Climate Politics
All Stories
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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 […]
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Blair Switch Project
As part of a broad cabinet reshuffle that has British politicians and citizens alike shaking their heads, U.K. Environment Minister Michael Meacher was asked yesterday by Prime Minister Tony Blair to step down. Meacher, who has held his post since 1997, was increasingly at odds with Blair over the issue of genetically modified crops; Meacher […]
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Adding Fuel Cells to the Fire
The Bush administration has been busily touting fuel-cell cars as a critical component of its energy plan and the solution to many an environmental woe. But what if the solution turns out to cause its own problems? According to new research published in this week’s issue of Science, the technology used in hydrogen fuel cells […]
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Environmental What Agency?
Rumors are heating up about who will fill the shoes of U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, who announced her resignation last month and will step down June 27. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R) and Tom Skinner, the EPA’s Midwest regional administrator, seem to have risen above two earlier possibilities — Deputy EPA Administrator Linda Fisher […]
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Greens Pan Greenspan
The Bush administration and Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan are expressing increasing concerns about dwindling natural gas supplies, a move that environmentalists see as a ploy to drum up support for nuclear energy and drilling on public lands. The concern over natural gas comes as Congress debates a comprehensive energy bill that could include provisions […]
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Chop Sticks
Old-growth trees in roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska could soon be on the chopping block. The Bush administration announced yesterday that it plans to exempt the nation’s largest national forest from the Clinton-era “roadless rule,” which blocks logging and road-building on more than 58 million acres of wild land in national […]
