Latest Articles

Burned

192 million — number of acres in the U.S. National Forest System1 6.9 million — number of acres of private and federal land burned by wildfires in 2002 2 2.4 million — number of acres of national forest land burned by wildfires in 20023 980,000 — average number of acres of national forest land burned […]

Hillary Clinton threatens to block Bush’s EPA nominee

As the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks looms, the Bush administration is facing opprobrium for having deceived the American public about possible air-quality concerns at Ground Zero. Behind the scenes, the issue has become somewhat bizarrely entwined with another hot topic: the confirmation of Republican Gov. Michael Leavitt of Utah as the […]

Going Bananas

Philippine Journalists Arrested for Reporting on Illegal Pesticide Use Four journalists working in the Philippines, including a New York Times correspondent, have been arrested on libel charges because of articles and columns they wrote in 2000 about the use of illegal pesticides at a banana plantation. Also arrested was Romeo Quijano, a professor of medicine […]

Rove V. Waders

White House Political Maneuvering Could Hurt Northwest Salmon President Bush lost in Oregon and Washington in the 2000 election, but his team is working to ensure that he fares better in the Pacific Northwest in 2004 — and that may mean trouble for salmon. Bush’s top strategy honcho, Karl Rove, has been making quiet trips […]

Take a Bite Out of Grime

New Jersey to Make Polluters Pay for Routine Contamination New Jersey is getting tough on polluters, and other states may have a lot to learn from the state’s approach. New Jersey officials say they will soon begin broadly enforcing a law that requires polluting industries to pay the cost of cleaning up their messes. Sounds […]

I Love Trash

New Fuel Cell Uses Bacteria to Generate Power Maybe it’s not just a Back to the Future fantasy: If scientists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst keep making progress in developing a “microbial fuel cell,” one day trash might be able to power any number of devices (though probably not a time-traveling DeLorean). In […]

Caveat Caviar

Enviros Object to Renewed Trade in Caspian Sea Caviar Controversy is brewing over a plan to allow the resumption of beluga caviar exports from the Caspian Sea. Concerned about declining numbers of beluga sturgeon, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned caviar trade in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan in 2001, but now […]

Miner Threat

Mine in Montana Could Finish Off a Grizzly Population A copper and silver mine planned for the edge of a wilderness area in Montana could push a small, local population of grizzly bears toward extinction, environmentalists are warning. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave the green light for the mine to be built on […]

Amazing Graze

Bill to Phase Out Grazing Gets Support from Enviros and Ranchers Environmentalists and ranchers alike are getting excited about a bill that would have the federal government pay ranchers to give up their rights to graze cattle and sheep on public lands in the West. The legislation, soon to be introduced in Congress by Rep. […]

Tom Turner, Earthjustice

Tom Turner is senior editor at Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm based in Oakland, Calif. He edited daily newspapers at the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. He is the author of many books and articles on environmental subjects, most recently Justice on […]