Latest Articles

Born in the Sign of Cancer

Exposure to toxic chemicals in food, water, and air may be leading to a dramatic surge in childhood cancers, asthma, and sudden infant death syndrome in Canadian children, according to a report released earlier this week. For example, the report by the Canadian Institute of Child Health found that childhood cancers have increased by 25 […]

Fine, Dandy

Chevron yesterday agreed to pay a record $7 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the feds, which claimed that the oil giant had violated the Clean Air Act at an offshore oil terminal near El Segundo, Calif. The company will pay a $6 million fine, the highest ever for a single facility, make $500,000 […]

L.A.-L.A.-Pollutza

Los Angeles is outpacing Houston in the race for the title of America’s smoggiest city. So far this year, L.A. has had 34 days when ozone in the air exceeded national standards, compared to Houston’s 26 days. Still, the worst air pollution in Houston has been dirtier than the worst in L.A., with a high […]

Welcome Back, Carter

Former President Carter said yesterday that President Clinton should designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a national monument “without further delay,” shielding it from the threat of oil and gas drilling. Carter said he would personally talk with Clinton about protecting the 1.5 million-acre coastline in Alaska, and he urged environmentalists […]

Commission: Possible

The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the state’s top environmental body, acknowledged yesterday that global warming may pose threats to the state and said it would explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The move by the commission, headed by three appointees of Gov. George W. Bush, came a month after environmental groups filed a […]

See Spot Live

The World Bank, Conservation International, and the Global Environment Facility joined together yesterday to unveil a new $150 million fund aimed at preserving biodiversity by protecting “hot spots,” or threatened areas with heavy concentrations of plant and animal species. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, as the project has been dubbed, will help create new national […]

The Cutting Edge

A key committee in the California state Senate voted yesterday to ban clear-cutting in the state on public and private land, a move that would be unprecedented in the U.S. The ban would be lifted only if the state legislature voted to do so, after reviewing an independent study on the environmental and economic effects […]

How Does This Sound?

Loggers in the Clayoquot Sound region of British Columbia chopped down a few old-growth trees yesterday to the sound of cheers from Canadian environmentalists. After a bitter, 17-year battle over logging in the region’s forests, enviros are backing a new company called Iisaak Forest Resources, which will practice small-scale, selective, sustainable logging, removing the downed […]

Not Just a Fluke

Whale watching has become a booming $1 billion-a-year industry, bringing a new, generally eco-friendly form of income to many cash-strapped areas around the world, according to a report released yesterday by the Massachusetts-based International Fund for Animal Welfare. By 1998, whale watching was going on in about 500 communities in at least 87 countries, up […]

My Sediments Exactly

After years of scientific and legal wrangling, the U.S. EPA began an experiment yesterday off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in California to test whether DDT-contaminated sediments on the ocean floor can be sealed with a layer of mud to protect marine life and people from the pesticide. If it deems the pilot project on 135 […]