Latest Articles

I Do Know Why, 'Cause There's Carbon in the Sky, Stormy Weather

Representatives of some 180 countries will gather in the Hague, Netherlands, next Monday to begin two weeks of talks to nail down the details of how to implement the Kyoto climate change treaty. French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet said this week that the European Union is united behind the idea that countries should meet most […]

Surveillance Says …

Brazil launched a $435 million program yesterday to fight illegal logging, mining, and drug trafficking in the Amazon rainforest, which is home to about 50 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. The program will establish an air surveillance system and send police out across the region’s 1.9 million square miles. Last year, illegal […]

Bury, Bury Good

Growing numbers of Brits and others are choosing to go to their graves more greenly, in biodegradable cardboard caskets and woodland burials that use trees as grave markers. Enviros point out that traditional burials usually involve a non-reusable wooden casket and a materials-intensive headstone, while gobbling up prime land. Cremation isn’t a green option either; […]

Forest Grumps

Planting forests may worsen climate change rather than mitigate it, according to two new studies by British researchers published in the journal Nature. One of the studies suggests that as temperatures rise, forests are likely to emit more carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air, adding to the greenhouse gases that are warming the atmosphere. A […]

Protecting Their Privates

Oregon environmentalists are lamenting the passage on Tuesday of a ballot measure that will amend the Oregon constitution to require state and local governments to pay private property owners when land-use or other regulations reduce the value of their property. Opponents argue that the property-rights, or “takings,” measure will hamper the state’s widely touted efforts […]

It's Sprawl Downhill From Here

Much to the disappointment of environmentalists, high-profile anti-sprawl ballot measures in Colorado and Arizona were defeated in yesterday’s election. A proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution that would have put dramatic constraints on development, requiring cities and counties to develop growth plans and let the public vote on them, was rejected by a margin of […]

London Birds Are Falling Down

Urbanization and climate change may be partly to blame for a serious decline in Britain of house sparrows, formerly the most common bird in the country. Max Nicholson, a 96-year-old bird watcher who has been conducting informal bird censuses for 75 years, said that this year he counted only eight sparrows in London’s Kensington Gardens, […]

Waiting for Uh-oh

Enviros are biting their nails along with the rest of America, waiting to hear the outcome of the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush. It is known that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader fell short of the 5 percent of votes that would have earned the party federal matching funds in the […]

Airing Their Grievances

In one of the most significant environmental cases to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in years, the high court yesterday heard arguments on whether the U.S. EPA overstepped its bounds in setting new clean air standards for ozone and particulates in 1997. Industry groups argue that the Clean Air Act, as interpreted by the EPA, […]

That Can-do Spirit

A new report indicates that the New Hampshire State Prison for Women could save more than $13,000 a year through energy conservation — but what’s most surprising about the report is that it was produced not by efficiency specialists but by inmates, a first in the U.S. Fourteen inmates in an energy conservation class offered […]