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Top of the R&D Charts

Undercutting an argument made by the Bush administration, a study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has found that federal research and development efforts to improve energy conservation and efficiency have produced big environmental and economic gains. The academy released a report yesterday detailing how a $13 billion federal investment since 1978 has returned […]

Dental Damn

A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the American Dental Association last month for misleading consumers about the content and safety of dental fillings. The groups say the ADA is duping consumers into believing that amalgam fillings are made of silver, when the major component is actually mercury. A scientist from the University of […]

The Price of Whales

A week before the International Whaling Commission is due to meet in London, a Japanese official has admitted that his country is using cash to help persuade countries to vote to lift an international ban on whaling. Japan’s fisheries minister, Maseyuku Komatsu, told Australian television today that Japan must use overseas aid as one way […]

The Year and a Half of Living Dangerously

The Bush administration took steps yesterday to delay moving forward with a Clinton-era rule to improve water quality in more than 20,000 lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers across the country. The rule, issued in June 2000, requires states to determine the total maximum daily loads of pollution that bodies of water can handle and make […]

Bearly Legal

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park could suffer from inbreeding if a plan to reintroduce grizzlies to neighboring areas north of the park is dropped, say federal biologists. U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has indicated that she will scrap the plan, which was developed by a local partnership of environmentalists, timber officials, and mill workers. […]

Elliot Diringer, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

Elliot Diringer, a veteran environmental journalist and a deputy press secretary in the Clinton White House, is now director of international strategies at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. The center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing credible analysis and innovative solutions to address climate change. Tuesday, 17 Jul 2001 BONN, Germany […]

A Bonn in the Oven

It’s a fair bet that many in the diplomatic horde converging on Bonn, Germany, for the latest round of global warming talks would rather be somewhere else. In the past when they’ve gathered, negotiators charged with forging an international strategy against climate change could usually expect to produce enough forward movement, however incremental, to go […]

Gallons of Gasp

A panel appointed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has drafted a report recommending that the U.S. require automakers to improve the fuel economy of new vehicles. The 13-member panel, made up mostly of engineers and consultants who have worked for auto and oil companies, contends that fuel economy for cars and SUVs could […]

Fuel on the Hill

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, five cabinet secretaries, and 25 congressional Republicans fanned out across the country yesterday to try to bolster public support for the Bush administration’s drill-based energy plan. Now that fuel costs are falling and fuel supplies are rising, the administration has taken to describing the current energy situation in the country […]

Czech Your Nukes at the Door

Germany has asked the Czech Republic to shut down the Temelin nuclear power plant near the borders of Germany and Austria. Austria became nuke-free in 1978, and German utilities agreed last month to close their 19 nuclear plants within 20 years. The Temelin plant, which began operating last fall, has provoked major protests from local […]