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Don't Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke It

Meanwhile, British researchers announced on Tuesday that they had genetically engineered tobacco plants to make them capable of removing explosives from soil. The plants, which can break down unstable ingredients in explosives such as TNT and nitroglycerin, could be used to clean up areas around weapons factories and munitions dumps, according to an article in […]

Scientists Poo Poo Chemical Threat in Water

U.S. water supplies are seriously threatened by microbes, warns a report from the American Society for Microbiology, but efforts to control water pollution have concentrated on chemical risks rather than microbial ones. The report claims that dangerous organisms such as E. coli O157, cryptosporidium, giardia, hepatitis A, and pfisteria pose a greater risk to human […]

Don King Endangered

Fig Leaf Bill: Let's Hope It Wilts in the Heat

Senators opposed to the Kyoto climate change treaty introduced a bill yesterday that would forego mandates for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in favor of voluntary, market-based programs. Sponsored by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Larry Craig (R- Idaho), and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the measure would allot $2 billion over 10 years to create a research, development, […]

Village People Go on Tour

Women, men, and children from the remote Mexican village of Ejido Pino Gordo this month walked 36 hours to the Chihuahua state capital to stage a sit-in at the governor’s palace and protest the illegal logging of forest land surrounding their village. Government officials were caught off guard by the protest and the ensuing media […]

Stinky Stuff Sows Selma Civil Split

In an unusual alliance, some Black Alabamans are being joined by their white neighbors in protesting a proposed garbage dump that would be within smelling distance of a stretch of road leading from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., where a pivotal civil rights march took place in 1965. And in an unusual split, some long-time civil […]

Greens Parachute from Hijacked Panel

All of the environmental, consumer, and public interest groups on a food safety panel advising the EPA resigned in protest yesterday, accusing the Clinton administration of letting pesticide and agribusiness interests “hijack” a 1996 law aimed at protecting children from pesticides. The seven groups say the EPA won’t meet an August deadline set by the […]

First Crack at the WIPP

A truck bearing 42 barrels of radioactive waste from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory hit the road yesterday, the first shipment from outside New Mexico to head to the recently opened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. About 4,900 more shipments from INEEL containing waste generated during production of nuclear weapons will […]

Take the Lead and Run

The Conservation Law Foundation is drawing flak for setting up a business arm that is pushing an additive to clean up gasoline in countries that haven’t yet banned lead, and is planning to share in the profits from the additive’s sale. Critics say that by promoting private, profit-seeking ventures, CLF will ruin its reputation as […]

Ford's New Business Plan Is Junk

Ford is motoring into the junk business with a plan to acquire auto dumps across North America and build a massive international car parts recycling company that sells its wares over the Internet. The move is intended to generate $1 billion a year in revenue while following Ford Chair William Ford Jr.’s pledge of environmental […]