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Same Old, Shame Old
Tiny particles of air pollution from power plants, vehicles, and other sources are causing notable rises in hospital visits and deaths among elderly Americans, according to a new study by scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the Harvard School of Public Health. The study, which examined data from the nation’s 90 largest metropolitan areas, found […]
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Talkin' Bout Power Generation
Vice President Al Gore began unveiling a plan yesterday to spend more than $125 billion over the next decade to put the U.S. on the path to clean energy and reduce its dependence on foreign oil. He proposed tax breaks and other incentives for businesses that clean up their polluting power plants and factories and […]
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Kiss My Jackass
Enviros and bird lovers are scrambling to rescue thousands of jackass penguins on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, after a tanker carrying 1,300 tons of fuel oil sank nearby on Friday, causing a serious oil spill. About 2,000 oil-covered penguins have already been removed from the island and brought to […]
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Rosy Parks
With political support and funding levels up, urban parks in the U.S. are in the midst of their biggest boom in the last 50 years. From Houston to San Francisco to Chicago, neighborhood park activists have become increasingly successful at getting city hall to focus on their concerns. Another big shift has been the amount […]
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Thy Staff, They Comfort Me
A harsh internal report leaked to the press yesterday accuses the World Bank of violating its own environmental and human rights policies by agreeing to fund a controversial resettlement project in western China. The $40 million project, which the bank tentatively approved last year, seeks to move about 58,000 poor farmers to areas traditionally inhabited […]
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Drills and Chills
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the federal government must pay Mobil Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. $156 million to compensate the companies for money they lost after Congress limited oil drilling in North Carolina’s Outer Banks area. In 1981, the oil companies paid $156 million to the government for the right to explore […]
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Double-U Trouble
George W. Bush, for his part, is trying to paint Al Gore as partially responsible for high gas prices, and is pointing out that the Veep’s book Earth in the Balance calls for higher taxes on fossil fuels. The Gore campaign responds that Gore was calling for increased taxes on oil companies, not consumers. Meanwhile, […]
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Ospar the Grouch
Forty of the 60 main fish species caught commercially in the northeast Atlantic are being scooped up faster than they can replenish themselves, according to a report to be released later this week at a meeting of the international Ospar Commission, which is charged with protecting the marine environment around Europe. The report also found […]
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Gimme a (Tax) Break
As high gasoline prices continue to rile Americans, Al Gore plans to unveil a multibillion-dollar national energy strategy this week to reduce American dependence on foreign oil and increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. Under the plan, citizens and small businesses would get tax breaks for buying energy-efficient vehicles and appliances, and […]
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Blue-green or Al G.?
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader won the Green Party nomination yesterday at the party’s convention in Denver and pledged to focus on building a “blue-green” coalition encompassing enviros, blue-collar workers, students, inner-city residents, and small farmers and ranchers. He lambasted the Democratic and Republican parties as virtually indistinguishable servants of the corporations that give them massive […]
