Latest Articles

Kenya Believe This?

A court in Kenya granted environmentalists an injunction yesterday to prevent the government from clearing 167,000 acres of forestland around Mount Kenya. The decision will allow time for the enviros to file a formal case against the minister of environment. Yesterday, the enviros presented a petition to the minister signed by more than 28,000 people […]

A Left Bank

France’s Green Party is expected to play a major role in what political analysts say will be a victory for the Socialist candidate in the race for mayor of Paris this Sunday. Taking lessons from the German Green Party, the French Greens in recent years have dropped their former hippie image to curry favor with […]

Bush Takes Issue With Mentality

President Bush said this week that he’s all for allowing drilling rigs to enter parts of America’s national monuments, “where we can explore without affecting the overall environment.” Bush took issue with the “mentality that says you can’t explore and protect land,” explaining that “it all depends upon the cost-benefit ratio.” Environmentalists, needless to say, […]

Sherry, Sherry Quite Contrary

A group of Republican moderates stuck with Democratic lawmakers yesterday and submitted bills in the U.S. House and Senate to cap carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, only two days after President Bush broke a campaign promise and said he wouldn’t support such legislation. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Me.) and James Jeffords (R-Vt.) and Rep. Sherwood […]

A Sony Disposition

A new law requiring manufacturers to recycle used refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, and air conditioners goes into effect next month in Japan. Most firms appear to be ready to take on some of the additional costs of recycling the appliances. In some cases, consumers may have to pay $20 to $40 to recycle their appliances. […]

Electric Boogie

12,133 — per capita annual electricity consumption (kilowatt-hours) in the U.S. in 1997 1,381 — per capita annual electricity consumption (kilowatt-hours) in the rest of the world in 1997 21.5 — percentage increase in U.S. electricity consumption from 1990 to 1999 43 — percentage decrease in utility funding for energy efficiency from 1993 to 1998 […]

Huge Grant

In what would be its largest grant to date, Ted Turner’s U.N. Foundation is proposing to give $10 million to preserve the world’s coral reefs. The foundation’s board is meeting tomorrow to vote on the grant, which would go to the International Coral Reef Action Network, a coalition of academic, private, and intergovernmental groups led […]

Onus on Us

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked world leaders yesterday to pick up the pace on protecting the environment. “We may be moving in the right direction, but we are moving too slowly. We are failing in our responsibility to future generations and even this one,” said Annan, speaking at a conference in Bangladesh. He said that […]

The Fin-al Countdown

Environmentalists launched a yearlong campaign this week to persuade Singapore diners to stop eating shark’s fin soup, a popular delicacy in the country. To meet market demand, fishers slice fins off live sharks and then toss the helpless creatures back into the sea to die. As a result, shark populations are being devastated and traders […]

Undermined By the Under Mind

The European Union yesterday expressed disappointment with President Bush’s decision not to regulate carbon dioxide, and Japan said the decision could undermine the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Germany went so far as to say the rest of the world might have to leave the U.S. behind and begin implementing the treaty alone. E.U. Environment […]