Latest Articles
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H-2-Oh-boy!
Utility companies can be sued for violating safe drinking water standards, the California Supreme Court unanimously decided on Monday. The decision is significant because it allows thousands of victims of polluted water to seek financial compensation from the private and public utilities that pipe tap water into homes; in the past, victims mostly targeted the […]
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That’s Some Good Coffee
Re: Ashley Parkinson, Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign Dear Editor: Ashley Parkinson’s column has inspired me, my wife, and a friend to place our first-ever order for shade-grown coffee. After reading her column, all three of us are committed to buying environmentally friendly coffee. Please pass along our kudos for the fine piece of journalism. […]
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Slash-and-Burn Budget
Okay, it’s predictable, but it’s still a bummer: President Bush announced today that he will seek sharp budget cuts in environmental initiatives and dozens of other domestic programs for the upcoming fiscal year. After all, the president’s proposed $379 billion funding bonanza for the Pentagon has to come from somewhere. Bush is calling for reduced […]
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Charles Stahler, Vegetarian Resource Group
Charles Stahler is codirector of the Vegetarian Resource Group, an organization that works with businesses, schools, and consumers to provide information about and advocate for vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. Monday, 4 Feb 2002 BALTIMORE, Md. My day always starts off by answering questions. Today, the Vegetarian Resource Group received an email that began, “I am […]
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The After-kla-math
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has determined that there was “no sound scientific basis” for the federal government’s decision to deny irrigation water to more than 1,000 farms in Oregon’s Klamath Basin during last summer’s drought. A panel of 12 independent scientists, convened at the behest of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, concluded that there […]
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Area 51
Fair-to-middling was the U.S. ranking in a new study, presented at the World Economic Forum last week in New York, that rated the environmental health of 142 countries. In the study, conducted by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University, the U.S. […]
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All Wet
For almost a decade, developers have been required by federal law to create 1.78 acres of wetlands for every acre they destroy. Sounds great, but a new study by Washington State’s Department of Ecology found that only about 13 percent of 24 replacement wetlands in the state are successful. Wetlands-protection rules were established to protect […]
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A Patagonia on the Back
Gearheads have reason to feel smug about their Patagonia fleeces these days. Once again, the company appears among Fortune Magazine’s top 100 places to work in the U.S. — and this time it moved up 17 places in the rankings, to number 41. The company sold $223 million worth of outdoor gear last year, but […]
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Salt of the Earth
Tim Salt, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, has been reassigned from his key post refereeing land-use disputes in the California desert, in a move environmentalists say is a capitulation to miners, ranchers, and off-road vehicle enthusiasts. As manager of the BLM’s 11 million-acre California Desert District, Salt drew the ire […]
