Latest Articles

Rising Sunshine

Japan adopted its first freedom of information law last week, giving citizens the right to request information on everything from how the government evaluates environmental hazards to how it spends tax money. Citizens groups have fought for the law for 20 years, and it is still weaker than most of them would have liked. Diplomatic, […]

Mayonnaise on Rye, Hold the Tuna

Citing mercury levels found in canned tuna, a coalition of environmental and health care groups is urging that pregnant women avoid eating canned tuna and that preschool kids eat no more than one tuna sandwich a week. The Environmental Working Group and Health Care Without Harm bought 27 samples of tuna in grocery stores and […]

Protestors Blubber Over Hunt

The Makah Indians had an unsuccessful day of whale hunting off the coast of Washington yesterday, the tribe’s first hunt in more than 70 years. The Makah expect to harpoon a whale during coming weeks and placed part of the blame for their failure to do so yesterday on protestors whose boats followed them to […]

Amory Lovins Sees the Future and It Is Hydrogen

For 25 years, energy guru Amory Lovins has been seeing farther and farther into the energy future. He has been labeled a dreamer, but by now he’s accumulated enough of a record to qualify as an oracle. At a recent meeting of the National Hydrogen Association, he (with colleague Brett Williams of Rocky Mountain Institute) […]

Here, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

Seine Thoughts on Nukes

Cracks are beginning to show in France’s strong base of support for nuclear energy. For the first time, politicians, including Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, are talking about cutting back on nuclear power. Jospin has said that France should reduce its dependence on nuclear from 80 percent to 60 percent of the nation’s energy supply, and […]

Watt's Up with Clinton?

The Clinton administration is likely to nominate as a federal judge a Utah conservative whom environmentalists have compared to James Watt. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is pushing the nomination of Ted Stewart, current chief of staff to Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R), and some administration officials believe Hatch will […]

Borderline Psychosis

The U.S. and Mexico will need better land-use planning along their border over the next 20 years to avoid a host of serious environmental ills, according to a new report by a group of U.S. and Mexican universities. The area’s population could nearly double by 2020, straining already dwindling water supplies and worsening cross-border air […]

Caspar, the Friendly Town

The 300-some residents of Caspar, an unincorporated village in northern California, have drawn up detailed plans for a model sustainable community that would run largely on solar power and include an electric-vehicle charging station, lots of open space, and affordable housing. They have proposed strict land-use regulations prohibiting new buildings that would negatively affect native […]

Top Secret: You Could Die

The Clinton administration proposed a bill Friday that would let Americans living near dangerous chemicals know the casualty estimates for a worst-case accident in their region, while attempting to keep the information out of the hands of terrorists who might use it to plan an attack. The EPA last fall considered posting detailed worst-case chemical […]