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Peter Sinkamba, Citizens for a Better Environment
Peter Sinkamba is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Citizens for a Better Environment in Zambia. A mining engineer and environmental auditor, Sinkamba helped write the 1996 Zambian Republican Constitution and currently sits on several national environmental committees. Monday, 1 Apr 2002 KITWE, Zambia Woke up at 5:00 a.m — far too early, especially […]
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World CERES
Could this be the end of greenwashing? After five years of work, an innovative coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, unions, accountants, academics, and government representatives is preparing to unveil standardized guidelines for how businesses report their impact on society and the environment. The Global Reporting Initiative standards, which are the brainchild of the Coalition for […]
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Mustard Greens
In a hard-won triumph for environmentalists, the Pentagon announced yesterday that it will use a water-neutralization process, rather than incineration, to destroy 2,600 tons of mustard gas stored at Colorado’s Pueblo Chemical Depot and other sites. The Chemical Weapons Working Group, a watchdog organization, applauded the decision, calling neutralization safe and effective. But in Oregon, […]
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Deep Du Du
Three years after NATO’s 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia, depleted uranium (DU) has been found at five of six sites investigated by scientists from the U.N. Environment Programme. The sites, in Serbia and Montenegro, had “widespread but low-level” contamination. Although the scientists did not report any current direct threat to humans or the environment, they […]
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Warm Air Gives Us Cold Hands
Relatively minor increases in global temperatures are already dramatically affecting plants and animals, according to an article appearing in the current issue of Nature. The Earth has warmed by just 0.6 degrees in the past century (mostly in the last 30 years), but scientists from Europe, the U.S., and Australia have found serious consequences — […]
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You Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em
Betting comes naturally to Nevadans, but the stakes are high and the odds are poor for a last-ditch effort to keep 77,000 tons of nuclear waste out of a proposed high-level radioactive waste facility in Yucca Mountain. The state’s U.S. senators are about to unveil a multi-million dollar media blitz aimed at swaying the votes […]
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Cotton Bawls
In a blow to opponents of genetically modified crops worldwide, India approved commercial production of some GM versions of cotton yesterday. Up till now, the country, the world’s third largest producer of cotton, allowed only a few field trials of genetically engineered crops. But times are changing. In recent years, Monsanto bought several of the […]
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Holy Toledo!
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered the operators of nearly 70 nuclear power plants to report back by Friday on whether the reactors at their facilities are safe to keep in operation. The order came after regulators discovered that acid in cooling water had almost burned through a six-inch lid on a reactor in […]
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There’s a Place in France Where the Anti-nukies Dance
Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister of France, could lose his neck-and-neck race for the nation’s presidency to incumbent President Jacques Chirac if Jospin’s environmental allies make good on their promise to pull their support should the prime minister refuse to back a phase-out of nuclear power. The Green Party accounts for about 10 percent […]
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Excess Marks the Spot
Representatives of the Haida Nation, a 7,000-member native group living on the Queen Charlotte Islands off Canada’s Northwest Coast, have sued to secure “exclusive right to make decisions about their land” and the surrounding waters. If the high court of British Columbia rules in their favor, the Haida will be able to prevent the government […]
