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Beverly Hills Flop

Erin Brockovich, the tenacious eco-crusader made famous by Hollywood, is back in the news: She says that many former Beverly Hills High School students have been stricken with cancer because of exposure to toxic fumes from an active oil field on school property. Brockovich and her boss, attorney Ed Masry, yesterday filed 25 personal injury […]

Well Done

With many makeshift wells in New Delhi, India, running dry, and many more in danger of following suit, citizens are turning to an old-fashioned solution: rainwater harvesting. Five pilot projects in the city have successfully tested out an inexpensive system for collecting monsoon rainwater and directing it underground to replenish over-tapped aquifers. New Delhi officials […]

Lettuce Study This More

A toxic chemical used in rocket fuel was found in four of 22 winter lettuce samples purchased at Northern California grocery stores, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group. The lettuce contaminated with perchlorate, a hormone disrupter, was traced to farms in Southern California and Arizona that irrigate their crops with Colorado River […]

Smokestack Heart Attack

Minor increases in urban air pollution can provoke heart attacks, new international research indicates. A study of seven European cities and regions, including London, Madrid, Paris, and Rome, found that when sulfur dioxide levels rose even slightly, hospital visits for coronary problems increased over the following 48 hours. The research, published in the European Heart […]

Karen Salinger, Go Greenbelt! Ride

Karen Salinger is a cyclist on the Go Greenbelt! Ride, a fundraiser for the San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance. When not balancing on two wheels, she promotes sustainable agriculture by distributing organic produce through Veritable Vegetable. Sunday, 27 Apr 2003 LOS GATOS, Calif. Every April for the past nine years, I have set out on a […]

Cutting the Cord

Fuel cells and hybrids are hot; electric vehicles are not. That’s the word from the California Air Resources Board, which yesterday axed groundbreaking 1990 rules requiring auto manufacturers to sell a fixed number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the state, including 10 percent of cars sold this year. Instead, the board approved more modest regulations […]

Logging Off

The Internet has made it far easier for citizens to bend the federal government’s ear — too easy, the U.S. Forest Service says. The agency wants to revise its policies so that it will be free to disregard opinions submitted in “form letters, check-off lists, pre-printed post cards, or similar duplicative materials” when accepting public […]

Cod Gonnit

The Canadian government this week banned all commercial and recreational cod fishing in an effort to stave off the absolute collapse of the species, putting an end to an industry and a tradition that have defined the country’s Atlantic coast for centuries. The radical decline of Eastern Canadian cod stocks is one of the greatest […]

No-motor Home

Two chemistry professors at the University of La Verne in California say they have created a propane-powered fuel cell that will change the face of the recreational-vehicle industry forever. The fuel cell converts propane to hydrogen and generates enough energy to power everything in an RV but the motor: electricity, heat, and water systems. The […]

Ignoble Chernobyl

It’s been 17 years since the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe — but a new disaster could be around the bend if the concrete shield encasing the old power station isn’t rapidly reinforced, according to Russia’s energy minister. “We can see a situation where the roof could fall in, or rather the supports that hold up the […]