Sneak Attacks and Sleazy Riders Environmental battle lines were clearly drawn in the 1990s, and largely along party lines. George Bush declared himself the “environmental President,” but launched few new initiatives and did nothing to reform his own party. Did it cost him reelection votes? Very likely, yes. Despite the Clinton administration's failure to fight […]
Sometimes we're so bombarded with bad news that positive progress just can't make it through the information glut. So here's the Earth in balance, a planetary report card with both good and bad grades. First the Good News… The Ozone Hole. The hole isn't shrinking yet, but our use of aerosols and other chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) […]
In Memorium Some dedicated environmentalists returned to the Earth in the 1990s, after sowing a legacy of green activism. Majory Stoneman Douglas, the founder of Florida's environmental movement, passed away last year. Her seminal book, The Everglades, led to the designation of the wetlands as a national park in 1947, and she unfailingly defended the […]
It was said in the 1980s that tree-hating Reagan administration Interior Secretary James Watt was the best recruiter the environmental movement ever had: His image on fundraising letters led to an unprecedented jump in membership and contributions to groups from the Wilderness Society to the Sierra Club. In the '90s, Watt's role fell to Newt […]
Assessing the Environmental Movement–at the Close of the "E Decade" The second issue of E Magazine coincided with Earth Day 1990, the 20th anniversary celebration of the first event and, in its own way, a landmark in environmental history. With its huge turnouts around the world, Earth Day 1990 proved that in the two decades […]
Buying Back Boats To Solve The Overfishing Crisis In 1994, the most recent year for which figures exist, the world spent $124 billion to support a fishing industry that generated revenues of only $70 billion. In other words, we lost $54 billion in our global effort to build a fleet big enough to catch, in […]
Is "Environmental Republican" an Oxymoron? “Environmentalists are a socialist group of individuals that are the tool of the Democratic Party. I'm proud to say that they are my enemy.” So railed Alaskan Congressman Don Young (R-AK) on Alaska Public Radio in 1996. It was a typical diatribe from the Republican politician, who, as chair of […]
Environmental Radio Does the Unexpected In the early 1950s, many assumed that the advent of television would make radio obsolete. But radio proved more durable than that. There are now almost 14,000 radio stations across the United States and Canada, according to the 1999 edition of the Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook. A full 5,000 of […]
The Auto Industry Fights to Save Gas Guzzlers From 1992 to 1997, the number of sport-utility vehicles on American roads doubled, to a whopping 13.8 million vehicles. In the same period, the category of “light trucks” (which includes pickups and vans) gained national hegemony, outnumbering cars for the first time. The result of the SUV […]
World Bank Development Projects Push Indian Tigers to the Brink Although a recent New York Times piece claimed that wild tigers have made a “remarkable recovery,” a quick look at the real numbers gives a more accurate picture of the challenge this magnificent species faces at the brink of extinction. The beleaguered Asian tiger: China's […]
