Opinion
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U.S. Supreme Court puts EPA to the test
Opinion -The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on whether the United States Environmental Protection Agency may consider compliance costs, as well as health effects, when it sets national ambient air quality standards for ozone and -
Whole Language Packaged as Phonics
Opinion -Reading researcher Louisa Cook Moats recently identified "lack of rigor and disrespect for evidence in reading education" among the reasons for the persistence of the ineffective whole language reading instruction method. -
Records show drop in Atlantic hurricanes
Opinion -A science reporter’s ominous voice intones, “Global warming imminent . . .” as a parched desert landscape fills the screen. “Industrial pollutants the cause of . . . -
Who will be the new EPA administrator?
Opinion -The tumultuous election of 2000 will cast its shadow over the American polity for years to come. As these lines are being written, Texas Gov. George W. -
Getting climate forecasts in line
Opinion -The climate forecasting business is always couched in uncertainty. One model shows this, another shows that. One federal scientist says one thing, another from XYZ subagency PDQ (Federal Building J, subbasement G-5c) says something else. Blah blah blah. -
Esteemed science journal bows to politics
Opinion -When the United Nations held its second meeting of the "Conference of the Parties" (COP-2) in Geneva in July 1996, the big question was whether or not our models of climate change were good enough to support eventual restrictions on the combustion of -
Opposition mounts to new arsenic rules
Opinion -The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new drinking water standard that would lower the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to five parts per billion. -
Grasslands Roundup: Several new papers confirm CO2’s benefits to savannah regions
Opinion -Most studies of carbon dioxide’s effect on plant life are fairly short in duration—a year or two at most. But one research team stayed with their experiment for six years. -
The cost of regulation
Opinion -In fiscal year 2000, some 54 federal departments and agencies and over 130,000 federal employees will spend over $18.7 billion writing and enforcing federal regulations. Center for the Study of American Business Regulatory Budget Report No. -
The Future of Nuclear Power
Opinion -Certain article titles appear, reappear, and re-reappear. After each Presidential election, the question asked is, “What will the new President do?” After a contentious sports event, the headline often is, “Coaches criticize referees. -
Scientists assail climate treaty
Opinion -In the midst of international negotiations on how to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, “dissident” scientists vocally objected to the underlying premise that individual and industrial human activities influence nature's -
Environmental extremists destroying National Forests
Opinion -The year 2000 will be remembered in forestry circles as the year of the Big Burn. At no time in our previous record-keeping has the total acreage burned in our National Forests approached the levels of last year. -
Sprawl for me, but not for thee
Opinion -Perhaps the oddest political coalition in America today is the alliance between anti-suburban intellectuals and suburban "slow growth" activists. -
Regulatory Reform Act Becomes Law
Opinion -Without adequate fanfare, The Truth in Regulating Act of 2000 became law on October 17, 2000. -
Learning Is Like Eating Strawberries
Opinion -When her daughter Susan started kindergarten in Virginia in 1972, Jessie Wise quickly heard complaints from Susan's teacher that the child would become a social misfit because she wanted to read during free time instead of playing. -
CO2 as antifreeze?
Opinion -Plants grow faster. Photosynthesis increases. Root systems improve. Yields jump. Water-use efficiency rises. Drought resistance becomes stronger. Countless stresses are minimized. An ideal biosphere? Maybe. An attainable one? You bet. -
Climate models can’t get precipitation right
Opinion -Apparently, the hotly awaited U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the Nation is not worth the CO2 growth-enhanced paper it’s printed on. -
Park Service buys more land, maintains less
Opinion -The National Park Service, facing a $5 billion repair and maintenance backlog at America's national parks, continues to spend more money buying new land than to repair and maintain what it already owns. -
Federal government allows pollution dumping into Potomac River
Opinion -WASHINGTON, DC—On October 11, 2000 the National Wilderness Institute (NWI) announced its intention to file a lawsuit charging that several federal agencies are violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) through their improper operation of the -
“Giving away money can be lots of fun!” an interview with Mary Kohler
Opinion -Mary Kohler is a 71-year-old dynamo. There’s simply no better word for her. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a degree in paleontology, she has worked in advertising and public relations for the past 40 years. -
International Group Launches Pro-nuclear Power Campaign
Opinion -Environments for Nuclear Energy (EFN), an international association headquartered in Houilles, France, has launched a "100,000 signatures for nuclear energy” petition campaign. -
Recent warming is not historically unique
Opinion -Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground: Another race the following spring supplies: They fall successive, and successive rise —Homer, Iliad, Book VI, Line 181 Recent news coverage portrays -
Referendum update: State and local sprawl-related initiatives
Opinion -The November 7 election offered many lessons. Of special interest to Environment & Climate News readers, those lessons included: Voters want to protect open space, and they will pay for transit if they think it will reduce congestion (which it won't). -
Requiem for a heavyweight
Opinion -Editor’s note: People for the USA closed its doors on December 31.
