Posts by Lisa Stapleton
A Faustian Bargain
California is considering licensing for agriculture a chemical that a group of highly regarded chemists says they use only with “great precautions to avoid exposure”—even under laboratory conditions.
Lab Rats (Web-only Feature)
Too many kids are exposed to pesticides. How can we gauge when it’s too much?
Splat: City Planners Aren’t Fond of Fruit
Fueled by the “buy-local” food movement, many homeowners are starting to grow their own fruit and vegetables.
Like Father, Like Son
“Methyl iodide is not an ozone depleter, but that’s about the only nice thing you can say about it.”
Tiny Molecules, Big Uncertainties
Nobody knows how to regulate nanotech, but it’s already in your sunscreen.
Eating Arsenic and Old TCE
What’s new and small and eats arsenic and old TCE (trichloroethylene) spills?
Underwater Canaries
“The upwelling is really strong, but the plankton just aren’t there.”
Buying The Ivory Tower
Corporations increasingly own the fruits of research
Greenvesting
As you scan the news — Martha, Enron, Tyco — it’s easy to wonder whether anything good has happened on Wall Street since 2000.
Farmers to Clear the Air
In January, air quality boards across the state began restricting agricultural air pollution under the Clean Air Act, thanks to a group of groundbreaking bills signed into law last fall.
Healing Nature with Nurture
It sounds too good to be true, like a Discovery Channel infomercial: Mushrooms transform devastated, polluted creeks into vital, healthy ecosystems.
Barren Ground
To reduce weedy competition in vineyards, growers regularly spray herbicides like Roundup between the rows of trellised vines. Is Roundup as benign as growers believe?
Catching Drift
Edelmira Alcazar was cooking salsa on the day that people in Earlimart — a California town of about 6,000 in Tulare County — would come to call “el dia de la quimica,” the day of the chemical.
