Latest Articles
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Have You Spotted Owls?
Spotted-Owl Populations Declining The northern spotted owl, a species that took on huge symbolic significance in the early ’90s when activists used its protected status to sharply curtail logging in federal old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, is once again the center of controversy. A study released yesterday shows that spotted-owl populations in the region […]
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Fear in a Handful of Dust
Household Dust Carries Toxic Chemicals According to a pair of new studies, common household dust carries “unexpectedly high” levels of PBDEs — chemicals used as fire retardants in computers, appliances, and household furnishings, which researchers suspect may cause cancer and stunt fetal brain development. “Exposure to brominated fire retardants is unavoidable,” concluded a study by […]
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Separating the Wheat From the Chaff
Monsanto Abandons Plans for GM Wheat With little fanfare, biotech-food giant Monsanto announced yesterday that it would abandon plans to introduce genetically modified wheat to the market. Anti-GM activists, who have fought Monsanto’s plans for some five years, celebrated the announcement as a major victory. However, the impetus for the shift was likely not the […]
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Win Diesel
EPA Announces New Diesel Regulations Today the U.S. EPA put in place tough new regulations on off-highway diesel engines — tractors, bulldozers, locomotives, etc. — which produce more soot than the nation’s entire on-road vehicle fleet. The agency says the regs will cut emissions from such equipment by 90 percent over a decade by requiring […]
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This Land Is Mine Land
Old Mining Law Gives Taxpayers the Shaft Under an 1872 mining law, private companies and individuals have laid claim to 9.2 million acres of public land for mining, often at prices of $5 an acre or less, says a new report — and 1.2 million acres of that is controlled by foreign companies. The 132-year-old […]
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A Thorn in Our ‘Cides
Study Finds High Levels of Pesticides in U.S. Bodies A large percentage of U.S. residents have unsafe levels of pesticides in their bodies, and children, women, and Mexican-Americans are particularly at risk, says a new study. The Pesticide Action Network analyzed data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the levels […]
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Bamboo-zled
Pandas Threatened by Loss of Bamboo Up to half of the world’s 1,200 species of woody bamboo are in danger of extinction because of deforestation, and their demise would spell big trouble for the animals that depend on them for sustenance, including one of nature’s cuddliest critters, the giant panda. A study released today by […]
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A family-planning advocate and U.N. supporter answers questions
What work do you do? I’m a 62-year-old retired French teacher and tennis coach who has been spending six to eight hours a day for the last 20 months trying to get 34 million Americans to donate at least one dollar to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I do this because the Bush administration […]
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Dispatches from the Hague Conference on Environment, Security, and Sustainable Development
Geoffrey Dabelko is director of the Environmental Change and Security Project in Washington, D.C., a nonpartisan policy forum on environment, population, and security issues. Monday, 10 May 2004 THE HAGUE, Netherlands Terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and perhaps failed states top today’s security agenda. But what about the environment? Can environmental security help us make the world […]
