Latest Articles

Creature Discomforts

Endangered Species May Soon Be Imported to U.S., Under Bush Proposal The Bush administration wants to radically alter conservation policies to allow hunters, circuses, the pet industry, and leather importers to bring endangered animals into the U.S. from other nations — dead or alive. Since its adoption in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been […]

Conan the Solarian

Schwarzenegger’s Environmental Policies Look Good — for Now Whether you’re gleeful, woeful, incredulous, or inconsolable about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful bid for the governorship of California, your inner environmentalist may have reason to take heart. What with championing solar energy, calling for green building design, promoting air and water quality, opposing further logging in the Sierras, […]

You Can’t Hide, You’re Hybridized

Hybridization Between GM and Non-GM Plants Inevitable, Study Finds Confirming the fears of opponents of genetic modification, cross pollination between modified and wild plants cannot be prevented and could lead to the creation of hybrid “superweeds,” according to Britain’s first national study of how genes pass from crops to weeds. The findings differ from earlier […]

No Heir Apparent Until Air’s Apparent

Documents Show Sharp Dispute Took Place Over 9/11 Air Quality Information Newly released government documents are finally providing Congressional Democrats with what they’ve been looking for: information about who was responsible for censoring data about Manhattan’s air quality following the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Those documents reveal “screaming telephone […]

Holmstead Act

EPA Official Gave Misleading Testimony on Clean Air, Say Whistleblowers Meanwhile, all isn’t well inside the U.S. EPA, either. Last year, Assistant Administrator for Air Policy Jeffrey Holmstead testified before Congress that Bush administration efforts to ease clean air enforcement rules wouldn’t interfere with pending lawsuits against dirty power plants — but two former agency […]

Bubble Trouble

Navy Sonar Is Causing the Bends in Marine Mammals, Report Says Sonar from navy ships appears to be giving whales and other marine mammals the bends, that infamous bane of scuba divers and other deep-sea adventurers, according to a report published in the latest edition of the journal Nature. Researchers from England and Spain found […]

Smelter Skelter

Enviros Protest Massive Dam in Iceland Extreme weather and remote locations can’t stop the forward march of, uh, progress, as Iceland’s Karahnjukar dam shows. The dam, which will be Europe’s highest, is being built in a huge wilderness area, much to the dismay of environmentalists. They fear it will drown highland vegetation, change the groundwater […]

Spitz-ing Mad

Attorneys General Accuse HUD of Noncompliance on Pesticide Law The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development isn’t abiding by a federal law governing pesticide use in public housing projects, according to attorneys general from 10 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some 1.3 million families are exposed to unsafe levels of pesticides because of […]

Wheezy Does It

Even Comparatively Clean Air Could Exacerbate Asthma, Study Shows What constitutes a safe level of pollution? For children suffering from severe asthma, there might not be such a thing, according to research published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a study of 271 kids under the age of […]

No More Sulfuring in Silence

China Bans Coal Plants in Big Cities In a much-needed and long-awaited gambit to improve air quality and reduce acid rain, China has banned coal-fired power plants in major cities across the nation. The ban applies to Beijing, Shanghai, and 21 provincial capitals, which together produce approximately 60 percent of China’s sulfur dioxide emissions. Sulfur […]