Latest Articles

Last Roundup?

The Yanacona Indians in Colombia are fighting to be able to pull up and destroy tens of thousands of poppy plants by hand rather than have police airplanes spray the land around them with herbicides as part of the war on drugs. The Yanacona say spraying, which often involves the herbicide Roundup, has caused sickness […]

Dune and Gloom

A coalition of enviro groups sued the feds yesterday for failing to protect public lands in Utah from damage by off-road vehicles (ORV), including dune buggies and cross-country motorcycles. A recent study by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance found widespread ORV damage on public lands in the state, including areas being considered for wilderness designation. […]

Twenty

• percentage of all endangered and threatened species in the U.S. that are harmed by grazing • number of plant species that provide 90 percent of the world’s food supply • percent by which wind power production has grown per year since 1990 • percentage of Earth’s original forests that remain pristine and undisturbed • […]

Dam, That Was Brave

Ten enviro activists riled up the British by staging a daring protest yesterday on the world’s largest ferris wheel, which is under construction in central London and is scheduled to open on New Year’s Eve. The enviros, from the Basque group Solidarios con Itioz and the Indian organization Narmada, were demonstrating against major dam projects […]

To Russia, With Love

As delegates from 150 nations gather in Bonn, Germany, this week to hammer out some details on the Kyoto climate change agreement, Russia is pushing for a system that would allow it to sell permits for carbon dioxide emissions. Under Kyoto, Russia is supposed to maintain its CO2 emissions at 1990 levels, but the post-Soviet […]

From Russia, Without Love

Russian police are targeting environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists in a security crackdown that gained momentum after a terrorist scare last month. Police have interrogated at least seven enviros in the past two months and searched some of their homes, and at least one of them is still in jail, activists say. The enviros, who are […]

More Green, Less House

U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, which cause climate change, rose just 0.02 percent last year, the smallest annual increase since the recession year of 1991, according to the Department of Energy. At the same time, the U.S. economy grew by 3.9 percent. DOE economist Arthur Rypinski said it would take several years of similar data […]

Energy Boom

As Asia’s population expands and its burgeoning middle classes pursue more energy-intensive lifestyles, Northeast Asian nations are turning to nuclear energy to meet growing demand, building many nuclear power plants and planning hundreds more. Many of the region’s citizens are uncomfortable with this trend, especially after the accident last month at a nuclear fuel facility […]

Dammed If He Does, Dammed If He Doesn't

Last Wednesday’s New York Times featured a full-page ad urging Vice Pres. Al Gore to take a stronger position on dam removal on the lower Snake River in Washington state, a step that enviros believe would improve the survival chances of several salmon species that call the river home. What happens to a decision deferred? […]

Spy-ghetti

Ancona, Italy, announced yesterday that it will pay $70,000 for satellite photographs to help it pinpoint the exact location of illegal toxic waste dumps in the city. Italy’s Environment Ministry says at least 152,000 tons of illegal refuse, much of it toxic, are dumped in the nation each year, primarily by organized gangs dubbed the […]