Latest Articles

Umbra on the benefits of recycling

Dear Umbra, Some time ago, the public radio program This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass, was about recycling. Glass reported, “Experts agree that we have plenty of landfill space for the foreseeable future.” He proposed that recycling therefore did little more than make us feel good. The hapless person he interviewed came up with […]

Umbra on recycling profitability

Dear Umbra, My friend has the notion that recycling programs lose money. Where does this come from? I can imagine situations where that could be the case, but in most cities there seems to be plenty of material being recycled to justify the collection infrastructure, etc. And surely there are markets for more recycled content […]

Wanderlost

Migratory Routes Increasingly Threatened One of the significant but little-noted shortcomings of wildlife preserves is that they only protect animals that stay put. Biologists who study large-scale animal migrations worry that many of nature’s most spectacular feats of persistence and survival are threatened by habitat loss and development. For instance, each winter pronghorn antelope travel […]

Not Corn Yesterday

U.K. Ministers Green-Light Genetically Modified Corn In the U.K., they fight over genetically modified foods the way folks in the U.S. fight over “America’s Next Top Model.” The daily drip of accusations and counter-accusations can blur the eyes, but today brought a bona fide significant development: U.K. ministers officially announced that they would allow commercial […]

Sore Eyes for Sites

Eleven New Sites Proposed for Superfund The U.S. EPA yesterday proposed adding 11 new sites to its Superfund toxic-site cleanup program, but critics say the number is too small and the program woefully underfunded. The new sites represent the biggest, dirtiest, most complex cleanups in the country, the “real turkeys that the states don’t want […]

Readers sound off on immigration, racial prejudice, Nader, and more

  Cred Ability Re: Que Sierra, Sierra   Dear Editor: To preserve the beauty and health of the environment for all the world’s populations, environmentalists can only educate, inspire, and lead. What little power we may wield stems from our ideas, and perhaps also from our love of nature and of humanity. Yes, the number […]

An eco-film booster answers questions

What organization are you affiliated with? What does it do? I work with the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Network. I have been on the board for three years now. Every year this organization puts on a film festival in Leavenworth, Wash. This year it is March 18-21. We are showing more than 50 films from […]

Hy Jinx

Hybrids Gaining Ground Among Celebs, But Still Pricey for the Rest of Us Thanks to lobbying by intrepid enviro group Global Green USA, several high-profile celebrities arrived at the Academy Awards this year not in stretch limos, but in diminutive hybrid Toyota Priuses. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, Robin Williams, and Sting all […]

Not OK Computer

U.N. Study Highlights Computers’ Environmental Hazards A U.N. study released today highlights the environmental hazards posed by the worldwide popularity of personal computers. Manufacturing the average PC requires 10 times the product’s weight in fossil fuels, says the study — compared to twice the product’s weight for cars and refrigerators. Computer manufacturing also entails heavy […]

To the Victor Goes the Right to Spoil

How the Energy Industry Won the Battle for Influence in the Bush Admin. It’s a fable for our times: When the Bush administration took office in 2001, a battle over energy policy began. On one side was the U.S. EPA, with its team of long-time career employees and its moderate new head Christie Whitman. On […]