Uncategorized

Another Anderson Scandal

A court in India has rejected efforts to reduce the charges against Warren Anderson, the former chair of the U.S.-based company Union Carbide, which was responsible for a 1984 gas leak in Bhopal that killed 3,000 people and sickened tens of thousands more. The leak from a pesticide plant in the central Indian city was […]

Pigs’ Stymie

The U.S., Saudi Arabia, and other rich nations are deliberately stymieing international efforts to encourage increased clean energy use, according to sources at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, being held this week and next in Johannesburg, South Africa. The WSSD action plan, which will be approved by heads of state at the end of […]

Foster Care

Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster (R) kicked off a campaign to save his state’s coastline this week by bagging a $3 million, three-year grant from, of all places, Shell Oil. “America’s Wetland: Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana” also earned the backing of several major national and state environmental and civic organizations, as well as a spot […]

On a Different Scale

A pair of bills aimed at regulating genetically altered fish in food and the environment are facing a bitter fight in the California legislature. One of the proposed laws, a consumer right-to-know bill requiring the labeling of unpackaged transgenic fish in retail stores, passed the state Senate on Monday, but it must be approved by […]

Northern Light

In a classic example of strange bedfellows, the Nature Conservancy has teamed up with Great Northern Paper, a pulp and paper mill company, to protect thousands of acres of wilderness in Maine — and over a thousand jobs for company employees. The conservancy, whose Maine chapter was founded by legendary environmentalist Rachel Carson, provided the […]

Salmon in the Can

Over the past two decades, U.S. federal agencies have pumped $3.3 billion into recovery efforts for endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest — but there is no evidence that the money has paid off, according to a report issued yesterday by the U.S. General Accounting Office. The report is the government’s first comprehensive assessment of […]

Czech It Out

A “mini-Chernobyl” — that’s how a Czech investigating commission has described the potential threat posed by a chemical plant just north of Prague that was damaged in last week’s flooding in Central and Eastern Europe. The commission warned that the highly toxic chlorine released by the Spolana plant during the floods and again late last […]

Blame It on Rio

Just two days into the World Summit on Sustainable Development, being held this week and next in Johannesburg, South Africa, there is already a marked division between representatives of developed and developing nations. Rich and poor nations are having difficulty seeing eye-to-eye on nearly all the critical topics being discussed at the conference — aid […]

Tom Turner, Earthjustice

Tom Turner is in South Africa at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to edit a daily news report, Eco, on behalf of a coalition of civil society organizations. He is senior editor at Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm. Monday, 26 Aug 2002 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Boasting the slogan “People, Planet, Prosperity,” the […]

Catherine Fedorsky, WSSD Green Energy Project

Catherine Fedorsky is monitoring energy consumption at the World Summit on Sustainable Development as part of the WSSD Green Energy Project. She is a managing member of Global Environmental Objectives, an environmental consulting firm. Monday, 26 Aug 2002 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa The radio wakes me up at 7 a.m. to news of the World Summit […]