Latest Articles

Great Burial Reef

It’s not a great time to be the Great Barrier Reef. When sea temperatures around the famed Australian landmark hit record highs early this year, 60 percent of the coral on the reef suffered from heat-related bleaching, according to marine scientists. Warm water temperatures caused the algae that live on the reef to leave, disrupting […]

Radar Strange

Ever since Sept. 11, sophisticated surveillance systems have been the talk of the town, and fans have proposed installing them in all sorts of places — airports, subway systems, sports stadiums. But rainforests? Yep. Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso flew to the jungle city of Manaus yesterday to inaugurate the Amazon Surveillance System, a $1.4 […]

A review of Cradle to Cradle

The idea that growth can be good is anathema to most environmentalists. Yet that's exactly the argument made by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in Cradle to Cradle. Take a look at nature, the pair says, and you'll see that growth is not only good, but necessary -- that nature's very abundance is what environmentalists (and the rest of us) depend on and celebrate. The key is the right kind of growth -- and the key to that is better design.

Born to Be Wild

In a blow to property-rights advocates, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service said yesterday that wild salmon should continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act even though hatchery-born salmon are thriving. Last year, in a lawsuit brought by opponents of salmon protection, a federal judge told the agency to go back to the […]

Beached Wails

You might want to think twice before you head out with your sunscreen and towel this weekend. The number of sewage-tainted beaches is on the rise, jumping 19 percent between 2000 to 2001, according to a report released yesterday by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The group said that 13,410 beach closings and water advisories […]

Unsettling

The Bush administration is asking a federal judge to put the kibosh on a settlement that it reached 19 months ago with environmental groups to protect endangered manatees off the coast of Florida. The feds last year agreed to tighten procedures for issuing permits for waterfront development plans that might affect manatee habitat; they also […]

Honda Prelude

Honda predicted yesterday that one of its hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars could hit the road in California by the end of the year. The forecast came after the auto manufacturer’s FCX became the first fuel-cell car to be certified by the U.S. EPA and the California Air Resources Board as a low-emissions vehicle. Honda hopes to […]

Look for the Onion Label?

It’s not quite like a pie in the face or mashed potatoes on the cafeteria ceiling, but Oregonians can still expect a food fight come November. The state seems poised to be the first in the nation to vote on a labeling law for genetically modified foods, now that the backers of the initiative, Oregon […]

The Bycatcher in the Rye

“Save the whales!” “Save the dolphins!” Those were rallying cries of the environmental movement in the 1980s and ’90s, and they culminated in a successful campaign for “dolphin-safe” tuna — that is, tuna-fishing practices in the Pacific Ocean that wouldn’t harm marine mammals. Unfortunately, scientists now say that commercial fishing in the Atlantic and elsewhere […]

Caterpillar Metamorphoses Into Beautiful Lobbyist

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and a coalition of Republican colleagues, manufacturers, and trucking industry reps are pressuring the Bush administration to postpone a strict new anti-pollution standard for diesel trucks. Why? Because Illinois-based Caterpillar, Inc., one of the leading manufacturers of 18-wheel diesel tractor-trailers and a significant Republican campaign contributor, could face millions […]