Latest Articles

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 […]

Poor Power to You

African Leaders Call for Conservation That Benefits the Poor Former South African President Nelson Mandela, current President Thabo Mbeki, Queen Noor of Jordan, and a host of other luminaries today called on conservationists to ensure that their efforts benefit the world’s poor. Speaking at the opening of the 10-day World Parks Congress in Durban, South […]

Home, Home on the Free Range

Conan the Eco-friendly Barbarian

Schwarzenegger Tries to Green His Image Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to paint himself with a green brush as he revs up his campaign for the California governorship. Though he’s running as a Republican, he’s carving out positions at odds with the Bush administration on a number of issues, from logging in the Sierra Nevada to […]

Grand Shift Auto

Car Ownership Surging in Beijing The number of registered cars in Beijing jumped to 2 million last month, doubling in just six years. Now one in five households in the Chinese capital owns a car, a huge shift from the situation a decade ago, when most cars were owned by the government and the city’s […]

The Crime of the Ancient Mariner

Albatrosses Pushed Toward Peril by Fishing Fleets Albatrosses are in trouble. All 21 species of the seabird are at some risk of extinction, and six of the species have suffered notable declines in the last few years, according to a report from the conservation group BirdLife International. The blame goes primarily to longline fishing boats, […]