Latest Articles

Ban Rolls Off

Content that new federal limits on catching swordfish will buoy the fish’s population, two environmental groups are ending their two-year campaign to convince restaurants not to serve swordfish. The National Marine Fisheries Service last week announced plans to close more than 100,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean to pelagic longline […]

Goody, Two Shoes!

Nike says it is incorporating the environment into its decision-making, and even Greenpeace cautiously agrees that the company seems to be moving in the right direction. Nike says that by 2001, nine of 10 shoes it manufactures will be made without toxic glues, cleaners, or solvents. The company has also pledged to find an alternative […]

Pesticide labels contradict local waste laws

As another summer eases into autumn, many of us are now enjoying the rewards of a season of gardening. We proudly face the August dilemma of figuring out what to do with all those tomatoes and zucchinis that are the result of our digging, planting, and weeding earlier in the season. More than a few […]

Take a Walkerton on the Wild Side

Pressured by public anger over the deaths of six people in May from an E. coli outbreak in the water system of Walkerton, Ontario, the provincial government promised yesterday to spend $162 million to upgrade water systems and sewage treatment plants. Officials also announced new regulations to monitor and control the quality of drinking water. […]

He's all abuzz about socially responsible coffee

I am in the local coffee shop in Paonia, Colo., drinking a cup of joe and pleasantly anticipating its effects on my brain. My companion, Eli Wolcott, isn’t drinking a drop. He doesn’t ask what coffee can do for him; he asks what he can do for coffee. Eli Wolcott (the mug’s just a prop). […]

Can You Spare a Square?

Aussie-some

Enviros and other activists are making plans to disrupt a September meeting of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, Australia, in the spirit of the Seattle protests last year against the World Trade Organization. Green groups, including Friends of the Earth, are joining with labor activists and others concerned about the negative impacts of global […]

Drain, Drain, Go Away

Saying the move would protect tens of thousands of acres of wetlands a year, the Clinton administration yesterday proposed closing a loophole that allows wetlands to be developed. The Clean Water Act restricts developers from filling wetlands to create stable land on which to build and farm, but does not specifically prevent developers from draining […]

Fueling Groovy

General Motors and ExxonMobil announced yesterday what they called a breakthrough in fuel-cell technology for automobiles. The companies have developed a new system that converts gasoline into hydrogen that is used to run a fuel cell, which in turn produces electricity to power a car or truck. According to the companies, the system is twice […]

Generation XL

The world population, which surpassed 6 billion last year, is expected to hit 8.9 billion by 2050, according to median estimates from the U.N. Population Fund. Average fertility worldwide has fallen dramatically in recent decades, from five children per woman in the 1960s to 2.7 today, and the fertility in 61 countries, representing 44 percent […]