Uncategorized

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 […]

Surf’s Up, and So’s My Dander

Dude, I thought surfing was, like, a non-motorized sport. Motorized personal watercraft (PWCs) are making waves in the surfer community — and riling environmentalists and some surfing purists. At Maverick’s, a prime surfing spot south of San Francisco, hardcore surfers use PWCs to tow themselves out to giant waves. Critics say the watercraft are noisy, […]

Pipe Dreams

Israel and Palestine struggle over water in an arid land

Oil, namely the vast reserves in Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, is the cause of many of the broad geopolitical battles plaguing the Middle East. But it is access to water, a more fundamental resource, that is at the root of much of the bitter conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Blood and Water […]

Elephants: Never Forget

A shocking 80 percent of wild elephants in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam fell victim to the ivory trade between 1988 and 2000, according to a report issued yesterday by Save the Elephants. The report blamed French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and Chinese tourists for driving the trade in ivory trinkets, and said Thailand was the […]

Melissa Waage, Green Corps

Melissa Waage is completing a one-year training program through Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing. Sunday, 24 Feb 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. My Sunday began in Asheville, N. C. I woke up a little late, but within an hour I had packed everything I own into three giant Tupperware bins, several backpacks, and a […]

The Polluter Pays … Less and Less

The Superfund toxic waste cleanup program was founded under the slogan “the polluter pays” and got its name from the vast financial reserves in the account. Now both the slogan and the name are misleading; the Bush administration has announced that it will not reinstate corporate taxes to boost the dwindling funds in the account, […]