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Bombard Deer?
Lockheed Martin plans to do its part to help curb global warming by bombing the earth with saplings. The company will convert warplanes, initially developed to drop landmines, and use them to bombard the ground with biodegradable metal cones carrying tree shoots. Once the devices hit the ground, they should explode and the trees should […]
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Sea Sick
Marine life is increasingly threatened by diseases, in part because of climate change and pollution, according to research published in the journal Science. Pollution from chemicals like organochlorides can weaken marine species’ immune systems, and the long-term warming trend in the ocean, as well as other human disruptions of the marine environment, are exacerbating the […]
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Brazil, You're Fired
In Brazil, “slash and burn” fires set by farmers are raging out of control and covering many areas with a thick haze, sending children to hospitals with respiratory infections. August and September are the burning season in Brazil, when farmers and ranchers set fire to brush to clear land for planting or pasture; because it’s […]
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What a Tangled Web
Documents at the center of a Ford lawsuit about a website reveal that the automaker is developing technologies to improve the fuel economy of its trucks by as much as 15 percent and meet tougher proposed federal auto-emissions rules. Ford is suing a website operator who posted the detailed documents online, saying they were stolen. […]
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Geek Bearing Gifts
Vice Pres. Al Gore will deliver good news to New England fishers today when he announces a $5 million federal disaster-relief program. The aid program will give the operators of 750 small fishing boats in the Gulf of Maine up to $1,500 for each day that fishing grounds were closed by regulators this past spring, […]
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Unlisted Numbers
Nearly 90 percent of all violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act are not reported in the government database that is made available to citizens and that triggers legal action when there are problems, according to a new audit by the EPA. Violations range from missed water quality tests to contamination problems. Most of the […]
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Activists Go Critical
More than 130 environmental, health, and anti-nuclear activists this week protested the composition of a new panel of scientists that will try to determine the cancer risks from low doses of radiation. In a letter to the National Academy of Scientists, under which the high-profile panel has been formed, the activists charged that the 20-member […]
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States to Air Differences in Court
A proposed compromise clean air plan between Midwestern states and Northeastern states has been rejected by parties on both sides, making it highly likely that the long-running dispute will be resolved only in court. Some of the Northeast states, which are forced to cope with pollution that blows in from power plants and other polluters […]
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From the Folks Who Brought You the Bomb
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory say they have found a way to help tackle the problem of climate change by combining carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas, with common magnesium- or calcium-bearing minerals. The resulting mixture, a mineral carbonate, would trap the CO2 and prevent it from reaching and […]
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At Loggerheads
Several dozen environmental groups will send a letter to Pres. Clinton today expressing “deep disappointment” over administration policy on Northwest forests. The enviros believe the administration’s Northwest Forest Plan, put in place in 1993, provides far too little protection for old growth. The timber industry, for its part, maintains that the plan is unworkable because […]
