Is Kyoto dead? Grist readers cast their votes after reading a recent debate between Dan Lashof and David Victor. The results were evenly split, right down the middle. Optimism ran higher among younger observers. The "alive" contingent would have won had we included the votes of a high-school biology class in Boston that was asked on a midterm to read the debate and make a case for one side. Thirty-three of the students argued that Kyoto is alive, 11 argued that it's toast. A few selected responses:   Dear Editor: No, Kyoto isn't dead. Many companies are taking a leadership …

Snowmobiling is coming under increasing fire in the western U.S., not just from enviros but also from officials at a number of national forests and parks. Snowmobiles have been banned in recent years from some U.S. Forest Service land in Montana and northern Idaho, and they may soon be limited in Yellowstone National Park, the remote interior of Alaska's Denali National Park, and elsewhere in the West. Enviros, skiers, and some park officials argue that snowmobiles cause air, water, and noise pollution and endanger wildlife. Environmental groups are petitioning the federal government to outlaw most snowmobiles in national parks. But …

Billionaire and media magnate Ted Turner, already the largest individual landholder in the U.S., has bought a big chunk of land in Florida's panhandle that he says he'll leave undisturbed as habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. The 3,620 acres, which Turner purchased for $11.6 million from a homebuilder and developer, abuts another large Turner property, an 8,100-acre site that is home to wild turkeys, quail, and deer. Turner, the CCN founder and vice chair of Time Warner, also owns vast tracts of land in Montana, New Mexico, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.

An Anglo-Dutch consortium plans to build the world's tallest pair of offshore wind turbines this summer, in the North Sea one kilometer off England's northeast coast. The partners, which include oil giant Royal/Dutch Shell, hope the pilot project will pave the way for a potential $9.6 billion investment in the area, considered to be Europe's richest potential source of wind power. But the project's planners complained yesterday that the energy plans unveiled by the UK government earlier this week didn't include as much funding for renewable energy as had been expected. At present, just 2.3 percent of Britain's energy comes …

Re: Daily Grist Dear Editor: What a great magazine! Now that I subscribe to the Daily Gist, I clutch my cuppa java as I pass through your cloud of gloom. Better gloom than darkness. However, I'm mystified that we don't hear more about the big P -- population. Why? All these summits, all this talk of global warming, fossil fuels, salmon runs, river and stream restoration, deforestation, toxic waste, disappearing species, yadda yadda yadda. Meanwhile, more and more people gobble up more food, fuel, forests, water, and resources of every sort, while creating sewage, impenetrable surfaces, factory waste, and so …

Delegates from more than 130 nations on Saturday adopted the first global treaty regulating trade in genetically modified products, the first time that environmental concerns and trade rules have been reconciled in an international agreement. The treaty allows countries to bar imports of genetically modified seeds, crops, and animals, even if scientific studies have not yet determined that they are dangerous, a provision that the U.S. had opposed. The treaty does not address whether food containing genetically altered ingredients, like corn flakes made with GM corn, should be labeled as such on store shelves. And disputes over GM foods could …

British oil giant Royal Dutch Shell today is launching an internal market to reduce the company's carbon emissions, an effort to combat climate change and promote energy efficiency. Under its new tradable emissions permit system, businesses within the Shell group must achieve an annual 2 percent carbon reduction, either by reducing their actual emissions or buying permits from other Shell businesses that are making greater than required reductions. The scheme is intended to help Shell meet its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent from 1990 levels by 2002. BP Amoco had previously introduced a similar system.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck said in a speech yesterday that the era of extensive road-building in national forests is over and that the administration would release a new proposal to close forest roads within a few weeks. Roads have gone from being a capital improvement to a liability, Dombeck told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, and since the USFS budget only includes enough money to maintain about 17 percent of its roads, the agency is proceeding with a new plan that could ultimately result in closure of the rest. Dombeck said that road decommissioning and maintenance would …