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NAFTA Shock
Pollution from manufacturing plants in Canada and the U.S. is on the downswing, according to an annual report released yesterday by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, set up to monitor the environmental effects of NAFTA. Industrial contaminants fell by 5 percent in Canada and 2 percent in the U.S. in 1996, compared to 1995, and […]
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I Am the Walrus. Whom Do I Chew?
Climate change appears to be affecting the behavior of wildlife in the Arctic, say researchers who went on a Greenpeace expedition to the region last month. Brendan Kelly of the University of Alaska, head of the research team, noted that the walrus population in particular seems to be in decline. The researchers say the Arctic […]
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Can't See the Forest for the Smoke
Indonesian Pres. B.J. Habibie yesterday ordered immediate action to stop forest fires burning in the areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan, which are causing a thick, choking haze throughout much of Southeast Asia. But Walhi, Indonesia’s leading environmental group, said the government is much too late in moving to tackle the fires, which are being set […]
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Yuck a Mountain
Federal scientists studying Nevada’s Yucca Mountain say they have uncovered no environmental factors that would rule out the site as a future home for waste from nuclear power plants, according to a draft environmental impact statement released on Friday. Officials did, however, acknowledge “a substantial amount of uncertainty associated with estimates of long-term repository performance.” […]
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Governors to Agree on Gibberish
Today the nation’s governors, at their annual summer meeting, will adopt a made-up word as their new environmental doctrine: Enlibra, a term used by Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) to describe their doctrine of resolving environmental conflicts through negotiation. The Enlibra policy statement, expected to be approved unanimously by […]
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Estrada Chips Away at Logging
Some Asian officials are beginning to recognize that the effects of annual monsoons and typhoons in the region are exacerbated by human-caused environmental degradation. Rampant logging of forests and illegal quarrying loosen silt that thereby clogs rivers and worsens flooding. Philippine Pres. Joseph Estrada is particularly concerned about the loss of forested land and has […]
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Hump Day
Martin Sheen joined some 400 anti-nuclear activists in a mile-long protest march outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico yesterday, the 54th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. Protestors called for an end to the lab’s production of new plutonium pits, which are the cores of nuclear bombs. The protestors were briefly […]
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Suzanne Nelson, Native Seeds/SEARCH
Suzanne Nelson is director of conservation and seed bank curator at Native Seeds/SEARCH in Tucson, Ariz. Monday, 9 Aug 1999 TUCSON, Ariz. Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day … I never know exactly what’s in store for me when I get into the office on Monday. I used to think it was a good day […]
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Rotten to the Corps
Despite Pres. Clinton’s pledge to protect wetlands, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is backing off from enforcing the nation’s primary wetlands protection law, according to a review of the Corps’s records. The Corps has cut inspections for possible violations by 40 percent since 1992, and in 1998 rejected only 3.2 percent of applications for […]
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Ready to Aim at Fire
Environmentalists are urging Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore to take Indonesia to international court because fires raging in parts of Indonesia are blanketing much of Southeast Asia in a thick, dangerous smog, driving many residents to don masks. Hundreds of fires have been set by plantation owners and small farmers to clear land, and experts say […]
