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Sweeter Home Alabama

Alabama PCB Suits End in $700 Million Settlement Monsanto Co. and its spin-off enterprise, Solutia, agreed yesterday to pay $700 million to settle state and federal lawsuits concerning five decades of PCB pollution in Anniston, Ala. From the 1930s to the 1970s, Monsanto (and later Solutia) used a plant in Anniston to produce PCBs, which […]

Must Have Been Something in the Water

India Says Coke, Pepsi Products Safe to Drink Three weeks after an environmental organization created a furor in India by claiming that soft drinks made by Coca-Cola and Pepsi contained dangerously high levels of pesticides, the nation’s government proclaimed the products safe. Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said today that the government had tested the soft […]

Don’t Call the Sheriff

County Officials in Utah Steal Signs from National Monument The U.S. EPA might be protecting the air in national parks and wilderness areas, but who’s watching out for the land in national monuments? If you happen to live in southern Utah, the answer is: not your local elected officials. Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw and […]

Bass Ackwards

International Team Chases Illegal Fishing Vessel Across High Seas It’s kind of like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” only it’s set in the Indian Ocean. Australian and South African customs ships are hunting down the Viarsa, an Uruguayan fishing vessel suspected of poaching millions of pounds of endangered Patagonian toothfish. The high drama on the high […]

Hazing Incident

EPA Settles Case Over Haze in National Parks Visitors to U.S. national parks and other wild areas should be able to breathe a little easier in the future, thanks to a legal settlement signed yesterday by the U.S. EPA and Environmental Defense. Under the terms of the settlement, the agency has until April 2005 to […]

Nafta-shocks

Thwarted by Environmental Rules, Mining Company Sues Under NAFTA Critics have long said the North American Free Trade Agreement spells trouble for the environment. Now, mining company Glamis Gold is poised to prove them right: It plans to use an obscure provision of the treaty to challenge California’s strict environmental laws. For years, the company, […]

Pain in the Acid

Neighboring Nations to Blame for Acid Rain in Taiwan More than half of the acid rain that falls on Taiwan is the result of pollutants blown in from neighboring countries, according to a study released yesterday by the nation’s Environmental Protection Administration. Between January and July of this year, the average acidity of rain in […]

Blackout and Blue

Enviros Fear Blackout Will Bolster Support for Bush Energy Plan Last week’s blackout in the eastern U.S. and Canada caused food spoilage, water contamination, economic losses, transportation delays, and all manner of disruptions ranging from the inconvenient to the awful. Now, environmentalists fear it might also cause a change for the worse in U.S. national […]

Thar It Blows

First Minke Whale Killed in 14 Years A team of Icelandic hunters who resumed whaling recently despite international protests killed a minke whale yesterday, the first in 14 years. The team, from Iceland’s Marine Research Institute, plans to kill 37 more in the next six weeks. The hunt is part of a research program, and […]

Brad Rutherford, International Snow Leopard Trust

Brad Rutherford is the executive director of the International Snow Leopard Trust, which works to conserve the endangered snow leopard in Central Asia by addressing the needs of local communities and the mountain ecosystemswhere they live. Monday, 18 Aug 2003 SEATTLE, Wash. I begin this weekly diary somewhat skeptical that readers of Grist will be […]