Latest Articles

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 […]

World Wanes

The World Summit on Sustainable Development opened today in Johannesburg, South Africa, with more than 40,000 delegates gathering to discuss issues such as water, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity. South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the 10-day summit by urging attendees to bridge the gap between “islands of wealth” and “a sea of poverty.” That’s […]

Euphrates Cats

The waters of the Euphrates River gave birth to civilization and are just as valuable today — but they are also in short supply, as people in Syria, Turkey, and Iraq battle for a share of the river. Similar struggles are taking place all over the world, from Texas to China, as water resources grow […]

Compassionate Conservation?

In the first of what the Bush administration hopes will be a series of public-private partnerships to create national wildlife refuges without using taxpayer dollars, the utility company Entergy is donating 600 acres of land along Louisiana’s Red River to the government. The Entergy donation could be the first parcel of a 50,000-acre Red River […]

Money Doesn’t Grow on Tree Cutting

Money talks. At least, that’s the hope of environmentalists in Texas, who are appealing to taxpayers’ economic self-interest in an effort to stop commercial logging in the state’s four national forests. After 15 years of failed efforts to stop the logging through legal action, the Sierra Club turned to a different tactic, commissioning and going […]

Up a Tree

When Julia Butterfly Hill did it, it was a novelty. Now, it seems, it’s becoming a trend: young people taking to the trees to fend off logging companies. From Santa Cruz, Calif., to the Pacific Northwest, dozens of tree-sitters are living in the canopy to protect old-growth forests from the axe — so many that […]

And other words from readers

  Re: Coolant Dear Editor: I am a big fan of Ask Umbra. I used to do a column like this for USA Today, and yours is much more interesting than mine was. (Of course, I was handicapped by being limited to one-syllable words.) But Umbra goofed a couple times in her first answer in […]

Knowing the Cost of Every Thin and the Value of Nothing

The plan unveiled by President Bush earlier this week to make it easier to thin forests in the name of fire prevention has touched off a firestorm of its own, enraging environmentalists who see it as a giveaway for the timber industry and a backdoor out of environmental protection measures. Moreover, environmentalists see the Bush […]