by Amy Mathews Amos
Amid the ongoing coverage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a major development in how we use and manage offshore waters has gone virtually unnoticed. On July 19th  President Obama issued an executive order directing federal agencies to develop plans to, in effect, zone the oceans within U.S. territorial waters, a plan somewhat similar to the way local governments zone on land.
Before Tea Partiers cry foul about a new intrusion by the federal government, we should look at what the high seas have become.
Most of us have …

Blue Ridge Press by David Lillard
I just spent a few days in my favorite national park, Shenandoah. It was great to escape cell phones, wi-fi, and email. It was even better to escape the “anger” being flashed on TV screens and splashed across newspapers. Enjoying the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains from Skyline Drive, it became clear that we Americans have much more to be thankful for than angry about. And though it’s unpopular to say it in some quarters, we taxpayers have often invested wisely.
Approaching summer, at a time when …

By Glenn Scherer and David Lillard
When our economy tanked last year, politicians told us that our nation’s financial institutions were “too big to fail,” and the federal government immediately proceeded to bail out the banks. Now, as world leaders prepare for a critically important climate summit in Copenhagen, we need to ask: Is Earth too big to fail? And if the collapse of our planet’s life support systems is unacceptable to us, then how do we shatter the climate change policy logjam once and for all?
One answer is to stop …

By Bill Schneider
When I was a kid, about all I ever did inside was sleep, eat, and torment my grade school teachers. Every other waking moment was spent outside – not just fishing, hunting, and camping, but doing all the little things I thought up myself, like catching nightcrawlers, investigating anthills, watching toads come out on a rainy night, or making my first backpack from wood scraps, wire, and burlap (that was before they invented duct tape).
I never even thought about what was happening, nor did my parents. But during …