Recently added articles from Earth Island Journal:
A numbers game.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
Jun 22, 2009; ... At least since the days of Malthus, people have wondered when the planet will be too full of people. During the last several generations as the number of humans has grown exponentially and our use of resources has skyrocketed the question has taken on particular force. This place can feel ...
What about the gators?(LETTER & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 22, 2009; ... I grew up in Canada and thought the article about the annual Canadian seal hunt ("Kill Them with Kindness," Around the World, Spring) took a very complicated issue and reduced it to a one-note shriek. If the hunt were to stop, what would the people who depend on the hunt do for ...
Ecological economics.(LETTER & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 22, 2009; ... Elaine Miller Bond's article "Net Benefits" (Spring) illustrates what is wrong with efforts to correct many environmental problems in this case, overfishing. Capitalism encourages behavior motivated by greed. It should be no surprise when overfishing or pollution occurs. Providing ...
ITQs an investment mess?(LETTER & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 22, 2009; ... Your article on individual take quotas ("Net Benefits") swallows the arguments in their favor hook, line, and sinker, when some probing would reveal that ITQs are more than a little fishy. Take the analogy to cap-and-trade systems: Emission reduction schemes are successful because the cap ...
Peak bagged.(LETTER & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 22, 2009; ... Thank you for the article "For Peak's Sake" (Spring) about the effort to rename the 14,000-foot North Palisade in the Sierra Nevada after Dave Brower. I first climbed the peak at age 17, in ...
Maligned algae.(LETTER & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 22, 2009; ... I noticed a scientific error in Jeffrey Marlow's cover story on jellyfish blooms: "The algae suck oxygen out of the water and block sunlight from reaching other plankton lower in the water column." Actually, algae produce oxygen and are one of the primary sources of oxygen on ...
[Cartoon].(LETTER & E-MAILS)(Cartoon)
Jun 22, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We share 99% of our DNA with humans, but there are 6 billion of them & we're nearly extinct ....
Gas masked.(AFRICA)(gas flaring at oil wells)
Jun 22, 2009 ... In a long-overdue victory for communities in the dangerous and dirty Niger Delta, the Nigerian government has pledged to phase out gas flaring at oil wells, a procedure that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and human health problems. Every year, oil corporations in ...
Fin icky eaters.(ASIA)(demand of shark fins)
Jun 22, 2009 ... Shark fin soup is considered a symbol of wealth and prestige in Chinese culture, and has been a popular and often expected item at Lunar New Year's parties and wedding banquets. While the soup may symbolize great things for its diners, the delicacy is certainly not a symbol of good luck or ...
Wheeling and dealing.(ASIA)(car ownership and the environment)
Jun 22, 2009 ... In India, a country of 1.1 billion people, tiny motor scooters far outnumber conventional automobiles. Given that the average income in India is roughly $500 per year, this isn't surprising. Tata Motors, an Indian car manufacturer, plans to change that balance. It wants to jump-start car ...
Polluted city seeks mayor for dirty job.(ASIA)(looking for a mayor for Linfen city )(Brief article)
Jun 22, 2009 ... The Chinese city of Linfen has a soiled reputation when it comes to health and safety issues. Home to more than four million people, this city in Shanxi province is notorious for its foul air and deadly mining accidents. A haze often envelops Linfen, which is surrounded by coal mines (some ...
Honey, don't leaf me.(ASIA)(couples who wants to get married as well as divorce needs to provide trees for the government reforestation program)(Brief article)
Jun 22, 2009 ... Couples in the Garut district of western Java must provide 10 trees to the local authorities in order to be considered legally married. And anyone in the region who leaves a spouse will be sapped for more than just alimony payments; couples can officially call it quits only after handing ...
Radioactive reserve.(EUROPE)(Chernobyl exclusion zone)
Jun 22, 2009 ... Perhaps even a deadly nuclear meltdown can have an upside. At least, that's the view of naturalists in Belarus and Ukraine who are studying the remarkable comeback of wildlife in the 865-square-mile "exclusion zone" surrounding the damaged Chernobyl atomic energy plant. The ...
Out of our genes!(EUROPE)(ban on genetically modified corn)(Brief article)
Jun 22, 2009 ... In what environmentalists are hailing as an important victory for consumers and farmers, a majority of European Union nations have refused to force Austria and Hungary to allow the planting of genetically modified corn. The European Commission--the executive branch of the ...
Shell game.(EUROPE)(Royal Dutch-Shell PLC will no longer pursue wind and solar energy generation)
Jun 22, 2009 ... After spending more than a decade and millions of dollars in ads trumpeting its pursuit of clean energy technologies, Royal Dutch Shell says it is scrapping any further large-scale investments in wind and solar electricity generation. From 1999 to 2006, Shell, the world's second ...
Sealing the deal.(EUROPE)(seal hunting bans and restrictions)
Jun 22, 2009 ... In many countries, opposition to the annual Arctic harp seal hunt has resulted in bans and restrictions on the practice. In early March, a European Parliamentary committee endorsed a bill seeking a ban on all seal products, whether imported into the EU, exported from it, or even ...
Razing cane.(NORTH AMERICA)(spraying herbicide to kill carrizo cane)
Jun 22, 2009 ... A community backlash has forced the US Border Patrol to drop a controversial plan to aerially spray the broad-spectrum herbicide imazapyr along a stretch of the Rio Grande as part of a program to clear vegetation along the increasingly militarized frontier. In March, the Border ...
Kiwi lifeboat.(OCEANIA)(immigration of Britons to New Zealand)(Brief article)
Jun 22, 2009 ... Worried that climate change will eventually lead to food shortages and a destabilization of the global economy, some Britons are moving to New Zealand, convinced that the nation's temperate climate, isolation, and small population will make it the perfect lifeboat for weathering the coming ...
Don't spray it.(SOUTH AMERICA)(pesticide use in Brazil)(Brief article)
Jun 22, 2009 ... During the last two decades, Brazil has emerged as a global agricultural powerhouse. A longtime force in the coffee and sugar industries, the country is also a major producer of soybeans, citrus, beef, and chicken. Brazil's agricultural strength rests on a fatal weakness--it is ...
Crime and punishment.(SOUTH AMERICA)(murder case of Dorothy Stang)
Jun 22, 2009 ... In April, a Brazilian court ordered the arrest and retrial of an Amazon rancher who had been acquitted of ordering the murder of Dorothy Stang, an American nun who worked tirelessly to protect the rainforest and its inhabitants. Stang's family and government prosecutors say the court order ...