Latest Articles

An interview with author and nutritionist Marion Nestle

The contents of your dog’s bowl — kibble, kibble, more kibble — may not look that interesting, but to nutritionist Marion Nestle, they’re nothing less than a microcosm of the global food system. In her new book Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, Nestle (pronounced NES-uhl, no relation to the multinational) investigates […]

Meet the Bloggers on enviro issues and the election, live, here, now

Just a reminder, I’m going to be on Meet the Bloggers today at 1 p.m. EDT (now!) talking about energy, the environment, and the elections. Also appearing will be Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog and Brad Johnson, a Gristmill contributor and blogger at the Wonk Room. The featured guest this week is Simran Sethi, the environmental […]

Allocating individual quotas could save many fisheries, study says

Retooling the way fisheries are managed could be the key to their long-term health, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Typical fisheries have mostly relied on a free-for-all style of management where scientists determine the overall allowable catch and then fishers go out and compete with each other to try to […]

From the mouths of oil executives …

“There is certainly some potential. But to me the biggest potential in America that is not exploited is energy savings. There is such an immense opportunity.” — Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Italian oil giant ENI, on offshore drilling

Wired: Two top Obama science advisors are tied to Monsanto and Amgen

I hope the executive branch’s "war on science" era ends in January. Heading into a period of climate change, tight fossil energy supplies, growing trouble with food-borne illnesses, declining health metrics, etc, we clearly don’t need a bunch of creationists and climate-change deniers knocking about the White House. At the same time, I hope we […]

States say Pentagon bullies them into not enforcing toxic cleanups

Environmental regulators from more than a dozen states have accused the U.S. Department of Defense of retaliating against them for attempting to enforce cleanup of contaminated military-owned sites. “In the worst-case scenarios, the Department of Defense is intimidating a state environmental agency into not pursing enforcement,” said Steve Brown of the Environmental Council of States […]

Chicago unveils detailed climate plan

Chicago unveiled an ambitious climate-change plan on Thursday aimed at cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of its commitment to meeting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. Along with over 700 other cities and municipalities in the U.S., Chicago signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing it […]

Appeals court rules EPA must protect waterways from construction pollution

The U.S. EPA is required by the Clean Water Act to protect the nation’s waterways and drinking water from construction-industry pollution, and the agency must develop regulations to address construction-site runoff by December 2009, a federal appeals court ruled [PDF] Thursday. Sediment from construction sites, usually washed into rivers and other waterways via storm water, […]

Democrat Mark Begich looks to unseat indicted Ted Stevens

Sarah Palin isn’t the only Alaskan in a hot race this election season. Enviros are also closely watching the state’s Senate race, which has incumbent Republican Ted Stevens up against Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage. Stevens cruised to an easy victory in the Republican primary last month, winning 63 percent of the vote […]

House passes minor environment-related bills and works a bit on climate

The House got down to some business on Thursday, working to cross a few things off its list before time runs out on the 110th Congress. It passed the Commodity Markets Transparency and Accountability Act, which would curb speculation in the energy-futures markets. The bill was approved by a vote of 283 to 133, and […]