Latest Articles

Wince

As everyone likely knows by now, freshly-minted Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai recently -- just a day after winning the prize -- claimed before a news conference that AIDS was "created by a scientist for biological warfare" to kill blacks. "Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial; others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that," she proclaimed.

Fact check yo’self before you wreck yo’self

Speaking of that question in the second debate, Environment2004 has got a withering piece up demolishing Bush's response, line by line. Half-way through you'll feel almost sorry for the guy, getting pounded like this.  But then you'll go back to feeling sorry for the environment.

Glenn Scherer

Okay, a special thanks to Gristmill readers for keeping this blog accurate and honest. I stand corrected, and with blog on my face. An excellent AP story written by Charles Hanley did indeed run starting on March 20, 2004, in many U.S. papers and worldwide, reporting a disturbingly large increase in atmospheric CO2 for 2003.

Dairy Err

Millions in California anti-pollution money went to, uh, pollution Almost $70 million in California state bond money designated to fund industry pollution-reducing measures has gone to fund the expansion of polluting mega-dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s most polluted air basin. In each case, the Pollution Control Financing Authority approved tax-exempt, low-interest loans […]

Well Run Dry

Many states lack money to enforce Clean Water Act Out of 17 states surveyed, 11 say they do not have the money necessary to fully enforce the Clean Water Act, according to a study by the nonprofit Center for Progressive Regulation. California, for instance, enforces only 23 percent of federal wastewater standards and only 60 […]

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 […]