Latest Articles

The Big O

Consumers of organic produce, take a moment to feel good about yourselves: A study published today shows that organically grown foods contain a fraction of the pesticides found in conventionally grown foods. Organic foods were less likely than their conventional counterparts to have any pesticide residues; what residues they did have were from fewer sources […]

Bagladesh

Now consider a less sophisticated but equally troublesome form of trash — plastic bags. Polyethylene-based bags are hazardous to produce and, once discarded, can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. The bags are all but omnipresent: Consumers in the U.K. go through 8 billion per year; four out of five shoppers in the U.S. […]

Maybe He Makes a Good Cup of Coffee

John Suarez, the Bush administration’s pick for the job of enforcing the nation’s environmental laws, used to work closely with U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, back when she was governor of New Jersey. Trouble is, that appears to be about his only qualification for enforcing EPA rules. That was the concern expressed by Democratic members […]

The Violence of the Lambs

Oregon, a state that has been targeted at least 29 times since 1980 by so-called “eco-terrorists,” is now home to the nation’s first organization exclusively dedicated to tracking and eliminating eco-terrorism. The organization, Stop Eco-Violence, was cofounded by a former spokesperson for a building products company, a Portland State University terrorism expert, and a conservative […]

Changing Their Tuna

Ecuador unveiled a plan yesterday that could help protect marine and bird species native to the Galapagos Islands, whose unique wildlife inspired Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of natural selection. At present, Galapagos fishers are legally allowed to ply their trade in the waters around the archipelago, to the dismay of conservationists. Now the […]

PC-beware

A female killer whale that washed up on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula earlier this year has been found to have off-the-charts levels of PCBs in its blubber, according to tests in federal labs. The levels were so high that the first time scientists tested the orca, their machine could not read the results and the […]

Conventional Stupidity

Almost a decade ago, 183 countries signed the Convention on Biological Diversity to guard against exploitation of their genetic resources. Now scientists say the treaty, although well intentioned, effectively prevents scientists from studying the natural bounty it is designed to protect. The many national bureaucracies spawned by the treaty do not easily distinguish between bioprospecting […]

Greener Pastures

New Zealand is home to a staggering 45 million sheep and 8 million cattle, which together produce 90 percent of the country’s methane emissions — or about 43 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. To meet the terms of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, New Zealand has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions […]

A Real Earth Mother

Drill Team

Thought the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was (thank goodness) finally over? Think again: An inexplicable move by the Senate Democratic leadership could revive the Bush administration’s campaign to pump gas and oil out of the pristine Alaskan wilderness. When debate over the nation’s energy plan moved into a joint House-Senate […]