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Bigger Ain't Better
If all 68 million sport utility vehicles, minivans, and pickup trucks in the U.S. met the current 27.5 mile-per-gallon standard for cars, oil consumption in the U.S. would have been reduced by 336 million barrels in 1997, or 11 percent of the nation’s crude oil imports, according to a new study by the U.S. Public […]
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Eagles Eye Recovery
The bald eagle has made such a striking comeback that the Clinton administration will propose around the Fourth of July that the national symbol be removed from the endangered species list. The eagle population in the U.S. is thought to have once numbered between 250,000 and 500,000, but by 1963, largely because of the pesticide […]
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If a Tree Falls in This Sound, There's Still a Forest
Native Canadian groups, environmentalists, and timber company MacMillan Bloedel signed a deal yesterday to end Canada’s most bitter forest fight. The agreement supports the use of selective, sustainable logging in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island only in second-growth and fragmented old-growth stands, not in large pristine watersheds. Greenpeace Canada and the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense […]
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Shark Attack
The 1990s have seen a big rise in the popularity of shark fin meat, and fishers are capitalizing on the trend by catching tens of thousands of Pacific Ocean sharks, slicing off their fins, and tossing the animal remains back in the ocean. Sun-dried shark fins can command up to $250 a pound in Hong […]
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Senate Gores World Bank
The Senate is moving to cut money for a World Bank environmental fund that promotes energy-saving, low-pollution projects in developing countries, a top priority of Vice Pres. Al Gore. The Senate Appropriations Committee today is expected to approve a foreign-aid budget bill that would provide only $25 million to pay off initial U.S. commitments to […]
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Oh Goody, 17 More Months of Gore Puns
Al Gore officially kicked off his presidential campaign yesterday in Tennessee, making brief mention of the environment. “Some want to cut back on environmental protection and let polluters off the hook. I will never let that happen,” he said, making a clear comparison between himself and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the leading Republican candidate, […]
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Is the military about to blow its chance to protect southwestern desert land?
A bombshell exploded a few weeks ago in the midst of tangled negotiations over the fate of the 2.7 million-acre Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range in the Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona. Mohawk Dunes, Goldwater Bombing Range. The Air Force accidentally dropped a 500-pound bomb April 30 on a part of the range that the […]
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Maple Leaf's Rag
A Canadian company plans to sue the U.S. government under NAFTA, seeking $970 million in damages because California has banned MTBE, a methanol-based gasoline additive that is a key source of revenue for the company. California Gov. Gray Davis (D) in March announced that the state would phase out MTBE, which helps fuel burn more […]
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More Road Kill
More people are killed by pollution from cars in Austria, France, and Switzerland than by car crashes, according to a report released yesterday by the World Health Organization. Long-term exposure to auto pollution in the three nations caused 21,000 premature deaths a year from heart and respiratory disease, as well as hundreds of thousands of […]
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Biotech Bugs Pesticide Makers
As more farmers plant crops genetically engineered to be bug-resistant, the market for insecticides and weed-killers is falling. Cotton farmers have cut the amount of insecticide they apply to their fields by 12 percent, or about 2 million pounds, since bug-resistant cotton plants hit the fields three years ago, according to the National Center for […]
