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Unwiseguys

Italian “Eco-Mafia” Prospers Through Illegal Dumping and Building In a moribund Italian economy, one business sector is thriving: the “eco-mafia,” a network of criminal clans and gangs that engage in illegal construction and illegal disposal of hazardous waste, described in a recent report by Legambiente, Italy’s most prominent environmental group. The eco-mafiosi build villas and […]

Hello, Nu Man

China’s Prime Minister Unexpectedly Suspends Dam Project Well, knock us over with a feather. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has just suspended — pending further study and review — the massive hydroelectric dam system planned for the Nu River, which runs through an unspoiled, richly biodiverse area in western China dubbed a World Heritage Site […]

News Flash: Pesticides Are Bad for Kids

Pesticide Use Impairs Abilities of Children in India According to a study just released by Greenpeace, children from villages in the cotton-cultivating northern states of India, who are exposed to high levels of pesticides, suffer from poor memory and impaired analytical and motor skills. A control group of children not exposed to pesticides performed 80 […]

Might and Maine

Maine Pushes Ahead With Pair of Pioneering Green Laws Maine — known, we found out via Google just moments ago, as the Pine Tree State — is leading the state pack with a couple of eco-friendly laws. A bill approved this week by the state legislature will make Maine the first state to ban the […]

Extreme Prejudice

Bush Campaign Manager Accuses Kerry of “Environmental Extremism” Speaking before a crowd in Michigan, Marc Racicot, chair of President Bush’s reelection campaign, characterized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as “incredibly environmentally green” and an environmental extremist; it was unclear whether he saw any distinction between the two. Racicot criticized Kerry’s support for a plan to […]

Greenahertz

Chipmakers Phasing Out Lead Computer chip manufacturers are going greener. Intel and National Semiconductor announced separately yesterday that they will begin eliminating lead from most of their products. Intel will begin shipping lead-free embedded processors in the second quarter of 2004 and lead-free microprocessors in the third quarter; their lead-free memory chips are already on […]

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch …

Bush Shows Off Ranch to Conservation Groups President Bush today will give a tour of his Texas ranch to what the White House calls “wildlife conservation organizations,” including Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, and, uh, the National Rifle Association. Bush’s policies of promoting oil and gas exploration and other development in the West have […]

Quality Is Job One

Protected Areas Aren’t Adequate to Shield Endangered Species Some 20 percent of the world’s threatened animal species live in habitats that are entirely unprotected, according to a study just published in the journal Nature. Although 11.5 percent of the world’s land is protected in wildlife preserves and parks — exceeding the ambitious 10 percent goal […]

Breath Defying

EPA’s New Smog Standards Cause Political Uproar On April 15, the U.S. EPA will release a list of counties across the country that exceed its new standards for ground-level ozone (the main component of smog), and the impending announcement is already kicking up a political poopstorm. Local and state governments in overly smoggy areas will […]

Crossing Jeffords

Jeffords Stalls Bush EPA Appointments Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) has put on hold four of President Bush’s appointments to top positions in the U.S. EPA, protesting what he says is the agency’s refusal to turn over documents he’s requested. Saying he has repeatedly been “stonewalled” by the agency — he points to 12 unmet document […]