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Japanese Banging Their Heads Over Heavy Metal

After years of defiantly eating whale meat in the face of an international ban on whaling, the Japanese are finally cutting back on their consumption — but they’re doing it because the meat is so highly contaminated by pollution, not because they are concerned about dwindling whale populations. Japanese scientists have found high levels of […]

Sealing Their Fate

Dozens of sea lions, seals, and sea turtles die each year after being sucked into power plants along Southern California’s coast, but federal and regional regulators have done little to stop the deaths. Several power plants use ocean water to cool the super-hot steam that powers energy-generating turbines; intake pipes extend far into the ocean […]

Dam It All!!

Enviros, who have been heartened in recent months by a growing movement in favor of breaching dams, had cause for remorse on Friday when a gigantic new dam was dedicated in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. Enviros fear that the $420 million Seven Oaks Dam, erected above the growing sprawl […]

Putin the Blame on Enviros

Environmentalists in Russia are nervous about the new Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Critics say that when Putin was head of the FSB security service, formerly the KGB, he allowed the agency to harass and prosecute enviros. Last summer, Putin said environmental groups were fronts for Western spy agencies. Human-rights activists say the FSB’s treatment […]

My, What Pretty Teeth You Have

Organic Chemistry

Organic food may be richer in nutrients and more healthful to eat than food grown with the use of pesticides and other chemicals, according to researchers from the University of Copenhagen. The scientists — who plan to present their findings tomorrow at a conference of the Soil Association, a British organic watchdog — compared plants […]

Fringe Fried Endangered Species

The giant panda, Tasmanian tiger, and hundreds of other endangered species are living on the fringes of their historical habitats rather than in their centers, according to a study published yesterday in the journal Nature. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma and Fort Hayes State University in Kansas studied the geographical ranges of 245 endangered […]

Another Contaminated New Jersey

German retailers pulled Nike soccer jerseys from store shelves yesterday because of a televised report that the shirts contained a potentially harmful fungicide. On Tuesday, a business news show reported that it had tested randomly chosen consumer products for traces of chemicals and found that souvenir jerseys made by Nike contained tributyltin, which is used […]

Hoisin Charge Here?

China has decided to press forward with a huge project to transport water over a great distance from the south of the country to the north. The plan, originally conceived by Mao Zedong, would probably require an engineering effort similar in magnitude to the one now underway for the country’s Three Gorges Dam, which is […]

Smog Gonnit

Mexico City’s air was cleaner last year than at any previous time in the 1990s as a result of stricter enforcement of pollution laws, according to a government study. Authorities took emergency measures like keeping kids inside during recess only five days last year, compared with 37 days in 1998 and 62 days in 1990, […]