pollution

Printer companies are under attack as more people become concerned about global warming and toxic pollution.

The solution? "Printer Vendors Need to Greenwash Their Image."

That unfortunate headline was the theme of an e-mail newsletter this morning from Lyra Research, a well-respected firm that tracks the digital imaging industry.

Apparently the writer didn't realize or care that "greenwashing" is a negative term. It describes how companies aiming to appeal to treehuggers are painting a green face, without necessarily cleaning up their act.

Picky consumers detest this trend, which makes it nearly impossible to tell which … Read more

An environmental group on Wednesday named the world's worst-polluted areas, and Asia dominated the list.

The 10 most polluted places span seven countries and affect the health of roughly 12 million people, according to the U.S.-based environmental group Blacksmith Institute, which worked with the Green Cross Switzerland to formulate its 2007 list. Among the sites in Asia were: Linfen, China; Tianjin, China; Sukinda, India; and Vapi, India.

The industrial city of Tianjin accounts for more than half of China's lead production; and according to Blacksmith, more than half the country's total output of pollution. In … Read more

Carbon footprint, energy use, green tech: some phrases that won't be going away. From gasoline prices to global warming, we're likely to become more aware of what energy we burn up, just as most of us now have some sense of whether we're eating wisely (or not).

Just today the Live Earth concert folks e-mailed me a link to their carbon calculator. This one walks you through several pages of simple questions about how you live, and especially how you travel. This calculator was built by Earthlab.org. They want to know the size of your dwelling, … Read more

China is now No. 1. Not just in population. Nor just in economic growth among major nations. Not just in construction cranes or the building of coal-burning power plants. It's now the reigning champ of CO2 emissions. Despite the best efforts of numerous American utility companies and widespread use of air conditioning, SUVs and our own splurge in coal-burning, the United States has sunk to No. 2 in the CO2 derby.

The first to declare China the CO2 champ is the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Its estimates today show China put out 6,200 million tons of CO2 last … Read more

Nashville is hundreds of miles from the nearest forest fires. Recently smoke levels there were 20 times normal. Health officials in the southeastern U.S. can now look at maps showing where the smoke is, and where it's going.

This smoke forecasting is being done by the Center for Forest Disturbance Science in Athens, Ga. Both hourly forecast updates and daily peak values of smoke concentrations are available on the Internet.

The 6-week-old fires have burned a half-million acres. And they're still outta control. These fires are a record for Georgia. That's sparked debate over lack of … Read more

Carbon dioxide is known to be one of the greenhouse gases that can cause the Earth's atmosphere to retain heat. Today, two new scientific studies have been released that offer more insight into carbon and its dispersal into the air as carbon dioxide.

First, from Australia's CSIRO, the national science agency, comes a study on carbon contained within tropical forests that is thus not available to be released as CO2. This study says the current deforestation rate in the tropics releases 1.5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually--about one-fifth of all carbon emissions caused … Read more

It may sound somewhat Orwellian, but people may be more open to this dashboard-mounted pollution monitor nowadays, especially if they've seen An Inconvenient Truth.

Japan-based Hino has developed the "DriveMaster Pro," which tracks a car's performance and compares it with the Japanese government's environmental recommendations. Akihabara News says the device, which uses an "ingenious array of sensors placed in your car," will "visually and verbally" indicate when driving patterns appear to counter anti-pollution guidelines. (It sounds a little like that talking radar detector.)

As useful as these gadgets may be, we'… Read more

Yes, we know. We're tired of iPod accessories too. But this one cries out for attention--literally.

A new G-Tech messenger bag has a built-in speaker for external sound, as well as the requisite sewn-in controls sported by so many other iPod couture items, according to Gizmag. Depending on where you stand on the ubiquitous music device, this is either good or bad. We're agnostic toward the iPod itself, but we're certainly not wild about the bag's noise potential. (It also comes in a generic MP3 version, which we assume would be just as irritating.) Sound Guy, … Read more