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Meltdown

Take Two Rhinos and Call Me in the Morning

The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning to transform traditional Chinese medicine, working to promote new green standards that would halt the use of endangered species. Although trade in tiger bones, rhinoceros horns, and bear bile is officially banned, the items are still highly sought after as ingredients in traditional treatments. Chinese medicine, which is quickly […]

The Hills Are Dead With the Sound of Mining

On Saturday, the Clinton administration backed off its support for a legislative rider that would permit the dumping of mining waste into streams in West Virginia. Last week, the administration angered enviros by siding with West Virginia Democrats who are pushing to protect the coal industry’s use of a strip-mining technique known as “mountaintop removal,” […]

Soot Suit Riot

To move forward on tough new pollution standards for soot and smog, the EPA will have to argue and win its case before the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on Friday turned down the agency’s request for a full appeals court review of a decision by a three-judge panel last […]

Not a Bunch O' Abalone

Some scientists believe that humans have eaten a marine species to near-extinction for the first time. The white abalone, which lives along the California coast and is highly prized by gourmets, was overfished in the 1970s and, though it is now illegal to fish for it, the sea snail’s population is still severely depleted and […]

Dishonorable Discharges

Pres. Clinton announced plans on Saturday to make companies that handle even relatively small quantities of certain toxic materials provide fuller public disclosure when they discharge the potentially dangerous chemicals into the air or water. Clinton talked up the new regulations, which will expand the federal Toxics Release Inventory program on Jan. 1, as a […]

This Chafes!

Eyeing the top spot on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Bob Smith (N.H.) yesterday dropped his flailing, independent bid for the presidency, paving the way for a return to the Republican party and a likely claim to succeed the late Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) as chair of the committee. If Smith’s seniority […]

No More Mousse on the Loose

In its never-ending battle against smog, the California Air Resource Board voted yesterday to require manufacturers of everything from hair mousse to air freshener to reduce the fumes emitted by their products. In its sixth sweeping set of pollution standards applied to household products over the past decade, the board cracked down on furniture cleaners, […]

Cattle Hacks

A federal judge yesterday tossed out a lawsuit from ranchers who were aiming to stop the feds from reintroducing wolves in the Southwest. The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and other ranchers had filed suit claiming that the wolves would kill more cattle than wildlife officials had predicted. The reintroduction effort in the Southwest is […]

Battle of Bull's Run

After seven years of legal badgering from environmental groups, the feds have finally declared bull trout populations in Washington and Montana “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Even more than salmon, the bull trout needs very clean, very cold water to thrive, and the fish populations have been badgered by decades of logging, which robs […]