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Corning the Market
Two powerful farm-state senators introduced a bipartisan bill yesterday that would triple the use of ethanol over the coming decade and help replace the controversial gasoline additive MTBE. The bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), would let states opt out of the federal requirement that gasoline in […]
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Seven Brydes for Seven Samurai?
Japan, which has stirred up controversy for more than a decade by hunting minke whales ostensibly for scientific research, now plans to expand its hunt to include sperm and Bryde’s whales. The nation has submitted its proposal for an expanded hunt to the International Whaling Commission, which banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows nations […]
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There's Goldfish in Them Thar Streams
The diversity of fish species in America is in serious decline, according to new research published in today’s issue of the journal Science. Small populations of native fish have gone extinct while popular food and game fish have been spread by humans, leading fish populations across the country to become less diverse. In recent years, […]
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Hot Under the Flea Collar
The U.S. EPA is gearing up to restrict the use of chlorpyrifos, which is one of the most widely used insecticides in the U.S. and has been linked to memory loss, nervous system problems, and other health concerns. The chemical, also known by the trade name Dursban, is sprayed on a variety of crops and […]
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What About Danish Seamen?
Forty-three percent of 700 Danish army recruits tested have sperm counts so low that they could have trouble fathering children, according to research published in the journal Human Reproduction. The study authors, who can’t explain the low sperm concentrations, say other research indicates that male reproductive function seems to have deteriorated considerably in the past […]
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One man's quest to prove that bigger isn't better for the planet
Long before the special-effects wizards made Stuart Little into a silver-screen sensation, E.B. White’s diminutive hero held a hallowed spot in a storytelling tradition that ranges from Gulliver’s Travels and “Jack and the Beanstalk” to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The basic idea: Make the workaday world utterly fantastic by changing the scale. Or, most […]
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Once More Into the Bleach
The highest sea temperatures ever recorded in the Caribbean have caused the first mass die-off of coral in Belize in 3,000 years, and scientists suspect that global warming and the El Niño weather phenomenon are to blame. The high temperatures in 1998 lasted for several months and caused much of the Belizean coral reef to […]
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Delay of the Land
More than 100 enviro groups yesterday petitioned the Clinton-Gore administration to temporarily prevent development on 160 million acres of roadless federal areas in the West managed by the Bureau of Land Management. They are asking the BLM to reinventory the land to determine how much should be protected as wilderness, contending that past BLM inventories […]
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No Problem Atoll
The Nature Conservancy unveiled an agreement yesterday under which it will raise $37 million to purchase and maintain the Palmyra Atoll, a privately owned cluster of pristine coral islets about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. The conservancy wants to create a nature preserve for marine and climate research and allow limited, ecologically sound tourism on […]
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Logging on the Skids
After nine years of political battles and scientific studies, the U.S. Forest Service this week released a broad management plan for California’s Sierra Nevada range that would emphasize wildlife protection and recreation over commercial logging. The proposal for managing 11 million acres of national forests would cut cattle grazing, protect most big old-growth trees, and […]
