In the early 1970s, the "Project Tiger" conservation program launched in India resulted in tough laws to prevent Bengal tiger hunting and trade, and created a system of tiger reserves, now numbering 27. But now more than 30 years later, less than 6,000 tigers are estimated to be left in the wild. Environmentalists in India say the big cat will be extinct within a handful of years, due to unchecked poaching to serve the thriving black market for tiger body parts (used in traditional Chinese and Asian medicine). They’re calling for stricter prohibition and harsher enforcement, and have even suggested using the army to protect the tigers.

Forest protection advocates are cheering a ruling last week by Federal Judge Elizabeth Laporte to throw out the Bush administration’s roadless area development rule of 2005.

Against the recommendations of a long list of science and health organizations—not to mention two of its own scientific advisory committees—the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last week it would leave in place its 1997 standards for annual exposure to particulate pollution (soot generated from coal-fired power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles), while only moderately strengthening its daily exposure soot standard.

This was my second AltWheels festival, and my how the event has grown! Last year it was a relatively modest display of clean vehicles, from hydrogen fuel cells to battery electrics, on the grounds of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts. This year it was on steroids, occupying the vast concrete plaza outside Boston City Hall September 22 and 23.