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Arctic Wildlife Refuge is in danger
Sign Petition to Save Arctic Wildlife Refuge
click here
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EPA Looking At Using Human Tests
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In setting limits on chemicals in food and water, the Environmental Protection Agency may rely on industry tests that expose people to poisons and raise ethical questions. The new policy, which the EPA is still developing, would allow Bush administration political appointees to referee any ethical disputes.
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Agency officials are putting the finishing touches on a plan to take a case-by-case approach. full story
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Power Companies Fail To Respond To Global Warming Crisis As Window Of Opportunity Closes
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“The power sector is the biggest single polluter of greenhouse gases, responsible for 37 per cent of CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. However, the companies are completely unprepared for fundamental change in the way they invest in clean and efficient energy. If they keep polluting our
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atmosphere by burning carbon rich coal, the window of opportunity to avoid a global warming crisis will soon be closed.” full story
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More Whales Die In Mass Beachings
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Scientists and wildlife officials continued to search on Tuesday for what may have caused a series of mass strandings which left 169 whales and dolphins dead on Australian and New Zealand beaches in the past three days. By Tuesday, 96 long-finned pilot whales and bottle-nosed dolphins had died after the first
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beaching on Sunday at King Island, midway between the Australian mainland and the southern island state of Tasmania. full story
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Methylmercury And Children's Heart Function
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Pregnant women who consume significant amounts of seafood may have a new reason to take precautions against methylmercury, the most hazardous form of mercury: a recent study suggests that when expectant women consume fish containing high levels of the toxicant, their children's future cardiovascular health
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may be jeopardized. full story
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Tasman Spirit Oil Spill Caused Colossal Damages: Latest Report
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Tasman Spirit oil spill on the Karachi coast last year caused colossal damages to environment, marine life and the human beings with contaminating approximately 2062 sq kms marine area as well as affecting 300,000 people, the largest number in any oil spill in history. Despite a massive beach cleaning
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operation the oil contamination on the beaches and adjacent seawater remained prominently visible for next six months and viable for next 12 months after the incident. full story
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Bhopal Victims Not Fully Paid,
Rights Group Says
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"Astonishingly, no one has been held to account for the toxic leak and its appalling consequences. Over 20,000 people have died and 100,000 people are living with chronic illnesses," Amnesty said in its report. The Union Carbide Corporation, and the Dow Chemical Company, which acquired it, as well
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as the Indian government are evading human rights responsibilities.
full story
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Delaware River Oil Spill Leaves Wildlife Imperiled
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Officials of the United States Coast Guard and the Fish and Wildlife Service said hundreds of birds, turtles and fish were thought to have died from the effects of the 30,000 gallons of crude oil that leaked from two tanks in the Athos I, which was ripped open Friday night as it tried to dock at a Citgo
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terminal in Paulsboro, N.J., across the river from Philadelphia. The spill left an oil slick that was 24 miles long by Sunday evening.
full story
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Arsenic, Lead Taint Soils At Many 'Child-Use Areas'
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So far, soil has been tested at about 160 "child-use areas" in the two counties. The results show clusters of contamination on Vashon and Maury islands, where 1 in 4 sites had elevated arsenic levels, as well as Normandy Park, University Place and Tacoma's North End. 1/2 of Tacoma day cares and preschools
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tested had arsenic levels exceeding the limit. The dirt in Schumacher's yard was up to three times the safety threshold. full story
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Bhopal 20 Years On: Polluted Water,
Chronic Illness And Little Compensation
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Days before the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster in India a study has shown that survivors are still desperately in need of medical treatment and have not been properly compensated. On the night of 2 December 1984, poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in
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Bhopal. Thousands were killed immediately. Thousands more were to die from the effects of that night in the months and years that followed.
full story
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U.S. Mining Giant Criticized In Indonesia
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The world's largest gold miner is again at the center of a controversy over the environmental impact of its operations. Newmont stands accused of dumping 5.5 million tons of mercury- and arsenic-laced waste into Buyat Bay from 1996 until the mine ceased operations Aug. 31. Villagers angrily recount how
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pollution from its gold mine has killed the fish and sickened residents with headaches, nausea and tremors. full story
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Indonesia's Gifts To The Earth
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The Indonesian government has added 1.3 million hectares of protected areas through establishing nine new national parks and expanding an existing one. The new parks will protect a huge range of biodiversity, especially the endangered Sumatran tiger, as well as rhinos, elephants, and orang-utans.
