Thursday News Cleanup

In honor of Diane Rehm and her Friday News Roundup, I'm offering my own late-in-the-week news party with a local and ecological approach. Enjoy!

Chiquita, a Cincinnati-based company, was recognized yesterday as one of a handful of "emerging leaders in the sustainability movement" by the Rainforest Alliance. In this article from the Newswire of Corporate and Social Responsibility, Chiquita is described as having "integrated environmental and social sustainability into their work". It seems that they've really made serious bounds as far their impact on sustainable agriculture in Costa Rica, at least compared to many multinational, U.S.-based companies.

Last week, the University of Cincinnati held a Clean Energy Film Festival. The organizers, Leaders in Environmental Awareness and Protection (an environmental-activist group at the University of Cincinnati), lured students to the festival by offering free cookies. Check out this article for some interesting insight into what college students think about the big-ticket eco issues. One student attendant is quoted as saying, "I had a friend who said, 'you're going to go hug trees.'" I can't wait for these kids to get the memo that caring about the planet is cool again.

Massey, a coal company behemoth, is in hot water for allegedly dumping more than it's fair share of junk into our environment. From this article: "A federal lawsuit alleges Massey operations have illegally poured pollutants into West Virginia and Kentucky waterways more than 4,600 times." Go get 'em, Federal EPA.

Kentucky EPA, while perhaps willing to sass a coal company for water pollution, has decided not to participate in a nation-wide program to track greenhouse gas emissions. This article insinuates that Kentucky's EPA might be reluctant to get involved because the coal industry, a major contributor to green house gases, is also an influential economic force in our region. Boo, I say. The Climate Registry, the gas-tracking program that Kentucky decided to shun, is merely a uniform method of tracking emissions across the country and could be used to catalogue the information as a baseline of comparison for future air quality studies.