Latest Articles

Shape Up, Don't Ship Out

Environmental groups in India are protesting a plan by a U.S. company to ship about 120 tons of used mercury to India. The chemical company HoltraChem produced the waste mercury in Maine and then sold it to an Illinois trader. The Indian importer and the ultimate destination of the mercury within India have been kept […]

Lean, Green Electoral Machine

Although Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader received only 3 percent of the popular vote nationally, 32 of 240 other Green candidates won elections in 12 states. In all, the party now has in office 79 elected officials in 21 states, each official serving at the municipal level. That number makes the Greens one of […]

Throwing It in Reverse

In a private letter to President-elect George W. Bush, Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah), the incoming chair of the House Resources Committee, has proposed reversing a wide range of the Clinton’s administration’s environmental initiatives. Hansen has suggested easing a ban on snowmobile use in some national parks, taking away some the national monument designations by Pres. […]

Road Worriers

Negotiations between environmental groups and Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes (D) over how to balance air quality and road-building in the Atlanta metro area collapsed this week. The two sides were close to an agreement that would have lifted a freeze on road-building if the state cut emissions from diesel generators and construction equipment, began to […]

Balkan Death Grip

Italy on Wednesday became the latest European country to ask NATO to be more open about the depleted uranium weapons used in past Balkan conflicts. Six Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans have died of leukemia, leaving some wondering whether the deaths might be tied to exposure to the DU ammunition. France, Spain, Portugal, […]

Sea lions escape with protections for now

The drama of the presidential election, they say, has awakened the interest of the public, and especially of young people, in the democratic process. So welcome, young people, to the entertainment that never ends. Once the question “who won?” is settled, other questions begin. What are the people who won up to? For whose benefit? […]

Burning Down the House

A radical environment group, the Earth Liberation Front, has claimed responsibility for setting fires to several houses under construction on what used to be farmland on Long Island, N.Y. The vandals left the message, “If you build it we will burn it,” in red paint on one house damaged on Saturday. The ELF, whose members […]

The Call of the Wild

With just 18 days remaining in the Clinton administration, enviros have organized a nationwide call-in campaign today to urge Pres. Clinton to declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska a monument (hint: 1.888.750.4897). President-elect George W. Bush pledged in his campaign to try to open the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling, and […]

Regulation Time

A blue-ribbon committee formed by the U.S. and European Union to study genetically engineered foods has recommended mandatory labeling and more careful testing of such foods. The committee, whose 20 members included opponents and fans of biotechnology, said late last month that stronger regulations would increase public confidence in the foods, a position that the […]

Teach Half a Million Men to Fish, They'll Eat for a Day

South Africa said yesterday that it will impose emergency measures to save plummeting stocks of several fish species. The fish, including rock cod and red stumpnose, are being caught with long lines, a fishing method that is devastating the fish populations. About half a million commercial and recreational fishers are actively linefishing in South Africa. […]