Latest Articles

Haiti Crimes

Logging Leads to Devastating Floods and Erosion in Haiti Flooding and erosion have become such massive problems in the area around Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince that they can wipe out shanties, cars, even whole neighborhoods. A number of human-caused factors contribute to the devastation, including poor irrigation and drainage practices, unregulated construction on hillsides, and, […]

Gone Today, Ear Tomorrow

E.U. Poised to End Five-Year Ban on New GM Foods A corn product developed by the Anglo-Swiss biotech company Syngenta will likely be approved for sale by the European Union next month, ending a five-year de facto ban on new genetically modified foods on the continent. A number of other GM product approvals are expected […]

I Wear My Sunglasses to Fight

Anonymous National Park Service Employees Speak of Broad Discontent They showed up for a news conference at the National Press Building cloaked in dark glasses, hats, and scarves, used a voice disguiser, and hid behind a thick curtain. But they weren’t mafia informants or witnesses in a spy case; they were longtime employees of the […]

Ding Dong, the Plant Is Dead

Germany Shutters First N-Plant in Beginning of End of Atomic Industry Germany began its historic phaseout of all atomic energy by shutting down the first of 19 nuclear power plants today. The Stade plant, in a city of the same name, had been open since 1972, making it the nation’s second-oldest atomic energy facility. Anti-nuclear […]

Air Raid

Alaska Gives Nod to Aerial Pesticide Spraying In a blow to environmentalists, Alaska has approved controversial regulations governing aerial pesticide spraying, set to go into effect at the end of the month. The new regulations establish a 35-foot “pesticide-free zone” around water bodies, as well as a secondary buffer zone designed to prevent chemicals from […]

Jock Itch

Environmental Problems Alarm Athletes Here’s a new green group you may want to join: Jocks for the Environment. Actually, that group doesn’t exist, but people who might identify with the description are gathering today in Tokyo for the Global Forum for Sport and the Environment. Participants (including Greg LeMond, three-time Tour de France winner) will […]

Commission: Possible?

Kerry Proposes Commission to Protect Integrity of Environmental Regulation John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who has slipped substantially in the ranks of Democratic presidential contenders, sought to reinvigorate his campaign yesterday by returning to one of his keystone issues: environmental protection. Speaking in New Hampshire, Kerry proposed creating a new federal commission to prevent political […]

Robert Redford gets heated up about the Bush environmental agenda, clean energy, and more

He played the Sundance Kid, the sharpshooter sidekick to Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy in the 1969 classic; he built the Sundance Village in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah; he founded the Sundance Institute for independent film and theater production and established the Sundance Film Festival. But all the while, Robert Redford has been doing an […]

Lawn Order

Senate Says No to California Plan to Cut Small-Engine Pollution California’s cutting-edge environmental policies were dealt a blow yesterday when the U.S. Senate voted to prevent the state from regulating air pollution from small engines such as those found in gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and weed whackers. Although lawn equipment is small, its environmental […]

Drug Busting

Enviros Sue USDA Over Biopharmaceuticals A coalition of green groups and consumer advocates took the U.S. Department of Agriculture to court yesterday in an effort to halt experimental planting of “biopharmaceutical crops,” plants genetically engineered to produce medicine. The coalition, which includes Friends of the Earth and the Center for Food Safety, wants the USDA […]