Latest Articles

Climate Out of Control

Large reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions could have a modest effect in slowing climate change, delaying some of the effects by 50 to 100 years, according to a report by scientists at the Hadley Centre for Climate Protection and Research, part of the U.K. Meteorological Office. However, to achieve this delay, emissions cuts of 50 to […]

Bawl Bering

Starvation seems the most likely cause of death for nearly 1,000 gray whales that died last summer along the west coast of North America. A Canadian researcher believes the whales were victims of a drop in food production in the Bering Sea. Scientists don’t know whether the trend is due to global warming or to […]

Not So Fast, Flux!

Supervisors at a Hanford nuclear fuel factory near Richland, Wash., sometimes told workers in the past to ignore safety rules intended to prevent accidental nuclear reactions, according to a Department of Energy investigation. The factory stopped production 10 years ago, but the DOE is considering reopening a nearby test reactor, the Fast Flux Test Facility, […]

Timber Tantrum

In a rare offensive move, the Plum Creek Timber Co. filed suit Thursday against five environmental groups and the U.S. Forest Service, seeking court backing for a controversial land swap in Washington state. Five enviro groups claim the exchange of 62,384 acres of Plum Creek’s mostly logged land for 15,800 acres of mostly forested federal […]

Black Helicopter Watch

Rarely do environmentalists find much common ground with the libertarian Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. But rarely do squabbles get as nasty as they did last week following the posting of an item on Cato adjunct scholar Steven Milloy‘s junkscience.com website concerning David Platt Rall, a noted environmental scientist who died tragically in […]

Soar Losers

More than 1,000 bird species are in danger of going extinct over the next century, according to a new report released by BirdLife International. Birds are threatened by deforestation, logging, farming, and mining. Brazil has the highest number of bird species at risk, 111, followed by Indonesia (92), China (82), and Colombia (81); the highest […]

Do Mess with Texas

With Houston’s rise to the status of most smoggy U.S. city, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is beginning to face criticism for his approach to environmental problems. Texas had serious air quality problems before Bush became governor in 1995, but some evidence indicates that the state’s air may […]

WTO Pours It On

The World Trade Organization responded to its environmental critics yesterday by releasing a report blaming poverty, not trade, for environmental degradation. The report didn’t address enviros’ criticisms that WTO rules clash with environmental goals and that decisions by its dispute settlement body have undermined environmental protection. The report instead notes that as countries grow richer, […]

Smoked Salmon

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will seek to have wild Atlantic salmon protected as endangered, after the release last week of a government report that found that the fish is near extinction. Despite a two-year effort by Maine to save salmon without federal intervention, the wild species continues to face threats from aquaculture, erosion, pollution, fishing, […]

Take That, Hosers

Tired of pollution drifting up from the south, officials in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, are considering joining a lawsuit that New York state plans to file next month against coal-fired power plants in the Midwest. Toronto health and environment officials are to meet today with the office of New York’s attorney general, which last month […]