Rio Poco
The Rio Grande River has dried up along the US-Mexico border.
The Smoke Clears
Former tobacco growers like Sam Askins are turning to organic vegetable crops to rescue their farms.
Finding Sanctuary
At the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, a conservation center run by the National Zoological Gardens, 69 elephants, 20 of them under five years old, eat, work and bathe before the eager eyes and camera lenses of local and foreign tourists. Founded in 1975, Pinnawala is home to many second- and third-generation animals, the progeny of the original adoptees.
Feed the Needy, Not the Greedy
Right up there with air and water, one of the last things in nature we should be tampering with is our food — at least not without due consideration of all the ramifications.
Food Fight: Genetic Engineering vs. Organics
How tens of millions of consumers spend their money is akin to casting a vote between competing and ascending forms of agriculture: genetically modified foods versus organics. Both expanding industries say their techniques are the best and most sensible way to feed the world’s growing population. Both maintain they’re sustainable forms of agriculture and lighter on the environment than conventional better-living-through-chemistry agribusiness.
Killing Norway’s Wolves
Adding to Norway’s already controversial wildlife policies regarding seal and whale hunting, the Norwegian government equipped hunters with helicopters, snowmobiles and a budget of nearly $885,000 last February to kill 10 of the estimated 25 wolves in the country. During the hunt in Osterdalen, a valley along the Swedish border, one wolf escaped after the […]
The Methane Goes Round and Round
Every day, the 550 half-ton Holstein cows on Dennis Haubenschild’s dairy farm near Princeton, Minnesota each eat 90 pounds of food, produce eight gallons of milk and create 220 pounds of waste and manure. On another farm, cows making a quarter of their weight in waste pose a daily hazard. Manure from dairy farms festers […]
Friends of Kelp
"SAVE OUR KELP! NO KELP, NO FISH, NO OTTERS, NO WILDLIFE, NO DIVERS, NO TOURISTS!" read one placard carried by supporters who rallied the California Fish and Game Commission to curtail kelp harvesting in the Ed F. Ricketts Marine Park near Monterey, California’s historic Cannery Row. The kelp forest off California’s central coast has been […]
The Blackfeet Wind
The wind whips through the passes of the Rocky Mountains, blowing endlessly across the Blackfeet reservation in northern Montana. The land rises from the austere prairie to the towering mountain range, today comprising much of Glacier National Park, which is within the treaty area of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Borders, land ownership, neighbors and government policies […]
Fighting Gridlock With Ugly Bikes
A ragtag fleet of bicycles is solving some environmental problems for the small city of Roseburg, Oregon. Handy racks of these colorful bikes dot the public landscape, and their use is free to everyone. People borrow the bikes and when they’re through, they return them to the closest bike stand. The "ugly" bikes provide a […]