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Prodigal Son
The U.S. Agriculture Department has levied more than $3 million in fines against biotech company ProdiGene for mixing GM corn containing an animal vaccine with soybeans meant for human consumption. The contaminated soybeans were stopped before they reached the market, and the company, which makes pharmaceutical and industrial enzymes and proteins by growing them in […]
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A Blow to the Solar Plexus
Renewable energy use in the U.S. dropped sharply in 2001, according to a new report by the Department of Energy. Much of that decline stems from a drought that cut hydroelectric power generation by 23 percent, but the DOE’s Energy Information Administration also found that in 2001, solar equipment was retired faster than it was […]
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Green Unpleasant Land
A record quantity of northern polar ice was lost this year, according to scientists who presented their findings at a conference of the American Geophysical Union held this weekend in San Francisco. Surface melt in Greenland, for example, was the highest in recorded history, and extended to previously unaffected altitudes. In total, there were about […]
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John Hanger, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
John Hanger is president and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), a public interest membership organization that works to create a just future where nature, communities, and the economy thrive. Monday, 9 Dec 2002 HARRISBURG, Penn. The line from the John Lennon song Beautiful Boy — “Life is what happens while you are making […]
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Half and Half
In the interest of living up to our reputation for providing the occasional sliver of cheery environmental news, Grist is pleased to report that notwithstanding rampant ecological degradation, nearly half of the land on Earth remains undeveloped and unpopulated, according to an international study released earlier this week. The study — the most comprehensive such […]
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Delay O’ Fish
In welcome news for commercial fishing operations in New England, a federal judge has ordered an eight-month delay in implementing drastic cutbacks in fishing levels while scientists review federal estimates of the region’s fish population. In September, government scientists acknowledged that the accuracy of fish-count studies on which the original cutbacks were based might have […]
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Changing Their Tuna
In other marine news, a new report released by the federal government has found that dolphin populations in the Pacific Ocean are failing to recover from years of tuna fishing, and that some 3,000 dolphins are still killed by tuna boats every year. The report, by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, contradicts […]
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Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
The first day of a three-day, Bush administration-sponsored conference on global climate change convened yesterday, attracting more than 1,200 scientists and environmentalists but yielding very few surprises. Senior administration officials attending the conference said both the causes and effects of global warming remain uncertain and the country should therefore be cautious about committing to solutions. […]
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No Mobiles
Environmentalists took the National Park Service to court yesterday over ongoing delays in implementing a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. In 2000, the agency approved a plan that would have limited the number of snowmobiles in the parks to under 500 by this winter and mandated that drivers be accompanied […]
