Latest Articles
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Honda of the Baskervilles
Disagreeing with American automakers, Japanese manufacturer Honda told the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee yesterday that raising fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs and other light trucks would not pose a safety threat. The split in the auto industry came to light as the committee discussed whether increasing the standards would make vehicles unsafe by causing automakers to […]
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King Mekong
The four nations downstream from China on the Mekong River have expressed environmental and economic concerns about the country’s plans to build six dams on the river. Kristensen, chief executive of a commission representing Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, said, “China needs to realize that the Mekong River is one ecological system that should be […]
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Fission Advisory?
Native Americans who fished in the Columbia River may have been exposed to much more radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation than previously thought, according to a draft report prepared for the federal government. Earlier research estimating the exposure rates for people living downwind of Hanford assumed that people ate about 90 pounds of fish […]
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This Old Coal-fired Power Plant
Even as the Bush administration works to relax clean-air regulations on coal-fired power plants, New Jersey’s biggest energy supplier agreed yesterday to spend $337 million over the next 10 years to cut emissions from two plants. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the settlement between PSEG Power showed a “continuing commitment to enforce vigorously the […]
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Toms of Pain
One chapter in the long saga of the Toms River pollution case came to a close recently when companies accused of polluting the water in the New Jersey town agreed to compensate children who were stricken with cancer and siblings who suffered emotional distress. The details of the financial arrangement, which were released yesterday, show […]
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A Finger in the Dike
In what appears to be the first deal struck under the Kyoto treaty’s Clean Development Mechanism, the Netherlands has signed a contract with the World Bank providing $40 million for clean energy projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon dioxide reduction credits. The Kyoto treaty sets target limits on the emission of the greenhouse […]
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Duck, Duck, Gross
More than a dozen years after an Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil, nearly 10,000 gallons of the oil remain buried under the shoreline. The lingering oil was documented during a three-month field study last summer; the study’s results were presented this week during […]
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Great Bitten?
Large parts of England and Wales are at risk of becoming breeding grounds for malaria as global warming heats up local temperatures, according to a study by Durham University scientists commissioned by the Brits’ Department of Health. Increased temperatures encourage mosquitoes to breed and feed more rapidly, and they speed up the maturation of the […]
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Election Day Is Green Day
If the voting record is any measure, most Americans are green at heart when it comes to conservation. Last year, voters approved spending $1.7 billion for parks and open spaces, according to a tally released today by the Trust for Public Land and the Land Trust Alliance. Seventy percent of 196 local ballot measures in […]
