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Dumbo and Dumber
Poachers in Zimbabwe have killed as many as 400 elephants in the past year, according to park officials and internal park documents. Gangs have used AK-47 automatic rifles to kill the animals, then axes or chain saws to hack off the elephants’ ivory tusks, leaving hundreds of carcasses in the remote Zambezi valley near the […]
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This Plastic Is Not Fantastic
EU governments yesterday unanimously approved an emergency ban on some baby toys made from PVC plastic containing chemicals called phthalates. Some scientists believe that phthalates, used to soften plastics, could leach out of toys that babies put in their mouths and pose serious health risks. The EU’s executive commission points to research that has linked […]
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My Way or No Highway
Pressed by a lawsuit from environmentalists, the EPA yesterday said that smog clean-up plans are inadequate in nine of the nation’s most polluted urban areas, including New York City and Houston. EPA Administrator Carol Browner said that although the nine areas in question have made some progress, state governments still need to take additional steps […]
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Soon, They'll Be Calling It the Greenhouse
Energy-efficiency measures and other steps taken to make the White House more eco-friendly have saved taxpayers nearly $1.4 million since 1993, according to an administration report to be released today. The savings, now totaling about $300,000 a year, have been achieved through more efficient lighting, heating, and air conditioning; new insulation; double-paned windows; and energy-saving […]
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Don't buy their official version of Tuesday's events
SEATTLE, Wash. An eerie half-calm, enforced by marching columns of police and troops in full-body armor, settled over downtown Seattle today. Street corners that had been scenes of dramatic confrontation yesterday saw small-scale, unthreatening protests this morning and early afternoon, as demonstrators, trade delegates, journalists, and everyone else in this stunned city got down to […]
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What a Riot, What a Gas
Tens of thousands of protestors, including many environmentalists, took to the streets of Seattle yesterday and succeeded in disrupting talks of the World Trade Organization. While a small minority of the protestors damaged some property, most were resolutely nonviolent as they tried to make their point that the WTO places corporate profits above human rights, […]
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A Man, a Plan, a Canal, a Liar?
Al Gore claimed yesterday that he was the person who had first drawn attention to the contamination at Love Canal, after receiving a letter from a worried high school student about another contaminated site in Tennessee. “I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal. I had the first hearing on that […]
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Come, Sea the Turtles
The Surinamese Foundation for Nature Preservation (STINASU) has hatched a plan that is giving indigenous people a reason to protect endangered leatherback turtles. More than half of the world’s population of leatherback turtles come to the beaches of Surinam to lay their eggs, but their numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years, primarily because of […]
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Waiting with Rebated Breath
Maine residents who buy low-polluting, high-mileage cars would be eligible for rebates of up to $3,000 under a bill that will go before the state legislature in January. And under a separate new program in the state, cars that meet particular green criteria will be marked at dealerships with stickers that read “Cleaner Cars for […]
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Biting the Hand that Feeds Them
Several officials in the Food and Drug Administration have disagreed with the agency’s conclusion that genetically modified foods should be regulated the same way as conventional foods and accused the FDA of siding with industry at the expense of consumers, according to internal agency memorandums read yesterday at a public hearing. The documents are part […]
