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  • The Swamp Bling

    Bushies sought to overpay GOP supporters for Everglades mineral rights The Bush administration agreed to grossly overpay Florida’s family-owned Collier Resources Co. for oil and gas rights on 400,000 acres in the Everglades, according to Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney. In 2002, Interior Secretary Gale Norton triumphantly announced the deal as “a win for […]

  • Get Me Rewrite!

    Bush official edited gov’t climate-change reports to play up uncertainty Philip Cooney, a former top oil lobbyist now serving as chief of staff for President Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality, edited scientific government reports on climate change to exaggerate the appearance of uncertainty and doubt, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. Cooney, […]

  • An interview with geo-green James Woolsey, former head of CIA

    James Woolsey. Former Pentagon heavies are not known for their breezy candor, so it’s a rare treat to come across one who voluntarily describes himself as a tree-hugger, do-gooder, sodbuster, and cheap hawk, all rolled into one. There you have R. James “call me Jim” Woolsey, in a nutshell. Sort of. Over the course of […]

  • Cities on a Hill

    Fifty mayors from around world sign environmental accord Marking the culmination of World Environment Day festivities in San Francisco, 50 mayors from cities the world over yesterday signed a set of environmental accords some are calling a “municipal Kyoto.” Among the 21 commitments therein are increasing clean-energy use, reducing waste sent to landfills, adding affordable […]

  • It’s a Lap Dog’s Life

    Blair heads to D.C. to beg for Bush’s support on G8 climate agenda U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair has put his political life on the line to support the Bush administration numerous times, citing the “special relationship” between the two countries. Ha ha, sucka! Next week Blair will fly to Washington, D.C., to beg the […]

  • Like a Metric Earth Day

    Mayors from all over globe gather to celebrate World Environment Day A five-day gathering to mark U.N. World Environment Day kicks off tomorrow in San Francisco and is expected to bring together at least 70 mayors from cities across the globe. San Francisco is the first U.S. city to host the annual event and will […]

  • An environmental-justice advocate insists he’s not dead yet

    Ludovic Blain. “The Death of Environmentalism” should be called “The Death of Elite, White, American Environmentalism.” A critique of the environmental movement that draws on neither the perspectives nor achievements of the environmental-justice (EJ) movement is, at very best, incomplete. That the DOE interviews and recommendations only focused on white, American male-led environmentalism meant that […]

  • Why race and class matter to the environmental movement

    This piece is excerpted from the essay “The Soul of Environmentalism: Rediscovering Transformational Politics in the 21st Century.” The full essay can be found here. Elvis was a hero to most,but he never meant shit to me …— Public Enemy, 1989 Activists of color may not want to stand on John Muir’s shoulders. Environmentalism in […]

  • Climate finally getting more notice in Senate with energy-bill amendments

    The climate-change debate is beginning to move forward inside the Beltway — at a glacial pace relative to the rest of the industrialized world, of course, but these days even glaciers are moving at a discernable clip. Heat is on in Senate as climate starts getting more attention. As the energy bill goes through the […]

  • Weakened in Review

    Bipartisan efforts to revamp the Endangered Species Act begin A hearing of the Senate fisheries, wildlife, and water subcommittee last week kicked off what is likely to be an extended process of revising and updating the Endangered Species Act. There is bipartisan agreement on several measures, including providing grants and incentives to private landowners to […]