According to an analysis released last week by the Department of Energy (DOE), opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil development would only slightly reduce America’s dependence on imports and would lower oil prices by less than 50 cents a barrel.
Indonesia is set to lose its last remaining tiger species–the Sumatran tiger–if the widespread illegal trade in tiger parts and rampant habitat loss is not stopped, according to a joint report issued by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
Last week, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a nonpartisan watchdog group, reported a critical shortage of staff in America’s national parks. NPCA research shows that across the system, national parks operate on average with only two-thirds of the needed funding, constituting a system-wide shortfall that exceeds $600 million annually. This deficit has led to reduced staff in many parks, which in turn jeopardizes the quality of people’s visits, the preservation of natural treasures and cultural resources.
According to EPA officials, DuPont, the country’s second-largest chemical manufacturer, violated the federal Toxic Substances Control Act from June 1981 to March 2001 by not reporting health risks from exposure to the main ingredient in Teflon, its non-stick cookware coating and carpet protection product.
Citing the conservative gospel of states’ rights and forest fire protection, the Bush administration announced last week that it was replacing the "roadless rule" established by outgoing President Clinton with a new plan that would require state governors to petition the Forest Service to block any road-building in their states for logging purposes. While the controversial Clinton plan had closed off 58 million acres of inaccessible and in some cases pristine Forest Service lands to road building and ensuing timber extraction, the new plan puts the onus on governors—many of whom won office on the merits of their pro-development positions—to keep loggers out.
Insurance giant Swiss Re warned on Wednesday that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming, threaten to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making.
Winter flooding in the Los Angeles area is often so severe that lives and homes are routinely lost in mudslides. Yet, the thirst for a stable water supply has defined this desert city. In 1913, the local water company built an ingenious but ethically dubious aqueduct to drain the Owens River 200 miles away into […]
Protection Varies at America’s 12 Marine Reserves Galyn C. Hammond The wind muffles his speech as Ed Cassano, manager of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, looks out from his 56-foot research vessel Ballena. He gazes onto the broad Pacific waters that nurture the largest concentration of blue whales in the world—not to mention plentiful […]
Frederick Law Olmsted had little idea how prescient he was when he said in 1827 that the midtown Manhattan park he was creating be the “lungs of the city.”
A Grassroots Effort in Baja Pays Off In a remote area reachable only by a rough road that runs through a cactus-laden desert, Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo Bay appears abruptly from a bluff overlooking Baja’s Sea of Cortez. Here, 65 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas, lies the only living coral reef system in western North […]
