In the Year of the Reef, Bonaire Offers Great Diving and Protected Coral In stark contrast to the runaway American-style construction on neighboring Aruba (McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, a water-intensive golf course and numerous American hotel chains), the island of Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles off the coast of Venezuela, remains a quiet getaway and […]
Three’s Company–Four’s A Crowd When Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature in 1989, his Malthusian vision of global warming was met with considerable skepticism. But his prescience has been proven by a panel of international climatologists, and witnessed by victims of drought, flooding and bizarre weather patterns all over the world. Now, the former […]
Oak Grove International’s “Summerfield” line is fairly typical of the caskets American funeral directors sell. Available in nine rich colors, it’s lined with plush velvet trim. And because it’s made of thick, reinforced fiberglass, it’s not biodegradable, “thereby protecting the body from the environment, and the environment from the body, for countless tomorrows,” as the […]
Buy Nothing Day Highlights Holiday Excess The day after Thanksgiving is a high holy day in our consumer society. That, of course, is when millions of us swarm to shopping malls from coast to coast, kicking off the Christmas season in a frenzy of shopping madness. To watch the television coverage, you would almost think […]
A Grassroots Effort in Baja Pays Off In a remote area reachable only by a rough road that runs through a cactus-laden desert, Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo Bay appears abruptly from a bluff overlooking Baja’s Sea of Cortez. Here, 65 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas, lies the only living coral reef system in western North […]
Japan Struggles on the Environment Japan has long been criticized for lagging behind other nations in its commitment to environmental issues. These days, the environment is getting more attention than ever in the Land of the Rising Sun. But a weighty question remains: How much is actually being accomplished? David Ladd Nelson/All-Japan Stock Photography The […]
Although it’s not generally known, commercial fishing of wild Atlantic salmon has almost ended, and it’s strictly forbidden in the rivers of Maine.
You don’t have to be liberal to believe in birth control. U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, recently joined forces to introduce a bill that would require insurance companies that cover prescription drugs to also cover prescription contraceptives. In the House, a similar bill was introduced by the […]
Family planning is under siege in America–from the halls of Congress to the boardrooms of Catholic healthcare providers. In recent years, opponents and the small but powerful Christian Coalition have masterfully seized the debate, sweeping family planning under the cover of abortion politics.
A new day may be dawning for birth control and insurance coverage. Truth be told, contraception has never been a priority for health insurers. As strange as it sounds, most companies have been more willing to pay for surgery—tubal ligations, vasectomies and abortions—than less expensive methods like the birth control pill, Depo-Provera, Norplant, the IUD […]
