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Pull Over, Corn. May I See Your License?
In a serious setback for genetically modified foods, EU environment ministers today agreed to place tough new labeling and monitoring rules on the foods. The decision means that the EU is unlikely to authorize any new genetically modified crops before 2002. The new proposed measures would require stricter risk assessments before genetically modified products are […]
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Doe in the Headlights
Though billions of dollars have been spent on the cleanup of U.S. nuclear weapons sites, the Department of Energy is coming up short in the task because its bureaucracy is not taking advantage of recent technological advances, a committee of the National Research Council said yesterday. Over the past several years, DOE has spent between […]
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Insects Is Best
The world might become a buggier place thanks to global warming, presenting farmers with new worries, according to a study published today in Science magazine. Paleobiologists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History studied fossil evidence of insect damage on plants in prehistoric Wyoming and found that insect population and appetite surged as temperatures […]
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Bank Robbery?
The World Bank overruled U.S. objections yesterday when it approved a loan to China that includes $40 million for resettling 58,000 poor Chinese farmers onto fertile lands historically inhabited by Tibetans. But in an effort to smooth over high tensions, the Bank agreed to delay payment of the $40 million until an independent review board […]
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Read My Lips: Yes, No, Maybe
EPA Administrator Carol Browner has decided not to vie for an open Senate seat in her native Florida. Maybe. See what you make of this statement by EPA spokesperson Kim Rubey: “At this point, it’s not something she’s actively looking at. She believes she could win, but there are too many obligations she must meet […]
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It's a Drought, It's a Flood … It's Superdisaster
The rising number of natural disasters brought on by climate change is seriously threatening developing countries, and more “superdisasters” are in the works as the world’s poor concentrate in ever more vulnerable places, according to a report released yesterday by the Red Cross. In the past six years, the number of people who needed aid […]
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A Lung Time Coming
Nine Latin American cities, which together are home to some 68 million people, yesterday called for a regional alliance to fight smog. The cities’ senior environmental officials signed a declaration acknowledging that half the health problems in their urban areas are attributable to environmental degradation. The declaration also called on local authorities to take serious […]
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Whodunnit? Wedunnit
Humans produced most of the gases that have eroded the Earth’s ozone layer, according to a study published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. A team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took measurements of air trapped in polar snowpack in Greenland and Antarctica, showing for the first time that major […]
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Clouding, the Issue
High-altitude clouds of ice crystals were spotted on Tuesday by scientists in Colorado and Utah, the farthest south such clouds have ever been seen in the Northern Hemisphere, suggesting that the same greenhouse gases that are warming Earth’s lower atmosphere are also chilling and adding water to the upper atmosphere. In other climate news, jet […]
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Don't Let Them Eat This Cake
France yesterday called for the sales of all new genetically modified foods to be suspended in the European Union until they are clearly labeled, but EU officials said it’s unlikely the proposal would be accepted. EU environmental ministers are meeting today to settle differences on policies for genetically modified foods. Meanwhile, biotechnology companies are engaging […]
