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As the Worm Turns

A Campaign Stuck in Park?

Standing on a scenic cattle ranch in the battleground state of Washington yesterday, GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush pledged that he would increase funding for national parks by $3.75 billion over the next five years so that the parks could tackle a major maintenance backlog. “A Clinton-Gore administration has chosen to expand the public […]

In the Navy, You Can't Put Your Mind at Ease

Forty-one environmental groups banded together yesterday to criticize an effort by the U.S. Navy to exempt two military bases in California from provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Navy officials say they need the exemptions for national security reasons and claim they will implement their own species-protection efforts. In a formal letter to the U.S. […]

That's Hard Corps

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has the conflicting responsibilities of protecting the country’s wetlands and developing taxpayer-funded water projects, often justifies such projects with questionable technical studies and proceeds with them despite significant environmental costs, concludes the Washington Post in an exhaustive five-day series on the agency. Because of its past record and […]

A Worm Welcome for Olympic Athletes

The Olympic Games about to kick off in Sydney will be the greenest ever. Many of the facilities are solar-powered, a water-recycling system is in place, the torch is energy-efficient, the plates and eating utensils are biodegradable, and 80 percent of the waste generated during the games is expected to be recycled or composted by […]

Great, Britain!

Sales of organic food in Britain could increase tenfold within the next 10 years, from 1 percent of all food eaten in the country to 10 percent, Carlo Leifert, director of the Organic Support Centre at Aberdeen University, said yesterday. His prediction comes as British supermarkets are starting a price war aimed at lowering the […]

From Russia With Love

Russia’s Supreme Court today acquitted environmental activist Alexander Nikitin of all espionage charges, rejecting a bid by prosecutors to reopen the case against him. Nikitin, a former officer of the Russian Navy, was arrested in 1996 on espionage charges after writing a report for a Norwegian environmental group about radioactive pollution in the Arctic seas […]

A Bunch of Moby Dicks

Saying that Japan has violated international rules by expanding its whale hunt, the White House plans to announce today that it is starting a process that could lead to economic sanctions against Japanese imports within two months. Earlier this summer, Japan began hunting Bryde’s whales and sperm whales for the first time in years, claiming […]

Mighty Morphin' Power Arrangers

Alternative energy sources in Europe may get a boost as protests against high oil prices spread across the continent. A summit this week in Munich, Germany, pushing hydrogen as an eco-friendly power source for the future, is attracting more attention than expected because it is set against the backdrop of anger over soaring gasoline prices. […]

Of Chinooks and Schnooks

Environmentalists are suing the feds over new salmon rules that give local and state governments more leeway in deciding how to protect the fish in the Northwest and California. The National Marine Fisheries Service in June released rules that offer exemptions from federal regulations to state and local governments that adopt their own, NMFS-approved salmon […]