Currents

The Rails-To-Trails Conservancy Is Turning Unused Rail Corridors Into Hiking Trails.

The Public Land Management Benefits from User Fees, But Will Nature Lose Out?

Religious Right Leaders Launch Interfaith Council To ‘Subdue’ Nature. Who says that only liberals can launch environmental groups? A group of religious right leaders, scientists and academics celebrated the 30th anniversary of Earth Day by launching the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship

With The Emerging Trade in Carbon Credits, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Has Become a Seller's Market.

Rachel's Weekly Provides Information to Empower Activists In 1962, Rachel Carson told the story that nobody else was telling. Toxic chemicals produced and distributed by powerful companies were entering the environment with far-reaching and disastrous consequences. Carson's Silent Spring informed a shocked nation that it was poisoning itself. The book had an enormous impact. President […]

World Bank Development Projects Push Indian Tigers to the Brink Although a recent New York Times piece claimed that wild tigers have made a “remarkable recovery,” a quick look at the real numbers gives a more accurate picture of the challenge this magnificent species faces at the brink of extinction. The beleaguered Asian tiger: China's […]

The Auto Industry Fights to Save Gas Guzzlers From 1992 to 1997, the number of sport-utility vehicles on American roads doubled, to a whopping 13.8 million vehicles. In the same period, the category of “light trucks” (which includes pickups and vans) gained national hegemony, outnumbering cars for the first time. The result of the SUV […]

Environmental Radio Does the Unexpected In the early 1950s, many assumed that the advent of television would make radio obsolete. But radio proved more durable than that. There are now almost 14,000 radio stations across the United States and Canada, according to the 1999 edition of the Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook. A full 5,000 of […]

Is "Environmental Republican" an Oxymoron? “Environmentalists are a socialist group of individuals that are the tool of the Democratic Party. I'm proud to say that they are my enemy.” So railed Alaskan Congressman Don Young (R-AK) on Alaska Public Radio in 1996. It was a typical diatribe from the Republican politician, who, as chair of […]

Buying Back Boats To Solve The Overfishing Crisis In 1994, the most recent year for which figures exist, the world spent $124 billion to support a fishing industry that generated revenues of only $70 billion. In other words, we lost $54 billion in our global effort to build a fleet big enough to catch, in […]