Latest Articles

Brown and Browner

Clinton administration officials who held a “town meeting” in Seattle yesterday with the intent of assuaging environmentalists’ concerns and anger over global trade issues met with little success. EPA chief Carol Browner, Frank Loy, undersecretary of state for global affairs, Ian Bowles of the White House Council on Economic Quality, and Dorothy Dwoskin, assistant U.S. […]

Bruce on the Loose

Americans can expect to see more areas in the western U.S. protected as national monuments in the coming year, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said yesterday. Such designations can be made without congressional approval; Pres. Clinton angered western politicians in 1996 by creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. Babbitt spoke at a congressional hearing […]

America's Armpit to Get Hotter, Sweatier

Climate change will affect some areas of the U.S. far more severely than others, according to a new study by Princeton University researchers published in the journal Climatic Change. Regions that already suffer from heat and humidity in the summer, such as the Southeast and a portion of the mid-Atlantic, will be particularly vulnerable to […]

Air Bradley

Bill Bradley made a bid for the environmental vote last night during a speech to the League of Conservation Voters, seizing on a set of issues prized by Al Gore, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bradley said he wants to lead an administration that truly reduces air pollution rather than just talks about […]

Red Rain Is Coming Down

China is urging cities to shut down old coal-fired power plants, factories, and unlicensed coal mines to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide, which cause acid rain to fall on 40 percent of the country. New standards will require cities to develop pollution control programs before 2000 and some 80 percent of major industrial firms to […]

Micro-Softie

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen yesterday donated $3.4 million to protect 25,000 acres of the Loomis State Forest in northern Washington state. In July, enviros raised $13.1 million to buy the land, which is home to one of the last healthy lynx populations in the lower 48 states, and protect it from logging. But earlier this […]

Norm!!!

The feds are expected to purchase two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state and begin planning how to demolish at least one of them, under an agreement reached between the Clinton administration and two Washington politicians, Rep. Norm Dicks (D) and Sen. Slade Gorton (R). Removal of the dams, […]

A longhair stirs up politics in Colorado

Art Goodtimes is driving my car, and he’s making me a little nervous. Not that he’s a bad driver. But he’s talking Colorado politics, and he’s warming up to the subject. He starts gesturing, and soon he’s taking both hands off the wheel when he particularly wants to make a point. I realize my car’s […]

Thirty-three

• percent by which energy-efficient windows can cut cooling and heating bills • percentage of the world’s population living in countries experiencing moderate to high water stress • percentage of toxic water pollution caused by personal vehicle use • percentage of the world’s energy consumed by developing nations • percentage of all raw materials used […]

I Am the Triax, I Speak for the Cars

General Motors is taking a step forward in the race to produce green cars with an announcement today that it has developed a new concept vehicle, called the Triax, that can operate with a range of power sources, including gasoline, hybrid, and electric systems powered by either batteries or fuel cells. In the meantime, U.S. […]