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Where There's Smoke, There's Sick Kids
Mexico City residents are choking on record levels of dirty air this week, after suspended-particle pollution hit an all-time high on Monday. Outdoor activities at schools and youth sports centers were prohibited, and parents were warned to keep kids indoors. Factories in the southeastern part of the city were ordered to cut back operations by […]
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Slippery Slope
BP Exploration, a part of the oil giant BP Amoco, yesterday agreed to pay $15.5 million for failing to immediately report the illegal disposal of hazardous materials at an oil field on Alaska’s North Slope. A BP contractor dumped thousands of gallons of toxic waste at the Endicott oil field between 1993 and 1995, one […]
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No Nukes Would Be Good News
Japan’s worst nuclear accident — a September 1999 incident at a nuclear fuel plant in Tokaimura — exposed 439 people to radiation, up from a previous estimate of 69, government officials say. Greenpeace Japan thinks the new estimate is still too low. In other troubling nuclear news, Ukraine officials said yesterday that they had temporarily […]
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A Forests-Gone Conclusion
Indigenous peoples from Alaska and the Peruvian Amazon joined enviros Monday in calling on the U.N. to act quickly to stop a global crisis of deforestation. This week in New York, the U.N. opened a final session of talks on forest protection that may result in the establishment of a legally binding convention to regulate […]
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Dissed Oriente
A Manhattan federal judge says he is leaning toward ruling that an environmental lawsuit filed against Texaco by Ecuadorian Indians should be tried in Ecuador, as Texaco prefers, rather than in the U.S. But the judge will consider arguments about whether Ecuador’s courts are independent and impartial, particularly in light of the nation’s recent military […]
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Frito Be GM-Free
Frito-Lay, the big American junk food purveyor, is telling its suppliers not to use genetically modified corn, a change of course that is angering some farmers and pleasing enviros. The company said it is responding to customer worries. Opponents of genetically engineered foods have staged at least 18 night attacks on university and corporate research […]
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Raid On!
Environmental cops arrested seven dealers and rescued hundreds of animals in a weekend raid in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, part of a campaign underway to halt the massive illegal trade in tropical wildlife in the country. Four monkeys, 24 baby turtles, and 272 birds were seized at an outdoor public market and taken to the […]
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Grace Under Pressure
A class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday on behalf of residents of Libby, Mont., against W.R. Grace & Co., former owner of an asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mine that operated for more than 60 years in the town and is alleged to have caused serious health problems for community members. Libby, population 2,700, is potentially the site of […]
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Tune In, Plug In, Drop Out
While consumerism runs rampant and companies produce a constant stream of new widgets to tempt potential buyers, a small but growing number of American high-tech workers are adopting “voluntary simplicity” and committing to uncluttering and focusing their lives. For some, like Catherine Harper, a self-described “geek for hire,” this means growing their own food, spinning […]
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Suzanne Cheavens, Mountainfreak magazine
Suzanne Cheavens is the senior editor of Mountainfreak magazine, based in Telluride, Colo. Monday, 31 Jan 2000 TELLURIDE, Colo. Welcome to the happy chaos of my life as editor of Mountainfreak magazine. Since you probably have a voyeuristic streak if you’re reading someone else’s diary entries, I’ll start by letting you in on a secret. […]
