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Visibly Upset
Air pollution at national parks may be costing more than $4 billion in tourist dollars, according to a study commissioned by three environmental groups. Pollution in national parks in the East like the Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah has caused summer visibility to fall to 12 miles from 80 to 90 miles, while visibility in […]
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I've Got a Little List
The Sierra Club is running an $8 million campaign to promote candidates it likes (mostly Democrats with a few Republicans thrown in) and attack candidates it does not. The group’s good guys include Reps. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), Lane Evans (D-Ill.), Joseph Hoeffel (D-Pa.), Rush Holt (D-N.J.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash), Jim Leach (R-Iowa), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), […]
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Yeah, I'm the Tax, Man
Automakers avoided $10.2 billion in taxes on 1999 models of SUVs, pick-up trucks, vans, and minivans because of a loophole in the law establishing fuel-efficiency standards, says Friends of the Earth. Automakers are required to pay a tax on gas-guzzling passenger cars that don’t meet fuel-efficiency standards, but light-duty trucks are currently exempt from the […]
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Schoolhouse Rocks
Los Angeles is at the center of small surge in solar energy use. The L.A. Convention Center, which housed the Democratic convention earlier this month, has installed 15,000 square feet of solar panels and has plans for more. City Hall and the Department of Water and Power are next, and the zoo is designing a […]
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Holey Ozone, Batman!
The ozone hole over the Antarctic will likely be larger this year than last, as ozone depletion has been usually severe so far this year, the World Meteorological Organization announced yesterday. Ozone depletion normally begins in August, peaks in October, and recovers by early December; the worst depletion was recorded in 1998. This month, four […]
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A Pendley for Your Thoughts
Two property rights groups are challenging five new national monuments in court. The Mountain States Legal Foundation and the BlueRibbon Coalition claim that President Clinton exceeded his authority this year by protecting 1.5 million acres in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington with monument status. William Perry Pendley of the foundation said that Clinton is only […]
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Movin' On Up
Global warming could dramatically change a third of the world’s plant and animal habitat and drive some species to extinction by 2100, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund. The report says that areas in the high northern latitudes, such as northern Russia, Scandinavia, and Canada, are likely to be hardest hit, with […]
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Big Brother Is Watching
An eco-friendly bandit, Shiv Kumar, has eluded police for decades in the forests of north-central India, taking on illegal loggers and once gunning down a poacher for killing black bucks. Kumar, also known as Dadua, or “big brother,” has 241 criminal charges on his police record, ranging from extortion to murder, but forestry officials view […]
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The Prisoner's Dilemma
Rodolfo Montiel Flores, a poor Mexican farmer and environmental activist who was arrested in May 1999 on what enviro and human rights groups say are trumped up charges, was sentenced yesterday to nearly seven years in prison. A district judge in the Mexican state of Guerrero found Montiel guilty of drugs and weapons crimes, though […]
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Pumices, Pumices
After a decade-long struggle, 13 Native American tribes and the Sierra Club have finally succeeded in closing down a strip mine in Arizona that supplied much of the pumice used around the world to make stonewashed denim. Federal officials and the mining company signed an agreement yesterday to shut down the mining operation within six […]
