Latest Articles
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Deep-Sea Doodle
Enviros are attacking a plan by the U.S. Navy to use an advanced sonar system to detect submarines from potentially hostile developing nations, arguing that the use of low-frequency, high-decibel sound waves over large undersea areas could harm whales and other sea life. The Natural Resources Defense Council is threatening to sue to stop use […]
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Houston, You Have a Problem
Houston has earned the title of smoggiest city in the U.S. this year, a distinction gladly abdicated by Los Angeles. In 1999, Houston has had 44 days when ozone levels exceeded national health standards, one more than the L.A. region, and for the first year in more than five decades, the L.A. area has not […]
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Crock in Trade
The World Trade Organization has decided against every environmental, public health, and safety regulation it has ever considered, according to a book-length report released today by Ralph Nader’s consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. The report, the most comprehensive of its type to date, argues that the WTO has usurped the right of nations to determine […]
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Everybody, Out of the Water!
Over the next 25 years, nearly one in two Africans will live in countries stressed by fresh water shortages and the main conflicts in Africa could be over water supplies, according to a U.N. Development Program report. One-fourth of the world’s populace will suffer severe water scarcity during the same time period, even during years […]
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Where's the Beef?
Ranching and farming groups got word yesterday that the Supreme Court will hear their challenge to the Clinton administration’s revised livestock grazing policies for federal land throughout the West. The court voted to weigh an appeal that says the administration’s 1995 rules, intended to improve management and protection of the land, violate federal law and […]
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Mortality Kombat
The world would have 300 million more people today if China had not pursued its aggressive population control efforts, the Chinese government boasted yesterday, as the world population hit the 6 billion mark. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said China intends to continue its present family planning policy. A senior U.N. Population Fund official praised the […]
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And the Other 20 Percent Just Want More Hockey on T.V.
Some 80 percent of Canadians say environmental concerns such as air pollution are important considerations when they purchase a new automobile, according to a survey conducted for business consultants Ernst and Young. About half of those people say they would be willing to pay more for an eco-friendly vehicle, with 11 percent willing to shell […]
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Six
• approximate number of species that go extinct per hour • percent by which electricity demand is rising annually in China and South Asia • percentage of the energy used in U.S. manufacturing that goes toward food processing and packaging • percent reduction in the average household’s water pollution if it converts from buying conventional […]
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The Deep Six
Months ago, the United Nations decided to make an event out of the fact that the human population meter would soon click over another billion. They picked an arbitrary date — October 12 — and declared it the Day of 6 Billion. What kind of event should this be? A day of repentance? A celebration? […]
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Congratulations! It's a boy!
The world’s 6 billionth inhabitant, a boy in Sarajevo, was born today. U.N. demographers chose today as a symbolic marker of the population milestone. Some 78 million new people are born each year, and the equivalent of San Francisco’s population is born every three days. Although the population growth rate is slowing, human numbers have […]
