Latest Articles
-
Salt and the Earth
Road salt is set to become the latest addition to Canada’s list of extremely toxic substances. Environment Minister David Anderson is recommending the addition based on research showing that the tons of salt used to de-ice the country’s highways each winter are polluting groundwater and killing vegetation. Environmentalists lauded the move, which is expected to […]
-
Esso S.O.S.
Activists are targeting 300 Esso gas stations in the U.K. tomorrow for boycotts, urging drivers to fill up their tanks elsewhere because Esso’s parent company, the oil giant ExxonMobil, opposes the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are helping to lead the StopEsso campaign, which has the support […]
-
Pass the Joint Venture
Ford and Toyota are considering whether to jointly produce a gas-electric hybrid in North America. No deal has been signed yet, but the two companies have already selected the kind of vehicle and the technology that would be used, says John Wallace, executive director of Ford’s alternative-propulsion division. Both companies have incentives to seal the […]
-
N'yuk, N'yuk, N'Yucca
All the effort by the feds to determine whether Nevada’s Yucca Mountain would be a suitable place to permanently store the country’s nuclear waste can be summed up as “a failed scientific process,” according to a draft report by the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency. The report, which has been obtained by several […]
-
The Skipper Too?
The niftily named Carson wandering skipper — a butterfly that is no bigger than a thumbnail — has been given emergency protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The feds took the step yesterday to help preserve the butterfly’s habitat in two counties along the northern border of Nevada and California. Bob Williams of the […]
-
A Bitterroot to Swallow
U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has asked his superiors in the Agriculture Department to approve a salvage-logging plan for 46,000 acres that burned in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley last year. Assuming that Agriculture Undersecretary (and former timber lobbyist) Mark Rey okays the plan, Bosworth will have skirted the administrative appeals process to which such plans […]
-
Help, Aquaman!
Global fish stocks are dramatically lower than reported by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, scientists at the University of British Columbia announced today in an article in the journal Nature. The scientists’ findings — that global catches are decreasing by nearly 800 million pounds per year — directly contradict those of the FAO, […]
-
Right Turnabout
The outlook is grim for the Northern right whale, one of the most endangered animals in the world, but simple measures could bring the species back from the brink of extinction, according to a report released today. The authors of the report, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, concluded that if just […]
-
Plane Sailing
Taking a cue from automakers, the industry giant Boeing is looking into replacing auxiliary engines on its planes with cleaner, quieter, and more efficient fuel cells. Fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity, are already being tested extensively in cars, and all the major automakers plan to produce pilot fuel-cell models in […]
