Latest Articles

Money Can't Buy You Love — But It Can Buy an Ad Campaign

Reacting to a growing backlash against genetically modified (GM) foods, Monsanto and other biotech giants have committed to spend $50 million a year for up to five years on a campaign to convince North Americans that their products are safe and beneficial. The campaign kicked off yesterday with TV commercials on major networks, and will […]

Tusk, Tusk

Vietnam’s wild elephant population has declined dramatically in recent years and could disappear without a concerted conservation effort, according to Flora and Fauna International, a U.K.-based group. FFI’s latest research shows a mere 111 elephants in the wild in Vietnam, down from about 2,000 in 1990. The group blamed the drop on the loss of […]

Musseling In

Ecologists are getting a lesson in the dangers of exotic species as they watch the havoc being wreaked on New York’s Hudson River by the zebra mussel, a native of Eurasia that came to the U.S. aboard oceangoing ships in the late 1980s. The population of zebra mussels in the river is estimated at 500 […]

40 Acres and a Stubborn Mule Named Lloyd

Environmentalists praised a Supreme Court decision yesterday to let stand a ruling that makes it more difficult for landowners to get compensated when government regulations prevent them from developing their land. Lloyd Good owns 40 acres in Florida, primarily wetlands, and had wanted to build a luxury waterfront development on the land. When federal officials […]

Halt! U'wa Goes There!

A Colombian court last week ordered Occidental Petroleum Corp. to halt temporarily all work on a large oil drilling project in a rainforest area that the native U’wa tribe claims as ancestral land. The court ruled that the U’wa had not been properly consulted about the development. Occidental and its partner in the project, the […]

Magic Beans

Coffee roasters and importers met with environmentalists and other groups last week and agreed to develop a labeling system for Mexican coffee that would assure consumers that the beans have been grown in an environmentally conscious way and that the growers have been treated well and paid a fair price for their work. The new […]

All the Dams That Are Fit to Breach

An editorial in yesterday’s New York Times urged the federal government to protect threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead species by breaching four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state. Most scientists believe that breaching would be the most effective step to help the salmon, the newspaper argues, and the economic fallout would […]

Fuel's Progress

What an upset! Oil-burning New Englanders watch their heating bills double. Truck drivers protest higher diesel costs by jamming Washington, D.C., streets with their rigs. Congress, in its wisdom, offers to combat a 60-cent jump in gasoline prices with a four-cent tax cut. Our energy secretary runs around the Middle East begging for just a […]

Jacqui Hellyer, Sydney Olympics

Jacqui Hellyer is manager of environmental communications for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). Monday, 3 Apr 2000 SYDNEY, Australia Well I’ve started the week on a high note, after having spent a wonderful weekend camping at Jervis Bay, a national park two hours south of Sydney. The absolutely pristine white sands, […]

King of the World Meets Leader of the Free World

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio interviewed President Clinton on the topic of global warming Friday, for an Earth Day special that will air on April 22 on ABC. Clinton discussed his policy on climate change and efforts to make the White House more eco-friendly, according to White House spokesperson Jake Siewert. “I thought it was an interesting, […]