Latest Articles
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Will the military protect the West's last best place?
As parks and forests in the West get overrun by tourists who love too much, the millions of acres controlled by the Department of Defense are suddenly looking sexier. In the Sonoran desert, for example, the last best place is a bombing range. It is a sign of the times that the 2.7 million-acre Barry […]
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Eco-Visionaries or Survivalist Kooks? You Decide
Solar power companies around the U.S. are getting a boost in sales from people who fear the impact of the Y2K problem. Some speculate that the millennium bug will cause massive failures in the nation’s power grid, though electric companies claim they have the situation under control. In another Y2K-related development, the French Institute of […]
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Don't Keep on Truckin'
The feds may make a fundamental shift in the way they regulate air pollution from factories by starting to consider the exhaust from truck traffic in and out of industrial sites as part of a factory’s pollution. The EPA won’t make a final decision until this fall about the proposed rules, which would make it […]
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Meshuggena!
Israeli farmers are refusing to cut back their water use by 40 percent despite government orders that are intended to get the country through a drought year. The government has offered to pay $39 million to compensate some 30,000 farmers for losses they would incur by reducing irrigation, but the farmers are demanding $73.3 million. […]
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Home, Home of Deranged
The state of Montana can continue to kill bison that wander outside Yellowstone National Park, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The state is afraid that the bison will infect cattle with the disease brucellosis. More than 1,200 bison have been shot or shipped off to slaughter in the last three years. Enviros argue that […]
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Old McDonald Had a Farm — K-Y-O-T-O
The Kyoto climate change treaty’s impact on U.S. farmers would be relatively modest, even if energy prices rise, according to an Agriculture Department report scheduled to be released today. Meanwhile, as U.S. negotiators look toward the upcoming international climate change meeting in Bonn, the coal industry and conservatives in Congress are pressing for $2 billion […]
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Cleaning Up As-Best-Os They Can
As Oklahoma residents struggle to reorder their lives after the devastating tornadoes that swept through their towns this week, they will face serious environmental cleanup problems. It will take months to haul away a staggering amount of debris — 220 million cubic yards — and officials aren’t sure where they’ll put it. Federal officials may […]
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Give a Hoot — File a Suit
Enviros yesterday filed suit against the feds in an effort to protect the Mexican spotted owl in Arizona and New Mexico. The owl population has dropped 10 percent a year between 1991 and 1997, according to a Humboldt State University study. The suit, filed by the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, aims to force the […]
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Tourism, the Snake Charmer
Breaching four dams on the lower Snake River to protect salmon would likely more than double revenue from recreation and tourism along a 140-mile stretch of the river in Idaho and Washington, according to a draft report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The findings could add momentum to arguments in favor of breaching […]
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No Silver Lining for These Muchachos
A Mexican company announced yesterday that it would undertake the largest environmental cleanup in the nation’s history in Torreon, 500 miles north of Mexico City. But many say it’s too little, too late. Pollution from the world’s largest silver refinery in the town has caused severe lead poisoning in thousands of children, and despite studies […]