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full story
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Airport Jet Fuel Leaks Revealed
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Mismanagement of a massive underground fuel system at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has resulted in leaks of tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel during the past three years, a state investigation has found. The fuel, a hazardous waste, has contaminated soil beneath the airport and drained
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through storm sewers into the Minnesota River, according to violations notices issued by Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) officials. full story
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Coloradans Vote To Embrace
Alternative Sources Of Energy
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Colorado utilities will have to sell a lot more electricity from wind power in years to come under a statewide ballot initiative approved by voters on Nov. 2, and if they want some pointers they might talk to Adam T. Kremers, a 19-year-old sophomore at Colorado State University here. He has been there
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and done that. full story
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States Steam Ahead On Climate Change
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Even as recognition of the problem grows, most states have given up looking for guidance from Washington, which disputes the scientific consensus on climate change. Instead, they are redoubling their own efforts to crack down on the industries that produce greenhouse gases, and to begin the difficult
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shift away from oil dependence to energy sources like wind and solar.
full story
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The EPA And Industry Team Up To Protect Profits
In Florida Study, Leaving Children Behind
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They call it CHEERS. The "Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study" is a cooperative agreement between the EPA and the American Chemical Council. But there’s nothing cheery about CHEERS. The acronym is deliberately misleading and, when examined, downright scary. This time, the
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government is protecting an unethical study that actually exposes children, including babies, to some of the chemical industry’s most noxious poisons. Who is the EPA protecting? The health of American children? Or the profits of American corporate interests? full story
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New York City Council Bill Targets
Illegal Trading In Endangered Species
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The City Council is set to put a big bite on buyers and sellers of outlawed products containing endangered species. A bill scheduled for approval tomorrow by the full Council will make it easier to convict violators and sock them with fines of $500 to $1,500. The measure is aimed largely at curtailing the
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trade in furs, leathers, curios and "traditional" medicines that contain such ingredients as tiger bone, rhino horn and musk deer extract.
full story
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South Pacific Aims To Improve
Leatherback Turtle Protection
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Honiara, Solomon Islands - A coalition of environmentalists and local villagers in the Pacific are working together to save marine turtles from the brink of extinction. According to a recent SPREP report, populations of Leatherback turtles in the Pacific region have fallen by 97 per cent in 22 years. As few
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as 2,300 adult females now remain, making the Pacific leatherback the world's most endangered marine turtle population. full story
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Portland, Maine Laundry Uses Solar Energy;
Other Firms Go Green, Too
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The Portland-based laundry uses solar panels on its roof to heat a 300-gallon tub of water, aiding a natural-gas heater in warming water. The solar heater reduces the gas bill by an estimated 65 percent. Wentworth is not the only one matching environmental concerns with business smarts. An
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increasing number of Maine companies are saving money while watching out for the environment. full story
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Rich Nations To Seek Delay On Chemical Ban
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The world's richest nations including the US, Germany, Japan and the UK are expected to press this week for a delay in the phasing out of an agricultural chemical that they had been due to abolish by the end of the year under a landmark environmental treaty to save the earth's protective
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ozone layer. full story
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Peru Mine Threat To Water Supply
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In this town there is no drinking water, there are no toilets and no sewers - just an open trench in the middle of the main road where the rubbish and excrement is deposited in the open air. The smell is unbearable. The situation is now so bad that some observers say the drinking water of over one million
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people is threatened with contamination. full story
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Congress Passes 2005 Budget:
Parks Up, Clean Water Down
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The two houses of Congress agreed Saturday on a spending bill that will give the government agencies responsible for activities that affect the environment an approximate total of $134 billion for Fiscal Year 2005. The measure is now headed for the White House where President George W. Bush is expected
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to sign it into law. Conservationists were disappointed in many aspects of the massive spending bill. full story
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Kucinich Supports Green Party Ohio Recount Demand Where is Dean, Kerry, Gore, Edwards..?
