We’ve written about overpopulation many times in these pages because we think it is a profoundly important environmental issue. Yet it’s one that the green movement largely ignores, primarily for fear of alienating a public that may associate family planning with abortion or see attempts to curb immigration as racist.
"I’ve known rivers," wrote the great African-American poet Langston Hughes, "ancient, dusky rivers." He "heard the singing of the Mississippi" and watched "its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset." Jerry Russell Illustration Today, the Mississippi is the most polluted river in the U.S., and its song is a cry for help. The river’s […]
A growing number of young adults have moved beyond the hallmark issues of Baby Boomers-"recycling, saving whales and hugging trees"–and onto a greater diversity of issues.
Sixteen million American homes use a total of some 11 billion gallons of heating oil a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That’s 700 gallons per year per household. And while many of those homes have their oil tanks tucked away in the basement, millions of others have them buried underground where, neglected, […]
Day of Judgment, Religious Right A higher power informs the Republican assault on the environment. The religious right, deep into the Congressional leadership, is convinced that polluting the planet is not only Gods will, but a welcome sign of Jesus return.
Going With the Grain for Good Health When I was growing up in the 1960s, I thought the breads my grandparents served—dark, coarse pumpernickels and ryes "to sop up the sauces"—were peasant food, the last vestiges of their hard lives in Russia. Like most American children of my generation, I considered soft, white Wonder Bread […]
Delicious Organic Brews Offer a Healthier Alternative Eighty million Americans regularly drink beer, which breaks down to about 23 gallons of the beverage per person every year. One reason the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock was a declining stock of on-board "beere," and beer historian Will Anderson points out that America’s first "help wanted" ad, […]
In the Year of the Reef, Bonaire Offers Great Diving and Protected Coral In stark contrast to the runaway American-style construction on neighboring Aruba (McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, a water-intensive golf course and numerous American hotel chains), the island of Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles off the coast of Venezuela, remains a quiet getaway and […]
The Virgin Islands" Maho Bay puts conservation first.
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.
