Latest Articles

Not the Year of the Bicycle

Ever since the Communist Revolution of 1949, bicycles have been a seemingly indelible part of the Chinese landscape, as endemic as pandas. Now, though, as the pace of life picks up in China’s major cities, urban planners and government authorities have begun treating bicycles as nuisances — antiquated devices that impede the free flow of […]

Your Name Is Smud

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s internationally known solar power program is in shambles, having exceeded its budget and lost its long-term leader. The utility district had planned to spend $3.2 million in 2002 to help homeowners, businesses, government offices, and nonprofits install photovoltaic panels, to reach a goal of producing an additional 2 megawatts of […]

Hurricane Hugo

If Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has his way, some developing nations will create an OPEC-like cartel to protect plants and animals from exploitation by the industrialized world. Speaking earlier this week at the close of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Chavez said, “If these [developed] countries carry off a medical formula from some jungle […]

Nothing Doing

After 10 days of bargaining, debate, protests, speeches, presentations, negotiations, renegotiations, and etcetera, the World Summit on Sustainable Development is over. What remains behind is a 70-page non-binding plan and a burning question: Was anything achieved? Well — the plan does include a relatively strong stance on improving sanitation and protecting fish stocks, leading one […]

A back-to-school lesson in consumption

Kindergarten is starting next week, and the worn-out old sneakers from last spring are pinching my daughter’s toes. No shoes fit at our favorite used-clothing store, and no neighbors have the right pair of outgrown sneakers to offer this season. There is no avoiding it. One morning, as early as I can manage, I load […]

Can’t See the Trees for the Forest Service

Two House Democrats have accused the U.S. Forest Service of cooking its books in order to blame environmentalists for the fires that raged across much of the West this summer. Reps. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) spoke out yesterday against a recent USFS report in which the agency claimed that environmental appeals delayed […]

Cleveland Greens?

Cleveland, Ohio — a city that earned ecological infamy when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire in 1969 — is hoping to make environmental and automotive history by becoming home to the nation’s first public hydrogen fueling station. The station, which will open off the Ohio Turnpike in about two years, is one of four […]

Like a Virgin

In better forestry news, a heretofore-unknown pocket of virgin forest has been discovered in Massachusetts and is believed to be the largest in the state. The area, which somehow escaped more than three centuries of logging and development, consists of up to 1,000 acres on the 2,608-foot Mount Everett, near the Connecticut and New York […]

Over and Out

“The Bush administration won this ballgame 44-0.” That was how Brandon MacGillis, a spokesperson for the Washington, D.C.-based National Environmental Trust, summed up the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which wraps up today in Johannesburg, South Africa. Like MacGillis, many greens saw the 10-day conference as a step backward or, at best, a stalemate, with […]

Sin Diesel

Long-term exposure to diesel exhaust probably triggers a wide range of respiratory illnesses and causes lung cancer, according to a study released yesterday by the U.S. EPA. Based on decades of research, the study found “persuasive” evidence that the diesel engines operating on highways, farms, and construction sites around the country are hazardous to human […]