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The British Are Coming Around
The British government announced yesterday that it will set new recycling requirements, hoping to turn around what Environment Minister Michael Meacher called the nation’s “pathetic” recycling rate. In England and Wales, people recycle just 8 percent of their household waste, compared to 45 percent in the Netherlands and 52 percent in Switzerland. Local authorities in […]
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To Protect and Surf
President Clinton will unveil a system today to create “marine protected areas” in sensitive ocean waters, comparable to creating parks or wilderness areas on land. Offshore oil drilling, mining, dumping, fishing, and other activities could be banned in the protected areas, which will be designated by the Commerce and Interior departments. Specifically, Clinton will call […]
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What, Snarl Traffic in L.A.? Impossible!
A number of environmentalists plan to join other activists in Los Angeles this August in hopes of disrupting the Democratic National Convention. Inspired by the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle last year and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund protests in Washington, D.C., last month, demonstrators intend to march, tie up traffic, make […]
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Off-Road Hogs
Off-road vehicles (ORVs) pose the fastest growing threat to America’s wild areas and should be banned from federal lands, the Wilderness Society says in a report released yesterday. The report lists the 15 most endangered wildlands in the U.S., many of which the group says are threatened by ORVs as well as by logging, mining, […]
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Beyond a Shadow of a Drought
January through April 2000 was the hottest such four-month period ever recorded in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Seventy percent of the country was much warmer than usual during the period, while less than 1 percent was significantly cooler than usual. Drought has hit much of the Midwestern U.S. this […]
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Nader As Vote Raider?
Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign under the Green Party banner, which is attracting a growing number of environmentalists and labor union members, could cause headaches for Al Gore and give a boost to George W. Bush. Friends of the Earth has suggested that it might endorse Nader, and the United Auto Workers union has praised Nader […]
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Organic Farming: It's for the Birds
Organic farms support substantially more birds, wild plants, and other wildlife than chemical-dependent farms, according to Britain’s Soil Association, which surveyed biodiversity studies conducted in Britain and Denmark over the last 13 years. The findings will likely prompt calls for wider use of organic farming methods to help reverse the decline of once-common British farmland […]
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Recalling All Cars
The European Union reached a final deal yesterday on a law that will force automakers to pay for the recycling of old cars. Starting with vehicles sold after January 1, 2001, automakers will have to pay most of the cost of taking back and recycling cars at the end of their lives. And beginning in […]
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Arsenic and Old Delays
Under threat of a lawsuit from enviros, the U.S. EPA yesterday proposed strict new regulations that would cut by 90 percent the permissible levels of arsenic in tap water. Arsenic, which can cause cancer and other health problems, is currently found at harmful levels in at least 10 percent of the nation’s community water supplies. […]
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Take That Smog and Shove It
New York Gov. George Pataki (R) signed a controversial bill yesterday that aims to limit pollution drifting into New York from coal-burning power plants in the Midwest and South. The measure will fine New York companies that sell pollution allowances, which they earn by cleaning up their own emissions, to polluting facilities in Midwestern and […]
