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  • Organic dairy farm dodged organic rules, and more

    Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: The Climate Got Me High Emission Accomplished Agribusiness As Usual Classy Consciousness Sudan Impact Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: How Green Is Your Candidate? Import-Export Business A Shareable Feast

  • Number of hunters and fishers in U.S. has declined since 1996

    Wildlife agencies have been scrambling to make up funding shortfalls in the last few years due at least in part to a drop in the number of hunters and fishers and the revenue-generating licenses they buy. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hunter numbers have declined about 10 percent between 1996 and 2006, […]

  • Pope urges youth to care for the planet

    Pope Benedict XVI preached the gospel of green to hundreds of thousands of young Catholics in Loreto, Italy, on Sunday, one day after the Italian church’s designated Save Creation Day. While the church gave out recycled-material backpacks filled with biodegradable plates, hand-cranked cell-phone chargers, and prayer books printed on recycled paper, the pontiff implored young […]

  • Proposed dams in northern Sudan stir conflict

    Can’t get enough of depressing Sudan news? Here’s more: The proposed construction of two or three new hydroelectric dams along the Nile River is causing unrest in the northern region of Sudan, which has already had civil war in its south, east, and west. Many fear that demonstrations will give way to widespread violence in […]

  • Barnacle-killing chemical will be banned

    Nasty chemical tributyltin, used to rid ship hulls of barnacles and algae, will be banned under an international treaty expected to be ratified within the next few days. TBT is cheap, effective, used on nearly all of the world’s 30,000 commercial vessels — and deemed by the U.S. EPA to be the most toxic chemical […]

  • U.S. nuclear weapons program killed over 4,000 Americans, analysis shows

    The U.S. nuclear weapons program has sickened an estimated 36,500 Americans and killed over 4,000, according to an analysis of government figures by the Rocky Mountain News. The newspaper’s estimates may be lower than actual numbers because it only counted people who have been approved for government compensation and not those who were sickened or […]

  • Plastic fantastic

    Check out this plastic bag photo gallery.

  • Viral epidemic hits Mediterranean

    Striped dolphins in the Spanish Mediterranean are under attack from a virus similar to measles that could kill roughly 75,000 of the creatures before the disease loses steam.

    Authorities confirmed the disease, Morbillivirus, was also responsible for a plague that killed hundreds of thousands of dolphins in the early 1990s and also recently affected the Canary Island right whale population.

    This is definitely not the year for dolphins -- perhaps you remember the reports late last year of the Yangtze River dolphin effectively becoming extinct. Human impacts, including industrial pollution, boat traffic, and overfishing, were to blame. A video surfaced earlier this summer showing Brazilian fishermen killing 83 dolphins for kicks.

    True, this virus may be a natural phenomenon despite its disastrous potential. Things like poaching, pollution and overfishing can be prevented and helped -- and should be.

  • Vietnam hospital waste turned into plastic utensils

    Recycling gone bad: Environmental officers in Vietnam have found that nearly 300 tonnes of medical waste from a Hanoi hospital was illegally processed into household plastic utensils, state media said Wednesday. A staff member at the Vietnam-Germany Hospital sold the used plastic items — including IV transmission lines and syringes, some still contaminated with blood […]

  • Drinking water across the globe contaminated by arsenic, says research

    Some 137 million people across the globe unknowingly consume water with unsafe levels of arsenic, according to new research. The odorless, tasteless chemical occurs naturally in soil, but also reaches drinking water from agricultural and industrial sources and the vials of paperback-mystery villains. Arsenic can lead to lung, bladder, and skin cancer and is “the […]