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Yucca-ing It Up

Following 14 years of study that cost $4.5 billion, the Energy Department yesterday formally recommended that Nevada’s Yucca Mountain become the country’s permanent storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste from power plants and weapons factories. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the science showed that Yucca Mountain would be a secure home for the waste. […]

The Poor Shall Inherit the Worldwatch?

By failing to embrace the steps called for at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the world may have helped set the stage for the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Worldwatch Institute. In its annual "State of the World" report, the group calls for the world’s nations to join the battle […]

My Sediments Exactly

Damage to the Missouri River “is clear and continuing” and could lead to “irreversible extinction of species,” according to a comprehensive report released yesterday by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The report called for “immediate and decisive action” and echoed demands by environmentalists to recreate an approximation of the river’s natural ebb and flow. […]

Gene De Florette

Use of genetically modified (GM) seeds is on the rise among U.S. farmers, according to an informal poll conducted at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting. The survey questioned 321 farmers without regard to farm size, state, or other criteria; the results suggest that GM corn plantings will soar this year, and that GM […]

A Pain in the Anniston

The number of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against pesticide and food giant Monsanto will dwindle following an Alabama county court ruling that only people who have actually become sick, allegedly from PCB poisoning, have standing in the trial. The plaintiffs contend that Monsanto and its spin-off company, Solutia Inc., were cognizant of the health hazards […]

Meredith Hall reviews Tinkering with Eden and Nature Out of Place

I love my hometown, but I have a bone to pick with a few of its inhabitants -- especially the green ones. It's not the lively Nader supporters of Portland, Ore., that I have hard feelings for, but rather the guileful botanic creepers that go by the common name English ivy. Botanic enemy number one is a luscious green forest dweller, a lazy gardener's groundcover, a symbol of old-world garden sophistication -- and, in Portland, an insidious invasive species. English ivy (Hedera helix, for the botanically savvy) infests more than half of the city's forests, choking out trees, ferns, and any other struggling forest undergrowth.

Lord of the Wrings

Lord Peter Melchett, the former head of Greenpeace U.K., has accepted a position with the public relations company Burson-Marsteller, which numbers among its clients the pesticide and food company Monsanto. Long a leading target for green groups, Monsanto is currently drawing fire for its production and promotion of genetically modified (GM) foods. Melchett, who led […]

Taps

Drinking chlorinated tap water puts pregnant women at a higher risk for miscarrying or bearing children with birth defects, according to a new study by two environmental organizations. The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group and U.S. Public Interest Research Group studied water quality data from thousands of water utilities before publishing their findings yesterday. Chlorine […]

Freedom Riders

In a new partnership to be announced tomorrow at the 2002 North American International Auto Show, the U.S. government will work with the nation’s top automakers to replace internal combustion engines with fuel cells. Dubbed Freedom CAR, the partnership replaces former Vice President Al Gore’s Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. By focusing specifically […]

Take Me to the River, Don’t Drop Me in the Water

The City of Brotherly Love is also the City of Terrible Water, according to a U.S. EPA analysis of the nation’s watersheds. Four of Philadelphia’s watersheds earned a six, the worst score doled out by the EPA, a distinction shared with just 28 other watersheds nationwide out of more than 2,200. The ratings reflect the […]