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Montanans are now proud owners of the right to a clean environment
Should citizens in the United States have a constitutional right to clean air and clean water, just as they have rights to free speech and freedom of religion? That’s the broad question raised by a court decision in Montana last month. Fight for your right to clean water. In a ruling that is sure to […]
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I Wish They All Could Be California Governors
California announced yesterday that it is filing suit against the feds over the issue of offshore oil drilling, demanding more of a say in decisions that will affect some of the state’s most scenic coastal stretches. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt outraged California officials and enviros last week by allowing oil companies to begin moving forward […]
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Ice, Ice Maybe
The Arctic Ocean’s ice cover has thinned by about 40 percent in the last 20 to 40 years, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The study’s researchers, from the University of Washington, were surprised by the dramatic shift, but couldn’t say whether it was the result of human-caused climate […]
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Meriwether Friend
The Sierra Club is launching a five-year campaign to protect and restore millions of acres of wildlands along the route traveled nearly 200 years ago by the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The group has its eye on 34 sites in eight states, mostly public land, that it would like to keep from development. […]
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Without Mangroves, India is Swamped
Rapid logging of the mangrove forest that stretches across coastal areas in India’s southeastern state of Orissa seems to have contributed to the terrible destruction caused by an October 29 cyclone that killed at least 7,600 and affected some 15 million. The mangrove forest has traditionally protected inland areas from serious damage by cyclones and […]
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Trade Win?
Seeking to shore up enviro support and mollify free trade critics, Vice Pres. Al Gore announced yesterday that Pres. Clinton will sign an executive order requiring full environmental reviews of all new trade agreements. The order begins to put environmental concerns on par with business concerns in international agreements, a step that some environmentalists praised […]
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What's Eating Leonardo DiCaprio?
You may remember him from such box-office blockbusters as “Titanic” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest project is even bigger — getting the world to do something about climate change. Today DiCaprio is announcing that he will host Earth Day 2000 events on the Mall in Washington, D.C. He joins the Earth Day Network […]
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Carboys and Indians
Fifteen years after a Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked a poisonous gas that killed at least 7,000 people in Bhopal, India, and permanently injured tens of thousands more, survivors and relatives of victims filed suit yesterday against Union Carbide and its former chair in federal court in Manhattan. The suit seeks unspecified damages and wants […]
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Changing Riders in Midstream
Senate Republicans agreed last night to eliminate or change a number of anti-environmental riders that have been tacked onto the Interior Department spending bill, clearing the way for agreement with the White House on a budget deal. GOP leaders consented to allow the feds to charge oil and gas companies a more fair, significantly higher […]
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Cold Discomfort
Climate change is threatening polar bears along Hudson Bay with starvation by shortening their hunting season, according to a study by the Canadian Wildlife Service published in the journal Arctic. In the past 20 years, the sea ice season on Hudson Bay has been reduced by three weeks, giving the bears in the area less […]
