Currents

With even modest increases in sea levels will come the increased probability of destructive storms and flooding along the coastal regions of every continent.

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) reported that 1.8 million acres of private land within 55 existing U.S. national parks—so-called "in-holdings"—are on the National Park Service’s "wish list."

Last week, the federal government announced it had come to terms with four Indian tribes, agreeing to pay some $900 million to spur the recovery of endangered wild salmon runs across the Pacific Northwest.

During the school week, Sam Allen will sometimes skip his classes at Connecticut’s Weston High School and walk to the elementary or middle school down the street. One morning in February, he made his way into Weston Elementary School struggling with a green bag and six poster boards all while listening to music on his iPhone and answering calls. When he reached the second floor, he introduced himself to a class of fourth-graders and proceeded to tell them how they can help to save the planet.

A two-year moratorium on the purchase of soybeans in newly deforested parts of the Amazon rainforest put in place by Greenpeace, working with the Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association, seems to be working: no new soybean plantations were detected in any of the 193 areas in the region.

Last week, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the Bush administration was waiving compliance with some 30 environmental and land management laws to expedite the completion of a 470-mile-long fence along the U.S./Mexico border to keep illegal immigration in check.

The International Elephant Foundation, a nonprofit corporation working to support the long-term survival of elephants, has announced a slew of new conservation initiatives. This year, 15 projects will be aimed at habitat protection, anti-poaching, ecotourism, environmental education, veterinary medicine and the reduction of human-elephant conflict.

Last week the University of Maryland’s Center for Excellence in Service and technology research firm Rockbridge Associates released the results of a survey showing that Americans are willing to spend as much as $104 billion in 2008 for environmentally friendly consumer products and technologies. But finding the products to satiate surging demand might be the hard part.

The nonprofit group WildEarth Guardians filed suit in federal court alleging that the Bush administration has been too slow to grant Endangered Species Act protection for some 681 "critically imperiled" plant and animal species.

We didn’t see anything that bothered us until we began heading west. An enormous cattle feedlot in Greeley, Colorado. My girlfriend and I were in the midst of a 9-week cross-country road trip, visiting 32 national parks and four weddings—a pair of environmental majors out to connect with the land.