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Kucinich said that a "recount is an appropriate response to officials who tried to suppress the vote" and that the "highly partisan activities of state election officials cast doubt on the integrity of the elections process." Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik, who intend to file jointly for the recount,
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have demanded that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who chaired the Ohio Bush campaign, recuse himself from the recount process. full story
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Global Warming Blamed For Decline In Krill
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There has been a big decline in Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, the shrimp-like creatures that are dredged by whales and pecked up by seabirds. Fishermen also harvest the krill, a creature just 6cm-long. The research, published in the British science journal Nature, looked at estimates of the krill stock
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taken between 1926 and last year. Lead researcher Steve Nicol said krill stocks in the waters off the Antarctic Peninsula had declined by 80 percent since the 1970s. full story
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Trace Gases Are Key To Halting Global Warming
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In the current edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Drs. James Hansen and Makiko Sato of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) at the Earth Institute at Columbia University suggest that avoidance of large climate change requires the global community to
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consider aggressive reductions in the emissions of both carbon dioxide and non-carbon dioxide gases called trace gases. full story
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Green Chemistry Takes Root
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A new kind of chemical revolution is brewing, 150 years after the first one transformed modern life with a host of conveniences. The fundamental idea of green chemistry is that the designer of a chemical is responsible for considering what will happen to the world after the agent is put in place, says John
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Warner of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, which hosts the nation's only doctoral program in green chemistry. full story
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EU Ratification Of Stockholm Convention Boosts Global Commitment On Chemical Pollution
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The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants gained momentum last week following European Union ratification. The move signifies the EU’s commitment to phasing out the use of environmentally threatening chemicals. Twelve of the most persistent bioaccumulative chemicals have been
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identified for inclusion in the Stockholm Convention. These include pesticides such as DDT, industrial chemicals such as PCBs and hexachlorobenzene, and dioxins and furans. full story
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Cities Swamped By Sewer Costs
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"We did a report in 2001 that found that billions of gallons of raw and partially treated sewage was entering Michigan's waterways every year," said Cyndi Roper, executive director of the Michigan chapter of Clean Water Action. "We don't think that number has changed much in three years. We have
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allowed our sewer systems to decay so incredibly that we're threatening our water quality." full story
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Alert As Gender Bending Sewage Alters Lambs’ Sex
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Scientists at the government’s Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen have discovered that male lambs exposed to low-level environmental contamination start behaving like females. This has worrying implications, they warn. The toxic soup of industrial chemicals in the air may disrupt human
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hormones and make people more vulnerable to disease. full story
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Sea Life Teeming With Toxins
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Each day at 4 p.m., the trawlers return, alive with giant bass, mackerel and squirming eels, at the end of a food chain that links family dinner tables to poisons in the sea. Besides mercury, which can damage the brains of fetuses and young children, and can affect healthy adults, there are PCBs, dioxins and flame
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retardants with unknown long-term effects. full story
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Forget The Tiger. Put Some Mushrooms In Your Tank
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Scientists have created genetically modified yeasts and fungi that can turn agricultural waste into fuel for cars and trucks. In future we may take to the roads in vehicles powered by left over plant remains. The technology - created with European Union money - uses corn stubble and other farm waste as basic
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ingredients for making ethanol. This can then be used as a substitute for petrol. full story
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New Mobile Phone Link To Cancer
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Researchers exposed cells in glass dishes to mobile phone signals and discovered that the low-power microwaves they emit can damage DNA, potentially causing cancer and other illnesses. The new study adds to the already heated debate over mobile phone safety. It found that the risk was increased in areas
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with a poor signal because the mobile phone used higher-powered radiation to maintain contact with the network. full story
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Bush's Slapdown For Blair On Climate Change
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President Bush has reprimanded Tony Blair for sounding the alarm over global warming and pressing for international action to combat it, senior Washington sources say. They report that the White House has objected to the Prime Minister placing the issue at the top of the agenda when he heads the G8
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group of the world's most powerful nations next year, and to the strong tone of his recent speeches warning of climate change.
