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Don’t Drink to This

Leaders of the Group of Eight nations — meeting for their annual summit in Evian, France, home of the original chichi bottled water — agreed yesterday to throw their weight behind a plan intended to bring clean drinking water to at least half of the 1.2 billion people who lack it by 2015. Aid groups […]

Jeff Lahl, Solar Electric Light Fund

Jeff Lahl is project manager for the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a nonprofit that works to bring solar electricity to developing countries. Monday, 2 Jun 2003 KANO, Nigeria As of last night, I’ve been in Kano, Nigeria, for a solid month now, but it seems like much, much longer. I thought I’d be here […]

Don’t Fear the Reefer

The Australian government today announced plans to put nearly one-third of the Great Barrier Reef off limits to fishing and trawling. “This will provide the largest network of protected marine areas in the world,” said Minister for the Environment David Kemp. Environmental advocates praised the move but pointed out that the government needs to do […]

Stock Options

Pressure is mounting in the U.S. for major reform of fisheries policies, with the aim of rebuilding fish stocks that have been decimated by decades of overfishing and ecosystem degradation. “What’s going on out there is the last buffalo hunt with regard to our fisheries,” said Leon Panetta, former chief of staff under President Clinton […]

Coal Comfort

A four-and-a-half-year study by the federal government has confirmed what most residents of Appalachia figured was obvious: Mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying the region’s forests and streams. Yet despite the findings, which were released yesterday, the Bush administration does not intend to impose concrete limits on the practice. Instead, it has proposed a plan […]

Another Roadside Detraction

The Washington State Department of Transportation has come under attack by citizens who say its practice of spraying the sides of roads to control weeds puts people and the environment at risk. Last year, a decade after promising to reduce its herbicide use, the department instead hit an eight-year high, applying more than 120,000 pounds […]

And other words from readers

  Re: Greening the Elephant Dear Editor: The story about Martha Marks’s efforts to build Republicans for Environmental Protection is a good reminder of why some of us oldies wax nostalgic for the Good Old Days. She is right that the real Republicans used to be wonderful conservationists, with a string of landmark laws to […]

Tulun: Too Late?

The tiny islands of Tulun and Takuu off the coast of Papua New Guinea are being swallowed by the Pacific Ocean, posing a danger so immediate that their 2,400 residents are being urged to evacuate at once. The islands, also known as Carteret and Mortlock, could become victims of global warming, which is thought to […]

Santi-ugho

The city of Santiago, Chile, located in the shadow of the snow-capped Andes Mountains, is blessed with one of the most breathtaking natural surroundings of any urban area on Earth. But from May to September, you wouldn’t know it; heavy smog obscures the Andes entirely and lends the word “breathtaking” a different meaning. A poll […]

Bottleneck

Evian, Perrier, Poland Spring — bottled water has become ubiquitous in the U.S., and the resultant plastic containers are posing an increasingly serious problem by clogging landfills and contributing to air pollution. In California, where bottled water is particularly popular, the state Department of Conservation is unveiling a campaign this week to convince consumers to […]