Each April, the people of Terrebonne Parish convene in Chauvin, some 80 miles south of New Orleans, for the Blessing of the Fleet, heralding the arrival of shrimp season. As spring gathers, though, a threat to this community’s traditional means of livelihood will begin to arrive. Hypoxia, or severe oxygen depletion, is forcing aquatic animals […]
A wolf howls in the autumn morning, and is joined by three other voices. It could be Alaska, but instead it’s tony Westchester County in the suburbs of New York City, where no wolves have lived for more than a century. These wolves aren’t wild; they’re residents of the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC). WCC is […]
It’s been a difficult year for opponents of whaling. In August, Iceland announced it would resume whale hunting after a 14-year hiatus. Norway—the only nation in the world that has a commercial whale hunt—killed 647 minkes, the largest catch since it resumed whaling a decade ago. Meanwhile Japan, which kills nearly 700 minkes for "scientific" […]
The Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC) is a non-partisan collaboration of 60 organizations spanning the nonprofit, commercial and public sectors. "We are promoting the use of environmental best practices for the Democratic (July 26 to 29) and Republican National Conventions (August 28 to September 2) in order to showcase those practices to the political leaders and the general public," explains Executive Director Daniel Ruben. "We want to establish the role model for future conventions, political and otherwise."
The popular animated movie <I>Finding Nemo</I>, a favorite in kids" video collections, traces the exploits of the young clownfish Nemo, who is captured by divers and plopped into a dentist office aquarium. But Nemo longs to return to the ocean and his father. Overall, the movie’s message seems simple: fish are unhappy trapped in tanks.
Once thought of as a resource without end, fishermen are finally bumping up against limits in the world’s cod stocks (see "A Run on the Banks," feature, March/April 2001). In North America, the catch has declined by 90 percent since the early 1980s, forcing the closing of once-thriving fisheries. Now under threat is the stock in the Barents Sea, which is fished by Russia and Norway.
There is a new wave of activism sweeping across college campuses. Student groups are coordinating efforts to reduce fossil-fuel dependency by pushing for more renewable alternatives, and putting forth specific goals for their colleges. “This is a growing movement,” says Billy Parish, director of the Climate Campaign, a network of 10 student environmental organizations. “What’s […]
Despite the breathtaking vistas of its unique, semi-arid mountain-desert, the Namaqualand region of northwestern South Africa is woefully impoverished. But a handful of progressive Connecticut educators are working with African communities to build a foundation for global sustainability. Jerry Birdsall (right) directs Connected Cultures’ outreach programs, bringing South African students to the U.S. and building […]
Any environmentalist will say education is the key to building a green society. But The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia is incorporating that idea into its curriculum.
If you’ve felt frustration over the American Green Party’s slow uphill battle for voter recognition, you may have registered in the wrong country. Seven members of the Green Party of Aotearoa, New Zealand were voted into office during the country’s elections last November—the first national election the Party had entered independently. The world’s first Green […]
