Latest Articles
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Demand Hops for Wind Power
The New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., will buy all the power produced by a new wind turbine in Wyoming, prompting one official to propose that the turbine be painted to resemble a giant bottle of Fat Tire beer, which the brewery produces. The turbine is one of five scheduled to be installed in […]
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Wild, Wild West Bank
A number of Israeli industries are dumping toxic waste in the West Bank, Palestinian officials charge, violating environmental agreements made in 1993 as part of the Oslo peace accords. Friends of the Earth Middle East, an Arab and Israeli environmental group, reported in December 1998 that there were at least 50 unauthorized hazardous waste dumps […]
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Seven-Plus Wonders of Sustainability
A couple of years ago, while I was doing something else, I heard snatches of a radio program in which Alan Durning, the director of Seattle’s Northwest Environment Watch, talked about the “Seven Sustainable Wonders of the World.” Clever concept, I thought, but afterward I could only remember three of his wonders: The bicycle — […]
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I Want My DDT
As the U.N. drafts a treaty that could ban DDT worldwide, many health officials are protesting that such a ban would devastate efforts to control malaria in some developing nations. DDT, one of 12 highly toxic chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants that the U.N. plans to eliminate, is sprayed in small amounts on the […]
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Cod Dammit!
Even as tough fishing restrictions in New England’s Georges Bank fishing ground are beginning to restore populations of cod and other groundfish, a new report by federal and state biologists suggests that still tighter limits should be imposed. Scientists say that fish populations have been so severely depleted that it will take years to restore […]
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Tongue Depressing News
The destruction of forests and other ecosystems is leading to a loss of languages, as indigenous peoples are driven from their homes and forced to migrate to urban areas and assimilate into dominant cultures, according to the U.N. Environment Program. Bai-Mass Taal, UNEP’s biodiversity program manager, says there is heavy overlap between areas of high […]
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Less Fun in More Sun
Heat waves, rising sea levels, drought, disease, and other problems brought on by global warming could keep tourists away from many of the world’s most popular vacation spots in coming decades, according to a report conducted by a British university and released yesterday by the World Wildlife Fund. Ski areas in Europe are likely to […]
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EPA: Extremely Plodding Agency
The EPA is lagging far behind schedule in setting new pesticide restrictions based on risks to children, as called for in a 1996 law. By August 3 of this year, the agency was supposed to have set limits for the riskiest 5,500 pesticide uses, but the EPA has completed less than 40 percent of the […]
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An Ill Wind
After years of tough talk, some Northeastern states last week signaled a willingness to retreat from demands that Midwestern and Southern states reduce their air pollution, which blows into the Northeast. In the wake of legal setbacks, one proposal from the Northeastern states for settling a dispute would accept nitrogen oxide emissions at a rate […]
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Redpeace?
Greenpeace took its act public in China today, releasing its first report on the country at a news conference in Beijing. The report, which drew heavily on Chinese government statistics and reports from state-controlled media, said that China’s fast-paced economic growth is threatening a national and global ecological disaster. The Chinese tend to take a […]
