Searching for "Environment_and_Green_Living"

Grand Canyon Uranium Mining?

Public comment period opens for BLM proposals to allow mining near the Grand Canyon

Well, this seems like a no-brainer: The Bureau of Land Management just opened up a public comment period to weigh the positives and negatives of uranium mining near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. They'll host several meetings throughout Arizona to share data and see what the public thinks.

Mining companies quite obviously want to re-open mining opportunities; everyone with even the slightest respect for the Big Ditch understands the massive environmental dangers of harvesting radioactive material near the greatest canyon in the world. Want to join the fight? Read Full Story...

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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Video: Obama On Outdoors Initiative

The President talks about preserving wild lands, getting kids outside, and Teddy Roosevelt

While Obama's track record on wilderness is mixed (let's face it—he's had a pretty full plate), he's regularly expressed his intentions to keep it top-of-mind in his administration. To wit: He gave a press conference on Wednesday covering nature preservation, getting kids outside, and the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt. Watch:

Maybe BACKPACKER can introduce Obama next time? I mean, if REI can do it...

—Ted Alvarez

Whitehouse.gov via The Goat

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Friday, February 18, 2011 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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As Bad As It Sounds: Mountaintop Removal

Vice TV releases a free documentary on environmentally devastating mountaintop removal practices in West Virginia's coal industry

In BACKPACKER's March Issue, contributing editor Tracy Ross followed the evangelical environmental movement as they fought against mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia ("Hike. Pray. Protest." p. 80).

Now VBS TV is webcasting a documentary investigating mountaintop removal, and it's worth a watch. Hipster-host smugness aside, it's a solid primer for what's at stake, and well worth the 20 minutes you'd otherwise blow playing Angry Birds. Read Full Story...

Monday, February 07, 2011 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living, Weird and Funny

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Happy International Year of Forests!

National Forest Service and the U.N. join forces to celebrate worldwide forests

Exactly how does one celebrate International Year of Forests? Do you hug a tree? (Too obvious.) Plant a tree? (Earth day's got that one.) Build trails in a forest? (A year's a long time to lug a pulaski.)

Luckily, the U-to-tha-S.F.S. has your back: They kicked off a year's worth of events with an all-star gala at New York's Lincoln Center. Obama called in sick (stupid economy), but Forest Service honcho Tom Tidwell led a "high-profile roundtable discussion on 'Forests for people.'" Ahem. Read Full Story...

Friday, February 04, 2011 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living, Weird and Funny

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Everglades Declared Engangered

Florida national park joins Glacier and Madagascar's rain forests on list of threatened UNESCO World Heritage sites

First Glacier, now Everglades: the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decreed that the nation's largest subtropical wilderness is officially endangered. Threats to the .5 million acres of estuaries, prairies, and forests include high pollution levels killing marine life and water inflows that have been reduced by 60 percent.

The Committee declared the Everglades endangered at their 34th annual meeting in Brasilia, Brazil. The Everglades joins Madagascar's rain forests as new inductees to their list of threatened wild places across the world. Perhaps worst of all, this isn't even the first time Everglades has made the list: The park was declared endangered between 1993 and 1997 in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. Read Full Story...

Monday, August 02, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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California's Toxic Trails

California's mining legacy leaves arsenic, lead, and asbestos in thousands of trails

State parks in California have been threatening to close for lack of funds for years now, which is a huge bummer for your future weekends—but maybe it's not so bad for your health. Recent soil tests on trails near mine shafts in the Sierra foothills reveal dangerously high levels of arsenic, asbestos, and lead left over from the Gold Rush; when kicked up as dust particles, it's possible for hikers, bikers, and other trail users to absorb these nasty carcinogens.
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Thursday, June 24, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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Gulf Oil Spill Grows

See it on Google Earth

It's been more than a month since BP's offshore well failed and oil slick started pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. The largest oil spill in US history started with a catastrophic explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform on April 20, 2010, about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast.

Now, a month later, oil continues to spew from a well 5,000 feet below the water's surface, and somewhere between 5,000 and 100,000 barrels of crude oil (210,000 to 4.2 million US gallons according to the Christian Science Monitor ) are being discharged daily. No one but BP knows just how much oil is being released each day, and they are refusing to allow independent scientists to measure the discharge, or the underwater plumes of oil not visible from the surface. Read Full Story...

Thursday, May 20, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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Strange Brew: Patagonia + Wal-Mart

Yvon Chouinard helps the retail behemoth reinvent itself as a green brand--for free

I guess this is sort of like Yoda deciding to rehabilitate the Empire instead of teaching Luke to blow it up: A story in the May issue of Forbes magazine details how Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia are helping Wal-Mart reinvent itself as a green business. Wal-Mart is of course better known for low, low prices and corner-cutting, while Chouinard and Patagonia basically invented the idea of the eco-conscious clothing company.

So far, Chouinard has been helping Wal-Mart analyze and control its footprint for only clothing manufacturing, but Wal-Mart hopes to apply a green philosophy to its entire business. And like you, ol' Yvon didn't even believe it when Wal-Mart first approached him. Read Full Story...

Thursday, May 13, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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Call of the Wild

get it on your cell phone and help protect wildlife

The Center for Biological Diversity just released a new, free iPhone app, Wild Calls, to boost awareness of endangered species and to encourageyou to take action to protect wildlife. Download the app from the Center or from the iTunes Store, and each week (or more frequently if you choose) one of 30 endangered species sounds recorded in each species' natural habitat will be selected from the Center’s library and “pushed” to you. Want to howl with the Mexican Wolf every time your phone rings?
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Tuesday, April 27, 2010 in: News and Events, Environment and Green Living

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