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Land of Milk and 2-D-Phenylanlanine

British babies feeding on breast milk could be receiving as much as 40 times World Heath Organization-recommended levels of a wide range of chemicals, according to a report from the World Wildlife Fund in the U.K. The report identified 87 dioxins and 190 other chemicals from industrial pollution and pesticides, including possible endocrine-disrupters, in the […]

DOJ-ing a Bullet?

The Justice Department on Monday requested that a full appeals court reconsider a recent ruling by a three-judge panel that overturned the Clinton administration’s clean-air standards for ozone and particulates. The DOJ hopes that the full court in Washington, D.C., agrees with its assessment that the panel was mistaken in concluding that the EPA lacked […]

Sorry. Our Bad.

Scientists are becoming even more certain that humans are a key contributor to global warming, and some are even contending that human causes have been the most significant factor leading to warming in recent decades. A landmark 1995 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found a “discernable human influence” on climate change, […]

A Tarriffic Campaign

The Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, and other environmental groups yesterday announced a vigorous campaign against a proposed zero-tariff agreement on forest products in the World Trade Organization. The greens say that the proposal to eliminate tariffs on paper and wood products would increase consumption of wood in countries that now face high prices and […]

Oh, That's Why They Call Them the Smokies

Average daily ozone pollution levels in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park over the last eight years have been nearly two times higher than pollution levels in Atlanta, Knoxville, Nashville, and Charlotte, according to a report by the National Parks and Conservation Association. Much of the pollution drifts over to the park from coal-fired power […]

Reservations over Blackfeet Plan

Two hundred square miles of land on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation just east of Glacier National Park in Montana could soon become a huge industrial oil and natural gas development, covered with wells, roads, power lines, and processing stations. Despite the protest of the EPA and some enviros, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs […]

Denver Bronc-itis

For the first time, Colorado officials last week issued an ozone pollution alert for Denver, normally a clean-air haven this time of year. The city’s summer ground-level ozone problem is arising just as it is putting its winter carbon-monoxide pollution problem behind it. The region is one of the areas in the country growing most […]

Throwing Light on Throwing Lights

In a victory for recyclers and enviros, the EPA this week is set to ban the dumping of fluorescent light bulbs into landfills and require bulk buyers of the tubes to recycle them or throw them in special hazardous waste landfills. The new rules, which would reject a competing plan by light manufacturers to allow […]

Interior Officials Kick Back?

When the Washington, D.C.-based Project on Government Oversight helped win a lawsuit last summer against Mobil Oil for paying less than it owed the Treasury for drilling on federal lands, it decided to share its payment with two federal officials, giving them $350,000 each for their years of arguing that oil companies had not been […]

Hard of Herring

Underwater noise from supertankers, oil drilling, and military sonar may be drastically disrupting the living patterns of whales, seals, and other sea life, according to a report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The group contends that the noises could tamper with the creatures’ natural communication systems and cause them to deviate from […]