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Smart Is As Smart Does
All that talk of “smart growth” aside, the rate at which the nation’s privately held farmland, forests, and wetlands are being lost to development has more than doubled since 1992, according to a study released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Almost 16 million acres of land were converted to development over the five-year […]
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One Foot on the Gas, the Other Foot on the Brake
Hold the confetti. It’s true that Ford Motor Co. has withdrawn from the Global Climate Coalition, an industry group that vigorously opposes mandatory measures to control greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, although other high-profile companies such as British Petroleum have left the group in the past, Ford is the first company belonging to the coalition’s […]
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Even a Luna-tic Knows When to Come in From the Cold
Brrr, it’s getting cold outside. And Julia Butterfly, the 25-year-old who’s been stationed for two years in a redwood slated for logging by the Pacific Lumber Co., is hinting that it may be time for her to end her protest and come down before winter hits full on in Northern California. Of course, she’d only […]
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The (States') Right Stuff
The Supreme Court today is hearing oral arguments about a Washington state law regulating oil tankers that imposes safety and environmental guidelines more stringent than federal ones. Intertanko, an organization representing 75 percent of the world’s tanker companies, is asking the court to overturn the law, which was enacted in response to the 1989 Exxon […]
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Wear Have You Been All My Life?
You don’t have to run ads with waifs in underwear to win industry recognition! Patagonia this week is receiving a prestigious apparel industry award for its work in environmental activism, the good working conditions in its overseas factories, and its innovative day-care program for workers’ children. Andree Conrad, editor of Apparel Industry Magazine, which each […]
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Dealing a Wild Car
In a blow to companies that deny the seriousness of climate change, Ford Motor Co. has ended its association with the Global Climate Coalition, an industry group that vigorously opposes measures to control greenhouse gas emissions. Ford is the first major car company and first U.S. multinational to break ranks; U.K.-based Shell and British Petroleum […]
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Kiss Our Ash
China plans to cut its dependence on coal from 72 percent of the country’s total energy needs today to 50 percent by 2050, a senior government official said this weekend. China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, has already started to lower its coal production to some 1 billion tons this year, down […]
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The Awesome of the Patriarch
Joining the growing movement of religious institutions fighting environmental problems, the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese voted Saturday to launch an environmental activism campaign. The diocese, with 147 parishes and 85,000 members, called for study of environmental issues and a range of actions, from making church buildings more energy-efficient to urging churchgoers to lead simpler lives […]
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Sweden Low
The ozone layer over Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia has dwindled to levels nearly as low as those found over the Antarctic, the European Space Agency said last week. Measurements taken in the Netherlands showed that ozone levels were about two-thirds below the norm for this time of year. At a conference in Beijing […]
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Bayer Gives Us a Headache
Three years after Congress passed and Pres. Clinton signed to great fanfare a law meant to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides, the law has become a victim of politics as usual, and the EPA’s ability to enforce it, using science as a driving force, has been greatly weakened, according to a six-month investigation by the […]
