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Endangered, Will Robinson!

Endangered Species Act Under Attack Again Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) is once again on the attack against the Endangered Species Act. Nearly a decade ago, during the “Gingrich Revolution,” Pombo was one of two reps chosen by the GOP leadership to assault the law, but the “reforms” he proposed then were so radical that they […]

Tuna Fishy

Feds Knew “Dolphin-Safe” Rules Were Being Broken In 2002, the Bush administration relaxed restrictions on foreign-caught tuna, allowing boats that netted dolphins to sell their tuna as “dolphin-safe” in the U.S. as long as the dolphins were released. The relaxed rule relied on the fact that observers were placed on boats to report on whether […]

Disorder in the Court

Cheney Task Force Supreme Court Case Gets Underway Court watchers hoping to witness fireworks or heated accusations about duck hunting or energy-executive cuddling were sorely disappointed by the kickoff yesterday of the Supreme Court case regarding Vice President Dick Cheney’s infamous energy task force. Opening arguments — by Cheney’s lawyer Ted Olson and lawyers from […]

Rouge Awakening

Ford Unveils New Green Assembly Plant On the site of its nearly 90-year-old Rouge manufacturing complex, where workers once assembled Model A’s, Ford Motor Co. yesterday unveiled its new Dearborn Truck Plant, touted as a model of 21st-century, eco-friendly manufacturing. The multibillion-dollar plant is chockablock with innovative features. A 10-acre “living roof” covered in sedum […]

Dread for the Border

New Border Enforcement Plan Worries Enviros An aggressive new plan to crack down on illegal immigration and smuggling over the Arizona-Mexico border will damage fragile federally protected land that serves as habitat for several endangered species, say some enviros. The Arizona Border Control Initiative, announced in March by the Department of Homeland Security, involves, among […]

Which Blair Project?

Blair Launches New Climate Change Group U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke today at the launch of the Climate Group, an international coalition of financial institutions, business leaders, environmental groups, and local politicians dedicated to speeding the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. The group will hold a major conference in May, create working groups to discuss […]

A freshwater expert and author answers questions

What work do you do? I work through a creation of mine called the Global Water Policy Project to promote the protection of rivers and other freshwater ecosystems. My goal is to generate ideas and inspiration to change the way we use, manage, and think about freshwater. How does it relate to the environment? Water […]

Dispatch from the big annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washingto

Colleen Freeman is a policy analyst at Friends of the Earth-U.S. and Peter Bossard is policy director at International Rivers Network. They took part in discussions between environmental and other nonprofit groups and officials of the World Bank and IMF in the lead-up to the institutions’ annual spring meetings held April 24-25. Monday, 26 Apr […]

Film Flam

Upcoming Climate-Change Disaster Movie Provokes Silliness “The Day After Tomorrow,” a big-budget climate-change disaster flick directed by Roland Emmerich (creator of such visionary fare as “Independence Day” and the 1998 “Godzilla” remake), is due for release on May 28, and it’s got folks on both sides of the global-warming debate all atwitter. Fearing that the […]

Capital Steps

Venture Capital Investment in Clean Technology Grows Clean tech is hot. Research and development of eco-friendly technologies in water purification, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, recycling, air quality, and renewable energy such as solar, wind, and hydrogen is drawing a larger and larger share of venture capital. In 2003, total venture capital spending fell by 14 percent […]