Latest Articles

40 Acres and a Tax Break

California environmentalists and farmers rejoiced yesterday when Gov. Gray Davis (D) restored $40 million in funding for farmland and open-space protection under the Williamson Act. Together, farmers and enviros had lobbied heavily against the proposed elimination of the act, under which the state pays back counties for property taxes lost when landowners are given lower […]

A Loophole in the Ozone

Ending a six-year battle, the U.S. EPA reintroduced proposals yesterday for new standards to combat ozone, which causes smog. At issue in the battle was whether the ozone-pollution controls outlined by Congress in the 1990 Clean Air Act should apply to moderately polluted metropolitan areas. The act divided polluted areas into categories ranging from mild […]

Kohe Malama Malama O Kanaloa (We Just Like Typing That)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will reduce the number of acres designated as critical habitat in Maui, Hawaii, by about 25 percent compared to last year, leaving some 93,200 acres protected for 59 threatened and endangered species. In nearby Kaho’olawe, the agency will reduce critical habitat designations by 85 percent, to just 3,000 acres, […]

Their Dumpsters Runneth Over

They’re talking trash in Naples, Italy — literally. For the past week, the city and its suburbs have been overwhelmed by garbage, which is oozing from dumpsters, blowing down sidewalks, causing school closures, blocking traffic, and dominating local conversation as residents and city officials alike wonder what to do about it. Although a solution is […]

Umbra on green reasons to quit smoking

Dear Umbra, I want to quit smoking. As if the risks to my health weren’t enough, could you help out by twisting that knife of guilt into my tree-hugging heart and give me some environmental reasons to stop supporting the tobacco industry? Cough, wheeze, ElaineSaint John, New Brunswick, Canada Dearest Elaine, I don’t care whether […]

Umbra on engineered soy products

Dear Umbra, I don’t know if you’ll have time to answer this question, but while purchasing 8th Continent soymilk my husband noticed that there was Solae in it. After some research on the Internet, we discovered that Solae is made by DuPont and is a genetically engineered soybean, but we were unable to find anything […]

And other words from readers

  Re: Administrophic Dear Editor: Thanks for the link [to a log of the Bush administration’s environment-related activities], and I really mean that, even though I am a registered Republican. The only thing I did not like about this column was that a hated Democrat was using your forum to dig up dirt on Republicans. […]

Umbra on milk cartons

Hi Umbra, I don’t know if the same thing has happened in the U.S, but here in Canada the milk industry has undergone a massive shift to using different containers. Once, you could get plastic jugs or cardboard cartons with fold-back lids or plastic bags. But now, the most commonly available container is a revised […]

The Evidence Is Thin

A new report by the federal government has found that very few forest-thinning projects have been stalled by appeals from environmentalists, giving the lie to allegations to the contrary by the Bush administration. The General Accounting Office reported yesterday that the U.S. Forest Service was able to proceed with 95 percent of thinning projects within […]

There’s Other Fish in the Sea. But Not Many.

Ninety percent of the world’s largest and most economically important fish have disappeared due to a half-century of industrial fishing, according to a groundbreaking study published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. The study found that modern fishing has become so efficient that it can decimate 80 percent or more of a given species […]