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Painting Ourselves Into a Warmer

White paint and green trees can help reduce heat and pollution in urban areas, according to a study by NASA and the U.S. EPA. An abundance of dark pavement and black roofs, which soak up sunlight rather than reflect it, can make some cities 2 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than surrounding areas and aggravate […]

Jumble Shrimp

Reigniting a dispute over environmental protection and the World Trade Organization, Malaysia yesterday accused the U.S. of failing to overhaul its laws to permit unrestricted shrimp imports. In 1998, a WTO panel struck down a U.S. ban on the import of shrimp from countries that couldn’t prove that their shrimping fleets were taking measures to […]

Blair Tactics

In a major environmental speech, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced today that the government would devote about $150 million to the development of renewable energy and other measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help stave off climate change. Blair pledged to put environmental issues higher up on the political agenda, and he stressed […]

Deb Callahan, League of Conservation Voters

Deb Callahan is president of the League of Conservation Voters, based in Washington, D.C. Monday, 23 Oct 2000 LOS ANGELES, Calif. So, here I am writing a week of diaries for Grist Magazine to publish online. On the one hand, I’ll enjoy sharing my crazy week with Grist’s readers (I’m an avid Grist fan myself.) […]

I Vant to Suck Your Juice

Household gadgets and appliances suck power even when they’re shut off, constituting 10 percent of the electricity use in the average San Francisco Bay area household and costing residents about $80 a year, according to a new study by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These so-called vampires include everything from stereos and computers […]

Bury, Bury Scary

The Department of Energy now says the amount of plutonium and other radioactive waste from the manufacture of nuclear weapons that was released into soil or buried in thin containers from the 1940s to the 1970s was 10 times larger than previously thought. The DOE had been saying since 1987 that more than 97 percent […]

When Al's Said and Done …

Al Gore made a hard pitch to enviros during an impassioned campaign speech in Portland, Ore., last night, pledging to protect old-growth trees, roadless forest areas, and salmon runs. “When it comes to the environment, I’ve never given up, I’ve never turned back, and I never will,” Gore told a crowd of nearly 4,000, in […]

All-consuming Passion

Overconsumption has led to an estimated 33 percent decline in the natural wealth of the world’s ecosystems over the past 30 years, according to a report released by the World Wildlife Fund on Friday. If current patterns continue, humans would need an additional two planets in order to survive, WWF said. The group measured the […]

The Lung Arm of the Law

To help cut air pollution in the nation’s smoggiest state, California officials announced last week that they will soon begin converting the state government’s entire 10,000-vehicle fleet to low-polluting or non-polluting vehicles. One quarter of the fleet will be made up of gasoline-powered cars that release up to 90 percent fewer pollutants than typical new […]

Got Water?

At least 3.5 billion people, more than half of the world’s current population, are expected to experience water shortages by 2025, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute. Freshwater systems around the world are being degraded by agricultural runoff, wetland loss, dams, diversions, and overuse, threatening their ability to support human, animal, […]