full story
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Group Blasts Political Quizzing
Of U.S. Science-Panel Nominees
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In a strongly worded report and public comments last week, members of a National Academies of Science and Engineering panel said quizzing candidates for federal science advisory committees about their voting record or party affiliation or whether they agree with the president's policies is "not relevant"
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and in some cases may be illegal. full story
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Bhopal Disaster Continues To Be A Plague
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When tank No. 610 blew at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in 1984, it unleashed a milky fog that would extinguish more than 15,000 lives in this ancient city. Two decades later, a second poisonous onslaught brews underground. Rainwater has washed an assortment of toxins left at the decaying Union
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Carbide factory into the groundwater of the same slums, and people drink from tainted wells there. full story
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Concern Rises Over Mercury In Fish
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Mercury is a toxic metal spewed by coal-burning power plants, and released by some consumer products. It accumulates in living things and becomes concentrated at higher levels of the food chain, especially in larger fish. Studies over the last decade suggest that even low levels of mercury in a mother's
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blood or breast milk can affect the developing brain of her child, leading to learning disabilities and lower intelligence. full story
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Scientists Seek Best Way
To Clean Up The Toxic Passaic
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Contaminated for centuries by industry and sewage, the Passaic now holds a toxic stew of PCBs, dioxins and other chemicals in its riverbed. Environmentalists say the only way to save the river is to dredge it. But that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars - and some wonder if it might even do more harm than
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good. full story
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As U.S. Forces Raided A Mosque
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U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers. ”Everyone was there for Friday prayers, when five Humvees and several trucks carrying INGs entered,” Abu Talat told IPS on phone from within the mosque while the
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raid was in progress. ”Everyone starting yelling 'Allahu Akbar' (God is the greatest) because they were frightened. Then the soldiers started shooting the people praying!” full story
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UC Berkeley Research Team Sounds 'Smoke Alarm' For Florida E-Vote Count
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University of California's Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team released a statistical study - the sole method available to monitor the accuracy of e- voting - reporting irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000 -260,000 or more excess votes to
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President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election.
full story
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Indonesia's Birds Of Paradise Dying Out
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Rampant illegal logging in Indonesia and the demands of a rapidly expanding population and economy in Indonesia are killing many of Asia's most exotic and rare birds, conservationists said Thursday. "Bird species across the Asian region are in serious trouble," said Richard Grimmett, the head of Birdlife
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Asia. "Of the 332 species of birds that are endangered in Asia, Indonesia alone has some 117 species." full story
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11th-Hour Additions To Funding Bill
Trouble Environmentalists
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Republican senators tried to attach several industry-friendly measures to a massive bill Thursday. One would exempt large livestock and dairy farms from some environmental laws. Another would provide billions of dollars for Army Corps of Engineers water projects. A third, which would have exempted
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pesticide users from Endangered Species Act rules, was stripped from the bill when it was deemed so controversial that it might delay the entire spending bill, which lawmakers hope to vote on by this weekend. full story
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Water Agency Officials Are
Accused Of Silencing Workers
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A court-appointed monitor told a federal judge Thursday that officials of New York City's DEP, which runs the city's vast water supply system, recently tried to impede investigations of possible violations of federal health, safety and environmental laws. An employee who had previously voiced
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concerns about inadequate equipment and emergency response procedures was ordered by managers to leave a site just as inspectors were arriving to conduct interviews about compliance. full story
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Age Of Green Cars Arrives
As Canadians Cut Emissions
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Cars that are environmentally friendly may be coming to drivers in North America faster than anyone expected after the Canadian government pledged this week to a dramatic 25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from all vehicles sold inside its borders by the end of the decade. In so doing,
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Canada is joining California and seven north-eastern US states, including New Jersey and New York, in seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. full story
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Greens Declare War On Blair For
'Failures' Over Climate Change
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Britain's leading environmental organisation withdrew support from Tony Blair yesterday over climate change, saying he could not be trusted to reduce global warming. Greenpeace expressed doubts about the Prime Minister's sincerity over tackling climate change, adding that his record on tackling carbon
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emissions was "pathetic". Leading environmentalists joined forces yesterday to criticise Mr Blair's record, accusing him of spin while failing to support measures to reduce carbon emissions from cars and planes. full story
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More Than 15,000 Species Facing Extinction: IUCN
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More than 15,000 species, from sharks to frogs to fir trees, are facing extinction and the total is rising faster than ever before, conservationists and scientists said on Wednesday. Despite efforts to slow or reverse the slide into oblivion of many species, one in three amphibians and almost half of all freshwater turtles are threatened,
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the IUCN World Conservation Union said at the unveiling of its 2004 species "Red List." full story
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Bush's Second-Term Stamp On Environment
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With the newly reelected Bush administration backed up by a tighter GOP grip on Congress, the coming political season could become a watershed mark for environmental protection and energy policy. As a result, federal laws and regulations dealing with everything from endangered species and forest protection to air and |
