Waste, Part I: Municipal Landfills
When it was opened in 1948, the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island in New York was supposed to be a temporary measure of only five years duration. Built on a wetlands with no liner to prevent groundwater contamination, the site has been kept in o...
Waste, Part II: Hazardous Waste from Nuclear Power Production
Nuclear power does provide an alternative to fossil fuels, but creates a serious long term disposal problem for its waste, which is highly radioactive. The Nuclear Policy Act of 1982 charged the Department of Energy with developing a permanent repos...
Air: China's Impact on Global Air Quality
China is in a period of rapid economic development. Its size, both in land mass and human population, and the fact that it uses primarily coal to fuel its industrialization, make for a current air pollution problem and the potential for enormous glo...