Recently added articles from Earth Island Journal:

Breaking the habit.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)

Jun 22, 2008; Mark, Jason ... America, as even President Bush acknowledges, is addicted to oil. If so, then biofuels are little better than methadone. Our addiction is dangerous. It is one of the primary sources of the unchecked carbon emissions that are altering the Earth's atmosphere. It contributes to the ...

Different seasoning.(LETTERS & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)

Jun 22, 2008; Peter, Jonathan ... I have been a subscriber of the Journal for over a decade, and have always been surprised when I get the magazine that it persists in dating itself with the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. I thought it was "News of the ...

Dam it.(LETTERS & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)

Jun 22, 2008; Cooper, Jordan ... I have recently uncovered a story your readers may find compelling. The Matte Group of Chile is proposing a dam project in Patagonia that could displace a large portion of the Indigenous population and destroy the habitats of endangered plant and animal species. A new network of power ...

Corrections.(LETTERS & E-MAILS)(Correction notice)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Due to a multiplication error, the Spring 2008 Spyhopping column "Tapping the Fat of the Land" overestimated the weight of overweight Americans. The correct figure is 583 thousand pounds of excess fat, not 583 million. The adjusted energy value of this fat ...

Biodiversity bonanza.(AFRICA)(lowering deforestation in Madagascar)

Jun 22, 2008 ... The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has dramatically reduced deforestation as the country's leaders try to attract tourists who are interested in exploring the nation's unique ecosystems. Scientists believe that Madagascar's land mass broke away from Africa 160 million years ...

There has been blood.(AFRICA)(petroleum industry in Sudan)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Already battered by decades of civil war, some villagers in southern Sudan are now suffering from the country's booming oil industry, which has displaced people from their homes and is poisoning their water. The country's infamous humanitarian disaster is being compounded by an ecological ...

Bottom of the well.(ASIA)(Yemen's freshwater supply)

Jun 22, 2008 ... The desert nation of Yemen is running out of water--and the Yemeni government's inability to cope with the impending disaster may be a glimpse of things to come as the globe's freshwater resources decline. According to the country's water and environment minister, 19 of Yemen's ...

Earning their stripes.(ASIA)(protecting tigers in India)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... India's entire population of tigers is estimated at 1,411. It's very likely that the figure is so low, the number isn't even being rounded to the nearest hundred; those extra 11 tigers make a big difference. This sorry figure is half of the estimated 2002 population, and about 3.5 percent ...

Troubled waters.(ASIA)(Hong Kong's humpback dolphins)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Pollution. Constant traffic. Overfishing. Life isn't easy for the 200 Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins struggling to survive near Hung Kong's Chek Lap Kok International Airport. But since the pinkish-toned humpbacks, also known as Chinese white dolphins, have managed to hold their population ...

Norwegian wails.(EUROPE)(whaling's greenhouse gas emissions)

Jun 22, 2008 ... If a Norwegian-based pro-whaling lobby has its way, the environmentalists' rallying cry of "Save the Whales" will soon be changed to "Save the Whales ... for Lunch!" Norway and Japan, the two largest whaling nations in the world, are seeking new arguments to justify their break ...

Corn Nuts.(NORTH AMERICA)(genetically modified corn in Mexico and Japan)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Many small farmers in Mexico are outraged by a recent government decision to allow the experimental planting of some strains of genetically modified (GM) corn. Corn was domesticated in Mexico and has been grown there for as long as 9,000 years. Home to more than 10,000 varieties ...

Washing green?(NORTH AMERICA)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Some say the deal is corporate greenwashing. Others argue that the collaboration between a major chemical company and the nation's largest environmental group is a way to shift the market toward more sustainable cleaning products. Either way, it's clear that the Sierra Club's recent ...

Bear down.(OCEANIA)(climate change's effect on koala bears' nutrition)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... The skyrocketing prices for key food commodities such as wheat and rice have been blamed, in part, on Australia's prolonged drought, which has sunk grain harvests there to all-time lows. Now it appears that another Australian food is at risk--eucalyptus leaves, the main staple for the ...

Road warriors?(OCEANIA)(environmental protection in Australia)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Battered by a prolonged drought that some scientists say is related to global climate change, citizens in Australia are showing new signs of ecological awareness. Last year, Australian voters threw out Prime Minister John Howard, a global warming skeptic, in favor of Kevin Rudd, whose ...

Fumigant fight.(SOUTH AMERICA)(herbicide spraying in Ecuador)

Jun 22, 2008 ... For nearly a decade, Ecuador has used neighborly diplomacy to ask Colombia to stop aerial herbicide spraying of coca and poppy fields along their shared border. The spraying, Ecuadorians say, sickens people and livestock, poisons farmland, and damages ecologically sensitive rainforest ...

Stunt man.(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(Virgin Atlantic Airlines flight test using biofuel)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Earlier this war, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson--the thrill-seeking head of Virgin Atlantic Airlines--once again grabbed the media's attention when his company conducted the first test flight using biofuels. A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747, powered in part by coconut oil and the ...

Calculating disaster.(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(climate change costs)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... Dealing with global climate change will either be relatively cheap, or hugely expensive depending on whether we take action now, or wait until later. According to a new report by the Environmental Defense Fund, reducing US greenhouse gas emissions will account for less than two ...

Warming up the skeptics.(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(Conference news)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... In March, global warming skeptics gathered for a conference in New York City' sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a libertarian organization committed to a "free-market perspective." The meeting was billed as an important forum to display the dissenting science on human-driven climate ...

Whether Maps?(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(climate zone map)(Brief article)

Jun 22, 2008 ... For many people, planting a garden is a rite of spring, and for many gardeners, the US Department of Agriculture's color-coded climate zone map is a handy way of knowing which plants will thrive where. But with global warming causing noticeable changes in weather patterns, the USDA's map, ...

Globalization's carbon bootprint.(SPYHOPPING: A whale's act of coming out of the water to examine its surroundings)

Jun 22, 2008; Smith, Gar ... Anyone interested in big picture solutions to climate change must eventually confront the inconvenient truth that one of the major forces stoking the greenhouse is globalization. The infrastructure of global trade--ships, trains, cars, trucks, and aircraft--all produce global warming ...