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He Blinded Me With "Sound Science"
Provoking jeers from environmentalists, the U.S. EPA said yesterday that it would delay until next February a decision on how much arsenic should be allowed in drinking water. A rule approved by former President Clinton would have changed the current standard of 50 parts per billion of arsenic in water, first set in 1942, to […]
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"POP" Goes the Weasel
With Earth Day on Sunday and his environmental record under attack, President Bush this morning announced that he will sign and ask the Senate to ratify a treaty to ban or reduce the use of 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), chemicals like PCBs and pesticides that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and genetic […]
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Quebicker
Thirty-four heads of state are gathering tomorrow in Quebec for the Third Summit of the Americans to help write a free trade pact for the Western Hemisphere. Hoards of protesters are on hand, too, concerned that the proposed pact — the Free Trade Area of the Americas — will jeopardize workers’ rights and environmental protections. […]
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The Apples of Our Eye
Not only are organically grown apples better for the environment than conventionally grown apples, but they also taste yummier and can lead to more profits for farmers, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. The six-year study by researchers at Washington State University is one of the first to give scientific backing […]
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Auctionable Offense
Interior Secretary Gale Norton has rejected an appeal from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) to immediately cancel plans to auction off 6 million acres of offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Even as his older brother, President Bush, talked up the need to open up areas all over the country to […]
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All Choked Up
Fertilizer-soaked sediment is choking off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, putting its long-term survival into question, says the Australian Institute of Marine Science. After compiling the work of 30 scientists around the world, a researcher for the institute found that much of the wetlands and rainforests along the Queensland coast neighboring the reef have been cleared […]
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Galluping to the Rescue
A Gallup poll released yesterday showed that Americans favored environmental protections over energy drilling and economic growth. And it found that the public didn’t agree with President Bush’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Almost 60 percent of respondents to a recent CBS News poll opposed Bush’s decision “not to reduce […]
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Green Day
Hit hard with criticism about its environmental record, the Bush administration for the second day in a row let stand an environmental rule approved by former President Clinton and upheld a plan affecting industry’s lead emissions. The decision, announced yesterday by U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman, means that companies will be required to report […]
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Dust in the Wind
Particulate pollution quadrupled across a quarter of the U.S. last weekend because of a dust storm from Mongolia that picked up industrial pollution in China. Some scientists have claimed for years that pollution can spread from China to the U.S., causing air quality to plummet. Russ Schnell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said […]
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Marsh Mellow
In a defeat for developers, the Bush administration said yesterday it wouldn’t try to weaken a rule approved by former President Clinton to expand protections to tens of thousands of acres of wetlands. The rule requires developers to obtain permits under the Clean Water Act for many basic activities such as digging artificial lakes, constructing […]
