The fate of that symbol of the plains states, the prairie dog, still hangs in the balance (see "Open Season on Varmints," cover story, July/August 2004). Last August the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) removed the black-tailed prairie dog from the Endangered Species Act official candidate list, where it had sat awaiting funds for protection.
While the Bush administration considers the recent completion of toxic waste clean-up efforts in Niagara, New York’s Love Canal neighborhood to be an environmental success story, Lois Gibbs (see "Be Safe! Lois Gibbs" New Campaign Urges Caution on Toxic Chemicals," Currents, July/August 2003) begs to differ. Gibbs, the mom-turned-activist who unearthed the pollution at Love […]
With military costs mushrooming, the Bush administration has had little cash to tend to the ailing national wildlife refuge system (see "Seeking Sanctuary," features, March/April 2003), according to a new report by Defenders of Wildlife. "The threats to the system are larger in scope, more difficult to control, more damaging and more costly than ever […]
Wind energy is zero-emissions energy, a renewable resource that is one of our last, best hopes for staving off devastating climate change. Wind energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the world, mushrooming 28 percent annually over the last five years.
The Cape seemed deceptively tranquil on a recent visit. Seething passions were just below the surface. The latest attempt to scuttle the project had just been made public: an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act introduced by Senator John Warner (R-VA), which would have required Congressional approval for any offshore wind project in the U.S. If it had been adopted (it was, instead, withdrawn the next day), it would have forced Cape Wind back to the beginning of what had already been a three-year regulatory process.
How many <I>E Magazine</I> readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration’s scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests?
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), which oversees all of America’s 540 wildlife refuges, Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is “among the most complete, pristine and undisturbed ecosystems on Earth.”
For the last decade Republican legislators have been crying foul regarding the sweeping powers of the Endangered Species Act, especially in regard to what landowners can and cannot do on their own private property. But now that Republicans have an increased majority in Congress, they are poised to make major changes weakening the ability of the federal government to protect endangered species through restrictions on development and resource extraction on privately owned wildlife habitat.
In perhaps the opening salvo in what promises to be a systematic weakening of endangered species protections in the United States, the White House last week proposed cutting back river miles protected to facilitate Pacific salmon recovery by 80 percent, while simultaneously rejecting any possibility of removing hydropower dams that have decimated the fish’s reproductive capacity.
A University of Michigan study estimates that the average American household could reduce its energy bills by 65 percent and, over the home’s lifetime, save $52,000 if it maximized energy efficiency.
