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A New Lease on Life

Washington, D.C.-based Conservation International is trying a new approach to saving natural areas in developing countries: leasing trees. CI is working on a deal to buy the logging rights for up to 25 years for 200,000 acres of pristine rainforest in southern Guyana in South America, planning to spend several million dollars to protect the […]

MTVP

In an MTV town meeting yesterday in Ann Arbor, Mich., Al Gore said that after long deliberation he had sided with paper bags over plastic, more out of personal preference than solid scientific evidence that plastic was worse for the environment. On a more serious note, one student tempted to vote for Ralph Nader in […]

Cruise Controls

The U.S. Justice Department has joined Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D) and environmentalists in criticizing proposed cruise ship legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), saying it would legalize the dumping at sea of toxic chemicals like the dry-cleaning solvent PERC. Department officials said the new legislation would make prosecutions difficult or impossible by contradicting […]

Time for a Czech Up

Thousands of Austrian environmental activists blocked border crossings between their country and the Czech Republic on Friday to protest a new Czech nuclear power plant just 40 miles from the Austrian border that is scheduled to start up soon. Austria, which decided to be nuke-free in 1978, is also threatening to try to block the […]

Swamp Thing

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favor of a $7.8 billion plan to restore the Florida Everglades over the next 30 to 40 years, the largest environmental restoration undertaking in history. The bill calls for a massive construction project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restore the water flow through the 300-mile-long […]

Pot Calling the Kettle Black Gold

Explaining that he was tired of hearing Al Gore represent himself as a crusader against Big Oil “over and over and over again,” GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney said yesterday that Gore should either recuse himself from Clinton administration energy policies or divest the Gore family trust of its holdings in the Occidental Petroleum […]

Taco Hell

Kraft Foods announced a nationwide recall on Friday of Taco Bell-brand taco shells found to contain small amounts of a genetically modified corn variety not approved for human consumption because it may cause allergies. The corn, known as StarLink, has been approved as animal feed, but in an effort to reassure the public, the manufacturer […]

Make a Run for the Border

A U.S. law meant to keep heavily polluting cars in Mexico from entering California has yet to be enforced, even though it went into effect 17 months ago. U.S. Customs Service officials in the state admit they have not imposed any fines or denied entry to a single vehicle, saying they are waiting for direction […]

Amanda Gibbs, Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society

Amanda Gibbs, a former radio and print reporter, is a senior associate with the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, or IMPACS. Canada’s first nonprofit public relations and media training organization, IMPACS regularly works with large and small conservation and social justice groups to help “turn up the volume” on citizen action, participation, and […]

More Bangkok for Your Buick

Millions of people in more than 800 cities in 30 countries are participating in a car-free day today, according to Margot Wallstroem, environment commissioner for the European Union. The day — marked throughout Europe and in other spots from Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv — is aimed at raising awareness about pollution and traffic congestion, […]