Latest Articles
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Brazil: Nuts! to Biopirates
Two Brazilian states recently passed laws requiring foreign researchers to sign contracts and pay “bioroyalties” on any income they gain from the use of local plants. A national version of the law, which would also require foreign researchers to have local partners, is close to passage in the Brazilian Congress. Brazil is one of a […]
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Mexico Is a Leading Light
A $23 million project that introduced energy-efficient lightbulbs to two Mexican cities has become the first to be verified as actually reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. The pilot project took place under U.N. guidelines and Trygve Larsen of Det Norske Veritas, the Norway-based international verification foundation that certified the effort, said it can serve as a model […]
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How's the Air Up There?
Canada could significantly influence U.S. policy by pushing the U.S. to clean up air pollution that blows across its northern border, American enviros said yesterday at a conference held by Ontario’s Medical Association. Fifty percent of Ontario’s air pollution originates in the U.S., said Jason Grumet of the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management. […]
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China Dolls Up Its Industry
A $420 million grant to China will help the nation protect the ozone layer. Some $200 million of the money, which comes from a multinational fund set up in 1987 as part of the Montreal Protocol, will be used to help 200 firms upgrade their equipment and clean up ozone-depleting industrial products. China reduced its […]
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Writ from Ritt
The EU has threatened to withhold as much as $15.5 billion from a number of member states unless they comply with EU environmental laws by establishing nature reserves and other protected areas. France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal have been given formal written warning from EU Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard. The crackdown follows a […]
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Oh No, Mr. (Interior) Bill
A rider tacked onto the Interior Department spending bill, courtesy of Sens. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would stall a large federal land and wildlife management plan for 64 million acres in the Pacific Northwest. The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project — covering federal lands in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho, and […]
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Judge? Not!
As Washington simmered this weekend, at least one intractable political problem appeared to melt away in the withering summer sun. Or did it? In the relative quiet of the Fourth of July weekend, the New York Times reported that Pres. Clinton would enter into a (some would say Faustian) bargain with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). […]
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An Aphrodisiac? Ah, Baloney
Police in South Africa are trying to crack down on heavily armed poachers of abalone, a shellfish prized in China, Taiwan, and Japan as an aphrodisiac. Some marine scientists warn that South Africa’s abalone population could be virtually wiped out within five years. Meanwhile, investigators in China have broken up a massive smuggling ring that […]
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Snake in the Bush
Not winning any environmental plaudits, GOP presidential hopeful George W. Bush yesterday announced his opposition to breaching four dams on the Snake River to help save endangered salmon runs. As he kicked off a campaign swing through the Northwest, Bush said, “I think it’s very important for us to protect the fish, but I think […]
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Renewable Powers — Yeah, Baby!
The British government has been slow to make the major policy changes necessary to meet its stated goals of increasing renewable energy generation and combating global warming, a Parliamentary select committee said yesterday. The committee made a number of proposals to help move the country toward its target of producing 10 percent of its electricity […]
