Latest Articles
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EPA: Extremely Plodding Agency
The EPA is lagging far behind schedule in setting new pesticide restrictions based on risks to children, as called for in a 1996 law. By August 3 of this year, the agency was supposed to have set limits for the riskiest 5,500 pesticide uses, but the EPA has completed less than 40 percent of the […]
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An Ill Wind
After years of tough talk, some Northeastern states last week signaled a willingness to retreat from demands that Midwestern and Southern states reduce their air pollution, which blows into the Northeast. In the wake of legal setbacks, one proposal from the Northeastern states for settling a dispute would accept nitrogen oxide emissions at a rate […]
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Redpeace?
Greenpeace took its act public in China today, releasing its first report on the country at a news conference in Beijing. The report, which drew heavily on Chinese government statistics and reports from state-controlled media, said that China’s fast-paced economic growth is threatening a national and global ecological disaster. The Chinese tend to take a […]
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Southeast Hazia
Indonesian Environment Minister Panangian Siregar promised yesterday that the nation would draft legislation to crack down on those who light forest fires to clear land for plantations. He was under pressure from the environment ministers of other Southeast Asian nations, which have been plagued by unhealthy, choking haze caused by slash-and-burn fires in Indonesia. The […]
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Home Depot is Where the Heart Is?
After several years of protests by environmentalists, Home Depot has agreed to phase out wood products from environmentally sensitive areas, including redwood, cedar, and lauan trees from old-growth forests. Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the U.S. and the largest lumber retailer in the world, urged other companies to join the effort to […]
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Turtles in the Soup
Half of the world’s turtle species are in danger of extinction, according to scientists gathered at a conference in Nevada. The main cause of the crisis is human consumption of the critters, for both food and traditional medicine. The Chinese in particular seem to have an insatiable appetite for turtles, and scientists believe that several […]
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Changing the Channel
Stretches of California’s 1,100-mile coastline may soon be put completely off-limits to fishing, a dramatic step some policymakers are contemplating as a way to help decimated fish populations. A 37-acre reserve already exists in the Channel Islands National Park, but officials are considering a proposal that would dramatically expand the no-take zones in the park […]
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Grazing saddles the West with a heck of a problem
The drunk who said it was right. Denial is not a river in Egypt. But it may be a river in New Mexico. Or Arizona. Or Nevada or Utah. Maybe Montana. The river is 20 feet wider than it was, say, in 1840. The only cottonwood on its banks is just about that old, magnificent […]
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A Godsend for Enviros?
It’s all but official. Hollywood actor Warren Beatty may have hedged his bets somewhat in a New York Times op-ed last Sunday, but he already has a presidential campaign website, which is this column’s fin de siècle measure of candidatehood, be it virtual or actual. Leaving aside the question of why certain individuals with no […]
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'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Fly
Development in a Southern California community east of Los Angeles is being stymied in order to protect an endangered species of fly. The Delhi Sands flower-loving fly — the sole fly on the Endangered Species List — is only known to breed in fine sand dunes about 60 miles from L.A., which are surrounded by […]
