Latest Articles
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UK + Y2K = YUCK
The UK may face widespread pollution problems at the turn of the millennium because its industries are failing to adequately address the Y2K computer bug. More than half of 400 companies surveyed by the nation’s Environment Agency have not overcome potential millennium bug issues. Computers play a key role in controlling most industrial processes, including […]
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Starting Down a Slippery (North) Slope
Despite protests and a lawsuit filed by environmentalists, the U.S. government yesterday sold oil drilling rights to environmentally sensitive but oil-rich land on Alaska’s North Slope for $105 million. Enviro groups, including the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society, have a suit pending against the federal government over the drilling leases, claiming that the environmental impact […]
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Fish Can't Scale Walls of Death
International fishing authorities are cracking down on illegal drift-netting, an environmentally destructive method using nets that are more than 1.5 miles long and that indiscriminately catch all fish and marine mammals in their paths. Though driftnets — referred to by enviros as “walls of death” — were banned in international waters by the U.N. in […]
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Domo Aregato, Mr. Clean-Auto
Japanese automakers have reached a tentative agreement with the European Commission to voluntarily raise the fuel-efficiency and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of cars sold in Europe. Europe’s own automakers voluntarily pledged last year to increase efficiency to about 48 miles per gallon. Attempts to reach a similar agreement with Korean car manufacturers have stalled […]
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Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner
California State Senator and environmental booster Byron Sher (D) sent out invitations to a fundraiser recently and listed State Sen. Ray Haynes (R) among his supporters. Trouble is that Haynes is what you might call a movement conservative, given to labeling people like Sher “clean-air Nazis” and “environmental wackos.” Sher’s office explained the incident to […]
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Wetlands, the Quicker Picker-Upper?
Human-made marshes that filter water naturally are gaining in popularity as an alternative to high-tech water purifying systems, according to experts speaking at a National Marketplace for the Environment meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Partially treated wastewater and stormwater runoff are sent to constructed wetlands, where plants and microbes purify the water of silt and some […]
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Nuke Is a Nuke Is a Nuke
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, convinced that the nuclear industry is safer than ever, is eliminating its semiannual “watch list” of the nation’s most troubled nuclear power plants. In its place, the NRC will make a yearly announcement of plants needing “agency focus” and “regional focus.” Critics fear the decision will mean less oversight for the […]
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Gore Takes Bus to Swing Set
Vice Pres. Al Gore announced 47 modest federal initiatives aimed at promoting sustainability and smart growth yesterday. In a keynote address in Detroit at the National Town Hall Meeting on Sustainable America — which is being attended by 3,000 community, environmental, and business leaders — Gore called for the development of abandoned industrial sites and […]
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Making S-U-Vs that Don't S-U-C-K
The Big Three automakers have agreed to consider adding gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles to a joint government-industry supercar program that aims to triple the gas mileage of popular vehicles. Vice Pres. Al Gore pressed top auto executives on the issue during a meeting in Detroit, emphasizing that expanding the program, known as the Partnership for a […]
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Euro Eco-Promo; France Rants
The European Commission launched a promotional campaign yesterday designed to attract $30 billion in private investment in solar, wind, and biomass technology by 2003. The “Campaign for Take-Off” aims to help the EU meet its goal of doubling renewable energy output to 12 percent by 2010. Meanwhile, France is pressing the EU to make energy […]
