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The article provides a case study of utilization-preservation confrontations that have plagued Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. It outlines the disputes over the U.S. National Park Service's "multiple-use" mandate as it applied to Glacier Bay. It shows how local factors, including the cruise ship industry, influenced the implementation of federal policy at Glacier Bay.

Alaska's narrow economy, dependent on federal spending and on absentee investment in exploitation of the state's natural resources, has generated especially vehement, comprehensive resistance to federal environmental protection of the state's wilderness areas. Falsely persuaded that the federal government has reneged on promises made at statehood in 1959 to develop resources on its Alaska lands, Alaska politicians, with broad public support, accuse federal officials of systematically impeding the state's economic advance. They do so despite a landmark case in federal court that declared the state's claims invalid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents meteorology-related updates in the U.S. It discusses the weather cameras installation project of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Alaska, which is an effort to address the growing concern on aircraft accidents in the state as supported further by a study of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It highlights the significant impact of the weather cameras for weather forecasters, mariners, and even recreationists. Meanwhile, it explores the revised ozone standard introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in North Carolina. It states that the revised standard reduced the threshold value of maximum daily 8-h average ozone concentration from 1997 level of 0.080 to 0.075 ppm.

Over four years after oil companies first applied for a permit, Congress authorized the Alaska Oil Pipeline in November 1973. Running from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific, the pipeline crossed 600 miles of federal land, which made it a "major action significantly affecting the environment," thus triggering an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Standard accounts tell of revolutionary environmental laws running into the economic reality of the 1970s. What has been lost in the telling is that the pipeline approval offered Congress an opportunity to investigate the wisdom of a proposed internal improvement. The pipeline controversy was not just the first battle of the environmental decade. It also continued nearly two centuries of debate over internal improvements, public financing of private investments, federal incorporation, monopoly charters, and national security. The pipeline approval was as much a decision about political economy as it was an environmental policy decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of a citizens' advisory council is used to reexamine a long-standing proposition, referred to here as the resources hypothesis, drawn from the participation literature. The hypothesis proposes that the effectiveness of citizen participation mechanisms will be enhanced by increased access to resources (such as funding and technical assistance). The council considered here is involved in the environmental management of the marine oil trade in Alaska, and has greater access to resources than any other council examined in the extant literature. However, this council has experienced uneven success in securing the implementation of its proposals for policy change. The results suggest that the success of a participatory mechanism in a given policy domain depends not only on its internal resources, but also on external political support from other groups with authority (or influence) within that policy domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article throws light on certain environmental issues that are of concern for environmentalists and legislators in the United States in the year 2005. The author notes that with a huge budget deficit and a war in Iraq, major new legislation and funding for environmental will be very difficult this year in the U.S. Congress. Among several proposals, which are up for discussion in the U.S. Congress, the fate of the proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil production remains uncertain. Although research funding appears to be level or decreasing at major environmental funding agencies, there will be some opportunities in 2005.

Oftentimes, community residents, industrial developers and civic leaders do not share the same philosophical orientation regarding exposure to toxins in the environment. This paper examines the roles that both the precautionary and reductionist principles play in shaping environmental policies related to human exposure to environmental hazards. The exploration and transportation of oil from the North Slope of Alaska is a specific example that illustrates the use of the perspectives by various claims makers. To conclude this theoretical debate, we offer possible solutions to link the two perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses science and environment issues on the agenda of the 101st Congress of the United States. Number of bills introduced in the House of Representatives focusing on acid rain and industrial emissions; Details of legislation aimed at leasing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration; Details of a bill that would establish the American Heritage Trust Fund, a method to financing acquisition of land for conservation outside the appropriation process; Details of a bill aimed at biological diversity conservation; Cash value of science scholarships to strengthen science education in the U.S.

Discusses the positions of U.S. presidential candidates George Bush and Michael Dukakis on environmentalism. Press coverage of environmental issues during the summer before the election, causing concern about the health of the oceans and global climate change; The support of the New York Times for Dukakis' call for international cooperation to deal with global environmental problems such as atmospheric pollution and ocean dumping; Divergence in the environmental views of Bush and Dukakis, including on the issues of the future role of nuclear energy, reduction in SO2, halting below-cost timber sales from national forests, and drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.