Latest Articles

High-tailing it out of there

The Colorado River — the water source for 25 million Americans — is almost certainly on a collision course with a massive pile of uranium slag, according to a report released yesterday by the Department of Energy’s National Research Council. The 12 million tons of tailings, located near Moab, Utah, are left over from a […]

Hodging His Bets

The U.S. government could begin moving radioactive plutonium from Colorado into South Carolina’s Savannah River nuclear complex as soon as this weekend, following a federal judge’s refusal yesterday afternoon to block the shipments. Gov. Jim Hodges (D) has vowed to appeal the ruling, and maintains that he won’t allow the plutonium into South Carolina until […]

Old Suburbanism

Otay Ranch is the largest single subdivision in California — no small claim to fame, since California is the land of subdivisions. By virtue of its size, Otay has taken center stage in a debate about community planning. Its developers point to its multiple parks and shared community center to bolster their claim that Otay […]

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 […]