Latest Articles
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Malaise-ia
A proposed pipeline that would transport natural gas from the South China Sea through Thailand and into Malaysia is bringing only conflict to the region thus far. The Thai government sees possibilities for modernization, dependable energy, employment, and the economic unification of Southeast Asia in the pipeline, but many villagers see a threat to their […]
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Richard Murphy, Ocean Futures Society
Richard Murphy is a marine biologist who has traveled all over the world with Jacques Cousteau and his son, Jean-Michel, exploring, helping to organize filming expeditions, and doing research. He works for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society as a writer, scientist, photographer, and educator. Monday, 29 Oct 2001 SANTA CRUZ, Calif. I began this week […]
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Going Ba-Nenanas
Is the climate changing? You bet. Or residents of Nenana, Alaska do, anyway. For the last 84 years, the folks in Nenana, 230 miles north of Anchorage, have been placing bets on when the ice would break up on the nearby Tanana River. The annual guessing game, known locally as the Nenana Ice Classic, allowed […]
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Grizzlies: Add 'Em
A bid to scrap a plan to reintroduce grizzly bears along the Montana-Idaho border was overwhelmingly rejected by the public, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Although 98 percent of the 28,000 comments supported reintroducing grizzlies to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, a representative for Interior Secretary Gale Norton said this week that the final […]
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China's water table levels are dropping fast
If you aren’t normally fascinated by China’s agricultural problems, then an obscure report issued this summer on the state of the nation’s water supply might have struck you as rather dry. But in this case, dry is precisely the problem: The water table under the North China Plain, which produces over half of China’s wheat […]
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A Friend of the Devil Is a Friend of Mines
An announcement by the Bush administration yesterday that it would repeal a Clinton-era mining regulation pleased industry leaders but angered environmentalists. The regulation, which applies to hard-rock minerals such as gold, silver, and copper, allows the Interior secretary to veto new mines on federal lands if they threaten the well-being of communities or the environment. […]
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Ranger Rearranger
Federal wildlife agents and rangers — the folks who protect U.S. public lands from poaching, endangered species smuggling, illegal off-road activity, and other no-nos — were in short supply long before Sept. 11. But now their ranks are even thinner, after scores of agents were re-assigned to serve as sky marshals or guard federal buildings […]
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Hi Ho Silver
Notwithstanding intense citizen pressure, the U.S. EPA decided yesterday to proceed with a massive cleanup of Silver Valley, Idaho, making the area one of the nation’s biggest Superfund sites. Many residents had argued that toxins leftover from more than a century of mining no longer posed health or environmental problems, and feared that the EPA […]
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Accountant Dracula
The U.S. Forest Service’s accounting practices are “totally unreliable,” the General Accounting Office reported Tuesday. The GAO report, which came in response to a request by Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and George Miller (D-Calif.) for an agency audit, was by far the most scathing condemnation of irregular accounting practices at the USFS to date. Watchdog […]
