Latest Articles
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Fit to Be Tide
Red tides are becoming a severe environmental problem along China’s coast, killing tons of fish and costing the country more than $100 million every year. Red tides, which can be caused or exacerbated by industrial and sewage waste, are massive and fast-spreading algae outbreaks that poison the water or deplete its oxygen supply, suffocating marine […]
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Double, Double Oil and Trouble
George W. Bush unveiled an energy plan on Friday that would boost domestic oil production significantly and open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and other federal lands to drilling. Speaking at a Michigan auto plant, Bush hammered at some of Al Gore’s environmental beliefs. “The vice president likes electric cars — he just doesn’t […]
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Bush Oil Plan: Exhibit A
The Supreme Court refused today to hear a case in which the ExxonMobil Corp. contended it should not have to pay $5 billion in punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The corporation’s lawyers had urged the justices to throw out the penalty on grounds of irregularities during jury deliberations when […]
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Nafis Enough
Under the leadership of Nafis Sadik, the U.N. Population Fund has been transformed from an organization that foisted contraceptives on women in order to meet fertility-control targets to one that has as its central mission giving women more power not just over their own fertility but over health care, education, and many other aspects of […]
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Royalty Flush
The White House and congressional leaders reached a compromise late last week on a landmark bill that would set aside $12 billion over six years for land conservation. The program, which would be financed in part by oil royalties, would double funding to acquire new federal lands, protect sensitive ecosystems, create urban parks, and preserve […]
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Industry is talking about climate change. Why aren't the presidential candidates?
Like the nine-foot-deep blanket of ice at the top of the world, America’s denial of the climate crisis is melting. In hot water in the Antarctic. Photo: Michael Van Woert, NOAA. And like the North Pole, it is melting from the top down. Over the last year, in the wake of steady alarms from leaders […]
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Let the Rivalry Begin!
Bitter rivals Toyota and Honda are racing against each other to create affordable eco-friendly cars. Toyota announced this week that it plans to offer a full range of hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles, everything from ultra-compacts to luxury sedans, SUVs, and commercial trucks, though the company didn’t specify when they would hit showrooms. Enviros have praised Toyota […]
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Got Wood?
After years of being criticized by enviros, the lumber industry is hoping to give its image a boost by spending $45 million on a three-year campaign to promote wood to consumers, along the lines of the dairy industry’s highly successful milk-moustache ad campaign. Working under the umbrella of the Wood Promotion Network, 85 forestry producers […]
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They Just Won't Kyoto the Line
Several Republican senators expressed skepticism yesterday that international negotiations on the Kyoto climate change treaty this November would produce an agreement the Senate would ratify. At a Senate hearing, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the treaty would unfairly burden the American economy by forcing reductions in the use of oil and coal. Sen. Chuck Hagel […]
