Arctic
-
Polar Apposites
U.S.-Russia treaty will protect polar bears A polar-bear-protecting treaty between the U.S. and Russia was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives this week. It would prohibit the possession, sale, and purchase of polar bears or parts thereof (ew!), and also set quotas on hunting by Native populations. Currently, Native Americans are allowed to hunt […]
-
![]()
![]()
How I spent my summer vacation … at the movies
I’d love to tell you about my summer close to nature — how I whiled away the days on a hidden Maine-coast isle, picking blueberries in the early morning and watching seals cavort in the sea. But the truth is, I spent quite a few of my July and August afternoons in a different sort […]
-
Inuit fight climate change with human-rights claim against U.S.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Photo: ICC. When Sheila Watt-Cloutier was growing up in Kuujjuaq, an Inuit village in far northern Quebec, summer days never got hot enough for shorts and T-shirts. Only the very brave ventured into the frigid local river for a swim. But now, she says, there are many warm days, and “the whole community […]
-
Shock and Thaw
New Yorker launches three-part exploration of climate change Writer Elizabeth Kolbert must have single-handedly accelerated global warming with the jet fuel she burned visiting the Arctic, Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and the Antarctic to research a big three-part series on climate change for The New Yorker. What did she find? Well, it’s all melting. The Alaskan […]
-
![]()
![]()
Arctic Refuge drilling debate misses the big picture
Sun-drenched Pelican Island in Florida is about as far from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as you can get in the United States. At first blush, the 5,000-acre warm marsh would seem to have little connection to the 19 million-acre stretch of mountains and tundra. But they are inextricably linked. A buff-breasted sandpiper. © Subhankar […]
-
![]()
![]()
An open letter to Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska
Dear Sen. Stevens, This week you got your wish: a 51 to 49 vote against the Cantwell amendment and in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Caribou in the Arctic Refuge. Photo: Ken Whitten, Wilderness Society. The crude minds have spoken. Finally. You told your colleagues and anyone else who would listen […]
-
The Polar Distress
Grizzly bears encroaching on polar bear habitat Polar bears have been having a rough time of it lately, what with global warming melting their habitat and PCBs tainting their food sources. Now they’ve got a new problem to worry about: Grizzly bears have been spotted as far north as Canada’s Melville Island, 600 miles inside […]
-
Because it’s there
It’s difficult to work up outrage these days, I know. But still. Republicans have long had a >hard on for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s never made any sense — the amount of oil we could get is a tiny fraction of what we need, and it’s 10 years out in the […]
-
![]()
![]()
McCain ruffles GOP feathers with continued calls for action on climate change
McCain gets heated up. Presiding over his final hearing as chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee last week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a feisty swan song assuring GOP colleagues and environmentalists alike that he won’t be giving up his fight for climate-change regulations anytime soon — even if the Bush administration […]