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water pollution to oil and gas drilling, are likely to see a rigorous shaking out. full story
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High Contamination Reported In Arctic Russians
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Russians in remote reaches of the Arctic carry growing levels of industrial chemicals and pesticides, making them among the most contaminated people on Earth Russia's indigenous northerners are relying more on a traditional diet of seal, whale and other wild animals. These natural food sources have accumulated toxic
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chemicals as pollutants have drifted northward from urban areas with winds and ocean currents. full story
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DuPont found High C8 In Blood, Study Shows
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A DuPont Co. study found high levels of the toxic chemical C8 in the blood of residents near its Parkersburg plant, according to documents provided to federal regulators. DuPont tested the blood of 12 residents who were named plaintiffs in a class-action suit against the company over C8 pollution. The tests
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found that the residents had an average concentration of 67.5 parts per billion of C8. full story
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Scientists Warn Of Undetected,
Unmeasured Toxins In World's Fish
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Each day at 4 p.m., the trawlers come back, alive with giant bass, mackerel and squirming eels, at the end of a food chain that links family dinner tables to poisons in the sea. Besides mercury which can damage the brains of fetuses and young children and can affect healthy adults, there are PCBs, dioxins and flame retardants
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with unknown long-term effects. full story
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Canada Sets Goal to Cut Car Emissions
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Two top Canadian ministers said Wednesday that they had resolved to cut global-warming emissions of cars and trucks sold in Canada by 25 percent by the end of the decade. The commitment means that the auto industry faces steep cuts in greenhouse gases in Canada as well as in California and the Northeastern
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United States, a geographic expanse that encompasses nearly one-third of the cars and trucks sold in North America. full story
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Media Accused Of Ignoring Election Irregularities
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Two weeks after Election Day, explosive allegations about a media coverup are percolating. There's the widely circulated e-mail about a CBS producer who complained that a news industry "lock-down" has prevented journalists from investigating voting problems that cropped up on Nov 2. There's the rumor that
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MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who has devoted serious air time to discussing Election Day irregularities, was fired for broaching the topic.
full story
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Australia Faces Weather Blitz from Warming-CSIRO
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Australia could expect more frequent droughts, heatwaves, rainstorms and strong winds because of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, the country's main science research body warned on Monday. The report, by the federal body the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization,
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forecast a doubling of the number of hot days above 95F over 25 years in Australia's most populous and productive state, NSW. full story
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N.C. Attorney General Plans To Sue TVA
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North Carolina's attorney general said Monday he will take the Tennessee Valley Authority to court unless it reduces pollutants that waft into the state from the public utility's coal-fired power plants. Cooper notified the TVA last week that he will sue in federal court if the utility does not agree to significantly reduce the
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pollution coming from nine of its coal-fired plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky. full story
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Has Packaging Gone Bananas?
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Go into any supermarket or corner store and look around, and the first thing you'll see isn't food: you're looking at cardboard, glass, metal, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, high-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate - in fact, aisle after aisle of packaging. At the checkout, you'll get some low-density polyethylene
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(a plastic carrier bag) to take it home in. And then, most likely, it all goes straight in the bin. full story
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Polish Celebrities Contaminated With Chemicals
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Chemicals used in non-stick frying pans, air fresheners, and pesticides have been found in the blood of 15 Polish celebrities, including racing driver Krzysztof Ho˙owczyc, actress Edyta Jungowska, and TV presenter Maciej Or˙o˙. Of the 39 chemicals analysed, 25 were found in the participants’ blood. The average
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full story
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A City Lies In Ruins, Along With
The Lives Of The Wretched Survivors
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After six days of intense combat against the Fallujah insurgents, US warplanes, tanks and mortars have left a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies. A drive through the city revealed a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down,
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power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets. full story
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Conservationists Fear for Congo's Rainforests
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The Democratic Republic of Congo has some 250 million acres of rainforest, most of which has remained untouched. A moratorium on new logging rights in the world's second largest rainforest was imposed in 2002. With Congo emerging from a five-year war in which 3 million people died, mainly from hunger and disease,
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conservationists fear new laws and zoning could result in around 60 million acres, an area the size of France, being opened up to logging firms. full story
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Climate Change Already Affecting
The Global Environment, Two Reports Say
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Overall, the reports say, Earth's climate has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. In the Arctic, where a number of processes amplify the warming effects of carbon dioxide, most regions have experienced a temperature rise of 4 to 7 degrees in the last 50 years. That warmth has reduced the amount of
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snow that falls every winter, melted away mountain glaciers and shrunk the Arctic Ocean's summer sea ice cover to its smallest extent in millennia. full story
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Global Warming Alert: No-Go Zones Coming
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NSW Bob Carr today released a CSIRO report predicting more frequent droughts, heatwaves, rainstorms and strong winds for the state. Prepared for the NSW Greenhouse Office, the study developed climate change projections due to the greenhouse effect. Mr Carr said the report found a
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worst-case scenario of a 70 per cent increase in drought frequency by 2030, and warned living in NSW could be akin to "living in an oven".
