But the story of the hundreds of sick people who live near the former Kelly Air Force Base illuminates an entirely new manner in which the Bush administration has diluted science and put public health at risk. This year, largely in obeisance to the Pentagon, the nation's biggest polluter, the White House diminished a little-known but critical process at the Environmental Protection Agency for assessing toxic chemicals that impacts thousands of Americans.

As a coalition of more than 40 national and local environmental organizations put it in a letter to EPA administrators this past April: "EPA, under pressure from the Bush White House, has given the foxes the keys to the environmental protection henhouse."

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These pigs have been modified to carry a gene from an innocuous strain of E. coli that has been spliced with a protein from a mouse. This doesn't give the pigs a newfound affinity for cheese. Rather, the added gene enables the animals to produce the enzyme phytase in their saliva. This enzyme, say Guelph researchers, could solve one of the major environmental problems associated with industrial pig farms.

Normal pigs can't break down phytate, a phosphorus-rich compound in their gut. When manure lagoons on hog factories overflow or breach into nearby rivers or seep into groundwater, the high phosphorus content creates algae blooms, killing fish and other marine life. Trademarked the Enviropig, these genetically modified pigs produce 60 percent less phosphorus in their manure than their conventional cousins.

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This "vampire energy loss" represents between 5 and 8 percent of a single family home's total electricity use per year, according to the Department of Energy. On average, that's the equivalent of one month's electricity bill. Taken across the United States, this adds up to at least 68 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually; that's the equivalent output of 37 typical electricity-generating power plants, costing consumers more than $7 billion. This wasted energy sends more than 97 billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; on a global scale, standby energy accounts for 1 percent of the world's carbon emissions, according to Alan Meier of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, based in California.

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Just over a year ago, Levi Strauss & Co., the top jeans retailer in America, launched Eco jeans, made with 100 percent organic cotton, in a variety of styles. Jeans in the company's Red Tab line sell for $68 (only about $20 more than typical Red Tabs), aiming to fulfill a mission to "democratize organic," according to E.J. Bernacki of Levi's. Gap is considering its own line of organic jeans, and Patagonia and a number of high-end fashionista brands, such as James Jeans, Del Forte and Seven, also make jeans from organic cotton. Levi's, for its part, explains that the move to organic was a simple response to consumer demand. Retail sales of organic cotton increased 238 percent between 2005 and 2007, and sales are expected to reach more than $2 billion by the end of this year, according to Organic Exchange, a nonprofit trade association.

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Messenger bags

Alchemy Goods turns old bike tire tubes and seat belt straps into hip messenger bags. Eli Reich, a former mechanical engineer, started the company in 2003 after his messenger bag was stolen and he noticed a bunch of old bike tubes collecting dust in his apartment. He now collects old tire tubes from bike shops along the West Coast. Waterproof and stylish, his bags come in three sizes. The Messenger ($148) is good for bike commuting or trips to the gym, the Urban ($138), a bit smaller, is better for carrying laptops, and the Haversack ($88) is a good unisex purse, big enough for a book and your lunch, and it has a handy front-zippered pocket for a wallet or iPod. (Memo to my friends and family: I really want one.) Look for a new line of men's wallets ($32), made from recycled billboard banners and, of course, old bike tires.

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Wine labeled organic means that at least 95 percent of the grapes used were never sprayed with pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Such chemical purity is ensured by 40-foot buffer zones from farms that spray specific chemicals, loads of paperwork and on-site visits from third-party certifiers. Organic grapes then go to a certified organic winery that doesn't use chemical cleansers or add any preservatives like sulfur dioxide, an antioxidant that gives wine a significant life span.

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So, for the first time, I've started to think about investing. In search of a firm that could help me invest in companies that aren't raping and pillaging the planet, I found Trillium Asset Management Corp. One of the oldest socially responsible firms in the country, they directed me toward the $50 million Green Century Balanced Fund, a mutual fund that invests in environmentally responsible companies.

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At the nearby Sears, shiny home appliances lined the rows with the promise of a Christmas season full of gleaming towels. Several featured a big blue tag, emblazoned with a star. These are Energy Star-certified machines. "These machines save more than water and power. They save you time because the washer spins quicker," said David, a veteran Sears salesman who, behind earnest glasses and a mustache, rattled off facts and figures. "Everything's good about these as far as the environment goes. They're less of a drain on our natural resources."

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I realize this may sound ridiculous. What is one or two paper towels or 30 seconds of hot air compared to the emissions belched from cars stacked on I-84? But consider the following: So far this year Americans have used 1.8 million tons of paper towels and tissue, according to the American Forest & Paper Association, an industry group. There are approximately 3 million hand dryers installed in the country and most run for 30 seconds around 100 times a day, according to World Dryer Corp., one of the country's leading manufacturers. That's 5.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity used every day -- enough power to run an estimated 197,000 homes a day.

