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Onward Christian Soldiers

Climate-related disasters in poor nations are caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from wealthy nations and should no longer be termed “natural disasters,” argues the UK organization Christian Aid in a report released today. These catastrophes, which are becoming more and more frequent thanks to global warming, kill thousands of people and cost billions of dollars. “Nine […]

Turning Over a New Reef

The world’s coral reefs made a partial rebound in 1999 after a bad year in 1998, but they are still threatened by climate change and overfishing, according to the group Reef Check. In 1998, scientists estimated that 15 percent of the world’s reefs had died off, a trend abetted by that year’s record-breaking ocean temperatures, […]

The Firm

The text of a bill being pushed by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) that would weaken regulation of pesticides is almost a word-for-word duplicate of a draft written by a consulting firm working for a coalition of pesticide manufacturers, agricultural organizations, and food processors. A landmark 1996 law set a new, stringent safety standard for using […]

Following Suits

Friends of the Earth and other enviro groups are moving forward with a lawsuit arguing that the U.S. Forest Service has violated laws that require it to consider the full costs of logging on national forests, including the financial impacts on tourism, watershed protection, and wildlife. The groups filed the case in 1998, seeking to […]

Salmon Day, My Prince Will Come

During a campaign swing through Portland, Ore., Vice President Al Gore on Friday said that as president he would use hard science to quickly resolve the controversy over how to restore salmon runs in the Northwest, but he avoided taking a stance on whether four dams on the Snake River in Washington state should be […]

News Flash: SUVs Get Low Gas Mileage

Ford Motor Co. admitted yesterday that SUVs are bad for the environment because they guzzle more gas, contribute more to global warming, and spew more smog-causing pollution than cars. In the company’s first “corporate citizenship report,” released yesterday at its annual shareholders’ meeting, Ford said it will step up efforts to make its vehicles more […]

It's a Hardrock Life

Hardrock mining companies and electric power plants are the worst toxic-chemical polluters in the U.S., according to EPA Toxics Release Inventory data unveiled yesterday. In all, the EPA found that 7.3 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released by eight industries in 1998, the most recent year for which data are available. Metal mining accounted […]

Mighty Don Young

The House overwhelmingly approved a major bill yesterday that would set aside $45 billion over 15 years to buy green spaces, protect wildlife, restore damaged coastal areas, and pay for other environmental projects. The measure, which would be funded by oil-drilling royalties collected by the federal government, would more than double the government’s current budget […]

Bubba Drubbing

President Clinton went on the attack against Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) yesterday, accusing him of being wrong-headed on the environment and other issues. During an interview on National Public Radio, Clinton said that if Bush wins, “he will do what he did in Texas — he will let the people who basically are […]

Not-So-Sunny Bonobos

Nearly a quarter of the world’s primate species are endangered by human activities, according to the World Conservation Union. The group — which is composed of 10,000 scientists, several hundred of whom are meeting in the U.S. this week to discuss the problem — says 50 of 600 primate species are critically endangered, while 88 […]