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In the world’s slums, the worst of poverty and environmental degradation collide

This article was originally published in OrionOnline. Precarious dwellings in North Sulawasi, Indonesia. Photos: iStockphoto. A villa miseria outside Buenos Aires, Argentina, may have the worst feng shui in the world: it is built in a flood zone over a former lake, a toxic dump, and a cemetery. Then there’s the barrio perched precariously on […]

Umbra on organic pesticides

Dear Umbra, Recently, an article in my newspaper stated that federal and state guidelines allow the spraying of “organic pesticides” on organic crops. I thought organic crops were pesticide-free. I am very disappointed to find out that there are sanctioned “organic pesticides” which, with probably little to no independently researched information, may or may not […]

How environmentalists lost the battle over TCE

An article in the LA Times today reveals how the U.S. EPA has been completely emasculated in recent years. It focuses on TCE, an industrial chemical found in the nation's water supply. After four years of study, the EPA concluded that TCE was as much as forty times more likely to cause cancer as previously believed. That was in 2001.

Concerned about a potential $1.5 billion in cleanup cost, the Pentagon handled things their way: they launched a pre-emptive strike against the EPA, wielding political power and deploying bureaucratic red tape in a campaign of Shock and Audit:

Oiling for a Flight

The top 10 best places to live during an oil crisis Pack yer bags, kids — there’s an oil crisis coming and we’re moving to the Big Apple! Eco-website SustainLane has come up with a list of the 10 U.S. cities best able to weather an oil crisis, and New Yawk is number one. The […]

The Biggest Loser

Feds to lose at least $20 billion in oil-company royalties, report finds Remember that outrageous story about how oil companies are going to gank U.S. taxpayers out of some $7 billion in royalties for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? Well, time to crank up the outrage-o-meter: Turns out, based on a new report from […]

Labor Rattling

Britain will likely miss target for slashing greenhouse-gas emissions For years, Tony Blair and his Labor Party have waved the climate-change flag, proclaiming danger and pledging to reduce Britain’s greenhouse-gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. All very inspiring, except for the whole not-actually-doing-it thing. Yesterday, after an 18-month climate-change policy review, Environment […]

The Meatrix II: Now playing at a website near you

Ladies and gentleman. Boys and girls. The Meatrix II: Revolting is finally here. Help Leo, Moopheus, and Chickity fight factory farms.

Oil in the Grand Canyon

A Russian company called Dosko pushing to drill for oil in the Grand Canyon? Find out the details.

Happiness: The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa

I read this on the Greenpeace blog and it really shocked me. I do admit that I eat fish sometimes, but I had no idea that I was contributing to this. It seems that Chinese workers not only pay a high price for making Western cloth, but now are used as fishermen, spending years on ships that are almost falling apart.

They are being forced to steal from countries with lesser means. Did you now that the countries in West Africa are the only countries where they eat less fish? Not because they want to but because of the illegal fishing fleets taking advantage of their lack of means of patrolling their seas. And now there just aren't plenty of fish anymore.

Where will the fish end up? Often on dinner plates in Europe...

Everything you wanted to know about Portland…

Well I'll be. I was skeptical about whether Treehugger's "tell us about your city" thing was going to work, but they asked about Portland, OR, and man did they get an earful. Some really fascinating stuff in comments.