Latest Articles

Sound's Good

British Columbia’s Clayoquot Sound, an area of old-growth forest, was designated a United Nations biosphere reserve on Friday, perhaps ushering in a new era for a region that has been home to some of North America’s most bitter logging battles over the last 20 years. The 850,000-acre reserve, which has the support of the Canadian […]

Waiter, There's a Fly Gene in My Soup

Kickin' Asthma, Taking Names

Air pollution from two coal-burning power plants in Massachusetts can be linked to more than 43,000 asthma attacks and an estimated 159 premature deaths each year, according to a study released yesterday by the Harvard School of Public Health. Locals and enviros say the study gives Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) the evidence he needs […]

Corning the Market

Two powerful farm-state senators introduced a bipartisan bill yesterday that would triple the use of ethanol over the coming decade and help replace the controversial gasoline additive MTBE. The bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), would let states opt out of the federal requirement that gasoline in […]

Seven Brydes for Seven Samurai?

Japan, which has stirred up controversy for more than a decade by hunting minke whales ostensibly for scientific research, now plans to expand its hunt to include sperm and Bryde’s whales. The nation has submitted its proposal for an expanded hunt to the International Whaling Commission, which banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows nations […]

There's Goldfish in Them Thar Streams

The diversity of fish species in America is in serious decline, according to new research published in today’s issue of the journal Science. Small populations of native fish have gone extinct while popular food and game fish have been spread by humans, leading fish populations across the country to become less diverse. In recent years, […]

Hot Under the Flea Collar

The U.S. EPA is gearing up to restrict the use of chlorpyrifos, which is one of the most widely used insecticides in the U.S. and has been linked to memory loss, nervous system problems, and other health concerns. The chemical, also known by the trade name Dursban, is sprayed on a variety of crops and […]

What About Danish Seamen?

Forty-three percent of 700 Danish army recruits tested have sperm counts so low that they could have trouble fathering children, according to research published in the journal Human Reproduction. The study authors, who can’t explain the low sperm concentrations, say other research indicates that male reproductive function seems to have deteriorated considerably in the past […]

One man's quest to prove that bigger isn't better for the planet

Long before the special-effects wizards made Stuart Little into a silver-screen sensation, E.B. White’s diminutive hero held a hallowed spot in a storytelling tradition that ranges from Gulliver’s Travels and “Jack and the Beanstalk” to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The basic idea: Make the workaday world utterly fantastic by changing the scale. Or, most […]

Once More Into the Bleach

The highest sea temperatures ever recorded in the Caribbean have caused the first mass die-off of coral in Belize in 3,000 years, and scientists suspect that global warming and the El Ni&ntildeo weather phenomenon are to blame. The high temperatures in 1998 lasted for several months and caused much of the Belizean coral reef to […]