The Air That I Breathe
I was relieved to discover last week that, even though the air that I breathe has just been deemed unhealthy by the federal government, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hard at work making things better.
Currents
Honda Takes Top Honors in Survey of Greenest Vehicle Fleets
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) announced last week that Japanese automakers continue to lead the pack in terms of lowering emissions and increasing fuel efficiency in their vehicles. Honda, Nissan and Toyota took top honors in the environmental group’s biennial survey of the vehicles made by the world’s top six automakers.
UK Pushes for New Climate Treaty Favoring Technology Over Regulation
Against the backdrop of ongoing international climate talks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, sources close to British Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed rumors last week that Great Britain is trying to involve the United States in a new international treaty on global warming that emphasizes technological fixes while promoting the development of renewable energy.
Is Global Warming Real?
My day is always brightened when packages arrive from the libertarian Cato Institute. They often contain books. The latest was a tome from Patrick J. Michaels, a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a senior fellow at Cato. Entitled <I>Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media</I>, it purports to set the record straight about climate science.
Howling at the Moon
The wolf plays an integral part in Romanian culture and psyche. Today the Carpathian wilderness is home to more than a third of Europe’s large carnivore population, or 3,500 wolves, which is nearly as many as found in the entire U.S.
The Absentee Issue
By Election Day, Sierra Club Votes reported that 12,000 volunteers had knocked on more than one million doors in nine battleground states. Conservation organizations had confidence that environmental voters would support John Kerry. What happened?
Building Green
Can low-income home builders afford the luxury of going green? That question is being vigorously tested at some Habitat for Humanity affiliates.
Marines and Manatees
For more than 100 years, Tokyo and Washington were content with domination of Okinawa’s land. Now, say environmental groups on both sides of the Pacific, the United States Marine Corps has come for the sea as well.
Damming Tiger Gorge
The builders of the mammoth Three Gorges reservoir in China are poised to begin another project. The giant hydropower company plans to dam China’s famous Tiger Leaping Gorge, where the sheer cliffs of snow-crested peaks flank the thundering Jinsha River to form one of the deepest and most majestic canyons on Earth.
Sacrificing the Sage Grouse
How many <I>E Magazine</I> readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration’s scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests?