My good friends in the Catskills look forward to turkey hunting season. They shoot only what they can eat and make many delicious meals from one bird. Most of us don't hunt for our Thanksgiving turkey, unless you count as hunting our quest for the perfect bird at farmers’ markets...

A new EPA study, the most comprehensive to date, found 268 persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals--most notably mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and dioxins and furans--in fish from a nationally representative sampling of 500 lakes and reservoirs. Mercury and PCBs were detected in every fish sample in the study,...

Consumer concern, raised by reports that polycarbonate plastic bottles leach a hormone-disrupting chemical, Bisphenol A (BPA), has driven some manufacturers to switch to other types of plastic for making bottles. But polycarbonate plastic bottles and food containers are just one potential source of the BPA in our bodies. BPA...

“Green is the new black” is so 2007. Oscars were won for a film about a slide show about global warming. Demand for hybrid cars outpaced production. Media companies, sports teams, everyone it seemed was turning green, toting thermoses and donning organic tees.

Was it all just a fad?...

The EPA has announced it will set standards to limit mercury emissions from coal- and oil-burning power plants by late 2011, resolving a lawsuit filed by a dozen public health and environmental groups in December of 2008. This is great news. Exposure to mercury, even at low levels, can...

It's been endlessly debated, does recycling make economic sense? In New York City, back in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg proposed cuts to the city's recycling budget, raising questions both here and around the nation as to whether recycling was a cost-effective strategy for dealing with municipal solid waste. Even after the...

Prenatal exposure to combustion byproducts lowers children's IQ, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH). New York City children, exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs,) the research (published in Pediatrics) showed, had full scale and verbal...

There is a debate brewing around the integrity of the term "organic." Much of the controversy is focused on the 5 percent of a USDA-certified organic product that can consist of non-organic substances, provided they are approved by the National Organic Standards Board. That list has grown from 77 to...

Goats eat anything. Sheep, cows and horses aren't bad either. And they're low impact. Which is why this summer the Maryland State Highway Administration is renting a herd of goats and sheep to control invasive weeds in a wetland area. Their delicate hooves have a lighter step than the 7500-pound...

Did you know that farms and food processors are inspected on average once every 10 years? No wonder there are so many instances of food contamination in the U.S., leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands hospitalized each year. Despite the toll, the federal government has shown no willingness to...

There is a new fruit stand on the corner near my home. I think it's terrific, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong there. The cart appeared on the day the New York Times announced a new citywide effort to encourage street vendors to bring fresh vegetables and fruit to...

When the conversation turns to cap and trade, is your first thought: "Oh, that will never work, it's too complicated?" It's true, it can be harder to get one's arms around than a gas tax or even a carbon tax -- who doesn't get taxes, right? -- but cap and...

Rivers in industrial cities, laden with raw sewage and oil-soaked debris, used to catch fire a lot in the early part of the 20th century, and nobody would give them much mind. But when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, attitudes had changed, and "the Mistake by the Lake"...

Forget the tie. How many does a man need, anyway? Give your dad something he'll really appreciate--a good nap and then a trip to the park. "How can I do this?" you say. "I'm just a kid." Do a couple of the weekend chores on his list and, to bring...

According to Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times, the capital "flew into a bit of a tizzy" when your first photographs in the Oval Office showed you jacket-free and not so buttoned-up as the last President. I was tweeting too but not from your casual style but for...

Way to go, Mr. President! You had the beautiful commemorative invitations to the Inauguration printed on FSC certified and 100 percent recycled paper. You hadn't taken office yet and already you were setting a great example of appreciation and respect for our planet's natural resources.

Processing paper from virgin timber...

Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day, and if yours is like most families', it includes a glass of orange juice, a great source of Vitamin C. Few, or so we figured, have ever tipped back their glass of orange deliciousness and wondered about the other...

I miss daylight. It's hard to get up before the sun rises to exercise, or to leave work in the afternoon darkness. One of my favorite celebrations of the year is of the Winter Solstice, which marks, within a few days of each other, both the earliest sunset and the...

Turns out a lot of people, not just Dick Cheney (remember the quote "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but..."?), perceive green consumers as simply upscale do-gooders with enough discretionary income to buy the hybrid car, the organic food products or the high-end play equipment. But when the...