ENVIRONMENT LINKS Problems and Topics Home Environment Links UPDATED December 12, 2005

This page is dedicated to web resources that address specific environmental topics. Please feel free to suggest other sites by sending e-mail to me at jhayesboh@bridgew.edu .

General Sites

Toxics

The Breast Cancer Fund has become increasingly interested in the environmental causes of cancer. Its web site includes information about Rachel's Daughters, a film and action guide about the search for causes of breast cancer. It also includes a long list of articles and testimony about the links between cancer and the environment. The Silent Spring Institute also does research on women's health and the environment. Both organizations take their names from the important work of Rachel Carson in educating the public about the hazards of toxic chemicals, especially chlorinated hydrocarbons, in her 1962 book Silent Spring. Learn about this important work and its implications on the Rachel Carson page at onlineethics.org.

Fighting for a safer environment at home, in the community and at work, the Cancer Prevention Coalition is a unique nationwide coalition of experts in cancer prevention and public health, together with citizen activists and representatives of organized labor, public interest, environmental and women's health groups. Its goal is to reduce escalating cancer rates through a comprehensive strategy of outreach, public education, advocacy and public policy initiatives to establish prevention as the nation's foremost cancer policy. The web site includes research on environmental and other preventable causes of cancer.

Besides Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the tragedy of Love Canal was an important event helping society to understand the potential harm of toxic chemicals. For several decades, the name of the place was synonymous with "hazardous waste catastrophe." In recent years, the name has become far less familiar, but the story is still important. Fortunately, a few web sites are dedicated to keeping this story in the public realm. The most comprehensive is the Love Canal Collection at the library of SUNY Buffalo, which also has a special 25th anniversary page. Case Western Reserve's Online Ethics project also provides a good Introduction .

My own One in a Million page illustrates how small a concentration of a toxic chemical can be harmful.

EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs is responsible for the implementation of regulations and programs related to pesticides.

The Pesticides Action Network North America addresses the health and environmental problems of pesticides. Its site includes news about specific pesticides and activism.

Chem-tox lists research articles about health disorders resulting from exposure to surprisingly common chemicals and pesticides. Illnesses now identified  include brain cancer, neuroblastoma, neurological disorders, immune system dysfunction, asthma, allergies, infertility, miscarriage, and child behavior disorders including learning disabilities, mental retardation, hyperactivity and ADD (attention deficit disorders). The information is compiled by a physician and an educator in Florida.

For authoritative but readable information about specific chemicals associated with hazardous waste sites, visit ToxFAQs™ from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To find out whether the public water supply in your area is in compliance with national standards, go to EPA's Safe Drinking Water Query Form and follow the instructions for finding a report on your municipal water supplier. If you use a private well, consider having it tested. Suburban Water Testing Labs is one national company that provides testing services. This link is not an endorsement; contact your local health department or state water-quality agency for a list of contractors in your area. Most government agencies will not recommend such companies, but many will provide a list of companies that meet minimal standards. Massachusetts residents can consult DEP's Private Drinking Water Testing page for guidance.

Part of the definition of hazardous waste, of course, is that it is waste. Government and business are increasingly in agreement that waste reduction is desirable both from a business and an environmental perspective. To this end, EPA has created the Enviro$en$e program, which includes a Small Business Waste Reduction Guide .

Water Pollution

If you are interested in water and land issues in the Western United States , visit Jim Washburne's extensive and well-organized list of links.

Wisconsin Non-point Source Water Pollution Abatement Program. See what Wisconsin is doing to addresss this important environmental problem.

Global Atmosphere and Ocean

Global Warming: Undo It, a project of Environmental Defense, is a national campaign to ramp up the fight against global warming, the most critical environmental issue we face. Get the facts, help undo it, and spread the word. Dynamics of the biosphere is an educational page from Japan that presents many of the earth's biogeochemical cycles (such as the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and energy flows) in one convenient location.

The Ozone Secretariat of the United Nations Environmental Program in Nairobi, Kenya, provides information on ozone, including FAQs and the most recent information on efforts to reduce CFC emissions.

El Niño el nino / la nina The NPR program Talk of the Nation is one of the best talk shows on radio. It has a special episode each Friday devoted to science topics. The show builds a page of web resources related to each of the weekly topics. You can click the icon to the left and search the Science Friday site for topics the show has covered. Or you can go directly to the El Niño discussion of April 10, 1998. It contains links to graphics and several web sites devoted to the phenomenon.  NEW LINK: A student in my web class recommends this authoritative link from NOAA: Frequently asked questions about El Niño and La Niña

Food, Population, and Resources

Paul Ehrlich and the Population Bomb is a Public Broadcasting Service documentary about the work that introduced the term "population explosion." The Population Bomb web site displays a constantly-updated estimate of the world's population and covers any aspects of population growth.

Wondering how the world's population as changed in the present?  At World Population you can actually put your birthday into it, and see how much the population has grown in your lifetime.

Hunger Awareness Week is a project of students at Northern Arizona University.

Food, Agriculture And Food Security: The Global Dimension is a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The International Food Security Treaty is a campaign to encourage nations to declare that access to food is a fundamental human right. As simple and decent as this sounds, my guess is that this will be an uphill battle at best, particularly among the industrial powers.

Endangered Species UPDATE . The internet presence of a magazine published by the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, bringing you articles on the science and politics of the discipline of conservation biology.

The "footprint" of human settlement is expanding even more rapidly than human population in North America and other economically robust regions. Consumerism, perverse zoning requirements, and cultural attachments to green lawns and private cars are among the reasons for this problem, known as sprawl. See WBUR's Field Guide to Sprawl and Maryland Ex-Governor Parris Glendening's Institute .