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Eek-otourism

Ecotourism May Be Harming Wildlife Ecotourism — and tourism erroneously billed as eco — may be harming the very animals and ecosystems it claims to venerate. As many as one in five tourists are “ecotourists” under some definition, and those numbers are expected to continue their dramatic rise in coming years. It’s a booming business […]

Plumbing New Depths

D.C. Lead Contamination Casts Doubt on EPA Testing Methods The ongoing drama over lead contamination in Washington, D.C., tap water promises to spill over (ahem) to the rest of the country, as a hearing on Capitol Hill today examines how federal agencies handle local drinking-water safety. Extensive testing of residential tap water by the D.C. […]

Asbestos Times, the Worst of Times

U.S. Faces Coming Asbestos Health Crisis, Group Says Despite the common public perception that asbestos went out with bell bottoms and disco, the fact is that asbestos — like, uh, bell bottoms and disco — is still with us. In fact, claims a report released today by the Environmental Working Group, we are poised to […]

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, GMO Has Got to Go

Northern California County Passes Anti-GM Initiative Northern California’s Mendocino County yesterday passed a voter initiative that bans the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops. The surprising 56-44 percent victory capped the county’s most contentious and high-profile election ever, in which the initiative’s backers were outspent by a whopping 6-1 margin. Supporters of Measure H raised […]

We Will Rocket You

EPA and DOD Square Off Over Rocket-Fuel Pollution The U.S. EPA is squaring off against the Department of Defense and NASA over ammonium perchlorate, a chemical long used by DOD and NASA for munitions and rocket fuel, and typically disposed of by being diluted in water and dumped on the ground. Based on studies of […]

Wave Hello!

Wave Power Poised to Go Commercial Off Coast of Spain Ocean Power Technologies, a leader in the fledgling wave-power industry, is set to launch a pilot project off the north shore of Spain. Ten power-generating buoys will be placed in the Bay of Biscay, where they will float just below the surface and transform wave […]

Playing De-fence

Prominent House Republican Calls for Completion of Border Fence Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, called on the Bush administration today to complete a major fence project along the westernmost portion of the U.S.-Mexico border despite concerns that such a project could harm habitat for threatened and endangered birds. The […]

Dispatches from a macaw research trip

Sue Kaufman, a 20-year veteran of the business world, volunteers with several environmental organizations. She is soon to join Grist‘s board of directors. Here she chronicles her volunteer activities on a recent expedition with Earthwatch Institute to the Peruvian Amazon.. Monday, 1 Mar 2004 LIMA, Peru Greetings from Lima, Peru, where I am spending the […]

I’ve Seen Fire and I’ve Seen Rain

Amazonian Fires May Screw Up Entire South American Climate Massive fires in Amazonian forests, set by impoverished local residents trying to create revenue-generating pastures and cropland, have the potential to disrupt the climate and generate fierce storms across South America, says research published in today’s issue of the journal Science. The fires send particles into […]

Look for the GM Label

Battle Over Genetically Modified Foods Rages On It’s been an action-packed couple of weeks in the ongoing global dispute over genetically engineered foods. Just today, a conference of 80 nations agreed on a strict set of labeling rules for international commodity shipments of GM foods — rules which will form the basis of the biodiversity-protecting […]