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Go Tell It on Green Mountain
A rich Texas businessman who is one of George W. Bush’s biggest campaign contributors admitted on Friday that he had paid $2.5 million to run TV ads that accuse John McCain of voting against renewable energy while praising Bush for his environmental record. Sam Wyly said he wanted to draw attention to environmental issues in […]
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Action Figures
In the wake of the World Trade Organization protest in Seattle last year, environmentalists are strengthening alliances with other progressive movements and helping to plan a series of demonstrations to keep the momentum going. Big protests are planned for April 16 in Washington, D.C., where the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will be holding […]
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USDA Eats Its Words
In a move being hailed by enviros, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week will announce tough new proposed standards for organic foods. The department had released a previous set of standards in 1997, but went back to the drawing board after receiving more than 275,000 negative public comments about the rules, which would have […]
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Sunshine on My Solar Cell Makes Me Happy
Native American Photovoltaics, a new nonprofit, aims to bring solar power to homes on Indian reservations across the U.S. Last year, the group launched a program that offers families in the southwestern portion of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona the chance to lease-to-own a solar generator that can provide enough power to fuel lights, a […]
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How Appealing!
In a big victory for the EPA and enviros, a federal appeals court on Friday confirmed the EPA’s authority to make states crack down on power-plant emissions that contribute to dirty air drifting from state to state. Many Northeastern states have long argued that they cannot meet federal air quality standards unless pollution originating in […]
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I Spy a Great Big Rainforest
The Brazilian government is launching a five-year high-tech project that will use satellites, surveillance aircraft, and radar systems to keep tabs on activities in the Amazon rainforest, which stretches across some 3.1 million square miles of the country. Officials estimate that 5 million acres of Amazon forest are illegally logged each year, and unlicensed gold […]
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Preaching the gospel of ecotourism
Costas Christ has a knack for handling sticky situations. I got a glimpse of this as I was making my way home from an ecotourism conference in Senegal in the early 1990s. Along with a number of other conference participants, I was stuck in the airport in the capital city of Dakar. For some unknown […]
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One Big Ol' Whale of a Victory
Enviros are rejoicing after winning a tough five-year battle against a proposal to build a giant salt plant on the pristine shores of a gray-whale breeding ground on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Mitsubishi Corp. and the Mexican government announced yesterday that they are scrapping their joint plan for the $100 million facility. The salt plant, which […]
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Didn't Inhale, but Still Pro-Reefer
The Clinton administration yesterday proposed new protections for one-fifth of America’s coral reefs, including bans on fishing and other activities. Less than 3 percent of the 8,600 square miles of reefs in the nation’s waters are currently protected, though environmentalists say that two-thirds of them are at risk from pollution, overfishing, and other commercial activities. […]
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A Bad Case of Gas
Drivers of sport utility vehicles in the U.S. are being hit hard in their wallets with the average price for a gallon of gas at $1.42 per gallon, a 56 percent increase from one year ago. With some of the biggest SUVs getting as little as 10 miles to the gallon in the city, the […]
