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Spilling Their Gluts

In the worst river pollution incident ever to hit Brazil, a million-gallon oil spill is threatening drinking water, wildlife, and farmland along at least 25 miles of the Iguacu River in the southern part of the nation. The spill, which began Sunday afternoon, was caused by a ruptured pipe at a refinery of the government-owned […]

Kiss and Telecommute

This Friday will be the first National Work at Home Day, aimed at encouraging employees to give telecommuting a try, for the sake of the planet and their own productivity. About 19.6 million Americans telecommuted to work in 1999, up from 4 million in 1990, and that number will continue to grow as technology and […]

'Night, Rider

In a victory for the Clinton administration, the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected an effort yesterday to block the president from designating more national monuments. By a 50 to 49 vote, the Senate defeated a budget bill rider proposed by Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) that would have required the White House to get congressional approval for […]

Gold Medal for Green Mettle

The 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, which will begin on Sept. 15, are expected to be the greenest ever. Most of the events will take place in Homebush Bay, once the polluted site of a slaughterhouse but now transformed by a big environmental cleanup. The Olympic Village, where 15,000 athletes and officials will live […]

Enrique Suave

Enrique Penalosa, mayor of Bogota, Colombia, is championing the bicycle as the means to a cleaner environment and has directed the city to build nearly 125 miles of permanent bike paths. Penalosa instigated a car-less day in the city in June and a recent poll found that Bogota residents would support another car-less day, though […]

Southern Discomfort

Some days the smog in the Great Smoky Mountains, the country’s most-visited national park, is worse than the pollution in Atlanta. As the South’s population has soared, the region has become home to more cars and SUVs and the demand for coal-fired energy to power amenities like air conditioning has skyrocketed. The governors of Tennessee […]

First, Do No Warm

Climate change could bring with it a wide variety of health problems, according to a study of possible effects in Washington state, released today by Physicians for Social Responsibility. For example, higher temperatures could increase concentrations of ground-level ozone and other air pollutants, aggravating asthma cases, and expand the habitat of ticks that carry Lyme […]

Danny Kennedy, Project Underground

Danny Kennedy is the director of Project Underground, a Berkeley-based human rights and environmental organization which he helped to found in 1996. He is also a husband and a happy new father of a beautiful, bouncing baby girl. Monday, 17 Jul 2000 BERKELEY, Calif. Monday is a day I look forward to, not because I […]

Animal Dreams

The Father, the Sun, and the Holy Spirit

A number of churches and city governments in California and other spots around the U.S. are leading the push for clean energy by powering their houses of worship and city halls with solar, wind, and other renewable sources. Twenty-five Episcopal churches in California have switched to green power, as have Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant groups […]