White House environmental officials met with three Great Lakes governors on Monday to formulate what they call an “unparalleled effort” –- including a $78.5 million commitment of federal dollars -- to keep the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

The state of Michigan has demanded that Chicago-area locks and gates be closed immediately to stop the voracious fish from reaching Lake Michigan via connecting waterways. On February 4, Michigan petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court demanding the closure, citing new evidence uncovered since the court turned down its previous plea. (Natural Resources Defense Council Midwest Program director Henry Henderson blogs about the situation here.)

Illinois officials have stridently resisted Michigan’s call to close the locks. So on Monday, U.S. EPA Administrator ...read full post

What's an icon of the American West doing at an urban Manhattan university? Hunting for real estate

Early Sunday morning, a campus security officer at Columbia University saw three unusual animals hanging out in front of Lewisohn Hall, one of the school's classroom buildings. The officer called NYPD, and according to a memo from the school's public safety chief, the responding officers spotted one of the animals before it slinked away.

They recognized it as a coyote.

A second sighting was also reported by school employees on Sunday, the memo said, although police couldn't confirm that one.

I'm a graduate of Columbia's journalism school (just two buildings south of Lewisohn Hall) and an adjunct professor there, so I can attest that seeing a coyote on campus is pretty unusual. (Squirrels, rats, and pigeons, yes. Coyotes, no.) But considering the spread of this iconic Western animal across the Northeastern United States in recent years, it can't ...read full post

If eco types didn’t find themselves laughing at the Audi Green Police commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl last night, my feeling is that--tsk, tsk--we’re probably taking ourselves way too seriously. The ad cracked me up for several reasons:           

• Most well-meaning environmentalists are chronically guilt-ridden. I constantly confront my  inadequacy. Do I always carry my plastic bottle to the nearest recycling bin? (Oops—what am I doing with a plastic bottle in the first place?)  Do I remember to bring a canvas bag to the supermarket? Bring my own thermos to Dunkin Donuts? Does my car get 50 mpg? Do I compost? Do I sometimes leave the water running too long? The Audi commercial hit on all these little pockets of self-recrimination.
• Environmentalists can be a bit overbearing (and unbearable) at times. There is an undeniable holier-than-thou syndrome that runs through the movement; we too often come off as ...read full post

"To raise awareness of the impending crisis and to spur the world to act, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity...In this International Year, we must counter the perception that people are disconnected from our natural environment...I call on every country and each citizen of our planet to join together in a global alliance to protect life on Earth." -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

Indigenous Knowledge

It is fitting that Staying the Course, Staying Alive is one of the first responses to Ban's challenge. The report by British Columbia's coastal First Nations reflects 10,000 years of traditional knowledge about living as a part of the natural world.

And, after all, who would know better how to preserve biodiversity than people who have been living sustainably in the same place for thousands of years?

An Introduction to a Traveling Eco-Diary, of Sorts

Here I am, about to start down the road of citizen journalism for Greenlight. First question: what wisdom does this freshly minted college grad propose to contribute to the esteemed NRDC and its online community?

Thanks to a Harvard fellowship, I'm spending this year in South America, working with Doug and Kris Tompkins, American entrepreneurs-turned-conservationists/ organic farmers/ environmental activists.  For the most part, I'm based in Pumalin Park, a Yosemite-sized nature sanctuary that Doug created in south Chile; I live on a small farm, called Reñihue, which Doug and Kris bought and restored as a model for sustainable local agriculture in this region.  When I look out my window, I see sheep in my back yard and an enormous snow-covered volcano in the background-a big change from my childhood in NYC. 

As Doug's assistant, I've been able to spend time at many of their different ...read full post

Rail is generally thought of as the most environmentally friendly way to move goods around the country (it uses much less diesel fuel per ton of cargo than trucks). But the large transfer facilities where cargo is moved from rail cars to other forms of transportation can be major sources of air pollution and contamination, unless they're built using the latest clean technologies.

And that's the problem that community and environmental groups have with a new facility planned in the fields surrounding Kansas City, the nation's second largest rail hub after Chicago.

A massive new Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) intermodal facility and warehouse complex proposed about 30 miles outside of town would significantly increase toxic air pollution unless green technologies are adopted, according to a lawsuit filed this week by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

More than 110 trains and tens of thousands of trucks, all powered by diesel ...read full post

It's time people stop talking about clean energy and climate change and start acting.

With that in mind, the NRDC Action Fund and I have launched a campaign to demand action on climate legislation. Our goal: Spread the word and demand that our leaders in Washington take action to pass the critical climate change legislation currently before the Senate. Joining us in this campaign are some of my Hollywood colleagues like Jason Bateman, Forest Whitaker, Chace Crawford, Felicity Huffman, Justin Long, Edward Norton and Emmy Rossum, as well as Professor Cornel West of Princeton University.

We are hoping you will get your friends to help spread that message. Here is what you can do:

• Tell your Senators This is Our Moment by clicking this link.
• Spread the word about this video by posting the link on your own Facebook wall.
• Update your Facebook status to "Thisisourmoment.org" so friends will see our video.
• Tweet #ThisIsOurMoment and tell your ...read full post

Sometime soon, small-scale commercial fishermen in towns all along the West coast -- from California up to the Canadian border -- will find out whether their way of life is over.

Their fate rests on an analysis of last fall's run of Chinook salmon in the central California Delta region. The number of salmon returning from the sea to spawn there has been dwindling since 2004, when the Bush administration increased water exports from the rivers and estuaries of the Sacramento Delta to growers in the Central Valley.

That decline forced the complete closure of the salmon fishery in 2008 and 2009, to allow the salmon population time to recover. The shutdowns came at a high cost: nearly 2,700 people lost their jobs and the California economy took a $279 million hit, says NRDC staff attorney Doug Obegi:

"Fishing businesses across the State, particularly along the Central and Northern California coasts, have been hammered by the closure, from mom ...read full post

Longtime climate journalist Ross Gelbspan presents this "videotalk" on how we're "standing on the threshold of runaway climate change."