Latest Articles
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On With the No-Show
The environment has mostly been a no show in the presidential race, reports Grist’s boy on the bus, writing this morning from New Hampshire, where the nation’s first primary will be held tomorrow. The race has been unusually substantive, with banter on a host of issues, but the environment hasn’t shared the limelight so far, […]
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Cap'n Crunchy
Captain Climate, outfitted in a red cape and leotard, and his sidekick Boy Atmosphere have been trailing the presidential candidates around New Hampshire, trying to get them to explain what they plan to do about global warming. The Captain tells reporters he has time-traveled back from 2050 and a world nearly destroyed by climate change, […]
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Frank Bean-Counters
The World Bank has admitted in a new internal report that its nine-year-old forest strategy has been a failure and that the bank has succeeded neither in protecting forests nor in helping the poor communities that depend on them. In 1991, the bank adopted a new strategy to deflect criticism that its activities were abetting […]
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Salmon in Hot Water
Canada’s largest salmon fishery, on the Fraser River, could become the first tangible casualty of climate change, according to a new report prepared for the Canadian government by a group of scientists, academics, and bureaucrats. Temperatures in the Fraser River have been gradually rising for years, and if temperatures rise even a degree or two […]
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Gore's Warm-up Act
In his State of the Union address last night, Pres. Clinton called global warming “the greatest environmental challenge of the new century,” and said that “if we fail to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, deadly heat waves and droughts will become more frequent, coastal areas will be flooded, economies disrupted.” He stressed that cutting emissions […]
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Pump and Circumstance
Enviros in New England worry that the region’s ski resorts are disrupting ecosystems by pumping large amounts of water from rivers and ponds to make snow for their slopes. The region now has plenty of natural snow, thanks to recent storms, but earlier this season New England had a glaring lack of the white stuff […]
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The Missing Lynx
Many species are under threat across Europe, and governments are not taking the necessary steps to ensure their survival, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund. WWF lists 10 specific species that are in decline in most European Union countries, including the Iberian lynx, brown bear, monk seal, and loggerhead turtle. WWF […]
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She Sells Carbon Credits By the Seashore
British oil giant Royal Dutch Shell today is launching an internal market to reduce the company’s carbon emissions, an effort to combat climate change and promote energy efficiency. Under its new tradable emissions permit system, businesses within the Shell group must achieve an annual 2 percent carbon reduction, either by reducing their actual emissions or […]
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We're Chary of This Chair-y
Sen. Bob Smith (R), the new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said yesterday that he plans to introduce a bill this year that would "clear the regulatory air" and give utilities new incentives to significantly reduce their emissions. Smith — who ascended to the committee’s top spot after the death of […]
