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Hot and Bothered

Enviros Mobil-ize to Put the Nix on Exxon

Enviro groups plan to oppose the proposed merger of Mobil and Exxon at the companies’ annual meetings this week out of fears that Mobil’s more conciliatory stance on climate change will be x-ed out if Exxon gets regulatory clearance to buy Mobil for $75 billion. Mobil was initially critical of the Kyoto climate change treaty, […]

Dam Yangtze!

The official newspaper of China’s communist party has acknowledged that serious environmental problems, engineering difficulties, and corruption plague construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The editorial in the People’s Daily, published today, marks the first time the influential newspaper has been permitted to note problems with the dam project, which if completed as planned would […]

Call Me Fishmeal?

International whaling officials begin meeting today in Granada to debate easing a ban on commercial whaling, with the recent whale kill by the Makah Indian tribe in Washington state likely to stir things up. A ban instituted in 1986 has helped whale populations recover, but most species still remain endangered. Japan, Norway, and a few […]

Greenery Is Chicago's Hope

Chicago’s environment department will plant rooftop gardens on a number of municipal buildings in an effort to reduce heat and pollution, and it will encourage private companies to do the same. Dark-roofed buildings and miles of pavement absorb the sun’s heat and raise the city’s temperature by as much as four to six degrees. The […]

Thanks for Nothing, Big Guy

Pres. Clinton on Friday signed a $15 billion emergency spending bill that will help fund NATO’s air war in Yugoslavia and hurricane-relief efforts in Central America, even though the bill contained several anti-environmental riders that his administration had opposed. He said the pressing need for the funding overrode concerns about the riders, including one that […]

Spain Is Banging Its Head over Heavy Metal

The region in Spain near the Guadiamar River is still reeling from an ecological disaster that took place one year ago, when the waste reservoir of a nearby zinc mine burst open and spilled more than one billion gallons of toxic slurry into the river, flooding hundreds of farms. The noxious waste has contaminated the […]

Brower Beaten

David Brower, the 86-year-old environmental legend, on Saturday abandoned his bid to become president of the Sierra Club, acknowledging that he didn’t have enough votes among the board of directors. He backed the nomination of Chuck McGrady, who was unanimously elected to a second one-year term. Brower, who sits on the board, had criticized the […]

A review of 'Women Pioneers for the Environment' by Mary Jo Breton

In 1993, Emma Must, irate over the British Department of Transport's plans to plow through yet another grassy hillside for yet another highway extension, chained herself by the neck to the axle of a bulldozer for five hours. Her bold antics and those of a band of like-minded peaceful protestors stalled construction of the highway for six months, but ultimately their campaign failed. Out of the ashes of Must's effort, however, rose a tide of public anger that swelled Britain's anti-road movement and forced the DOT to dramatically scale back its building plans and reassess transportation policy throughout the country. For Must's leadership in the anti-road movement, she earned a Goldman Environmental Prize in 1995, the environmental community's equivalent of the Nobel.

Corn Canned

Following publication yesterday of a study that found genetically modified corn can kill monarch butterflies, the European Union governing body suspended approval for two types of gene-altered corn. Two other types have already been approved by the EU. In all, 18 genetically modified products have been approved by the EU since 1992; however, there has […]