Latest Articles
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A safe-food crusader answers questions
What environmental organization are you affiliated with? Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Chapter. What does it do? PSR is a nonprofit educational organization committed to the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the achievement of a healthy and sustainable environment, and the reduction of violence and its causes. PSR has programs on […]
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Valley of the Dolls
Silicon Valley Companies Unite to Fight Global Warming A group of major Silicon Valley businesses announced today that they will form a coalition devoted to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Santa Clara County to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010 — more than twice what would be required by the Kyoto Protocol. The companies […]
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A Brand Nuke Day
25 Years After Three Mile Island, Nuclear Power on the Rise Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island’s nuclear facility, an event many observers predicted would be the beginning of the end of the U.S. nuclear industry. Turns out that was wishful thinking. While no new nuclear plants have […]
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Nano No-No
Nanotechnology Can Harm Fish, Study Finds Nanotechnology — the development and application of microscopic particles measured in nanometers and, for some reason, always compared to the diameter of a human hair (they’re thousands of times smaller) — has had scientists and futurists buzzing for years about the possibilities for everything from stain-proof fabrics to tiny […]
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Wet Cemetery
Dead Zones Pose Biggest Challenge for World’s Oceans Large swaths of ocean deprived of oxygen, and thus devoid of fish and plant life — known as “dead zones” — are the primary threat to the world’s oceans in the 21st century, surpassing even overfishing, claimed experts at a meeting this week put on by the […]
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Free trade agreement threatens Costa Rican environmental protections
Insert oil rig here? When most people think of Costa Rica, they don’t imagine oil rigs stationed off the pristine beaches. Nor do they envision pit mines cutting into the cloud-forested mountains. But, despite the country’s noteworthy conservation efforts, its scenic vistas and extraordinary biodiversity face ongoing threats from extractive industries — and from international […]
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On a Wind and a Prayer
Colorado Weighs Renewable-Energy Bill With the Bush administration doing little at the federal level to encourage production of renewable energy, states are taking the lead on the issue. The latest front is in Colorado, where a bill to require that utilities get 8 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 has passed the […]
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Down the Hatcheries
Salmon Science Panel Claims Report Was Censored Another day, another batch of scientists ticked off at the Bush administration. This week, it’s the Recovery Science Review Panel, an independent board of biologists and ecologists charged by the National Marine Fisheries Service with studying the effect of hatchery salmon on wild salmon populations. The panel claims […]
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Kerry on My Greenward Son
Kerry Pushes for High Fuel Economy As Americans face record-high gas prices, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is hawking his plan to raise automobile fuel-economy standards by as much as 50 percent by 2015. While few think Kerry could actually achieve this goal — most congressional Republicans and many Midwestern Democrats oppose the plan — […]
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Umbra on recycling CD jewel cases
Dear Umbra, I’ve been Googling all over to find a place where I can recycle old CD cases, to no avail. I’m moving soon and would really like to find an environmentally safe way to dispose of these things. Do you know of any place they can be dropped off, or any other alternatives? MelissaEdgewater, […]
