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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 […]

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 […]

Hot Kofi

Three days after President Bush unveiled his energy plan, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the Bush administration for its stance on climate change and suggested that the U.S. should do more to conserve energy. At a commencement address yesterday in Massachusetts, Annan also rejected the idea espoused by the administration that implementing the Kyoto treaty […]

Wait, I Thought the Bengals Were From Cincinnati

In the biggest donation of its kind, General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, is giving $10 million to protect 30,000 acres of coastal rainforest in southern Brazil, the Nature Conservancy said last week. GM may get pollution credits sometime in the future for preserving the forest and its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the […]

Didn't Cheech and Chong Already Think of This?

Hemp cars could be ready to hit the road within a decade, say researchers in Australia. Alan Crosky of the University of New South Wales says hemp is the most viable biodegradable material to use for car bodies, beating out coconuts and banana trees in early studies. Crosky thinks car owners will soon save money […]

Activists Disappearing Almost As Fast As Forests

Since the end of a seven-year civil war in Liberia in 1997, rainforests in the country have been cut down at an unprecedented rate, say environmentalists. Foreign companies, along with the country’s president, Charles Taylor, and his inner circle, have pocketed the profits from logging, while ordinary citizens have seen few benefits. Protests are rare […]

Adam Markham, Clean Air-Cool Planet

Adam Markham is executive director of Clean Air-Cool Planet, a climate advocacy group dedicated to helping the Northeast lead the way in halting global warming. Monday, 21 May 2001 PORTSMOUTH, N.H. Monday is one of the days I drop my daughter, Tessa, off at day care. I left her excitedly demonstrating to her teacher how […]

Reduce, Reuse, Cycle

To commemorate Bike Commute Week in California, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown biked to City Hall yesterday, then took a limo ride back home for a shower. Eight members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors also biked to work (no word on where they showered). Nationwide, less than 2 percent of Americans commute by bike, […]

Roll Out the Barrels

Did anyone expect such early international criticism of President Bush’s energy plan? Yesterday, Jan Pronk, the head of U.N. talks on climate change and the Dutch environment minister, described the plan as a “disastrous development” that would “undoubtedly” lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. A press release issued by Friends of the Earth in the […]

Putting It in Reverse

The average fuel economy of new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last year dropped to the lowest levels since 1980, according to a new report by the U.S. Transportation Department. President Bush’s energy plan released yesterday calls for a review of fuel-economy standards once the National Academy of Sciences completes a study of […]