unEARTHED | the Earthjustice forum on environmental issues

Environmental Protection and Common Sense v. Principle

Death Valley protected from attempt to use old, repealed law to put dirt bikes in National Park wilderness

Roadless: No Mercy

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Judge Clarence Brimmer of the federal district court in Wyoming last week declared illegal the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, adopted in the waning hours of the Clinton administration. The judge had blocked the rule five years ago, but a ruling from a federal judge in California two years ago had blocked a substitute rule put forward by the Bush administration and reinstated the Clinton rule.

Brimmer’s 100-page ruling heaped scorn on both President Clinton and Judge Elizabeth Laporte, the San Francisco judge who reinstated the Clinton rule.

The Return of the Wolves

The legal tussle over the wolves in the Northern Rockies, which took a turn for the better a week or so back, has overshadowed another uplifting wolf story: confirmation of a breeding pack of wolves in northeast Oregon for the first time since the animals were shot, trapped, and poisoned out of the state more than 50 years ago. The Oregon wildlife agency has an interesting history here and the Oregonian's Michael Milstein reports on the recent discovery here .

Look Ma, I’m Elite!

Unearthed blog editor, wordsmith, and all around superdad Terry Winckler gave me a hard time this week for being an "elitist" urban bike commuter. We had a good laugh over the use of the word. It got me thinking. What does the term "elitist" really mean these days?

Has elitist become political shorthand for "someone not like us?" The thought of calling someone who doesn’t drive a car an elitist initially struck me as a perversion of the word’s meaning. The working class folks I share bike lanes with each morning hardly feel "elite," more like Average Joes schlepping ourselves to work.

Are Ritter, Bush In Unity On Roadless Threats?

There's still a chance for the public - and the Governor - to weigh in for FULL protection of Colorado's spectacular roadless lands.

Colorado's more than 4 million acres of roadless national forest are at risk in the coming months because of an apparent alliance between our lame duck president, George W. Bush, and Colorado's Democratic governor, Bill Ritter.

Be Careful What You Ask for

Many of us, self included, have long lamented that environmental issues never play much of a role in presidential elections. I firmly believed that if Al Gore had stressed some of those issues in 2000 he’d be the one now winding up his second term. John Kerry likewise, maybe.

Well, now we’ve got a campaign where the environment and energy are front and center and we’re getting hammered.

Mercury: Too Toxic to Ignore

What do San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, and Chesapeake Bay have in common? They provide a distinctive signature to some of America's greatest cities, of course. Residents and visitors to San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore and Washington love to walk along, play beside, and boat across these waters. All three have storied histories and strong citizens' organizations fighting to protect and restore them.

But they have another, shameful thing in common. These waters all bear warnings about eating fish, because polluted waters have contaminated the fish. Extra restrictions are in effect for children and women of child-bearing age.

Shades of Nixon—A New Enemies List

Jamie Saul is a young lawyer, a graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland and one-time law clerk in the Seattle office of Earthjustice. As he entered his third year of law school, he applied for a position in the Department of Justice in order, as his application said, to "serve as part of the team charged with enforcing the world's most comprehensive environmental laws, and with defending the crucial work of our environmental and resource management agencies," a thoroughly noble sentiment for a lawyer at the beginning of his career.

He didn't get the job.

Petroleum's Two Faces on Colorado Health Protections

They tell Colorado that proposed regulations will cripple the local economy, but investors are told that profits will still boom.

500 Years of Fossil Fuel Furor

Long before global warming came along, fossil fuels were bad for humankind, sez Michael Stermer, a professor and author who laid out his theories this week for the Los Angeles Times.

Stermer blames non-renewable fossil fuels for the world’s unending political/economic turmoil of the last 500 years.

"Our civilization is fast approaching a tipping point," Shermer argues. Like Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens, he believes we must transition towards future reliance on renewable energy sources if humankind is to survive.

Transition is the magic word.