Chemistry for a sustainable world

Green issues are sometimes complex. We need to recycle many things, like electronics, but we certainly don’t want to poison others in the process. Efforts to protect the environment and conserve valuable resources must be coupled with proper health and safety procedures. Unfortunately, just saying this doesn’t make it happen. Developing countries are becoming a dumping ground for much toxic waste and proper environmental health and safety is being ignored, both by local opportunists and suppliers of e-Waste from developed nations.

Earth Hour was reported by much of the press, and Associated Press writer CARYN ROUSSEAU published
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THE HOUR IS NEAR!
This information came to me by email because I signed up and committed to Earth Hour 2008, which is fast approaching. Since the message emphasizes getting the word out, and since it is written so well, I’ve reproduced a portion of it here. The full message can be found [...]

The world-wide Earth Hour movement takes place on March 29, 8-9 pm local time: turn off your lights for one hour to make a statement about the power of conservation and activism to help the environment.
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Energy conservation is on nearly everyone’s mind these days, and people are looking for ways to make a statement about their commitment to the environment.  With just three weeks left until Earth Hour 08, 8-9 pm on March 29, a wide array of companies, cities and other organizations from around the world have signed on [...]

Staples Inc., the world’s largest office-supplies retailer, ended its contracts with Asia Pulp & Paper Co. because of its environmental practices. As reported by Heather Burke for Bloomberg.com,
“The retailer stopped its 11-year relationship with Asia Pulp in late January, spokesman Owen Davis wrote in an e-mail today. Staples got about 5 percent of its paper [...]

Affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour 2008 will be held at 8 pm on the 29 of March, 2008. People and groups around the world, including cities and companies and schools, will turn their lights out for one hour. This is a global version of an event started in Sydney, [...]

As reported by environmentalgraffiti.com,
“London already charges a tax, known as a congestion charge, on almost all vehicles that enter central and parts of west London. Certain vehicles, such as those hybrids or eco-friendly fuel cars are exempt. Livingstone’s most recent announcement, however, vastly increases the charge for the highest polluting vehicles.”
I think that a big [...]

As reported by Robert Booth of The Guardian:
“Groups who attempt to raise money for charity by climbing the highest mountains in England, Wales, and Scotland in one day are blamed for causing environmental havoc … on the three peaks.”
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Two wrongs don’t make “a right”, and neither do 200. This is [...]

“Minimizing waste, pollution, and natural resource depletion does not represent a strategy for long-term success; it simply makes the current destructive system sustainable.”
Mr. McDonough addresses issues from biodiversity to specific sustainability approaches in China. He distinguishes efficiency and diversity in nature from those qualities in man-made materials, and describes textiles now “clean enough [...]