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Toms of Pain
One chapter in the long saga of the Toms River pollution case came to a close recently when companies accused of polluting the water in the New Jersey town agreed to compensate children who were stricken with cancer and siblings who suffered emotional distress. The details of the financial arrangement, which were released yesterday, show […]
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A Finger in the Dike
In what appears to be the first deal struck under the Kyoto treaty’s Clean Development Mechanism, the Netherlands has signed a contract with the World Bank providing $40 million for clean energy projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon dioxide reduction credits. The Kyoto treaty sets target limits on the emission of the greenhouse […]
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Duck, Duck, Gross
More than a dozen years after an Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil, nearly 10,000 gallons of the oil remain buried under the shoreline. The lingering oil was documented during a three-month field study last summer; the study’s results were presented this week during […]
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West Virginia, Mountain Maimer
The environmental movement was dealt a de facto blow yesterday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider a case involving the practice of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. As its name suggests, the practice involves leveling hilltops with explosives to expose underlying coal seams. The remains of the mountain — tons of dirt […]
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The Trials of Herculaneum
Residents of the town of Herculaneum, Mo., are unhappy about an emergency plan to relocate members of at least 92 households while their homes and properties are being stripped of lead contamination. The source of the lead is a 110-year-old smelter owned by the Doe Run Company. Last year, the company agreed to a cleanup […]
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The Kids Aren’t Alright
Hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of developing asthma, cancer, learning disorders, and other diseases because they attend schools built on or near toxic waste sites, according to a new study released yesterday by a coalition called the Child Proofing Our Communities Campaign. The study found that most states and public school systems […]
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Kurt Teichert, Brown University
Kurt Teichert is environmental coordinator at Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he develops initiatives with students, faculty, and administrators to reduce the negative environmental impacts of the university operations. Monday, 21 Jan 2002 POCASSET, Mass. My dog Auggie and I headed out before breakfast this morning for a sunrise walk in Mud Cove. Located […]
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Live Tree or Die
In what will be one of the largest nonprofit land purchases in New England history, the federal and New Hampshire governments, the Trust for Public Land, and the Nature Conservancy are poised to buy 171,500 acres of land along the New Hampshire-Canada border from the International Paper Company. The estimated $44 million purchase will protect […]
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Peli-can!
Good news from the Pelican State: Brown pelicans may be removed from the endangered species list in Louisiana following a highly successful reintroduction program. By the middle of the 20th century, the birds had disappeared from their namesake state (and were almost wiped out throughout the nation) due to exposure to the pesticide DDT, which […]
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Polar Bear Market
In its latest clash with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior has rejected the findings of its biological agency and concluded that oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would not violate an international treaty to protect polar bears and their habitats. A 1995 USFWS report found that the […]
