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Rainbow Worriers

Wearing surgical masks to draw media attention, Greenpeace activists sailed out of Russia yesterday on a month-long crusade to raise public awareness about the problems of chemical pollution in the Baltic Sea. They will visit Estonia and other spots along the sea before arriving in Stockholm, Sweden, where officials from countries around the world are […]

Well, at Least He Keeps Some of His Promises

White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said yesterday that U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman had spoken in “confusion” on Sunday when she announced that Vice President Dick Cheney’s secretive energy task force would not recommend oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Fleischer went on to directly contradict Whitman, saying that the task force […]

Funereal Disease

Pyres of animals being burnt in the U.K. because of the foot-and-mouth disease are producing more dioxin than all of the country’s factories combined. The burning has put the country on pace to double its annual dioxin emissions. Meanwhile, the government has admitted that it hasn’t conducted an assessment of the health effects of the […]

Austin is losing the battle to protect the Barton Springs salamander

At first blush, it hardly seems fair to compare the plight of the Barton Springs salamander to that of endangered species such as the fierce grizzly of the Northern Rockies or the no-longer-so-resilient salmon of the Pacific Northwest, totemic animals that characterize whole regions and spark national debate. After all, the Barton Springs salamander is […]

Something in the Air

Almost all doubt has been removed that particulate pollution causes significant health problems, according to U.S. EPA scientists working on a draft review of the issue. The review takes into account 3,000 new health studies published since 1997, the year that the agency decided to move forward with a new standard for particulates. The pollution […]

Standards and the Poor

In a precedent-setting decision for the environmental-justice movement, a federal judge last week blocked the opening of a cement additive plant in a poor black neighborhood in Camden, N.J. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection gave the go-ahead to the plant last October after determining that it would not exceed federal air-pollution limits. But […]

Gold Mettle

Eight environmental activists tonight will receive the world’s most prestigious environmental award, the Goldman Environmental Prize. Awards of $125,000 will be given to Oscar Olivera, a Bolivian labor leader working for clean and affordable water; Yosepha Alomang, an Indonesian activist trying to preserve land and culture in West Papua; Giorgos Catsadorakis and Myrsini Malakou, two […]

To Drill or Not to Drill. That Is Still the Question

Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief strategist, has told an oil industry lobbyist that Bush isn’t going to spend a lot of political capital to win congressional approval for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reports Time magazine. Yesterday, on Earth Day, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said that the secretive White House energy […]

Nelson, Rockin' Fellah

Activists and Democrats took advantage of Earth Day yesterday to whale on President Bush’s environmental record. Earth Day Founder Gaylord Nelson, a former Democratic senator from Wisconsin, said, “Tragically, the president doesn’t have any interest at all in the issue.” Rep. David Bonior (Mich.), the House’s second-ranking Democrat, said in the party’s weekly radio address […]

Trading Blows Over Whether Trading Blows

As police tear gassed and fired rubber bullets and water cannons at protesters in Quebec this weekend, President Bush spoke inside the protected halls of a conference center and told the other leaders from the Western Hemisphere that “open trade must be matched by a strong commitment to protecting our environment and improving labor standards.” […]