Latest Articles

Andrew Larson, Seattle Public Utilities

Andrew Larson works in the Watershed Management Division of Seattle Public Utilities as a forest ecology intern. He is also pursuing graduate studies in Forest Ecosystem Analysis at the University of Washington. Monday, 27 Oct 2003 SEATTLE, Wash. Just a few weeks ago my life wasn’t quite so busy. I was working full-time in the […]

Airing Out the Dirty Laundry

EPA Official Knew Rule Change Could Hurt Enforcement, GAO Says The top air-quality official at the U.S. EPA was warned repeatedly by agency staffers that changes to the New Source Review rules of the Clean Air Act could undermine enforcement actions against polluting industrial plants, a General Accounting Office report found last week. But still […]

Spammed If You Do, Spammed If You Don’t

Breadfruit Trees Endangered by Climate Change and Western-Style Diet The breadfruit tree, which has long provided a dietary staple to residents of South Pacific islands, is in severe decline, experts say, threatened by climate change and, of all things, Spam. Breadfruit trees, with their shallow roots, are particularly vulnerable to storms and cyclones, which have […]

Brown Out

Two Enviros Named to San Francisco Power Commission in Political Coup A political coup in San Francisco last week led to two environmentalists being named to the city’s Public Utilities Commission: former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach and Robin Chiang, an architect specializing in eco-friendly design and construction. San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly was serving […]

Hanford and Sums

Feds, Washington State Reach Agreement on Hanford Cleanup After years of bitter wrangling, the federal government and Washington state on Friday reached an agreement on a timeline for cleaning up the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southern Washington. Under the deal, the U.S. Energy Department will treat the equivalent of […]

Under African Sighs

Zimbabwe’s Wildlife Suffer Under Political Turmoil Zimbabwe’s corrupt and troubled government is not only making life miserable for many of the country’s people but also for its once famous populations of elephants, rhinoceroses, and other wild animals. By some estimates, up to two-thirds of animals on Zimbabwe’s game farms and wildlife preserves have been killed, […]

On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever

California Gets a New Plan for Clean(er) Air Southern California should get cleaner air under new regulations approved yesterday by the state Air Resources Board — although not as clean as required by federal law. The region’s air quality has been improving steadily since the 1970s, but recent years have seen a resurgence in ozone, […]

Chemical Reaction

E.U. Waters Down Chemical Safety Testing Plan In a blow to advocates of environmental and human health, the European Union dramatically narrowed the scope of its plan to require safety testing for tens of thousands of chemicals. The move was motivated primarily by financial concerns, and the narrower plan is expected to save billions of […]

Poor Judgment

Company Warns Poor and Minorities They Will Suffer if N-Plant Is Closed The power company Entergy Nuclear Northeast is warning low-income and minority citizens in New York that more power plants will be built in their neighborhoods if the state’s highly controversial Indian Point nuclear power plant is closed. Critics say the move is an […]

In the Hot Seat

States Sue Federal Government Over Climate Change Responding to a U.S. EPA decision earlier this summer that the agency does not have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide from vehicles and power plants, 12 states filed suit against the federal government yesterday to force the Bush administration to do something about global climate change. The […]