Latest Articles

Primary Colors

The presidential primary contests came thundering to a halt this week and, on the Republican side, the environment appears to have played a major role in helping George W. Bush beat back John McCain. The height of the GOP battle was marked by bitter acrimony over a television ad paid for by Bush supporters that […]

That Really Extincts!

It takes about 10 million years for the living world to recover from large-scale extinctions and produce mature ecosystems, according to a study published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. “When we got that result, I was just stunned,” said study coauthor James Kirchner of the University of California at Berkeley. Many biologists say […]

The British Are Coming Closer

The UK is aiming to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 21.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2010, a reduction almost twice as large as the one the nation committed to under the Kyoto climate change treaty. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced the goal yesterday as he unveiled a draft plan for complying with the […]

Wow — A 350-Mile-Long Cesspool

China’s controversial Three Gorges Dam, now under construction, is plagued by corruption and is likely to lead to serious pollution problems, but officials say the project will be completed nonetheless. Enviros and human rights advocates vehemently oppose the dam on the Yangtze River, which will be the world’s largest hydroelectric project and will displace 1.3 […]

Pretty Soon, Gas Will Cost As Much As Bottled Water

Complaining about the rising price of gasoline in the U.S., Alaska’s two Republican senators yesterday introduced a bill to open the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil production. The bill isn’t likely to go far because President Clinton has steadfastly opposed drilling in ANWR, which enviros say would seriously disturb wildlife populations. […]

Please, Mrs. Paul, Stop the Madness!

Stocks of cod in the North Sea are in serious danger of collapsing because of the twin threats of overfishing and rising sea temperatures, according to a new study published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. Over-exploitation of cod stocks over the past four decades means that most of the fish caught in the […]

The Not-So-Great Migration?

The migration of tens of thousands of Brazilians from the Amazon rainforest to cities has lessened one environmental crisis but created other serious problems. Now fewer farmers are tearing down swathes of forest to open up new agricultural land, but cities in the Amazon region have been overwhelmed by the influx of new people. A […]

Higher prices at the pumps are a good thing — really

That whining sound you hear is American consumers (formerly known as American citizens) fretting over the rising cost of gasoline. Pump and circumstance. The current national average price of gas — $1.41 per gallon — is a full 25 cents higher than it was merely four months ago, and analysts predict that the price could […]

Zed, last of his species, in "Smooth Operator"

Tannen-bomb

Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) has launched “Project Evergreen,” an effort to assemble a list of anti-environmental initiatives that a new Republican president could undertake without congressional approval. Last week he wrote to conservative think tankers, industry folks, and others, asking for help in thinking up “executive orders and rule changes that a new president […]