Climate Politics

Give Greenpeace a Chance

By now the trials and tribulations that have befallen Greenpeace USA in recent years are well-known. In the biggest blowup, the entire board resigned after bickering with Greenpeace International-backed Executive Director Kristen Engberg over the direction and organization of the redoubtable environmental group. Current and former staffers ranted about Engberg’s leadership style, which they described […]

Reality Bites

Linda Harrar is an independent filmmaker, based in Boston but usually traveling the world producing documentaries for NOVA and other PBS programs. Through the lens of the camera, she sees a lot. In the editing room she sees it over and over. It sinks in deep. So she had a strong reaction to the CBS […]

The Bureau of Land Management is due for a shake-up

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controls more land than any other agency in the world. Its 265 million acres in the American West cover an area greater in size than the entire National Forest system plus the state of Wyoming. You too should care about the […]

How Many Licks Does It Take to Get to the Center of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Honorable Mention

LOS ANGELES, Calif.    With much fanfare and an excess of recyclable confetti, Democrats sent Al Gore forth last night into what will be a grueling three-month campaign stretch. The vice president must convince skeptical voters that he has what it takes to lead and that electing him over Texas Gov. George W. Bush will make […]

Lighting Las Vegas

The U.S. government plans to boost the development of geothermal energy systems in Western states, with the aim of having 10 percent of the West’s electricity generated by the earth’s heat within 20 years, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced yesterday. Richardson detailed 21 partnerships between private industry and the Department of Energy to fund geothermal […]

Western lawmakers in Washington need to get with the times

Historians looking back on the turn of the millennium may well call it the golden age of conservation. In recent years, we have witnessed bold national efforts to protect the last wild places of the U.S. Western politicians could move mountains. Many of these lands are in the West, a place that itself is going […]

Your Friends and Nader's

Right on, Ralph. The complaints continue to pour in: “Why are you writing columns supporting Ralph Nader? How can you actively aid and abet the election of that dolt Bush? You can think better than that.” And so does the applause: “I believe that you will never regret voting on the basis of your conscience, […]

Rough Riding

Giddy Republicans — confident they will wipe the floor with Al Gore and return to the White House this fall after eight years in the wilderness — gathered here this week for a conflict-free crowning of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney. While Bush was promising to be a “unique leader for a unique […]

Yanking His Cheney

Environmentalists are wasting no time in aiming their fire at former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, who this morning became George W. Bush‘s running mate on the GOP presidential ticket. Enviros are criticizing Cheney’s voting record in the House — he got only a 13 percent career approval rating from the League of Conservation Voters […]