Climate Technology
All Stories
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Job None
Following the collapse of the Northwest timber industry in the 1990s, thousands of workers lost their jobs. The conventional wisdom has been that these workers were absorbed by a boom in the region’s high-tech industry — but a new study of a decade’s worth of employment records questions that conclusion. True, the region’s economy as […]
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Smokin’, Joe
Despite inevitable resistance from the Bush administration and fellow Congress members, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) plan to unveil a proposal this week that would force all U.S. industries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation would require all industries to limit their emissions to 2000 levels by 2010 and 1990 […]
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The No-good, the Bad, and the Ugly
During the 2000 budget year, the federal government awarded more than $855 million worth of contracts to companies that had violated at least one federal law in the previous three years, the General Accounting Office reported yesterday. In all, 39 companies winning contracts of $100,000 or more were guilty of violating federal environmental, labor, employment, […]
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Share the Magic
If you have a little money squirreled away somewhere, maybe it’s time to take out stock in … an auto company. Thanks to a dedicated coalition of environmentalists who did just that, both General Motors and Ford Motors will be voting on global warming resolutions at their next shareholders meetings. Shareholder resolutions like the ones […]
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Trump Card
The U.S. wants the European Union to stop trying to weigh down trade rules with environmental considerations. (Silly Europeans, what were they thinking?) In a face-off at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York City earlier this week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and E.U. Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy argued about how international environmental […]
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At Sea
Fishers in the Northeast grudgingly celebrated a victory yesterday when federal regulators and environmental groups agreed to put a nine-month freeze on new regulations that will dramatically limit fishing when enacted. The National Marine Fisheries Service has been hearing it from all sides — fishers have argued that any tougher rules will devastate their industry, […]
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Leaf Me Alone
At international talks underway on protecting endangered species, the Bush administration has announced that it is “neutral” and “undecided” in the debate over whether to restrict trade in big-leaf mahogany from Latin America. The U.S. position since the time of George Bush the Elder had been to call for stricter limits on trade in the […]
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Tally Ho!
Prodded by donors, the Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and other groups are working to create accounting standards (both financial and biological) to measure the success of conservation projects. “There’s no industry standard, no Dow Jones,” said M. A. Sanjayan, a scientist who is leading the conservancy effort. Some $120 billion is spent each year […]
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I’m a Lumberjack and I’m O.K.?
To the great joy of Canadian loggers, British Columbia’s Liberal government unveiled a plan this week to streamline the approval process for forest cutting by April 2003. “The entire framework asks for a lot of trust and faith in the activities of forest corporations,” said University of British Columbia forestry professor George Hoberg. Forest Minister […]
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99 and 44/100 Percent Confusing
Five southern African nations are requesting permission to resume ivory trading at an international conference that begins today in Santiago, Chile. They are asking the 160 countries that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to allow them to clear out stockpiles — mainly from elephants that died naturally — and to […]
