The Amicus Journal articles from March 1994

The Amicus Journal archives from March 1994

Environmentalism and justice at NRDC. (Natural Resources Defense Council) (Message from the Director)
March 22, 1994... The statistics are plentiful and they are frightening. Three out of four toxic waste dumps are sited in predominantly African American or Latino communities. Two million tons of radioactive uranium tailings have been dumped on Native American...

The unholy trinity. (anti-environmental amendments) (Editorial)
March 22, 1994... Measuring by the zeitgeist, environmentalists ought to be having a very good year. When Steven Seagal releases a movie about saving Alaska from destructive oil drilling, and when the Rose Bowl parade features an endangered species float by the...

Population mythology. (population and economic development) (Perspective)
March 22, 1994... Gender, social justice, and politics For most of the past twenty years, policies addressing the relationships between population and development have rested on two basic assumptions. The first is that rapid population growth is the greatest...

Two-wheel highway. (bicycle lanes) (Trends)
March 22, 1994... Bicyclists scramble for federal funding When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not fear for the future of the human race." H.G. Wells Noel Weyrich says he is no hard-liner--he owns a car, after all. But, weather permitting, he will...

Suburban wilderness. (environmental activist Lorrie Otto) (People)
March 22, 1994... Lorrie Otto is helping bring native plants back to the American lawn It is not hard to spot Lorrie Otto's front yard from the curb. Compared with the manicured lawns and clipped hedges of her neighbors, Otto's two acres stick out like a tramp...

Cuba's reluctant environmentalism. (International Notebook)
March 22, 1994... In economic hardship, Cuba finds an environmental silver lining The streets of Havana are quiet these days. Auto traffic is very light and most bars and nightspots that do not cater to tourists have closed. Electricity is rationed and...

The cost of caviar. (decimation of the sturgeon population)
March 22, 1994... Pollution and poaching are exacting a high price from the sturgeon On the white sand of the bottom Lay the monster Mishe-Nahma, Lay the sturgeon, King of Fishes... Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha Ninety percent of all salt water fish,...

Siege of the Hudson River. (sturgeon fishing)
March 22, 1994... High-tech fishing mars a sturgeon sanctuary In the late seventeenth century, some New England rivers were apparently so heavily populated with huge sturgeon that small boat navigation was hazardous. On blustery days in the early part of this...

No more fish stories. (economic impact of overfishing)
March 22, 1994... Why the big ones aren't getting away any more Along the rocky, fogbound coast of Newfoundland, spring used to herald a new codfishing season. But no more. Newfoundland's once immense northern cod population has collapsed, leaving 25,000...

Grassroots flowering. (environmental justice movements)(includes related articles) (Special Section: Environmental Justice)
March 22, 1994... The environmental justice movement comes of age The year is 1967. The place is Houston. And the issue, though it does not yet go by this name, is environmental justice. Two student groups join forces to demonstrate against the treatment of...

War stories. (Northern Cheyennes' environmental activity)(includes related article) (Special Section: Environmental Justice)
March 22, 1994... Environmental justice in Indian Country My tribe, the Northern Cheyenne, lives on 500,000 acres of beautiful ponderosa pine country in southeastern Montana. Our reservation has tremendous cultural significance for us. Two years after the...

Rocky roads to consensus. (traditional environmentalists and environmental justice activists)(includes related articles) (Special Section: Environmental Justice)
March 22, 1994... Traditional environmentalism meets environmental justice During my work with traditional environmental organizations as they confront the issues of environmental justice, I am sometimes reminded of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of...

The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places.
March 22, 1994... After a stint as a summer volunteer for a group that took Atlanta inner city children out to the country, a friend made a comment I have not forgotten--though it was twenty years ago. "These kids didn't know how to walk on this kind of ground,"...

Protesting at the nuclear test site. (poem)
March 22, 1994... A year before, this desert had raised its claws to me, importunate and indifferent, half-naked beggar displaying sores at the city gates. Now again, in the raw glare of Lent. Spikes, thorns, spines. Where was the beauty others perceived? I...

Whose Common Future? Reclaiming the Commons.
March 22, 1994... Isaac Newton described himself as a child playing on the beach, fascinated by pebbles, yet oblivious of the great ocean of truth. Another version of Newton's metaphor might serve for the environmental movement, as most environmentalists, while...

Not in Our Backyard: The People and Events That Shaped America's Modern Environmental Movement.
March 22, 1994... Most environmental histories are about ideas, philosophy, politics, natural history. Not In Our Backyard is about individuals who have fought environmental battles and made a difference. Some are affiliated with organizations like NRDC, more...

Whapmagoostui. (poem)
March 22, 1994... A silence wells up at the mouth of the river, north of Quebec, in the haunted light of a culture... silence deep as the bay, burden of many rivers: Eastmain and Moose, Nottaway and Attawapiskat, the La Grande and this, that rolls and flashes...

A matter of trust. (Natural Resources Defense Council capital campaign co-chairman Wendy Gordon Rockefeller)
March 22, 1994... I grew up alongside a relatively clean stretch of the Hudson River, midway between the industrial activity of Albany and New York. As a child, I spent hours swimming in the river. Over time, however, even our bend in the river served as a gauge...