First, the facts. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers about 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska, almost all north of the Arctic Circle. It was created in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which renamed and more than doubled the size of an existing wildlife range, designated about 8 million acres within the refuge as wilderness, and prohibited oil and gas production in the refuge unless authorized by Congress. Caribou on the coastal plain. Photo: Alaska Wilderness League. The Arctic Refuge provides essential and unique habitat for more than 250 animal species, including polar bears, caribou, wolves, …

Christie -- Heard they hammered you in Montreal about the Kyoto thing. Don't let it get you down, Whitman! They're foreigners, these people, and foreigners feed on confrontation. It's cultural. Did you see that recent French or German movie, in black and white? Cultural. Good of you to leave the conference early. I take it you got some free sandwiches first? (Heh heh!) I like sandwiches. Call it the Green House. To answer your question, the White House isn't currently offering an alternative to Kyoto Protocol, if that is indeed what it's called. We don't get paid to sit around …

Christie Todd Whitman. When it comes to listing body blows inflicted on the environmental movement by the Bush administration in recent days, it's hard to know where to start. Pick up the paper any day of the week and you'll likely find a fresh slap in the face of U.S. EPA "Administrator" Christie Todd Whitman. A backtrack on arsenic standards here, a promise to drill in Alaska there. An Energy secretary quoting the industry-funded Greening Earth Society. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and then others in the White House sticking a fork in Kyoto because it's "dead." And who's that …

  Re: The Noble Citizen Dear Editor: This is the first time in my life that I've felt moved to cry upon hearing that someone I didn't know personally had died. I feel that I've come to know Donella Meadows in the past couple of years. Many times I have praised her writing, her clear thinking, and her easy style; I regularly sent her articles to my friends. I will miss knowing that she's there, working and speaking for all of us who are less eloquent. Thank you for the article telling me more about her as a person. Mary …

Democrats say that President Bush's recent moves to roll back environmental protections have given them their first rallying point since Bush took office. "We believe that George W. Bush has declared war on the environment," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) last week. Mark Mellman, a leading Democratic pollster, said, "I think Bush is in the process of creating a political disaster for himself." Environmental groups are beginning to run radio and TV ads around the country criticizing Bush's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and calling attention to the president's broken promise to regulate carbon …

Who doesn't want to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? It'll be fun! We will wear special outfits, and when the oil gets in our mustaches, we'll take silly pictures and send them as postcards. The future, now more than ever, is a vast, inky utopia. Babies will squeal with delight and Alaskan koalas will slip in the oil in the most adorable ways. (Ed. -- do they have koalas up there? can we make that happen?) Sadly, some people (generally sex offenders, future studies are likely to reveal) oppose the drilling plan. Despite the guaranteed fun, …

California's energy crisis has become a national Rorschach test, saying more about the viewer than about the ink blot. President Bush is a special case: He looks at the deregulation crisis and sees the need to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Caribou-hoo-hoo. Photo: USFWS. Of course, given the number of oil and gas industry veterans in the top ranks of the new administration, Bush might also see the Puff Daddy shooting trial in New York as indicative of the need to drill for oil in Alaska. What none of his political advisors seems to get is …

Consider the rules. No, not the rules of love, but the rules of government -- specifically those rules of the previous administration suspended for 60 days on the first day of the present administration under an order issued by President George W. Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card. Rules of the game. No big deal. Such an order is routine whenever a president of the other party takes over. According to the routine, the rules are reviewed, but that's all. Actually changing or reversing a rule requires going through the same involved process which led to adopting the rule in …