Latest Articles
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Let’s Get Fiscal
President Bush’s $2.4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2005, released today, gives the environment the shaft. The budget does propose funding increases for a handful of high-profile enviro projects (mostly in electoral swing states), including Superfund cleanups, conservation grants to private landowners, maintenance and construction in national parks, and salmon restoration. In many cases, […]
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And Now for Something Completely Different
In sharp contrast to the recently released Bush administration budget, Canada’s Liberal Party government on Monday promised to double spending on contaminated-site cleanups, promote green technologies to increase energy efficiency, and go beyond the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol in curtailing emissions. Over 10 years, $4 billion will be devoted to cleaning up polluted military […]
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Smoke Signals
Activists fighting against climate change could learn much from the tactics of anti-smoking campaigners, argues Audrey Schulman in our Soapbox section. The tobacco war has been fought on many fronts, but perhaps the most important was the concerted publicity campaign that changed the images people associate with smoking. It’s no longer romantic, no longer “cool.” […]
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Going South
The search for Antarctic organisms that can be used for pharmaceutical and other commercial purposes — called “extremophiles” for their ability to thrive in harshly cold, dry, and salty conditions — is pushing international patent law to the breaking point and threatening the fragile Antarctic environment, concludes a United Nations study released on Sunday. The […]
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Fake Is the New Real
In an effort to conserve water (and perhaps bolster Southern California’s reputation as a showcase for all things fake), the city of Anaheim, Calif., and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California are pilot-testing faux lawns. If water savings meet expectations, residents who replace real grass with fake greenery could soon be eligible for rebates […]
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Meghan Houlihan, Greenpeace
Meghan Houlihan is the renewable energy program director for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, based in Greenfield, Mass. She periodically abandons her desk job to work as a web editor aboard Greenpeace vessels. Monday, 2 Feb 2004 PUERTO AISEN, Chile Back in bucolic little Vermont — my homeland — I wouldn’t need an alarm clock […]
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Transportation guru Hank Dittmar answers questions
What environmental organization are you affiliated with? What does it do? I work at Reconnecting America, a national organization focused on connecting transportation and communities to improve environmental and economic performance and create economic security for families and communities. We promote an interconnected national transport system, relying more on rail and bus for intercity travel; […]
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Cap ‘n’ Trade Cut ‘n’ Paste
If new rules proposed by the Bush administration to cut power-plant mercury emissions sound like they were written by industry lobbyists, it’s only because, well, they kinda were. The proposal, released by the U.S. EPA on Friday for a 60-day public comment period, contains at least 12 paragraphs lifted almost verbatim from memorandums sent to […]
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Wet’s It to You?
Goods and services provided by wetlands across the globe are worth some $70 billion, claims a new study released by the World Wildlife Fund, but those wetlands are in danger of being destroyed. Valuable wetland functions range from recreation to water filtration and flood control; however, insufficient knowledge about wetlands leads policy-makers to sanction their […]
