Latest Articles

Didn't Cheech and Chong Already Think of This?

Hemp cars could be ready to hit the road within a decade, say researchers in Australia. Alan Crosky of the University of New South Wales says hemp is the most viable biodegradable material to use for car bodies, beating out coconuts and banana trees in early studies. Crosky thinks car owners will soon save money […]

Activists Disappearing Almost As Fast As Forests

Since the end of a seven-year civil war in Liberia in 1997, rainforests in the country have been cut down at an unprecedented rate, say environmentalists. Foreign companies, along with the country’s president, Charles Taylor, and his inner circle, have pocketed the profits from logging, while ordinary citizens have seen few benefits. Protests are rare […]

Adam Markham, Clean Air-Cool Planet

Adam Markham is executive director of Clean Air-Cool Planet, a climate advocacy group dedicated to helping the Northeast lead the way in halting global warming. Monday, 21 May 2001 PORTSMOUTH, N.H. Monday is one of the days I drop my daughter, Tessa, off at day care. I left her excitedly demonstrating to her teacher how […]

Perrier didn't reckon on an angry citizenry when it looked to expand into the Midwest

Escape to Wisconsin. Play in our lakes, fish our rivers, and cavort in the famously kitschy water parks of Wisconsin Dells. Just don’t try to take a drop of it home with you. Ninety-nine bottles of water on the wall. This, at least, is the stern message being sent by thousands of Wisconsin citizens to […]

Reduce, Reuse, Cycle

To commemorate Bike Commute Week in California, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown biked to City Hall yesterday, then took a limo ride back home for a shower. Eight members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors also biked to work (no word on where they showered). Nationwide, less than 2 percent of Americans commute by bike, […]

Roll Out the Barrels

Did anyone expect such early international criticism of President Bush’s energy plan? Yesterday, Jan Pronk, the head of U.N. talks on climate change and the Dutch environment minister, described the plan as a “disastrous development” that would “undoubtedly” lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. A press release issued by Friends of the Earth in the […]

Putting It in Reverse

The average fuel economy of new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last year dropped to the lowest levels since 1980, according to a new report by the U.S. Transportation Department. President Bush’s energy plan released yesterday calls for a review of fuel-economy standards once the National Academy of Sciences completes a study of […]

Tina Turnaround

In what appears to be a big victory for environmentalists, the White House says it will retain the air-quality standards for ozone and particulate pollution that were set by the Clinton administration several years ago. In February, the U.S. Supreme rejected arguments by industry groups and affirmed the U.S. EPA’s right to establish the standards. […]

The Strategy of the Commons

Enough about endangered species — Massachusetts next month is beginning the country’s most ambitious effort to save common plants and animals. More than 20,000 people, including school kids, are expected to take part in a three-day “bioblitz” to create a town-by-town inventory of every species living in the state that is bigger than a one-millimeter […]

Quitos Never Prosper

Major environmental groups in Ecuador, led by Fundacion Natura, banded together yesterday to announce their official opposition to a billion-dollar pipeline project that would double the country’s crude oil output. Ecuador’s Energy Ministry is expected to decide whether to grant the project an environmental permit early in June. The pipeline would go straight through the […]