Latest Articles

Wolong, Farewell

The forests of China’s largest panda preserve are being destroyed four times faster than before the park was created in 1975, according to a study published last week in the journal Science. The human population living inside the 500,000-acre Wolong Nature Reserve grew 70 percent from 1975 to 1995. Residents of the park depend on […]

No Laughing Matter

With jokes about President Bush’s anti-environmental policies getting center-stage attention on late-night talk shows, the White House has gone into spin mode, trying to put a green lustre on its moves. U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman on Friday said that critics had been too quick to denounce decisions on global warming and arsenic in […]

In a confidential memo, President Bush tells EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman what's on his

Christie — Heard they hammered you in Montreal about the Kyoto thing. Don’t let it get you down, Whitman! They’re foreigners, these people, and foreigners feed on confrontation. It’s cultural. Did you see that recent French or German movie, in black and white? Cultural. Good of you to leave the conference early. I take it […]

Therapy for the Silent

Hook, Line, and Stinker

Despite the brouhaha over the potential health and environmental risks of genetically engineered crops, several biotech companies are moving forward with plans to bring genetically modified fish and meat to your nearest supermarket. Aqua Bounty Farms has already applied to the feds for approval to market salmon eggs laced with DNA from ocean pout that […]

Surprise and Demand

Someday, maybe in two years, maybe in 2020, the demand for oil will outstrip the supply of it. How long after we reach that point will we go on denying it? Petroleum is at the base of much of what we modern-day folks take for granted — gasoline, jet fuel, plastics, pesticides, fertilizers. What to […]

Give a Hoot — You Can't Commute

Frustrated commuters in Delhi burned buses yesterday to protest an order by India’s Supreme Court to ban diesel-burning vehicles from the city’s roads. In 1998, the court ruled that vehicles used for public transport must be converted from diesel to cleaner-burning natural gas by the end of March 2001. Very few attempts were made to […]

Going to Kjell in a Handbasket

The Bush administration rejected pleas yesterday from a European Union delegation visiting Washington, D.C., to try to get President Bush to reconsider his decision to abandon the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The top-level delegation met with U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman and White House and State Department officials. Kjell Larsson, Sweden’s environment minister, […]

Sweet Providence

A Rhode Island superior court judge ruled on Monday that the state can proceed with its lawsuit against manufacturers that marketed lead-based paints. Rhode Island is the first state to sue the paint industry over lead poisoning; taking a hint from the successful legal tactics used against tobacco companies, the state is accusing the industry […]

Green and Bear It

In a victory for environmentalists, British Columbia is announcing a deal today to ban logging in parts of the Great Bear Rainforest. The agreement comes after a five-year campaign led by Greenpeace to preserve the habitat of the spirit bear, a rare snow-white subspecies of black bear living in the coastal rainforest. Details of the […]