Latest Articles

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 […]

That '70s Show

President Bush draws the curtain on the administration’s energy policy tomorrow, but there’s not much anxious anticipation. This remarkably non-leaky White House has done a pretty good job drib-drabbing out the whole policy, so much so that you’ll be forgiven if you feel you’ve read the same story about what’s in the plan 10 different […]

That's About the Seize of It

President Bush’s energy plan is expected to recommend that the federal government be allowed to use eminent-domain authority to seize private property for electric transmission lines. Guess who isn’t very excited about this idea? It’s your old anti-enviro buddies — Mr. and Mrs. Western Republican Leader and their friends, the property-rights movement. The amount of […]

Diddly-squat

Kenyans have been clashing over the future of 167,000 acres of forestland around Mount Kenya since the government announced in February that it would clear the land so that landless farmers could live there. The acreage represents about 7 percent of the country’s total remaining forest cover. Environmentalists in the Green Belt Movement say that’s […]

The Fountain Airheads

Many customers of Southern California Edison are dutifully honoring the company’s request to dim the lights and conserve electricity, but not the folks at the international headquarters of the Ayn Rand Institute. Yaron Brook, the executive director of the group, which is dedicated to promoting Rand’s theories of individualism, said, "Expecting the American people to […]

America Last?

Although President Bush has proven to be a pushover on the issue, a bunch of multinational companies are working (albeit, slowly) to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Japan and Europe have kept up the pressure on companies to act; energy costs are rising, so efficiency saves money; and some of the companies want to […]

Driving That Train, High on Industrial Solvents

More than 600 railroad workers, from Maryland to Kentucky to Montana, have been diagnosed with brain damage over the last 15 years from handling toxic degreasing solvents, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal after a 10-month investigation. Thousands more may be ill, but not know why. Railroad companies, particularly CSX Transportation, have paid tens of millions of […]

To Form an Imperfect Union

President Bush is meeting today with labor leaders in hopes of getting them to endorse his energy plan, which will be released on Thursday. Environmental leaders say Bush is trying to use the plan to split two key Democratic constituencies, unions and environmental groups. Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said, “If […]

He's All Business

President Bush is expected to nominate James Connaughton, a lawyer who has represented General Electric and Atlantic Richfield in suits against the U.S. EPA over Superfund cleanups, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He wants Linda Fisher, who leads Monsanto’s government affairs office, to be second-in-command at the U.S. EPA. He has […]