Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
As the massive Gulf oil spill reaches the coast, threatening hundreds of species, I can’t think of a better time for our monthly roundup of good news about wildlife conservation: The United Kingdom has announced the creation of the Chagos...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I first started writing about the Hine’s emerald dragonfly, a truly beautiful creature found only in the fens, bogs, and forest of the Midwest, in 2007, shortly after NRDC launched its Chicago office. At the time, the U.S. Fish and...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
What’s the problem with Wildlife Services, a federal agency burrowed deep into the Department of Agriculture? In the field, it often it seems to be a single mindset: killing. Want an example? Just take a look at today’s Buffalo Bulletin...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , The Media and the Environment
Joel Sartore, a wildlife photographer famous for his portraits of endangered species against solid white and black backdrops, has a new book out, Rare. I love Sartore’s work, which strips animals of their context and forces the viewer to confront...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
We’ve been talking a lot here at Switchboard about the Pebble mine: a monstrous open-pit copper and gold mine that would cut a wound two-miles wide and 2,000 feet deep into Alaska's wild and pristine landscape. The mine, which...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
In the wake of a pretty depressing meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species this month, here is some good news about wildlife conservation: They’re baaaaack……After being presumed extinct for nearly thirty years, scientists recently discovered a...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
For those of you who have been following the growing concerns over the widespread use of the pesticide atrazine in the United States, you probably know that EPA recently announced it was going to conduct a top-to-bottom review of...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
You may have heard the news, but early this morning we got word that the nations meeting at the Convention on International Trade Endangered Species (CITES) rejected an United States proposal, supported and encouraged by NRDC, that would have...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , The Media and the Environment
February’s summary of all the reasons to have a little hope about wildlife conservation. If it pans out, this month’s best news of all has got to have been the return of wolves to Colorado. High Country News and other...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
Trying to engage with climate skeptics is kind of like being thrown into a cafeteria food fight: lots of noise, frenetic activity, and juvenile behavior. Today’s National Review Online serves up a classic example. Citing a Washington Post article about...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Sitting in bed last night and watching the Vancouver Olympics' opening ceremonies, I couldn’t help but feel a bit exasperated. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sucker for the Olympics' opening act, and it was a great show. The stagecraft was...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." -- Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods John Platt has a terrific piece up at Extinction Countdown about...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Yesterday, President Obama sent his fiscal year 2011 budget to Congress. From the point of view of environmental policy there’s a lot to like, particularly when it comes to promoting clean energy. (For a good roundup of some of the...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today’s Chicago Tribune features a long story by Michael Hawthorne about the metal plating industry and their ongoing practice of dumping pollutants such as perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) into the sewers of major cities like Chicago and Cleveland. The PFCs...
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
After a bit of a hiatus, here’s some good news from the close of the ‘aughts and the beginning of the….well, whatevers. The Brown Pelican flew off of the federal list of endangered species last November, marking final chapter in...
