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Euro Eco-Promo; France Rants

The European Commission launched a promotional campaign yesterday designed to attract $30 billion in private investment in solar, wind, and biomass technology by 2003. The “Campaign for Take-Off” aims to help the EU meet its goal of doubling renewable energy output to 12 percent by 2010. Meanwhile, France is pressing the EU to make energy […]

Die-oxin

Chemical workers exposed to high levels of dioxin have a 60 percent increased chance of dying from cancer, but small doses of the chemical pose no risk to the general populace, a new study claims. Kyle Steenland, co-author of the study published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, said the findings are […]

Put a Tiger in Your Bank

Exxon argued in front of a packed courtroom yesterday that a judgement awarding $5.3 billion in punitive and compensatory damages against the company for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is excessive and should be dropped. The company’s lawyers told a panel of three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Exxon […]

Turtle Necks on Chopping Block

Southeast Asia is on the verge of completely killing off its once-bountiful turtle populations to feed the voracious demand for the critters in China, where they are sought as food and medicinals. Biologists say that in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, it can be nearly impossible to find even a single turtle in national parks […]

Don't Pave Paradise — Put Up a Parking Garage

Parking lots are coming under fire from environmentalists. The lots can’t absorb rain, so water runs off the pavement, carrying pollution and causing erosion. At the same time, the lots absorb heat from sunlight, releasing it at night and raising temperatures in urban areas from six to 12 degrees compared to nearby rural areas. The […]

Al "Soccer Mom" Gore

Suburban voters will be key in the 2000 presidential election, and candidates are courting the suburbs with different approaches. For example, Al Gore is pitching green-tinted issues that appeal almost exclusively to suburbanites — suburban sprawl, traffic congestion, open space preservation. But rather than framing the issues as environmental, he’s connecting them to families, speaking […]

NWF Offers to Foot Buffalo Bill

The National Wildlife Federation yesterday offered to foot the bill if ranchers near Yellowstone National Park will vaccinate their cattle against brucellosis. Bison are sometimes carriers of the disease, and when bison wander out of the park they are often shot out of fear that cattle will be infected. No case of Yellowstone bison infecting […]

News Flash: Climate Change Changes Climate

Climate change seems to be affecting the frequency of some established weather patterns, according to a new study published in the April 29 issue of the journal Nature. Researchers studying northern winters have found that a weather pattern favoring milder winters was two to three times more likely to arise in the mid-1990s than around […]

Mike Matz, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

Mike Matz is executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which is pushing to preserve 9.1 million acres of Utah canyon country as federally protected wilderness. Monday, 3 May 1999 SALT LAKE CITY This week should be interesting. Our grassroots activists strut their stuff in support of wilderness at public meetings hosted by the […]

Occidental Deaths?

The 5,000 members of the U’wa Indian tribe in Columbia have threatened to jump off a cliff to their deaths if Occidental Petroleum Corp. drills for oil in their ancestral territory. During the past week, tribal leaders and hundreds of activists have demonstrated outside Occidental’s Los Angeles headquarters and its annual shareholders meeting in Santa […]