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Kiss My Arsenic

Pressure-treated wood used to build playgrounds, decks, and docks is leaking arsenic at unsafe levels, according to an investigation by the St. Petersburg Times. The arsenic comes from a pesticide applied to the lumber to protect it from termites and rot. Florida officials say the arsenic is leaking at levels dozens to hundreds of times […]

How Low Can You Go?

Al Thieme, Cascadia Wild!

Al Thieme is an animal tracker, naturalist educator, and executive director for Cascadia Wild!, a conservation and environmental education organization. Currently, he is searching for forest carnivores in Mt. Hood National Forest. Monday, 12 Mar 2001 MT. HOOD, Ore. I’m standing in the White River Canyon on Mt. Hood. Flows of iridescent snow court Mother […]

U. Be Illin'

The U.S. EPA has a new target for its investigations — universities and colleges that aren’t complying with environmental laws. “Our inspectors have not been on one campus where they have not found serious problems,” says Rene Henry in the EPA’s Philadelphia office. For example, Boston University was fined $750,000 in 1997 after a tank […]

J. Griles Bandit

The Bush administration announced yesterday that the president will nominate coal and energy industry lobbyist J. Steven Griles to serve as second-in-command at the Interior Department. Griles first got to know Interior Secretary Gale Norton when both worked at the Interior Department during the Reagan era; back then, Griles helped oversee mining and water issues. […]

I Love Parris in the Springtime

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) today created the country’s first statewide commission to ensure that poor and minority communities don’t bear the brunt of environmental pollution. Glendening said, “There are communities that tend to be politically less powerful because the family members are too busy struggling for survival. And as a result, they get dumped […]

Analyze This!

The Canadian government is failing to adequately protect its citizens from toxic chemicals, according to a report released today by an advisory group to Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The report recommends that the government spend millions of dollars to analyze new and existing pesticides and other chemicals for risks, clarify which federal agencies are responsible […]

Put This in Your Pipeline and Smoke It

Guess what? A survey paid for by oil-happy Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) found that 75 percent of Alaskans support opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Environmentalists are also confronting another problem — industry says many more pipelines need to be built to boost the amount of natural gas available to […]

Exploratory Committee

The governors of Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming told the U.S. House Resources Committee yesterday that they would welcome more oil, gas, and coal exploration in their states. The committee’s chair, James Hansen (R-Utah), agreed with them that policies discouraging energy exploration on federal lands have contributed to the energy problems facing California and other parts […]

A Dog-Eat-Corn-Dog World

In the first federal bailout related to genetically engineered food, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced yesterday that it will buy as many as 400,000 bags of corn seed that contain the genetically modified (GM) corn variety StarLink. Using up to $20 million in funds normally lent to farmers facing natural disasters, the government will compensate […]