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West of Eden

That Can-do Spirit

Industry experts say Brazil will recycle about 80 percent of the 9.5 billion aluminum cans sold in the country in 2000, putting it on pace to match Japan’s trend-setting rate of 79 percent in 1999. By comparison, the U.S. recycled 63 percent of its cans in 1999 and Europe as a whole recycled 41 percent. […]

Kicking a Two-pack-a-day Habit

The air in Mexico City — described by the U.N. in 1992 as the world’s worst — seems to be getting cleaner. Even as the number of cars and people picks up in the city, tougher environmental rules calling for cleaner fuels, catalytic converters on cars, emissions tests, and limits on industrial pollution have caused […]

What's Mine Is Theirs, What's Theirs Is Mine

A coalition of Canadian and U.S. environmental groups submitted a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt yesterday, asking him to help protect the Taku River watershed from mining. The groups want Babbitt to declare a proposed mining project a hazard to grizzly bears, caribou, and salmon that live in the watershed, which covers a […]

The Rules of the Roadless

Pres. Clinton today moved to put almost a third of the country’s national forestland forever off-limits to road-building and commercial logging. The rule to protect 58.5 million acres of land will effectively prohibit oil and gas drilling as well, and could go a long way toward limiting off-road vehicle access. The road-building ban covers big […]

Shape Up, Don't Ship Out

Environmental groups in India are protesting a plan by a U.S. company to ship about 120 tons of used mercury to India. The chemical company HoltraChem produced the waste mercury in Maine and then sold it to an Illinois trader. The Indian importer and the ultimate destination of the mercury within India have been kept […]

Lean, Green Electoral Machine

Although Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader received only 3 percent of the popular vote nationally, 32 of 240 other Green candidates won elections in 12 states. In all, the party now has in office 79 elected officials in 21 states, each official serving at the municipal level. That number makes the Greens one of […]

Throwing It in Reverse

In a private letter to President-elect George W. Bush, Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah), the incoming chair of the House Resources Committee, has proposed reversing a wide range of the Clinton’s administration’s environmental initiatives. Hansen has suggested easing a ban on snowmobile use in some national parks, taking away some the national monument designations by Pres. […]

Road Worriers

Negotiations between environmental groups and Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes (D) over how to balance air quality and road-building in the Atlanta metro area collapsed this week. The two sides were close to an agreement that would have lifted a freeze on road-building if the state cut emissions from diesel generators and construction equipment, began to […]

Balkan Death Grip

Italy on Wednesday became the latest European country to ask NATO to be more open about the depleted uranium weapons used in past Balkan conflicts. Six Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans have died of leukemia, leaving some wondering whether the deaths might be tied to exposure to the DU ammunition. France, Spain, Portugal, […]