Currents

It’s easy enough to make the world population explosion go away: Start with the "birth dearth" that could cause Europe to lose 24 percent of its population by 2060, and cut Japan’s in half by 2100. In England, women have an average of 1.7 children, below replacement level. In Spain, the fertility rate is 1.15—the lowest rate in the world. Stir in the fact that the United Nations (UN) recently revised a minor course correction in its population projections, finding that AIDS and declining fertility rates in the Third World will lead to 400 million fewer people sharing the planet by 2050.

The ecological consequences of the two-month-long North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing campaign in Kosovo are likely to reach catastrophic proportions, threatening to have long-lasting effects throughout the Balkans. The NATO arsenal used in the Yugoslavian province contained some of the military’s most powerful weapons. According to researcher Alphonse MacDonald, a heavy bomb such as […]

In 1995, when Richard Sechrist took over the Texas ranch his family had owned since 1947, it looked like much of the grazed land in the West: barren. Generations of cattle had been allowed to roam freely over the 1,100-acre ranch, trampling pastures rock-hard and munching native plants down to nothing. Weeds and thistles were abundant, while riparian areas were muddy, erosion-prone swamps.

Invasive Species are Changing the Ocean Environment For decades, the coastal United States has been under siege from an invasion of foreign animals and plants (see second feature this issue). New species arrive daily, and in a variety of ways. According to the Pew Oceans Commission, ship ballast water is the primary carrier of marine […]

Ford in Pursuit of the Green Car In the early 1930s, Henry Ford walked into his company’s research lab with a bag of chicken bones, dumped them on a desk and proclaimed, “See what you can do with these.” He later urged his staff to try out cantaloupes, carrots, cornstalks, cabbages and onions in his […]

Citing forest fire prevention priorities, the U.S. Forest Service has proposed logging in California’s Sequoia National Monument, home to some of the world’s tallest and oldest trees, as well as the Pacific fisher, the California spotted owl, and many other threatened species dependent on ancient forest habitat.

After a Series of Tragic Fires, Loggers Go on the Offensive Wildfires ravaging the American West have citizens, civic leaders and environmentalists searching for answers. Many blame our country’s past attitude towards fire, and a U.S. Forest Service (symbolized by the venerable Smoky Bear) that has been suppressing healthy, natural burning for too long. Fuel […]

Chip Mills Supplying the Paper Industry Are Clear-Cutting the South In the thicket of the Carolina Lowlands, the whirring buzz and grind of a lone chip mill disturbs the summer symphony of rustling branches, crickets and the guttural call of wild turkeys. As the highly-automated leviathan roars with efficiency, stripping bark and grinding trees into […]

The tale of China’s modernization is being told along its winding dirt trails, the paved gray roads in its cities and, more recently, its ambitious network of highways. In rural Hainan, farmers still pedal to their paddy fields before dawn, bumping along paths of dusty red soil. In the urban explosions of Beijing and Shanghai, however, bicycles now have to fight for space with ever-increasing numbers of motor vehicles—and residents have to fight to breathe.