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The Agony of Beef Eat

Amazon Deforestation Driven by Brazilian Beef Industry The explosive growth of cattle farming in Brazil seems to be the primary culprit behind an increase in destruction of the Amazon rainforest, says a report released today. While spreading soybean cultivation and logging frequently get the headlines, the Center for International Forestry Research report says that it […]

Freedom From Misinformation Act

Federal Judge Orders Release of Energy Task Force Documents The legal wrestling match between Vice President Dick Cheney and critics of his secretive energy task force took a dramatic turn yesterday, when a federal judge ordered several federal agencies to release thousands of documents relating to their work with the task force. The order stemmed […]

Critical Massey

Bushies Let Political Contributor Off Easy for Spill, Says Whistleblower The Bush administration suppressed an inquiry into a massive 2000 coal-slurry spill to protect a political contributor, says a whistleblower involved in the investigation. The accusation — the latest in a growing string from ex-administration officials — comes from Jack Spadaro, former head of the […]

Riders on the Storm

Massive Asian Sandstorms Threaten Environment, Health Massive sandstorms in Asia are on the rise and pose a growing threat to the environment and human health, say experts at the United Nations Environment Program. The storms — which generally originate in desert regions of northern China and Mongolia and rage southeastward across the Korean Peninsula, Japan, […]

We Just Don’t Have Chemistry

Bush Administration Hampers Crackdowns on Toxic Chemicals For decades, the U.S. was a key player in international efforts to regulate the use of highly toxic chemicals, but under the Bush administration the country is acting mainly as a roadblock to these efforts, say critics. President Bush started off on the right foot with an announcement […]

Stop Us If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before

Clean Water Act Violations Widespread, EPA Enforcement Down Violations of the Clean Water Act are rampant, but enforcement of the act by the U.S. EPA is down sharply in the last three years. According to a new study by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, more than 60 percent of all major plants and factories […]

LEEDing Light

Green Building Is Booming Once a fringe movement, born of the 1970s energy crisis, green building is going mainstream with a vengeance. Through its four-year-old Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, the U.S. Green Building Council has certified 149 million square feet of commercial and high-rise residential space as green, up from 8 […]

Rubber Ducking

On Family Planning, the U.S. Faces International Isolation As if the rest of its international agenda weren’t unpopular enough, the Bush administration is further isolating itself from the global community with its positions on family planning and women’s reproductive rights in developing countries. To appease its socially conservative political base at home, the administration has […]

H2Glow

Nuclear Weapons Plants Threaten Water Sources, Says Report Radioactive and toxic byproducts from the 13 nuclear weapons facilities in the U.S. pose a grave danger to several major water sources and tens of thousands of people who rely on them. So says a report released Monday by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, based […]

So Far, Sow Good

Foundation Sells Businesses on Green Practices Across the U.S., businesses are being pressured to adopt more eco-friendly, sustainable practices — not by government regulation, but by their own shareholders. This ground-up movement is coordinated by organizations like As You Sow, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that helps grassroots shareholder groups find major-investor backing and put […]