Latest Articles

Jim Jeffords gets riled up about the environment in a Grist interview

Jim Jeffords. Photo: U.S. Senate. If an environmental action-hero figure is ever made of Jim Jeffords — and if the Independent Vermont senator is willing to be immortalized not only in plastic but also in drag — it will have to be called “Cassandra.” Like Cassandra, Jeffords has a gift for prophecy. Only four months […]

Golf War, Too

New Bioengineered Golf Grass Sparks Fears A new strain of grass bioengineered specifically for golf courses has enviros and even federal agencies nervous. The grass — a variation of creeping bentgrass, popular on fairways and putting greens because it grows sideways, creating a smooth surface — is bred to be resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. […]

Green Ketchup

Teresa Heinz Kerry Critical of Bush Environmental Record Teresa Heinz Kerry slammed the Bush administration’s efforts to change clean-air and clean-water rules as “inexcusable and unforgivable” in a speech in Manhattan on Saturday. This may seem a predictable partisan jab coming from the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, but there’s more to Heinz […]

Aguapocalypse

Mexico Faces Coming Water Crisis A dam planned for the Huentitan Canyon northeast of Guadalajara, Mexico, is becoming a flashpoint of political controversy and a grim illustration of the water problems spreading across the country. Guadalajara, like many Mexican cities, has grown sharply in population without adding any new water sources, and now faces periodic […]

A Flighty Wind

Wind Power Sparks Controversy Across Western Europe In Western European countries, where thousands of wind farms are sprouting up across the landscape, fierce bickering has broken out over the benefits and drawbacks of wind energy. In the U.K. and Germany, activists and rural residents are waging a ferocious battle against what the Germans call “Verspargelung […]

Mitt Wit

Mass. Gov. Questions Climate Change and Launches Plan to Fight It When a draft of Massachusetts’ new plan to fight global warming was released, enviros were heartened that a Republican governor was acknowledging the seriousness of the problem. When the final plan was released, however, Gov. Mitt Romney attached a letter to it in which […]

Flotsam I Am

Ocean Riddled with Microscopic Plastic Particles Microscopic bits of plastic are ubiquitous in the world’s oceans, everywhere from the depths to the shorelines, reports a new study in the journal Science. It’s impossible to trace the exact source of the particles, but they are thought to be the result of plastic packaging, bags, and pieces […]

Apathy Not Endangered

Bush Rule Change on Salmon Not Likely to Affect Election Last week, when the Bush administration announced that it would count hatchery salmon along with wild salmon when determining what species to list as endangered — a move widely expected to lead to the de-listing of several species — Northwest politicians expressed outrage. Pundits fumed. […]

Whatever Floats Your House

Netherlands Prepares for Climate Change with Amphibious Homes Builders in the low-lying Netherlands have always used ingenious means to keep the water out: If not for a series of dikes and canals, some half of the country would be under water. But now, with climate-change scientists predicting rising sea levels and more frequent severe storms, […]

Superfund could be weakened by recommendations from EPA subcommittee

Arsenic in water, mercury emissions, new-source review, Dick Cheney’s energy task force — these are the issues that have elicited the loudest howls of protest about the Bush administration’s environmental record during the past three years. By comparison, the grumbling over Superfund has been remarkably muted. Mountains of toxic waste dot the horizon around Tar […]