Latest Articles

On the Roadless Again

In a victory for environmentalists, a federal appeals court has reinstated a Clinton administration rule protecting nearly 60 million acres of national forests from logging, mining, and construction. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco lifted an injunction against the roadless rule yesterday, simultaneously affirming its legal basis and criticizing a lower […]

Gas-p

Fuel economy standards could change for the first time in six years if a Bush administration proposal to modestly increase gas mileage in sport utility vehicles, vans, minivans, and pickup trucks is approved. The proposal would increase the fuel economy of those vehicles by 1.5 miles per gallon over three years, beginning in 2005, from […]

Kim Jong Ill

In a sign of the further souring of relations with Washington, North Korea announced yesterday that it would immediately restart a nuclear reactor that has been offline since 1994, when it nearly provoked a war with the U.S. North Korea says the Yongbyon reactor is its only option for producing electricity in light of the […]

Cell-ebrate

Every year, hundreds of millions of new cell phones come into the world — and now, thanks to a deal brokered by the United Nations Environment Programme, when they leave the world, they may do so in a relatively eco-friendly fashion. Yesterday, the giants of the electronics industry (including market leaders Nokia, Motorola, Philips, and […]

On staying sane in a mad world

A Czech friend of mine sent me an email during the recent NATO summit in Prague as American fighter jets stood by and riot police filled the streets. “Sometimes,” she wrote, “I feel as though the world has gone mad.” Her words spoke my own thoughts so clearly it was as though I were reading […]

Share the Magic

If you have a little money squirreled away somewhere, maybe it’s time to take out stock in … an auto company. Thanks to a dedicated coalition of environmentalists who did just that, both General Motors and Ford Motors will be voting on global warming resolutions at their next shareholders meetings. Shareholder resolutions like the ones […]

Texan’s Chainsaw Massacre

Disregarding opposition in both houses of Congress, President Bush announced a plan yesterday to expedite the cutting of trees and brush in national forests by streamlining environmental reviews and judicial oversight. Bush says the plan will help reduce fire danger, but critics say last summer’s wildfires merely provided the pretext for permitting more logging on […]

Water We Thinking?

The U.S. has earned the dubious distinction of being the most wasteful user of water in the world, according to the first-ever Water Poverty Index. Developed by a team of British researchers, the index ranked 147 countries according to water resources, access, capacity, use, and environmental impact. The U.S., which has the highest per capita […]

A Hull of a Problem

Oil continues to seep out of the sunken oil tanker Prestige, further threatening coastal areas of northwestern Spain that have already suffered severe damage from the spill. An estimated 33,000 gallons of fuel oil are leaking each day from numerous cracks in the vessel, officials warned yesterday. If unaddressed, the leaks could continue into 2006, […]

Music to Calm the Salvage Beast

Salvage-logging operations that extract downed trees from storm-damaged areas may actually wreak more havoc on forests than did the original storm, according to a study conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The research, which was partially funded by the U.S. EPA, focused on Colorado’s Routt National Forest, where a 1997 windstorm blew down […]