A Many-Headed Student Group Gets Out the Green Vote In recent years, young voters have deafened pollsters with their silence, heralding the arrival of what could be seen as a new silent majority for our time. In the 1994 congressional elections, only 15 percent of eligible young people voted. The Center for Environmental Citizenship (CEC) […]
Utter wilderness is what lucky visitors seek—and get—from the western reaches of labyrinthine fjords of Prince William Sound. But the feeling that you’re traveling through a series of beautiful landscape paintings may erode now that the remote area expects its first marine gas station. To backcountry enthusiasts, the idea is as incongruous as finding a Starbucks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Are We Overlooking Some of the World’s Sustainable Energy Fuels? Ever since humans first huddled around a fire for warmth, people have burned logs, straw, wood and animal waste—otherwise known as biomass—to create energy. Indeed, throughout most of history, these crude forms of fuel answered the world’s energy needs. Only after the industrial age matured […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to provide adequate protection to minorities and low-income families who are disproportionately affected by pollution, according to a report released last week by EPA's Inspector General (IG).
When most Americans think of Russian nature, they think of environmental catastrophe—Chernobyl, oil spills, pollution. Yet Russia, with one-eighth of the Earth’s land area, has one of the world’s premiere systems of strictly protected areas, called "zapovedniks." Few people outside Russia know of the system or its important part in sustaining the global ecological balance. Large tracts of virgin forest play a role in global ecology comparable to rain forests. Intact areas of wilderness allow large-scale animal migrations. Scientific data long collected in the zapovednik system could shed light on global climate change and ecological trends.
It’s well-known that the Y2K computer problem—a limitation embedded in basic programming code that will cause machines all over the world to think that the year 2000 is actually 1900—could mean catastrophic operating system failures, power outages and other disasters. The potential environmental impact is less well-known.
"The timber wars are happening all over again," said Bonnie Phillips of The Pilchuck Audubon Society in northwest Washington state. Two years after President Clinton offered embattled forest watchers an olive branch–the Northwest Forest Plan (supposedly assuring preservation of old-growth forests, while allowing a limited amount of logging)–peace has ended in the Pacific Northwest.
Giant Petrels are a Bellwether Species for the Threatened Antarctic Peninsula Giant Petrels are large scavenger birds that feed on dead seals, whales, penguins, squid or just about any other creature that dies on Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, which is why 19th Century sailors called them “Bone Shakers.” They also named them “Stinkers” since, when challenged, […]
In the 2002 elections, "clean and green" New Zealand elected eight Green Party members as MPs, and they now enjoy the legitimacy of a Parliamentary office in Wellington. Their ranks include longtime activists such as Sue Kedgley, author of Eating Safely in a Toxic World, who campaigns for animal welfare, clean energy and public transit; and Ian Ewen-Street, an organic sheep and cattle farmer.
Almost Everyone Agrees, ATVs Need To Be Controlled–But How?
