Latest Articles
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Go Get ’em, Tigers
The world’s largest mangrove forest, Sundarban, spans the border between Bangladesh and India, but the countries don’t have a joint plan to manage the 3,700-square-mile area. The United Nations is hoping to change that. Two U.N. entities, the International Partnership Fund and the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, are providing funding to help Bangladesh and […]
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Bloomsday Doomsday
Ah, a lovely rolling meadow in springtime bloom. What could possibly be more British — or more endangered? Flower meadows in the U.K. are declining at an alarming rate, putting some species at risk, according to a survey of eight English counties conducted by Wildlife Trusts, an organization that manages 2,400 nature reserves in the […]
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Vera, Vera Good
Portland, Ore., has long had a reputation for attracting Birkenstock-wearing, bike-riding, tree-hugging residents. Now city officials hope to attract Birkenstock-wearing, bike-riding, tree-hugging companies. (Okay, yes, we know companies can’t really ride bikes.) Last month, Danish wind-power company Vestas Wind Systems chose Portland as the base of its U.S. operations, bringing as many as 1,000 new […]
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Carolina in Their Minds
The Bush administration is unhappy about a new ad campaign attacking its plan to move some 30 tons of plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina for temporary storage. The campaign was launched last week by South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges (D), who opposes the plan, fearing that his state could become the permanent resting grounds […]
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The Netherlands tackles nitrogen pollution with a game
Confess: You’ve played more than one hand of solitaire on company time. Tetris anyone? Maybe you’ve even been a MYSTic or a QUAKEr. If you happen to work for the Dutch Ministry of the Environment, playing computer games is now part of your job description. Or at least playing a computer game — the world’s […]
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Go East, Young Consumer
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain came up, signaling the end of the Cold War, the fall of communism — and a new era for the environment in Central and Eastern Europe. Popular belief holds that the curtain rose to reveal a bleak landscape of environmental degradation wrought by unchecked […]
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Fire Walk With Me
Fires being deliberately set all across Africa are having a dire effect on the continent’s ecosystems, a wildlife expert warned during a recent U.N. Environment Programme conference on African mountains. Many different groups are responsible for setting the fires, said Kenya Wildlife Service warden Bongo Woodley. These include arsonists hoping the government will give them […]
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Sur Prize
Almost 10,000 acres of California’s Big Sur, encompassing mountains, old-growth redwood forests, and dramatic vistas on the coast, will be protected in perpetuity thanks to a land purchase sealed yesterday by the Nature Conservancy and the Big Sur Land Trust. The land connects 13 wilderness areas and parks, and was the missing link in a […]
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Un-Fortuyn-ate
Dutch prosecutors are accusing an animal rights activist with the murder on Monday of Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing candidate for prime minister. The suspect, Volkert van der Graaf, opposed factory farming and fur farms and worked for the little-known group Environment-Offensive, which uses legal tactics to advances its cause (rather than the in-your-face, direct-action methods […]
