Latest Articles
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Forest Gumption
Ever eager to leave a green legacy, Pres. Clinton will announce an initiative next week to protect up to 40 million acres of national forest land in 35 states from commercial development. The directive will ask the U.S. Forest Service to analyze how best to protect forest land that is still undeveloped and roadless, much […]
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Forest Gunk
Europe’s forests are sick and getting sicker, according to a new report released yesterday by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe and the European Commission. The comprehensive analysis found that only 35 percent of the continent’s trees are “healthy,” about 40 percent are in a “warning stage,” and about 25 percent are “damaged,” meaning they […]
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Bush Whacked
Vice Pres. Al Gore accused GOP presidential frontrunner Gov. George W. Bush yesterday of letting Texas become the most polluted state in the nation, number one in toxic releases into the air, water, and soil, according to EPA numbers, and home to Houston, the city with the worst smog in the country. A Bush spokesperson […]
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Poly Wants a Cleanup
General Electric will cough up more than $250 million to clean the Housatonic River near its plant in Pittsfield, Mass., to settle government charges that the company polluted the river with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous substances from the 1930s until 1977. But the company’s not off the hook yet. New York’s attorney general […]
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Bummin' Range
Much to the chagrin of enviros, Congress has given the military primary responsibility for managing more than 1.6 million acres of the Sonoran desert in southwestern Arizona, encompassing most of the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range. Although a law signed Wednesday requires the military to work with the Interior Department on a management plan, enviros […]
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No More Sing Sing for Ling Ling
China yesterday announced plans to release giant pandas born and raised in captivity into the wild in an effort to boost the population of the endangered species. Under a pilot program to be launched in 2005, two to three giant pandas are expected to be released each year, the first such releases ever attempted. Only […]
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Greenhouse Costs a Bunch of Hot Air
Fighting global warming might cost the U.S. and other industrialized nations far less than most analysts have predicted, according to a new study in today’s issue of the journal Nature. Previous estimates of the cost of complying with the Kyoto climate change treaty have focused almost exclusively on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the main […]
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2007: A Truck Odyssey
The EPA yesterday proposed new rules designed to cut emissions of soot and smog-causing pollutants by up to 90 percent from heavy-duty commercial trucks and super-large sport utility vehicles. The proposal aims to close a loophole that exempts the largest SUVs, such as the Ford Excursion and Chevy Suburban, from meeting the same emissions requirements […]
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Tung Lashing
Hong Kong’s chief executive announced plans yesterday to spend almost $4 billion over the next decade to clean up the territory’s polluted environment and make the city “a green model for Asia.” Tung Chee-hwa, giving his third annual policy address, said the city would crack down on owners of dirty, diesel-powered vehicles, add pollution-control devices […]
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Bump in the Logging
A federal judge in Illinois has issued a nationwide ban on all timber sales that were approved during the past year without public input and environmental analysis. The decision, handed down on Friday, may delay or halt logging on more than 110,000 acres of national forest land. The judge ruled that the U.S. Forest Service’s […]
