Latest Articles

Something Smells Fishy

The Bush administration is proposing changes to its salmon-protection strategy that critics say would endanger salmon while boosting logging in the Pacific Northwest. As it now stands, federal rules prohibit timber sales and other activities on public lands unless officials can demonstrate that fish would not be harmed. Under revisions proposed this week, officials would […]

The feds are backing nuclear power — in the name of the environment

It’s a long-held tenet of U.S. environmentalists that nuclear power is bad news. Critics argue that the clean-air benefits of nuclear reactors are far outweighed by the consequences of uranium mining and radioactive waste storage — not to mention the damage that could result from an accident at an atomic power station. Now more than […]

Research and Destroy

It’s been a bad news week for whales. First, Iceland announced that it would begin hunting minke, fin, and sei whales again after a 13-year hiatus. The nation says the whaling will be strictly for research purposes, but environmentalists say the plan is a smokescreen for commercial hunts. The World Conservation Union’s Red List ranks […]

Ceci N’est Pas Une Small Fine

The U.S. EPA has levied a $34 million fine against the Colonial Pipeline Company, the largest civil penalty the agency has doled out in its 32-year history. The company owns a 5,500-mile underground pipeline that snakes through 14 states on its way from Texas to New York; the fine is for violating the federal Clean […]

Sweet Tooth and Nail

Efforts to restore Florida’s Everglades hit a snag yesterday, when the state’s top environmental regulator suggested delaying by 20 years the cleanup of phosphorus from South Florida waters. David Struhs, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, had previously backed a plan to reduce the presence of phosphorus from a whopping 300 parts per […]

Black and Blue Canyon

In a move that environmentalists and others fear could set a dangerous precedent, the U.S. Department of the Interior has ceded control over the waters in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park, allowing the state to sell it to cities. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the decision to hand over control of the river (which was awarded […]

Tupperscare Parties

A chemical commonly used in food packaging and other plastics may cause miscarriages and Down’s syndrome, according to a study published this week in the journal Current Biology. Geneticists at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University found that exposure to even small quantities of bisphenol A (BPA), a substance that mimics the hormone estrogen, can disrupt […]

Dyna-shore

In a triumph for Golden State environmentalists, the Bush administration decided yesterday against asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn two lower court decisions upholding California’s right to review proposed offshore drilling projects along its coast. Gov. Gray Davis (D) hailed the decision, noting, “The future of California beaches is now where it should be […]

They Brought Bad Things to Life

Meanwhile, in another legal victory on the other side of the country, a federal court yesterday rejected General Electric’s constitutional challenge to the U.S. EPA’s power to force the company to clean up the Hudson River. From the 1940s to the 1970s, GE dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the upper Hudson, where 500,000 […]

Not in to It

Far-flung Greenland doesn’t seem like it would be a danger zone for hazardous chemicals, but researchers from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program have documented “unacceptable levels” of environmental toxics in the nation’s Inuit population. The toxics include persistent organic pollutants, lead, cadmium, mercury, and other hazardous chemicals that are carried by wind and ocean […]