Latest Articles
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Label's Love Lost
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday proposed rules for companies to voluntarily label foods that aren’t genetically engineered — but it refused requests from environmental and consumer groups to require mandatory labels on all foods that are genetically engineered. The proposed rules, now open for public comment, would also require companies to notify the […]
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As Regulation Time Expires …
The U.S. EPA yesterday reduced the amount of arsenic allowable in drinking water by 80 percent, a shift that the agency said would boost health protections for about 13 million Americans. The new rule would reduce the allowed arsenic level to 10 parts per billion, down from the 1942 standard of 50 parts per billion. […]
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Are You There God? It's Me, Blubber
Defying an international trade ban, Norway said this week that it would permit whale blubber and meat to be exported from the country. Norway resumed whaling in 1993, despite an international moratorium on the practice, but until now it has refused to allow exports. Currently, some 600 tons of whale blubber and other whale parts […]
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Earth, Wind, Less Fire
Germany increased its wind power production by 1,668 megawatts last year, maintaining its big lead as the top wind power powerhouse in the world. Germany now has the capacity to put out 6,113 MW of wind power, compared to about 2,500 MW by the U.S., the world’s second largest wind producer. Germany’s wind units now […]
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Slim-Budget Whitman
New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R), President-elect Bush’s choice to head the U.S. EPA, was warmly received by both Democrats and Republicans during a Senate hearing on her nomination today. Sen. Bob Torricelli (D-NJ), who introduced Whitman before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called her nomination “a very wise selection.” National environmental […]
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Everglades Airport: Just Plane Wrong
In a big victory for environmentalists, the Clinton administration rejected a proposal yesterday to convert a former U.S. Air Force base near the Florida Everglades into a commercial airport. Enviros argued that an airport at the Homestead base would create significant pollution and threaten the ecosystems of two nearby parks, the Everglades, 10 miles away, […]
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Habitat's Where Ujjal Dosanjh's At
British Columbia tomorrow will announce a new provincial park, helping to complete the largest contiguous body of protected land on the Canada-U.S. border. One of 49 new protected areas that will be introduced by B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, Snowy Provincial Park will encompass 65,000 acres just north of the Pasayten Wilderness Area and Loomis State […]
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Habitat's Where Babbitt's At
President Clinton created seven new national monuments this morning, protecting about 1 million more acres of federal land. The new monuments, all recommended by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, include 377,000 acres along the Upper Missouri Breaks in Montana; 204,000 acres of grassland in Central California; and 486,000 acres of the Sonoran Desert; as well as […]
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Should locals be more involved in public lands decisions?
Roadless and fancy-free. Photo: U.S. Forest Service. As the Clinton administration rushes to complete its lands legacy agenda in the American West, two methods of resolving public land issues have clashed head-on. The first is embodied in President Clinton’s move earlier this month to protect 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest — a quick, […]
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Time to Get the Lead Out
Governments and the press have paid a lot of attention this year to the question of whether depleted uranium weapons used by NATO in the Balkans may be causing illnesses — but the region is facing other environmental problems whose deadly consequences are more clear, even if less publicized. The situation is especially dire in […]
