Latest Articles

The Last Picture Show

Forest Service Brochure Contains Misleading Pictures Pictures used by the U.S. Forest Service in a brochure arguing for heavier logging in California’s Sierra Nevada forest are deliberately misleading — and, say critics, validate concerns about the USFS paying a public relations firm $90,000 to help push its perspective. A series of black and white pictures […]

Farm Aid

Small Farms Turn Organic to Survive Battered by volatile markets and relentless corporate consolidation, many family farms are turning to organic cultivation — and joining organic cooperatives — to survive. According to farm advocacy group Farm Aid, the number of family farms in the U.S. has declined from 8 million to 2 million in the […]

Superfubar

Contaminated Oklahoma Site Highlights Superfund Problems The Superfund site at the former Tar Creek mine, located near the rural northeast Oklahoma communities of Cardin, Picher, and Hockerville, is a sobering demonstration of the U.S. government’s limited ability to clean up industrial pollution. The mine, which produced lead ore to make the bullets fired in two […]

Unwiseguys

Italian “Eco-Mafia” Prospers Through Illegal Dumping and Building In a moribund Italian economy, one business sector is thriving: the “eco-mafia,” a network of criminal clans and gangs that engage in illegal construction and illegal disposal of hazardous waste, described in a recent report by Legambiente, Italy’s most prominent environmental group. The eco-mafiosi build villas and […]

Hello, Nu Man

China’s Prime Minister Unexpectedly Suspends Dam Project Well, knock us over with a feather. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has just suspended — pending further study and review — the massive hydroelectric dam system planned for the Nu River, which runs through an unspoiled, richly biodiverse area in western China dubbed a World Heritage Site […]

News Flash: Pesticides Are Bad for Kids

Pesticide Use Impairs Abilities of Children in India According to a study just released by Greenpeace, children from villages in the cotton-cultivating northern states of India, who are exposed to high levels of pesticides, suffer from poor memory and impaired analytical and motor skills. A control group of children not exposed to pesticides performed 80 […]

Might and Maine

Maine Pushes Ahead With Pair of Pioneering Green Laws Maine — known, we found out via Google just moments ago, as the Pine Tree State — is leading the state pack with a couple of eco-friendly laws. A bill approved this week by the state legislature will make Maine the first state to ban the […]

Extreme Prejudice

Bush Campaign Manager Accuses Kerry of “Environmental Extremism” Speaking before a crowd in Michigan, Marc Racicot, chair of President Bush’s reelection campaign, characterized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as “incredibly environmentally green” and an environmental extremist; it was unclear whether he saw any distinction between the two. Racicot criticized Kerry’s support for a plan to […]

Greenahertz

Chipmakers Phasing Out Lead Computer chip manufacturers are going greener. Intel and National Semiconductor announced separately yesterday that they will begin eliminating lead from most of their products. Intel will begin shipping lead-free embedded processors in the second quarter of 2004 and lead-free microprocessors in the third quarter; their lead-free memory chips are already on […]

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch …

Bush Shows Off Ranch to Conservation Groups President Bush today will give a tour of his Texas ranch to what the White House calls “wildlife conservation organizations,” including Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, and, uh, the National Rifle Association. Bush’s policies of promoting oil and gas exploration and other development in the West have […]