Uncategorized

Suburban Crawl

U.S. workers are playing musical chairs with their jobs at the price of less productivity and more congestion and pollution, according to new census data released this week. For example, take Arlington County, Va., where 70 percent of resident workers leave the county every day for jobs elsewhere — and an even greater number of […]

Sierras Clubbed

Logging would more than double, more cattle would be allowed to graze, and forests could be aggressively thinned under proposed revisions to a management plan for the Sierra Nevada unveiled yesterday by the U.S. Forest Service. The sweeping changes to the Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework would allow timber companies to cut trees up to 30 […]

Plastic, Man

In an effort to reduce its plastic waste by 30 percent, Taiwan has passed a law banning the free distribution of plastic bags and disposable tableware in some 75,000 establishments, including restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and fast-food franchises. Taiwan currently uses 20 billion plastic bags per year (or 2.5 bags per person per […]

Crystal Mess

The city of Monterey, California, has permanently banned the Crystal Harmony cruise ship from docking in its bay after the ship’s owners, Crystal Cruises, confessed to dumping more than 36,000 gallons of wastewater in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, home to 27 species of marine mammals. The incident occurred in early October but wasn’t […]

My Abalone Has a First Name

The word “abalone” probably doesn’t bring to mind the same connotations as, say, “heroin” — but conservationists in South Africa say that illegal trade in the ocean mollusk has wreaked the kind of havoc usually associated with narcotics, bringing guns, gangs, and violence to previously peaceful communities. Abalone is a prized gourmet food in much […]

Honey, I Shrunk the Budget

As states across the nation face massive budget shortfalls, many are aiming their axes at environmental and conservation programs. In South Carolina, for instance, the state legislature is considering cutting $16 million from conservation programs to help balance its upcoming budget. The South Carolina Wildlife Federation yesterday urged state legislators to protect the funds, noting […]

Dump Yuck

Twenty-two of 50 landfills tested in California have been found to contain unusually high levels of radiation, and radioactive waste from seven of those dumps has contaminated nearby groundwater, state environmental officials announced yesterday. The findings raise new questions about the ongoing impact of a now-defunct California policy that allowed mildly radioactive waste in local […]

Slope a Dope

Four decades of resource extraction in Alaska’s North Slope has been a mixed bag for the region’s environment and people, according to a study released yesterday by an 18-member panel of the National Research Council, the research arm of the U.S. National Academies. The study, which is the first-ever assessment of the cumulative impact of […]

We’re Not Gonna Rock Down to Electric Avenue

The electric car could soon go the way of the dodo, as California moves toward eliminating a rule first approved in 1990 to force automakers to sell a fixed number of electric cars in the state. The proposed changes to the zero-emissions-vehicle rule would allow car manufacturers to earn credits for low-emissions hybrid vehicles, instead […]

Shipping to Gomorrah

Washington state went to court yesterday to try to prevent the federal government from continuing to ship radioactive waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation until the U.S. Department of Energy makes good on a commitment to clean up the site. The state claims that the DOE reneged on an agreement to clean up 78,000 barrels […]