Latest Articles

Vitamin Sea

Could the answer to controlling global climate change lie in the ocean? Carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, is naturally absorbed into the ocean, where it does not affect atmospheric temperatures. Now some scientists and entrepreneurs want to artificially augment that process to increase carbon dioxide absorption and control global warming. In one plan, CO2 […]

Domestic oil and gas is not the ticket to U.S. energy security

America’s fragile domestic infrastructure threatens her energy security at least as much as dependence on oil from the Middle East. Replacing oil from that region with even more vulnerable domestic systems would therefore decrease energy security. Stranger than science fiction. Extraordinarily concentrated energy flows invite and reward devastating attack. In our 1982 Pentagon study Brittle […]

That's All, Folks!

Wood Picker

Eric Gellerman is making furniture out of old-growth Douglas fir, 150-year-old white oak, and Indonesian teak — and getting kudos from environmentalists for doing so. Gellerman is cofounder of The Wooden Duck, a furniture store in Berkeley, Calif., that salvages wood to craft its wares. The environmental benefits range from the obvious — the company […]

Worse for the Tern

Here’s another possible casualty of the war on terrorism: migrating birds. An Indian ornithologist announced today that more than 200 species of birds that migrate from central Asia to India every year could be adversely affected by chemicals in the bombs exploding in Afghanistan. Such birds, including the Siberian crane, the shoveller duck, the crested […]

Clean Your Boom

The global economy may be sagging, but residents of the Pacific Northwest should take heart: A study released late last week suggests that the region will benefit from a boom in the next 20 years in the clean energy industry. In Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, clean energy is currently a $1.4 billion business; the […]

Sin-erama

Hill and Dale

U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth upheld a Clinton-era plan on Friday that would increase protection for much of California’s Sierra Nevada, although he also called for a review of how the plan would affect fire control in the area and whether it would conflict with a congressionally approved management scheme. The plan, which was […]

Grain and Bear It

New policies emerging in China could bode well for that poster child of protection efforts, the panda. In an article published last week in the journal Science, scientists from the World Wildlife Fund and Beijing University praised China’s National Forest Conservation Program and its “Grain-to-Green” policy as likely to preserve habitat crucial to panda survival. […]

Mulholland Drive, Bye

Almost 90 years too late, Los Angeles is finally making partial amends for one of the most infamous acts of water theft in history: the diversion of the Owens River to supply water to the then-infant city. The diversion caused the 110-square-mile Owens Lake to dry up, leading to dramatic and sometimes deadly dust storms […]