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An excerpt from Eco-Economy by Lester R. Brown

In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres," in which he challenged the view that the sun revolved around the Earth, arguing instead that the Earth revolved around the sun. With his new model of the solar system, he began a wide-ranging debate among scientists, theologians, and others. His alternative to the earlier Ptolemaic model, which placed the Earth at the center of the universe, led to a revolution in thinking, and ultimately to a new worldview.

New Snooze Review

A proposal to alter the New Source Review rule of the Clean Air Act will be announced today, according to the U.S. EPA. The rule requires companies to install state-of-the-art pollution-control equipment when upgrading aging power plants. The utility industry has lobbied intensely against New Source Review, saying it should apply only to extensive, non-routine […]

Amazon Grace

Here’s a little bit of welcome news from the Southern Hemisphere: The rate of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest has fallen sharply, according to Brazilian environmental officials. Between 2000 and 2001, the rate of logging and set forest fires fell by 13 percent, from roughly 7,000 square miles of forest destroyed in 2000 to about […]

Environmental Quality Is Job One

A new TV and radio advertising campaign by the Sierra Club calls on the automobile industry to cut its oil use as an act of patriotism — and singles out Ford Motor Company CEO William Clay Ford, Jr., to lead the way. The great-grandson of Henry Ford, William Ford used to be seen as an […]

Justice First!

Two Earth First! activists were awarded $4.4 million yesterday after a jury found that three FBI agents and three Oakland police officers violated the civil rights of the duo. Darryl Cherney, who remains an Earth First! leader, and Judi Bari, who died of cancer in 1997, were injured in a 1990 car bombing on their […]

Can-do-ada

After a decade of debate, the Canadian House of Commons approved yesterday what could become Canada’s first nationwide endangered species bill. The bill would prohibit the harming or killing of endangered species on federal land and the destruction of the species’ critical habitat. A scientific advisory board would nominate critters to be added to an […]

Chemical Bothers

Led by a prominent pediatrician, the Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine is waging war against industrial chemicals, saying they present significant health risks to children. At a press conference yesterday, Phillip Landrigan, the center’s director, said that the country doesn’t even have minimal toxicity data on […]

Logging Out

A key Malaysian minister said this week that he hoped the government would move to ban imports of illegally logged Indonesian trees into his country within two weeks. Indonesia has banned the export of uncut logs from its rainforests, but its government has acknowledged that illegal logging continues and has asked other nations to step […]

IBM: I Buy Megawatts

The World Resources Institute has corralled several prominent companies (think General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and Kinkos) into expanding their use of renewable energy. The group hopes that a coalition of companies will commit to using 1,000 megawatts of renewable electricity by 2010; so far, companies in a dozen states have signed on to […]

Mapmaker, Mapmaker Make Me a Map

The Environmental Working Group has created a website detailing the routes that could be used to transport radioactive waste to a proposed storage area below Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The launching of the website, www.mapscience.org, comes as the Senate is preparing to vote on the controversial Yucca Mountain proposal, which is opposed by the state of […]