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Carbon Stink
Old-growth forests are much better at removing carbon dioxide from the air than plantations of new forests, concludes a new study published today in the journal Science. In negotiations over an international treaty on climate change, the U.S., along with Canada and Russia, is proposing to meet as much as half of its greenhouse gas […]
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Cheap Oil
BP is gearing up to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska, a highly controversial venture that has been the target of protests by enviros. The project in the Northstar field of the Beaufort Sea could get underway as soon as November, and another similar project in the Liberty […]
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Where the Rubbers Meet the Road
Lack of promised funding from the U.S. and other industrialized nations has led to a severe shortage of condoms in the developing world, hampering efforts to curtail population growth, stem the spread of HIV, and give people the means to control the size of their families, according to a report released this week by the […]
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Fish Ain't Brain Food Anymore
The U.S. EPA is expected to announce as early as next week a plan to begin regulating dangerous mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Mercury contamination is believed to cause neurological damage in some 60,000 babies born each year in the U.S., and the damage may affect kids’ performance in school, according to a report […]
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Stop, Children, What's That Sound?
This fall National Park Service officials are expected to ask all park superintendents to come up with plans for limiting noise in national parks and protecting the “soundscape,” or the natural sounds unique to each area. “All of a sudden, places that look the same as 100 to 200 years ago don’t sound like they […]
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Occupational Hazard
More than 100 environmental activists occupied Al Gore’s campaign office in Olympia, Wash., yesterday to protest the veep’s ties to Occidental Petroleum, a U.S. corporation with plans to drill for oil on rainforest land in Colombia claimed by the indigenous U’wa tribe. Police arrested 10 of the activists, the second occasion this year on which […]
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Getting a Little Pokey in Her Old Age
Betty Krawczyk, a 72-year-old great-grandmother and romance writer, has become a hero to many Canadian environmental activists after being sentenced to a year in prison for peacefully protesting against the logging of ancient forests in the Elaho Valley in British Columbia. As she began serving her term yesterday, she said, “If I was out today, […]
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Baby Boom
Babies born today in the Chernobyl area of Ukraine face as big a risk of contracting radiation-related illnesses as children who lived there during the deadly 1986 nuclear explosion, according to research released yesterday by Israeli scientists. Thyroid, liver, and other diseases were more prevalent among children in the area than among unexposed children, the […]
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States of Grace
New York, Hawaii, and California have made the most progress in improving their energy efficiency over the last 20 years, while Alaska and North Dakota have made the least, according to a study released this week by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Overall, the U.S. cut its energy intensity — or energy used […]
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Research and Destroy
Japan’s whaling fleet has returned home with 88 carcasses — 40 minke whales, 43 Bryde’s, and five sperm. The Japanese government announced yesterday that it plans to continue its controversial hunt for the three species next year, maintaining that the nation has a right to conduct “scientific” whaling, though the meat from the whales is […]
