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Ding, Dong, the Round Is Dead

The World Trade Organization’s ministerial meeting in Seattle ended in failure on Friday night, with delegates unable to reach agreement on issues to be addressed in a new round of trade talks. Enviros and other activists who had protested on the Seattle streets against the WTO, pointing to free trade’s damaging effects on the environment, […]

Fuggetaboutit

Arctic Waters Straight Up

The amount of sea ice in Arctic waters has been shrinking since 1978 by an average of roughly 14,000 square miles a year, an area larger than Maryland and Delaware combined, according to a new study by an international team of scientists published in today’s issue of the journal Science. The researchers say the shrinkage […]

Is the Color of Your Ralph Green?

Ralph Nader has told close associates that he plans to announce his candidacy in January and mount a serious campaign for president under the Green Party banner, reports Salon magazine. On the other end of the spectrum, Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R), in his first presidential debate last night, tried to sidestep a question […]

Unholy Union Carbide

Thousands marched through the city of Bhopal, India, today to mark the 15th anniversary of a poisonous gas leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant, which killed an estimated 6,000 people and injured perhaps hundreds of thousands more. The marchers protested insufficient compensation for injuries and demanded action against Union Carbide officials and Warren Anderson, […]

Going to Greenpieces

For the second time in three years, the board of Greenpeace U.S.A. is resigning, unable to resolve serious rifts over policy. The organization suffered a major shake-up in 1997, when, in the face of declining membership and revenue, it ended its grassroots tradition of going door to door for members and donations, shrank its national […]

Blow It Up and They Will Come

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, whose favorite pastime of late seems to be tearing down dams, got his first chance to employ explosives for the sake of fish this week. On Wednesday, he presided over the destruction of a dam on the Little River, near Goldboro, N.C., which opened up 49 miles of spawning habitat for […]

Park and Chide

Many national parks and government-protected wilderness areas in developing nations are threatened or in bad condition, according to a new report conducted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Many of the parks are at risk from logging, hunting, mining, pollution, agriculture, human settlement, tourism, and war. The World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund, which […]

Me Thinks Thou Dost Protest — But Not Too Much

Protestors against the World Trade Organization in Seattle continue to press their views that the trade body tramples on the environment, labor standards, and human rights, while police in full riot gear continue to trample on the rights of demonstrators and some bystanders. Pres. Clinton tried to mollify WTO opponents in two speeches yesterday by […]

Hey, Caterpillars, Make Tracks

Even as the EU started giving ground on the issue of genetically modified foods at the WTO talks, a new study is showing that a widely used variety of GM corn leaves traces of toxin in the soil that can remain there indefinitely. The corn has been modified to produce a natural insecticide, the bacterium […]