Latest Articles

Kerr-bing Population Growth

Andy Kerr, a well-known environmental activist who spent much of the 1980s and 1990s fighting a bitter war against logging in the Northwest, is turning his attention to another issue: population growth in Oregon. Kerr’s new organization, Alternatives to Growth Oregon, is still developing its agenda. But Kerr has already proposed some controversial ideas, including […]

What Do You Take Us For, Fuels?

A U.S. government report soon to be released shows a slight increase in the fuel economy of family vehicles in the 2000 model year, but the rise is primarily because of a loophole that gives automakers extra mileage credit for vehicles that can run on ethanol, even though almost no one uses the fuel. In […]

Pipe Down!

The World Bank’s board of directors will vote next week on a highly controversial plan to help finance a $3.7 billion oil-and-pipeline project in Chad and Cameroon. Environmentalists are staunchly opposed to the project, being spearheaded by ExxonMobil, which would entail drilling some 300 oil wells in Chad and constructing a 650-mile-long pipeline from southern […]

Compassionate Conservationist?

GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush yesterday proposed $2.3 billion in new spending and tax credits over five years to promote conservation, including full funding of $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and a capital gains tax cut for people who sell property to conservation groups. In his second campaign […]

Spent Fuel for the Fire

Japan, which gets about a third of its electricity from nuclear plants, is having big problems trying to dispose of its nuclear waste. Public opposition to the nuclear industry in Japan is growing, fueled by an accident last year at a uranium processing plant that killed two people and exposed hundreds to radiation, and citizens […]

Interior Designs

Speculation is mounting that Montana Gov. Marc Racicot (R) would be a likely candidate for Interior secretary should George W. Bush win the presidency. Racicot yesterday joined other Western governors, including Dirk Kempthorne (R-Idaho) and John Kitzhaber (D-Ore.), in calling on the next president to give more weight to state and local governments in deciding […]

Old-growth Me Out

Sixteen major Canadian companies — including Bell Canada, Nike Canada, Kinko’s, and Citizens Bank — announced yesterday that they will stop purchasing all paper products made from old-growth forests within three years. The agreement stems from a campaign organized by the Markets Initiative, a coalition of environmental groups that includes Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. […]

Hanford and Sons

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt recommended yesterday that President Clinton declare four new national monuments that would protect more than 500,000 acres of federal land in the West, and Clinton is expected to heed his advice. The proposed monuments include the Hanford Reach along the Columbia River in Washington; the Soda Mountain area of Oregon; canyons […]

Methane in Their Madness

Far from being eco-friendly, hydroelectric power can actually cause more greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere than coal-fired power plants, according to a report by the World Commission on Dams, a group of scientists, engineers, and enviros supported by the World Conservation Union and the World Bank. The reservoirs created by dams trap […]

Hell-bent for Leatherbacks

Leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean are in a serious decline that may lead to their extinction within a decade unless commercial fishing practices are changed, according to a new study in today’s issue of the journal Nature. The giant turtles, which weigh an average of 1,000 pounds and travel thousands of miles through the […]