Latest Articles

Keep the Forest Fires Burning

Critics Charge Forest Service With Overzealous Fire Fighting A growing cadre of critics charge the U.S. Forest Service with fighting too many fires, saying that the cost — in money, lives, and ecological damage — is too high. As logging in national forests has declined by 80 percent over the last decade, fighting fires has […]

Not By the Air of My Chinny-chin-chin

States Expect Clean Air Act Changes Will Increase Pollution Most state environmental officials expect that changes to Clean Air Act rules proposed by the Bush administration would lead to higher air pollution, according to a survey conducted by the General Accounting Office upon the request of Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.). The […]

George W. Jetson

Bush’s Hydrogen-Economy Pipe Dreams Bump Into Reality The hydrogen-powered cars and “hydrogen economy” touted by President Bush in last year’s State of the Union address are several decades from viability, says a report released Wednesday by the National Academy of Sciences. Until hydrogen lives up to its promise, “the government should keep a balanced portfolio […]

Readers sound off on John Kerry, mad cow, and more

  Oh, Now We’re Blushing Re: Just Stick to Tofu Dear Editor: I read the Daily Grist of Jan. 9 and laughed out loud, was outraged, and laughed again. I was moved to finally contribute. I’ve been getting your newsletter for a couple of years and recommend it all the time. I’m a professional tree […]

First-of-its-kind report lambastes ExxonMobil for CO2 emissions

Warning signs. Photo: Greenpeace. ExxonMobil and its predecessor companies stretching back to Standard Oil were responsible for a whopping 5 percent of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions between 1882 and 2002, thanks to the companies’ operations and the burning of their products, according to a recent study put out by the Coalition for Environmentally […]

Built Ford? Tough.

Environmental Groups Target Bill Ford, Jr. Ford Motor Co. CEO Bill Ford, Jr., once a darling of the eco-friendly set, has come under attack by a coalition of environmental groups led by California-based Bluewater Network. In full-page national newspaper ads that began appearing Wednesday, the group lambasted Ford, Jr., for reneging on his July 2000 […]

The Otter Limits

DOI Proposes Adding Sea Otters to Endangered Species List The U.S. Department of the Interior yesterday proposed adding southwest Alaska’s sea otters to the government’s threatened species list, which would offer them protections under the Endangered Species Act. The sea otter population in southwest Alaska was robust as late as 1980, but since then has […]

Linkin’ Mercury

New Study Reveals More Babies at Risk From Mercury Roughly 630,000 of the 4 million children born annually in the U.S. are at risk of impaired motor function, learning capacity, memory, and vision due to high levels of mercury in their bloodstreams, revealed a U.S. EPA analysis released yesterday, which doubles the previously estimated number. […]

Do the Domenici

Senate Republicans, led by Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), are trying one more time to get the Bush administration’s energy bill passed, but growing worries over the massive federal budget deficit are making it difficult. You see, Domenici and crew larded the bill up with billions of dollars worth of tax incentives and subsidies (on top of […]

Greensylvania

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) unveiled a $22 billion state budget yesterday with numerous eco-friendly provisions that promise to protect green space, return abandoned mine sites to productive use, improve state parks, and revitalize aging city centers, asserting that such measures would spur economic development. Enviros hailed the budget, saying it would make Pennsylvania the […]