Latest Articles
-
![]()
![]()
Have the Bushies done enviros a favor?
Remember that old line that tells you to beware of getting what you wished for? The Bush administration and the timber industry may be on the verge of providing another illustration. Even with a federal judge on their side. The roadless travails. Photo: U.S. Forest Service. The administration wished to get rid of the National […]
-
Carr Crash?
Voters in British Columbia, Canada, yesterday got rid of the country’s most left-leaning provincial government, headed by the New Democratic Party, and overwhelmingly voted for the conservative Liberal Party instead. In the final days of the campaign, NDP leader Ujjal Dosanjh pleaded with environmentalists to “come home” to his party and vented against Green Party […]
-
The Finnish Line
The Finnish parliament began debating a controversial plan yesterday to bury waste from Finland’s nuclear power plants at a site some 1,600 feet underground. If the plan is approved, Finland will become the first country in the world to store nuclear waste deep underground. Environmentalists are protesting the proposal. Meanwhile, the Japanese government is poised […]
-
Army of Darkness
Saying that the U.S. faces a “darker future” if it doesn’t boost its domestic energy supply, President Bush unveiled his long-awaited proposal today to open more federal lands to oil and gas drilling, build many more power plants, and increase the production of nuclear power in the country. Under the plan, Bush will issue one […]
-
Cool Air, Just Don't Breathe It
Environmental officials in Utah yesterday eased air-quality rules temporarily to allow communities in the state to rev up diesel generators so that residents can blast their air-conditioning this summer. Some cities fear they will experience blackouts this summer, as a lack of rain, inadequate conservation, and ties to the energy crunch in California have led […]
-
Infertile Crescent
The largest wetland in the Middle East has shrunk by 90 percent since 1970, a change that has had a “devastating” impact on humans and wildlife, says the U.N. Environment Programme in a report to be released later this year. The UNEP says that dams and drainage projects have been the two main causes of […]
-
All We Are Is Soot in the Wind
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., yesterday sided mostly with the U.S. EPA and backed an order forcing factories and power plants in the Midwest and the South to reduce their emissions. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania petitioned the EPA in 1997 to order hundreds of polluters in upwind states to cut their […]
-
Assault and Paper
In a move that could put U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman in the hot seat again, a scientific advisory committee to the EPA voted unanimously yesterday to send on a long-delayed report to the agency that concludes that dioxin should be more tightly regulated. The committee found that dioxin is an air pollutant that […]
-
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Reboot
At long last, electronics recycling in the U.S. is beginning to take off. In May 1999, only about 15 percent of used computers, TVs, VCRs, and the like were being recycled, but the figure may now be as high as 25 percent, says Peter Muscanelli, president of the International Association of Electronics Recyclers. Unlike in […]
-
The Return of Nothin' Brazil
The amount of logging in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has risen to the highest level since 1995, provoking the country’s government to renew its pledges to reduce deforestation. Last year, 7,659 square miles of forest — an area about the size of Belgium — were lost to logging. Mary Allegretti, the government’s official who […]
