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Lettuce Have Standards
The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to offer up a second proposal for national organic standards by the end of this year. The first draft of proposed standards, unveiled in late 1997, elicited a record 300,000 public comments, most of them critical of the proposed rules, which, among other things, would have allowed some genetically […]
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Uncrossing the Delaware
Fish populations in the Delaware River in Pennsylvania are making a striking comeback following a major river cleanup effort. In the last 20 years, levels of harmful ammonia and bacteria in the Delaware have been cut by about half, and the level of dissolved oxygen in the river, necessary for fish to breathe, has quadrupled. […]
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Freezing Their Assets Off
A Dutch court has frozen the assets of Greenpeace International at the urging of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., which was the target of a nuclear protest by the enviro group on Monday. British Nuclear Fuels asked for the court’s move so it could reclaim compensation for costs incurred when Greenpeace delayed a company shipment of […]
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Cruise: Spigots Wide Open
Royal Caribbean Cruises, the world’s second largest cruise line, agreed yesterday to pay $18 million and plead guilty to 21 felony charges of dumping waste oil and hazardous waste at sea and lying to the U.S. Coast Guard about it. While crew members on the line’s ships were wearing “Save the Waves” buttons, workers below […]
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My, What a Big Population You Have
Northern gray wolves could move off the endangered species list in as few as three years, according to Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wolves introduced during the last four years in central Idaho, northwestern Montana, and Yellowstone National Park have adapted quite well to their new surroundings. Delisting […]
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Balance Beamed
Six environmental groups filed suit yesterday against the federal government, arguing that they should have seats on two federally established committees that advise the U.S. on forest product trade issues. The committees are now composed solely of industry representatives, despite a federal law requiring them to be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of […]
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Invasive Procedures
Today marks the first meeting of the federal government’s new multi-agency Invasive Species Council, a group that will tackle the mounting problems of exotic plants and animals in the U.S. The more than 50,000 nonnative species in the U.S. cost the economy some $138 billion a year, according to a Cornell University study released last […]
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Russia: Let Me Atom!
Russia sees a potential $15 billion enterprise in storing nuclear waste from around the world, and Russian officials will meet next week with Vice Pres. Al Gore and other U.S. officials to discuss the project. Under the plan, nations would pay as much as $1.5 million per metric ton to have an estimated 10,000 tons […]
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Phew, I Feel Safer Already, Part II
The world’s 440 nuclear power plants are on track to deal with the millennium computer bug, the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday. The agency’s reviews of plants uncovered some “vulnerabilities” in data and monitoring systems, but the IAEA claims there are no problems related to safe operation of the plants. Meanwhile, the Norwegian environmental […]
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Grime and Punishment
A Russian military and environmental journalist was acquitted yesterday of treason and espionage charges. Grigory Pasko was arrested and imprisoned in November 1997 after filing a report for a Japanese television station that purportedly showed Russian sailors dumping radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan. Prosecutors accused Pasko of selling military secrets, but Pasko says […]
