Uncategorized

How Can We Sleep While the Liberals Are Winning?

Environmentalist Rock Star to Run for Australia’s Parliament Peter Garrett, former lead singer of the band Midnight Oil and a longtime environmental activist, announced yesterday that he will run for a seat in the Australian parliament as a member of the opposition Labor Party. He’s almost sure to win, as the Sydney seat he’s vying […]

The Drill of It All

Bush Administration Pushes to Open More Alaska Land to Drilling The Bush administration hasn’t been able to finagle its way into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but it’s pressing ahead with plans to drill for oil and gas on other remote, environmentally sensitive public lands in Alaska. The Bureau of Land Management this week proposed […]

Fit to Be Thai-ed

Toxic Waste Being Dumped on Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is becoming a dumping ground for toxic waste from wealthy countries, Greenpeace warned yesterday. Large quantities of dangerous refuse — including medical and electronic waste, old tires, and used lead acid batteries — are being shipped to Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines from industrialized nations that […]

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Lights Out in Skyscrapers Can Save Birds Everyone knows that turning off the lights saves energy — but did you know it can save birds too? Migratory birds are drawn to lights in skyscrapers, an attraction that too often causes them to crash into the buildings’ plate-glass windows or die of exhaustion after flying confusedly […]

Rue the Day

Paris May Ban SUVs From City Streets Parisian officials have determined that SUVs are no longer in vogue. The left-leaning city council yesterday passed a resolution that urges the capital’s Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, to effectively ban the bulky four-wheel-drive vehicles from the city center during peak pollution times and deny their owners parking permits […]

Those Were the Lost Days of Our Lives

Bush Pollution Plan Falls Short on Saving Lives More than 90 percent of the 23,600 deaths caused in the U.S. each year by pollution from old coal-fired power plants could be prevented if the federal government adopted tough emissions regulations, according to a new study, but President Bush’s preferred pollution-control plan falls far short of […]

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

China Finds More Giant Pandas than Expected Good news on the endangered species front (and you didn’t think there was such a thing!): A comprehensive survey has found 40 percent more giant pandas living in the wild in China than previously thought — nearly 1,600. The higher numbers may be the result of more sophisticated […]

Cobra Power

Hydrogen-Powered Sports Car May Sex Up Clean Energy The hydrogen revolution got an injection of sex appeal yesterday with the launch of the Hydrogen Shelby Cobra, a version of one of the world’s most admired sports cars. The new model, being sold by the Los Angeles-based Hydrogen Car Co., uses hydrogen to power a traditional […]

Prime Cut

California Plans Sizeable Cuts to CO2 Emissions from Autos California is moving right along with plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and hence make a dent in global warming. A regulation now being drafted will require new cars and light trucks sold in the state to emit less CO2 beginning in 2008, with […]

Declaration of Dependence

ExxonMobil Chief Says U.S. Can’t Shed Dependence on Mideast Oil The head of ExxonMobil — the bete noire of oil companies, from enviros’ perspective — declared this week that the U.S. cannot achieve energy independence and shouldn’t even try. ExxonMobil Chair Lee Raymond, speaking in Washington, D.C., suggested cozying up to Middle Eastern nations because […]