full story
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Pacific Islands Under Threat From
Mountains Of Waste
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Once famed for their white-sand beaches, the islands of the Pacific are threatened by a waste mountain. Rubbish now clogs streams flowing into the harbour in Samoa's capital Apia, and floats through the mangrove forests of Fiji. The effects are already tangible. Testing in the mid-1990s showed such high
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levels of pollution in Tarawa's lagoon that locals are now told not to eat raw shellfish from it. full story
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Down Drain, They Remain
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Shampoo, bug spray and that morning cup of java linger in the environment after they're showered off or tossed down the drain, according to the most extensive study of Minnesota waters ever conducted. Caffeine, synthetic musk used in personal-care products, a flame retardant, an herbicide, the popular
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insect repellent DEET and other pharmaceuticals, products and chemicals are part of a complex brew being found in waters around the state. full story
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Scientists: Contamination
Leading To Abnormalities
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There are recent signs that chemicals in Taiwan's increasingly polluted environment may disrupt endocrine systems in human and wildlife populations, researchers said yesterday. "We found that levels of total mercury in the sediment and fish samples of two rivers were higher than the rest. The sources of the
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mercury have yet to be identified full story
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US Study Links More Than
200 Diseases To Pollution
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Pollution has been linked to about 200 different diseases, ranging from cerebral palsy to testicular atrophy, as well as more than 37 kinds of cancer, startling US research shows. The study, which the authors say probably underestimates the full toll of the contamination, will focus attention on the need
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for information on the tens of thousands of chemicals routinely released into the environment. full story
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Bhopal 'Faces Risk Of Poisoning'
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Thousands of Indians around Bhopal remain at risk of poisoning 20 years after a major disaster in the city, an investigation by the BBC has revealed. We took a sample of drinking water from a well near the site. It had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by
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the World Health Organization. full story
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Activists Suing The EPA For
Dropped Rat Poison Regulations
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This year, more than 50,000 children in the U.S. ages 6 and younger were sickened by eating rodent-control toxins, three times as many as in the first full year after the safety measures were adopted, according to the American Assn. of Poison Control Centers. The children suffer
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internal bleeding and anemia, other maladies, and can fall into a coma. Several hundred required hospitalization last year. full story
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A Seashore Fight To Harness The Wind
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Nantucket Sound lies between Cape Cod, Nantucket Island and Martha's Vineyard, some of the nation's best-known vacation spots. Now a company is proposing to build the world's largest offshore wind power plant right in the middle of it. Depending on who is talking, the results would
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be either a hideous blot on the landscape or a significant step toward clean power and energy independence. full story
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Restaurants Put Recycling On Menu
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Instead of throwing leftovers in the garbage, cooks and dishwashers collect customers' unfinished steaks and salads, along with the potato peels, fish bones, melon rinds and other scraps generated in the kitchen, in blue recycling bins. The food waste, which adds up to more than 3 tons a week, is
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shipped to Bakersfield, where it is combined with grass clippings to make an exceptionally nutrient-rich compost used by farmers who grow grapes, watermelons, cherries and carrots. full story
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Mexico To Preserve Thousands
Of Hectares Of Rainforest
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Mexico and a U.S. environmental group agreed on a plan to protect almost 150,000 hectares of tropical forest in the Yucatan Peninsula in what officials said Friday was the largest conservation project in the country's history. The 729,000-hectare area contains significant Mayan ruins and
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is home to hundreds of exotic plant and animal species, including the largest jaguar population outside of the Amazon. full story
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China's Growth Fuels Massive Air Pollution
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These days the smog cloaking Hong Kong is so thick that skyscrapers at the base of Victoria Peak are barely visible. Each breath of the coal and carbon dust and sulfur dioxide mix burns the lungs. Some of the worst air pollution this city has ever experienced is streaming over the border from
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mainland China. full story
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How Overfishing Hurts African Wildlife
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Overfishing by subsidized European fleets off the coast of West Africa is hurting local fisheries and forcing people to slaughter wildlife to get enough to eat, researchers report. They said the bushmeat trade in Ghana is strongly driven by a lack of fish, and added that the country risked even worse
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poverty and social unrest, as well as the loss of an irreplaceable natural resource, unless something changes. full story
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Most Oil Spills Remain A Mystery
