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Bela-ruse

Poor Belarusians returning to areas contaminated by Chernobyl It’s been 18 years since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine exploded and spewed forth a cloud of radiation that contaminated some 22 percent of neighboring Belarus. Now many poor Belarusian residents are returning to normal life there, foraging for mushrooms and planting crops in areas […]

Welcome to the Measure Dome

Oregon voters lash out against land-use planning For more than three decades, Oregon’s comprehensive anti-sprawl land-use planning rules have funneled development into urban cores and preserved vast swaths of land covered by farms and forests. Sixty percent of Oregon voters apparently found this state of affairs intolerable. On Nov. 2, despite opposition from current and […]

Umbra on the health/environment dividing line

Yowza. A few weeks back, in response to a question from a reader named Cassandra about the relative merits of soy milk, I asked your opinion on the dividing line between health and environmental concerns. Cassandra wanted to know if she could continue eating soy, which she considered an environmentally sound choice, without increasing her […]

Whither the environmental movement? III

(Part I is here; part II is here.)

I was going to do a policy post next, but an insightful comment from reader Sandy M got me thinking again about framing.

The second piece of unsolicited-with-good-reason advice I'd give the environmental movement, with apologies to Apple computer, is: Talk different.

It's time for enviros to think in a more careful and calculated way about the way they frame their issues. Progressives are forever wedded to the idea that the unvarnished truth is all we need: Give the people the facts and they'll draw the right conclusions. "That," says UC Berkeley professor and newly minted pundit George Lakoff, "has been a disaster."

Hydrogen Girlie Man?

D.C. beats California to host first hydrogen pump at gas station Despite California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) big talk about pioneering a Hydrogen Highway, the District of Columbia has bested him on one key step: opening the first hydrogen fuel pump at a public gas station. Of course, it’s not likely to kick the hydrogen […]

Power in Lumbers

Small tree-harvesting operations gang up to get certified Many small to mid-sized forestry operations are run by folks who value the health of their trees and try their best to be good stewards of the land they own. However, getting official recognition of this fact — in the form of being certified green by the […]

Bringing Shapeless Hemp Sweaters to Yuppies, at Last

Whole Foods ponders move into organic clothing Have you ever felt chafed by the inconvenience of having to go one place for your bulk bulgur wheat and another for your Guatemalan organic cotton poncho? Well we’ve got good news: From here on in you can point your Lexus SUV in one direction only, to organic […]

We’re Not the Only Country With a Bushmeat Problem

E.U. fishing subsidies drive illegal bushmeat trade in West Africa Heavy European Union subsidies for fishing fleets off the coast of West Africa are driving the illegal bushmeat trade in the region, to devastating effect. As Euros eat more of their fish, there’s less left for West Africans, who turn to bushmeat — or the […]

Kvetch Hetchy

Schwarzenegger admin will consider undamming Hetch Hetchy To the surprise of, well, just about everybody, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) resources secretary announced yesterday that he will pull together a thorough assessment of a project once considered entirely fanciful: tearing down O’Shaughnessy Dam and restoring Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley. As attractive as the […]

Electoral gasp, scientific progress

In the shadow of an election that left many environmentalists gasping for air, a scientific meeting in New Orleans yielded a series of results that at first, second, and perhaps third blush are stunning.

Covered by science reporter Janet Raloff in the newest issue of Science News, they identify new links between environment and health, including a common plastic additive (phthalates) and babies' reproductive development; uranium and cancer in Navajo girls; and DDT and miscarriage in China.