Latest Articles

Rewriting the Story of the Ant and the Grasshopper

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper plays his fiddle and dances the summer away. Come winter the ant is warm and fed. The grasshopper dies in the cold. This tale is attributed to Aesop, a Greek ex-slave who lived around 600 B.C. […]

Wave Bye-Bye

If climate change continues unchecked, it could destroy the world’s great coral reefs within a century, according to a new report conducted by German and Australian marine scientists and released by Greenpeace. A rise in water temperature of just one or two degrees stresses coral and causes it to expel its life-giving microscopic zooxanthellae plants, […]

Post-NATO Baby Care

Pancevo, Yugoslavia, a city 10 miles northeast of Belgrade, seems to have suffered the worst environmental damage from NATO’s bombing campaign. Doctors privately recommended that all women who were in town the night of April 18 — when bombs destroyed a refinery, fertilizer plant, and petrochemical complex, releasing a dense, toxic cloud — avoid pregnancy […]

Pop, the Question

A U.N. conference on Friday agreed to a plan to curb world population growth, including controversial recommendations for sex education at all school levels, confidential contraceptive advice for teenagers, and safer abortions in countries where they are legal. The plan also asks governments to help curb the spread of the AIDS virus, which now infects […]

Greens See Red

A leader of Germany’s Green Party warned German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder yesterday that the Greens may desert his coalition if it does not honor a pledge to phase out nuclear power. “This is perhaps the Greens’ main reason for being in the coalition,” said party co-leader Antje Radcke. The Greens rejected proposals to spread a […]

Orrin't You Angry about This?

Pres. Clinton plans to nominate as a federal judge a Utah Republican who is bitterly opposed by environmental groups, administration sources said last week. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been pushing the nomination, and Clinton agreed to it so that Hatch would end his months-long blockade of the president’s […]

Bloomin' Hell!

In the worst fish kill in Maryland in more than a decade, at least 200,000 fish have died in the past week along two tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Officials blamed the fish deaths on buildups of phosphorus and nitrogen, which create algae blooms that deplete oxygen in water. A drought in the area has […]

Run, Salmon, Run!

Rebecca Wodder, American Rivers

Rebecca Wodder is president of American Rivers in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at the Wilderness Society and as the legislative assistant for then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.). Her career in conservation started with the first Earth Day in 1970. Monday, 5 Jul 1999 WASHINGTON, D.C. I’ve just returned from witnessing the rebirth of a river. […]

Enviro learns rural town isn't about Big Timber and Big Mining

“I don’t know what we’re going to do if the mine closes.” The woman’s voice sounds strained and tired through the phone. “I’m going to have to find a job, and we may have to cash in our retirement fund. I guess we’ll move if we have to.” I hadn’t meant to pry. I had […]