As students in the Hermitage High School Humanities Center, we commonly debate such topics as this. We have recently stumbled upon an Internet site called storyofstuff.com. There, a 20-minute video, written by Annie Leonard, reveals hidden facts about product production and how items are disposed of. During production, often environmental, health, and social problems arise.

As students in the Hermitage High School Humanities Center, we commonly debate such topics such as this. We have recently stumbled upon an Internet site called storyofstuff.com. There, a 20-minute video, written by Annie Leonard, reveals hidden facts about product production and how items are disposed of. During production, often environmental, health, and social problems arise.

After Christmas, most folks don’t have much use for the fresh-cut evergreen fading fast in their living rooms. And if a new flat-screen HDTV arrived under that same tree, the old television with a fuzzy picture may have to go as well. To provide an environmentally friendly alternative to tossing post-holiday castoffs in a landfill, many local governments are offering Christmas tree and electronics recycling.

The 10-month-old bald eagle expanded his wings and soared into the gray skies over historic Westover Plantation on the James River in Charles City County. Less than two weeks ago, the bird had been found at a Suffolk Island landfill, dehydrated and suffering from pesticide poisoning.

An environmental group is urging that the George Washington National Forest give special protection to the wood turtle, a creature becoming increasingly rare in Virginia.

President-elect Barack Obama recently unveiled a massive infrastructure spending package that includes new federal investments in energy efficiency.

Even in cold weather, die-hard anglers flock to the James River. As part of his James River Journal series, staff writer Rex Springton finds out why.

The James is Virginia’s largest river. It begins in northern Botetourt County where the Jackson and Cowpasture rivers join.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are old industrial chemicals considered a probable cause of cancer. PCBs also may increase the risk to unborn children of problems such as lowered birth weight and IQ. The Virginia Department of Health has issued the following advisories for the tidal James River because of PCB contamination.
Eat no gizzard shad or carp .

The public will get a chance next month to suggest how uranium mining should be studied. A state panel organizing a study decided yesterday to hold a hearing in Pittsylvania County in early January. The panel, a subcommittee of the Virginia Commission on Coal and Energy, did not set a date during the group’s meeting in the General Assembly Building.

The ill winds of a national recession shouldn’t stop Virginia from becoming more energy-efficient and creating jobs in pursuit of conservation and environmentally friendly power, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday. “There isn’t any reason, when times are tough, just to kind of retrench,“ Kaine said. “We ought to be looking to innovate. And I want to make the last year of my governor’s term a year that’s very focused on energy and the environment.“

Proposed uranium mining presents another environmental issue that could stir debate in the coming year. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said a study to assess the feasibility and environmental impact of mining a massive uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County should go forward, as long as a credible group is doing the study. “They’re talking about the National Academy of Sciences—very credible—I don’t think there’s any reason not to do it,“ Kaine said in an interview.

Virginians and most other Americans believe global warming is a real and serious problem, a poll says, and they want local, state and federal governments to do something about it. They’re split, however, on what should be done. Those results from national and state-level polls measuring public attitudes on climate change were released yesterday during the National Conference on Climate Governance at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today will lay out another plank in his 2009 legislative and policy platform to promote energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. Kaine will announce an initiative to create “green” jobs as part of his Renew Virginia program. The governor is expected to appoint a task force to explore incentives for business to go green that could create

RADFORD - When some colleges and universities decide to do something environmentally friendly, they often make a big, publicity-hungry deal out of it. At Radford University, they’ve being doing such things - running buses and machinery on biodiesel, for instance - without a lot of hoopla. And that started long before President Penelope Kyle’s August announcement that she wants Radford to be one of the greenest campuses in the commonwealth.