Latest Articles

Cool, Cats!

After 10 years of litigation and delays, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finally listed the Canadian lynx as a threatened species in the lower 48 states under the federal Endangered Species Act. The elusive cats are found in 14 states across the continental U.S., predominately on federal forest lands. Wildlife officials hope they […]

Better Safe Than Overrun By Frankenplants

A coalition of more than 50 U.S. environmental, consumer, and farm groups yesterday demanded that the Food and Drug Administration adopt rigorous safety testing and mandatory labeling for genetically modified (GM) foods. The groups filed a formal petition with the FDA that forces the agency to accept more public comments on the controversial issue. Some […]

Out With the Blades of Glory

The cost of wind power in Scandinavia is dropping as technology improves and competition mounts, but a new challenge may be overcoming public objections that modern windmills are eyesores. Denmark, which generates about 10 percent of its electricity from wind and aims to raise that percentage to 50 by 2030, plans to build all of […]

Flee Willy!

British Columbia’s southern population of orcas may be in trouble, a point emphasized last weekend when one of the orcas washed up dead on shore, its body highly contaminated with PCBs, dangerous human-made toxins. Tests on the dead whale’s body have not yet been completed, but a 1996 biopsy of the same whale found PCB […]

In Hot Water

Contaminated plumes of groundwater under the Nevada Test Site, where 828 underground nuclear tests were conducted between 1956 and 1992, may travel beyond the borders of the site toward populated areas in as little as 10 years, some scientists say. Federal scientists knew when they conducted the tests that the area’s groundwater would be tainted, […]

Forgive Them Their Debts

President Clinton, who is travelling through South Asia this week, announced yesterday that the U.S. will spend $50 million over four years to promote clean-energy projects in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. He also announced a debt-for-nature swap with Bangladesh under which the U.S. will forgive $6 million in debt in exchange for Bangladesh protecting tropical […]

Just for the Halibut

Thousands of rare sea birds and hundreds of marine mammals are being entangled and killed in fishing nets in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off California’s central coast — and it’s all perfectly legal. Though national marine sanctuaries are established to protect marine resources, commercial and recreational fishing is generally allowed in the areas, […]

That's Why They Call Him the "Vice" President

Vice President Al Gore is coming under increasing scrutiny and criticism from enviros and others because of his cozy ties to Occidental Petroleum. Gore — who owns as much as $500,000 worth of Occidental stock and has earned about $450,000 since 1974 from a zinc-mining deal that the company helped set up — last week […]

The Road to Hell Is Paved By the Brazilian Government?

The Brazilian government’s plans to repair and pave four highways could lead to the deforestation of up to 72,000 square miles of the Amazon rainforest over the next 25 to 30 years, according to a new study by enviros. The planned improvements to more than 2,000 miles of roads would give loggers easier access to […]

Strife of the Party

Germany’s Green Party has abandoned its goal of immediate closure for all the nation’s nuclear power plants, agreeing to a compromise deal under which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats plan to phase out the nation’s 19 nuclear reactors by 2018. The Greens’ decision came at the urging of its most influential member, Foreign Minister Joschka […]