Articles by Ana Unruh Cohen

Farmivores unite!

Tom's great post reminded me of this opinion piece by Tamar Haspel in yesterday's Washington Post. Having spent a fair amount of my childhood on my godfather's cattle ranch in central Texas, which because of his penny-wise ways was practically organic before organic was cool, I have a strong affection for farms, farmers, ranches, ranchers, and a good steak. Luckily for me, my part of Washington, D.C., has readily accessible organic meat and vegetables from farms in the region, so sign me up as a "farmivore." Anybody else want to join me?

We hold these truths to be self-evident …

With July 4th nearly here and all the Declarations of Energy Indpendence out there, it is time to ponder what American leaders of the past would have to say about energy and environmental issues confronting the nation today.

Perhaps they would like energy judged not by the color of money, but by the content of its carbon? Or maybe they would challenge us to ask not what our country could do for our cars, but what cars we could drive for our country?

Get your creative juices flowing and leave your adaptations in the comments.

Here's what I think Lincoln might say:

You keep me hangin’ on: Supremes to take up global warming

Today the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case filed by 12 states against the Environemental Protection Agency for failing to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. This case has already sparked controversy and will be closely scrutinized when it is finally argued this October.

What the Supremes will decide in a nutshell: Is CO2 "life" or a "pollutant"?

Their recent Clean Water Act ruling is not giving me much cause for hope. As the Washington Post editorial said today:

The bloc favoring a harder-line approach to environmental enforcement could be among the more dangerous features of the new Roberts Court.

The Supremes come clean II

In February, the Roberts Supreme Court heard two cases on the Clean Water Act. Today they ruled 5-4 to void the decisions against two Michigan landowners. The score? Developers 1, Environment 0.

I don't know the full details of the opinions or their repercussions yet. It looks like it wasn't a complete victory for the developers, but still bad news for protecting wetlands. Here's a link from the Community Rights Counsel on what's at stake in one of the cases. Update [2006-6-19 13:5:40 by Ana Unruh Cohen]: This Forbes story has more.