Latest Articles

Lord of the Wrings

Lord Peter Melchett, the former head of Greenpeace U.K., has accepted a position with the public relations company Burson-Marsteller, which numbers among its clients the pesticide and food company Monsanto. Long a leading target for green groups, Monsanto is currently drawing fire for its production and promotion of genetically modified (GM) foods. Melchett, who led […]

Coal bed methane extraction threatens Wyoming’s Red Desert

OREGON BUTTES, Wyo. Tom Bell remembers how plush the carpet was in Interior Secretary Stewart Udall’s Washington, D.C., office. Bell spent time on his hands and knees there during the 1960s, poring over a large map while making the case for preserving Wyoming’s Red Desert as a national pronghorn antelope refuge. The Pinnacles in the […]

Rey of Sunshine

A controversial Bush administration plan to log trees harmed in fires that raged in the Bitterroot National Forest in 2000 was halted yesterday by a federal judge in Montana. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy also excoriated Mark Rey, natural resources and environment undersecretary for the Agriculture Department, for bypassing a 45-day public appeals process and […]

Taps

Drinking chlorinated tap water puts pregnant women at a higher risk for miscarrying or bearing children with birth defects, according to a new study by two environmental organizations. The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group and U.S. Public Interest Research Group studied water quality data from thousands of water utilities before publishing their findings yesterday. Chlorine […]

Retirement Party

Utah Republican Jim Hansen, who has served 11 terms in the U.S. House, most recently as chair of the Resources Committee, announced yesterday that he will not seek reelection this year. The announcement came as a surprise to even some of his closest staff members — and a welcome one to environmentalists. Hansen started off […]

Freedom Riders

In a new partnership to be announced tomorrow at the 2002 North American International Auto Show, the U.S. government will work with the nation’s top automakers to replace internal combustion engines with fuel cells. Dubbed Freedom CAR, the partnership replaces former Vice President Al Gore’s Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. By focusing specifically […]

Take Me to the River, Don’t Drop Me in the Water

The City of Brotherly Love is also the City of Terrible Water, according to a U.S. EPA analysis of the nation’s watersheds. Four of Philadelphia’s watersheds earned a six, the worst score doled out by the EPA, a distinction shared with just 28 other watersheds nationwide out of more than 2,200. The ratings reflect the […]

Airing Their Grievances

Nine attorneys general from Northeastern states are holding a press conference today in Washington, D.C., to warn the Bush administration not to weaken the Clean Air Act. Last week, the administration suggested that it would not adhere to strict Clinton-era standards for New Source Review rules, which require energy companies to install pollution controls when […]

The Season of Giving

  Re: What Now? Dear Editor: The U.S. response to the Red Cross was wonderful, and that’s great. But many, many other do-good organizations are on such a starvation diet they’re in imminent danger of expiring. Please tell everyone asking for more donations to the Red Cross to think twice about the homeless and needy […]

Go Fish!

Maine’s wild Atlantic salmon remain genetically distinct despite more than a century of fish-stocking, aquaculture escapes, and other threats to the species, according to an independent report prepared by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The report undermines the claim by Maine Gov. Angus King (I) and others that Maine salmon were genetically diluted and […]