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Bawl Bering
Starvation seems the most likely cause of death for nearly 1,000 gray whales that died last summer along the west coast of North America. A Canadian researcher believes the whales were victims of a drop in food production in the Bering Sea. Scientists don’t know whether the trend is due to global warming or to […]
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Not So Fast, Flux!
Supervisors at a Hanford nuclear fuel factory near Richland, Wash., sometimes told workers in the past to ignore safety rules intended to prevent accidental nuclear reactions, according to a Department of Energy investigation. The factory stopped production 10 years ago, but the DOE is considering reopening a nearby test reactor, the Fast Flux Test Facility, […]
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Timber Tantrum
In a rare offensive move, the Plum Creek Timber Co. filed suit Thursday against five environmental groups and the U.S. Forest Service, seeking court backing for a controversial land swap in Washington state. Five enviro groups claim the exchange of 62,384 acres of Plum Creek’s mostly logged land for 15,800 acres of mostly forested federal […]
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Soar Losers
More than 1,000 bird species are in danger of going extinct over the next century, according to a new report released by BirdLife International. Birds are threatened by deforestation, logging, farming, and mining. Brazil has the highest number of bird species at risk, 111, followed by Indonesia (92), China (82), and Colombia (81); the highest […]
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Do Mess with Texas
With Houston’s rise to the status of most smoggy U.S. city, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, top contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is beginning to face criticism for his approach to environmental problems. Texas had serious air quality problems before Bush became governor in 1995, but some evidence indicates that the state’s air may […]
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WTO Pours It On
The World Trade Organization responded to its environmental critics yesterday by releasing a report blaming poverty, not trade, for environmental degradation. The report didn’t address enviros’ criticisms that WTO rules clash with environmental goals and that decisions by its dispute settlement body have undermined environmental protection. The report instead notes that as countries grow richer, […]
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Smoked Salmon
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will seek to have wild Atlantic salmon protected as endangered, after the release last week of a government report that found that the fish is near extinction. Despite a two-year effort by Maine to save salmon without federal intervention, the wild species continues to face threats from aquaculture, erosion, pollution, fishing, […]
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Take That, Hosers
Tired of pollution drifting up from the south, officials in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, are considering joining a lawsuit that New York state plans to file next month against coal-fired power plants in the Midwest. Toronto health and environment officials are to meet today with the office of New York’s attorney general, which last month […]
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One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Sick Rats
The debate over genetically modified foods is rising to a new pitch following a decision by the British medical journal the Lancet to publish a controversial study suggesting that gene-altered potatoes may cause health problems in rats. In an unusual move, the editor of the journal has written a commentary revealing that a minority of […]
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Hot Diggity Log
In one of the most significant conservation moves of his administration, Pres. Clinton yesterday announced that he would permanently protect at least 40 million acres of national forest land from road building, logging, and mining, using administration actions meant to outmaneuver opposition in Congress. Speaking at the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, Clinton said, […]
