Climate Politics

Republican Riders in the Saddle Again

I don’t get it. Why are the 24-hour news media, always desperate for gripping stories, reporting every hour on the Camp David summit, though, as I write this column, they have no access to what’s really going on? Why don’t some of those eager reporters move over to Capitol Hill to cover the constantly changing, […]

I saw the best wolves of my generation destroyed by madness

Gray days for wolves. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Protection for the gray wolf, totem animal for the Clinton administration’s conservation legacy, is likely to be ratcheted down from endangered to threatened, thanks to a proposal unveiled last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Its announcement was a fitting coda to eight […]

Roadless to Utopia

A group of enviros from around the U.S. descended on Salt Lake City yesterday to deliver to the U.S. Forest Service 700,000 comments supporting a Clinton administration plan to ban road-building on 40 million acres of roadless national forest land. Enviros also called for the plan to be strengthened by explicitly prohibiting helicopter logging, mining, […]

The Roquefort Files

José Bové milks 250 sheep in the Larzac region of France, a rocky, windswept place where you would think no farmer could produce anything. But Bové turns sheep milk into one of the gastronomical treasures of the world, Roquefort cheese. Bové is a leader of the local Roquefort producers association and of the second largest […]

Monumental Momentum

The Grand Canyon just got grander. Photo: Council on Environmental Quality. President Clinton has been on a national monument tear of late, setting aside eight areas encompassing more than 1 million acres since January. National monument status gives the federal government increased authority to prevent development and limit logging and other commercial and recreational activity […]

The Art of Monument Making, with Julia Child

Monday, 12 Jun 2000 — Day 127

Jeff Barrie has been making independent environmental documentary productions as a freelance artist since 1994. His latest project, Arctic Quest, had him bicycling from coast to coast to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska from oil development. Monday, 26 Jun 2000 TURTON, S.D. The rain is falling […]

Wait a Minute There, Buster

Aides to Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) got a bit of a shock last Saturday when they logged onto the website of Maria Cantwell, one of Gorton’s Democratic challengers, and saw a goofy photo of their boss posing with “Buster the Salmon,” a costumed protestor who dogs Gorton at campaign events over his refusal to support […]

Won't You Be My Nader?

Russell Peterson, former governor of Delaware, ardent environmentalist, lifelong Republican until a few years ago when he switched to being a Democrat, was appalled when I told him I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Al Gore. Tell it like it is, Ralph. He gave me the undeniably rational argument. George W. shows no sign […]

Chamber of Horrors

You’d think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t have much free time on its hands these days, what with the raging debate over permanent normal trade relations for China. But the industry-friendly group recently managed to cobble together a charming volume called The Environmentalists’ Little Green Book, a compendium of off-the-wall quotes and blistering bon […]