Latest Articles

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 […]

How Interest-ing

The U.S. is canceling part of Bangladesh’s debt and allowing future interest payments to go toward paying for forest protection in the tropical country, the first such agreement under a U.S. debt-for-nature law passed in 1998. The shift will free up about $8.5 million over 18 years for conservation of Bangladeshi forests. U.S. Treasury Deputy […]

And other words from readers

Dear Editor: I’m a little concerned with the pressure environmental groups are putting on less developed countries (whose standards of living are below those of the U.S.) to halt what many in these countries might see as improvements in their daily lives. I say this mainly because many people living in these areas look to […]

The Price Is Wrong

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced yesterday that his nation will launch a sweeping plan to conserve energy by the end of the year. As France emerged from a week of disruptive protests by truckers and others over high gasoline prices, Jospin said soaring fuel costs should be an incentive to conserve energy and promote […]

Miss-taken

The Miss Waldron’s red colobus, a large West African monkey, has gone extinct, say scientists in the October issue of the journal Conservation Biology. This is the first time in several centuries that a member of the primate order, the taxonomic group to which humans belong, has gone extinct. The scientists warn that the pace […]

Melbourne Place

Thousands of enviros and other anti-globalization activists took to the streets of Melbourne, Australia, yesterday, with the aim of shutting down, Seattle-style, a three-day World Economic Forum meeting of high-powered corporate leaders and policymakers, primarily from the Asia-Pacific region. “We have no vote on who these major world leaders are,” said Michael Gann, a protestor […]

Sink Like a Butterfly

Monarch butterflies may be in trouble due to the degradation of a forested region in central Mexico that serves as critical habitat for the migratory species during the winter. The first scientific study of the habitat found that in the past 30 years, the forest has been transformed by illegal logging, cattle grazing, farming, and […]