Latest Articles

Has Bush done the environment a favor with his extreme agenda?

Oh, it’s getting fun. As Congress prepares to reconvene next week, the question is not whether the White House will adjust its strategy on the environment, but how. When President Bush and his congressional allies went home for vacations this month, the message they heard away from the Beltway was consistent: The administration’s approach on […]

Wall-to-wall Carping

Can a 12,000-square-foot house really be eco-friendly? What about Bill Gates’s 40,000-square-foot house built of salvaged wood? Architect Will Bruder says adding green features like geothermal heating and solar panels to mongo homes with five-car garages is merely a way “to rationalize decadent expenditures.” Daniel Chiras, an enviro professor, says, “[I]f it’s a 5,000-square-foot-house, it […]

The Jackson Fifty

A coalition of about 50 Wyoming tourism businesses is sending a letter to U.S. President Bush today, asking the administration to reconsider its plans to drill for oil and gas near Yellowstone National Park and other scenic attractions in the state. The Bush administration has claimed it is all about listening to locals and that […]

Fly the Friendly Skies?

350 million — number of pounds of smog-producing chemicals (nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds) released by planes landing and taking off from U.S. airports in 1993 200 million to 600 million — number of gallons of wastewater created each year from airplane deicing 219 — number of volatile organic chemicals found in the air […]

This Little Farmer Went to Market

The number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. increased 63 percent from 1994 to 2000, with 19,000 farmers now selling at about 2,800 markets, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Many of the farmers tout their produce as being organically certified, and farmers at the New York Greenmarket have agreed to a moratorium on […]

Come Shell or High Water

The best way to rid the Great Lakes region of invasive zebra mussels may be to zap them with radio waves, Purdue University researchers told the American Chemical Society at its meeting in Chicago yesterday. The fast-breeding zebra mussels, which were brought to the U.S. in the ballast water of cargo ships, are threatening native […]

Gopher It!

In what could turn into an unprecedented deal to protect imperiled animals and plants in the U.S., the Interior Department and several environmental groups are working on an agreement to safeguard more than two dozen species under the Endangered Species Act. The agreement would cover such species as the coastal cutthroat trout in Oregon and […]

Slammin' Salmon

Tens of thousands of Atlantic salmon have escaped from British Columbia fish farms into 77 of the province’s waterways, according to a new report by the Canadian Parliament’s Senate Committee on Fisheries. The aquaculture industry had dismissed concerns that farm-raised Atlantic salmon would ever escape and be able to survive in the wild, posing a […]

No Way, Says Jose

Wielding scythes and shears, hundreds of protesters hacked down two test fields of genetically engineered corn in southeast France on Sunday. The incident was the fifth such protest against biotech foods in France since late June. Jose Bove, a French farmer who is one of the world’s leading anti-globalization activists, has called for a campaign […]

Yankee Doodle Dandies

Tired of waiting for the U.S. federal government to act, New England governors, including three Republicans, joined yesterday with Eastern Canadian premiers to vow to cut the region’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, and 10 percent below that by 2020. No regional or international agency exists to enforce the deal, but the […]