Latest Articles

Nature Nurtures

Contact with nature may have therapeutic effects, says a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Emory University. Writing this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Howard Frumkin says that interactions with natural landscapes, plants, and animals can have a “soothing, restorative, and even healing” effect. He says natural places may even cause […]

Victor, You Go!

The administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox sent a tax reform bill to the Mexican Congress last week that contains strong environmental protection and cleanup provisions. Environment Minister Victor Lichtinger said that under the bill, ranching and mining interests would have to start paying for the water they use, giving them an incentive to conserve, […]

Where's the Beef Report?

The chemical, beef, and poultry industries are lobbying the U.S. EPA to stall even longer before releasing a final report showing that animal fat and dairy products containing tiny amounts of dioxin can cause cancer in humans. The agency circulated a draft report early last summer that concluded for the first time that at least […]

Way Cool

The second-largest air-conditioner manufacturer in the U.S., Goodman Manufacturing, is asking the Bush administration not to roll back a rule approved by former President Clinton requiring new air conditioners to be 30 percent more efficient than the current minimum standard. The industry trade association, the (beautifully named) Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, wants the administration […]

Weeping and A-whalin'

Drawing the ire of environmentalists, Japanese whaling ships returned to harbor this morning with a catch of 440 minke whales after five months at sea. The catch was within the limit for minkes set by the International Whaling Commission. Japan says that research is the main reason for the harpooning, but greenies dispute that. Greenpeace […]

Emissionary Position

The U.S. EPA on Monday asked the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the agency’s decision in December to order power plants to reduce their mercury emissions. Some environmentalists, eager for good news, rushed to cheer the move, saying it indicated that the Bush administration was going to move forward […]

Markey Mark and the Bushie Bunch

President Bush is asking Congress to effectively suspend a part of the Endangered Species Act that lets citizens sue the government if they think the feds are not moving quickly enough to add species to the protected list. In the past, environmentalists have used the right to sue to win protections for dozens of species […]

Whoa, Canada

Canada’s environmental record ranks second-worst in the world compared to 28 other industrialized nations, according to a study by a professor at the University of Victoria. Switzerland came out No. 1, while the U.S. brought up the rear in the study, which ranked per-capita measurements of greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy consumption, logging, and […]

Trouble in River City

The Missouri River is the country’s most endangered waterway, says American Rivers, which yesterday released its annual list of rivers in trouble. The group says that several species face extinction along the Missouri because of six dams run by feds to control the river for the benefit of a small amount of barge traffic. The […]

A review of Arctic Refuge

First, the facts. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers about 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska, almost all north of the Arctic Circle. It was created in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which renamed and more than doubled the size of an existing wildlife range, designated about 8 million acres within the refuge as wilderness, and prohibited oil and gas production in the refuge unless authorized by Congress.