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Tick-ing Time Bomb
Global warming could cause a big increase in insect-borne diseases in Europe, according to a new World Health Organization report published in the British Medical Journal. As temperatures rise and precipitation and humidity increase, disease-carrying pests such as ticks, mosquitoes, and rats could expand their ranges and bring malaria, lyme disease, and other illnesses.
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We Don't Give a Jack about These Magic Beans
Scientists, consumer groups, and activists yesterday presented Congress and the Food and Drug Administration with a 500,000-signature petition calling for genetically modified foods to be labeled. The demonstration suggested that distrust of genetically altered foods is growing in the U.S.; it is already rampant in Europe. Scientists and protestors pointed out that little research has […]
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Monumental Veto
Pres. Clinton would likely veto a bill moving through Congress that would require public input before the president can declare federal land a national monument. Some Republicans are angry that Clinton in 1996 created the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, and they want to restrict the ability of the president to make […]
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Y2-Kaboom
An error during a Y2K computer test caused a Los Angeles water treatment facility to spill about 4 million gallons of raw sewage into a city park Wednesday night, raising fears about environmental and other problems that could be in store as January 1, 2000 approaches. Maintenance workers had cleaned up most of the mess […]
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Drawling Sprawl Brawl
Atlanta is taking a lead in the fight against sprawl as the new Georgia Regional Transit Authority, which will have unprecedented power over transportation in the region, takes shape. The new body, created by the state legislature in March, will have control over the building and widening of roads, a carpooling system, and construction of […]
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Bigger Ain't Better
If all 68 million sport utility vehicles, minivans, and pickup trucks in the U.S. met the current 27.5 mile-per-gallon standard for cars, oil consumption in the U.S. would have been reduced by 336 million barrels in 1997, or 11 percent of the nation’s crude oil imports, according to a new study by the U.S. Public […]
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Eagles Eye Recovery
The bald eagle has made such a striking comeback that the Clinton administration will propose around the Fourth of July that the national symbol be removed from the endangered species list. The eagle population in the U.S. is thought to have once numbered between 250,000 and 500,000, but by 1963, largely because of the pesticide […]
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If a Tree Falls in This Sound, There's Still a Forest
Native Canadian groups, environmentalists, and timber company MacMillan Bloedel signed a deal yesterday to end Canada’s most bitter forest fight. The agreement supports the use of selective, sustainable logging in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island only in second-growth and fragmented old-growth stands, not in large pristine watersheds. Greenpeace Canada and the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense […]
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Shark Attack
The 1990s have seen a big rise in the popularity of shark fin meat, and fishers are capitalizing on the trend by catching tens of thousands of Pacific Ocean sharks, slicing off their fins, and tossing the animal remains back in the ocean. Sun-dried shark fins can command up to $250 a pound in Hong […]
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Senate Gores World Bank
The Senate is moving to cut money for a World Bank environmental fund that promotes energy-saving, low-pollution projects in developing countries, a top priority of Vice Pres. Al Gore. The Senate Appropriations Committee today is expected to approve a foreign-aid budget bill that would provide only $25 million to pay off initial U.S. commitments to […]
