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I Hope You Like Dammin’, Too

Bush Administration Won’t Remove Northwest Dams to Save Salmon The Bush administration announced yesterday that it will not remove dams from the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Northwest as part of its efforts to save endangered salmon runs. According to Bob Lohn of the National Marine Fisheries Service, “Our work shows that you can […]

That Smarts

Cute, Tiny Smart Cars to Come to U.S. and Get Big The tiny, fuel-efficient, two-seater Smart cars (named after their manufacturer) that are so popular in Europe are coming to the U.S. Sort of. Convinced that a tiny car — even one that gets 60 miles per gallon and has been repeatedly proven safe for […]

Malign Neglect

Republican Leaders at Odds Over Nuclear Worker Compensation Program The Bush administration is clashing with Republicans in Congress over a compensation program for workers at nuclear facilities sickened by exposure to radiation, asbestos, and other toxic substances. As of July, the Energy Department had paid out only $700,000 of the $95 million it has received […]

Good Vote Hunting

More Wildlife Refuges Opened to Hunting and Fishing Yesterday, just as the Republican National Convention was getting underway, the Bush administration announced that it will open an additional 243,500 acres of land in 17 national wildlife refuges and wetlands to recreational hunting and fishing. Much of the 95-million-acre national refuge system, with its 544 wildlife […]

Water Foul

Bush Administration Proposes Lower Standards for Toxic Metal Selenium Even while the Bush administration publicly courts hunters and fishers, it’s taking quiet steps that those outdoorsfolks likely wouldn’t approve of. Over the objections of many federal scientists, the U.S. EPA is poised to establish a more lax standard for selenium, a toxic metal that builds […]

Smells Like Ship

Concern Rises Over Air Pollution from Ships Tough regulations and technological advances have made power plants, cars, and other common sources of air pollution cleaner over past decades, and as they get cleaner another common source comes into sharper relief: ships. In some port cities like Los Angeles, ships — including oil tankers, container ships, […]

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, […]