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Kiss Our Ash

China plans to cut its dependence on coal from 72 percent of the country’s total energy needs today to 50 percent by 2050, a senior government official said this weekend. China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, has already started to lower its coal production to some 1 billion tons this year, down […]

The Awesome of the Patriarch

Joining the growing movement of religious institutions fighting environmental problems, the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese voted Saturday to launch an environmental activism campaign. The diocese, with 147 parishes and 85,000 members, called for study of environmental issues and a range of actions, from making church buildings more energy-efficient to urging churchgoers to lead simpler lives […]

Sweden Low

The ozone layer over Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia has dwindled to levels nearly as low as those found over the Antarctic, the European Space Agency said last week. Measurements taken in the Netherlands showed that ozone levels were about two-thirds below the norm for this time of year. At a conference in Beijing […]

Bayer Gives Us a Headache

Three years after Congress passed and Pres. Clinton signed to great fanfare a law meant to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides, the law has become a victim of politics as usual, and the EPA’s ability to enforce it, using science as a driving force, has been greatly weakened, according to a six-month investigation by the […]

Ding, Dong, the Round Is Dead

The World Trade Organization’s ministerial meeting in Seattle ended in failure on Friday night, with delegates unable to reach agreement on issues to be addressed in a new round of trade talks. Enviros and other activists who had protested on the Seattle streets against the WTO, pointing to free trade’s damaging effects on the environment, […]

A Bad Deal for Dolphins

Grist readers deserve better than the poorly informed coverage of the tuna/dolphin issue in a recent article by Rick Gaffney, which makes false and misleading claims about “dolphin safe” tuna fishing methods. A dolphin in the deep. Earth Island Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States, and dozens of other organizations […]

Fuggetaboutit

Arctic Waters Straight Up

The amount of sea ice in Arctic waters has been shrinking since 1978 by an average of roughly 14,000 square miles a year, an area larger than Maryland and Delaware combined, according to a new study by an international team of scientists published in today’s issue of the journal Science. The researchers say the shrinkage […]

Is the Color of Your Ralph Green?

Ralph Nader has told close associates that he plans to announce his candidacy in January and mount a serious campaign for president under the Green Party banner, reports Salon magazine. On the other end of the spectrum, Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R), in his first presidential debate last night, tried to sidestep a question […]

Unholy Union Carbide

Thousands marched through the city of Bhopal, India, today to mark the 15th anniversary of a poisonous gas leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant, which killed an estimated 6,000 people and injured perhaps hundreds of thousands more. The marchers protested insufficient compensation for injuries and demanded action against Union Carbide officials and Warren Anderson, […]