Latest Articles
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Facing the Music
Of all the tragic characters in Greek myths, the one who gives me the most shivers is Cassandra. The god Apollo gave her a wonderful gift — the ability to foretell the future — then followed it up with a terrible curse — no one would ever believe her. I can just imagine Cassandra, standing […]
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Wonder Twin Powers: Deregulate
As electric utility deregulation gets rolling in California and Pennsylvania, enviros are anxiously watching to see whether consumers, who now have a choice about their power providers, will opt to pay a little more for renewable energy. In California, about 1 percent, or some 116,000 homes, have gone to green power since the market opened […]
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Soil and Trouble
Nations in Sub-Saharan Africa may be unable to feed 60 percent of a projected population of 1 billion by 2025 unless dramatic steps are taken to improve the fertility and quality of soil in the region, according to a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released on Saturday, World Food Day. The capacity […]
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Climate Out of Control
Large reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions could have a modest effect in slowing climate change, delaying some of the effects by 50 to 100 years, according to a report by scientists at the Hadley Centre for Climate Protection and Research, part of the U.K. Meteorological Office. However, to achieve this delay, emissions cuts of 50 to […]
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Bawl Bering
Starvation seems the most likely cause of death for nearly 1,000 gray whales that died last summer along the west coast of North America. A Canadian researcher believes the whales were victims of a drop in food production in the Bering Sea. Scientists don’t know whether the trend is due to global warming or to […]
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Not So Fast, Flux!
Supervisors at a Hanford nuclear fuel factory near Richland, Wash., sometimes told workers in the past to ignore safety rules intended to prevent accidental nuclear reactions, according to a Department of Energy investigation. The factory stopped production 10 years ago, but the DOE is considering reopening a nearby test reactor, the Fast Flux Test Facility, […]
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Timber Tantrum
In a rare offensive move, the Plum Creek Timber Co. filed suit Thursday against five environmental groups and the U.S. Forest Service, seeking court backing for a controversial land swap in Washington state. Five enviro groups claim the exchange of 62,384 acres of Plum Creek’s mostly logged land for 15,800 acres of mostly forested federal […]
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Black Helicopter Watch
Rarely do environmentalists find much common ground with the libertarian Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. But rarely do squabbles get as nasty as they did last week following the posting of an item on Cato adjunct scholar Steven Milloy‘s junkscience.com website concerning David Platt Rall, a noted environmental scientist who died tragically in […]
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Soar Losers
More than 1,000 bird species are in danger of going extinct over the next century, according to a new report released by BirdLife International. Birds are threatened by deforestation, logging, farming, and mining. Brazil has the highest number of bird species at risk, 111, followed by Indonesia (92), China (82), and Colombia (81); the highest […]
