Here is a list of 10 items, or categories, that need to be cleaned regularly and are often neglected:Those wonderful green, reusable shopping bags which, if we do not wash them every other month or so, can be teeming with bacteria. I throw mine in th...

According to a study, Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings, some Americans do not have a clear idea about how to make a real difference in their energy consumption.Twenty percent of the people polled voted for measures like turning of...

Statoil, Norway’s largest energy company, plans to build a demonstration site to test its “floating” offshore wind turbines. This move is based upon the success of their 2.3-megawatt prototype floating 10 kilometers offshore at Karm...

September is right around the corner, and the yearly ritual of back-to-school shopping has already begun. School supplies run the gamut from the utilitarian to the ridiculous and, oftentimes, the toxic. Here is some basic advice about shopping for an...

Once again, we are living in a great age for canning. Not since the "Of Course I Can!" poster days of World War II has there been such a broad nationwide campaign in favor of canning. Home canning then was a natural outgrowth of Victory Garden initia...

A host of tiny microbe managers have taken up the cleanup effort in the Gulf of Mexico. According to an Article in The New York Times, hoards of heroic hydrocarbon-chewing microbes, like Alcanivorax borkumensis, are showing up on the scene. These mic...

On the fringes of what was once touted as the "Paris of the West," "Motor City" and "Motown," Detroit's outlying areas have long suffered from profound vacancy issues.  Contrasted with the city's burgeoning downtown renaissance, this vast patchw...

These are some mighty dark days for oil. In the wake of the still unfolding BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, news of another massive oil spill in the U.S. is mighty bad news indeed--bad news for residents, bad news for wildlife, bad news for air qu...

My neighbor's barn loft was once host to more than 3,000 bats. At dusk they would swarm out in a great river, riding low over the fields to feed, then disperse upward to capture high flying insects. It was always an awesome sight. Bats are such beaut...

If there was ever an element that needed defending, it is the element of water. These days, our oceans are particularly at risk. For too long we have functioned under the "out of sight, out of mind" principle, dumping and polluting their vastness wit...