Latest Articles
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My Bonn Lies Over the Ocean
While the rest of the world moves forward with the Kyoto treaty, the Bush administration claims it is cooking up its own strategy to fend off global warming. But some officials involved in the administration policy review say there has been little real pressure from the White House to come up with a new plan […]
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Irrigation Irritation
U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said yesterday that she had the legal authority to release a small amount of irrigation water for farmers to use in the Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California border. All irrigation water from Upper Klamath Lake has been cut off since April to protect endangered suckerfish and threatened coho salmon. Farmers […]
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EV Rider
As part of a pilot program by California to reduce pollution and increase the popularity of gas-free vehicles, Anaheim is offering free use of 10 electric cars in some of its lower-income neighborhoods. The golf cart-like cars are available to people who have a valid driver’s license and a decent driving record. With a maximum […]
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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 […]
