Latest Articles

The Grinch Who Stole Tongass

Bush Reverses Logging Ban in Alaska’s Tongass Forest Doing their part for holiday spirit, the Bush administration announced just two days before Christmas that it is exempting Alaska’s Tongass National Forest — America’s largest, and a longtime environmental battleground — from a controversial Clinton-era ban on development in roadless areas of national forests. The administration […]

Hey, Where Is Everybody?

Deafening Silence Greets Bush’s Call for Voluntary Pollution Cuts Two years in, President Bush’s “Climate Leaders” program — a call for commitments from companies to voluntarily cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent or more within a decade — has seen only 50 of the thousands of polluting companies in the U.S. sign up, […]

A Mighty Wind

New California Wind Farm Blows Previous Efforts Away Between San Francisco and Sacramento lies the nearly completed High Winds Energy Center, a state-of-the-art wind farm expected to generate roughly 162 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 75,000 homes — and make wind power competitive with extractive energy sources. The turbines at High Winds represent […]

Patricia Feeney, Youth Power Shift

Patricia Feeney is a senior biology major at Berea College in Berea, Ky., where she also studies sustainability and environmental studies. She is co-coordinator of Youth Power Shift, a campaign of the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Tuesday, 6 Jan 2004 BEREA, Ky. “What do you plan to do after you graduate from college?” the man […]

On climate change, other nations get cracking while the U.S. is slacking

The recent Milan conference on the Kyoto Protocol started out with a bang — a commotion of rumors about Russia’s ratification of the treaty — and went out with a whimper, offering no clear signal that the landmark accord on climate change would ever become international law. But one important development became clear amidst the […]

Readers sound off on solar houses, ethanol, LNG facilities, and more

  Re: Little Solar Houses for You and Me Dear Editor: As a Winchester, Tenn., resident and strong supporter of renewable energy and sustainable living, I just want to say thanks to Amanda and to Grist for the great article on the renewable-energy scene in Tennessee and the Southeast. It’s perfect that I stumbled onto […]

In Cod’s Country

E.U. Fisheries Ministries Reach Agreement on Catch Quotas They had to pull an all-nighter to make it happen, but the 15 nations of the European Union have finally reached an agreement on catch quotas for all commercial species of fish in the region. In crafting the agreement, fisheries ministers from the member nations sought to […]

Spills and Chills

Exxon Valdez Spill Continued to Cause Harm Years Later, Scientists Say The Exxon Valdez oil spill has lived on in the minds of Alaskans, environmentalists, and people around the globe who were horrified and outraged by the widespread ecological destruction from the 1989 disaster. Now, it turns out that the spill has also lived on […]

Not in My Backwards

Japanese Town Vies for World’s First Fusion Reactor With all the Not In My Backyard squabbling that takes place over nuclear energy facilities, it’s tough to believe that some communities actually invite nuclear power into the neighborhood. But that’s exactly the hope of Rokkasho-mura, a tiny fishing village in Japan that wants to house the […]

Umbra on water heaters

Dear Umbra, I have a question that’s been nagging at me for some time. Since I have a water heater inside my house, any waste heat from the water heater contributes to heating the house. Does it still make sense in terms of energy savings to put an insulating blanket on the water heater? KurtLittleton, […]