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King Mekong

The four nations downstream from China on the Mekong River have expressed environmental and economic concerns about the country’s plans to build six dams on the river. Kristensen, chief executive of a commission representing Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, said, “China needs to realize that the Mekong River is one ecological system that should be […]

Fission Advisory?

Native Americans who fished in the Columbia River may have been exposed to much more radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation than previously thought, according to a draft report prepared for the federal government. Earlier research estimating the exposure rates for people living downwind of Hanford assumed that people ate about 90 pounds of fish […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]