Latest Articles

Toxicistan

The U.S. plans to spend as much as $6 million to help Uzbekistan dismantle and clean up one of the former Soviet Union’s biggest chemical weapons testing labs. Only after Uzbekistan gained its independence in 1991 did Uzbek officials learn of the severe pollution that resulted from the Soviet Union’s use of the region as […]

Salton Wounds Not So Bad

The Salton Sea in inland southern California, long thought to be virtually dead, is in better environmental health than expected, according to a preliminary report released last week. Common wisdom holds that the sea is being poisoned by pesticide runoff from surrounding farmland, but though the researchers expected to find elevated levels of pesticides, herbicides, […]

Pollinators making a run for the border

When most of us hear of undocumented border crossings between Mexico and the western United States, we immediately think of devastating social problems: refugees fleeing poverty and political oppression, or drug runners laundering money and offering controlled substances to our children. I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a bee. And […]

Elise Richer, Urban Institute

Elise Richer plays center halfback for the Flanders Football Club and does social policy research for the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. Monday, 24 May 1999 WASHINGTON, D.C. Defining a neighborhood is difficult. Residents living physically near each other often conceptualize their neighborhoods completely differently, depending on the local paths and people which populate their […]

Never Mind Paper Vs. Plastic Bags. How Did You Get to the Grocery Store?

Finally! A sensible list of things we can do to save the planet! Discussion on this topic has been muddled since the 50 Simple Things book came out years ago. It was a well-meant list and a very popular one. Its sales showed that millions of folks, especially young folks, are willing to change their […]

Hot and Bothered

Enviros Mobil-ize to Put the Nix on Exxon

Enviro groups plan to oppose the proposed merger of Mobil and Exxon at the companies’ annual meetings this week out of fears that Mobil’s more conciliatory stance on climate change will be x-ed out if Exxon gets regulatory clearance to buy Mobil for $75 billion. Mobil was initially critical of the Kyoto climate change treaty, […]

Dam Yangtze!

The official newspaper of China’s communist party has acknowledged that serious environmental problems, engineering difficulties, and corruption plague construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The editorial in the People’s Daily, published today, marks the first time the influential newspaper has been permitted to note problems with the dam project, which if completed as planned would […]

Call Me Fishmeal?

International whaling officials begin meeting today in Granada to debate easing a ban on commercial whaling, with the recent whale kill by the Makah Indian tribe in Washington state likely to stir things up. A ban instituted in 1986 has helped whale populations recover, but most species still remain endangered. Japan, Norway, and a few […]

Greenery Is Chicago's Hope

Chicago’s environment department will plant rooftop gardens on a number of municipal buildings in an effort to reduce heat and pollution, and it will encourage private companies to do the same. Dark-roofed buildings and miles of pavement absorb the sun’s heat and raise the city’s temperature by as much as four to six degrees. The […]