Latest Articles
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The Dirt on Dirt
Improved farming practices and soil conservation measures in the U.S. have significantly reduced soil erosion problems, according to a study published in today’s issue of the journal Science. Stanley Trimble of the University of California at Los Angeles conducted a 26-year study of an area in Wisconsin and found that the soil erosion rate there […]
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Panel to Court: Kiss My Asthma
A government panel of air-pollution experts is pressing the EPA to accelerate its research into possible health problems caused by particulate pollution, despite a federal court ruling this spring that cast doubt on the agency’s power to regulate the tiny soot particles. The panel, assembled by the National Research Council, said that disrupting research into […]
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You Rock, Yurok!
After years of mutual ill will, California’s largest Native American tribe, the Yurok Indians, and the Simpson Timber Co., the biggest owner of forestland along the state’s northern coast, are partnering to help restore salmon runs along the Klamath River. The Yurok have long complained that silt from Simpson’s logging roads clogs the river’s tributaries, […]
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Amazon Grace
Although the Amazon rainforest is disappearing at an alarming rate, a few projects are underway to develop sustainable logging techniques and replant denuded areas. Brazil’s Institute of Man and the Amazon Environment is studying reduced-impact logging and developing techniques to remove older trees without damaging younger ones and without cutting into profits. For its part, […]
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Y2-Kiev
A project to eliminate any Y2K bugs from 14 aging, problem-prone nuclear reactors in the Ukraine has just gotten underway, financed by Western governments. The experts working on the project say they are simply making sure the plants don’t shut down on New Year’s Eve, and they claim confidence that there are no safety problems […]
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Winged Victory
The peregrine falcon, which was pushed to the brink of extinction by widespread use of DDT, is expected to be removed from the endangered species list tomorrow, the first species to be delisted since 1994. At the beginning of this century, there were an estimated 3,900 breeding peregrine pairs; by 1975, the number had fallen […]
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Joint Commission Issues Smokin' Report
Canada and the U.S. should ban the export of water from the Great Lakes because the lakes don’t have a surplus, says a preliminary report released yesterday by the International Joint Commission, the U.S.-Canada agency that regulates the lakes. Canada yesterday threw its support behind a commission recommendation for a six-month moratorium on the large-scale […]
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Wavy Gravy
Major Canadian cities dump more than 1 trillion liters of sewage with little or no treatment into oceans and other bodies of water each year, according to a study by the Sierra Legal Defense Fund, which calls the waste treatment problem “a national disgrace.” The worst offenders among the 21 cities studied were Victoria, Halifax, […]
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Amazon.Gone
The Amazon rainforest will be cleared within 80 years if multinational companies continue to log at the current rate, Greenpeace warned yesterday in its annual report. Illegal commercial logging is responsible for 80 percent of the trees that are taken from the forest each year, and most of the profit from sale of the timber […]
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Flaky Tuna Rules!
A coalition of environmental groups plans to file suit today against the feds, seeking to overturn what they see as a weakening of labeling standards for “dolphin-safe” tuna. In April, the U.S. government expanded the number of fishing methods that qualify as dolphin-safe, including one called encirclement, a previously banned method that involves closing in […]
