Latest Articles

Gold Substandard

Unlawful Gold Mining Threatens Brazilian Amazon Illegal gold mining in the rivers of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is on the upswing and could mean bad news for the environment. Thousands of poor small-scale miners, called garimpeiros, risk their lives to get at traces of gold at the bottom of rivers, sometimes employing equipment as basic as […]

Mike Simpson, One Sky

Mike Simpson works on international environmental projects with partners in West Africa and Latin America. He is the executive director of One Sky — The Canadian Institute of Sustainable Living in the rural, northern town of Smithers, British Columbia. Monday, 10 Nov 2003 EN ROUTE TO SIERRA LEONE It’s the bags that always get me […]

Ghost Busters

Contaminated U.S. Ships Cause a Stir in Britain Controversy continues to swirl around four highly contaminated former U.S. Navy vessels — dubbed “ghost ships” — that are making their way across the Atlantic* to Hartlepool, England, where a British company has a contract to dismantle them. The first two toxin-tainted ships are being towed through […]

Strawberry Yields Forever

U.S. Could Endanger Ozone Layer with Push for Pesticide Use In pushing for continued use of a controversial pesticide, the Bush administration could undermine international efforts to protect the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol, a 1987 treaty ratified by the U.S. and other industrialized nations, calls for phasing out the ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide by […]

Heartbreaker

Air Pollution Boosts Heart Attacks, Says New Study Evidence keeps coming in to show that air pollution kills. New research released on Sunday found that during the 18 highest air-pollution days in Dijon, France, the rate of heart attacks increased by 161 percent among the general population, and by 250 percent among smokers. Fine particulate […]

Bigger Homes and Gardens

As New Homes in Massachusetts Get Bigger, Enviros Get Worried If Americans follow the trend in Massachusetts, they’ll increasingly be living in larger homes on larger lots, even though fewer people reside in each house. A new report by the Massachusetts Audubon Society found that the state is losing 40 acres of forest, farmland, and […]

He’s Crafty, He Gets Around

Anti-Environmental Riders Popping Up on Spending Bills With a raft of must-pass spending bills making their way through Congress this month, a handful of crafty lawmakers are tacking on unrelated anti-environmental provisions, or “riders,” in hopes of circumventing the usual legislative process. Perhaps the craftiest of all is Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), head of the […]

Readers stump for their candidates of choice, and more

  Re: Go, Wes, Young Man Dear Editor: Many of us are concerned that Wesley Clark lacks an understanding of environmental issues. Aside from all the nice things Clark has to say about urinating turtles, he has virtually nothing serious to contribute on the topic Equally troubling is his support of former President Reagan, who […]

Drop and Give Me 50

States Fight Back Against EPA Decision to Drop Power Plant Cases It didn’t take long for the backlash to set in against the U.S. EPA’s decision, announced Wednesday, to abandon its investigations into 50 polluting power plants in the face of the Bush administration’s rollback of the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review rules. One […]

Leavitt to Busy Beaver

Leavitt Sworn in as New EPA Chief Former Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt zipped from his home state of Utah to the nation’s capital this week, but he didn’t get to go for a leisurely stroll along the Mall or take advantage of the free museum access. Instead, after a hasty swearing-in as the 10th administrator […]