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A Rising Tide Floods All Islands

Small island nations throughout the world are threatened by climate change, toxic waste, and excessive tourism, island leaders said yesterday during a U.N. session in New York focusing on their problems. The 43 members of the Alliance of Small Island States say they want an end to industrial fishing and the transport of nuclear and […]

Pew! Climate Change Stinks

Global warming could have serious effects on both the quality and quantity of freshwater, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. In mountainous watersheds, global warming will increase the ratio of rain to snow and lead to earlier and greater spring runoff, the report says, which could improve […]

World Bank Plays Shell Game

Enviros yesterday called on the World Bank to deny funding for a proposed 650-mile pipeline that would carry oil from landlocked Chad to the Cameroon coast, cutting through a tropical rainforest and most of Cameroon’s major river systems. The World Bank is expected to decide by November whether to provide $190 million in loans to […]

Annie Berthold-Bond, author

Annie Berthold-Bond is the author of Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living and Clean & Green. She is also the creator of the betterbasics.com website. Monday, 27 Sep 1999 Rhinebeck, N.Y. The ticks are back. I noticed a bloated tick on the floor yesterday, fallen off our dog Samy. I […]

Natural Born Litterers

Take This Blob and Shove It

A giant blob of radioactive waste is expanding inside a million-gallon tank buried at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state, and the Department of Energy and site contractor Lockheed Martin are baffled by the problem. A pump that was supposed to dissipate pockets of hydrogen gas in the tank instead whipped the contents into […]

Environmentalism: It's Dyn-o-mite!

Eco-terrorism — arson, bombings, and sabotage done in the name of protecting the environment — is on the rise in the American West. At least 100 major acts of eco-terrorism have taken place in the West since 1980, causing $42.8 million in damages, and 33 of the incidents occurred in the last four years. The […]

Justice Folks

Environmental justice is becoming a higher priority in California as more Latino legislators come to power and try to improve the kinds of neighborhoods in which they grew up, where minority families live side-by-side with factories and waste dumps. Earlier this month, California lawmakers passed a package of bills that aims to limit pollution in […]

Solar Sells

Citizens who generate their own electricity by solar power or other means could get credits on their electric bills for feeding excess power to utilities, under a bill unveiled on Friday by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.). More than two dozen states already have laws that allow “net metering” of this sort, but Inslee says a […]

Prez to Ride Out Storm?

Pres. Clinton plans to stand tough this year against congressional Republicans who have attached at least 39 anti-environmental riders to government spending bills. In past years, Clinton has caved in and approved bills containing such riders, but the administration is now signaling that he is ready to veto major appropriations bills if the riders aren’t […]