Latest Articles
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Bear With Us
In northwestern Montana, the human population has grown by about 30 percent in the last decade. That’s a problem for some of the region’s other notable inhabitants: grizzly bears. At least half of the grizzlies in the Lower 48 live in northwestern Montana, and as the area becomes more crowded, regrettable bear-human interactions become more […]
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A primer to help fight despair
Just now despair lives close to the surface in many people I know, and leaks out at surprising times. Taking a walk with my neighbor Phil, a bottle of milk in his arms, my daughter on my back, I’m thinking how warm the spring day feels when he stops suddenly and speaks. Maple leaf sag. […]
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Andy Driscoll, Citizens Alliance for a Safe Environment
Andy Driscoll, a writer and communications consultant in St. Paul, Minn., is a founding organizer of Citizens Alliance for a Safe Environment (The CASE). Monday, 13 May 2002 ST. PAUL, Minn. July 2001: It’s decided. We’re going to take legal action. Here’s why: With nary a question nor an environmental impact statement, the Minnesota Pollution […]
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Go Get ’em, Tigers
The world’s largest mangrove forest, Sundarban, spans the border between Bangladesh and India, but the countries don’t have a joint plan to manage the 3,700-square-mile area. The United Nations is hoping to change that. Two U.N. entities, the International Partnership Fund and the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, are providing funding to help Bangladesh and […]
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Bloomsday Doomsday
Ah, a lovely rolling meadow in springtime bloom. What could possibly be more British — or more endangered? Flower meadows in the U.K. are declining at an alarming rate, putting some species at risk, according to a survey of eight English counties conducted by Wildlife Trusts, an organization that manages 2,400 nature reserves in the […]
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Vera, Vera Good
Portland, Ore., has long had a reputation for attracting Birkenstock-wearing, bike-riding, tree-hugging residents. Now city officials hope to attract Birkenstock-wearing, bike-riding, tree-hugging companies. (Okay, yes, we know companies can’t really ride bikes.) Last month, Danish wind-power company Vestas Wind Systems chose Portland as the base of its U.S. operations, bringing as many as 1,000 new […]
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Carolina in Their Minds
The Bush administration is unhappy about a new ad campaign attacking its plan to move some 30 tons of plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina for temporary storage. The campaign was launched last week by South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges (D), who opposes the plan, fearing that his state could become the permanent resting grounds […]
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The Netherlands tackles nitrogen pollution with a game
Confess: You’ve played more than one hand of solitaire on company time. Tetris anyone? Maybe you’ve even been a MYSTic or a QUAKEr. If you happen to work for the Dutch Ministry of the Environment, playing computer games is now part of your job description. Or at least playing a computer game — the world’s […]
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Go East, Young Consumer
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain came up, signaling the end of the Cold War, the fall of communism — and a new era for the environment in Central and Eastern Europe. Popular belief holds that the curtain rose to reveal a bleak landscape of environmental degradation wrought by unchecked […]
