Latest Articles

Rhys Roth, Climate Solutions

Rhys Roth is a founder and codirector of Climate Solutions, whose mission is nothing less than to stop global warming at the earliest point possible by helping the Pacific Northwest become a world leader in practical and profitable solutions. Monday, 23 Apr 2001 SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine This is no typical day in my life as an […]

How the Police Count Protesters in Three Easy Steps

You Can Rhone, but You Can't Hide

Many rivers in Europe are in poor health and don’t come close to meeting the European Union’s environmental standards, the World Wildlife Fund said yesterday. The group found that 50 out of 69 river stretches in 16 countries were in trouble; the worst polluted rivers included the Rhone and Seine in France, the Severn in […]

Arresting Development

In a pre-Earth Day demonstration protesting President Bush’s environmental policies, 10 environmental activists were arrested yesterday at U.S. EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., after chaining themselves to the building’s entrance. Among those arrested were John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA, and Randy Hayes, president of the Rainforest Action Network. Passacantando said in a statement, […]

Christie Toad Whitman

The Bush administration has put on its green hat leading up to Earth Day. President Bush has said he would sign a treaty phasing out a series of nasty chemicals and not roll back a couple of environmental rules approved by former President Clinton. U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman has been making the rounds […]

Addled Ababa

Ethiopia said yesterday that about 3,000 tons of obsolete pesticides stored at almost 1,000 sites around the country are contaminating the environment and threatening public health. For example, at one location in Addis Ababa, overturned metal drums leaking toxic waste are just 500 yards from a grain silo. A strong smell of chemicals pervades the […]

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Taiwan President Chen Shui-ban biked to work today to mark Earth Day on Sunday. Top officials from Taiwain’s environment and transportation agencies, among others, pedaled with the president in the morning drizzle in Taipei. Chen said, “After this, I hope I can ride to work one day each month.” Meanwhile, environment ministers from six countries […]

Zed, last of his species, in "Earth Day, My Foot!"

The state of the planet is grim. Should we give up hope?

Note: Donella Meadows died on 20 Feb. 2001. The following is excerpted from her story about writing The Limits to Growth in 1972. Limits was translated into 26 languages and sold more than 9 million copies.   COMPUTER PREDICTS WORLD COLLAPSE   I was one of the team of people at MIT who wrote a […]

Coming Out of Their Shells

More than a million Olive Ridley turtles came ashore to nest and lay eggs last month on India’s eastern coast and hatchlings are now filling the beaches, providing some hope that the turtles may be back from the brink of extinction. (Sobering stat: Generally, only one out of every 1,000 hatchlings reaches adulthood.) Last year, […]