Latest Articles
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Iceland Iceland Baby
Iceland is gunning to be the world’s first carbon-free economy. The country is in something of a bind, as it now has very low carbon-dioxide emissions and the Kyoto treaty on climate change gives it little room to expand its economy in a way that would increase its emissions. Already, 67 percent of Iceland’s energy […]
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Moby Dicks
A meeting of the International Whaling Commission that could end a 15-year-old ban on commercial whaling began yesterday in London, with Japan and Norway leading the charge for reopening the (legal) market to whale meat. Norway has lifted a voluntary ban on exporting whale meat and blubber, and is preparing to export a stockpile of […]
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Back Flipper
A federal appeals court yesterday rejected the U.S. government’s bid to loosen the standard for “dolphin-safe” tuna. The U.S. wanted to open its dolphin-safe market to Mexican and Latin American fishers who catch tuna in large purse-seines and promise to set free dolphins trapped in the nets. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals […]
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Virginia Slims
One of America’s fastest-growing counties, Loudoun County in Virginia, voted last night to adopt rough development controls and try to keep two-thirds of the county as farmland. The vote by the county board of supervisors removed 83,000 potential homes from county plans and ended support for studying a proposed new highway to connect Dulles International […]
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Dude, Where's My Pipe?
Many problems with the U.S.’s vast network of oil and natural gas pipelines don’t get reported or are underreported to the federal Office of Pipeline Safety, and even if major mishaps are reported, the agency rarely fines companies for them, reports the Austin American-Statesman after a yearlong investigation. Past problems that didn’t show up in […]
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Schell Game
Even though U.S. President Bush has withdrawn the U.S. from the Kyoto treaty on climate change, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell (D) and four City Council members announced yesterday that Seattle would easily meet what would have been the greenhouse-gas-reduction target for the U.S. under Kyoto. The city promised to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 7 percent […]
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Infamous Potatoes
In keeping with her pattern of deferring to the positions of elected officials in the West, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has recommended that the U.S. Justice Department not appeal a ruling by the Idaho Supreme Court that denies water rights for a federal wildlife refuge on the Snake River. In the past, the U.S. […]
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Sen and Sensibility
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has thrown his weight behind legislation to protect the country’s remaining forests. The measure would set stricter logging regulations and allow courts to jail illegal loggers for up to 10 years. Illegal logging operations have been common in the past, supported by the Cambodian military and former Khmer Rouge members. […]
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Fright Train
Sometime this summer, the feds are planning to transport nuclear waste from power plants via train from New York to a U.S. Energy Department reservation in southeastern Idaho. Dubbing the shipment a “mobile Chernobyl,” anti-nuke advocates plan to raise a ruckus when the freight train comes through. Although the shipment across the country will be […]
