Letters to the Magazine

Bernardsville, N.J.

Clarification

In "Going Green" we wrote that by bicycling part of the way to work, Kelley Howell saved three fifths of a gallon of gasoline and avoided 15 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution. Several readers questioned how that amount of gasoline, weighing less than four pounds, could have generated so much CO2. The extra mass comes from the oxygen in the air. In the engine, each atom of carbon in the gasoline molecule combines with two atoms of oxygen to make carbon dioxide. Additionally, in calculating pollution from automobiles, scientists take into account the carbon dioxide emitted in extracting, refining and transporting the petroleum.

Correction

Our July 17 Leadership & Innovation Q&A with Mel Karmazin reported that Sirius Satellite Radio announced it had added 600,000 new subscribers in the past four months--exceeding the growth of its larger rival, XM, for the first time. In fact, the firm announced it had added 600,000 new subscribers in the second quarter, and had exceeded XM's growth for the past three quarters, not merely the most recent. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.

© 2006