According to the American Bar Association the nation's 6,000 lawyers each use about one ton of paper per year. That's a lot of paper, a lot of trees, a lot of energy used and pollution generated. That's the bad news. The good news is that several state bar associations, including Colorado, Florida, Montana and Tennessee, have rules in effect that require their members to file their documents on white or unbleached recycled paper containing at least 20% post-consumer content. The best news is that California, the most populous and perhaps the most litigious state in the nation, has now followed suit. The Judicial Council of California has just instituted a similar rule for California lawyers. The decision was a result of a petition filed by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, presumably filed on recycled paper.
California recently instituted a new program, notable for its grounding in common sense, to remove heavily polluting cars from the state's freeways and roads.
The target is pre-1982 cars which lack today's sophisticated and effective smog controls. Rather than require costly retrofits California has decided to buy, and retire, these smog-belchers. Under the plan registered owners of functional autos, built before 1982, can receive up to $600.00 for "retiring" their cars. According to a news release from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, "There are approximately 1.5 million qualifying vehicles registered in the four county (Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside) SCAQMD area. These older vehicles can emit 50 to 100 times more pollution per mile than new vehicles and account for a high portion of all mobile emission sources in Southern California."
The program is intended "... to substitute old-car buyback programs for more expensive, traditional trip reduction efforts, such as ride sharing and van pooling."
According to an international consortium of environmental groups, " At least 45 million Americans drink water from systems that at some point contained the same harmful parasite that contributed to 100 deaths and 400,000 illnesses in Milwaukee in 1993..."
In addition, the watchdog group reported that "... more than one in five people drank water that violated federal safety standards in 1993 and 1994 for problems including fecal contamination, lead, radiation, parasites and pesticides."
According to a news release from the US Environmental Protection Agency " Dioxin advisories for waterbodies downstream of US. pulp mills have dropped by more than 50 percent since 1990..."
Dioxin, believed to be one of the most toxic substances known to science is a by-product of pulp and paper manufacturing. Discharges into rivers, streams and nearshore ocean environments, have resulted in advisories against eating fish and shellfish caught in these polluted waters.
However, process improvements undertaken by the pulp and paper industry, including the increased use of chlorine dioxide as a bleaching agent, have, according to an industry spokesperson, "... reduced dioxin emissions to non-detect levels at 90 percent of US. pulp mills..."
A family in normally gray, cool and overcast Oxford, England has confounded the experts and created a totally solar-powered lifestyle. Architect Sue Roaf and her two sons live in a home powered by 48 rooftop photovoltaic panels which generate all the needed electrical power. They are supplemented by 4 large solar- thermic panels which heat water. The walls, floors and roof are super-insulated. Triple glazed windows keep heat from escaping so that sunlight, cooking heat and even body warmth are absorbed and re-used. The Roafs travel in a 3-seat electric car.
On most days, according to Roaf, the house generates more electricity than it needs. This excess power is sold to the local power company. On the other hand, there are also cloudy days when the Roafs need to tap into the commercial grid.
Overall, Roaf likes the economic aspects of her sun-powered lifestyle. "Although the initial outlay is greater than for a conventional house," she said, "this one is designed to last at least 100 years. Depending on electricity prices we could recoup our costs in anything from 16 to 60 years."
When air pollution rises so do human deaths. This is the conclusion of researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Their study involved examining data from Philadelphia; Utah Valley; St. Louis, Mo.; Eastern Tennessee; Birmingham, Ala.; and Santa Clara County, Ca.
Principal investigator Jonathan Samet, MD, chairman, epidemiology, Hopkins School of Public Health said, "The evidence shows a clear effect of air pollution on mortality; the linkage to a specific pollutant is more difficult." Samet also said that this study confirmed earlier studies showing that there are more deaths on days when the air pollution indexes increase.
According to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), newspaper recycling in the US has doubled in the past decade. Last year Americans recycled 7.6 million tons of newsprint, up from 3.8 million tons in 1984. NAA also reported that 70% of Americans say they recycle newspapers. Over 25% of the people polled said they recycled because of "concern for the environment." The next highest response, at 14% is because recycling is "the right thing to do."