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No Way, Says Jose
Wielding scythes and shears, hundreds of protesters hacked down two test fields of genetically engineered corn in southeast France on Sunday. The incident was the fifth such protest against biotech foods in France since late June. Jose Bove, a French farmer who is one of the world’s leading anti-globalization activists, has called for a campaign […]
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Yankee Doodle Dandies
Tired of waiting for the U.S. federal government to act, New England governors, including three Republicans, joined yesterday with Eastern Canadian premiers to vow to cut the region’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, and 10 percent below that by 2020. No regional or international agency exists to enforce the deal, but the […]
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Missile Offense
Enviros and arms-control groups are suing the Pentagon today over its plans for a new missile defense test range in the Pacific. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and a number of Alaska-based plaintiffs charge that the Defense Department must conduct an analysis of the environmental impact of missile testing on […]
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North Duck-ota
Farmers in several North Dakota counties have stopped plowing under one-fourth of their cropland in exchange for dependable annual payments under the conservation reserve program. Farmer Patty Hofmann said, “Cropping wheat is just very risky and expensive, and we would have lost our farm if we hadn’t signed up for the conservation program.” How well […]
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Paris-stroika
In his quest to make Paris greener, the city’s new Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, wants to add more than 25 miles of bus lanes and discourage more cars from coming into the city. “Today, private motorists, who make up a quarter of road users, use up 94 percent of Paris’s road surfaces. I have a […]
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Label-minded
The Bush administration is pressuring the European Union to drop new restrictions on genetically engineered foods. Last month, the European Commission gave preliminary approval to require labeling on most biotech foods. Administration officials say the rules would discriminate against U.S. products and violate World Trade Organization requirements. They say that the rules could cost U.S. […]
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In the Drink
The gasoline additive MTBE, a known carcinogen, has already leaked into 48 public wells that provide water to hundreds of thousands of Californians, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis of state data. The additive is leaking from 1,189 underground storage tanks within 1,000 feet of public wells or drinking water aquifers, threatening the water […]
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Kathleen Whitley, Sustainable Energy Alliance of Long Island
Kathleen Whitley, a Long Island native, is program manager of the Sustainable Energy Alliance of Long Island. Sunday, 26 Aug 2001 LONG ISLAND, N.Y. It’s an interesting story how I came to be writing these diaries for Grist Magazine. Two months ago, I happened to be in Loudoun County, Va., with my oldest daughter’s softball […]
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We've Got Mail
Whoa, writes a Grist reader, don’t criticize Ford for making hybrid SUVs in lieu of more efficient cars. She says SUVs are the way to go in the Rocky Mountains in the winter, so they might as well be SUVs that burn less fuel. Another reader writes in with his own twist on the slogan […]
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Department of Offense
The Pentagon may ask the U.S. Congress to rewrite the Endangered Species Act to exempt military training exercises from restrictions to protect sea turtles, desert tortoises, and other rare critters. Defense Department documents leaked to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility propose that the secretary of defense be able to “grant exemptions for reasons of mission […]
