Latest Articles

Yucca-ing It Up

Following 14 years of study that cost $4.5 billion, the Energy Department yesterday formally recommended that Nevada’s Yucca Mountain become the country’s permanent storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste from power plants and weapons factories. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the science showed that Yucca Mountain would be a secure home for the waste. […]

Irish Eyes Are Smiling

The Irish government has okayed plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The $630 million project will have three times the electricity-generating capacity of all current offshore wind farms worldwide; its 200 turbines will produce 10 percent of Ireland’s power. When completed, the project will help Ireland cut its greenhouse gas emissions by […]

The Poor Shall Inherit the Worldwatch?

By failing to embrace the steps called for at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the world may have helped set the stage for the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Worldwatch Institute. In its annual "State of the World" report, the group calls for the world’s nations to join the battle […]

My Sediments Exactly

Damage to the Missouri River “is clear and continuing” and could lead to “irreversible extinction of species,” according to a comprehensive report released yesterday by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The report called for “immediate and decisive action” and echoed demands by environmentalists to recreate an approximation of the river’s natural ebb and flow. […]

Gene De Florette

Use of genetically modified (GM) seeds is on the rise among U.S. farmers, according to an informal poll conducted at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting. The survey questioned 321 farmers without regard to farm size, state, or other criteria; the results suggest that GM corn plantings will soar this year, and that GM […]

A Pain in the Anniston

The number of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against pesticide and food giant Monsanto will dwindle following an Alabama county court ruling that only people who have actually become sick, allegedly from PCB poisoning, have standing in the trial. The plaintiffs contend that Monsanto and its spin-off company, Solutia Inc., were cognizant of the health hazards […]

David Brower leaves a legacy for dolphins

The one-year anniversary of the death of environmental legend David Brower has come and gone, just a week after the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to appeal a dolphin protection lawsuit the Earth Island Institute filed with Dave back in 1999. Dolphins on the run. Photo: NOAA. For reasons that are still unknown, a […]

Meredith Hall reviews Tinkering with Eden and Nature Out of Place

I love my hometown, but I have a bone to pick with a few of its inhabitants -- especially the green ones. It's not the lively Nader supporters of Portland, Ore., that I have hard feelings for, but rather the guileful botanic creepers that go by the common name English ivy. Botanic enemy number one is a luscious green forest dweller, a lazy gardener's groundcover, a symbol of old-world garden sophistication -- and, in Portland, an insidious invasive species. English ivy (Hedera helix, for the botanically savvy) infests more than half of the city's forests, choking out trees, ferns, and any other struggling forest undergrowth.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water

It was a family affair, but the significance was national: President Bush and his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, signed an agreement yesterday to guarantee that water captured by a $7.8 billion Florida Everglades restoration effort will indeed go toward reviving the national park. Because the state and federal governments have potentially competing interests […]

Tank You Very Much

A technique invented to reduce corrosion of steel components on ships could also prevent exotic species from stowing away in the ballast water of cargo ships. The technique, which was designed by Mario Tamburri of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in collaboration with Japanese scientists, involves pumping nitrogen gas into ballast tanks, thereby virtually […]