Latest Articles

Cogito Ergo Summit

At an environmental summit being held this week in Rio de Janeiro, Latin American and Caribbean countries are forging an alliance to pressure developed nations to foot most of the bill for the planet’s ailing ecosystems. During the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, industrialized nations pledged to spend 0.7 percent of their gross domestic products on […]

Special K-O

Like the rest of the country, the town of Kellogg, Idaho, is at war. But this one is a civil war over the Silver Valley Superfund site, the legacy of a century of mining and smelting in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin. The U.S. EPA is poised to decide this week whether to expand the […]

Ann Hedreen, Environmental Media Services Northwest

Ann Hedreen is a program director with Environmental Media Services Northwest in Seattle, a nonprofit communications clearinghouse dedicated to expanding and improving the quality of environmental coverage by the news media. She is also a writer, filmmaker, and co-owner with her husband of White Noise Productions, specializing in documentary and nonprofit films. Monday, 22 Oct […]

Steeling Home

Anglers in north-central Washington state could be allowed to fish for endangered steelhead for the first time in four years if the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has its way. More than 32,000 steelhead are expected to swim up the Columbia River this year, the largest run since 1986. State wildlife officials would like […]

Land Sakes!

The Bush administration yesterday endorsed an $82 billion overhaul of farming legislation that would phase out subsidies and double conservation spending. The plan, proposed by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), would shift federal benefits away from big grain and cotton growers and toward fruit, vegetable, and livestock farms, as well as land-preservation efforts. Earlier this month, […]

L.A. Confidential

Environmental injustice appears to be alive and well in Los Angeles County, according to a study released today by the University of California at Los Angeles, which found that neighborhoods near major pollution sources are disproportionately low-income and Latino. Latinos make up 44 percent of the county population but 60 percent of residents living near […]

Bus-ted

The city of New Delhi has less than four months to convert all diesel buses to natural gas, following an order today by India’s Supreme Court. New Delhi has missed several previous court deadlines, and at least 9,000 of the city’s 12,000 public buses still rely on diesel fuel. The Supreme Court orders have sparked […]

Whoop-de-do

Folks who happened to be scanning the skies in central Wisconsin yesterday were witness to a strange sight, as people in bird costumes flying ultra-light aircraft led a flock of nine whooping cranes on the first leg of a 1,250-mile migration. The flight was part of an experiment to teach the extremely rare birds to […]

The Bt Goes On

The U.S. EPA yesterday approved for another seven years the use of a controversial bio-engineered corn that produces its own pesticide. Researchers concluded that Bt corn poses no environmental or human health risks, but environmentalists and consumer-advocacy groups have expressed fears that the long-term health effects are unknown and that the crop will lead to […]

Parknost

Dormant plans for an international park spanning the Bering Strait have been revived, thanks to a gung-ho new governor in the Russian Far East. Under the last governor of Chukotka, western tourists and researchers got the cold shoulder, but Gov. Roman Abramovich is welcoming joint programs with Alaska, including research, conservation, tourism, and economic ventures. […]