Latest Articles
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The Gambler
“If I gamble, I usually gamble at high-stakes, high-payoff games.” That’s a boast not from James Bond, but from a chemist speaking to the prestigious journal Science (the July 14 issue, from which all quotes but the last one in this column are taken). His name is Peter Schultz. He works at Scripps Research Institute […]
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The Chemical Bothers
Phthalates, a family of chemicals used in everything from plastics to beauty products, have been detected in humans at levels that some scientists believe are worrisome. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested urine samples from people around the U.S. and were surprised to find phthalates at much higher levels than other […]
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For Whales, LaDuke's a Hazard
During a weekend campaign swing through the Northwest, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader outlined his views on a number of environmental issues. He called for a total ban on logging in national forests, for an end to federal land swaps, which he says usually benefit private interests rather than the public, and for the […]
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Bangla-death?
About 25 million people in Bangladesh, nearly 20 percent of the country’s population, are at risk of injury or death from arsenic in their drinking water, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. UNICEF is working to raise awareness of the problem and encourage water filtering and collection of rainwater for drinking. In the past, […]
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Editorial License
One good thing about the melting ice and open water found at the North Pole earlier this month — they spurred both the New York Times and Washington Post to run editorials today talking up environmental protection. The Times reminds us that the White House plays a “decisive” role in all matters environmental, and gives […]
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Steve Yanoviak, tropical biologist
Steve Yanoviak is a postdoctoral research associate at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and he currently resides in Costa Rica nine months of the year, researching rain forest canopy insect diversity in the Monteverde cloud forest. He has been studying the ecology of tropical insects for over seven years. Sunday, 27 Aug 2000 […]
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Sea turtle activists are pushing for protections in Texas
They may be swimming against the current, but sea turtle advocates say they want Gov. George W. Bush (R) to show a little of his fabled compassion for the endangered reptiles that frequent the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas coast. The New York Times ad. Image: STRP. As the GOP presidential hopeful prepared to […]
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Drawing the Short Straw
Over the next 25 years, the number of people facing chronic or severe water shortages could increase from 505 million to more than 3 billion, according to a report released this week by Population Action International. The report said water shortages would be worst in the Middle East and much of Africa. But — you’d […]
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Slick Willy-Nilly
Republican vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney said yesterday that President Clinton had used his executive authority “willy-nilly all over the West” to create too many national monuments, and that some of Clinton’s designations would likely be rescinded under a GOP administration. Clinton has created or added to 10 national monuments, setting aside almost 4 million acres […]
