Latest Articles
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That's Why They Call Him the "Vice" President
Vice President Al Gore is coming under increasing scrutiny and criticism from enviros and others because of his cozy ties to Occidental Petroleum. Gore — who owns as much as $500,000 worth of Occidental stock and has earned about $450,000 since 1974 from a zinc-mining deal that the company helped set up — last week […]
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The Road to Hell Is Paved By the Brazilian Government?
The Brazilian government’s plans to repair and pave four highways could lead to the deforestation of up to 72,000 square miles of the Amazon rainforest over the next 25 to 30 years, according to a new study by enviros. The planned improvements to more than 2,000 miles of roads would give loggers easier access to […]
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Strife of the Party
Germany’s Green Party has abandoned its goal of immediate closure for all the nation’s nuclear power plants, agreeing to a compromise deal under which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats plan to phase out the nation’s 19 nuclear reactors by 2018. The Greens’ decision came at the urging of its most influential member, Foreign Minister Joschka […]
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Let's Look Before We Leap into Biotech
Biotech stocks plummeted last week as President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair requested that companies make their data on the human genome public. Private firms are racing madly to read and patent the genetic code that makes you you and me me. They are trying to beat publicly funded labs, which are required […]
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Not Fine and Not Dandy
For 12 years, the U.S. Department of Energy has neglected to regularly impose fines on contractors running federal nuclear weapons plants and labs when the contractors fail to protect workers and the public from radiation hazards. A 1988 federal law authorizes fines and other penalties, but the DOE has yet to draft all the administrative […]
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Agra-vation
In an effort to keep India’s majestic Taj Mahal from turning black because of serious air pollution, the government is clamping down on industry and cars in the city of Agra. One plan to help clean the air is to promote pedal-powered rickshaws, a non-polluting form of transportation that has long been used in the […]
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To MTBE or Not To MTBE?
The Clinton administration will announce today that it plans to phase out the use of MTBE, acknowledging that the gasoline additive poses health risks because of its tendency to contaminate groundwater. The Clean Air Act calls for the use of oxygenates such as MTBE in gasoline to help fuel burn more cleanly and release fewer […]
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Bill Sheehan, GrassRoots Recycling Network
Bill Sheehan (pictured here with daughter Fiona) is network coordinator for the GrassRoots Recycling Network in Athens, Ga. Sunday, 19 Mar 2000 ATHENS, Ga. Woken up at 6:30 a.m. by my bouncy nine-year-old daughter, Fiona, who had been woken by her kitten. Sky gray, temperature cool — more like late winter than any weather in […]
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In a Minor Key
Government officials in the Florida Keys have passed a resolution recognizing that climate change is likely to threaten the islands’ beaches and reefs, bring more hurricanes and storms, and harm the region’s tourist-based economy. The Keys’ Monroe Board of County Commissioners has also begun to work with the Alliance of Small Island States, which has […]
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Average Joes and Janes Can Make a Real Difference — No Foolin'
In the personal realm, most Americans are thoughtful, caring, generous. We try to do our best by family and friends. At times we'll even stop to help another driver stranded with a roadside breakdown, or to give some spare change to a stranger. But increasingly, a wall now separates each of us from the world outside, and from others who've likewise taken refuge in their own private sanctuaries. We've all but forgotten how much public participation is the very soul of democratic citizenship, and how much it can enrich our lives.
