Award-winning journalist & author of environmental books. Investigative reporter, columnist, &. mng. editor of the green-building site Solaripedia, public speaker. Sketch artist. chicha19@outlook.com
Francesca Lyman
Francesca Lyman is a Seattle-based investigative journalist and author who writes for magazines and newspapers.
Inside the Dzanga Sangha Rain Forest: Francesca Lyman ...
The journals of the scientists, artists, and filmmakers on expedition to a remote rain forest in Central Africa, home to Baka pygmies, gorillas, elephants and 200 foot trees.
Unsettled in Seattle
The hospital where I worked would become the scene of the first known death from coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States, along with dozens more deaths, in coming days, here, and at other feeder hospitals from rehab centers holding sick and largely elderly patients around the region. What had seemed like a faraway threat across the Pacific Ocean mushroomed quickly across the United States.
Profiting from thrift: Who’s getting rich off your secondhand stuff?
This story is co-published with Salon
ATLANTA – On a sunny afternoon before Halloween, shoppers at Value Village Atlanta cruise the aisles, browsing for bargains. They hope to find a beaded gown befitting a Bride of Dracula or a fringed Elvis jumpsuit.
Billed as a “Treasure Hunter’s Paradise,” the popular thrift store sits in the corner of the old Moreland Shopping Center. A sandwich board solicits donations to the American Kidney Fund, along with more signage for the charity in the windows.
...
Journalist Spotlight: Francesca Lyman
Francesca Lyman is a journalist and author of such books as The Greenhouse Trap: What We're Doing to the Atmosphere and How We Can Slow Global Warming, with World Resources Institute; and a children's...
Regulators crack down on misleading thrift operations
Within the last decade, state regulators across the country have accused many for-profit secondhand stores of masquerading as charities, using deceptive tactics through advertising, telemarketers, pickup services, donation bins, and dubious charity alliances. In some cases, even minimum-wage salespeople have been caught misleading the consumer in person, perhaps unintentionally.
An upsurge in public complaints about potential consumer deception by for-profit thrift stores led the Minnesota At...
There’s big business in thrift
By Francesca Lyman/InvestigateWest
Charities like Goodwill and Salvation Army have traditionally dominated the $10 billion nonprofit thrift-store industry, but they face competition from a growing number of for-profit companies.
Even with shopping malls and brick and mortar retail stores rapidly going out of business, America’s retail scene is seeing fast growth of secondhand stores, especially the for-profit kind that are part of a $19.8 billion used goods industry.
“Demand has never been hi...
Your Environment column, MSNBC
Environmental Column on MSNBC.com covering environmental health, public health, nature and environmental news that ran from 1998 on for 6-7 years. Some columns still available.
BookShelf: “You Can’t Fool Mother Nature: The Once and Future Triumph of Environmentalism”
Self-Published (paperback), $16.95
Reviewed by Francesca Lyman
A longtime environmental activist finds lessons for the present in this stirring-yet-entertaining memoir by Byron Kennard, author of the 1982 book, “Nothing Can be Done, Everything is Possible,” which explored the limits and possibilities of community organizing to protect the environment.
In this latest book, Kennard changes his tune somewhat, pointing to the power of media and the arts as having a creative hand in promoting the ...
Booming Bothell says goodbye to quaint Country Village
But in recent weeks, shoppers from all around Seattle and the Puget Sound have returned here to say goodbye to the beloved landmark, which has hosted hundreds of festivals and events, including a seasonal local farmers market for the past 14 years. For nearly 40 years, Country Village has been an artisan center with specialty shops featuring everything from porcelain dolls to wood-crafted birdcages, custom knives and hand-lathed pens.
“These quaint streets and shops amid countryside — there’s...
Winner of Arlene article
The Arlene award for articles 'making a difference,' one of ASJA's Annual Writing Awards
The Splice of Life
An early commentary on the promise and perils of genetically engineered products.