Latest Articles

Logging Out

A key Malaysian minister said this week that he hoped the government would move to ban imports of illegally logged Indonesian trees into his country within two weeks. Indonesia has banned the export of uncut logs from its rainforests, but its government has acknowledged that illegal logging continues and has asked other nations to step […]

IBM: I Buy Megawatts

The World Resources Institute has corralled several prominent companies (think General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and Kinkos) into expanding their use of renewable energy. The group hopes that a coalition of companies will commit to using 1,000 megawatts of renewable electricity by 2010; so far, companies in a dozen states have signed on to […]

Mapmaker, Mapmaker Make Me a Map

The Environmental Working Group has created a website detailing the routes that could be used to transport radioactive waste to a proposed storage area below Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The launching of the website, www.mapscience.org, comes as the Senate is preparing to vote on the controversial Yucca Mountain proposal, which is opposed by the state of […]

When it comes to renewable energy, the DOE is DOA

The question isn’t whether the Bush administration is in bed with the old-school energy industry; most of us have pretty much accepted that Big Oil and King Coal are the current sexy interns in the White House. Nor is the question whether we should be bracing for another oil shock; given the Iraqi oil boycott […]

Vati-can Do

Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leaders of Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, signed a declaration yesterday stating that protecting the environment was the “moral and spiritual” duty of all believers. The document does not include any binding action plan, but is the first signed by the two religious leaders concerning […]

A Mixed Bag

In a study of the cumulative health risks of pesticides, the U.S. has found that only two of the 30 pesticides it studied pose an unacceptable threat to human health when combined. The study was conducted in response to a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, and its findings were announced yesterday evening, just […]

Dozing Off

More than 8,500 premature deaths are caused every year by pollution from off-road diesel-fueled equipment not regulated by the federal government, according to a new study by state air pollution control officials. Earthmovers, bulldozers, agricultural equipment, and other such vehicles emit extraordinarily high levels of pollution that have been linked to heart illnesses, asthma attacks, […]

Christopher Swain, Columbia River swimmer

Christopher Swain, the founder of Advocacy Swimming International, is swimming the Columbia River from source to mouth. When he is not swimming, he lives in Portland, Ore., with his wife and daughter. Monday, 10 Jun 2002 RADIUM HOT SPRINGS, British Columbia Last Tuesday, I zipped up my dry suit, kissed my wife and daughter, and […]

Short Changed

Bolstering environmentalists’ accusations of favoritism in Florida, the Bush administration rejected on Friday a request by California Gov. Gray Davis (D) that it buy back offshore drilling rights. On May 29, President Bush announced a $235 million dollar buy-back of Florida drilling rights, a move that was widely viewed as a favor (and campaign contribution) […]

Shouldering the burden of our environmental impact

Consider this: Friends of mine tell me that their daughter will only eat meat if she knows the name of the animal that died to produce it. She’ll eat the pork roast from pigs grown on our farm — but not the anonymous bacon offered up in the college dining hall. Adherence to this one […]