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Golly G.E.

Environmental groups and officials in New York state are concerned that General Electric may be making headway in its campaign to scuttle a federal plan forcing it to dredge the Hudson River for pollution. U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced in August that she would proceed with a $500 million, Clinton-era plan to order G.E. […]

Frank-enstein

U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) is threatening to delay all action in the Senate unless Democratic leaders agree to let an energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling reach the Senate floor. A Murkowski ally, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), has proposed to tack the entire GOP energy bill onto a […]

Organophos-fate

To the dismay of pesticide-makers, a federal judge on Wednesday approved a settlement between enviros and the U.S. EPA that will speed up a review of the safety of pesticides in the food supply. The agency now has until next August to assess the risks of 39 commonly used organophosphates, a class of highly toxic […]

Hello, Newmont!

Hundreds of demonstrators blocked a major highway in northern Peru this week, demanding that the largest gold mine in Latin America be shut down because it was contaminating local water supplies with mercury. Peru’s energy and mines minister, Jaime Quijandria, said it was “simply and totally impossible” for the water to have been contaminated by […]

Chilly Con Carnage

As an alternative to traditional funerals, Swedish ecologist Susanne Wiigh-Masak is recommending a greener way to go — freeze-dried cadavers that work well as fertilizer. She recommends plunging dead bodies into liquid nitrogen, blasting them with ultrasound waves, and then turning them into dust with the tap of a hammer. The remains would then be […]

Catch a Poacher By the Toe

f tigers at the Panna Tiger Reserve in India has more than doubled, and enviros are calling on the government to expand the reserve’s successful conservation practices to other areas. The Panna population has grown from two to three tigers per 40 square miles to seven to eight tigers — a number high enough for […]

Ma-hog-any

Loggers are illegally cutting the mahogany forests of the Kayapo Indians in the Amazon, according to evidence presented yesterday to the Brazilian government by Greenpeace. Most mahogany logging was banned in Brazil in 1996, and logging of any kind is not permitted on Indian lands. Of the 13 companies that hold permits for sustainable mahogany […]

Truck Start

The U.S. Energy Department this week lifted a moratorium on the shipment of low-level nuclear waste that was imposed on the day of the terrorist attacks. The waste is usually transported along highways by truck to storage sites like the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. A spokesperson for the department, Joe Davis, wouldn’t […]

NMFS-o-maniacs

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has been hurting salmon recovery more than it has been helping it, according to a scathing draft report completed in August 2000 but not made public until Monday. Officials from Okanogan County, Wash., released copies of the document after it had been leaked to them. The report by the […]

Life in the Fast Lane

After more than a week of fasting to protest the giant Sardar Sarovar hydroelectric dam being built by the Indian government, environmental activist Medha Patkar has been told by a doctor that she is weak and should go to the hospital. Patkar and six others began their hunger strikes on 17 Sep., demanding that the […]