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That Leaves Plenty of Room for a Disney Rainforest Theme Park
Illegal logging and farming in Brazil’s Amazon last year destroyed 6,347 square miles of rainforest, an area bigger than Hawaii, according to a report released this week by the Brazilian government. The report found that despite increased policing of threatened areas, the pace of deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest remained as high in 1999 […]
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Atlantic salmon are even worse off than their Pacific cousins
To catch an Atlantic salmon in the Machias River back in the 1940s — and we’re talking a legitimate salmon here, maybe 30 or 40 pounds — didn’t require a knack with rod and reel, nor even the wily patience of the angler. Mostly what you needed was decent aim with a rifle or pitchfork […]
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Putin Their Mouth Where Their Money Is
Russia’s Ministry of Atomic Energy announced yesterday that it would like to import and reprocess 20,000 tons of nuclear waste, a proposal that could bring in some $21 billion over 10 years and help boost the nation’s economy. The ministry anticipates that most of the waste would be spent fuel rods from civilian nuclear power […]
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Big Trees From the Big Guy
President Clinton has scheduled a trip for this Saturday to California’s Sierra Nevada, where he is expected to announce the creation of a new national monument to protect groves of giant sequoias. The monument, which Clinton can designate without approval from Congress, could encompass as much as 355,000 acres of land now in the Sequoia […]
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Hunt and Picket
The Makah Indian tribe of Washington state is gearing up for another whale hunt, 11 months after its first hunt in 70 years drew international attention and impassioned protests from many environmentalists. The U.S. government made a deal in 1997 with the International Whaling Commission that allows the Makahs to kill up to five gray […]
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Bawl's in Their Court
A federal appeals court panel ruled yesterday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acted properly in rejecting a bid for closer review of safety issues surrounding the renewal of the operating licenses for the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in southern Maryland. The NRC voted last month to extend the life of the Calvert Cliffs complex […]
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Seine Freeze
The Clinton administration’s attempt to loosen standards for “dolphin-safe” tuna has been blocked by a federal judge, preventing the label from being used on cans of tuna caught with nets that snare dolphins. Several enviro groups had filed suit in August after the Commerce Department proposed a change in the dolphin-safe labeling standards, which would […]
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You Should Have Seen the One That Got Away
Enviros are warning that a breed of genetically modified (GM) fish that can grow up to 10 times faster than normal could taint the gene pool and upset delicate ecosystems. A U.S. company, AF Protein, developed the variety of Atlantic salmon by inserting growth hormone genes from another kind of fish. The company expects the […]
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A scientist fights back against exotics
The Western U.S. has many well-known problems — overgrazing, rampant development, Garth Brooks look-alikes. But one troublesome issue that hasn’t gotten much attention is cheatgrass, an exotic weed that arrived here in the 1890s and has since taken over an area the size of Montana. Cheatgrass never prospers? Photo: Russel Stevens/Chuck Coffey, Noble Foundation. Because […]
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Magnificent, Seven!
Enviros and other activists yesterday kicked off more than a week of protests against corporate globalization in Washington, D.C., with the goal of disrupting meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund this Sunday and Monday. Seven protestors were arrested yesterday, including Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth, and John Passacantando, executive […]
