Latest Articles
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Wake Up and Smell the Biodiversity
El Salvador hopes to protect its wildlife and boost its income by charging a 5 percent premium for “biodiversity-friendly” coffee grown in the shade of native plants. While many other Central and South American countries switched in the 1970s to the pesticide-dependent method of growing coffee in direct sunlight, El Salvador stuck to the more […]
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And on the Seventh Day, Ford Rested
An Amsterdam court today rejected the last challenge to the upcoming “Auto-Free Sunday,” clearing the way for a one-day ban on vehicles in the downtown area this weekend. The group Environmental Defense is spearheading the ban to call attention to pollution and congestion and convince people to give public transportation a try. Efforts are also […]
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My Toxic Idaho
Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) is joining forces with enviros, ski bums, actor Harrison Ford, World Bank Pres. James Wolfensohn, and a host of Wyoming residents to fight plans to build a nuclear waste incinerator in Idaho. Two environmental groups plan to file suit today against the Energy Department, seeking an injunction to stop construction by […]
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Far Fewer Firs Felled in Federal Forests
Logging on federal lands in the Northwest has dropped by two-thirds this year because of judicial rulings holding up timber sales, and the feds have stopped negotiating for any new sales in Oregon and Washington. Northwest lawmakers complain that it could be a year or more before logging of federal lands returns to expected levels, […]
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Greens Vs. Genes
Enviros fighting genetically modified foods in Britain scored a point today when the government announced that it would not fight a legal challenge against its licensing of crop trials. Friends of the Earth had gone to court to stop a trial planting of genetically modified rapeseed, arguing that the government illegally made changes to the […]
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Going Bananas over Kiwis
The kiwi bird, New Zealand’s national symbol, is in danger of going extinct within five to 10 years, enviros warn. New Zealand’s kiwi population is now estimated at 70,000, down from 5 million in 1923. Though the population has been declining for decades, a recent study by New Zealand’s Forest and Bird Society, which found […]
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But a cool new plan could save the day
Announcements of the “hottest year in recorded history” are becoming annual events. Another beautiful sunset. Evidence is mounting that drastic climatic changes are under way, driven by the 6 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide that humans pump into our atmosphere each year. In 1998 alone, we saw a crippling ice storm in Quebec and […]
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Sweet Georgie green?
Dubya. Texas Gov. George W. Bush may not be about to sit down and pen a sequel to Al Gore‘s environmental manifesto Earth in the Balance, but he has done something several other GOP presidential candidates appear reluctant to do: acknowledge the existence of global warming. On May 12, Bush told a news conference in […]
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Car and Drivel
Heavy lobbying by the auto industry thwarted efforts in the Senate to toughen fuel-economy standards for automobiles, particularly light trucks and sport utility vehicles. By a 55-40 vote, the Senate voted yesterday to maintain a five-year freeze on studying possible changes to the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, which have not been changed since […]
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Chicks Dig It
A high-tech composting technique in which natural soil bacteria and fungi are combined with chicken droppings is now being used to clean up areas contaminated by DDT and other toxic pesticides. The method, which was patented in the U.S. this week, involves digging up polluted soil and creating carefully controlled compost heaps that let soil […]
