Latest Articles

Breach Out of Reach

The Clinton administration has decided it will not recommend that four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington be breached to help salmon recovery. George Frampton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is testifying before Congress today that the feds will watch how other efforts to protect salmon proceed over the […]

I'm Chiquita Banana and I've Come to Say — Bananas Must Be Grown in a Certain Way

The banana business is going greener, with a number of major companies, including Chiquita, working to qualify for a new Eco-OK banana label developed by environmental groups under the banner of the Better Banana Project. To maintain certification, banana farms must show continual improvements in their environmental practices and treatment of workers. Ecuador’s second largest […]

Spilling Their Gluts

In the worst river pollution incident ever to hit Brazil, a million-gallon oil spill is threatening drinking water, wildlife, and farmland along at least 25 miles of the Iguacu River in the southern part of the nation. The spill, which began Sunday afternoon, was caused by a ruptured pipe at a refinery of the government-owned […]

Kiss and Telecommute

This Friday will be the first National Work at Home Day, aimed at encouraging employees to give telecommuting a try, for the sake of the planet and their own productivity. About 19.6 million Americans telecommuted to work in 1999, up from 4 million in 1990, and that number will continue to grow as technology and […]

'Night, Rider

In a victory for the Clinton administration, the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected an effort yesterday to block the president from designating more national monuments. By a 50 to 49 vote, the Senate defeated a budget bill rider proposed by Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) that would have required the White House to get congressional approval for […]

Gold Medal for Green Mettle

The 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, which will begin on Sept. 15, are expected to be the greenest ever. Most of the events will take place in Homebush Bay, once the polluted site of a slaughterhouse but now transformed by a big environmental cleanup. The Olympic Village, where 15,000 athletes and officials will live […]

Roadless to Utopia

A group of enviros from around the U.S. descended on Salt Lake City yesterday to deliver to the U.S. Forest Service 700,000 comments supporting a Clinton administration plan to ban road-building on 40 million acres of roadless national forest land. Enviros also called for the plan to be strengthened by explicitly prohibiting helicopter logging, mining, […]

Enrique Suave

Enrique Penalosa, mayor of Bogota, Colombia, is championing the bicycle as the means to a cleaner environment and has directed the city to build nearly 125 miles of permanent bike paths. Penalosa instigated a car-less day in the city in June and a recent poll found that Bogota residents would support another car-less day, though […]

Southern Discomfort

Some days the smog in the Great Smoky Mountains, the country’s most-visited national park, is worse than the pollution in Atlanta. As the South’s population has soared, the region has become home to more cars and SUVs and the demand for coal-fired energy to power amenities like air conditioning has skyrocketed. The governors of Tennessee […]

First, Do No Warm

Climate change could bring with it a wide variety of health problems, according to a study of possible effects in Washington state, released today by Physicians for Social Responsibility. For example, higher temperatures could increase concentrations of ground-level ozone and other air pollutants, aggravating asthma cases, and expand the habitat of ticks that carry Lyme […]