Month: April 2001

Using Nature to Clean Wastewater

  • The Living Machine in the Lewis Center at Oberlin College uses plants and animals to recycle the waste water from toilets and sinks and uses it again.

Cleaning up the water we flush down the drain usually means
sending it through sewer pipes to sophisticated and expensive municipal
wastewater plants. But a new method of cleaning up wastewater begins
and ends at the same place. Instead of using chemicals and machinery,
it uses plants and animals. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports:

COLLEGE EXPERIMENTS WITH &Quot;LIVING BUILDING"

  • The Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College uses advanced technology to be energy efficient. It also takes building 'green' to a new level for builders and architects to consider.

One of the most environmentally friendly buildings on the planet
is nestled on a small college campus in Ohio. Although the structure is

not that large, its designers say it brings together more cutting edge
environmental technologies than any other building. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has the story:

Government Seeks Beryllium Workers

  • The DOE is encouraging anyone who may have worked around beryllium to contact the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education's Former Beryllium Workers Medical Surveillance Program at the toll free number 1-866-812-6703.

The Department of Energy is trying to reach more than
one thousand former government workers in the Great Lakes
region who might have been exposed to a sometimes fatal material.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

COMMENTARY – HIGH COST OF GLOBALIZATION

This week environmental activists from the Great Lakes region
and beyond will begin converging on the U.S./Canadian border. They’re
preparing for what they call a grassroots struggle against corporate
globalization. And their major protests will occur during a meeting in
Quebec of national leaders from around the western hemisphere, who
are coming together to work on an economic agreement called the
Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA. Great Lakes Radio
Consortium commentator Don Ogden says the demonstrators are
sending a message to the region’s leaders:

ACTIVISTS FIGHT LOSS OF PROTECTIONS (Part 2)

When leaders from the Western hemisphere head to
Quebec City this weekend to continue negotiations on the
Free Trade Area of the Americas, there’ll be a lot more on the table
than free trade. The FTAA, as it’s called, also establishes the rights
of companies when they deal with foreign governments.
FTAA critics say people take a back seat to corporations
in free trade deals. In the second of a two-part series, the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein tests the
anti-corporate arguments:

FTAA ACTIVISTS SPEAK (Part 1)

This weekend, the leaders of the 34 nations of North, Central,
and South America – all except Cuba – are meeting in Quebec City to
negotiate the Free Trade Area of the Americas. If ratified, the FTAA
would be the largest free trade zone in the world. Supporters say it
would be a massive boost to business and prosperity in the hemisphere.
The meetings are also attracting thousands of activists. They’ve
often been portrayed in the media as violent protestors or fringe
radicals
with costumes and puppets. But their concerns are frequently left
out of media reports. In the first of a two-part series, the Great
Lakes
Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein takes a closer look at their
arguments: