Latest Articles

Busting Their Assets

Analysts Warn Automakers of Coming Climate-Change Risks If one thing catches the attention of a large corporation — actually, strike the “if” — it is the risk of declining profits. So it may be that U.S. automakers will have to take global warming seriously after all. A recent report from financial analysts at the investment […]

Let My People Cool

Global Warming Disproportionately Affects African-Americans, Says Report According to a new study, the adverse effects of global warming in the U.S. fall disproportionately on black communities. Commissioned by the policy arm of the Congressional Black Caucus and conducted by research firm Redefining Progress, the study claims that blacks are more likely to live in areas […]

The Great Thrall of China

China Is Chasing Down More Energy — Lots of It We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: One of the biggest and most underreported environmental stories today is the rapid, massive industrial development taking place in China. The nation is expected to have double-digit GDP growth in coming years. Already, widespread power brownouts […]

Mary Sullivan sends dispatches from the Democratic National Convention

Mary Sullivan is one of 22 Vermont delegates to the Democratic National Convention, and one of nine state delegates originally pledged to former Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean. She was a 10-year member of the Vermont House of Representatives and chair of its natural resources committee. In the 1980s, she wrote for The Washington Post. […]

California Greenin’

Poll Shows Californians as Green as Ever California has long been ahead of the curve on environmental policy, and a new poll points to the reason: Citizens demand it. A poll released this week by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, based on more than 2,500 responses from speakers of five different languages, reveals […]

Whale Supplies Last

Anti-Whaling Countries Beat Back Pro-Whaling Plan Staunchly anti-whaling nations, led by Australia and New Zealand, scored a small victory yesterday at the conclusion of the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission, staving off plans for a vote next year that could have opened the door for lifting the 18-year-old ban on commercial whaling. Pro-whaling […]

Tribal Thumping

Tribe Sues Canadian Company Under U.S. Superfund Law Washington state’s Colville Confederated Tribes announced a lawsuit this week against Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., seeking to force the smelter to comply with a U.S. EPA order to pay for environmental study of the pollution it has discharged into the Columbia River over the decades. Now, normally […]

Royal Blush

Greenpeace Charged With Violating Alaskan Environmental Law Greenpeace had an embarrassing moment yesterday: Alaskan officials slapped the eco-activist group with criminal charges for sending a ship into state waters without submitting the required oil-spill prevention documents. The vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, is carting 27 activists around Southeast Alaska to protest logging in the Tongass National […]

Umbra on swamp coolers and their coolness

Dear Umbra, I recently visited Moab, Utah, and found that many people there use “swamp coolers” rather than conventional air-conditioning systems. Moab is in a near-desert environment and has frequent water-shortage problems. I’m wondering whether this swamp-cooler method of air-conditioning is really greener than the systems most of the rest of us use, and whether […]

Species Reasoning

House Committee Passes Two Bills Weakening Endangered Species Act The House Resources Committee voted yesterday to pass two bills that could make listing species under the Endangered Species Act considerably more difficult. Both were shepherded through by the committee’s chair, Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). The first bill, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), would stipulate […]