Latest Articles
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Turning Japanese
An Eco-Products exhibition held recently in Tokyo, Japan, attracted more than 100,000 visitors and no shortage of unusual inventions. The big-ticket item was, of course, Toyota’s fuel-cell car, which has just been leased to the Japanese government, but there were plenty of other forms of green ingenuity on display as well. These ranged from the […]
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New Issue, Same Old Jersey
South Camden, N.J., has the distinction of being one of the nation’s poorest cities — and an important East Coast laboratory for the environmental justice movement. Environmental justice advocates believe South Camden’s poverty goes a long way toward explaining why the city is home to so many plants and factory facilities, many of which spew […]
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Subway Diet
The threat of a transit strike in New York City has been staved off — for the moment, at least — but New Yorkers still have reason to worry about their public transportation system. The more than 4 million people who use the Metropolitan Transit Authority pay more to keep it running than do mass-transit […]
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This Ain’t Rocket Science. Oh Wait, Yes It Is.
The U.S. Pentagon is a major source of perchlorate, the main ingredient of solid rocket fuel and a toxic chemical that can cause neurological problems and developmental damage in infants and children, and possibly cancer and other serious ailments in adults. For decades, millions of Americans have been exposed unknowingly to perchlorate through their local […]
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Rumors of the EPA chief stepping down may not be greatly exaggerated
It takes one to know one, they say, so when Eric Schaeffer indicates that U.S. EPA Administrator Christine Whitman might jump ship, we sit up and take notice. Schaeffer, the former director of the EPA’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement, resigned last February to protest the agency’s failure to fulfill its mission to advocate on behalf […]
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On the Roadless Again
In a victory for environmentalists, a federal appeals court has reinstated a Clinton administration rule protecting nearly 60 million acres of national forests from logging, mining, and construction. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco lifted an injunction against the roadless rule yesterday, simultaneously affirming its legal basis and criticizing a lower […]
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Gas-p
Fuel economy standards could change for the first time in six years if a Bush administration proposal to modestly increase gas mileage in sport utility vehicles, vans, minivans, and pickup trucks is approved. The proposal would increase the fuel economy of those vehicles by 1.5 miles per gallon over three years, beginning in 2005, from […]
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Kim Jong Ill
In a sign of the further souring of relations with Washington, North Korea announced yesterday that it would immediately restart a nuclear reactor that has been offline since 1994, when it nearly provoked a war with the U.S. North Korea says the Yongbyon reactor is its only option for producing electricity in light of the […]
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Cell-ebrate
Every year, hundreds of millions of new cell phones come into the world — and now, thanks to a deal brokered by the United Nations Environment Programme, when they leave the world, they may do so in a relatively eco-friendly fashion. Yesterday, the giants of the electronics industry (including market leaders Nokia, Motorola, Philips, and […]
