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Bark Lacks Bite
Planting vast numbers of trees may stall the process of climate change for a few years but will not help solve the problem, according to research conducted by scientists for the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and published in New Scientist magazine. Forests absorb carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, but the new […]
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Hill's Angel
In a landmark decision, a federal judge ruled yesterday that controversial mountaintop-removal mining operations cannot bury streams under tons of waste rock and earth. Valley fills caused by such mining violate the federal Clean Water Act as well as federal and West Virginia mining rules, the judge ruled. In mountaintop removal, operators use explosives to […]
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The Rich Don't Just Get Richer — They Get Cancer, Too
Environmental factors may be partially responsible for elevated breast cancer rates in Newton, Mass., a Boston suburb, according to a new study funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Women living in areas of Newton where breast cancer rates were higher than usual were more likely to be affluent and well-educated, and they reported […]
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Brown and Browner
Clinton administration officials who held a “town meeting” in Seattle yesterday with the intent of assuaging environmentalists’ concerns and anger over global trade issues met with little success. EPA chief Carol Browner, Frank Loy, undersecretary of state for global affairs, Ian Bowles of the White House Council on Economic Quality, and Dorothy Dwoskin, assistant U.S. […]
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Bruce on the Loose
Americans can expect to see more areas in the western U.S. protected as national monuments in the coming year, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said yesterday. Such designations can be made without congressional approval; Pres. Clinton angered western politicians in 1996 by creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. Babbitt spoke at a congressional hearing […]
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America's Armpit to Get Hotter, Sweatier
Climate change will affect some areas of the U.S. far more severely than others, according to a new study by Princeton University researchers published in the journal Climatic Change. Regions that already suffer from heat and humidity in the summer, such as the Southeast and a portion of the mid-Atlantic, will be particularly vulnerable to […]
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Air Bradley
Bill Bradley made a bid for the environmental vote last night during a speech to the League of Conservation Voters, seizing on a set of issues prized by Al Gore, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bradley said he wants to lead an administration that truly reduces air pollution rather than just talks about […]
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Red Rain Is Coming Down
China is urging cities to shut down old coal-fired power plants, factories, and unlicensed coal mines to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide, which cause acid rain to fall on 40 percent of the country. New standards will require cities to develop pollution control programs before 2000 and some 80 percent of major industrial firms to […]
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Micro-Softie
Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen yesterday donated $3.4 million to protect 25,000 acres of the Loomis State Forest in northern Washington state. In July, enviros raised $13.1 million to buy the land, which is home to one of the last healthy lynx populations in the lower 48 states, and protect it from logging. But earlier this […]
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Norm!!!
The feds are expected to purchase two dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state and begin planning how to demolish at least one of them, under an agreement reached between the Clinton administration and two Washington politicians, Rep. Norm Dicks (D) and Sen. Slade Gorton (R). Removal of the dams, […]
