Environment and Health
Fracking Exports
In recent years, the natural gas industry has plunged deeper and deeper into the reckless practice of “fracking,” putting communities nationwide at risk of dirty, dangerous pollution and practices that are exempt from many clean air and water laws. Now gas profiteers have realized that there’s even more money to be made by liquefying the gas and shipping it overseas. So what if it comes at the cost of our air, water, and health?
Smoldering Planet
As fires raged in Arizona last summer, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) found the culprits.
Real Nowhere Men (and Women)
The Olympic Games can draw unexpected visitors. Remember the Jamaican bobsled team? This year, it’s the delegation from nowhere.
Green Scissors for Congress
When you’re in a hole, you stop digging. And when you’ve got a $1.3-trillion deficit and $15.7 trillion in debt, you’ve got to start cutting. That’s why we joined the environmental group Friends of the Earth and the free-market R Street Institute to forge “Green Scissors” that Congress could potentially use to snip nearly $700 billion from the nation’s bloated budget.
Lifesaving Law
Steve Gepner almost died four times. His health care saga began mundanely enough, as many do. After all, how many of us expect we could be hours or days away from life-threatening illness?
My Broken Heart
I celebrated the Fourth of July this year by having a heart attack. All things considered, watching fireworks would have been more fun.
Healing Mother Nature’s Wounds
America’s rare environmental victories often earn headlines. They might involve the successful blocking of a dangerous pipeline, a new mercury standard for coal, or perhaps the signing of a hard-fought pact to limit overfishing.
We Can’t Put a Price on Nature
A group of international scientists says that the earth is dangerously close to its tipping point of irreversible damage. Clearly, we need a way out of the mess we’ve made of the planet.
The ‘Freedom’ to Refuse Health Insurance
The right to refuse to have health insurance — something Republican leaders tout as a fundamental freedom — is a lot like the “right” to sleep under bridges. No one wants to exercise it.
A Perfect and Hot Storm
This storm, a rare kind technically called a “derecho,” ripped through a large swathe of the Midwest and mid-Atlantic region. We may have to get used to this kind of thing.