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Scores of dead and dying seabirds kept washing ashore on beaches near San Francisco, feathers coated with black goo. It seemed like the obvious aftermath of an oil spill, but none had been reported. Then in the fall of 2001, the toll suddenly spiked. More than a thousand oil-stained birds
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were recovered in two months triggering a full-scale investigation by state and federal agencies. full story
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Brazil Combats Land Clearing With
Two Rainforest Reserves
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Two million hectares of the Amazon rainforest is now under government protection in the form of extractive reserves. By creating the Verde Para Sempre and Riozinho do Anfrisio extractive reserves in the state of Para, the President has dealt a blow to the illegal loggers and land hungry
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ranchers and soy growers who clear the forest that environmentalists call the lungs of the Earth. full story
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Indonesia's New National Park
Will Not Halt Mining Plans
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Today, Indonesia has a new national park that aims to protect at least 23 bird species found nowhere else in the world. The Aketajawe Nature Reserve and the Lalobata Protected Forest on the Indonesian island of Halmahera were together declared a National Park by the Indonesian
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Minister of Forestry on Thursday. full story
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Insights: Law Firm For The Environment
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The morning after the election, Earthjustice staff gathered to face the news that the most anti-environmental administration will be back for four more years. We're more determined than ever to carry on. As we have proved in the past, no matter how tough the challenge, Earthjustice's team of
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attorneys, policy analysts and media experts is up for the task.
full story
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Experts See States As Force
In Fighting Global Warming
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With the re-election of President Bush, state governments and big business will likely be the biggest forces pushing policies and developing innovative technologies aimed at reducing U.S. emissions of the gases scientists say are causing global warming. That forecast by leaders in the |
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environmental and business communities is based on the Bush administration's opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. full story
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Human 'Disaster' Looms In Encircled Falluja
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Fighting in Falluja has created a humanitarian disaster in which innocent people are dying because medical help cannot reach them, aid workers in Iraq said today. In one case, a pregnant woman and her child died in a refugee camp west of the city after the mother unexpectedly aborted
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and no doctors were on hand. full story
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Meltdown: Arctic Wildlife
Is On The Brink Of Catastrophe
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Polar bears, the biggest land carnivores on Earth, face extinction this century if the Arctic continues to melt at its present rate, a study into global warming has found. The sea ice around the North Pole on which the bears depend for hunting is shrinking so swiftly it could disappear during the
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summer months by the end of the century, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ICIA) says. full story
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Oceans To Rise One Meter By 2100: Arctic Expert
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Global warming is melting the Arctic ice faster than expected, and the world's oceans could rise by about a meter (3 feet) by 2100, swamping homes from Bangladesh to Florida, the head of a study said. He said a 2001 U.N. report forecast world ocean levels would rise by 20-90 cms by 2100.
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He said some U.N. forecasts assumed melting Greenland ice would cause just 4 mm of the rise. full story
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BLM Whistleblower Says He Was Fired
Over Polluted Nevada Mine
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In a federal whistleblower complaint seeking more than $1 million in damages, Earle Dixon of Carson City said BLM state Director Bob Abbey fired him in October in retaliation for his aggressive research and public comment on the health and safety risks to workers and the community near the former
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Anaconda copper mine on the edge of Yerington. full story
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Performance Chemical Producers Put Renewable Resources To The Test As Products Of The Future
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The first wave of renewable or biotech products is already replacing petroleum-based raw materials in large commodity markets such as plastics, fibers, and fuels. These products come in direct contact with consumers and are thus marketed foremost as "green." In fuels, there is also regulatory momentum
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behind products such as biodiesel. full story
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Cruise Industry Poses Risk To Arctic Archipelago
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Arctic cruise tourism is posing a serious threat to the environment, according to a new WWF report that urges the cruise industry to reduce oil pollution risks in Norway's pristine Svalbard archipelago. "Unless governments and cruise operators take action to stop cruise ships and passengers visiting
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the most vulnerable areas of the arctic, serious environmental damage is inevitable." full story
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Oil Slick Fouls Australia's
World Heritage Shark Bay
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An oil slick stretching 12 kilometers long has been reported in the Shark Bay World Heritage area at the most westerly point of the Australian continent. It extends into the most important nesting site in the state for rare loggerhead turtles. Authorities say the spill has affected an area between Crayfish
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Bay and False Entrance on the western side of Dirk Hartog Island.
