Latest Articles
-
Perc Up
The nation’s first-ever ban on perchloroethylene, or “perc,” went into effect on Friday when Southern California air quality officials approved a regulation mandating a phase-out of the chemical by the year 2020. The long lead-time to the phase-out is a concession to the dry-cleaning industry, which relies on perc to remove stubborn stains from delicate […]
-
Prodigal Son
The U.S. Agriculture Department has levied more than $3 million in fines against biotech company ProdiGene for mixing GM corn containing an animal vaccine with soybeans meant for human consumption. The contaminated soybeans were stopped before they reached the market, and the company, which makes pharmaceutical and industrial enzymes and proteins by growing them in […]
-
Rebel Without a Forest
The state of Chiapas, in southeastern Mexico, is home to the last remaining stands of rainforest in the nation — and also to almost half a million impoverished people, many of them living on the brink of starvation. In the past, the forest has been ravaged by monied interests, such as foreign companies looking to […]
-
A Blow to the Solar Plexus
Renewable energy use in the U.S. dropped sharply in 2001, according to a new report by the Department of Energy. Much of that decline stems from a drought that cut hydroelectric power generation by 23 percent, but the DOE’s Energy Information Administration also found that in 2001, solar equipment was retired faster than it was […]
-
Green Unpleasant Land
A record quantity of northern polar ice was lost this year, according to scientists who presented their findings at a conference of the American Geophysical Union held this weekend in San Francisco. Surface melt in Greenland, for example, was the highest in recorded history, and extended to previously unaffected altitudes. In total, there were about […]
-
John Hanger, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
John Hanger is president and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), a public interest membership organization that works to create a just future where nature, communities, and the economy thrive. Monday, 9 Dec 2002 HARRISBURG, Penn. The line from the John Lennon song Beautiful Boy — “Life is what happens while you are making […]
-
The Dow of Poo
Outgoing Michigan Gov. John Engler (R) is trying to relax the state standard for dioxin pollution, a move that unhappy environmentalists say is designed to minimize Dow Chemical’s financial liability for future cleanup efforts. The proposed change, which has also angered Gov.-elect Jennifer Granholm (D) and regional U.S. EPA officials, would increase by more than […]
-
Credit Where Credit Is Due
The Kyoto Protocol on climate change has not yet gone into effect, but the first sale of greenhouse gas credits negotiated within the treaty’s proposed framework is officially a done deal. Slovakia (of all places) has sold emissions credits equivalent to 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide to a Japanese trading house, which declined to […]
-
Half and Half
In the interest of living up to our reputation for providing the occasional sliver of cheery environmental news, Grist is pleased to report that notwithstanding rampant ecological degradation, nearly half of the land on Earth remains undeveloped and unpopulated, according to an international study released earlier this week. The study — the most comprehensive such […]
