Larry's Environmental Issues Blog January 2008 Archive

Urban heat islands are just what they sound like: hotter-than-average areas in cities that are surrounded by cooler suburbs and rural areas. But what causes heat islands? Are they connected ... Read More

Dissecting frogs and other creatures has been a standard teaching practice in science classes for generations, but collecting amphibians, birds and other animals for dissection puts added pressure on species ... Read More

In his final State of the Union address Monday night, President George W. Bush devoted only 11 sentences to energy and the environment—and didn’t say anything new. In place of much-need ... Read More

Can aquaculture bridge the gap between the world's dwindling wild fish populations and the growing demand for seafood? Many scientists believe aquaculture could be an important source of food in ... Read More

Maybe you've heard the term "carbon sequestration" in connection with climate change and global warming. Maybe you've wondered what carbon sequestration means and how it can help reduce global warming. ... Read More

More than half the world’s population—about 3 billion people—cook their meals with wood, dung, coal and other solid fuels over open fires or on primitive stoves inside their homes, and ... Read More

Is America doing enough to educate its children about the environment? Congress declared environmental education a national priority in 1990, but since then has failed to provide sufficient funding for ... Read More

Tens of thousands of horses are slaughtered every year in the United States and Canada, and the meat is either exported to Europe and Asia or fed to zoo animals ... Read More

On Martin Luther King Day, Americans celebrate the life and vision of the late civil rights leader who has inspired generations of people to work toward a society characterized by ... Read More

Taking the Earth’s temperature is apparently as much art as science. Depending on which data are used and how they are compared and interpreted, intelligent, well-intentioned and highly credentialed people ... Read More

The question of whether cloned animals should be kept out of the food chain made big news this week, and Bush administration officials came down firmly on both sides of ... Read More

The tally is done and scientists agree: 2007 is the second warmest year on record. Last year was second only to 2005 and it joins the ranks of chart-topping years ... Read More

People in Sweden know about body heat. How do you think they get through those long, cold Scandinavian winters? But now a Swedish company has come up with a really ... Read More

Today's worldwide human population of 6.6 billion is expected to grow to more than 9 billion by 2050. And with each new person added to the total population, the competition ... Read More

In a move that surprised many consumers and businesses, the Chinese government has banned the production, sale and use of thin plastic bags (those under 0.025 mm thick), and has ... Read More

Soccer superstar David Beckham has earned yet another distinction that sets him apart from mere mortals—but this time not in a good way. It turns out Beckham has the world’s ... Read More

Since 2002, production of photovoltaic solar cells has been doubling every two years, making photovoltaics the world's fastest growing energy source. Last year, in 2007, photovoltaic production took another leap ... Read More

California wasted no time in suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the agency’s refusal to approve the state’s plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and other vehicles. ... Read More

As more and more people use cell phones, even replacing their land lines in favor of the mobile gadgets, are they exposing themselves to a form of low-frequency radiation that ... Read More