Latest Articles

Throwing Their Wait Around

Senate Democrats announced yesterday that they would not consider new energy legislation until next year, angering Republicans who had hoped to quickly finalize a plan favored by the Bush administration. The Bush plan, which would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and provide about $30 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to the […]

Phnom Penh Pals

More than 300 officials and activists are gathering today in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to establish the Asian agenda for next year’s World Summit on Sustainable Development, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Asia is a critical testing ground for sustainability, because it is home to half the world’s population and is plagued by […]

Generation Icks

The Bush administration’s energy plan, which calls for the creation of 2,000 new generating plants in the next six years, would substantially increase the greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming, according to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The commission, which monitors the effects of NAFTA on the environment, said carbon dioxide emissions from electricity […]

Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Us

Which is the lesser of two evils — malaria or DDT? The former kills a million people per year in Africa, many of them infants and children; the latter is the most effective weapon against the virulent disease, but is lethal to fish and wildlife, and thought to be hazardous to humans as well. Two […]

Speaking Ingest

The Bush administration has promised the pesticide industry that it will overturn a Clinton-era policy that prohibited using information obtained from industry studies on human subjects to determine pesticide limits. Under the new policy, which hasn’t yet been officially announced, the U.S. EPA would be able to set limits based on data from tests in […]

Natural Gas Killers

Attorney General John Ashcroft confirmed yesterday that U.S. natural gas pipelines and facilities could be the target of a future terrorist attack. According to information received earlier this month by the FBI from “a source of undetermined reliability,” Osama bin Laden has okayed an attack on U.S. energy sources in the event that he or […]

Oh Maw Gracious!

More than 31 million acres of forest in the southern United States will disappear into the maw of urban development in the next four decades, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Forest Service in collaboration with other federal agencies. Wildlife and water and air quality will suffer as trees make way for […]

Gary Hughes, conservation researcher

Gary Hughes is a graduate student in the University of Montana Environmental Studies Program, who is traveling and researching conservation issues in Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. The things he misses most about Montana are skiing in the trees and working with the Missoula grassroots solidarity organization Community Action for Justice in the Americas. Monday, 26 […]

Pressure Whitewash

In 1997, Randy Walli, a pipe fitter at the Hanford nuclear power plant in Washington state, was told to help build a pipeline using valves that would be subjected to more pressure than specified by the manufacturer. Concerned about the possible impact on himself, his fellow workers, and the environment, Walli blew the whistle. The […]

Feet of Clay

The Ford Motor Company might have to eat its words if its fleet of sport utility vehicles continues to gobble gas. Last summer, company reps promised to improve SUV fuel efficiency 25 percent by 2005. Not willing to be outdone, the two other Big Three automakers — General Motors and DaimlerChrysler — said they’d keep […]