Latest Articles

I Double Dare Ya

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank not known as a particular favorite of enviros, issued a debate challenge to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change last week. In a letter published as an ad in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, CEI Distinguished Fellow Jack Kemp, a one-time vice presidential candidate, congressman, […]

A Tree Grows in Pyongyang

Troubled by North Korea’s deforestation problem, the nation’s leader, Kim Jong Il, is launching an effort to plant millions of trees. Most of the country’s forests, except those in tourist areas, have been chopped down by people desperate for fuel, and with trees no longer holding soil in place, rain is washing topsoil away and […]

The Empire State Strikes Back

New York Gov. George Pataki (R) plans to impose new state vehicle emissions standards that are stricter than federal requirements, adopting the set of standards that is now in place only in California. Massachusetts has signaled its intention to follow suit, a development that is expected to help push the entire auto industry to develop […]

Wired, Wild West

Wilderness movements in the U.S. are gathering steam and pushing for protection of ever-larger areas, even as the Republican-controlled Congress thwarts most wilderness bills. An extensive citizen-led survey of Utah lands has lead to a campaign for 9.1 million acres of federally protected wilderness in the state, and has inspired other efforts throughout the West […]

Putting Hanford Out of Reach

Pres. Clinton gave federal protection on Friday to the area around the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River, called the Hanford Reach, a move aimed at helping recovery of the Pacific salmon. Some 57,000 acres of land along the 47-mile stretch of river will be added to a national wildlife refuge in southern Washington […]

An American reflects on the problem of poverty

Almost 30 years ago I returned from a long stay in India with my mind, body, and senses full of dust and color, peace and violence, holiness and crassness, all the contradictions of a land so different from my own. I thought I would remember always the faces of the villagers. I was pained by […]

Wigging Out

Breach of Trust

In a shift that could transform a fierce environmental debate in the Northwest, federal officials are now saying that endangered salmon could be saved even if four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state remain in place. Seven months ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which directs salmon recovery, said breaching the dams […]

Ranch Undressing

More than $100 million in federal taxpayer subsidies were given last year to ranching operations, many of them run by wealthy hobby ranchers, agribusiness giants, and corporations, according to a nine-month investigation by the San Jose Mercury News. In 17 Western states, livestock grazing is allowed on a total of 254 million acres of national […]

Merchants of Venom

Liberalized international trade rules could make it harder for the U.S. to bar shipments of toxic waste from other countries, according to new reports released by the Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange and the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund. Under World Trade Organization agreements that provide for the free movement of goods, toxic waste could be […]