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Not Great, Danes

Meanwhile, look who’s got a new job: Bjorn Lomborg, the controversial author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, has been appointed to head a new Danish institute of economics and the environment. Lomborg’s book outraged environmentalists in Denmark and abroad by claiming that virtually every environmental problem, from air pollution to deforestation to global warming, was exaggerated […]

Read the resignation letter from Eric Schaeffer, former head of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Regulatory

The following letter of resignation was submitted on Feb. 27, 2002, by Eric Schaeffer, head of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement, to protest White House and Energy Department attempts to weaken federal clean air policy. Schaeffer’s resignation has prompted Senate hearings into the Bush administration’s environmental record. Christine Whitman Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection […]

Space Balls

The largest and most expensive satellite ever built by Europe blasted off today, beginning its mission to monitor the environmental health of Planet Earth. The environmental satellite, or Envisat, was launched from French Guiana into orbit about 500 miles above the surface of the Earth, where it will circle the planet every 100 minutes. Envisat’s […]

Indecent Exposure

Radioactive fallout from Cold War-era global nuclear weapons tests has caused at least 15,000 cancer deaths in the United States, according to an unreleased government report obtained by USA Today. The report is the U.S. government’s first attempt to assess the affects of radiation stemming from aboveground nuclear tests in the former Soviet Union, on […]

Something’s Fishy

A coalition of lawmakers, environmentalists, and fishers are angling to ban genetically modified (GM) fish from California. One proposed ban would prevent live transgenic fish from entering the state; another plan would require special labeling for GM fish sold for consumption in California stores. One other state, Maryland, has restricted genetically altered fish, and federal […]

Kerry-ed Away

From the with-friends-like-these department: Environmentalists reacted with “stunned surprise” to an announcement yesterday by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) that he would consider supporting increased use of diesel fuel in automobiles. Speaking to a reporter, Kerry said, “I would personally be willing to embrace bringing diesel into the mix. The gains in terms of fuel are […]

It Says Libby, Libby, Libby on the Label, Label, Label

After more than two years of debate over how to best clean up toxic asbestos in and around Libby, Mont., the U.S. EPA formally agreed yesterday to designate the area as a Superfund site. The U.S. EPA has been working to clean the area since late 1999, but Montana Gov. Judy Martz (R) initially opposed […]

For Pit’s Sake

Back in the Cold War era, the Soviet-owned company Wismut ran massive mining operations in the East German states of Thuringia and Saxony. Thanks to the arms race, East Germany soon became the world’s third-largest uranium producer and a crucial supplier for Moscow. But when the USSR disintegrated, so did the market for uranium; with […]

Working on Their Gulf Swing

Most of the goings-on of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force are cloaked in secrecy — but one outed meeting, held a little over a year ago, sheds light on how the task force functioned. In early February 2001, Cheney met with representatives from Shell Oil and Anadarko Petroleum, who pressed the veep to […]

For Heaven’s Sake

There’s a new voice in the debate over President Bush’s energy policy: God’s. Religious groups in the United States are increasingly invoking the word of God to oppose drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, support stricter fuel-efficiency standards, and call for increased reliance on renewable energy. The National Religious Partnership for the Environment, a […]