Two former government scientists say their superiors shot down years' worth of research on the effects of tuna fishing on dolphin populations because the findings clashed with the policy aims of the Clinton and Bush administrations. Separate research conducted by Albert Myrick and Sarka Southern indicated that dolphins are exposed to dangerous levels of stress by the practice of chasing and encircling them to catch tuna. Myrick says he retired from his government post in 1995 after he was not permitted to continue his work, and Southern says she was forced to abandon her dolphin study and focus on other …

Genetically modified food could contain excessive amounts of dangerous compounds because of the government's failure to adequately regulate the production of such foods, according to a report being released today by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The report says the Food and Drug Administration made "obvious errors" in reviewing some GM crops, and that its procedures are so hit-or-miss that the agency will not be able to ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply as more and more companies try to market transgenic foods. The report was timed to coincide with today's meeting in Washington, D.C., …

Rain. Drought. Hailstorms. Tornadoes. Frost. You'd be hard-pressed to name a weather phenomenon that hasn't afflicted the African kingdom of Lesotho in recent times, destroying its crops and leaving one-third of its 2.1 million people on the brink of starvation. Now, many scientists are saying that those people, along with nearly 40 million other Africans facing famine, may be among the first human victims of climate change. Although experts are reluctant to blame any particular weather event on climate change, many concur that the weather patterns plaguing Lesotho and other African nations are eerily consistent with predictions of how weather …

The Bush administration is to blame for last fall's die-off of 33,000 salmon along the Klamath River in Northern California, biologists from the state's Department of Fish and Game have determined. They say the fish kill -- the largest ever recorded in the West -- was the result of the administration's decision to divert water from the river to farming interests, a move that was heavily protested by environmentalists, tribes, and some in the fishing industry, who predicted that salmon would suffer as a result. At the time of the die-off, the Bush administration said not enough science was available …

New Year's Day marked a historic moment in the history of Western water wars -- the first time the federal government exercised its right to decline California's request for more than its allotted shared of water from the Colorado River. Thanks to the U.S. Interior Department, cities and agricultural areas in Southern California will lose about 650,000 acre-feet of river water this year, or enough to supply a city about the size of Los Angeles. The federal intervention is the result of the breakdown of a deal that was to have transferred water from farms to cities in Southern California. …

The U.S. EPA unveiled new livestock-waste regulations yesterday designed to keep billions of pounds of unhealthful pollutants out the nation's waterways annually. The rules, which were issued in compliance with a court mandate from a 1989 lawsuit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council, will require some 15,500 factory farms to obtain government permits to dispose of livestock waste. Together, these farms are responsible for about 60 percent of the 220 billion gallons of liquefied manure produced by the agricultural industry every year. The EPA says the rule will eventually yield a 25 percent reduction in the amount of phosphorus, …

Forget about urban sprawl; the new menace facing the U.S. landscape is rural sprawl, according to some experts. In seeking refuge from city life, Americans started by moving to the suburbs; then they started building beyond the suburbs, creating "exurbs"; now, they're gradually expanding into some of the country's most remote areas. Growth rates of small towns are outpacing those of big cities, a trend that's presenting Anytown, U.S.A. with new challenges, ranging from the disappearance of natural areas to radical alterations of local infrastructures, economies, and characters. Chief among these problems are loss of wild spaces and agricultural land, …

Now, back to typically depressing fare: California's Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board said yesterday that it would extend exemptions on pollution limits for farmers, meaning that pesticides, salts, and other pollutants will continue to drain from agricultural fields into the region's watershed. The exemptions were set to expire on Dec. 31, a deadline enviros had hoped would prompt an aggressive new statewide cleanup effort; instead, water regulators decided to extend waivers for more than 25,000 farms for an additional two years. The board said the extensions come with conditions that will help clean up rivers and streams as …

It ain't easy being a scientist in farm country: Researchers studying the health effects of agricultural pollution say they are being silenced by fearful superiors and harassed by individual farmers, farm groups, and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds and controls much of the research done on farming. One example: JoAnn Burkholder, a well-known aquatic botanist at North Carolina State University, received death threats and demands for her resignation after warning parents not to let their children wade in polluted streams; she called such harassment "rampant." Another: James Zahn, a former federal swine researcher in Iowa, was told …

After months of heated debate, the 15 farm ministers of the European Union agreed last week on labeling rules for genetically modified (GM) food and animal feed. Under the plan, all food and feed containing 0.9 percent GM ingredients or more would need to be identified as such; below that threshold, no labeling would be required. Pro-GM food advocates hope the proposed labeling rules will convince GM skeptics to ease their stance toward bioengineered crops; at present, there is an E.U.-wide moratorium on growing or selling most GM crops. E.U. Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne hailed the …