By Harriet Blake
In Columbus, Ohio, yesterday Mayor Michael Coleman and his staff biked from their homes to the Ohio Statehouse, jacking up their heart rates and kicking-off the city’s 20-year Bicentennial Bikeways Plan.

Photo: City of Columbus
 
Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman
In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino fought a stiff wind cycling a half mile from City […]

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By John DeFore
If and when the subject of overpopulation crosses their minds, most Americans think of places in Africa and Asia that already have enough people to stretch the limits of natural resources. But few seem to worry about it happening in our own back yard.

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By Barbara Kessler
Earth Day is 38 years old and still going strong. That says something about our nation’s commitment to the environment, or at least the commitment of those who’ve kept conservation issues – clean air, clean water, pure food — on the table all these years.

Photo © 2008 by Kim Komenich | Distributed […]

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Earth Day reverberated around the world on Sunday, with festivals from Tokyo to Barcelona to San Francisco. In the United States, the key urban festivals attracted crowds of thousands as entertainers blasted music in New York City’s Central Park, the Mall in Washington D.C. and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
But while the day was […]

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By Barbara Kessler
Get a little queasy pouring yourself a nice cool glass of potentially mind-altering agua this week? The drinking water investigation by the Associated Press, which found traces of many medicines – including tranquilizers and mood drugs — in water supplies across the country, has apparently left an aftertaste in several quarters.
In response […]

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By John DeFore
Around the country this week, workers are struggling with the fact that, thanks to Daylight Saving time, many of them will be heading to the office before the sun’s even up. Changing our routines twice a year is worth it, though, given how much energy we save — right?
Maybe not, according to […]

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By Bill Marvel
Once upon a time in American cities, if you didn’t have a car you could still go almost anywhere. A network of steel rails and trolley wires laced together downtowns and neighborhoods, and ran far out into the countryside to connect with suburbs.

Photo by Geoffrey Marvel
 
DART trains pull into downtown Plano.
Electric interurbans […]

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By Shermakaye Bass

Austin, Texas, is known for its enthusiastic (some would say vehement) greenness, and these days, at least one arts organization is taking a strong eco-stance.

Photo: The Arthouce at the Jones Center
The Arthouse at the Jones Center is hosting “Fritz Haeg: Attack on the Front Lawn,” a multi-prong installation by the roving American […]

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By John DeFore
Spotted recently on the streets of a left-leaning college town: an “Action Packed Trash Can!” that, unlike the bins we’re used to seeing on Austin’s Drag (Guadalupe Street, alongside the University of Texas campus) wasn’t in danger of spilling over with student debris.
The “Big Belly” can, you see, is a fully enclosed […]

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By Barbara Kessler

People might accuse Texas of being slow on global warming; it is the worst greenhouse gas emitter in the United States. But they can’t say that Lone Star residents don’t recognize pollution when it’s coming at them. A program in North Central Texas called Don’t Choke, Call Smoke that encourages drivers to […]

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By Barbara Kessler
As communities in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Arkansas sift through damage from deadly tornadoes that tore through last night, another town is quietly commemorating its reconstruction after a belly-punch from Mother Nature last year.
On May 4, 2007, 95 percent of the homes and businesses in Greenburg, Kan., were virtually wiped away by […]

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By John DeFore
Environmentalists in Texas aren’t pleased with the way the state handles pollution regulation, and they’re lobbying for change — not in the Austin statehouse, but with those tasked with regulating it at the Environmental Protection Agency.

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