Uncategorized

Making Degrade

Nearly 40 percent of the world’s agricultural land is seriously degraded due to erosion, nutrient depletion, salinization, and other problems, according to a study released yesterday by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The degradation has already significantly lowered the productivity of 16 percent of the world’s farmland, including 75 percent of farmland in Central […]

The Chat's Meow

A group of Oregon timber executives forked over $100,000 each to the Republican Party last week in exchange for a 45-minute chat session with GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush. The executives, who have been unhappy with the Clinton-Gore administration’s forest policy, sought assurances that Bush would listen to their concerns if he becomes president. […]

Poor Guatemalans, Poor Forest (Poor Headline)

Insane Freeze

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a transportation spending bill that would continue the freeze on vehicle fuel-economy standards, a blow to environmentalists who argue that the current standards, set in 1975, are far too low. Enviros had not expected the House to vote in favor of lifting the freeze, which has been […]

Too Much to Bear?

The Sierra Club has suggested that the U.S. government more than triple the number of acres designated as recovery areas for grizzly bear populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, up from 5.9 million acres to 19.9 million. A Sierra Club study indicates that grizzly bears need areas of more than 1,000 square miles in order […]

Reinventing the Wheels

After more than a century of causing horrendous pollution, the auto industry is undergoing a green revolution, writes Jim Motavalli in Grist. Spurred by air pollution laws, the specter of global warming, and animated competition, automakers are starting to design and produce a whole new generation of clean cars, including fuel-cell and hybrid gas-electric vehicles. […]

Baked Alaska

The polar ice cap has thinned by 40 percent in the last 30 years, according to preliminary findings presented this week at a conference of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. Other research presented at the conference documents how dramatic climate changes are making it difficult for Alaska natives to maintain subsistence lifestyles. […]

Revenge of the Nerds

A coalition of enviros and high-tech philanthropists in Washington state is launching a three-year campaign to raise at least $25 million in private donations and leverage at least $100 million in federal funds so the government can buy 75,000 acres of privately owned land in the state’s Cascade Mountains to create a wilderness corridor. Organizers […]

The Sweat of Our Brower

Pioneering environmental activist David Brower resigned from the board of the Sierra Club yesterday, complaining that the group has become too bureaucratic and its leadership has lost its sense of urgency. He accused the club’s board of inadequate action on such issues as wilderness protection and mass transit, and criticized it for refusing to take […]

Bush Whiffs on Another Enviro Issue

Weak environmental regulations in Texas have led to a big influx of industrial livestock operations that are hazards to public health and the environment, says a report issued yesterday by local offices of the Sierra Club and Consumers Union. Although other states have strengthened such regulations or even placed moratoriums on the construction of new […]