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August 8, 2008

It’s gross, but true: Just about every college student on the planet is guilty of using air fresheners to put off laundry day or sweeten the smell of a musty college dorm room. These days the handy little spray-bottles-of-clean are used to freshen up just about anything, including underarms and that pair of jeans you’ve worn for four days in a row. But masking not-so-fresh smells with yet another smell can hurt more than your social life. Many aerosol refreshers are tainted with toxic phthalates, which have been linked to birth defects and reproductive harm. A 2007 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) study found that the hormone-disrupting compounds in 12 out of 14 common air fresheners and none of these products listed phthalates on their labels. 

This week’s Democratic convention is a carefully choreographed media event: Everything from the balloons and banners to the speeches and celebrity endorsements have been carefully calibrated to play well on an endless loop on cable news. What you won’t see on TV, though, are the behind-the-scenes shenanigans: glitzy lobbyist-funded parties that give industry groups a chance to buy and bank goodwill for the four years ahead.

According to a new report (pdf) by Public Citizen, this year’s party conventions will see lobbyists and corporate donors blow $112 million staging more than 400 parties for lawmakers and their aides. Conveniently, the exact accounts won’t be available until two months after the conventions, right around polling day; still, early reports indicate that energy and extractive-industry groups will be spending big bucks to buy influence over the next two weeks.

A sampler: Utility provider and nuclear-plant operator Xcel Energy will be “sponsoring” the Republican and Democratic conventions to the tune of $1 million apiece; oil giant ConocoPhillips will spend $375,000 to woo Democrats in Denver; Koch Industries, a sprawling conglomerate with petroleum, energy, and chemical interests, will spend $250,000 to win over Republicans in St Paul.

New lobbying laws were supposed to have put an end to this sort of thing; unfortunately, the rules are riddled with loopholes. Lobbyists are barred from hosting parties in honor of a single lawmaker, so instead they’re doubling up and throwing bashes for two or more members of Congress at a time. Some hosts ask for voluntary contributions before wheeling out the DJs in order to get around rules prohibiting free entertainment; others are ducking rules barring anything but finger food with new feats of culinary creativity, sticking toothpicks in hamburgers to transform them into “sliders” or serving colossal canapes on specially designed super-sized spoons.

Other groups are sidestepping ethics rules altogether. Instead of hosting parties, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has spent $2 million buying up advertising space all over Denver to promote the virtues of “clean coal”. The group, loathed by many environmentalists, is also flooding the area around the convention center with “experiential advertising," putting people on street corners to buttonhole convention attendees and hand out maps of Denver along with literature touting the benefits of coal.

The bottom line is that the only people who can really clean up the conventions are the parties themselves. Unfortunately, there’s little sign of that happening. Until a media uproar shamed them into changing tack, the GOP was happily auctioning off rounds of golf with party leaders for $2.5 million a pop. Barack Obama, meanwhile, says he was nominated too late to clean up this year’s convention, although he’s promised to do better if he finds himself running for reelection four years from now.

This year, though, greens simply don’t have the greenbacks to compete with the Olympic-class schmoozing on display at the conventions. And inevitably, once lawmakers head back to Washington, they’ll be far more likely to give their time and attention to those generous, fun-to-know industrial lobbyists than to the broke but well-meaning environmental campaigners hanging around outside the convention hall.

Only 300-400 right whales still swim the waters of the North Atlantic. The species (Eubalaena glacialis) has become so rare that conservationists fear the death of even a single breeding female could put the whale on an unstoppable spiral toward extinction.

The biggest threat to the North Atlantic right whale comes from collisions with shipping vessels. An average of one whale a year is reported killed after colliding with large ships, but it's suspected that this number is actually higher.

To help diminish this threat, conservationists have spent years fighting for rules that would force shipping vessels to slow down in waters populated by the North Atlantic right whale. These efforts culminated in June 2006, when the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed new rules requiring large ships to slow down near key ports in certain times of the year when right whales were likely to be present. These rules were submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in January 2007.

Fast forward 18 months. OMB reviews normally take 90 days, and must be reviewed by law within 120 days. And yet the White House (specifically Dick Cheney's office) held up any decision for well over a year, until a watered-down rule was finally released this week.

The new proposal still requires large ships to reduce their speed to 10 knots in areas known to be populated by North Atlantic right whales, but shrinks the zone to just 23 miles from port. The previous recommendations, heavily supported by scientists, required a 34-mile-wide protection zone. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this new zone covers 83% of all right whale sightings -- not nearly enough to protect the entire species.

The World Shipping Council praises the new rules, but as we wrote back in May, the Chamber of Shipping of America lent its support to the old rules, saying any costs would be "worth the benefits."

The public once again has an opportunity to comment on this new proposal -- even though more than 5,000 comments (PDF) were collected before the previous rules were finalized. And it's obvious that no matter how many more comments come in, Cheney and his team of cronies just won't listen.

Is this the end of the North Atlantic right whale? Sadly, only time will tell.

If you steer clear of synthetic fertilizers and insecticides, compost religiously, and dig up your garden beds by hand, you're certain to have more earthworms than non-organic gardeners will. That's a good thing overall, since earthworm activity naturally loosens and aerates deep layers of the soil, and earthworms make soil nutrients more readily available to your plants. But, earthworms can be troublemakers, too. Turns out they have a lot to do with the tall stands of giant ragweed presently in bloom -- and, by extension, the accompanying hay fever many of us must suffer through.

For more than 10 years, Emilie Regnier, an Ohio State University weed ecologist, has researched the connection between nightcrawler behavior and ragweed's ability to survive -- and even thrive -- despite the fact that the mature plants don't produce many seeds. "Earthworms help ragweed thrive by systematically collecting and burying its seeds in their burrows. In fact, we've found that more than two-thirds of all giant ragweed seedlings emerge from earthworm burrows," Regnier says in a recent news release from the Weed Science Society of America.

Regnier, along with Ohio State's Kent Harrison and entomologist Clive Edwards, discovered that nightcrawlers seek out seeds and carry them deep underground, averaging 127 ragweed seeds per earthworm burrow. That works out to 450 seeds per square foot, so it's no wonder ragweed fares as well as it does. (Unfortunately, when the weed runs rampant, corn and soybean farmers are also hard hit. According to the Weed Society of America, farmers have reported yield losses of up to 75 percent in some cases!)

Researchers still aren't sure just why the worms fuss with all those seeds, but it's possible they're feeding on the seeds' tough exteriors or using them to strengthen their burrow walls. What's more, nightcrawlers inadvertently "farm" more than just giant ragweed. They're fond of several other seed varieties, including the bur cucumber and sunflowers. Still, giant ragweed's primarily to blame for farmers' crop losses and our own runny noses and itchy eyes. So, should you spot any of the plants growing in your garden, try to yank them long before they can set their seed.

On with our hats! Summer, and its burning UV rays, doesn't end till Sept. 21st, so whether you're boating, hiking or beaching, or ,arching back to school or work, don't forget to pack and wear a little sustainable shade.

For babies and toddlers; a cute organic cotton white floppy brimmer from Kidbean.

Organic cotton, wool and recycled hats and visors for the whole family are at  Patagonia, including this trans-seasonal wool blend with a brim:

 Raffia, harvested from palm trees without harming them, is an affordable balmy look.

Groovy slouchy hats of hemp, farmed without pesticides, are yours at Rawganique.

Seagrass, another natural, replenishing material, makes natty at Sun Protective Clothing.

Haut UPF straw hats block 98 percent of UV rays, from Coolibar.

Or DIY a woven lauhala, Hawaiian style .