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Dragon Slayers
Decades of rapid economic growth have brought China increased wealth, longer lives, and lower infant mortality rates — and spectacular environmental problems. The tiny village of Dragon Range tells the story writ small. In the 1960s, the rural town welcomed nearby factories because the workers there purchased their crops; four decades later, Dragon Range is […]
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The Greatest Cape
The Global Environment Facility has awarded $1 million to help preserve a rugged wilderness area in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. In addition to being the largest protected area in the Eastern Cape and the source of 85 percent of drinking water for nearby Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the Baviaanskloof wilderness preserve contains more than 1,100 […]
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Summertime, and the Conservin' Was Easy
Summer has passed and dire predictions of blackouts in California as a result of the state’s much-publicized energy crisis have gone unfulfilled. Instead, California now has more power than it can use and leads the country in energy conservation. A whopping third of the state’s ratepayers have taken part in a new state initiative that […]
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Hot Rods
As U.S. officials scramble to improve security at the nation’s 103 operating nuclear power plants, a new safety concern has emerged: stockpiles of spent nuclear fuel rods. Many authorities believe that an attack on the fuel — which has been removed from reactors but is still radioactive — could be even more disastrous than an […]
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Excuse Me, Can You Tell Me Where the Life Is?
“A New Map of Life on Earth,” a new project of the World Wildlife Fund, charts the natural world in unprecedented detail and may help environmentalists figure out where to best direct their efforts. The project, which took eight years and the labor of more than 1,000 people to complete, divides the Earth into 867 […]
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Thought for Food
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has approved a precedent-setting, legally binding framework for protecting the genetic diversity of the world’s crops. The deal reached over the weekend marks the culmination of years of difficult negotiations between poor countries and environmentalists on the one hand, and developed nations and multinational corporations on the other. Under […]
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Jason Anderson and Rob Bradley, Climate Network Europe
Jason Anderson and Rob Bradley are energy specialists at Climate Network Europe in Brussels. CNE is the European node of the Climate Action Network, which unites nongovernmental organizations working on domestic and international climate change issues. Monday, 5 Nov 2001 MARRAKECH, Morocco Jason Anderson After a week at the 7th Conference of Parties to the […]
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Insurance Adjustment
Insurance companies have joined the babel weighing in on climate change during negotiations being held in Marrakech, Morocco, this week and next. Speaking to conference delegates yesterday, some of the world’s largest insurers and banks warned that global climate change would cause drastic increases in weather-related disasters like hurricanes and floods. Since the 1960s, insurance […]
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Another Bombshell
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Muhammad el-Baradei, warned yesterday that the events of Sept. 11 have increased concerns that terrorists might try to fashion nuclear weapons or launch attacks directly against nuclear facilities. El-Baradei’s remarks came one day after the U.S. restricted airspace around all nuclear power plants due to security concerns, […]
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"Failure to Act" — Can We Blame Hollywood?
A coalition of California environmental, health, and community organizations sued the U.S. EPA yesterday for neglecting to enforce clean air standards in the state’s infamously smoggy Central Valley. An EPA official acknowledged that the agency had “failed to act” on a 1997 plan to improve air quality and said the lawsuit would force the agency […]
