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Hole in the Wal-Mart

Los Angeles Suburb Spurns Mega-Retailer Voters in the Los Angeles community of Inglewood voted overwhelmingly yesterday to deny giant retailer Wal-Mart the right to build a mammoth “supercenter” on a parcel of land the size of 17 football fields without an environmental impact study or public hearings. Citizens voted by a margin of 61 to […]

Friends in Hybrid Places

American Automakers Get Ready to Sell Hybrids Ford Motor Co. announced today that it will put a second hybrid SUV on the market in 2007, but the company and its American counterparts still have a ways to go before they catch up with Japanese automakers and satisfy the demands of environmentalists. Ford’s first hybrid SUV, […]

Melts in Your Oceans, Not in Your Hand

Greenland Ice Sheet to Melt, Drowning Coastlines If current global warming trends continue, Greenland’s ice sheet — the world’s second largest, after Antarctica’s — will begin melting by the end of the century, and over the course of 1,000 years will melt entirely, raising worldwide ocean levels by some 23 feet and totally screwing up […]

Don’t Be So Defensive

Pentagon Seeks Yet More Environmental Exemptions The U.S. Department of Defense went to Congress again yesterday and requested more exemptions from environmental laws. Congress has granted five of the eight exemptions previously sought by the DOD, which claims — despite findings to the contrary by congressional investigators in 2002 — that environmental restrictions are hampering […]

Tips on greener computing

OK computer. U.S. consumers are being cheated out of the chance to buy the greenest possible computers, according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and other environmental groups that have joined forces on the Computer TakeBack Campaign. The campaign’s latest report card examined 28 computer manufacturers’ practices regarding hazardous materials, worker health and safety, and […]

USDA’s Mark Rey drags feet on releasing info about forest policymaking

Mark Rey. Photo: USFS. According to lawyers from Defenders of Wildlife, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, seems to be pulling some moves out of the Dick Cheney playbook — the very same tricks of evasion and secrecy that have jeopardized the vice president’s reputation in the fiasco surrounding his energy […]

Liquefied Natural Gas Boom Sparks Safety Worries

The surging popularity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has local communities where LNG terminals are planned worried about safety. Ships carrying five LNG tanks contain as much energy as a nuclear weapon. If even one of the tanks spilled and the gas ignited, it could cause a fire up to half a mile wide, and […]

Seas the Day

Enviros Push California to Buy Ocean Areas and Fishing Boats Environmental groups, buoyed by their success in channeling government money to buy large swaths of California coast to protect it from development, have set their sights on the Pacific Ocean. They hope to secure funding to buy boats, fishing permits, and even plots of ocean […]

Molybdenum? I Barely Know ’em!

Feds Sell Colorado Land to Mining Firm at Rock-Bottom Price Citing a provision in the federal Mining Act of 1872, the Bush administration has sold 155 acres of federal land near the resort community of Crested Butte, Colo., to a multinational mining company for $875. “For less than $1,000, Phelps Dodge has acquired 150 acres […]

The U.S. has outsourced environmental leadership

On the money. California unveiled the design on its state quarter last week: a picture of John Muir, an image of Half Dome. It’s an apt representation of American environmentalism at the moment — rich in history, but not worth much at present. Modern environmentalism can fairly be described as an American invention. It got […]