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Minke-dinke Do

A Japanese proposal to create the world’s first whale farm is not playing well with environmentalists, who describe it as “totally unfeasible” and possibly a smokescreen for the nation’s notorious whale-hunting activities. None of that has deterred the town of Hirado, in southwestern Japan, from making preparations for the farm, claiming it will attract tourists […]

Trash Can Do!

Activists, industry reps, and government officials are gathering in Seattle, Wash., this week for the National Recycling Congress, but the mood isn’t exactly festive. Seems recycling has fallen on hard times: International commercial markets for many recyclables are down, fiber markets are diving, and a decade of growth in recycling rates has plateaued or even […]

Whistle Stop

The ombudsman for the U.S. EPA, Robert Martin, is accusing the agency’s administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, of punishing him for opposing an agreement limiting the financial liability of Citigroup for a controversial Superfund cleanup. Martin alleges that Whitman had a conflict of interest in the case because Citigroup is a principal investor in her husband’s […]

Bah-Lomborg!

  We received an unprecedented number of responses to Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark, our special edition on Bjorn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist. As usual, Grist readers were impassioned and opinionated. What follows is a sampling of their letters — largely positive, occasionally scathing, and frequently informative.   Dear Editor: I don’t […]

Xie Whiz!

China’s got a new five-year plan — this one to clean up the country’s terrible air and water pollution. To cut emissions of sulfur dioxide and other major pollutants, the country is spending about $84 billion, or twice the amount spent in the last five years. The initial funding will come from the federal government, […]

Hi Ho Sterling, Away!

If the Sterling Mining Company has its way, one of the continent’s largest underground mines could soon be dug beneath the Cabinet Mountains of northwestern Montana, marking the first time that large-scale mining would take place beneath a federal wilderness area. Last month, federal and state officials granted the company a permit to operate a […]

Matthew Meyer, Ecosandals.com

Matthew Meyer is a third-year law student at the University of Michigan. In 1995 he cofounded the Wikyo Akala Project, which today sells used-tire sandals around the world at Ecosandals.com. Monday, 14 Jan 2002 ANN ARBOR, Mich. I first set foot in an African shantytown in 1992. As I walked through the Mathare Valley, a […]

Songbird Sings the Blues

Yucca-ing It Up

Following 14 years of study that cost $4.5 billion, the Energy Department yesterday formally recommended that Nevada’s Yucca Mountain become the country’s permanent storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste from power plants and weapons factories. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the science showed that Yucca Mountain would be a secure home for the waste. […]

The Poor Shall Inherit the Worldwatch?

By failing to embrace the steps called for at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the world may have helped set the stage for the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Worldwatch Institute. In its annual "State of the World" report, the group calls for the world’s nations to join the battle […]