full story
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Environment Officials See A Chance
To Shape Regulations
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To the administration's most vocal critics, the agenda amounts to a sweeping overhaul of the nation's 30-year-old system of environmental protections. "They are trying to shred the environmental safety net," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. Pope predicted
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renewed efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. full story
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Groups Score Bush On Environment
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The Bush administration's environmental enforcement record is the worst in 15 years and promises to get poorer during a second term, according to environmental organizations that analyzed U.S. EPA civil lawsuits and penalties. Eric Schaeffer, Integrity Project director and
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former EPA civil enforcement chief, said he expects four more years of "lax federal enforcement" and an administration proposal to break up the EPA's central enforcement office. full story
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Gearing Up To Downsize
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In America, two-dollar-a-gallon gas is still new, and they're lining up for a car called the Toyota Prius that will get an honest 44 miles per gallon. But in Europe, where gas costs more than $5 a gallon, two bucks is a laugh and a 44-mpg car is no big deal. In fact, some minicar mileage champs,
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mere dwarfs compared with what Americans think of as a small car, squeeze nearly 70 miles out of each gallon. full story
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U.S. Genetically Modified Corn Is Assailed
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A scientific panel of international experts has concluded that the unintended spread of U.S. genetically modified corn in Mexico, where the species originated and modified plants are not allowed, poses a potential threat that should be limited or stopped. But the US yesterday attacked
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the report and its conclusions as unscientific, and made clear it did not intend to accept the recommendations. full story
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Study Says Polar Bears Could Face Extinction
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Global warming could cause polar bears to go extinct by the end of the century by eroding the sea ice that sustains them, according to the most comprehensive international assessment ever done of Arctic climate change. The thinning of sea ice, which is projected to shrink by at least half by the
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end of the century and could disappear altogether. Bears are dependent on sea ice because they use it to hunt for seals.
full story
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Business Groups Invested In Races,
Now Wait for Returns
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Lobbyists for the nation's leading business groups have been toasting the success of what they describe as an unprecedented effort this year to help elect President Bush and Republican congressional candidates. Now they plan to collect on that investment. The list includes opening
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previously restricted land in Alaska and elsewhere for energy exploration. full story
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A Melting Glacier In Tibet Serves
As An Example And A Warning
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The glacier, named Zepu, has lost more than 100 yards of thickness, all in the last three decades, largely because of rising temperatures in the region. And it is hardly unique. Working with scientists from Ohio State University, Dr. Yao has documented similar losses all over Tibet, the
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largest and loftiest highlands on earth, and home to the biggest concentration of alpine glaciers anywhere. full story
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Male Fish Becoming Female?
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Researchers in Colorado have made a startling discovery. Fish, apparently male, are developing female sexual organs. Scientists believe it's the result of too much estrogen in the water and they're finding estrogen in rivers across the country. In the Boulder Creek, female white suckers outnumbered
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males five to one and 50 percent of the males also had female sex tissue. full story
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Farm Pollution Loosely Regulated, Report Says
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Fertilizers, dirt and pesticides that wash off farm fields are a major source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. But Virginia regulators rarely inspect farms for environmental performance and, when violations are found, enforcement is lax, according to a report released Monday by a state
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watchdog agency. full story
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White House: No New Caps
On Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
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Despite the release of two major new studies that conclude global warming is dramatically impacting the United States faster than many scientists had anticipated, Bush is unlikely to significantly alter his stance on the issue. A report that global warming has begun to affect plants and animals in every
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region of the US, from the earlier nesting of birds in the desert Southwest to the earlier flowering of trees in forests around the Great Lakes. | | | |
