Currents

Scientists are attributing a rapid collapse of seabird populations around Great Britain’s Northern Isles in recent years to global warming. Rising sea temperatures, they say, are upsetting the delicate balance of the region’s ecological relationships. Microscopic plankton, which form the lowest rung on the marine food chain, are moving north as ocean waters warm, depriving small fish like sandeel of their primary food source. As these populations of small fish decline, area seabirds, which depend on them as food, stop reproducing and eventually starve.

In lieu of federal action to stave off global warming, attorneys general (AGs) from eight states as well as New York City have banded together in filing a "public nuisance" lawsuit calling on the nation’s largest utilities to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. So far, AGs from California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin have linked up for the suit. They hope to convince colleagues in other states to join in as well.

Governors of western states have rallied behind a bipartisan proposal from California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico’s Bill Richardson to significantly increase their regional production of renewable energy over the next two decades. The governors have agreed to institute new sources of government funding–along with tax breaks and other incentives and regulatory measures–in order to encourage utilities to develop more renewable power sources and rely less on fossil fuels moving forward.

Fresh, cool breezes waft in gently, rolling the sapphire water into a soothing rhythm. Colorful kites dance overhead, while kids shape forts, moats and towers out of the silky-soft sand. Nowhere is anyone arguing over upcoming elections or fretting over Al Qaeda’s next moves. But America’s beaches are nonetheless becoming battlegrounds of heated political debate, and have seen flip-flopping mirroring the shifting sands.

Why was the Lake Michigan coastal city of Manistee, population 6,600, targeted for a $700 million, 425-megawatt coal-powered electric power plant, the largest proposed in Michigan in two decades? And why, in the face of an abundance of electric power that has driven wholesale prices in the Midwest to the lowest level in more than a decade, was an immensely polluting plant even being considered in a heavily forested region with some of the loveliest wild rivers and clearest lakes in the nation?

More than a half million hill tribe members, nomadic for centuries, live without regard to modern political boundaries in scattered villages throughout the broadleaf forest mountains of northern Thailand, Myanmar, and the famous Golden Triangle region of South East Asia. Historically, they moved across the mountains methodically by slashing and burning, planting mountain rice, and staying while the soil remained fertile. Now the Thai government has told them to stop moving.

College Campuses Opt for Sustainable Dining It took only a few weeks for the news to spread last fall: The food served at Yale University’s Berkeley College dining hall was the best on campus. Students assigned to eat in the 11 other residential colleges (Yale’s version of dorms) wanted in. One day, eight students tried […]

Soon after the announcement about plans to take the bald eagle off the endangered species list, the Bush administration says that gray wolves have rebounded so well in the Great Lakes region that they, too, no longer need Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in the eastern half of the U.S.

While researchers have been warning of the decline of many seafood fish stocks in oceans around the globe for years, idle commercial fishermen from every seaport and island community are finally feeling the bite, verifying the dire state of affairs.

In a recent In These Times column, former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach muses on how great it would be to send certain Bush-era officials packing in the first days of the John Kerry administration. Taking that idea a step further, Kerry could take the opportunity to appoint a true "Green Dream Team" to make sure the environment wins in 2004 and beyond.