Latest Articles

High Line Park

What’s going on in New York with the High Line Park is extremely cool. Check out this video: Yeah, some grumps will argue that public money could be better spent elsewhere, but when is that not true? Sometimes you gotta do something pretty even though it doesn’t make sense. Hardly worth being human otherwise.

An interview with Bonk author Mary Roach

Photo: cybertoad Ah, sex. Source of carnal bliss, domestic harmony, cute infants … and global population problems. (Oh, environmentalists are such killjoys.) Overpopulation aside for the moment, sex is fundamental to humanity, and to the rest of the natural world — and besides, it’s a dang fascinating subject, as Mary Roach found out while researching […]

Celeb chef clarifies his relationship with Greenpeace

A couple of weeks ago, we ran an interview with Food Network chef Alton Brown about his new sustainability efforts. In the course of the piece, Roz Cummins asked him if he'd be willing to crew on a Greenpeace boat, and he said yes -- an answer that's apparently been repeated and miscontextualized all over the place.

Brown dropped us a note to clarify his position. Here's what he has to say:

R.I. court reverses ruling, says paint companies not responsible for lead cleanup

Three paint companies should not have to clean up lead contamination in Rhode Island homes, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The decision reverses a landmark 2006 ruling in which the state was victorious in alleging that Sherwin-Williams Co., NL Industries Inc., and Millennium Holdings LLC created a public nuisance by manufacturing and selling lead-based […]

Montana forest conservation deal biggest in U.S. history

Some 500 square miles of privately owned forest in the northern Rocky Mountains will be protected under a deal announced Monday by the Nature Conservancy and Trust for Public Land. The groups will pay Plum Creek Timber $510 million for the checkerboard tracts of land in northwest Montana. The deal is “the largest land purchase, […]

Thoughts from the big organic confab in Boulder

Attending last week’s Organic Summit, held within the tasteful confines of the St. Julien Hotel and Spa in Boulder, was a very, well, organic experience. It started with the hotel itself. The St. Julien, a human-scale building right in downtown Boulder, exudes calm. The lobby, a light, airy space overlooking a sun-dappled garden with mountain […]

Three guidebooks for a dream vacation at your dining-room table

Eat your way around the world, without leaving home. If you had to choose one place in the world to go for a summer break, where would it be? For me, it would be a place I stayed once in Puglia, at the heel of Italy’s boot. In 2003, my friends and I spent a […]

Mountain advocates and legislators take on mountaintop removal

The practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) has gotten more attention from environmental and social justice advocates in recent months, including the Goracle himself. “Mountaintop removal is a crime and ought to be treated as a crime,” Gore said in April. He was addressing the audience at the 2008 Nashville Film Festival, where he presented director […]

Texas Sen. John Cornyn hearts drilling and a good brew

Okay, so this campaign ad for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has nothing to do with the environment, but it needs to be posted: Cornyn’s latest ads focus on his energy plan, which includes offshore drilling and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for exploration and drilling. He also says he supports “viable alternative sources,” which […]

Makah tribe members sentenced for illegal whale hunt

The five members of the Makah tribe who participated in an unsanctioned hunt of a gray whale last year were sentenced earlier this week. The Makah tribe, whose reservation is located in northwestern Washington state, is the only tribe in the country with treaty rights to hunt whales. However, the long, arduous process of obtaining […]