Environmentalists are optimistic that President Bush’s appointment of career scientist Steve Johnson to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signals a renewed scientific focus for an agency bogged down in political skirmishes for the last five years.
According to a recently released report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 52 percent of the world’s fish stocks are "fully exploited" as compared with 47 percent just two years ago. FAO officials warned that the increased harvesting was unsustainable against the backdrop of rising consumption.
The celebration has had its ups and downs, but Earth Day is still a vitally important symbol for the environmental movement. It’s the annual event that millions of people remember, the milestone in their minds, their marker of environmental progress. April 22 is more than a celebration – it’s a promise to better the lives of ourselves, our nation and our world (with complete Earth Day event listings)
The green momentum was building long before the first Earth Day in 1970. The activism of people like Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson warned of overpopulation dangers and ecological disaster.
Eco-tourism is more than a trend: it’s a seismic shift in a trillion-dollar industry. From Ecuador to Australia, eco-travel takes many different forms, from grass shacks on the beach to ultra-modern eco-lodges in the rainforest. With concern growing about traditional tourism’s alienation from nature and its effects on indigenous cultures, eco-travelers are doing it right or staying at home.
Green travel offers high hopes to a South Africa finally free of apartheid. The country’s coming to realize that preserving its wildlife resources is a key to building a sustainable tourist industry.
<I>E</I> talks with Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson and former coordinator Denis Hayes, who see a maturing celebration with plenty of life in it.
If we had looked forward from the first Earth Day in 1970, we might have envisioned a very different 1995 – one in which the great battles over stewardship of the land, air and sea were over, and we’d won.
Hazel O’ Leary, Clinton’s Secretary, works for open government and alternative sources of power while trying to build partnerships with industry and keep the budget cutters at bay.
It took 30 years to build at least marginally effective environmental regulations in America, but Congress tried to roll them back in 100 days. The Gingrich Revolution has swept through Washington like a prarie fire, and the flames seem to be consuming good sense as well as "regulatory red tape"
