Climate Politics

Can laws be written that inspire reverence for the land?

As usual, Charles Wilkinson is pacing. Hands stuffed in the front pockets of his Levi’s, head down, he paces the lecture hall, up one stairway and down the other, his students’ heads swiveling to follow him. Charles Wilkinson, law man. Photo: Larry Harwood, University of Colorado at Boulder. But on this December morning, during the […]

Recount!

1.2 billion — number of dollars raised by Democratic and Republican candidates for federal office in the 2000 election cycle 110:1 — ratio of anti-environmental (construction, chemical, and energy/natural resource) PAC contributions to environmental PAC contributions 9 — estimated number of dollars spent by candidates for federal office per registered voter in the United States […]

Whitman Sampler

Muckraker hears from a reliable and informed source that Linda Fisher, EPA assistant administrator for toxics and pesticides under Bush the Elder, will return to the agency to serve as Christine Todd Whitman’s number two. The source described the Fisher appointment as close to a done deal, a fact that did not sit altogether well […]

Some Assembly Required

Causing anti-globalization activists to cry foul, the World Trade Organization decided yesterday that it will hold its first top-level meetings since the infamous 1999 Battle in Seattle in Qatar, a Persian Gulf nation with a questionable human rights record and little history of public protest. In the past, the U.S. State Department has said that […]

Monica Who?

El Nino — and El Other Nino

In its first move on global warming, the Bush administration has asked that the next international summit on climate change be delayed two months. When talks to hammer out the details of the Kyoto treaty collapsed last November at The Hague, Netherlands, the chair of the talks, Jan Pronk, scheduled another session for this May. […]

"Clean cars" are the devil's tools, diverting attention from truly green solutions

The “clean car” is cool this season. “Is your car an energy hog? Get a new one,” a web ad bombards me before I have finished the morning’s second cup of coffee. “Your vote counts here,” says the flashing ad that rates the energy efficiency of the web surfer’s car, luring owners to buy a […]

Navajo pageant winner is an enviro star

Outfitted in moccasins and traditional dresses, the four contestants in the 49th Miss Navajo Nation Pageant — held this past September in Window Rock, Ariz. — demonstrated a dazzling array of cultural skills. They discussed, in Navajo, the Treaty of 1868. They carded and spun wool, and they displayed rugs they had woven. They prepared […]

Should locals be more involved in public lands decisions?

Roadless and fancy-free. Photo: U.S. Forest Service. As the Clinton administration rushes to complete its lands legacy agenda in the American West, two methods of resolving public land issues have clashed head-on. The first is embodied in President Clinton’s move earlier this month to protect 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest — a quick, […]

Forest Fire

We hear that when U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck issued (or at least appeared to issue) a new policy last week barring the cutting of old-growth timber on national forest lands he did not exactly have the green light from President Clinton. We like Mike. In fact, according to our sources, the president-for-the-next-few-days and […]