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Separating the Wheat From the Chaff

Monsanto Abandons Plans for GM Wheat With little fanfare, biotech-food giant Monsanto announced yesterday that it would abandon plans to introduce genetically modified wheat to the market. Anti-GM activists, who have fought Monsanto’s plans for some five years, celebrated the announcement as a major victory. However, the impetus for the shift was likely not the […]

Win Diesel

EPA Announces New Diesel Regulations Today the U.S. EPA put in place tough new regulations on off-highway diesel engines — tractors, bulldozers, locomotives, etc. — which produce more soot than the nation’s entire on-road vehicle fleet. The agency says the regs will cut emissions from such equipment by 90 percent over a decade by requiring […]

This Land Is Mine Land

Old Mining Law Gives Taxpayers the Shaft Under an 1872 mining law, private companies and individuals have laid claim to 9.2 million acres of public land for mining, often at prices of $5 an acre or less, says a new report — and 1.2 million acres of that is controlled by foreign companies. The 132-year-old […]

A Thorn in Our ‘Cides

Study Finds High Levels of Pesticides in U.S. Bodies A large percentage of U.S. residents have unsafe levels of pesticides in their bodies, and children, women, and Mexican-Americans are particularly at risk, says a new study. The Pesticide Action Network analyzed data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the levels […]

Bamboo-zled

Pandas Threatened by Loss of Bamboo Up to half of the world’s 1,200 species of woody bamboo are in danger of extinction because of deforestation, and their demise would spell big trouble for the animals that depend on them for sustenance, including one of nature’s cuddliest critters, the giant panda. A study released today by […]

A family-planning advocate and U.N. supporter answers questions

What work do you do? I’m a 62-year-old retired French teacher and tennis coach who has been spending six to eight hours a day for the last 20 months trying to get 34 million Americans to donate at least one dollar to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I do this because the Bush administration […]

Dispatches from the Hague Conference on Environment, Security, and Sustainable Development

Geoffrey Dabelko is director of the Environmental Change and Security Project in Washington, D.C., a nonpartisan policy forum on environment, population, and security issues. Monday, 10 May 2004 THE HAGUE, Netherlands Terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and perhaps failed states top today’s security agenda. But what about the environment? Can environmental security help us make the world […]

Golf War, Too

New Bioengineered Golf Grass Sparks Fears A new strain of grass bioengineered specifically for golf courses has enviros and even federal agencies nervous. The grass — a variation of creeping bentgrass, popular on fairways and putting greens because it grows sideways, creating a smooth surface — is bred to be resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. […]

Green Ketchup

Teresa Heinz Kerry Critical of Bush Environmental Record Teresa Heinz Kerry slammed the Bush administration’s efforts to change clean-air and clean-water rules as “inexcusable and unforgivable” in a speech in Manhattan on Saturday. This may seem a predictable partisan jab coming from the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, but there’s more to Heinz […]

Aguapocalypse

Mexico Faces Coming Water Crisis A dam planned for the Huentitan Canyon northeast of Guadalajara, Mexico, is becoming a flashpoint of political controversy and a grim illustration of the water problems spreading across the country. Guadalajara, like many Mexican cities, has grown sharply in population without adding any new water sources, and now faces periodic […]