Ever increasing carbon dioxide emissions do not equal prosperity, contrary to what conservative critics of global-warming controls often claim, judging from the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration. U.S. carbon emissions from fossil fuels rose 0.4 percent in 1998, while the economy grew by 3.9 percent. Since 1990 carbon emissions have risen by 10 percent while the economy grew by 23 percent (www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/sld002.html).
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Suchomimus had a funny bone? Yes, says dinosaur-exhibit creator Gabrielle Lyon of the Chicago Children’s Museum, who has kids try to find one on a dinosaur forearm. “It’s a great way to teach about bones and anatomy,” she says in a July press release. “A lot of people don’t realize that we’re built on the same plan as a dinosaur.”
Mass transit is losing out even in trips to the area it serves best, the city’s “central area” (bounded by North Avenue, Ashland, Cermak, and the lake), reports the Chicago Area Transportation Study in “Transportation Facts” (June). In 1980 366,000 trips (61 percent) to that area were made on public transportation each day. In 1990 only 306,000 (50 percent) were. Driving alone increased in popularity over the same time, from 24 to 33 percent of central-area trips.
