Latest Articles
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On the Waterfront
In a win for property-rights advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 yesterday that governments can be required to compensate property owners for interfering with their ability to develop their land. The court said that new owners can sue for compensation if their development plans are denied, even if long-standing rules forbid development. However, the […]
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Diary of Dick Cheney's secretive group discovered!
Congressional investigators were thwarted by the White House this week in their attempts to determine the identities of the people who met with Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force. Indeed, even the names of some task force members remain unknown. The task force’s influential report gave short shrift to various environmental concerns long-believed […]
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Boston Tree Party
Last Friday, the Boston Globe printed an angry letter to the editor from Todd Paglia of the environmental group Forest Ethics. The charge? That the Globe advertising department, without reasonable explanation, had refused to run a Forest Ethics ad critical of Massachusetts-based Staples, a major Globe advertiser, and that an ombudsman column backing the department’s […]
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A plan to drill under the Great Lakes is fracturing the Michigan Republican Party
Only a few things really get Americans to sit up and pay attention. Oprah’s weight. Ally’s hair. And a rise in the price of gasoline. The latter, coupled with lucrative campaign contributions from the energy industry, is why President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney thought that an energy plan based on new drilling from […]
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Flood, Sweat, and Tears
Climate change and globalization are increasing the threat of flood and famine to the world’s poor, according to a report released today by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. From the annual World Disasters Report: “Recurrent disasters from floods in Asia to drought in the Horn of Africa to windstorms in […]
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Smells Like Pew Spirit
Unlike many philanthropies that fund already-existing green groups, the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the country’s largest environmental grant makers, has launched major new campaigns and even begun its own organizations, like the National Environmental Trust and the Heritage Forest Campaign. Pew focuses on three issues — global warming, marine conservation, and forest protection. It […]
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Boxer Comes Out Swinging
The Natural Resources Defense Council said it would file a lawsuit today against the U.S. EPA for ignoring a congressional deadline to have a plan in place by last Friday to reduce arsenic levels in drinking water. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she and several other senators would file papers in support of the NRDC […]
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Rio Not So Grande
Thanks to drought, fast-growing weeds, and overuse of water by agriculture and cities, the Rio Grande River is running so low that it doesn’t even reach the Gulf of Mexico anymore. Enviros are concerned about the loss of the estuary, where saltwater mixes with freshwater to create ideal conditions for young shrimp and other marine […]
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That's Big, Apple
To help with potential electricity shortages this summer in New York City, businesses and building owners controlling more than 300 million square feet of office space in the city said yesterday they’d take voluntary steps to reduce their energy use. The participants in the program, which covers about 75 percent of the office space in […]
