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A Good Sense of Drought
Parris N. Glendening (D) yesterday declared Maryland’s first statewide drought emergency in history and said mandatory water conservation measures probably will be imposed as soon as next week. In the meantime, the state has suggested that residents take shorter showers, not wash cars, and not bother to water the lawn or flower beds. Glendening, speaking […]
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High Yangtz-iety
For the second year running, floods are wreaking havoc in the Yangtze River valley. In an effort to stem the problem, China’s cabinet last year issued an order banning logging in many parts of central China because clearcutting had led to soil erosion that in turn contributed to flooding. This year, in a rare public […]
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Midwesterners have a drinking problem
Drinking water across the Midwest is polluted with high levels of the herbicide atrazine and poses a particular risk to infants in the first four months of life, according to a report released yesterday by the Environmental Working Group. The D.C.-based group found that between 1993 and 1998 atrazine contaminated the tap water of some […]
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Just My Type
Compaq recently filed a patent for a keyboard that uses the typing process itself to recharge laptop batteries. Employing magnets attached to the shaft of each key, the company has developed a way to convert the energy from typing into electrical energy to charge the batteries.
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Not by the Hair of Our Chinny Chin Chin
The fate of reintroduced wolves in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho is on the line today as introductory arguments are heard today in a case before the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Two years ago, a federal judge in Wyoming ruled that the Interior Department’s reintroduction program violated the Endangered Species Act, and […]
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Kodak Roams
Eastman Kodak has closed a film plant that employed more than 500 workers in China, claiming that new environmental policies in the country have made it unprofitable to keep the plant running. Kodak has made several environmental improvements to the facility since acquiring it in March 1998, including a new water-recycling system and an updated […]
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Clean Utilities Clean Up
The cleanest big U.S. utilities are also the best investments, according to a study by New York-based investment advisory firm Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. Pacific Gas & Electric on the West Coast, whose mix of fuels includes geothermal, hydro, and natural gas, as well as some coal, and Niagara Mohawk Power on the East Coast, […]
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The Fall of the Collossus of Roads
Some 62 percent of Americans surveyed favor a proposal to protect all roadless areas of at least 1,000 acres in national forests, according to a poll released earlier this week by the Heritage Forests Campaign, National Audubon Society, and Wilderness Society. More than 70 percent favored a ban on oil drilling, logging, and mining in […]
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Down the Hatch
Pres. Clinton nominated Ted Stewart, a conservative Utah Republican strongly disliked by enviros, to a federal judgeship yesterday, caving in to the wishes of Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch has been stalling the confirmation process for a number of Clinton’s judicial nominees, and the administration hopes that the nomination of Hatch’s chosen […]
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Dental Damn!
Baby teeth from children who live in the radiation paths of nuclear power plants in Connecticut and New Jersey contain alarmingly high levels of radioactive matter, scientists reported this week at the World Conference on Breast Cancer in Ottawa, Canada. Emissions from the two plants travel downwind through Long Island, N.Y., which has some of […]
