Latest Articles
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Modified in China
The Chinese government unveiled new regulations yesterday for genetically engineered foods that they hope will make the use of the technology more widespread. Genetically engineered cotton, soybeans, rice, potatoes, and other crops are already commonly planted in the country. Among other things, the rules require that genetically engineered foods be clearly labeled on packages. Chinese […]
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Rainforest Action and Highway-building Network
Preserving the rainforest is the top priority for the 20 million people living in Brazil’s Amazon, according to a study by the World Wildlife Fund. The study, which the group said was the first of its kind in the region, found that 34 percent of respondents ranked preservation as their No. 1 concern. However, 27.8 […]
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The Hypocritical Oath
The American Hospital Association is backing out of an agreement with the U.S. EPA that would have cut hospital waste in half by the end of the decade. The agreement was signed to much fanfare in 1998, and then-Vice President Al Gore called attention to it in an award ceremony the following year. Under the […]
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Yucca Mountain, Yuck Accounting
The U.S EPA yesterday set a standard for how much radiation would be allowed to leak into groundwater, air, and soil at the proposed storage facility for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The standard is similar to the one proposed by the Clinton administration, capping radiation leaks during the facility’s first 10,000 years to […]
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No Green Medal
The International Olympic Committee claims that environmental protection is a fundamental part of the Olympic Games, along with sports and culture. But only one-tenth of 1 percent of the budget for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics will be spent on the environment, says Diane Conrad, who is overseeing environmental programs for the Salt […]
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Gloom and Duma
Despite polls that suggest that 80 to 90 percent of Russians oppose the plan, the lower house of the country’s parliament, the Duma, voted yesterday to allow the import of nuclear waste, which would either be stored in perpetuity in Siberia or reprocessed into nuclear fuel and exported. The upper house is expected to approve […]
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Scientific Americans
A week before President Bush travels overseas to meet with European leaders already frustrated with his stance on global warming, a report released yesterday by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences states that global warming is real and getting worse and that human activity is largely responsible for the problem. The report — an evaluation […]
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Judge Dreadful
In a blow to environmentalists, a federal judge chose yesterday not to issue an emergency stay on road-building in metro Atlanta. U.S. District Judge Beverly Martin said she would give her final ruling this summer on a lawsuit filed by environmental groups opposed to Georgia’s three-year, $1.9 billion transportation plan for the area. The groups […]
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Wet T-shirts — No Contest
Wet cleaners are opening up around the country as an alternative to environmentally nasty dry cleaners. Traditional cleaners use a cleaning solvent, perchlorethylene, that has been linked to health and environmental hazards. A recent study, for example, found that dry-cleaning workers were more prone to certain types of cancer than the general population. In 1996, […]
