ground to push out natural gas. Regulation of this process was exempted in 2005 from the Safe Drinking Water Act, leaving frack monitoring up to the states, who lack the EPA's resouces.
