April-June, 2004

Volume 5, Number 2

Features

WHAT MAKES ENVIRONMENTAL TREATIES WORK?
Given the way the environment ignores national boundaries, good global treaties are essential to saving it. Yet, it has become ever harder to create treaties that work. Instead of learning from history, we seem doggedly determined to repeat past failures.
by Frances Cairncross

DEGRADED DARKNESS Cover Story
It’s tempting to assume that artificial light distresses only a few exquisitely sensitive species. But mounting evidence suggests that disappearing darkness undermines our best conservation efforts.
by Ben Harder

Innovations

ECOLOGICAL REFORM SCHOOL
In New York, wetland violators pay a different kind of fine.
by Douglas Fox

FINDING THE BASELINE
A biodiversity roll call in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains
by Douglas Fox

Numbers in Context

WILL CLIMATE CHANGE CATCH US OFF GUARD? Print Only
New data reveal that the species most in trouble could be ones we least expect. And by the time we see it, we might be too late.
by Alison Cameron et al.

Case Study

HI-TECH MONITORING
When asked what other tool has delivered a comparable advance to the field, biologist John Anderson’s answer is succinct and telling-binoculars.
by Martha Baer

Essay

IS THIS IT? Print Only
by David Ehrenfeld

Journal Watch

Conserving Naturally Small Populations
Gold Mining Sediment Threatens Fish and People

Keeping the “Eco” in Ecotourism

A New Way of Accounting for Ecological Uncertainty

Oystercatchers Need More Than They Can Eat

Predators Make Pesticides More Lethal

Public Access Key to Support for Wetland Mitigation

From Readers

YOUR LETTERS AND COMMENTS Print Only

Uneasy Chair

FOOD FIGHT! WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? by Jon Christensen