How Green Is my Town?

With the administration still dragging its feet on joining the worldwide battle against global warming, a growing number of U.S. cities have decided that environmental activism begins at home. More than 160 mayors have signed on to an urban anti-global-warming agreement that some call the "municipal Kyoto." And local initiatives aimed not only at greenhouse gases but also at toxic chemicals and other threats are multiplying.

> LIGHTS OUT A new green-purchasing law requires San Francisco to buy low-mercury light bulbs and use arsenic-free wood on playgrounds

> BACK TO BIKES In addition to cutting City Hall's energy consumption, Chicago is promoting a public commuter-bicycle station, partly solar powered, which provides indoor parking for 300 bikes

> FARE DEAL New York City's cabdrivers can be gruff, but their vehicles, at least, will soon be enviro-friendly: the city's new Clean Air Taxis Act will allow thousands of cabbies to start switching to hybrid models this summer

> CHEMICAL-FREE TREES The college town of Lawrence, Kans., is testing a plan to ban all pesticides and herbicides from public parks

> GREEN FLEETS In Charlotte, N.C., a Sierra Club campaign helped persuade the municipal government to begin a transition to fuel-efficient hybrid cars for its police force and city-planning department

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TOMMY WARD, whose family has been harvesting oysters from the Gulf of Mexico since the 1920s, on the FDA's plan to ban the sale of raw oysters that are harvested in warm months; about 15 people die each year due to raw-oyster contamination
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Quotes of the Day »

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TOMMY WARD, whose family has been harvesting oysters from the Gulf of Mexico since the 1920s, on the FDA's plan to ban the sale of raw oysters that are harvested in warm months; about 15 people die each year due to raw-oyster contamination

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