Latest Articles

Welcome to the Ex-jungle

The rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest jumped 40 percent in 2002, with 9,840 square miles of forest lost, according to figures released this week by Brazil’s Environment Ministry. That loss — the highest since 1995 — prompted alarm among environmentalists and pledges by the Brazilian government to implement emergency measures to protect the […]

Umbra on hot air balloons

Dear Umbra, There’s a Hot Air Balloon Festival going on in the Hudson Valley right now and I’m watching balloons out my window wishing I had the nerve to go up in one, while also wondering how bad they are for the environment. This isn’t just mild curiosity; you could literally make or break my […]

Umbra on reusing trophies

Dear Umbra, You are my only hope! I need help with trophies. Not trophy boyfriends or bass fishing trophies, but a large collection of wood and metal trophies that I have accrued due to a high school career rife with geeky accomplishment. My mom, who has graciously housed these trophies up ’til now, has finally […]

And other words from readers

  Re: Boycotts Will Be Boycotts Dear Editor: The entire concept of powered personal vehicles is foul, and driving has many more serious effects than air pollution, or even than inspiring oil wars: It facilitates sprawl, which cannot exist in any significant form without the automobile; it requires more and more paving, which affects not […]

Umbra on chewing gum

Dear Umbra, I shudder at the triviality of the question, but so far nobody I’ve asked has been able to provide a satisfying answer. So here it is: Is chewing gum biodegradable? Can I spit it on the compost instead of sticking it under the chair? Would green stalks sprout from the gum-spot-riddled sidewalks if […]

Umbra on cell phones

Dear Umbra, After many years of idealistic holdout, I have finally decided to own a cell phone; changes in my lifestyle have made the benefits too heavy to be outweighed by the detrimental effects. However, I would like to minimize the impact of my decision (brain tumors notwithstanding), so I am searching for the most […]

Back to the Yellowstone Age

The Bush administration has asked the United Nations to remove Yellowstone National Park from a list of endangered World Heritage sites. “Yellowstone is no longer in danger,” wrote the Interior Department’s Paul Hoffman in a letter to the World Heritage Committee. There’s just one snag: The park staff disagree with Hoffman, saying Yellowstone still faces […]

What I Did With My Summer Vacation

Looking for a good summer camp? A weeklong environmental activist training camp being held this week in Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest might be for you. Sponsored by Greenpeace, the National Forest Protection Alliance, and other, like-minded environmental organizations, the camp is teaching some 70 participants the finer points of civil disobedience. The camp is designed […]

Tainted Sludge, Whoa-oh

When the cows at Boyceland Dairy outside Augusta, Ga., began dying by the hundreds, the Boyce family thought they knew what was to blame: the fertilizer used on the farm’s hayfields. That fertilizer was made from reclaimed sewage sludge; the Boyce family sued the city, claiming the sludge was tainted by industrial waste from Augusta […]

Channeling Evil

A controversial plan to deepen the main channel of the Columbia River by dredging has gotten the green light from key agencies in Oregon and Washington, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The $134 million project would deepen from 40 to 43 feet more than 100 miles of the Columbia, from Vancouver, Wash., […]