On almost any given day in the southern part of Colombia, spray planes fly in with a mission to destroy the cocaine crops that dot the region’s small farms. It starts with the even beat of a military helicopter, followed by a plane that sprays a chemical stream. The substance used is a mixture of glyphosate, water, and added surfactants, comprising a powerful herbicide manufactured by Monsanto that is chemically similar to Roundup.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer last week ruled that the Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks was invalid because the decision-making process did not involve enough public participation and as such violated federal law. Brimmer’s opinion on the matter stated that the rule was "the product of a prejudged, political decision to ban snowmobiles from all the national parks."
A recent report summarizing the findings of 500 scientists from 60 countries confirms that the world’s amphibian population is undergoing a die-off of unprecedented proportions, most likely as a result of a combination of human-caused environmental problems. According to researchers at the World Conservation Union, almost a third of the 5,743 known species of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders on Earth are facing extinction within the next few years.
The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is a determinedly non-partisan organization whose members tend to cover the same basic issues, but come from a plethora of publications with widely divergent editorial policies, staffed by reporters with many different personal views.
Congress was hard at work last week passing a tax reform bill meant to close off the loophole that has allowed small business owners to deduct up to $100,000 from their tax returns to offset the purchase of large SUVs.
In what analysts are reporting as a conscious effort to eschew the politics of current events in Iraq, the Nobel committee has chosen Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder Wangari Maathai as the 2004 recipient of its annual $1.3 million peace prize.
If Ralph Nader retains even a fraction of the perception that once made him the nation’s foremost consumer advocate—and a very effective environmentalist as well—he would drop out of the Presidential race right now. With a breathtaking display of ego and an outright denial of reality, he is preparing to once again propel George W. Bush to victory in swing states where the balloting promises to be very close.
Dear EarthTalk: What is the “Roadless Rule” and why are environmentalists in favor of it? —Eliza Carmody, Marysville, WA The U.S. Forest Service manages America”s national forests for “multiple uses,” not just recreation and preservation. And over the past 50 years, one of those primary “uses” has been resource extraction, whereby taxpayer-subsidized leases have been […]
For now, environmentalists have declared victory in a campaign to prevent natural gas drilling along a hotly contested 100-mile stretch of Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front south of Glacier National Park. Last week, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) suspended work on an environmental impact study for the Front’s Blackleaf region, where a Canadian company has applied for a gas-drilling lease.
With the Russian government finally agreeing to sign on, the Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming will likely go into effect next year, despite lack of participation by the United States. The as-yet unimplemented 1997 United Nations treaty regulates the emissions of greenhouse gases by signatory nations.
