Latest Articles

The improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live

“We had to build a city not for businesses or automobiles, but for children and thus for people,” said a man in a speech last year. “Instead of building highways, we restricted car use. … We invested in high-quality sidewalks, pedestrian streets, parks, bicycle paths, libraries; we got rid of thousands of cluttering commercial signs […]

The Left Wing

Ah, the ever-elusive boundary between art and life. Who knows where it lies, but by all indications, somewhere right down the middle of the NBC drama “The West Wing.” Here’s the proof: This week, New Mexico’s Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources felt the need to issue a press release explaining that Wednesday’s episode […]

Sushi and the Banshees

Japan’s languishing organic food market could get a major boost from a string of recent food scandals that have rocked the nation. The scandals include an outbreak of mad cow disease and allegations of government mishandling of the crisis; the discovery of traces of prohibited biotech corn in domestic food and animal feed; and a […]

Furious George

A two-and-a-half year escalation of acts of so-called eco-terrorism began to slow down last summer — but inquiries into the acts have sped up, as federal lawmakers have used Sept. 11 as a reason to go after eco-terrorists with unprecedented energy. Last month, you could have been forgiven for confusing a congressional hearing on eco-terrorism […]

My Dear Watson

Responding to pressure from the energy industry, the Bush administration is seeking to remove the U.S scientist who heads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Robert Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank, has been the unpaid chair of the IPCC for nearly six years. In that capacity, he has been outspoken in his belief […]

Lake Manna From Heaven?

The U.S. EPA has unveiled a new Bush administration plan to protect and restore the Great Lakes. The plan aims to reduce PCB concentration in some Great Lakes fish species, restore or enhance 100,000 acres of wetland in the Great Lakes Basin, decrease introductions of invasive species, and accelerate the clean-up of contaminated sites. However, […]

You Say You Want a Resolution

Do investors care if the companies benefiting from their dollars are contributing to global warming? Increasingly, the answer may be yes: Global warming is the fastest-growing resolutions category tracked by the Investor Responsibility Research Center and the Social Investment Forum, according to data released last week. So far this year, 18 global warming resolutions have […]

Lonelier Little Sparrow

Who notices the fall of the sparrow? For starters, scientists in China, where the once-common sparrow is on the brink of extinction. Around the northeastern port of Tianjin, the sparrow population has declined by an estimated 90 percent since Mao’s days; in many parts of southern and central China, the birds have all but disappeared. […]

The Misery River

The Missouri River is the nation’s most threatened river, according to a report released today by American Rivers. In its annual report of endangered waterways, the group blamed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the terrible conditions of Big Muddy. The river is dammed in six places; dredging for barge traffic has shortened it […]

The Full Monty

In an effort to combat global warming, Great Britain has set up the world’s first national greenhouse gas emissions trading plan. Under the plan, emissions credits will be traded like any other commodity; British companies that agree to participate can directly reduce their own use of fossil fuels, or they can buy part or all […]