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Temperatures in the 90s
Last year was the fifth hottest year ever recorded worldwide, and second hottest recorded in the U.S., despite a La Niña weather pattern that was supposed to cool off the Earth slightly, according to new figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Globally, the 1990s were the hottest decade ever recorded; each year of […]
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Slick Move, EPA
If climate change isn’t reason enough for you to want to give the boot to fossil fuels, take this: Koch Industries, one of the largest U.S. pipeline operators, has been fined $35 million by the EPA for spilling 3 million gallons of oil into lakes and streams in six states, the largest civil fine ever […]
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May We Take Your Order?
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) is drafting an executive order that would require the state government to conduct its business in an environmentally sustainable manner, another step forward in a state that passed the nation’s first bottle recycling bill and is known for its progressive land-use planning. The details of the executive order have yet […]
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Star Fleet
Southern California air quality officials have proposed a controversial plan to gradually replace the 62,000 cars and trucks in government-owned fleets with state-of-the-art vehicles powered by electricity, natural gas, or other clean-burning fuels. The proposal by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the first of its kind in the nation, would affect everything from […]
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This Time We Really, Really Mean It — Really
A worldwide rise in Earth’s surface temperatures is “undoubtedly real” and appears to have sped up over the last 20 years, according to a major new report released yesterday by a panel of the National Research Council. The panel estimated that temperatures over the last century rose between 0.7 and 1.4 degrees F, a 30 […]
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Hill's Tree Blues
After living two years in giant California redwood to protest the logging of old-growth trees, Julia “Butterfly” Hill took her fight to ground-level yesterday. Hill, who descended from the branches in December, joined scores of other enviros in bringing a petition before the California state forestry board that would impose an immediate ban on old-growth […]
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Don't Be Pokey, Man — Dump the Nukes
Public opinion has taken a sharp turn against nuclear power in Japan, following a tragic September accident at a nuclear fuel plant in Tokaimura that exposed scores of people to high levels of radiation and killed one worker. Public protest has not been common in Japanese society for well over a generation, but local movements […]
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Get Fired Up
Citizens of East Liverpool, Ohio, are leaning on Vice Pres. Al Gore to keep a promise he made in 1992 to block the opening of a local hazardous-waste incinerator that’s just 1,100 feet from an elementary school. Gore made the pledge a month after he and Clinton were elected in 1992, but the administration says […]
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Air Plan Takes Off
The Chinese government has launched a big millennial campaign to clean up Beijing, with an eye toward the possibility of winning the right to host the Olympics in 2008. More than 1,000 industrial enterprises in the city belch out soot and help give Beijing some of the most polluted, dangerous air in the world; under […]
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Suit Case Closed
In an important victory for enviros, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday upheld the right of citizens groups to sue alleged polluters under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and other environmental laws even though any financial damages would be paid to the federal government. Business groups and conservative legal organizations had asked the court […]
