Latest Articles

Top Forest Service official may be held in contempt of court

The top official overseeing the U.S. Forest Service has some 'splainin' to do. Mark Rey may be held in contempt of court, and possibly jailed, unless the USFS follows through on a court-ordered analysis of the environmental impact of a toxic flame retardant, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Malloy ruled on Friday. In 2003, ammonium phosphate dropped on a wildfire killed 20,000 fish in a creek in central Oregon. As a result of a lawsuit brought by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, Malloy ordered the USFS to provide an environmental analysis of the chemical; on the day the review was due, the agency filed for an extension. Unamused, Malloy has ordered Rey to appear in his court in October -- unless the USFS completes the environmental analysis beforehand, which is unlikely. "The Forest Service cannot disregard the orders regarding the Endangered Species Act," Malloy wrote. According to Andy Stahl of FSEEE, a little time in the slammer would "coerce future good behavior." Hey, it worked for Paris Hilton.

source: Associated Press

see also, in Grist: D'oh! Rey: Me?

aka ‘glamping’

I’m not sure how I feel about glamorous camping — aka “glamping” — a growing trend in North America among "affluent travelers who want to enjoy the outdoors but can’t fathom using a smelly outhouse." (Really? Me neither!) On the one hand, I wanted to start this post off with some comment about how this […]

BLM offers yet another plan for drilling on Alaska’s sensitive North Slope

In 1923, President Warren G. Harding designated 23 million acres on Alaska's North Slope as a national petroleum reserve. The ecologically sensitive northeast corner of the reserve -- which includes pristine Lake Teshekpuk and is vital habitat for breeding caribou, migrating birds, and Inupiat Eskimos -- was closed to energy development by the Reagan, Bush Elder, and Clinton administrations. But damned if the current administration won't pull out all the stops trying to access it! The Bushies tried in 2005. They tried in 2006 -- twice. Last fall, a judge blocked the administration from its quest, saying it had failed to consider environmental impacts of drilling in the area, and ordered the Bureau of Land Management to develop a new plan. Yesterday, the agency obliged, offering a vague proposal which suggests various options for development. The BLM will offer final recommendations after a two-month public-input period, which starts Friday. So get thee to inputting!

sources: Reuters, Associated Press, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

comment on the plan: Bureau of Land Management website

The latest in W. Va. adventures

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This week, Gabriel Pacyniak and Katherine Chandler are traveling throughout southern West Virginia to report on mountaintop removal mining (MTR). They'll be visiting coalfields with abandoned and "reclaimed" MTR mines, and talking with residents, activists, miners, mine company officials, local reporters, and politicians.

We'll publish their reports throughout the week.

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Tom White's directions to Yeager Airport instruct us to follow the signs outside of town, turn right at the first fork, and take the road straight up to the top of the hill. Like many of the instructions that we have received, he tells us, "And if you think you've gone too far, it's probably just a little bit farther up." The airport is, in fact, on a flattened mountain overlooking the city of Charleston, a location that shows how difficult it is to find flat land in the area.

Tom's business card reads "In deep? WHO YA GONNA CALL. Contract lawyer for hire ... former newspaper reporter, author, commercial pilot." He's also passionate about the environment, so he is a perfect fit for Southwings, a non-profit conservation organization that links volunteer pilots with journalists and researchers studying conservation issues in the south. It's a pretty crucial service for anybody looking at mountain top removal mining (MTR). On the ground, you can drive up a hollow all the way over the mountain and never know that just beyond the trees the mountains have been mined away.

A mine site with valley fill in Mingo and Logan counties. (photo: Katherine Chandler)

On cleaning up the catalog industry

ForestEthics, one of the most effective orgs fighting to save forests, is looking for ideas for their next campaign. Help them out -- more productive than reading blogs anyway ...

From the Boston Globe, the dirty truth about ‘alternative energy’

Referring to high oil prices, the billionaire airline magnate Richard Branson recently declared, "Thank God it’s happened … A high oil price is what we needed to actually wake up the world" to the reality of climate change. (This from a man who openly pines for a techno fix that will allow us to burn […]

Sea levels may rise much faster and higher than predicted

Popular Science has published a terrific article, "Konrad Steffen: The Global Warming Prophet," about one of the world's leading climatologists. Steffen has spent "18 consecutive springs on the Greenland ice cap, personally building and installing the weather stations that help the world's scientists understand what's happening up there." The article notes:

Water from the melting ice sheet is gushing into the North Atlantic much faster than scientists had previously thought possible. The upshot of the news out of Swiss Camp is that sea levels may rise much higher and much sooner than even the most pessimistic climate forecasts predicted.

What is going on in Greenland? Steffen explains what he and NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally figured out from their study of fissures in the ice sheet (called moulins -- see figures above and below):

We Like Piña Coladas (and Getting Caught in the Rain)

Dole will make some tropical-fruit distribution carbon-neutral U.S. residents have a heckuva hard time finding a local pineapple (Hawaiians respectfully excluded, of course). But now you can nosh your tropical fruit with less guilt; Dole Food Co. has pledged to work toward offsetting 100 percent of the CO2 emissions that its subsidiary produces from growing […]

The Climate Changed and All Norway Got Was Everything

Norway contemplates far-north drilling, melting ice reveals new islands As climate change alters the landscape of the Arctic, Norwegians are having a rough go of it. They face a more hospitable climate, an even better financial situation, and more land. “It’s very challenging for a very wealthy nation, knowing this will be a positive change,” […]

Overlooking Ahead

Are we too obsessed with climate change? Climate change is getting heaps of attention these days — and it’s about time. But with the spotlight focused on the climate cause, are other eco-issues being ignored? Issues like pollution, biodiversity loss, waste, resource use, and habitat protection used to be the focus for enviros, but they’re […]