Latest Articles

Town and Out

Arnold, Calif., a longtime logging town, is turning against the industry that supported it for decades. A number of residents are opposing a plan by Sierra Pacific Industries to clear-cut a nearby area, fearing that it would damage the town’s burgeoning tourism industry, not to mention the area’s water supply “People come here for the […]

Organic Strawberry Fields Forever

Sales of organic foods in the U.K. are expected to be five times higher in 2000 than in 1996, compared to a doubling of U.S. organic food sales during the same period. Why the surge in Britain? Opposition to genetically modified ingredients, now common in nonorganic foods, has been widespread and strident in Britain, pushing […]

What's killing off lobsters in Long Island Sound?

Richard A. French, a specialist in animal disease at the University of Connecticut, often comes to work wearing a lobster tie tack he bought at a shellfish conference. He’s had lobsters on the brain lately, particularly the mystery of why hundreds of thousands of lobsters have died within the last year in Long Island Sound. […]

Chamber Potshots

Once again, conservative members of Congress, egged on by the business community, are hoping to tag legislative riders to funding bills to stop the Clinton administration from implementing new environmental regulations. The administration, for its part, is trying to make environmental proposals permanent before a new president takes office. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants […]

Sunday in the Park With Kim Jong Il

Some Koreans are hoping that the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea will be turned into a nature preserve. The 155-mile-long DMZ — laced with landmines, razor wire, and chain-link fence — has been cut off from human interference for nearly half a century, so many plants and animals are thriving there, including […]

An Engine That Benz the Rules

German-American automaker DaimlerChrysler AG announced yesterday that it intends to invest about $1 billion in fuel-cell technology and become the first major auto manufacturer to market fuel-cell vehicles. By 2002, the company plans to produce buses equipped with fuel cells, and by 2004 it will sell fuel-cell cars. Meanwhile, Japanese scientists report in the new […]

Here Today, Ghana Tomorrow

Environmentalists in Ghana are working to establish six sanctuaries for giant sea turtles along the country’s Atlantic coast, and they hope the refuges will attract eco-tourists. The Ghana Wildlife Society and other groups aim to raise some $20,000 to protect beaches where hundreds of sea turtles lay eggs between August and March. The turtles, which […]

Say It Before You Spray It

New York would become the first state in which counties could require homeowners to post warning flags alerting neighbors when they use pesticides on their lawns, under an agreement reached yesterday by Republican and Democratic leaders in the New York legislature. The measure would also mandate that parents be given notice 48 hours before spraying […]

King Ralph?

Ralph Nader, who will officially capture the Green Party presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Colorado next weekend, is spreading his pro-environment, anti-corporate message with far more fervor than he did in his 1996 campaign. In the last three months, Nader has campaigned in 47 states and raised about $1 million, and he plans […]

Hitting the Nader on the Head

Wow! Did I ever infuriate my liberal friends when I said I would vote for Ralph Nader! [See Won’t You Be My Nader?.] They’ve been hammering me with earnest lectures about how every vote for Nader will help get Bush elected, and how an elected Bush will devastate the environment, enrich the rich, hand the […]