Although looking at natural resources in terms of dollars and cents may call to mind greed-mongering capitalists lighting cigars with hundred-dollar bills, in reality a failure to account for the financial value of a nation’s natural resources and environmental services unwittingly promotes taking the environment for granted and retards the development of poor nations.
In the past few decades, houses have gotten greener, but they’ve gotten bigger too, leaving lingering questions: Is super-sized housing defeating conservation efforts? Can McMansions truly be green?
This May marked the first time any species of Caribbean coral was designated as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (see "Clouds Over the Coral," Features, March/April 1999). The two species added, staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and elkhorn (Acropora palmata), have both suffered a 97 percent decline since the late 1970s due to a combination of disease and human disturbance. By far the greatest culprit, however, is coral bleaching caused by rising ocean temperatures.
As if songbirds didn’t have enough to contend with! Not only is their Latin American winter habitat threatened as forest canopy coffee growing gives way to full-sun plantations (see "Grounds for Change," cover story, November/ December 2005), but a recent survey of the birds in New York State finds they’re also dealing with high body levels of mercury.
President Bush famously admitted in his State of the Union address last January that “America is addicted to oil.” E took a look at our addiction in The Outlook on Oil (cover story, January/February 2006). Now the International Energy Outlook (IEO) reports that the U.S. actually decreased its oil consumption in 2005.
The water in Maine’s Kennebec River looks a bit like root beer. That was just one of many thoughts that flashed through my head as I hurled through the turbulence known as "Big Momma" on a bright yellow raft supplied by adventure outfitters Northern Outdoors.
Following on the heels of legislation introduced earlier this summer in Congress calling for significant reductions in U.S. global warming emissions, the nonprofit U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) last week issued a new report entitled "Rising to the Challenge" that lays out a roadmap for achieving the proposed cuts.
Last Friday, in honor of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina slamming into the U.S. coastline, an estimated 2,500 bicyclists took to the streets of 30 North American cities to raise awareness of the links between extreme weather and global warming. Activists from Critical Mass and Rising Tide North America organized the ride.
Is it true that nothing really “biodegrades” in a landfill?
Would removing dams in the Pacific Northwest allow the wild salmon that used to thrive there return to their former abundance?
