Latest Articles

Shark Tale

U.S. proposes international rules to curb shark killing Those Americans who despair in thinking their country a laggard on so many international environmental issues can take heart — at least the U.S. is firmly against shark finning. Yesterday, at a conservation meeting being hosted in New Orleans, the U.S. government proposed sweeping international measures to […]

Hot Oil Treatment

China’s wide-ranging quest for oil may bring about clashes with U.S. China is desperate for oil to fuel its booming economy, and it’s got plenty of cash to pay for it and few of the humanitarian scruples that still (occasionally) restrain the U.S. Some analysts worry that these circumstances will lead to conflict between the […]

The McCain Mutiny

McCain criticizes Bush admin over climate change — again Though Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) backed President Bush’s reelection campaign, yesterday he reiterated his charge that the Bush administration is in the wrong on the issue of climate change, calling its stance “terribly disappointing.” Today, McCain will convene a Senate hearing on rapid warming in the […]

Watch Water Wiz

Fresh water continues to fight for a fraction of the attention and resources commonly devoted to Northern favorites biodiversity and climate change. It shouldn't be a zero sum game, but that is a rant for a different day.

If you want to hear one of the world's water experts, tune in on-line Wednesday, November 17 at 10 am EST to hear Dr. Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute and MacArthur genius award winner, discuss his new book The World's Water 2004-2005: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Every two years Peter and his colleagues put out a new World's Water volume with a mix of critical topics. This year's edition covers the inadequate commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, the myth and reality of bottled water, the privatization controversy, the economic value of water, the unsustainable use of groundwater, and climate change's effect on water resources.

This session with Peter Gleick is the first of many webcast meetings here at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, my home institution, which I will occasionally plug.  
UPDATE: A summary of this meeting including Dr. Gleick's powerpoint slides is now available.

Julie Sze, enviro-justice advocate and professor, answers questions

What work do you do? I’m an assistant professor in American Studies at the University of California at Davis. How does it relate to the environment? My research and teaching interests are in environmental justice, race and science, the politics of the urban environment, health and risk, social movements, and community activism. What do you […]

The Frame Game

Do enviros need to pay more attention to the way they talk? Republican pollster Frank Luntz is famous for his memo to party bosses warning them about their vulnerability on the environment and coaching them on the proper way to frame their positions. Enviros tend to scorn this sort of message massaging, but then again, […]

What Would Jesus Ride?

Raging Cyclists push for bike-friendly reforms in Santiago Inspired by Critical Mass, the cycling activist group formed in San Francisco in 1992, the Furiosos Ciclistas — or Raging Cyclists — of Santiago, Chile, are inspiring real reform in that polluted city. The group is one of more than 200 inspired by Critical Mass in cities […]

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 […]