Latest Articles

On a Different Scale

A pair of bills aimed at regulating genetically altered fish in food and the environment are facing a bitter fight in the California legislature. One of the proposed laws, a consumer right-to-know bill requiring the labeling of unpackaged transgenic fish in retail stores, passed the state Senate on Monday, but it must be approved by […]

Northern Light

In a classic example of strange bedfellows, the Nature Conservancy has teamed up with Great Northern Paper, a pulp and paper mill company, to protect thousands of acres of wilderness in Maine — and over a thousand jobs for company employees. The conservancy, whose Maine chapter was founded by legendary environmentalist Rachel Carson, provided the […]

Salmon in the Can

Over the past two decades, U.S. federal agencies have pumped $3.3 billion into recovery efforts for endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest — but there is no evidence that the money has paid off, according to a report issued yesterday by the U.S. General Accounting Office. The report is the government’s first comprehensive assessment of […]

Czech It Out

A “mini-Chernobyl” — that’s how a Czech investigating commission has described the potential threat posed by a chemical plant just north of Prague that was damaged in last week’s flooding in Central and Eastern Europe. The commission warned that the highly toxic chlorine released by the Spolana plant during the floods and again late last […]

Fish Out of Water

The White House has declined to appeal a U.S. federal court ruling that would provide water to the agriculture industry in California’s Central Valley potentially at the expense of Northern California’s fish and wildlife — a move that has provoked anger among environmentalists. In the earlier court case, the Westlands Water District, a 600,000-acre irrigation […]

Think of New England

While tens of thousands of people from all over the world gather in South Africa to wrangle over global environmental issues, a far smaller coalition is meeting quietly this week to ensure that New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers follow through on their promise to combat climate change. The Connecticut Climate Action Group, a […]

Blame It on Rio

Just two days into the World Summit on Sustainable Development, being held this week and next in Johannesburg, South Africa, there is already a marked division between representatives of developed and developing nations. Rich and poor nations are having difficulty seeing eye-to-eye on nearly all the critical topics being discussed at the conference — aid […]

Tom Turner, Earthjustice

Tom Turner is in South Africa at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to edit a daily news report, Eco, on behalf of a coalition of civil society organizations. He is senior editor at Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm. Monday, 26 Aug 2002 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Boasting the slogan “People, Planet, Prosperity,” the […]

In Security

Catherine Fedorsky, WSSD Green Energy Project

Catherine Fedorsky is monitoring energy consumption at the World Summit on Sustainable Development as part of the WSSD Green Energy Project. She is a managing member of Global Environmental Objectives, an environmental consulting firm. Monday, 26 Aug 2002 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa The radio wakes me up at 7 a.m. to news of the World Summit […]