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Californians to Stop Passing Gas?
The California Air Resources Board today will consider a first-of-its-kind crackdown on something usually not thought of as an environmental threat: small, portable gas cans. The cans are so leak-prone and ubiquitous — there are an estimated 10 million in California — that they are responsible for as much smog-forming pollution as 1 million cars, […]
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New Kink for Perverse Subsidies
If the world’s governments took just a portion of the money they use for environmentally damaging subsidies and used it for conservation efforts, the world’s rich diversity of species could be preserved, according to a new study in the journal Nature. Researchers at the University of Cambridge calculated that governments spend between $950 billion and […]
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Oil and U'wa Don't Mix
In a move that a Colombian Indian tribe says could mean the end of its culture and people, Colombia’s government yesterday granted Occidental Petroleum a license to explore for oil just outside a 543,000-acre reserve inhabited by the U’wa Indian nation. The company had initially sought permission to explore directly on U’wa land, but the […]
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Fund for the Whole Family
Worldwide funding for family planning and women’s health has fallen billions of dollars below targeted levels even as the world’s population climbs toward 6 billion, the U.N. said yesterday. The U.N. will mark the birth of the planet’s 6 billionth citizen on October 12. The number of people in the world has doubled since 1960, […]
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Not a Creature Was Stirring, Not Even a Grouse
Large swaths of sage and grassland desert in the West are the focal point of a contentious debate over protections for the sage grouse, a large bird that some enviros have taken to calling the “spotted owl of the desert.” The American Lands Alliance and other enviro groups are preparing to petition the feds to […]
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They Weren't Wearing Their Lead Yarmulkes
Dozens of Israelis who worked at a nuclear reactor in a remote desert town are seeking millions of dollars in government compensation for cancer they claim resulted from their work. Years of attempts to settle the cases out of court have failed, and now the plaintiffs are pursuing a court case against Israel’s Atomic Energy […]
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Carbon Paper Stains U.S.
The world’s industrial nations aren’t likely to meet the timetables for cutting emissions of carbon dioxide as called for in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a new study by the International Energy Agency. Continued economic growth in industrial nations has slowed a decline in the use of fossil fuels, according to IEA’s […]
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A Wolf in Ship's Clothing
Greenpeace joined with an international union of transport workers yesterday to launch a campaign against the world’s largest shipbreaking yard, which is located in western India. Shipbreaking, or the dismantling of decommissioned vessels, poses serious environmental risks because toxic wastes are often housed on the ships and appropriate environmental and safety precautions are not taken, […]
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News Flash: Congress Still Full of Jerks
Enviros are gearing up for a fierce battle with congressional Republicans over dozens of anti-environmental riders that have been tacked onto must-pass government appropriations bills. The riders would, among other things, permit more logging and road-building on national forests without wildlife surveys; block proposed restrictions on grazing in national parks; delay a proposed tightening of […]
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New Yuck State
Pres. and Hillary Rodham Clinton have received a unique gift welcoming them to their new home in Chappaqua, N.Y.: a 76-page report listing 47 known or potential toxic sites within one mile of the house the couple is buying. The report, prepared by Toxics Targeting, an environmental research company in Ithaca, N.Y., was FedEx-ed to […]
