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Tim Lambert …

… dismantles NYT columnist John Tierney’s latest attack on Rachel Carson.

They may not all be bad.

Two recent news stories from the Chesapeake illustrate well the opposite poles in the debate on invasive species. The first details the appearance of the cuddly-sounding mitten crab in Chesapeake waters, an Asian species that has also hitchhiked in ships to California, Germany and Great Britain. Articles about it use terms like alien and exotic for the little fellas, often pitting them against the beleaguered native blue crabs.

So the news that a foreign species of aquatic vegetation, once considered a major nuisance when it began rapidly colonizing the nearby Potomac River, has instead benefited the watershed's ecosystem interested me. Hydrilla first appeared in 1983 and created dense vegetation masses and even impeded boat traffic in some areas. It was feared that it would interfere with the native vegetation, itself an important food source for waterfowl and fish.

This 17-year study of hydrilla, though, found that not only did it not crowd out native species, but the natives actually increased. Hydrilla also became an important winter food source for waterfowl communities, which increased over this period. All of which makes me wonder about the hype and hyperbole used to describe each new "invasion."

Raptor ‘Round Their Fingers

U.S. suggests saving imperiled owls by shooting other owls Despite 17 years of conservation measures, the northern spotted owl is still in trouble. So the Bush administration has issued a […]

Happy World Environment Day

Have you hugged your ecosystem today?

An Ugly Alternative

In Colombia, biofuels push inspires land grabs, violence In case you need more evidence that biofuels are not the Big Green Conscience-Easing Solution: a disturbing pattern has emerged in Colombia, […]

Make Our Green Day

We green your day each and every day — today, it’s your turn to green us Dearest Grist reader, we won’t beat around the bush: it’s summertime, the livin’ is […]

Palm-oil plantations imperiling orangutans, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Hey, At Least He Pronounced It Right Sounds Familiar That’s It, No More Toothpaste For Us Got to Get Ourselves […]

She discusses her new environmentally themed show

This spring a small-but-innovative dance company in Southern California called TRIP Dance Theatre premiered a production about what poet Gary Snyder calls "the war against nature." The dance was called "Poisoning the Well."

Using delicate, Asian-flavored music, played live, the dancers first appeared carrying water and gathering around a well. Slowly the audience could watch the grace and beauty of these dancers, four of them women, literally turned upside down by human desperation, greed, and the raw flow of our "effluent society," including elegantly simplified depictions of "red tides," the vast gyres of plastics in the oceans, and "drunken" trees.

The dance was both gorgeous and upsetting, but required very few words words. To better understand, and to introduce TRIP Dance Theatre to a wider audience, I asked company founder and choreographer Monica Favand Campagna to talk about her work:

Calling All Working Assets Customers

Your incessant gabbing can raise money for Grist As if the free pints of Ben & Jerry’s weren’t sweet enough, now Working Assets customers can get something even sweeter: the […]

With Protectors Like This …

Wildlife-trade regulators approve massive sale of ivory The world’s only body that can limit trade in endangered species kicked off a 12-day meeting this weekend with one hell of a […]