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Nuke of Earl

The nuclear industry was “bubbling with new hopes and plans” during a recent conference-cum-pep-rally in Lille, France, according to Pascal Colombani, chair of the E.U’s Atomic Energy Commission. Heartened by Finland’s recent decision to build western Europe’s first nuclear power plant in more than a decade, the nuclear industry is trying to position itself as […]

Us Against DEM

A coalition of environmental and health advocacy groups in Alabama wants to reform the state’s Department of Environmental Management — starting with its name. Saying the agency is too concerned with management and insufficiently concerned with protection, the coalition called yesterday for a new “Department of Environmental Protection” characterized by a different leadership structure, stricter […]

The Dead Phone

If you’re thinking about chucking your cell phone, think twice: Most of the 128 million mobile phones currently in use in the U.S. will end up incinerated or at the bottom of a landfill, according to a report released by the environmental organization Inform and partly funded by the U.S. EPA. By 2005, 130 million […]

Monkey in the Middle

The number of primate species or sub-species classified as endangered or critically endangered has risen 63 percent since 2000, according to “Primates in Peril: The World’s Top 25 Most Endangered Primates,” a report issued recently by Conservation International and the World Conservation Union. The report found that one-third of all primate species are at risk […]

Ready, Willing, and Sable

There’s sad news and a silver lining in the world of endangered species today. On the sad side, the first California condor chick brooded and hatched in the wild in nearly two decades was found dead of unknown causes last Friday in Los Padres National Forest. The death of the chick was a blow to […]

The Saints Haven’t Come Marching in

Almost 75 percent of Utah residents object to plans to store tons of nuclear waste at the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, 50 miles outside of Salt Lake City — so why isn’t the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Utah’s main opinion-setter, taking a stand on the issue? So far, the silence of the […]

Greece Spot

Air and water quality in Athens, Greece — home of the upcoming 2004 Summer Olympics — is considerably worse today than it was in 1896, the last time the city hosted the games. In an effort headlined by Jean-Michael Cousteau (son of the famed oceanographer Jacques), environmentalists are trying to clean up the city by […]

Max Weintraub, Environmental Justice and Health Union

Max Weintraub is the executive director of the Environmental Justice and Health Union and a fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program. Monday, 7 Oct 2002 SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. What the heck was I thinking? Starting a nonprofit when funding is down, focusing on poor and minority communities when I am from neither, trying to bring […]

Gopher It!

Twelve ethanol plants in Minnesota signed on to an unprecedented agreement with state and federal EPA officials earlier this week, agreeing to pay pollution fines and update their emissions-reduction technology. An official at the U.S. EPA said ethanol plants across the country would be expected to follow the lead of the Minnesota plants. A spokesperson […]

Orange You Glad?

The District Attorney’s office in conservative Orange County, Calif., is beefing up its environmental crime division to become one of the most rigorous eco-SWAT teams in the nation. While resources for pursuing environmental criminals have been dwindling in many other areas in the state, Orange County has tripled its budget in the last three years […]