Uncategorized
All Stories
-
Life's a Beach and Then You Die
Fourteen whales beached themselves and eight of them died soon after the Navy conducted sonar exercises off the northern Bahamas on March 15. The Navy said yesterday that there was no evidence to link the whale deaths to its sonar tests, but enviros called for the suspension of the exercises. Marine biologist Ken Balcomb of […]
-
Jet Blacklist
The National Park Service announced yesterday that next month it will begin banning Jet Skis and other personal motorized watercraft in 66 national parks, seashores, and recreation areas. But the machines will still be allowed in 10 national recreation areas where they are heavily used; 11 other areas will have two years to phase them […]
-
Au-Burned
In what may be the final chapter of one of California’s longest and most bitter water battles, the federal government this week bowed to pressure from state officials and all but dropped plans to build the massive Auburn Dam on the American River in Northern California. The Bureau of Reclamation announced that it will abandon […]
-
Cool, Cats!
After 10 years of litigation and delays, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finally listed the Canadian lynx as a threatened species in the lower 48 states under the federal Endangered Species Act. The elusive cats are found in 14 states across the continental U.S., predominately on federal forest lands. Wildlife officials hope they […]
-
Better Safe Than Overrun By Frankenplants
A coalition of more than 50 U.S. environmental, consumer, and farm groups yesterday demanded that the Food and Drug Administration adopt rigorous safety testing and mandatory labeling for genetically modified (GM) foods. The groups filed a formal petition with the FDA that forces the agency to accept more public comments on the controversial issue. Some […]
-
Out With the Blades of Glory
The cost of wind power in Scandinavia is dropping as technology improves and competition mounts, but a new challenge may be overcoming public objections that modern windmills are eyesores. Denmark, which generates about 10 percent of its electricity from wind and aims to raise that percentage to 50 by 2030, plans to build all of […]
-
Flee Willy!
British Columbia’s southern population of orcas may be in trouble, a point emphasized last weekend when one of the orcas washed up dead on shore, its body highly contaminated with PCBs, dangerous human-made toxins. Tests on the dead whale’s body have not yet been completed, but a 1996 biopsy of the same whale found PCB […]
-
In Hot Water
Contaminated plumes of groundwater under the Nevada Test Site, where 828 underground nuclear tests were conducted between 1956 and 1992, may travel beyond the borders of the site toward populated areas in as little as 10 years, some scientists say. Federal scientists knew when they conducted the tests that the area’s groundwater would be tainted, […]
-
Forgive Them Their Debts
President Clinton, who is travelling through South Asia this week, announced yesterday that the U.S. will spend $50 million over four years to promote clean-energy projects in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. He also announced a debt-for-nature swap with Bangladesh under which the U.S. will forgive $6 million in debt in exchange for Bangladesh protecting tropical […]
-
Just for the Halibut
Thousands of rare sea birds and hundreds of marine mammals are being entangled and killed in fishing nets in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off California’s central coast — and it’s all perfectly legal. Though national marine sanctuaries are established to protect marine resources, commercial and recreational fishing is generally allowed in the areas, […]
