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Kelp Wanted
Seaweed Day in Japan was a bummer yesterday for environmentalists and fishers. They are in a tizzy over a project to reclaim land on what was the country’s largest tidal wetland on Isahaya Bay in the Ariake Sea. The government closed flood-control dikes and ramped up its project to convert the wetland to solid ground […]
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So Much for the Rule of the Law
To the delight of the timber, energy, and mining industries, the Bush administration has delayed for at least two months former President Clinton’s plan to ban road-building and logging on 58.5 million acres of national forest land. However, because the plan was published in the Federal Register before President Bush took office, enviros are saying […]
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Tamayo, Tamayo, I Love You, Tamayo
Mexican President Vicente Fox met yesterday with supporters of two jailed environmental activists and asked his lawyers to review whether the activists had been framed. Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who led peasant farmers in Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero in protests against rampant logging in their region, have been sentenced to seven and 10 […]
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Get a Piece of the Rock — Before It Goes Under Water
An increase in natural disasters as a result of global warming could cost the world more than $300 billion a year by 2050, says a report to the U.N. by one of the world’s largest reinsurers, Munich Re. The report says the losses would be the consequence of more tropical storms, loss of land due […]
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Remorse Cod
Ozone layer depletion may be contributing to the decline of cod stocks in New England, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Using lab experiments, researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that ultraviolet radiation penetrating the atmosphere could be fatal or debilitating to cod embryos and larvae, which live […]
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That's About How Many Voted for Gore and Nader
Some 53 percent of Americans oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, while 33 percent favor the idea, according to a poll taken at the end of January by the Associated Press. Former President Carter is continuing his campaign to protect the refuge, saying that drilling would provide only six […]
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I Do Not Like Green Aches and Dams, I Do Not Like Them, Salmon I Am
Never mind consumers hit with big energy bills or utilities on the edge of bankruptcy — salmon may be the ones most screwed by the power problems afflicting the Western U.S. For example, to avoid buying power from others at super high costs, the Bonneville Power Administration stepped up power production at federal dams last […]
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Chop Shoo-ey
More than 100 state-owned restaurants in Beijing promised this month to “go green” and start washing and reusing chopsticks. The federal government in China is considering a tax on disposable chopsticks, and Shanghai and other cities are considering a ban on them. Environmentalists say the changes indicate that Chinese citizens are beginning to realize that […]
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It's All About the Benjamins
To maintain public interest and grow their membership lists, environmental groups are having to become increasingly sophisticated marketers. For example, the Nature Conservancy is spending $1 million to pilot TV and print ads featuring Paul Newman in Portland, Ore., Denver, Colo., and Charlotte, N.C. The National Wildlife Federation recently joined McDonald’s for a Happy Meals […]
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Pest-o, Change-o
About 30 percent of pesticides sold in developing countries do not meet international health and environmental standards, according to two U.N. agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization. The FAO’s Gero Vaagt said the pesticides “frequently contain hazardous substances and impurities that have already been banned or severely restricted” in developed countries. […]
