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Bonn Fire
The Kyoto climate change treaty is running into real trouble over a European Union proposal to cap emissions trading. A new study of the European proposal by the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates that a trading cap would have the largest impact on the U.S., reducing its ability to make trades by two-thirds and requiring […]
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Cold Comfort
A two-mile long ice core drilled out of an Antarctic ice sheet shows that levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane are higher now than at any time in the past 420,000 years. The ice-core record is the longest obtained to date. The findings — gathered by a U.S.-Russian-French team at Russia’s Vostok […]
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Sara Patton, NW Energy Coalition
Sara Patton is director of the NW Energy Coalition based in Seattle, Wash. Sunday, 6 Jun 1999 SEATTLE, Wash. I am home from several days in Portland, Ore., attempting to type through the ministrations of my small white cat who apparently missed me while I was gone. On Friday I was on a panel in […]
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A review of 'From the Redwood Forest' and 'Forest Blood'
The recent high-profile deal to keep chainsaws out of the Headwaters grove of ancient redwood trees near Eureka, Calif., is unlikely to bring about a truce in the raging war over old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. Environmentalists continue to dig in their heels and repudiate all compromise (more than 90 percent of U.S. old-growth has already been lost, they say; no more can be sacrificed). Meanwhile, the timber industry flexes its mighty political muscle and logs on.
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Amazon.gov
Brazil’s government will send army, navy, and air force units into the Amazon rainforest this weekend to crack down on illegal logging. This aggressive campaign, which will last several weeks and cost $3.5 million, represents a change of course for Brazilian Pres. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, whom enviros have accused of ignoring the threats against the […]
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Owe Canada
A landmark salmon fishing pact announced yesterday between Canada and the U.S. will set fishing quotas based on the abundance of fish rather than fixed annual limits, likely reducing the catch of some stocks by 5 to 50 percent. The agreement settles years of rancorous fighting between the two nations over fish. Two funds for […]
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Mardi Gross
Rio de Janeiro’s self-image has taken a beating this year as its fabled beaches have been closed because a burst sewage line caused tons of untreated waste to be dumped close to shore. After months of mishaps and delays, the government claims that the flow of waste has been brought under control and that there’s […]
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Finger-Lickin' Scary
The U.S. yesterday banned chicken and pork imports from Europe, one day after the EU began destroying chicken and pork from Belgium for fear that they may be contaminated with dioxin, a carcinogenic byproduct from the manufacture of some pesticides and herbicides. Alarm broke out last week when a European TV station reported that dioxin-laced […]
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Indonesia Has a New Foe
Indonesia’s economic crisis is threatening the well-being not just of people but of wildlife. With widespread civic unrest in the nation, increased trafficking and poaching of endangered species are going unpunished. According to a report released this spring by Friends of the Earth (FoE), the Indonesian government, in an effort to boost its troubled economy, […]
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A Gorge-ous House?
A contentious property rights battle is brewing in Washington state over the building of a large house that many say is marring the natural landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. Construction of the house, started two years ago, has been stalled because an oversight panel known as the Columbia River Gorge Commission has overruled county […]
