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Getting Their Just Deserts
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and enviros reached an agreement this week to reduce road access and add protections for species in 11.5 million acres of desert in Southern California. The deal, which settles a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, bans grazing on […]
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Norton, Your Life
In a Senate hearing yesterday that had Democrats lining up on one side, Republicans on the other, President-elect Bush’s choice for Interior secretary, Gale Norton, described herself as a both a “compassionate conservative and a passionate conservationist” and sought to soften some of her most controversial stands in the past. Norton disavowed a 1991 speech […]
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Amazon.gone
As little as 5 percent of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil may remain as pristine forest by 2020, according to a study published today in the journal Science. The researchers say that Brazil’s plan to invest $40 billion on development projects in the Amazon Basin will overwhelm conservation efforts. The 1.3 million-square-mile Amazon forest makes […]
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50,000,000 Maine-iacs
The Nature Conservancy said yesterday that it had raised $50 million to conserve land in Maine, the group’s most expensive conservation project yet. Thirty million dollars will buy 185,000 acres along the Upper St. John River, the largest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi, with the remaining millions funding some 35 other conservation projects. The […]
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Label's Love Lost
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday proposed rules for companies to voluntarily label foods that aren’t genetically engineered — but it refused requests from environmental and consumer groups to require mandatory labels on all foods that are genetically engineered. The proposed rules, now open for public comment, would also require companies to notify the […]
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As Regulation Time Expires …
The U.S. EPA yesterday reduced the amount of arsenic allowable in drinking water by 80 percent, a shift that the agency said would boost health protections for about 13 million Americans. The new rule would reduce the allowed arsenic level to 10 parts per billion, down from the 1942 standard of 50 parts per billion. […]
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Are You There God? It's Me, Blubber
Defying an international trade ban, Norway said this week that it would permit whale blubber and meat to be exported from the country. Norway resumed whaling in 1993, despite an international moratorium on the practice, but until now it has refused to allow exports. Currently, some 600 tons of whale blubber and other whale parts […]
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Earth, Wind, Less Fire
Germany increased its wind power production by 1,668 megawatts last year, maintaining its big lead as the top wind power powerhouse in the world. Germany now has the capacity to put out 6,113 MW of wind power, compared to about 2,500 MW by the U.S., the world’s second largest wind producer. Germany’s wind units now […]
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Slim-Budget Whitman
New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R), President-elect Bush’s choice to head the U.S. EPA, was warmly received by both Democrats and Republicans during a Senate hearing on her nomination today. Sen. Bob Torricelli (D-NJ), who introduced Whitman before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called her nomination “a very wise selection.” National environmental […]
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Everglades Airport: Just Plane Wrong
In a big victory for environmentalists, the Clinton administration rejected a proposal yesterday to convert a former U.S. Air Force base near the Florida Everglades into a commercial airport. Enviros argued that an airport at the Homestead base would create significant pollution and threaten the ecosystems of two nearby parks, the Everglades, 10 miles away, […]
