Latest Articles

No Kidding

Combating environmental hazards has helped improve children’s health, according to a new report by the White House and the U.S. EPA. The report, which is scheduled to be released shortly, found that childhood lead poisoning and children’s exposure to second-hand smoke have both declined, largely due to targeted campaigns. However, the remaining cases of lead […]

And other words from readers

  Re: Hydra-gen Dear Editor: If you truly would like to see a hydrogen-based economy in your lifetime, then you should embrace President Bush’s plan like your favorite teddy bear. Do not deride the plan because it focuses on using fossil fuels to produce the hydrogen, thereby creating pollution and greenhouse gases and negating the […]

Homeland Insecurity

Crying Shaman

A new oil pipeline that will run from the Russian region of Buryatiya into China is being hailed by industry officials and government leaders as a major economic boon, but many local residents beg to differ. Construction of the pipeline will involve bulldozing land and felling trees — environmental problems anywhere and cultural travesties in […]

Oakless Creek Canyon

Flagstaff, Ariz., is shaping up to be the testing grounds for the Bush administration’s Healthy Forests initiative, a highly controversial effort to ease environmental reviews of logging projects on many Western public lands and ban reviews entirely in areas where forest fires could threaten human developments. Some 2,000 suburban Flagstaff homes are located just seven […]

Maple Syrup

Canada yesterday set aside $1.3 billion over five years to slash its greenhouse gas emissions and another $660 million for other environmental initiatives, as part of what Environment Minister David Anderson called “the greenest budget this country has ever seen.” The government also approved a tax break for cleaner diesel and agreed to prioritize infrastructure […]

Who Ya Gonna Call? Coast Busters!

The California legislature has passed a bill to alter the structure of the California Coastal Commission, thereby enabling the powerful board to continue regulating development along the state’s coast. Seven weeks ago, a state appeals court ruled that allowing the legislature to remove commissioners at will violated the state constitution’s mandate to maintain separation of […]

Who will represent the voice of the world’s people?

Petitions have been arriving in a flurry in my email inbox lately. I have some doubts about the efficacy of all this petitioning and tend to be quick with the delete button, but one recent petition drew me in. The message itself — which stated that the United Nations was collecting signatures of people opposed […]

London Bridge Is Clearing Up

Traffic in central London fell by roughly 25 percent Monday, the first day of a congestion-mitigation plan that was the controversial brainchild of Mayor Ken Livingstone. Under the plan, it costs about $8 per car to enter central London from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with steep penalties for those who don’t pay. About 80,000 […]

Mr. Blackwell’s Worst Polluting List

No surprise: Pickup trucks and oversized SUVs scored the lowest on the U.S. EPA’s latest ranking of vehicles based on tailpipe emissions. The list graded vehicles on a scale of 0 to 10. Large SUVs like BMW’s X5 and General Motors’ Hummer H2 earned a 0 and a 2, respectively, while most small and medium […]