Latest Articles
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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 […]
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Beetlemania
Two native Indian groups in Canada plan to begin logging immediately on government land, acts of open defiance against the British Columbia government. Yesterday, more than 100 native leaders threw their support behind the Westbank Tribal Nation, which says it is exercising its aboriginal and common-law rights to log forests in its traditional territories. The […]
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Oops, I'd Forgotten It Was World Ozone Day
Today, on World Ozone Day, the U.N. is warning that the growing illegal trade in CFCs could seriously hamper efforts to end the consumption and production of the ozone-depleting substance. CFC smugglers are expected to turn their attention to large developing nations like India and China, where there are millions of users of CFC-based equipment. […]
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If You Build It, Floyd Will Come
While residents along the East Coast of the U.S. make emergency preparations and evacuate as Hurricane Floyd heads inland, coastal scientists and policy makers worry that rising sea levels and more intense storms are likely to cause an increasing number of disasters in coastal areas. Population growth is booming along U.S. coasts, in part because […]
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Not the Same Old Gas
Climate scientists are abandoning their old estimates about greenhouse gas emissions, saying there are too many uncertainties to predict likely future levels. A new draft report on emissions by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which encompasses the views of hundreds of leading scientists and economists, does not present just one likely scenario, as […]
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Pretty Boy on Floyd
Without urgent action to curb climate change, the world will be increasingly vulnerable to environmental crises and destructive storms like Hurricane Floyd, which is now headed for the East Coast of the U.S., Pres. Clinton said today in New Zealand during a speech on global warming. He warned that sea levels are likely to rise […]
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Pollen-hate
Organic farmers are increasingly worried and angry about the possibility that their crops will be contaminated by cross-pollination with genetically modified crops. In Canada, the National Farmers Union wants to government to make biotech firms liable for “transgenic” pollution of organic and traditional crops. Meanwhile, a team of British scientists argues that organic farming could […]
