Latest Articles

50 Ways to Love Your Lever

With the help of levers and pedals, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pulled a 16,000-pound chunk from the face of the Matilija Dam yesterday, a symbolic step toward dismantling the 20-story structure in southern California. Babbitt has been calling attention to the need to take down obsolete dams in the country for the last couple of […]

Let's Buck This Rider

A coalition of 20 health and enviro groups is calling on President Clinton to refuse to sign a budget bill with riders that would, among other things, block the U.S. EPA from lowering the level of arsenic allowed in drinking water. Clinton has said he would veto funding bills with anti-environmental riders, but activists fear […]

I'll Take the Environment for $600, Jim

The environment got the most attention it’s ever received in a presidential debate last night, with much of the focus on global warming. Vice President Al Gore argued that actions must be taken now to combat global warming, and that there would be great economic gains for the U.S. if it were the country to […]

Not-So-Safeway

A variety of genetically modified corn not approved for human consumption has been found in Safeway brand taco shells, just weeks after a similar finding in Taco Bell brand taco shells, says the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a coalition of consumer and enviro groups. Like Kraft Foods, maker of the Taco Bell shells, Safeway has […]

Iron Lung

Preliminary research published today in the journal Nature suggests that iron could be dispersed in cold, biologically barren seas near Antarctica to feed large algae blooms that would sop up carbon dioxide from the air and in so doing help fend off global warming. Theoretically, the plants would sink to the ocean bottom, removing CO2 […]

Buying the Farm

California lost almost 70,000 acres to sprawl between 1996 and 1998, fueled by the state’s yearly influx of 700,000 people, according to a biennial report released yesterday by the state Department of Conservation. About two-thirds of the land lost to development was formerly farmland. One citrus farmer, John Gless, said that rising water bills, restrictions […]

Blood Sugar, Sick Tragic

Exposure to herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, a dioxin-containing defoliant used during the Vietnam War, may be associated with the development of diabetes, according to a new report from a panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. The link is “limited and suggestive,” say the scientists, but it’s strong enough that diabetes […]

Or: how I learned to start vermicomposting and love the worm

The problem with winter is that nothing rots. Yummy! — compost in action. Photo: Texas A&M Dept. of Horticultural Sciences and Aggie Horticulture. This won’t bother you if you don’t have a compost pile, but if you do, you are frozen on the horns of a messy dilemma. The wondrous microbial engine of your compost […]

Thrown for a Loophole

Some enviros say the Clinton administration is proposing “loopholes” in the Kyoto climate change treaty so big that they would let the U.S. get away with doing almost nothing to curb its emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Many crucial decisions on how to implement the treaty will be made next month at an international negotiating […]

Auto-neurotic

Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader returned to his roots yesterday by launching into a harsh critique of the auto industry, accusing American car manufacturers of blocking advances in fuel efficiency and safety. Speaking to the Economic Club of Detroit, Nader asked, “What is it about this industry, which has such talent and such an […]