Daniel Benjamin

Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles

Now we know what a decade of quotas on Japanese cars cost consumers. In May 1981, with the American auto industry mired in recession, Japanese car makers agreed to limit exports of passenger cars to the United States. This “voluntary export restraint” (VER) program, initially supported by the Reagan administration, allowed only 1.68 million JapaneseContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Straw Houses Withstand Huffs And Puffs

An accountant with a Washington State paper mill was the unlikely inspiration for a new process to produce recycled newsprint. Although the engineers said it couldn’t be done, Carl Simpson suggested replacing woodchips with office paper and telephone directories in order to provide the fiber content needed for newsprint. Steilacoom’s Abitibi Consolidated is now theContinue reading "Straw Houses Withstand Huffs And Puffs"

Linda Platts

Harvest Of Savings

Harvest of Savings An accountant with a Washington State paper mill was the unlikely inspiration for a new process to produce recycled newsprint. Although the engineers said it couldn’t be done, Carl Simpson suggested replacing woodchips with office paper and telephone directories in order to provide the fiber content needed for newsprint. Steilacoom’s Abitibi ConsolidatedContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Linda Platts

Growing Cold

On the island of Hawaii, cold water pumped from 2,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface is creating ideal conditions for agriculture and ocean farming. In 1974, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii began research into cold water technology. Now that technology is being put to commercial use growing organic vegetables, flowers, clams, and oysters. TheContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Linda Platts

Perpetual Prairie

As more and more people move to the country, they are destroying the very thing that they came for wide open spaces. The once vast grasslands of Texas are succumbing to strip malls and ranchettes. In an effort to reverse this trend, Peter Malin is developing 1,000 acres of farmland outside Fort Worth that willContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Linda Platts

Hotel Hogan

The Navajo Reservation that sprawls across the starkly beautiful landscape of northern Arizona and New Mexico attracts thousands of tourists every year. Yet aside from the trading posts and occasional souvenir stands, few tribal members benefit from this wealth of visitors. Many Navajo families continue to live as their ancestors did, herding sheep on remoteContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

James Dunn

At Home in the Suburbs

By James R. Dunn Many environmentalists worry that suburban growth is reducing the diversity of wildlife. The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope recently wrote that urban sprawl “fragments landscapes–and fragmented landscapes are the biggest threat to America’s wildlife heritage” (Pope 1999, 6). This claim may be true in California, but it is not supported in NewContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Pierre Desrochers

The Secret Past of Recycling

Like most people of my generation, I used to believe that recycling began a few decades ago in response to the crisis of energy and environmental degradation (except in the slums of the Third World where it was a means of survival). I had heard of the rag picker, the scavenger at the dump, theContinue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Jonathan Adler

Safe But Sorry

In June, European environmental activists dressed as butterflies protested the possible sale of genetically modified crops. A scientific report had suggested that pollen from such corn could harm caterpillars. Friends of the Earth and Defenders of Wildlife have written President Clinton calling for a ban on so-called “killer corn.” A broad coalition of environmental groups,Continue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"

Robert Thomas, Stacie Thomas

Hunting Alligators

Alligators have long been important to Louisianans for their skins (for belts, shoes, boots, luggage, watch bands, etc.), meat (sauce picante, gumbo, sausage, etc.), and, since the advent of nature-based tourism, as a magnet that draws visitors to the swamps. They have played a major role in our culture: We wear them, we eat them,Continue reading "Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles"