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… and the Dammed
Construction of a $3.9 billion dam in Malaysia is expected to resume soon despite harsh criticism from environmentalists and human rights groups. The Asian financial crisis halted work on the Bakun Dam in the late 1990s, but the Malaysian government said this week that it wants to move forward with the project. The dam would […]
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The Blessed …
Peter Illyn is a man with a plan — and a llama. He wants to save the environment one soul at a time, following the Christian rock festival circuit and preaching a green gospel. Illyn, with his llama in tow, is one member of a new army of “faith-based” environmentalists crusading to green America’s religious […]
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Yachtsee!
Protesters in a flotilla of six yachts in the South Pacific forced a ship carrying spent nuclear fuel from France to Japan to alter its course yesterday. Greenpeace spokesperson Elisabeth Mealey said the flotilla in the Tasman Sea off Australia had achieved victory by forcing the ship to make the effort to avoid them. The […]
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The Celebrating Jumping Frog of Riverside County
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday designated 4.1 million acres as critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog. The designation, the state’s largest habitat area for a threatened species, spans 28 counties from Northern California to Riverside County near Los Angeles. It requires landowners seeking federal building permits to prove that that their […]
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Something's Always Happening at the Zhu
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji launched the country’s first five-year environmental plan earlier this week, acknowledging the need to balance economic development with environmental concerns. In a speech to China’s parliament, Zhu drew attention to forest preservation, desertification, and water shortages. About 400 of China’s 668 cities suffer water shortages, and some 700 million of China’s […]
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Money Doesn't Grow on Logs, You Know
The feds lost $126 million from logging on national forests in 1998, according to a draft report released yesterday by the U.S. Forest Service. The agency spent $672 million to administer timber sales that generated only $546 million in revenue. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska led the list of money losers: It cost $35.6 […]
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Flutter, Bye
Loggers in Mexico may have poisoned 22 million monarch butterflies in an attempt to gain access to protected forestland, says Homero Aridjis, head of the Mexican environmental organization Group of 100. Aridjis said the butterflies, which migrate each winter from Canada to fir forests in the Michoacan state of central Mexico, were found dead on […]
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A review of A Whale Hunt
For countless generations the Makah Indians have lived on the shores of Neah Bay, in the corner of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, the northwesternmost tip of the 48 states. Until the 1920s, hunting the gray whales that swam past this stretch of coastline as they migrated between Baja California and Alaska's Bering Sea had been a Makah tradition for 2,000 years.
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You're Soaking in It
Iowa’s 132 lakes are among the water bodies most polluted with fertilizers in the world, according to a study by Iowa State University. Researcher John Downing took three rounds of samples from each of the lakes last summer, and the results turned up heavy concentrations of nitrates and phosphorus, both common ingredients in farm and […]
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Blairingly Obvious
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair dedicated more than $146 million toward the development of renewable energy sources yesterday, in an apparent appeal for the green vote in the upcoming election this May. In a speech to the World Wildlife Fund, Blair said, “We can only succeed if we make tackling climate change a commercial opportunity.” […]
