With the astounding growth of the Internet over just the last
few years has come a concomitant increase in the number of
environmental information resources available on the Net. These
resources come in a bewildering array: mailing lists, Usenet
newsgroups, gopher servers and World Wide Web (WWW) servers,
among others. While this article will focus on Usenet newsgroups
and some WWW resources, a broader overview of environmental
information sources is contained in A Guide to Environmental
Resources on the Internet, by Carol Briggs-Erickson and Toni
Murphy. Last updated in October 1994, the guide is available via
the following URL: Subscribers to a group "post" articles
(messages) which can then be commented on ("followed up") by
other subscribers. An original message, along with all of its
follow-ups, is called a thread. Anyone may read the accumulated
threads in a newsgroup. Due to the sheer volume of Usenet news
postings, older messages are normally deleted. Although message
life varies from group to group,