Latest Articles
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Freezing Their Assets Off
A Dutch court has frozen the assets of Greenpeace International at the urging of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., which was the target of a nuclear protest by the enviro group on Monday. British Nuclear Fuels asked for the court’s move so it could reclaim compensation for costs incurred when Greenpeace delayed a company shipment of […]
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Cruise: Spigots Wide Open
Royal Caribbean Cruises, the world’s second largest cruise line, agreed yesterday to pay $18 million and plead guilty to 21 felony charges of dumping waste oil and hazardous waste at sea and lying to the U.S. Coast Guard about it. While crew members on the line’s ships were wearing “Save the Waves” buttons, workers below […]
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My, What a Big Population You Have
Northern gray wolves could move off the endangered species list in as few as three years, according to Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wolves introduced during the last four years in central Idaho, northwestern Montana, and Yellowstone National Park have adapted quite well to their new surroundings. Delisting […]
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Balance Beamed
Six environmental groups filed suit yesterday against the federal government, arguing that they should have seats on two federally established committees that advise the U.S. on forest product trade issues. The committees are now composed solely of industry representatives, despite a federal law requiring them to be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of […]
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Invasive Procedures
Today marks the first meeting of the federal government’s new multi-agency Invasive Species Council, a group that will tackle the mounting problems of exotic plants and animals in the U.S. The more than 50,000 nonnative species in the U.S. cost the economy some $138 billion a year, according to a Cornell University study released last […]
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Russia: Let Me Atom!
Russia sees a potential $15 billion enterprise in storing nuclear waste from around the world, and Russian officials will meet next week with Vice Pres. Al Gore and other U.S. officials to discuss the project. Under the plan, nations would pay as much as $1.5 million per metric ton to have an estimated 10,000 tons […]
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Phew, I Feel Safer Already, Part II
The world’s 440 nuclear power plants are on track to deal with the millennium computer bug, the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday. The agency’s reviews of plants uncovered some “vulnerabilities” in data and monitoring systems, but the IAEA claims there are no problems related to safe operation of the plants. Meanwhile, the Norwegian environmental […]
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Tom Turner reviews Transforming Electricity by Walt Patterson
Walt Patterson is a physicist by training, an entertaining and lucid writer (he seldom misses a chance at wordplay -- note the title of this book), a fan of jazz and baseball and real ale, and an incisive popularizer of important but complicated matters. And yes, he's my friend. Remind me to tell you some day about several hours we spent years ago in the bookstores on and near Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, scouring dusty shelves for out-of-print popular books on atomic energy, The Atom Is Your Friend and such.
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Grime and Punishment
A Russian military and environmental journalist was acquitted yesterday of treason and espionage charges. Grigory Pasko was arrested and imprisoned in November 1997 after filing a report for a Japanese television station that purportedly showed Russian sailors dumping radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan. Prosecutors accused Pasko of selling military secrets, but Pasko says […]
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Roundtable Still Benighted
The Business Roundtable, representing chief executives of more than 200 of the largest U.S. companies, yesterday called for a national summit to discuss ways business and government can speed the development of energy-efficient technologies. The group touted the great potential of new energy-related technologies to curb global warming and cut businesses’ production costs. The Roundtable […]
