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Roadless Setback
As faithful readers will recall, we’ve been reporting on the saga of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule for a very long time. Put in place at the end of the Clinton administration and immediately hamstrung by Bush operatives, the rule, which bans most roadbuilding and logging on roadless areas of the national forests, has bounced…
Read MoreRemembering Joan Bavaria
Earthjustice Vice President for Litigation Patti Goldman offers these fond memories of Joan Bavaria. A bounty of acclaim has come in the passing of Joan Bavaria, who served eight years as an Earthjustice trustee. Many speak of her as their hero, a visionary, and a pioneer. For me, as for many at Earthjustice, Joan was an…
Read MoreEncouraging Words
The Guardian, over there across the pond, has just published a splendid piece that should help put to rest some misconceptions about the ease, expense, and possibility of converting the world to a sustanable/green/you name it energy system. The writer is Chris Goodall, author of Ten Technologies to Save the Planet. He lays it all out…
Read MoreBeetle battle: NY Times Misses Beetle / Warming Link
One of the good things about the Web is that it increases accountability. Those questioning the so-called "mainstream media" (MSM) don’t have to hope that a stingy editor will find a few column inches to publish an op-ed to have their views heard. So while I’m a regular reader of The New York Times, I was happy…
Read MoreTurkeys and Lame Ducks
Joe Klein (author of Primary Colors, the scathing send-up of the Clinton years) gives President Bush quite a valedictory send-off today in the pages of TIME magazine. Besides distaste for President Bush’s "intellectual laziness," Klein lists a number of environmental actions that could be taken now in the final weeks of the Bush administration. Sadly, none…
Read MorePardon Me
It appears that Compassionate Conservatism, the muddled sound bite that was supposed to guide activities early in the reign of George II, has made a comeback, at least insofar as it applies to killers of wildlife. On November 24, right before Thanksgiving and right after Sarah Palin pardoned a holiday turkey and then proceeded to…
Read MoreBush's National Symbol: Dead Bald Eagles
We expected the worst for the environment from a Bush presidency. And he has never worked harder to meet our expectations than in these last few months. The list of misdeeds is long, and probably sadly familiar. Some of W’s parting shots include: – Gutting key protection in the Endangered Species Act. – Opening millions of…
Read MoreNew Generation Takes Direct Action Against King Coal
The coal industry, whose schemes for scores of dirty new power plants are being challenged in the courts by Earthjustice and other organizations, is also under siege by a new generation of protesters whose favored tactic is nonviolent direct action. Earlier this year, Al Gore issued a call to action—"I believe we’ve reached the stage…
Read MoreThe Obama Dawning
This blog posting by Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen appeared this week in Celsias. For all Americans who care about our environment, which is most of us, a hopeful dawn broke with the election of Barack Obama. During the last eight years the administration did everything it could to privatize the great natural areas in…
Read MoreThere's No Bailing Out Nature
Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network had an important (and scary) piece in the San Francisco Chronicle the other day that one hopes the new administration and the new Congress will take note of. Using data from the United Nations and elsewhere, Wackernagel reports that we’ve been overdrawing nature ever since about 1970. That…
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