Uncategorized

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Con-servation

A con artist has been selling big tracts of land in the Amazon to gullible American and European enviros, saying the land will be protected forever, according to an investigation by the Brazilian government. Falb Saraiva de Farias, the head of a Brazilian NGO called Forever Green, claimed to have title to 15 million acres […]

The Engine of Progress

At the annual Detroit auto show today, Ford announced plans to introduce a new technology to Ford Explorers in 2004 to raise their fuel efficiency 42 percent, from 19 to 27 miles per gallon. The electric technology, which will cost willing buyers less than $1,000 extra, will boost fuel efficiency and lower emissions by automatically […]

A Sign of Intel-ligence

Eight high tech firms, including Intel, Microsoft, AT&T, and 3Com, have agreed to boycott products from old-growth forests. Intel said the pressure to make the policy came from within the company and from shareholders. At least one company, Yahoo!, declined to join the boycott, which is being organized by the group Forests Ethics. Savvy Grist […]

Pinch Me!

In something out of a dream for environmentalists, U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck yesterday barred cutting of all old-growth trees on national forests. Andy Stahl, head of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, said the policy could have greater impact than the rule released last week by the Clinton administration to ban road-building on […]

Vole: De Mort

Despite some improvements in recent years, the U.K.’s environment is still in jeopardy, according to a report by the country’s Environment Agency. John Murlis, the agency’s chief scientist, said, “The current state of our environment makes it clear we must take greater responsibility for our consumerist, throwaway society.” The report says that urban air quality […]

I Dunno, Alaska

Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D) said on Friday his state would sue to try to prevent President Clinton’s road-building ban from applying to the Tongass and Chugach national forests. Knowles contends that the Alaskan forests should be exempted from the ban because management plans recently approved for the forests after an exhaustive fight between the […]