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Something Not Wild

The U.S. Forest Service yesterday came out against adding any new wilderness areas to southeastern Alaska’s 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest. The recommendation was a response to a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Singleton, who sided with environmentalists last year in ordering the Forest Service to determine if there were parts of the temperate […]

Nuclear Power As Fossil Fuel

The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power producer, decided yesterday to restart a troubled nuclear reactor at its Browns Ferry plant in northern Alabama. The reactor has been out of use since 1985, when all three of the plant’s reactors were shut down after engineers discovered that the reactors did not match their […]

Yuck A-Mounting

In more nuclear news, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham acknowledged yesterday that a proposed nuclear waste depository in Yucca Mountain, Nev., could only handle a portion of the waste that will be generated by commercial power plants and the government in the coming decade. The acknowledgement undercut President Bush’s pro-Yucca argument that radioactive waste should be […]

Listen to a Story ’bout a Man Named Jeb

In a move that divided the state’s environmental community, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) signed a law yesterday that will provide millions of dollars of funding to restore the Everglades. On the up side, the law will create a bonding program worth $100 million per year — money that will be matched by federal funds […]

Slim Pickins, Whitman

In an apparent effort to diffuse criticism from environmentalists, the Bush administration is considering stepping up legal action against some polluting utility companies. U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman has ordered the agency’s regional enforcement officials to look for companies that have violated the Clean Air Act by upgrading power plants without installing state-of-the-art pollution-control equipment, […]

Smokin’ Reefer

Move over, Great Barrier Reef: Coral researchers recently discovered what they think is the most valuable reef cluster in the world. Known collectively as Raja Ampat, the reefs are located in a remote archipelago off the coast of Indonesia. In the course of a two-and-a-half week expedition there, a survey team recorded 972 species — […]

Mozam-piqued

Mozambique has decided to proceed with a $520 million plan to build a harbor and industrial free-trade zone on its pristine southern coast, a decision that has outraged environmentalists. The plan seems likely to put an end to efforts to establish a transnational conservation area stretching from St. Lucia in South Africa through Swaziland and […]

Shaft!

The cost of closing and cleaning up old and abandoned mines around the world likely runs into the trillions of dollars, an amount that is far beyond anything mining companies can handle on their own, according to Robert Wilson, chair of the metals giant Rio Tinto. Wilson, who made his comments during a mining industry […]

The Hunt for Cold October

That’s all fine and dandy for panda bears, but the outlook is grimmer for their northern (non)cousins, polar bears. Polar bears face a number of threats — widespread habitat fragmentation, pollution, excessive hunting — but the most serious menace of all is climate change, according to a report issued yesterday by the World Wildlife Fund. […]

Barking Up the Right Tree

Apparently spooked by a recent history of devastating floods and blinding sandstorms, China has unveiled a plan to plant trees on almost 200,000 square miles of land in an effort to reverse rampant deforestation. The plan, which Chinese officials call the largest conservation effort ever attempted, will cost an estimated $12 billion over 10 years […]