Latest Articles
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Noble Prize
At a ceremony in Stockholm on Friday, scientists and activists from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Turkey, and the U.S. received Right Livelihood awards, commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prizes,” for their work on environmental and human rights initiatives. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, the chief environmental official in Ethiopia, was honored for leading an international effort to […]
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Burning Japanese, I Really Think So
Even though Japanese citizens tend to throw out only half as much trash as U.S. citizens, Tokyo will be out of space for its garbage in 30 years, according to its sanitation department. Because of a general lack of space for trash in the country, Japan burns about 75 percent of its garbage, compared to […]
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Will election 2000 lead to reform or not?
The crowds demonstrating outside Florida courtrooms and counting rooms have been reminding me of the historical opera “Boris Godounov.” It opens with peasants milling about, waiting to find out who will be their next czar. Every now and then a handler comes out and whips them up to yell for Boris, who is not the […]
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Why, I Ottawa …
After two days of talks in Ottawa, a U.S.-led bloc of nations and the European Union yesterday failed to iron out disagreements over how to implement a climate change treaty. Negotiators had hoped to reach an agreement that could be more formally approved by their countries next week in Oslo, but the Ottawa meeting produced […]
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Harry Potter and the Ozone Layer
As the holiday gift-buying frenzy picks up, no one really knows whether online shopping hurts or helps the environment. The nonprofit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions says such shopping may be an environmental plus, citing the benefits of delivery trucks and warehouses over the multiple car trips and energy-intensive retail space necessary for traditional […]
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Great, Salt Lake!
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) created a special state office yesterday dedicated to blocking a proposal to store 44,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The Goshute tribe says it has the sovereign right to accept the waste, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory […]
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Leap, Frogs
Federal scientists have found that commonly used pesticides in California’s Central Valley are contributing to the decline of frogs in the state. The research found that the pesticides diazinon and Dursban are blown east into Yosemite National Park and elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where they are absorbed in the frogs’ bodies. The chemicals […]
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Battery Will Get You Nowhere
California air quality regulators once hoped that battery-powered, zero-emission cars would lead the charge for cleaner air in the state, but today they are shifting their allegiance to more commercially viable cars that produce some emissions. In 1990, the California Air Resources Board mandated that 10 percent of all vehicles sold in the state by […]
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Capitalist Pigs
In what could be a harbinger of things to come should George W. Bush become president, environmental groups and family farm advocates yesterday unveiled a campaign in which hotshot lawyers from 15 law firms will help them fight pollution from factory hog farms. Taking a page from the tobacco war books, environmental lawyer Robert F. […]
