Businesses routinely lobby to avoid heavy burdens from government regulations. But some businesses lobby in favor of regulations that give them a market edge. Environmental regulations are riddled with provisions that are less about saving the planet than about helping a particular industry or special interest. The latest example comes from a business group thatContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
I am a native of Iceland, where the entire economy is based on fishing. I have enjoyed fishing for salmon with a fly rod all my life. As a child, I can remember the rivers of Iceland teeming with fish. Today, we still have some of the best sport salmon fishing in the world,Continue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
People are knowledgeable about the hazards faced by individuals in their age group. It is widely argued that individuals cannot accurately assess the environmental and workplace risks they face .1 One typical claim is that people poorly assess the hazards of dying: They wildly overestimate the likelihood that they will die of lightning strikes orContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
The EcoEnterprises Fund offers a new twist on venture capital by targeting environmentally responsible and conservation-minded businesses. The fund will invest an average of $100,000 to $200,000 in small start-up ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean. The fund, also known as Fondo EcoEmpresas, is a joint effort of the Inter-American Development Bank and theContinue reading "Straw Houses Withstand Huffs And Puffs"
Read more
The EcoEnterprises Fund offers a new twist on venture capital by targeting environmentally responsible and conservation-minded businesses. The fund will invest an average of $100,000 to $200,000 in small start-up ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean. The fund, also known as Fondo EcoEmpresas, is a joint effort of the Inter-American Development Bank and theContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
Last spring, thousands of Brazilian free-tail bats found a home at the New York Mets training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. About the size of a man’s thumb with a wingspread of four inches, these little fellows are harmless, but certainly not tidy. In the evening, they would pour out of the crevices inContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
As many midwestern farm families struggle to make a living off the land, the Jones family of Afton, Iowa, has found a new source of revenue growing in their pastures. For two summers, the family has been picking the flowers off the ragweed plants that flourish in their fields and corrals. The flowers are groundContinue reading "Ragweed To Riches"
Read more
High above West Africa’s Upper Guinean rain forest, tourists on gently swaying walkways stroll cautiously through the forest canopy. It is a nature experience still rare even in the realms of eco-tourism. Kakum National Park, the 140-square-mile preserve where the walkway is located, is home to several endangered species including the forest elephant. It isContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
The picnic table, the park bench and the boardwalk look like wood, but they are actually made from plastic. Impervious to water, salt, oil, chemicals, and insects, the building material comes from chipped and melted milk jugs and detergent bottles. This new use for high-density polyethylene is making profits for outdoor furniture manufacturers and checkingContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
A group of researchers at Japan’s largest car manufacturer are concentrating on designer trees rather than fuel efficiency. This odd turn for Toyota is an effort to develop a new tree with a ravenous appetite for the noxious gases produced by gasoline-powered automobile engines. Since 1991, the company has been working on biology- based methodsContinue reading "Looks Like Wood"
Read more
