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Old Flame

The chemicals in fire-resistant products help keep your home safe — but they appear to be endangering species in the Norwegian Arctic. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are showing up in high concentrations in the region’s polar bears, whose cubs have a lower survival rate than elsewhere, as well as in the eggs of local seabirds, […]

Klam Bake

In the latest turn of events in the Water Crisis That Won’t Die, state officials in California are considering releasing water into the Klamath River to rescue thousands of salmon dying from unusually high water temperatures in the river. Scientists have counted more than 9,500 dead Chinook salmon near the river’s mouth since Friday, and […]

For the Birds

The U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals was widened this week to include six types of whales, a rare Asian river dolphin, the great white shark, and a camel capable of living on salty water. The decision to increase protections for these and other animals came at the end of […]

Drill Press

As the U.S. Congress debates the details of a far-ranging energy bill, Interior Secretary Gale Norton has announced that she will ask President Bush to veto any version of the bill that does not allow oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The version of the bill approved by the House contains such a […]

Luck Ran Out

Nevada has run out of funding to continue its birth-defects registry, a loss that supporters say couldn’t have come at a worse time. The registry, which was begun three years ago with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, identifies trends in birth defects across the state in order to help identify […]

Sea Minus

It’s an ocean of trouble out there — such were the conclusions of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, which issued an interim report today at the halfway-point of an 18-month study of ocean health and marine resources. So far, the commission has found that about 40,000 acres of coastal wetlands in the U.S. are […]

Wayne Lasuen, Student Conservation Association

Wayne Lasuen is a campus recruiter for the Student Conservation Association. Monday, 23 Sep 2002 ST. PAUL, Minn. Everyone who grows up in a small town — in my case, Mountain Home, Idaho — dreams of going elsewhere, but most people just stay put. To make matters worse, those who stick around get jealous of […]

El Smog

Mexico City declared its first pollution alert in almost three years yesterday, when ozone levels in the famously smoggy city reached about 250 percent of acceptable levels. The alert resulted in some 350,000 cars being ordered off the city streets. That’s a lot, but it’s far fewer than the nearly half of the city’s estimated […]

Don’t Send Us the Bill

The Canadian government prorogued its parliamentary session this week, effectively killing a proposed Species At Risk bill. The bill would have banned the harassment, harming, or killing of endangered species on federal land, as well as destruction of critical habitat. The move represented the third time the Parliament has tried and failed to pass legislation […]

Sigh. Gone.

Vietnam is home to one of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems — but the country’s natural environment has deteriorated rapidly over the last decade, according to a report released today by the World Bank. The report, “Vietnam Environment Monitor 2002,” found that of the nation’s endemic species, 28 percent of mammals, 10 percent of […]