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Stealing the Spotlight

Framing: the Debate

A judge in Mexico is expected to issue a ruling within days on the appeal of two environmental activists who have been convicted of illegally possessing drugs and guns even though the country’s National Human Rights Commission has found that they were framed. The two activists, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, say they were arrested […]

Rudolf, the Sunburned Reindeer

Within 20 years, a new ozone hole could develop over the North Pole, similar to the one that has been expanding dramatically in recent years over the South Pole, according to one of the three British scientists who discovered the damaged ozone layer over the Antarctic in 1985. A hole over the Arctic could affect […]

Bend Over

Big Bend National Park in Texas frequently has the dirtiest air of any of the national parks in the Western U.S., says the National Park Service. On clear days, visibility at the remote park can reach 180 miles or more, but such days are becoming less and less common. Last year there were only 43 […]

Beating Their Breasts

There’s a small but growing movement among breast cancer activists to focus on the environmental factors thought to contribute to the disease. “Women who for years thought the answer was better diagnosis and treatment are now saying that the only way we’re gong to deal with this killer is to reduce our everyday exposure to […]

Woo Is Me

Speaking yesterday before a crowd of more than 30,000 in Madison, Wis., Al Gore stressed the importance of tackling global warming in one of the most spirited speeches he’s given all year. “If the big oil companies and the chemical manufacturers and the other big polluters were able to communicate a message to this state, […]

The Grim Reefer

More than 25 percent of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed by global warming, pollution, and destructive fishing techniques, and most of the rest could be dead in 20 years if serious action isn’t taken to address these problems, according to scientists assembled in Indonesia this week at a major coral reef conference. Global […]

She Shoots, She Scores!

A majority of members of the U.S. Congress voted more often over the past two years to weaken environmental laws than to strengthen them, according to the League of Conservation Voters. This week the group released its 30th annual scorecard rating senators and representatives according to their votes on key environmental issues. Republicans in the […]

Moral Fixation

By 2100, the average world temperature could rise between 2.7 and nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a new draft report by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This estimate is markedly higher than the 1.8 to 6.3 degree rise predicted by the IPCC in 1995. The report also asserts that it is likely […]

Tunnel Vision

China is drawing up plans to use nuclear explosions, in violation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, to blast a 10-mile tunnel through the Himalayas in order to build the world’s largest hydroelectric plant. Work on the project, which is expected to produce more than twice as much power as the controversial Three Gorges Dam […]