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Shore: Enough

An innovative if controversial bill could protect offshore waters in California from oil drilling by allowing oil companies to swap drilling claims in California for others in the Gulf of Mexico. The legislation, introduced yesterday by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and John Breaux (D-La.), would convert 40 offshore tracts […]

Going Whole Log

Saying environmentalists and others should have been given a forum to protest new logging rules, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified some 100 logging permits yesterday, most of them for southeastern Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The permits allowed companies to run so-called “logging transfer facilities,” aka timber dumps in estuaries or other coastal […]

Who Ya Gonna Bhopal?

Citing such past tragedies as the poisonous gas leak in Bhopal, India, that killed at least 7,000 people, the United Nations called yesterday for stronger safeguards on the production and storage of hazardous chemicals in developing countries. The call to action came during a U.N. Environment Programme conference held in Cartagena, Colombia, and attended by […]

As the World Turns Differently

You think your days are already long? Just you wait: Scientists in Belgium have determined that days may become even longer as global warming occurs. In a study published in this month’s Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists, who hail from Belgium’s Royal Observatory and the Catholic University of Louvain, said that increasing levels of carbon […]

Bang Dugong

The animal that inspired seafarers to tell tales of mermaids is disappearing from the planet, according to a report released this week. The dugong, a large sea mammal that is a cousin to the famous manatee of Florida and the Caribbean, was thought by ancient sailors to be half-woman, half-fish, perhaps because of its habit […]

Banned, on the Run

The FBI’s top domestic terrorism officer yesterday called the Earth Liberation Front and its companion, the Animal Liberation Front, the largest and most active U.S.-based terrorist organizations. According to the FBI, the two organizations have perpetrated a total of 600 attacks since 1996 costing $43 million in damage. The bureau acknowledged, however, that no one […]

Anti-protection Racket

Fourteen of 25 groups of wild West Coast Pacific salmon and steelhead may lose their protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, following the federal government’s formal acceptance yesterday of petitions to de-list the groups. Last year, the National Marine Fisheries Service began evaluating the protected status of 23 of the 25 groups after a […]

Not-so-secret Agent

Four decades after the U.S. started using Agent Orange in Vietnam, the two countries will begin working together to assess the effects of the toxic chemical on human health and the environment. Agent Orange is a defoliant that contains TCDD, the most dangerous form of dioxin, which causes cancer, immune system malfunction, and birth defects. […]

Winding Down?

What is the world coming to? Denmark, that model of eco-friendliness, announced last week that it would prioritize financial competitiveness over environmental sensitivity — and that, as a result, it would stop subsidizing the installation of new wind turbines beginning in 2004. Economy Minister Bendt Bendtsen said electricity generated by wind turbines was too expensive […]

An Ocean in Iowa

Forget that image of pretty pastoral farmhouses dotting the rural U.S. landscape: The reality is that farms are responsible for an ever-increasing amount of pollution that poses a significant threat to rivers, the ocean, and wildlife. A recent study by the Pew Oceans Commission found that fertilizer runoff and livestock feedlots were among the fastest […]