Latest Articles

Limp Biscuit

Judge Lifts Injunctions on Biscuit Salvage Logging The legal battle over logging at the site of 2002’s devastating Biscuit wildfire in southwestern Oregon continues. A federal judge has lifted the temporary injunctions that barred the U.S. Forest Service from logging in the forest, rejecting an appeal from Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. The group […]

A Breed Apart

Plant Breeders Look to the Past for Seeds Suited to Organic Growing In the post-WWII era, as farmers leaned increasingly on monocultures drenched in pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, seed breeders began developing genetic strains suited to those conditions. Funded by industry research money, they bred seeds designed to flourish in artificially controlled surroundings with heavy […]

David Epstein sends dispatches from the Republican National Convention

David Epstein lives in New York and works as an intern for the New York Daily News. Tuesday, 31 Aug 2004 NEW YORK, N.Y. Inside Madison Square Garden, the Republican National Convention has barely gotten underway. But out in the streets, the climate has been steadily warming. Not that climate change, or for that matter […]

Sultans of Swing

Environmental Issues May Matter After All, Via Swing States Conventional wisdom has it that environmental issues are low priorities for most voters, and thus for most presidential campaigns. However, this year’s squeaker of a presidential election will be decided by voters in a small handful of swing states — and in many of those states, […]

Kim Jong Illin’

North Korea’s Environment Is in Sorry Shape Its rivers and streams are filled with industrial waste, its air is polluted, and its landscape is increasingly devoid of trees. Can’t tell what country we’re talking about? It’s North Korea. The first large-scale environmental assessment of the country, conducted by dozens of government and academic researchers under […]

Yes, We Have Mo’ Bananas

Australians Kick Some Renewable-Energy Butt Those Australians are busy bees these days! One team of Aussie researchers has announced that within seven years it will be able to produce hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water, in a process that has no moving parts and produces no pollutants. “This is potentially huge, with a market the […]

By Any Greens Necessary

Enviro Justice Center Works to Link Green and Civil-Rights Movements Environmental degradation often falls hardest on poor and minority communities, but these communities can have difficulty organizing to fight for environmental justice, and they’ve received too little help from a mainstream environmental movement perceived as a white, middle- and upper-class affair. Sociology professor Robert Bullard […]

Umbra on organic syrup

Dear Umbra, I saw at the store there is “organic” maple syrup. Is there really a difference between organic and non-organic maple syrup? Do conventional farms spray the trees with massive amounts of pesticides? I don’t have much money (poor college student) so I was just trying to buy organic for things like apples and […]

Well To-Do

Farmers Across Asia Emptying Underground Water Tables Farmers in India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and northern China are setting themselves up for drought and famine in decades to come by pushing wells deep into the ground, emptying underground reserves at a rate faster than precipitation can replenish them. India’s government system of irrigation canals is decrepit, so […]

Good Times, Good Times

Federal Report on Global Warming Produces Beltway Drama When The New York Times reported yesterday on a new Bush administration report to Congress which acknowledged the human causes of global warming, characterizing it as an abrupt shift in policy, some Beltway wags speculated that the newspaper was trying to box the administration in and embarrass […]