By Barbara Kessler
If you’ve been wondering about all the buzz over honeybees, here is some food for thought – or rather some thought about food: Bees play a role in one out of every three bites of food Americans eat.
Pollinators, mainly bees, but also butterflies, songbirds and even bats, perform such a critical function [...]

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Photo: Susanne Miller / USFWS
By Barbara Kessler

The polar bear will be granted “threatened” status under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush Administration announced today, because the Arctic ice the animal needs to survive is shrinking and scientific projections show it will jeopardize the polar bear’s survival prospects for decades to come. But the decision, [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

Wonder how the gray wolves are faring since they were “delisted” from protection under the Endangered Species Act? One of the three Rocky Mountain states with a significant gray wolf population, Idaho, is having meetings to determine the rules for the hunting of the wolves this fall.

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By John DeFore
Are polar bears in danger of extinction? U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland wants to know, and has given the Bush administration two more weeks to find out.
Judge Wilken said today that the administration had no legitimate reason for failing to meet a January 9 deadline (one year after the bear was [...]

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By John DeFore
The blogosphere overflows with examples of artists who use recycled or reclaimed materials in ways ranging from the whimsical to the architectural. Even given that diversity, though, an effort that came to light last week is something special.
The street-art fans known as the Wooster Collective posted the images above at their site on [...]

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By Barbara Kessler

We’ve all been hearing a lot about “change” these days, whether it’s from Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McCain. The World Wildlife Fund, that dogged global rescuer of endangered species, would like change too – your change.

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By Bill Marvel
We welcome birds and butterflies into our backyards. But what about the little brown snake that slithers out from under the flowerpot? And those weird gummy lizards hanging around the porch light? And — ugh! — toads? Do we really want to share our environment with . . . creeping things?

Photo: Jeff Ettling [...]

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