Latest Articles

A conservative argument for Clinton's forest initiative

Ed Marston, publisher of High Country News, proclaims in his paper’s April 10, 2000 issue: “The war between extractive interests and the environmental movement for control of the Interior West’s public lands is drawing to a close. The timber era, the cattle era, the mainstem big-dam era, the wise-use era are ending. An immense landscape […]

Alternatives to Elephant Poaching

A Real Windfall

All federal agencies in the Denver area will be powered in part by wind under the U.S. government’s largest contract to buy green energy, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced yesterday. The agencies will buy 10 megawatts of power annually from wind farms operated by Colorado utilities — enough energy to run 3,500 households for a […]

You Ottawa Be Ashamed

A coalition of environmental groups yesterday accused Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. of holding secret talks that could weaken environmental protection under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The enviros accuse Canada of leading a charge to weaken the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, an environmental watchdog set up under NAFTA to make sure the three […]

I'll Have No Truck With Diesel

Under a landmark agreement announced yesterday, the three largest grocery chains in Southern California will buy 150 alternative-fuel big rigs to replace heavily polluting diesel trucks. The deal settles a lawsuit filed in 1998 by enviro groups and the state attorney general’s office, which alleged that the companies were exposing people to hazardous diesel exhaust […]

Growth Negligence

Halting the spread of new human settlements is the only way to save the world’s “biodiversity hotspots,” according to a new study published in the journal Nature. Nearly 20 percent of the world’s 6 billion people live in the most species-rich and environmentally threatened areas, says Robert Engelman of Population Action International, one of the […]

Everyone's Doing Their Mega-Bit

More than 20,000 people around the world are donating their spare computing power to aid a scientific experiment that is attempting to forecast the climate of the 21st century. The Casino-21 project asks volunteers to keep their personal computers running around the clock so that when they are not otherwise in use, the PCs can […]

Fishy Chips

Enviros are pushing for a moratorium on new chip mills in the Southeast, calling on Tennessee and other states to follow the lead of Missouri, which decided last week to ban new chip mills for two years while a study is conducted on their environmental and economic impact. Large timber companies are increasingly clear-cutting forests […]

Right to Know-Nothing

To the disappointment of enviros, the Clinton administration yesterday proposed regulations that would allow the U.S. EPA to post only a limited amount of information on the web about worst-case disaster scenarios involving toxic chemicals stored at facilities around the country. The EPA had initially intended to post all available information about possible toxic accidents, […]

Sunny Delight

Arizona became the first state in the nation yesterday to require utilities to produce a small portion of their electricity from solar sources. The Arizona Corporation Commission unanimously approved a requirement that utilities generate at least 0.2 percent of their power from renewable sources next year, and at least 50 percent of that from solar […]