E Magazine

E-Mail: earthtalkcolumn@emagazine.com

Web Page: http://www.emagazine.com

Profile: E's EarthTalk, a weekly environmental column syndicated to over 1,000 newspapers and publications, appears every Monday in Blast Magazine.

Posts by earthtalk:

November 17th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: What are “eco-villages?” I’ve heard of one in New York near Ithaca and another one called Arcosanti being built in Arizona.   – Jim Killian, Brookline, MA  
Eco-villages are essentially designed communities intending to be socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. Environmentalist Joan Bokaer developed the vision for the first eco-village, which would eventually be built on [...]

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November 10th, 2008

The November/December 2008 issue of E - The Environmental Magazine (now posted at: www.emagazine.com) takes a skeptical look into the world of high-class luxury green, where compost piles and recycling bins have been replaced with solar-powered yachts and sustainable caviar.
A recent Yale study confirmed what the marketers have long known: Even Americans who describe their [...]

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November 10th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: I understand that Toyota is planning to sell a plug-in Prius that will greatly improve the car’s already impressive fuel efficiency.  Will I be able to convert my older (2006) Prius to make it a plug-in hybrid vehicle? – Albert D. Rich, Kamuela, HI
Toyota is readying a limited [...]

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November 3rd, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: My wife and I drive more than 20,000 miles a year in our recreational vehicle (RV) which gets about seven miles to the gallon, but high fuel prices are eating into our nest egg. Are there more fuel efficient ways to enjoy the RV lifestyle? — Walter Hendricks, Tampa, [...]

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October 20th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: What’s the story with LED light bulbs that are reputed to be even more energy-efficient than compact fluorescents? — Toby Eskridge, Little Rock, AR
Perhaps the ultimate “alternative to the alternative,” the LED (light-emitting diode) light bulb may well dethrone the compact fluorescent (CFL) as king of the green lighting choices. But it has [...]

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October 13th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: What are these “ocean deserts” I’ve been hearing about? Also, didn’t I read that there was a huge mass of plastic bottles floating around somewhere on the ocean surface? – Wally Mattson, Eugene, OR
So-called “ocean deserts” or “dead zones” are oxygen-starved (or “hypoxic”) areas of the ocean. They can occur naturally, or be [...]

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October 6th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: Are there natural headache remedies that can get me off of Tylenol, Advil and other medicines whose side effects can be as bad as or worse than the pain that led me to use them? – Jan Levinson, Portland, ME
Many of us may be too dependent on over-the-counter painkillers to treat the occasional [...]

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September 29th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: Is using nitrogen to inflate my car’s tires really better for the environment than using air? And if so, how? – Roger Mawdsley, Abbotsville, BC 
Whether or not it makes environmental sense to inflate car tires with nitrogen instead of air is a matter of much debate. Proponents of nitrogen say the element is a [...]

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September 22nd, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve suddenly been seeing a lot of those tiny “Smart Cars” around. Who makes them and what is their fuel efficiency? And I’m all for fuel efficiency, but are these cars safe? – David Yu, Bend, OR 
Originally the brainchild of Lebanese-born entrepreneur/inventor Nicolas Hayek of Swatch watch fame, Smart Cars are designed to be [...]

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September 15th, 2008

Dear EarthTalk: How can I measure-and then improve-my overall “carbon footprint?” What are the major areas of one’s daily life that one measures? — Andy Fusco, Passaic, NJ
With global warming dominating so many headlines today, it’s no surprise that many of us are looking to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases [...]

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