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Pretty Boy on Floyd
Without urgent action to curb climate change, the world will be increasingly vulnerable to environmental crises and destructive storms like Hurricane Floyd, which is now headed for the East Coast of the U.S., Pres. Clinton said today in New Zealand during a speech on global warming. He warned that sea levels are likely to rise […]
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Pollen-hate
Organic farmers are increasingly worried and angry about the possibility that their crops will be contaminated by cross-pollination with genetically modified crops. In Canada, the National Farmers Union wants to government to make biotech firms liable for “transgenic” pollution of organic and traditional crops. Meanwhile, a team of British scientists argues that organic farming could […]
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Soot Suit
New York state plans to sue 17 coal-burning power plants in the Midwest and the Virginias, a new approach in the effort to clean up air pollution that blows into the Northeast from Midwestern and Southern states. Northeastern states and the federal government have long fought to get coal-burning plants to reduce the emissions that […]
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U.N.-Happy
The U.N. is warning that time is running out to forestall worldwide environmental problems, and it’s already too late to prevent some biodiversity loss and irreversible damage to ecosystems like tropical forests. An end-of-the-century report by the U.N. Environment Program, compiled by experts from more than 100 nations, predicts that a number of “full-scale emergencies” […]
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More Senate Logrolling
The Senate killed a proposal yesterday that would have taken $33.6 million from the Forest Service timber-sale and road-building budget and put it toward protecting and surveying rare plants and animals in the Northwest and reducing the national debt. Republicans argued that the proposal, which Sens. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tried to […]
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Truck Trick
Automakers are planning to introduce as many as two dozen small sport-utility-like vehicles with car-based designs in the coming years and ask that they be classified as light trucks, a designation that has lower fuel-efficiency requirements. The new designs look like hybrids of SUVs, minivans, and cars. While the new vehicles get worse gas mileage […]
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Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect All of World Agriculture
Using a new weapon to fight biotechnology, activists announced yesterday that they plan to file antitrust lawsuits in 30 countries accusing major biotech firms, grain traders, and grain processors of using genetic engineering to gain control of world agriculture. Jeremy Rifkin, director of the Foundation on Economic Trends, said the legal actions are intended to […]
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How Much Wood Would WTO Chuck, If WTO Could Chuck Wood Tariffs?
Enviros will take a swing at “free trade” today, releasing a report warning that the World Trade Organization may weaken forest protections this fall. The report argues that a U.S. proposal for zero tariffs on forest products would push logging up some 3 to 4 percent worldwide. The report, written primarily by staffers from the […]
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Et Tu, FoE?
Friends of the Earth will stick it to Al Gore today when the group’s political action committee announces that it will back Bill Bradley, Gore’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. The group notes that Bradley’s voting record in Congress got a higher rating than Gore’s from the League of Conservation Voters — 85 percent […]
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Does This Make Up for Teflon Bullets?
Giant U.S. chemical company DuPont announced yesterday that it intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent from 1990 levels by 2010, taking “early action” before the Kyoto climate change treaty is enacted. The company also plans to hold its energy use flat and get 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources […]
