Greetings, earthlings. It’s time for another round of Green Reads. This one includes a chair made of bones and a storm made of plastic cups!
Let’s get things off to a preposterous start with this story about how the uranium industry in Virginia is going to pay for a study of its own safety. Now there’s a sound idea!
A much more reasonable proposal is the one described here: an extra hurdle for big-box stores to win approval up in Loudoun. As the measure’s many critics point out, it’s not like Loudoun is some unspoiled Eden to begin with. But that’s no reason to curb the proliferation of unnecessary (and unnecessarily huge) retail—or at least put some checks in place so the entire county doesn’t turn into a parking lot. Hear that sucking sound? It’s suburban quality of life going down the drain as more and more car-centric stuff gets built.
Speaking of large retail, check out this account of how Wal-Mart has repeatedly built stores on sites that are sacred to various constituents. In some ways, I find these tales of Native American burial places being disturbed even sadder than the current situation at the Wilderness battlefield. And Wal-Mart’s not the only company to do it; even Whole Foods, apparently, is guilty.
One more piece of bad news and then on to the good. There is a cool graphic here that brings home one little aspect of the big picture of waste in America: plastic cups used by airlines. For Pete’s sake! It’s almost Biblical!
Now, feast your weary eyes on this awesome, inspiring story about a Texas builder who seems to be an absolute genius with salvaged building materials. Reusing stuff like this is a true art for our times. Also, I’m stealing like eight of these ideas for my house.
And here is a slideshow (and related article) about a revival of community farming in Mississippi.
More links? You post, we read.