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Bamboo has achieved its green reputation for sound reasons. As one of the world's fastest growing plants, it grows up to 1 foot per day and can be harvested in an average five years, as opposed to the 40 to 120 years it takes to grow most trees. Regenerated from rhizomes, small stems attached to roots in the ground, bamboo doesn't need to be replanted after being hewn. Such quick growth means it can sequester more carbon from the air than a slower growing species like, say, a rose bush. Furthermore, it's cheap -- or at least, it can be. Costco and Home Depot both sell bamboo flooring for less than $2 a square foot.

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So if you want to pay more than $20,000 to reduce your carbon footprint, brag about your part in reducing dependence on foreign oil, and garner esteem from friends at the natural-foods store, go right ahead. Just don't be too smug. If hybrids are driving a revolution, it's a televised road trip to marketing heaven.

Hybrids aren't necessarily the most environmentally friendly car on the market, says Jim Kliesch of Greenercars.org. The Web site, sponsored by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, rates cars based on tailpipe emissions, gas usage and factory emissions associated with manufacturing. While the Prius and Honda's former hybrid, the Insight, get reported averages of 40 miles per gallon, they're far from the 60 mpg promised on the sticker for city driving. The disconnect is due to an outdated Environmental Protection Agency calculation for fuel economy estimates that fails to include air conditioning, cold-weather driving and high freeway speeds. In October, the EPA implemented its new calculation method for 2008 models. It now claims the Prius gets 45 mpg on the highway.

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"The proposed changes fundamentally gut the intent of the Endangered Species Act," says Jan Hasselman, a Seattle attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, who helped Salon interpret the proposal. "This is a no-holds-barred end run around one of America's most popular environmental protections. If these regulations stand up, the act will no longer provide a safety net for animals and plants on the brink of extinction."

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I'm not alone: 60 percent of consumers agree that they look for beauty products that have a "cruelty free" label on them, according to a recent online poll conducted by the Benchmarking Group, a national consumer research firm for the beauty industry. Like me, about half of the poll participants assumed that the federal government monitored those products to ensure they weren't tested on animals. Turns out it's an assumption that will get you about as far as believing that the right face cream can change your skin and your entire dating life.

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Across the top of the screen appears the name of a real American soldier, his age and the date he was killed in Iraq. Last week that name read: "CHARLES A. HANSON JR 22 NOV. 28 2004."

"America's Army," created by the same designers who produced hit first-person-shooter games like "Redneck Rampage" and "Kingpin," is funded by the U.S. Army (to the tune of nearly $10 million), which is to say American taxpayers. But the name of the American soldier killed in Iraq, which those logged on to the game are forced to see, is certainly not part of the game's design but the handiwork of artist Joseph DeLappe.

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Thursday the Senate passed legislation that will increase the number of H-1B visas available for engineers and high-tech workers from 65,000 to 115,000, with an option of raising the cap an additional 20 percent every year.

Proponents of the legislation -- the owners of high-tech companies such as Microsoft and Intel, or the subcontractors who supply such places with workers -- say that because of the dearth of engineering students currently in college, there is a shortage of qualified candidates.

"The cap on H-1B visas has limited the high-tech industry's ability to attract and retain the best and the brightest workers," says Ginny Terzano, spokeswoman for Microsoft. "It's vital Congress take steps to reform high-skilled immigration policies as soon as possible in order to ensure that the U.S. economy remain competitive."

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Susan Haire, a former elementary teacher who ranches on a small scale, has lived atop one of the surrounding mesas for nearly a decade. But she says the landscape has been turned against her. When she drives down this stretch of highway, her nose bleeds, her eyes burn, and her head pounds. She's taken to wearing a respirator, even in the car.

"I feel like an alien, like I don't fit into my own environment. It's frightening," says Haire, 55, tears filling her pale slate eyes as she looks through her living room window out on her back fields. "It's horrifying what's happening here. The changes that have happened in the past 18 months are so dramatic. It's just a nightmare."

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"It was on any body of water of any significance," he says. Hundreds of thousands of inland acres are covered with a spotty sheen of oil. "The landscape right now is absolutely bizarre and unreal," Wells says, from his home in Lafayette, La. "It's emotionally draining. Even if nobody was hurt, it's heartbreaking to see what has happened to the environment."

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"I can take off from the homestead and walk the beach for several miles before I get to any other habitation," says Sallee, a fisherman who also operates a small lumber mill. "There's two main mountain ranges on the island and a big valley of forest and muskeg."

Yet due to funds in a new transportation bill, which President Bush is scheduled to sign Wednesday, Sallee and his neighbors may soon receive a bridge nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and 80 feet taller than the Brooklyn Bridge. With a $223 million check from the federal government, the bridge will connect Gravina to the bustling Alaskan metropolis of Ketchikan, pop. 8,000.

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