Latest Articles

Small Wonder

In other news from the Golden State, California could soon have the world’s toughest standards for emissions of microscopic pollutants. Regulations currently being considered by the state Air Resources Board target pollutants composed of particles of dust and soot that are smaller than 10 microns in diameter, or about one-seventh the diameter of a human […]

Downwind for the Count

Thousands of “downwinders” — people living in the path of radiation releases from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation — scored a legal victory yesterday when a federal appeals court ordered a lower court to reconsider two lawsuits against five former Hanford contractors. From 1944 to 1989, Hanford produced most of the nation’s plutonium for warheads; research […]

Dumbstruck

The sins of the fathers (etc.) shall be visited on the children — at least when the sins are environmental and the children are in China. A recent survey of more than 11,000 schoolchildren in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen found that nearly two-thirds suffered from lead poisoning. Such poisoning, when untreated, can cause […]

Peru-stroika

An international coalition of conservation organizations is seeking protection for a 74 million-acre, species-rich tropical corridor between Peru and Bolivia. Conservation International and Peru’s National Institute of Natural Resources are working with local authorities to try to protect the region from mining, oil and gas exploitation, road and dam construction, and logging. The corridor includes […]

Star Wars

The stars are twinkling over Nevada’s Yucca Mountain — movie stars and pop stars, that is. In the battle over the Bush administration’s proposal to bury high-level radioactive waste below the mountain, the glitterati are siding against the president. Barbra Streisand, Bonnie Raitt, Martin Sheen, Melissa Gilbert, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, Morgan Freeman — the […]

Money Shaving Steps

Many enviros have suspected for a while that the deregulation of electricity markets is bad for the environment. Now here’s some proof: Spending on energy efficiency programs by North American power companies — the biggest polluters on the continent — dropped by 42 percent between 1995 and 1999, largely because of deregulation. The findings were […]

Taking stock of the world’s coral reefs

One ocean binds together our world. Of that vast expanse of water, less than one-fourth of 1 percent is occupied by coral reefs — yet reefs are home to more than a quarter of all known marine fish species. Anyone who dives knows that these reefs are dying, but few understand the extent to which […]

Coral-ations

98,572 — square miles of coral reef in the world 1 97,100 — square miles of the state of Wyoming 2 58 — percentage of the world’s reefs that are potentially threatened by human activities 1 34 — percentage of the world’s reefs that are off the shores of Southeast Asia 3 88 — percentage […]

Khmer Green?

A new kind of battle is taking place in Cambodia, this one between conservationists and international paper companies. Cambodia’s central Cardamom Mountains were a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, and as such were avoided by timber companies and others who feared being kidnapped or killed. With the Khmer Rouge largely subdued, however, timber companies have […]

Texas Toast

Like John and Yoko, industry and politics in the U.S. have climbed into bed together and just refuse to get out. Nowhere is that more evident than in Texas, homeland of the Bush clan and the most polluted state in the country. Let’s spell it out: Texas is the number one spewer of toxic chemicals […]