Latest Articles

Will evangelicals help save the earth?

Copyright 2006 by Bill McKibben. First published in OnEarth, a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Reprinted by permission. First came the mighty winds, blowing across the Gulf with unprecedented fury, leveling cities and towns, washing away the houses built on sand. Toss in record flooding across the Northeast, and one of the warmest […]

An interview with J. Matthew Sleeth, evangelical environmentalist and author

In 2000, a wealthy hospital chief of staff and evangelical Christian named J. Matthew Sleeth looked around at the life he’d built — suburban neighborhood, huge house, two cars, lots and lots of stuff — and decided it failed to properly honor God. J. Matthew Sleeth: listen to the heart.In what he describes as a […]

Woodward’s new book is terrifying

From Woodward's new book:

During a meeting in the Oval Office, according to Woodward, Bush personally thanked Bandar because the Saudis had flooded the world oil market and kept prices down in the run-up to the 2004 general election.

A Grist special series

Environmentalists and their politically progressive allies have long dismissed conservative evangelical Christians as repressive moralists and industry apologists. The suspicion and hostility are mutual: evangelicals see environmentalists as godless, anti-human pagans and socialists. Not exactly a match made in heaven. But relations are slowly thawing — in part thanks to, well, thawing. As glaciers and […]

Talk About the Wither

Extreme drought will spread widely over coming century, report predicts Millions of lives will be endangered by droughts affecting half of the planet’s land surface by 2100, top British climate scientists predict in a study to be published in the Journal of Hydrometeorology. And on nearly a third of the land surface, that drought could […]

How Local Can You Go?

Triple-bottom-line strategy working for small biz Small, local businesses are increasingly embracing social responsibility and promoting environmental health — and making a profit in the process. “When people come to me, I’m their first choice, a locally owned business that can produce at value,” says Guy Bazzani, whose small Michigan firm restores old buildings using […]

To Catch a Leaf

FBI raids companies linked to E. coli-tainted spinach Federal agents raided two produce plants in Salinas Valley, Calif., yesterday, as part of a criminal investigation into whether they violated food-safety and environmental laws in distributing E. coli-tainted spinach. The FBI and the Food and Drug Administration executed search warrants for the plants operated by Natural […]

Baseball All Year Round!

Northeast U.S. may feel like South if climate continues changing, says study The days of mild summers in the Northeastern U.S. may be numbered, says a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. If global greenhouse-gas emissions were reduced by 3 percent each year, the average temperature in the nine Northeast states would still likely […]

White House supports bottom trawling ban

I seem to be developing a habit of writing pro-Bush posts here (see this one and this one), but doggonnit, Bush is developing a habit of making pro-conservation ocean policies.

On Tuesday, the White House issued a statement calling for a halt to destructive bottom trawling on the high seas and promised that the U.S. "would work with other nations and international groups to change fishing practices and create international fishery regulatory groups if needed." See -- who said the White House doesn't play nice with other countries? Oh right, lots of people.

Really

I'm in the last throes of getting camera and dive gear ready for a longish trip and a million other things, but I had to make the effort to let Gristmates know about this bit of news. This has been a contested issue -- up to now, at least. Perhaps now we can move on towards finding ways to protect wild salmon from the dangers posed by farming instead of arguing about whether those risks are real. They are.