Latest Articles

Oh Shenandoah, I Long to See Across You

Vice Pres. Al Gore is marking Earth Day today with a trip to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to announce a new plan that aims to clean up the air in national parks and wilderness areas to pre-industrial-era quality. New regulations will direct states to make notable air quality improvements every 10 years with a […]

Thank You Soooo Much, Corporate America!

Corporate America is patting its own back today on Earth Day, touting the fact that businesses have spent $1 trillion over the past 30 years on environmental cleanups. “The theme is: ‘Thank business for cleaning up the environment,'” said US Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Frank Coleman. Environmentalists are not buying the talk. “To the extent […]

Sting Like a Butterfly

Julia “Butterfly” Hill, who has spent more than 16 months living in the branches of an ancient redwood tree that has been slated for logging, will be the “in-tree correspondent” for an environmental cable show. The first episode of “The Thin Green Line” will air today with an interview of Hill by the show’s host, […]

Great, Danes!

Denmark is giving coal-fired power plants the boot and launching more renewable energy production as it moves to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The nation’s largest energy producer, the Elsam group, will officially close four of its old coal-fired units on July 1. In 1997, 64 percent of Denmark’s total electricity production came from coal; in […]

Holey Ozone!

The level of ozone-depleting chemicals in the atmosphere is dropping, primarily because of reductions of one solvent, methyl chloroform, which was phased out between 1996 and 1997, according to a report published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. The study indicates that the Montreal Protocol, the 1994 treaty to protect the ozone layer, is […]

Kitty Litter

Waste Hot, Want Not

Nuclear refuse from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver needs a home. It’s not radioactive enough to gain entrance to the newly opened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, yet it’s too radioactive for other disposal spots. Rocky Flats is scheduled to be razed by 2006, and its waste cannot be stored […]

It's to Die for

The United Arab Emirates is considering instituting the death penalty for those who deliberately pollute the environment. Many sea captains secretly discharge oil into the sea around the country, wreaking havoc on fragile ecosystems.

Yellowstone, Gray Water, Brown Air

A crumbling sewage system at Yellowstone National Park is dumping wastewater into Yellowstone Lake, and traffic and air pollution have beset Grand Canyon National Park, according to the National Parks and Conservation Association. The group released a list of the 10 most endangered national parks yesterday, highlighting an array of problems in the park system. […]

Smelly Smelter Smitten

The air quality in Cairo should get a big boost now that Egypt’s largest lead smelting company has agreed to abandon its Cairo facilities for a new factory with modern emissions controls outside the city. The smelters at the current factory spew between 40 and 60 percent of the lead pollution in the area. The […]