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Tar Sands Create Pipeline To The Past
Canada’s vast boreal forest (named for Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind) covers more than a third of the country’s total landmass and is a larger ecosystem than the Amazon. In addition to providing habitat for a diverse range of species including moose, lynx, grizzly bears and over 3 billion birds, the peat…
Read MoreHummm Baby?
And here I thought the bankruptcy of General Motors might start to spell the end of outrageous profligacy. That is to say, news reports that GM would shut down its Pontiac, Saturn, and Hummer divisions and start up a new high-mileage, low-emission model sounded like steps in the right direction. Especially as regards the Hummer.…
Read MoreBack in Court to Defend Wolves
Obama administration goes along with Bush-era policy
Read MoreSnake River Salmon Scuffle
The wonderful and valuable High Country News has published a very instructive buttal and rebuttal that arise from an article in the print version of the paper that analyzed the long-running struggle over four power dams built on the lower Snake River in the 1960s. Those dams and their reservoirs have long been criticized by…
Read MoreAbout Time
A press release came across my screen Wednesday afternoon announcing that a judge had found that Glen Canyon dam’s operating scheme is illegal, since it doesn’t do enough to protect endangered fish in the river. That’s putting it mildly. That dam destroyed the most beautiful, spectacular canyon country on the face of the earth. Or…
Read MoreLet's Keep Wilderness Wild
Road construction in national forests can harm fish and wildlife habitats while polluting local lakes, rivers, and streams. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule—which was made on the basis of extensive citizen input—protects 58.5 million acres of national forest from such harmful building. I will be proud to support and defend it. —Senator Barack Obama, 2008…
Read MoreGlacier N.P. Threatened by Mining: U.N. to Review Threats
Wildlife Quiz: What river valley has the most important habitat for grizzlies, wolves, wolverines and lynx in the Rocky Mountains? Hint: The river forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park, and straddles the Canadian/US border between British Columbia and Montana. Answer: The Flathead River. The Flathead was recently named British Columbia’s most endangered river,…
Read MoreMercury: It's What's For Dinner
Have you been following our Name That Fish contest? As part of our Cleaning Up Mercury, Protecting Our Health campaign, we just rechristened the Bluefin Tuna as “Blue Infection Tuna.” The timing couldn’t be more perfect… a new Federal study was just released this month on the alarming mercury levels in tuna and other fish…
Read MoreAnd Around We Go
By now, we’ve all heard the same merry-go-round arguments about why the U.S. can’t afford aggressive measures to develop clean energy and tackle climate change. And most of those arguments revolve around that other behemoth-of-a-superpower: China. We can practically roll the stats off our tongues: China’s now the #1 emitter of greenhouse gases. China is…
Read MoreEndangered Wildlife Visit Capitol Hill
The debate over climate change legislation is heating up. And as members of Congress grapple with which position to take, they’ll be bombarded with opinions from many different sides of the debate. But last week, as members of Congress arrived at work in the morning and left in the evening, they were greeted by the…
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