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Friday Finds: Highway to the Dementia Zone
Freeway pollution could make you forget you’re in traffic As if living next to the sound of constant honking wasn’t enough, a recent study has linked freeway air pollution with brain damage, a finding that has health implications for those living near the nation’s highways, reports the LA Times. The study’s authors found that exposing…
Read MoreGas Drilling Permits While-U-Wait
The Associated Press had a story today detailing how regulators in Pennsylvania spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing gas drilling permits, before giving companies approval to blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to extract the gas – a controversial practice known as fracking. Across the country, gas production using…
Read MorePlugs for Two Excellent Websites
Forgive me if you already know all about these two sites, but for anyone who doesn’t I thought I’d take a minute to recommend both, without reservation. The first, and I daresay lesser-known, is Wildlands CPR. I came upon this fine institution when I was writing Roadless Rules about roadless areas in the national forests.…
Read MoreAnti-Salmon Mood in Congress Worries Fishermen
The excitement for the return of wild king salmon to restaurants and stores this spring and summer is nearly matched by anxiety. People fear that this now-rebounding seafood mainstay and regional jobs powerhouse will be decimated by politically driven efforts in Congress to gut science-based protections for fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Basin. That hope…
Read MoreDeath by a Thousand (Budget) Cuts
We avoided a government shutdown with last minute deals that seemed to please both parties. But as they often say here in Washington, D.C. “the devil is in the details.” And in this case, it’s an awfully vicious budget slashing devil that has emerged in those details. According to the Wall Street Journal, (subscription required)…
Read MoreLawmakers Probe Impacts of Gas Drilling Boom
In a hearing, today, lawmakers on Capitol Hill probed the health and environmental impacts of a gas drilling boom fueled by the controversial gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Using this technique, companies blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to force natural gas from underground deposits. In…
Read MoreClean Air Crosses The Partisan Divide
Clean air isn’t a partisan issue, although that’s admittedly easy to forget if you’re following the ongoing congressional clash over clean air protections (which sometimes seems as wide as the gap between the Grand Canyon’s north and south rims). The American public certainly isn’t so divided. A large majority—which includes citizens who identify as Republican, Democrat…
Read MoreWhy I Fight For Our Forests: Earthjustice's Tim Preso
Q & A with attorney Tim Preso, who works to protect our nation's forests and their critical natural resources and wildlife.
Read MoreAnti-Environment Foot Comes Down In Congress
It’s been a harrowing past few weeks (to say the least). The first jolt came Feb. 19, when House leaders approved a spending plan that slashed an array of environmental safeguards and pretty much gave polluter industries a free pass to continue using our air and water as their dumping grounds. Amid the back and…
Read MoreRepublicans Mount A New Assault On Wild Lands
Three mad hatters–Steve Pearce (R-NM), Rob Bishop (R-UT), and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are gathering–or trying to gather–cosponsors for what they’re callling the Wilderness & Roadless Area Release Act, a law that would open national forest roadless areas and Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas to development. This would put a bit more than 70 million…
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