At a conference last week in Bonn, Germany, senior officials from 154 nations including the United States signed onto a communiqué committing to a substantial increase "with a sense of urgency" in the percentage of renewable sources in meeting global energy needs.
Last week’s Supreme Court ruling allowing Mexican trucks to enter U.S. roads has invoked the ire of clean air advocates. The Court ruled that under the auspices of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the U.S. had no right to exclude Mexican trucks — many of which are older and do not meet more stringent emissions standards — from plying American roads.
The same environmentalists and biologists who have cheered the comeback of the wolf to Yellowstone National Park are cringing at a Bush administration plan proposing to give state officials in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming the authority to move or shoot wolves that have wandered beyond park boundaries into zones where prey populations of grazing animals are diminishing. Whether or not wolves are playing any role in herds" low numbers, state officials — with the blessing of the Bush administration — are hungry to take out Canis lupus.
I was thrilled to learn that Margie Richard of Louisiana was a winner of the 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize. This was a richly deserved award. I was warmly welcomed into Richard’s home in Norco, Louisiana in 1998, and had the opportunity to meet her again last year when the Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference came to New Orleans.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), even when there is no human-caused pollution, ground water, including well water, can contain a number of natural impurities that result from conditions in the watershed or in the ground.
Despite rebounding populations, 26 species of Pacific salmon will continue to be classified as threatened or endangered, according to NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency overseeing salmon recovery efforts. The agency is also recommending re-listing an additional run, the Lower Columbia Coho, which had been removed from protection in 2001.
An analysis by the Associated Press has found that a dozen big oil companies–several with White House ties–control more acreage of federal oil and gas leases than they are allowed by law.
The European Environment Agency, the environmental oversight body of the European Union, released a report last week critical of how many member countries have not kept their promises regarding curbing emissions and remediating environmental problems.
As fuel prices skyrocket across the country, owners of vehicles at both ends of the fuel efficiency spectrum are making political statements simply by driving around town. On one extreme is GM’s Hummer H2, weighing in at over 6,000 pounds and guzzling gas at a rate of 10-13 miles per gallon. On the other are the compact Japanese hybrids by Toyota and Honda, which top out at a whopping 60 miles per gallon.
Several state and municipal governments are trying to stimulate demand for alternative energy by offering cash incentives to companies and homeowners that install solar electric (photovoltaic) systems, fuel cells, small wind turbines, solar thermal systems for heat and hot water, and other renewable energy technologies.
