Latest Articles
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Cloak, Dagger, and Turtle
A shroud of secrecy surrounds information about the northern bog turtle, a threatened species that makes its home in meadows from Massachusetts to Maryland, prime suburb territory. Its presence has delayed road and water projects in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Michael Klemens, who is developing a federal plan to save the species, thinks it […]
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Electric Cars Run Out of Gas
Honda has pulled the plug on its production of electric vehicles, becoming the first major automaker to admit that the battery-powered cars aren’t making inroads with consumers. Honda plans to focus on other alternative-fuel technologies, such as fuel cells, and some industry watchers speculate that the company’s move may indicate that it has another zero-emissions […]
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Flipper Flip-Flop
The Clinton administration today is expected to give tuna processors and canners the go-ahead to label their products “dolphin-safe” even if they use large, encircling nets that can snare and kill dolphins. That fishing method was once thought to have killed 100,000 dolphins a year and spurred a 1990 import ban on tuna caught by […]
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Swedish Chef, Dutch Oven Cook Up Controversy
The European Union is struggling to pull together a common climate change strategy ahead of the next round of international talks on the issue to be held in Bonn in June. The European Union’s German presidency plans to call a special meeting of EU environment ministers on May 18 to hammer out an agreement. The […]
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The Death of Frankenfood
Britain’s largest grocery store chain, Tesco, gave the boot to genetically modified foods yesterday, saying it would phase them out from its shelves. Two popular British food processors also pledged to work toward eliminating genetically modified ingredients from their products, reacting to consumer outcries against the altered foods. Modified crops are not yet licensed to […]
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Don't Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke It
Meanwhile, British researchers announced on Tuesday that they had genetically engineered tobacco plants to make them capable of removing explosives from soil. The plants, which can break down unstable ingredients in explosives such as TNT and nitroglycerin, could be used to clean up areas around weapons factories and munitions dumps, according to an article in […]
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Scientists Poo Poo Chemical Threat in Water
U.S. water supplies are seriously threatened by microbes, warns a report from the American Society for Microbiology, but efforts to control water pollution have concentrated on chemical risks rather than microbial ones. The report claims that dangerous organisms such as E. coli O157, cryptosporidium, giardia, hepatitis A, and pfisteria pose a greater risk to human […]
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Sprawl Brawl
The Sierra Club released poll numbers recently indicating that 47 percent of voters would be more likely to support a presidential candidate prepared to aggressively attack the problem of urban sprawl. Most people associate VP Al Gore with that issue, but Seattle Mayor Paul Schell has his own ideas. Schell jumped on Bill Bradley‘s presidential […]
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Fig Leaf Bill: Let's Hope It Wilts in the Heat
Senators opposed to the Kyoto climate change treaty introduced a bill yesterday that would forego mandates for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in favor of voluntary, market-based programs. Sponsored by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Larry Craig (R- Idaho), and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the measure would allot $2 billion over 10 years to create a research, development, […]
