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With a Knick-knack, Sarawack
Elsewhere in Malaysia, the $5 billion, 2,400-megawatt Bakun Dam project is slated to flood a rainforest area the size of Singapore. The government says the dam is needed to help spur economic development and bring new industry to the 2 million residents of Sarawak, the country’s largest state. But opponents say the dam will displace […]
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I Shout, the Shariff
The mayor of Kuala Lumpur, Kamaruzzaman Shariff, announced plans earlier this week to clean up the city by adopting Singapore-style laws to punish litterbugs. He said that contractors in the Malaysian city now pull 44 tons of trash from the city’s rivers every day. Shariff recently visited Singapore and was impressed by the country’s litter-free […]
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How Do We Sleep While Our Labs Are Burning?
Federal authorities believe that two fires in the Northwest may have been set early on Monday by environmentalists opposed to genetic engineering. The arson at the University of Washington in Seattle appeared targeted at research to make genetically engineered trees more commercially viable, but authorities said the fire mostly destroyed or damaged work on endangered […]
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Linking Logs
Huge Asian timber companies now control 90 percent of the $10 billion tropical timber trade and are posing a new threat to the world’s tropical rainforests, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer in a three-part series. The rainforests cover only 6 percent of the planet, but contain two-thirds of the world’s species. In many countries, such as […]
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A Good Yarn
Fairy penguins on the Australian island state of Tasmania are gearing up to survive the winter, as tiny wool jerseys arrive from around the world to help them cope with oil spills. The specially knit outfits stop oil-coated penguins from preening themselves and ingesting the poisonous oil. The Tasmanian Conservation Trust realized it was running […]
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Heckle and Jackal
President Bush encountered widespread protests yesterday when he received an honorary degree and spoke at the commencement of his alma mater, Yale University. Graduating students heckled Bush, held up signs that read “Conservation, Not Consumption” and “Don’t Turn Your Back on the Environment,” and handed out “Got Arsenic?” stickers. Some students from the Yale School […]
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Quiet Riot
Citing concerns about unruly anti-globalization protests, the World Bank yesterday canceled a three-day conference that was to take place next month in Barcelona, Spain. The conference would have gathered academics together to talk about ways to ensure that the poor benefit from lower trade barriers and other aspects of globalization. The city was planning to […]
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There's a Vas Deferens Between Us
A small but growing number of environmentalists in the U.S. have decided to get vasectomies to ensure they don’t have children and contribute to the population problem. Jeff Miller, a 38-year-old activist in Berkeley, Calif., who got a vasectomy when he was 26, said, “It’s one small thing that I can do. There are too […]
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Not So Great, Apes
Some great apes could be extinct within the decade if nothing is done to stop the destruction of their habitat and their slaughter for meat, the U.N. Environment Programme said yesterday in launching a campaign to save the animals. UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said the Great Apes Survival Project needed at least $1 million […]
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Painting the Town Lead
Nearly 3,000 young children were poisoned last year by the lead paint wearing off the old housing in Rhode Island’s cities and towns. The rate of lead-poisoned children is two-and-a-half times higher in Rhode Island than the rest of the U.S.; the rate in Providence is four times higher than elsewhere in the country. Eight […]
