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Appease in a Pod
In a compromise meant to appease both industry and environmentalists, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark today banned all commercial uses of genetically modified organisms for the next two years, while allowing GMO field tests to begin. Test plantings of such crops as peas and petunias could be start within the next year; the government […]
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Sigh. Gone
Vietnam is just a formality away from building a new highway that will cut through the nation’s oldest national park. Environmentalists say the controversial Ho Chi Minh Highway, which would link Hanoi in the north with Ho Chi Minh City in the south, poses a serious threat to rare and endangered species in Cuc Phuong […]
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Built Ford Tough
William Clay Ford, Jr., is taking over as CEO of his great-granddaddy’s company, following the resignation today of Jacques Nasser. The changing of the guard at the Ford Motor Company could mean that environmentalists will gain an even more powerful ally in traditionally enemy territory; the younger Ford has a reputation for being unusually eco-friendly […]
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Sun Francisco Giants
San Francisco could become the nation’s leader in alternative energy use if voters approve two solar-energy ballot measures at the polls next week. Propositions B and H would enable the city to sell bonds to install solar panels on residential, commercial, and government rooftops, creating the largest solar power infrastructure in the United States. Advocates […]
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Morocco, Mo' Talk
Close to 4,000 people from 163 countries converged on Marrakech, Morocco, today for the beginning of a two-week conference on the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The opening was characterized by unusually heavy security, because the conference is the largest international gathering to be held since Sept. 11 and the first in a Muslim country. […]
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Less Than Ground Zero
Six weeks after the attacks that reduced the World Trade Center to a pile of rubble in lower Manhattan, dust and fires from Ground Zero are releasing toxic chemicals and metals into the air in quantities far greater than initially reported. Although U.S. and New York EPA officials have consistently downplayed the environmental hazards, government […]
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Cut That Out
California’s largest timber company, Sierra Pacific Industries, will shift its logging practices from selective thinning to clear-cutting on 70 percent of the 1.5 million acres it owns in the state. Company representatives say the clear-cutting will take place along ridgelines or roads, allowing firefighters better access to control wildfires. But environmentalists say clear-cutting actually increases […]
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Richard Murphy, Ocean Futures Society
Richard Murphy is a marine biologist who has traveled all over the world with Jacques Cousteau and his son, Jean-Michel, exploring, helping to organize filming expeditions, and doing research. He works for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society as a writer, scientist, photographer, and educator. Monday, 29 Oct 2001 SANTA CRUZ, Calif. I began this week […]
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Going Ba-Nenanas
Is the climate changing? You bet. Or residents of Nenana, Alaska do, anyway. For the last 84 years, the folks in Nenana, 230 miles north of Anchorage, have been placing bets on when the ice would break up on the nearby Tanana River. The annual guessing game, known locally as the Nenana Ice Classic, allowed […]
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Grizzlies: Add 'Em
A bid to scrap a plan to reintroduce grizzly bears along the Montana-Idaho border was overwhelmingly rejected by the public, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Although 98 percent of the 28,000 comments supported reintroducing grizzlies to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, a representative for Interior Secretary Gale Norton said this week that the final […]
