Climate Politics
All Stories
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Stow It
The U.S. famously declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, but yesterday it jumped on the bandwagon of another effort to control global warming: a research program dedicated to exploring technologies for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. Such technologies, collectively known as carbon sequestration, seek to keep CO2 out of the atmosphere through […]
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The Dirk Side of the Moon
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R), thought to be President Bush’s top pick to head the U.S. EPA after Christie Whitman leaves the agency at the end of this week, has overseen a decline in environmental quality in his home state. Since he assumed the Idaho governorship four and a half years ago, the state’s air […]
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White House Whitewash
In a first-of-its-kind environmental survey released today, the U.S. EPA said that the nation’s air, water, and land are cleaner and better protected than they were 30 years ago, though sprawl and air quality, among other problems, continue to pose challenges for the nation. But the survey’s credibility was compromised by reports last week that […]
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Aw, Shoot
People accused of shooting endangered species are getting off the hook thanks to a U.S. Justice Department policy that some federal wildlife officials say amounts to a loophole in the Endangered Species Act. Adopted in 1998 under the Clinton administration, the policy requires government prosecutors to prove that a suspect knew the animal they were […]
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Crop Circles
Negotiations between the U.S. and the European Union over genetically modified foods broke down yesterday in Geneva, furthering heightening trans-Atlantic tension and prompting the Bush administration to call on the World Trade Organization to begin hearing the dispute. At issue is a European ban on GM crops — a ban that the U.S. agricultural industry […]
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Censor Censure
Bowdlerizing what was meant to be the first-ever comprehensive report on environmental problems facing the U.S., the White House has deleted most of the information the report contained on global climate change and reduced the remainder to a few vague paragraphs. The omitted sections referred to findings that climate change is at least partly caused […]
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Dire Strait
Russian poachers are killing 200 to 400 polar bears each year in the Bering Strait region, a trend that threatens to halve the strait’s bear population by 2020, according to new research by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Russia and the U.S. are currently considering ratification of a treaty the two nations signed in […]
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Hydrogen Hijacking?
The European Union and the U.S. agreed yesterday to team up on research into hydrogen fuel cells, widely touted as a potentially clean power source that will revolutionize future energy use. But while the E.U. wants to develop hydrogen using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, the U.S. has plans to use fossil […]
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A Man With a Plan
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, made a bid for green votes on Friday when he unveiled an energy plan that would, among other things, tighten fuel-economy standards for automobiles and push the U.S. toward getting 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Kerry wants to […]
