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Spotted Record

Federal protections for the spotted owl and the marbled murrelet have been blamed by many in the anti-enviro camp for the collapse of the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest during the 1990s. Now, the Bush administration has announced that it will review those protections, as well as the designation of “critical habitat” thought necessary […]

Roger Di Silvestro, National Parks Conservation Association

Roger Di Silvestro is the senior director of Communications for the National Parks Conservation Association. He has been a professional conservationist for more than 25 years and has written six books on wildlife conservation. Tuesday, 14 Jan 2003 WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), which since 1919 has been working to ensure […]

On the Rocks, With Salt

California received a blow to its water supplies earlier this month when the feds reduced the amount of Colorado River water diverted to the state. Now, the ever-thirsty Golden State is turning to a different potential source to solve its water woes: the Pacific Ocean. Seawater can be converted to freshwater through desalination, a process […]

Is the U.S. prepared for a major oil spill in its waters?

In the wake of November’s massive oil spill off the coast of Spain that continues to despoil hundreds of miles of undeveloped shoreline, disrupt vast fisheries, and jeopardize the livelihoods of the people who depend on them, the European Union has begun to crack down on old, poorly maintained, single-hulled tankers like the sunken “Prestige.” […]

Weed Wackos

The widespread use of Roundup, a common herbicide developed by Monsanto, has caused weeds that are resistant to the chemical to spring up on a half-million acres of agricultural land across the U.S. At fault, scientists say, is the popularity of bioengineered crops that are “Roundup Ready” — that is, created by Monsanto to be […]

Texas, With Mess

The Texas legislature is under pressure to find a way to fund a plan to cut smog in the state’s major urban areas. If the lawmakers can’t come up with the money soon, the U.S. EPA has threatened to reject the plan and take over the state’s pollution-control efforts. That would jeopardize federal highway money, […]

Put It on Credit

Industrial polluters will be allowed to buy credits from cleaner competitors to help comply with the Clean Water Act, under a plan released yesterday by the Bush administration. The National Water Quality Trading Policy would allow industrial, agricultural, and wastewater-treatment operations that cannot meet clean water regulations to purchase credits from cleaner facilities in the […]

Home Is Where the Environmental Devastation Is

Divorce has been blamed for everything from falling academic grades to rising crime rates — and now a new report says broken homes are partly to blame for environmental devastation. According to a study appearing in the journal Nature, social trends such as living alone, having fewer children, divorcing more often, and remaining single longer […]

The Gas They Pass

In other news from the Golden State, California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, have introduced legislation that would prevent energy companies in Mexico from using Californian natural gas in their plants near the California-Mexico border unless those plants complied with the state’s strict air-quality standards. The legislation would apply to natural-gas-powered generators […]

Wet ‘n’ Not-so-wild

New guidelines unveiled by the Bush administration on Friday could spell trouble for 20 million acres of wetlands across the United States. The guidelines were prompted by a 2001 Supreme Court decision that found that isolated, non-navigable ponds and wetlands in Illinois did not merit protection under the Clean Water Act. Environmentalists say that narrow […]