Latest Articles

I Should Have Had a G-8!

Environmental ministers from the world’s eight leading industrialized nations ended a conference in Japan yesterday without agreeing on a deadline for ratifying the Kyoto climate change agreement. The European Union and Japan want the treaty ratified by 2002, while the U.S. and Canada resisted any specific timeframe for ratification. The chief U.S. representative, W. Michael […]

Taint Nuthin'

Environmentalists joined labor unions and Washington state officials in celebrating their victory this weekend after thwarting plans to unload and temporarily store 110 tons of toxic waste in Seattle. A ship carrying PCB-tainted waste from U.S. military bases in Japan arrived in the Port of Seattle last week, and the U.S. Defense Department attempted to […]

Dave Harris, UC Berkeley Earth Week organizer

Dave Harris has spent his school year organizing for Earth Week 2000 at University of California, Berkeley, where he is a student. Monday, 10 Apr 2000 BERKELEY, Calif. It’s 5:45 in the morning. I’m possibly the only person awake in my eight-story dormitory. My roommate is definitely asleep. I’ve been up all night piecing together […]

A Flash of Insight

Well, there she is. Sleek and silver, dealer plates still on, got her two days ago. Seventy miles per gallon, 700 miles a fill-up. So they say. Last time I bought a new car — a 1987 Honda Civic wagon that got 35 mpg at its best — I swore I’d keep it until I […]

Orgy-porgy, Ford and Fun

Ford Motor Co. yesterday became the first U.S. automaker to commit to producing a gas-electric hybrid vehicle, a version of its Ford Escape SUV that the company says will hit the market by 2003. Ford estimates that the hybrid Escape will get about 40 miles per gallon, compared to 20-28 mpg for the conventional Escape. […]

How to make your home an eco-friendly haven

Last spring, I met with a real-estate agent and listened while she told me about the kind of house I should buy. A new house, she advised, with all new appliances and the latest innovations in wiring, plumbing, and heating -- maybe even a condo. My horrified expression stopped her mid-sentence. Actually, I explained dreamily, I'm looking for an older home with charm and quirky character. I want big windows, hardwood floors, and a garden.

Lost at Sea

I've Got the World's Tiniest Violin …

The chair of Occidental Petroleum has filed suit against environmental and human rights activists who have been picketing his home and office to protest Occidental’s plans to drill for oil on rainforest land in Colombia that is considered to be the ancestral home of the indigenous U’wa tribe. Ray Irani claims his family life was […]

Feel My Roth!

The Senate showed its support yesterday for opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, a move vehemently opposed by enviros. The Senate voted 51-49 against dropping from the budget resolution an assumption that ANWR will be opened to drilling, thereby netting the government $1.2 billion by 2005. Sen. William Roth (R-Del.) led the […]

Trunk and White

South Africa has sparked a big controversy with its proposal to sell a large stockpile of ivory believed to be worth $5 million. Africa’s elephant population was estimated last year at 620,000, down from 1.2 million less than 20 years ago. Although the decline seems to have been checked, in part because of a 1989 […]