Biologists estimate that, since the beginning of large-scale commercial fishing in the late 1950s, more than 10 million dolphins have been drowned when inadvertently snared in the huge underwater driftnets meant to catch tuna and other fish. Driftnets, which can extend 50 miles as they are left to drag overnight, are indiscriminate killing tools often referred to as “walls of death.”
While information about pollutants has been publicly available in the U.S. since passage of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, the public was not able to access it easily until the advent of the Internet, which now makes the research quite easy.
There is a new wave of activism sweeping across college campuses. Student groups are coordinating efforts to reduce fossil-fuel dependency by pushing for more renewable alternatives, and putting forth specific goals for their colleges. “This is a growing movement,” says Billy Parish, director of the Climate Campaign, a network of 10 student environmental organizations. “What’s […]
College Campuses Opt for Sustainable Dining It took only a few weeks for the news to spread last fall: The food served at Yale University’s Berkeley College dining hall was the best on campus. Students assigned to eat in the 11 other residential colleges (Yale’s version of dorms) wanted in. One day, eight students tried […]
More than a half million hill tribe members, nomadic for centuries, live without regard to modern political boundaries in scattered villages throughout the broadleaf forest mountains of northern Thailand, Myanmar, and the famous Golden Triangle region of South East Asia. Historically, they moved across the mountains methodically by slashing and burning, planting mountain rice, and staying while the soil remained fertile. Now the Thai government has told them to stop moving.
In a recent In These Times column, former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach muses on how great it would be to send certain Bush-era officials packing in the first days of the John Kerry administration. Taking that idea a step further, Kerry could take the opportunity to appoint a true "Green Dream Team" to make sure the environment wins in 2004 and beyond.
While researchers have been warning of the decline of many seafood fish stocks in oceans around the globe for years, idle commercial fishermen from every seaport and island community are finally feeling the bite, verifying the dire state of affairs.
Soon after the announcement about plans to take the bald eagle off the endangered species list, the Bush administration says that gray wolves have rebounded so well in the Great Lakes region that they, too, no longer need Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in the eastern half of the U.S.
Last week, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a nonpartisan watchdog group, reported a critical shortage of staff in America’s national parks. NPCA research shows that across the system, national parks operate on average with only two-thirds of the needed funding, constituting a system-wide shortfall that exceeds $600 million annually. This deficit has led to reduced staff in many parks, which in turn jeopardizes the quality of people’s visits, the preservation of natural treasures and cultural resources.
Indonesia is set to lose its last remaining tiger species–the Sumatran tiger–if the widespread illegal trade in tiger parts and rampant habitat loss is not stopped, according to a joint report issued by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
