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Dispatch from a contentious meeting of the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board

Will Fantle is director of research for the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to the fight for economic justice for the family-scale farming community. The group’s Organic Integrity Project acts as a corporate watchdog monitoring the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces. Today, he’s at a meeting of the USDA’s National […]

Sink-o de Mayo

Water Troubles Cause Mexico City to Sink Mexico City is sinking — in some areas, by as much as a foot a year, and altogether by about 30 feet over the past century. The sprawling, smoggy metropolis — more than double the size of greater London — has been depleting the aquifer on which it […]

Take It Wheezy

Climate Change Contributes to Asthma in Poor Preschoolers Poor and minority preschool children in U.S. inner cities are among the first people suffering adverse effects from global warming. According to a study released yesterday by Harvard researchers, climate change is among the primary causes of a growing epidemic of asthma in the Western world. Asthma […]

Leavitt for Later

EPA Postpones Final Decision on Mercury Regs Under a withering storm of criticism — hundreds of thousands of public comments, outraged punditry, and earlier this month, a letter from 45 senators — U.S. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt announced yesterday that the agency would delay release of final regulations governing mercury emissions from power plants to […]

Schwarzenegger’s “Green Hummer” plan sparks cultish following

Does this look green to you? The Hummer has come to be associated with a number of things — steroid-addled egomaniacs, over-compensating suburban dads, the highway to global-warming hell, even Monica Lewinsky’s antics in the Oval Office … But eco-friendly driving isn’t one of them. Unless, of course, you travel in the “Green Hummer” underground, […]

Goin’ Smack to Cali

Supreme Court Rules Against California Air-Quality Regulators The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 yesterday that Southern Californian air-quality officials had overstepped their legal bounds when they required operators of private fleets (bus lines, trash haulers, etc.) in the region to purchase only low-pollution vehicles. The ruling was bitterly disappointing for officials in a region with one […]

Waiting to Inhale

American Lung Association Names Most Polluted Areas The Supreme Court ruling spotlighted above is harshly ironic in light of today’s release by the American Lung Association of its annual report on the U.S. cities and counties most threatened by air pollution, which has been linked with lung disease, lung cancer, and a variety of respiratory […]

Starsky and Hatchery

Feds to Consider Hatchery Salmon Along with Wild in Protection Plans When considering what measures to take to protect threatened Pacific salmon under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government will, in a sharp break from years of policy, take into account the number of hatchery salmon in the West’s rivers. The decision, contained in […]

I Did It Norway

Norway Plays Host to Creative Eco-Friendly Projects A windy island off the western coast of Norway is the site for an ambitious demonstration project that aims to power a tiny town solely with renewable energy, without need for a backup power system run on fossil fuels or other eco-icky technologies. One problem with wind and […]

Christian leaders challenge Bush’s environmental policy

Almighty God, your word of creation caused the water to be filled with many kinds of living beings and the air to be filled with birds … Thank you for seeds and soil, green stem and air. For fruit on the vine, then falling fruit rotting on the moist ground, then new seed again … […]