Latest Articles

What's changed, what hasn't, and what should for the environmental movement

I was in New York City on Sept. 11, so recently I’ve seen a lot of things go up in smoke. First there were the airplanes, careening nose-first into the World Trade Center towers and — it seemed almost uncanny at the time — failing to emerge on the other side. Then there were the […]

A post-Sept. 11 manifesto for environmentalists

I. The time will soon come when we will not be able to remember the horrors of Sept. 11 without remembering also the unquestioning technological and economic optimism that ended on that day. II. This optimism rested on the proposition that we were living in a “new world order” and a “new economy” that would […]

One month after Sept. 11, it's a whole new environment

Back in the pre-Sept. 11 era, or roughly a lifetime ago, when the word terrorism cropped up during discussions of environmental issues, it always seemed slightly out of context, an act of appropriation. Vandalism committed in the name of the environment (against SUVs, genetically engineered crops, sprawling housing developments) became eco-terrorism. Some environmentalists co-opted the […]

Coupe Coup

Less than 6 percent of 2002 model cars and trucks now hitting showrooms get better than 30 miles per gallon, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. EPA. On average, the fuel economy for the cars (23.9 mpg) is a bit worse than the 2001 model year. The gas-electric hybrid Honda Insight, a […]

Fairer Faucet

For the first time, construction of new housing developments in California will be contingent on water availability, under a bill signed yesterday by Gov. Gray Davis (D). The new law prohibits cities and counties from approving housing projects of 500 or more units unless water agencies verify that there is sufficient water to serve the […]

Oh Danny Boy

Green interior decorating — not the kind where you paint your pantry jade — is an idea whose time has come. At least that’s the fervent belief of Danny Seo, the Martha Stewart of the environmental movement. A 24-year-old New Yorker who started a national environmental group when he was 12 and was named one […]

United They Stand

In a sign-of-the-times statement, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said yesterday that his committee would stop work on an energy bill for the rest of year to avoid “issues that divide, rather than unite us.” Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, a sweeping energy package was a […]

Moscowl

Not much of the northern forest in the European portion of Russia is still standing and many of the trees that haven’t been felled are in jeopardy, according to a report released by Greenpeace Russia and Global Forest Watch. Russian researchers who spent five years mapping the forest for the report say that the largest […]

Toodle-oo, Tuvalu

New Zealand has agreed to welcome an annual quota of immigrants from the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, where rising sea levels are forcing residents from their homes. Tuvalu, a nine-island archipelago halfway between Hawaii and Australia, blames global warming for the higher ocean levels, as well as for coastal erosion, droughts, and unusually severe […]

Authority Figures

The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider, announced late last week that it would invest $1.5 billion in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants. The money will be used to install five smokestack-scrubber systems at plants in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky beginning in 2005. Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance […]