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Tricky Richard

Pombo uses taxpayer dollars to campaign for Bush Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chair of the House Resources Committee, has sent at least 100,000 flyers to voters in swing states praising President Bush’s environmental policies — at taxpayer expense. He’s also given his committee staff a month of vacation time immediately preceding the election, presumably so […]

Let a Thousand Species Bloom

Organic farming increases biodiversity, research indicates According to the largest review yet done of studies comparing organic to conventional agriculture, organic farming increases biodiversity at every level, from bacteria to birds to mammals. The two groups that conducted the reviews — English Nature, a government group, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds […]

Unsuitable

Lawsuits against polluters decline under Bush administration In the first three years of the Bush administration, the number of civil lawsuits filed by the federal government against polluters declined by 75 percent compared to the last three years of the Clinton administration, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. Eric Shaeffer, who […]

Thy Rod and Thy Staff, They Disturb Me

Bush’s EPA and Interior stocked with industry lawyers and lobbyists New York Newsday is running a series called “Erasing the Rules” about the Bush administration’s coordinated efforts to remove or weaken regulations on industry. Of particular interest to Gristians will be the third installment, about the administration’s staffing of the U.S. EPA, Interior Department, and […]

Run-Run-Run-Run Runaway

Scientists puzzled by accelerating CO2 buildup in atmosphere A sharp acceleration in the rate of increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has climate scientists puzzled and sounding a bit nervous. Mauna Loa Observatory, perched on a mountain in Hawaii, has been taking atmospheric CO2 measurements for almost 50 years. In recent decades, the rate […]

Tempest in a Tight Spot

Writer Terry Tempest Williams barred from speaking on Florida campus Renowned author and wilderness activist Terry Tempest Williams is touring the country to promote her new book, “The Open Space of Democracy.” Given the subject, it’s a rather pointed irony that the board of trustees of Florida Gulf Coast University voted 11 to 1 to […]

The story The New York Times didn’t cover

A look at U.S. mainstream media vs. foreign environmental coverage increasingly shows that Europe, Australia, and even India do a better job than we do.

A perfect example of the underreporting by the US press of extraordinarily important climate change news came on October 10th when The Guardian UK announced that, "An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming."

Debate wars episode II: the empire strikes back

The second presidential debate was, by any measure, better than the first. Bush recovered from his twitchy, petulant performance of Sep. 30 and Kerry was, if anything, even more concise (lo, a miracle!) and direct. More importantly, the questions from audience members were better -- more substantive, less circumspect -- than anything asked by the "official" media-types refereeing the VP and first presidential debates.

However, Kerry flubbed one question that should have been a home run for him.  As you might guess, I'm talking about the environmental question.  Here's a policy area where, unlike many others, Kerry has a clear, consistent, and almost uniformly strong record.  Bush, on the other hand, is rated the worst environmental president ever by just about everybody -- including, increasingly, members of his own party, mid-level officials in his agencies, and conservationists from the traditionally right-leaning hook-and-bullet crowd.

But Bush dodged the bullet.

Mandatory Caps

When fruitloops attack

Steven Milloy, proprietor of junkscience.com, resident at the regulation-hatin' Cato Institute, and true-blue wingnut, has a hilarious article running on FoxNews.com.  Pay no attention to those who criticize Bush's environmental policies, he says, they are but "left-leaning environmental activists and their supporters in academia."  He lauds Bush for avoiding the "dance of death" that is the Kyoto Protocol, but saves his highest praise for the dysfunctional regulatory process the administration has produced.  "Short of dismantling the EPA in favor of a more rational approach to the environment -- the preferred solution," he says, "the president has done the next best thing by bollixing up the EPA rulemaking process."  Woot!