by Mark Hertsgaard

Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago They say that everyone who finally gets it about climate change has an "Oh, shit" moment -- an instant when the full scientific implications become clear and they suddenly realize what a horrifically dangerous situation humanity has created for itself. Read More

Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

As Hillary, Obama, and Edwards continue to slug it out in the early primary states, one name is conspicuously absent among the Democratic candidates to become the next president of the United States. Where is Al Gore? The man who received more votes than George W. Bush did in 2000, who served eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, and whose climate change evangelism has been rewarded with an Oscar and Read More

Posted 4 years, 6 months ago How long could you survive without your car? For the many Americans who think nothing of driving 10 blocks to buy a gallon of milk, the answer is obvious. But before any of you dedicated pedestrians and die-hard cyclists start feeling smug, try this question: How long could you survive without talking?

Chances are, nowhere near as long as John Francis did. After a massive oil spill polluted San Francisco Bay in 1971, Francis gave up all motorized transportation. For 22 years, he walked everywhere… Read More

Posted 5 years, 3 months ago

Terry Tamminen, secretary of California's Environmental Protection Agency, may hold the most powerful environmental job in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C. Not only is California the world's fifth-largest economy, it has long been an environmental trendsetter, pioneering standards in automobile regulation and alternative-energy development that have spread across the nation and around the world. But Tamminen works for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), whose fondness for gas-guzzling Hummers leaves some environmentalists skeptical of his assurances about protecting California's environment.

Grist sent environmental author and reporter Mark Hertsgaard to question the 52-year-old Tamminen… Read More

Posted 6 years, 1 month ago

Who says George W. Bush never did anything for the great outdoors? His running for reelection could be the best thing to happen to the U.S. environmental movement in years. The threat of four more years of Bush has provoked a significant rethinking of the movement's tactics, according to interviews with movement leaders, their financial supporters, and political advisers. Not only has it energized activists like never before, it has also produced unprecedented expressions of unity within the… Read More

Posted 8 years ago Two political associates of peasant environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera have narrowly survived an apparent assassination attempt, raising grave questions about Montiel and Cabrera's own safety following their Nov. 8 release from jail by Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Felipe Arriga, the secretary general of the Ecologist Organization of the Mountain of Petatlan and Coyuca of Catalan -- the grassroots group Montiel founded to fight logging in the southwestern province of Guerrero -- said the attack took place at 6 a.m. on Nov. 1 in the town of El Venado.… Read More

Posted 9 years, 4 months ago Forty-five of the world's most prominent environmentalists have called for the immediate release of Mexican colleagues Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, who have been jailed and tortured after blocking logging operations by the multinational Boise Cascade in the southern state of Guerrero.

Urging that the "tragic stories" of murdered environmental activists Chico Mendes and Ken Saro-Wiwa never be repeated, the activists -- all previous winners of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize -- wrote to Mexico's President-elect Vicente Fox on July 14 to request his intervention in the case. Fox… Read More

Posted 9 years, 8 months ago The environment should be a winning electoral issue for Al Gore, so why has he said so little about it -- thus far -- during his run for president? Day after day, the vice president pounds away on his core themes of health care, education, the booming economy, and now, his sinner's conversion to campaign finance reform. Meanwhile, he mentions the environment only sporadically. That's odd coming from the author of Earth in the Balance, but it's also a mistake. The truth is, the environment could be the key to a Gore victory in November, if he has… Read More