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All Our Excess Lives in Texas

West Texas Up in Arms Over Bid to Sell State-Owned Water Water may be scarce in West Texas, but emotions are flowing freely over an insider deal that would allow politically powerful oil tycoons from Midland to sell billions of gallons of water from state-owned reserves. The deal was cut in secret between Rio Nuevo […]

Michelle Nijhuis reviews Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them

It's easy to look at disease outbreaks as acts of God, or fate, or chance. After all, diseases are often so capricious, so stubbornly beyond our full control, that it can seem as if we humans have little to do with them -- beyond suffering the consequences, that is. But in many cases, argues journalist and veterinarian Mark Jerome Walters, we have far more influence over disease than we think. In Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them, he contends that disease outbreaks are often triggered by the damage we've done to the environment.

Extract Marks the Spot

Development, Tradition on Opposite Sides in South American Energy Battles Given its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, the Amazon basin should be heaven for extractive industries. Instead, the people who make their home in the basin are trying to make life hell for energy companies. Over the years, Amazon natives have become both […]

It Doesn’t Look a Day Over 29

Taking Stock of the Endangered Species Act at Age 30 Who knew the Endangered Species Act was a Sagittarius? That’s right, this month the act will turn 30. Signed into law by President Nixon in 1973, the ESA aimed to prevent extinctions, bring imperiled species back to viable population levels, and protect the natural habitat […]

Bush’s latest clean-air proposals are better than nothing, but how much better?

Who let the smog out? Photo: EPA “I hate it that we’re always complaining,” said Eric Schaeffer, a former senior enforcement official at the U.S. EPA who resigned in 2002 to protest the Bush administration’s poor record on nabbing polluters. “So, looking on the bright side, I suppose you could call this better than nothing.” […]

Wes Is More

Clark Unveils Environmental Platform Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean grabbed the campaign spotlight this week by earning the endorsement of former Vice President Al Gore. Meanwhile, off in the shadows, fellow Democratic presidential contender retired Gen. Wesley Clark presented his environmental platform yesterday. Perhaps it befits Clark’s military background that he described that platform not […]

Billions and Billions Observed

World Population to Level Off at About 9 Billion, Says U.N. Population growth is expected to slow dramatically over the coming decades, but the number of people on the planet is still likely to reach 8.9 billion by 2050, up from 6.3 billion today, according to a new U.N. report released yesterday. Granted, that’s not […]

Crime and No Punishment

Pollution Enforcement Has Dropped Dramatically Under Bush President Bush talks tough about going after the bad guys, but it seems he’s been letting one set of lawbreakers off the hook: polluters. Enforcement of environmental laws under Bush has been far weaker than it was under his father and under President Clinton, according to records from […]

His Park Is Bigger Than His Bite

Chile Dedicates New Nature Park on Land Purchased by Rich American Some 738,000 acres of pristine rainforest in southern Chile will get official billing as a nature sanctuary today, thanks to a deal between U.S. tycoon Doug Tompkins and the Chilean government. Tompkins, cofounder of the sportswear company Esprit, paid more than $30 million for […]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Nevada Appeals to Federal Court to Stymie Nuke Waste Site Nevada is digging in its heels and promising a bitter fight to keep the nation’s high-level nuclear waste from being shipped to an underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Last year, President Bush signed a bill designating the site […]