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Argwings and a Prayer
Kenyan journalist Argwings Odera was arrested and tortured last month for his attempt to report on protests against the Sondu-Miriu Dam being built on a river that drains into Lake Victoria. Locals and environmentalists, including the Africa Water Network, say land for the hydro project has been taken without fair compensation and the dam will […]
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Anti-Norton Virus
National environmental leaders held a press conference this morning in Washington, D.C., to announce their formal opposition to Gale Norton, President-elect Bush’s choice for Interior secretary. Enviros earlier this week sent a letter to all senators and urged them not to appoint her, saying that she held “extreme” views on property rights and that confirming […]
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Neat-o Research Topic: The Effects of Harpooning on Whale Mortality
The U.S. and Japan have teamed up to ask the International Whaling Commission to evaluate whether killing whales to study them produces better research findings than studying them using non-lethal means. The IWC banned whale hunting in 1986, but Japan has continued to hunt the mammals, saying that the hunts are for scientific research allowed […]
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With a "Whoosh Whoosh" Here and a "Whir Whir" There
The border of Washington and Oregon will soon be home to the world’s largest wind farm, producing enough power for 70,000 homes in 11 Western states. The wind-power company FPL Energy of Florida is beginning construction of the 450-turbine, 300-megawatt project next month and hopes to have it on-line by the end of the year. […]
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The Best Defense Is a Bad Offense
Enviros have taken offense at a 1989 speech by Gale Norton, President-elect Bush’s choice for Interior secretary, in which she suggested that property owners have a “right to pollute.” Worse, in a 1996 speech to the same audience, the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank on whose board she has served, Norton compared conservatives’ attempts […]
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ANWR Sedate
The White House said yesterday that President Clinton will not designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a national monument because he believe that the area is already protected from oil and gas drilling. President-elect Bush and his nominees for Interior and Energy secretaries vigorously support drilling in the refuge. Enviros have been […]
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Marshing to the Beat of a Different Drummer
Federal conservation laws have cut the rate of wetland loss in the U.S. by about 80 percent, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Between 1986 and 1997, the report said, the lower 48 states lost an average of 58,500 acres of wetlands a year, compared to 290,000 acres […]
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Turtle Dove
A T-shirt sparked Kris Williams’s passion for saving turtles on Georgia’s Wassaw Island. The so-called Turtle Babe is head of the Caretta Research Project, a shoestring effort that is the oldest turtle conservation project in North America. Read more on the Grist Magazine website. In other turtle news, it seems that Williams’s counterparts in India […]
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Honkless Kong
Hong Kong plans to create car-free zones in parts of its central business district to improve the city’s air quality. Just this week, high pollution levels prompted government officials to urge people with respiratory and heart problems to stay indoors. Late last year, the city legislature more than doubled the penalty placed on dirty cars […]
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What Rubbish
In a setback to environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court today limited the scope of the Clean Water Act, saying that an Illinois solid waste agency could locate a trash dump in a remote wetland area used by migratory birds. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had blocked the landfill, claiming authority to do so under […]
