According to a report by the international environmental organization Greenpeace, the ecological damage from the 1990s Gulf War was “unprecedented.” More than two-dozen chemical, biological and possibly nuclear facilities were destroyed or badly damaged
The active ingredient in Drano and other conventional drain cleaners is sodium hydroxide, otherwise known as caustic soda or lye. It is a man-made chemical used for its corrosive properties. According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the substance is not considered a pollutant per se, as it separates into relatively harmless component elements once released into water or moist soil.
Recent revelations by Berkeley researcher Tad Patzek have fueled vigorous debate about the wisdom of using fuels such as ethanol to reduce our reliance on oil and our contribution to global warming. Patzek’s research
There was some speculation that he wouldn’t actually appear, but there, in a polo shirt, sat House Natural Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA), just inches away from Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope.
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a version of Resources Committee Chair Dick Pombo’s revision of the Endangered Species Act, which calls for major changes to the nation’s premiere environmental law. Pombo, a California Republican, says the existing law is too cumbersome in the courts and too costly for landowners and developers.
In 1993, the Chinese government banned the sale and trade of tigers and their parts, providing a much-needed safety net for the species then teetering on the brink of extinction due to over-hunting and habitat loss. But last week, the Chinese government hinted that it might reopen the trade in tiger parts from farm-bred, captive populations of the majestic cat.
Recent revelations by Berkeley researcher Tad Patzek have fueled vigorous debate about the wisdom of using fuels such as ethanol to reduce our reliance on oil and our contribution to global warming. Patzek’s research concluded that producing ethanol actually uses more energy than the resulting fuel can generate.
Is Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA), the chairman of the House Resources Committee, joking? Did he really circulate a razed-earth anti-parks bill as a rather mean-spirited joke, or was he for real? It’s a little hard to tell with him, but the national parks sections are certainly laughable. In any case, the idea of making wildlife "pay its passage" is not new: In the 1997 film Fierce Creatures, a sequel to the fabulous A Fish Called Wanda, an evil magnate modeled on Rupert Murdoch takes over a small British zoo and demands that it produce a 20 percent return. Among his bright ideas: hanging bank-promoting advertising sandwich boards on the big cats.
Ford Motor Co. chairperson and CEO Bill Ford announced last week that his company will make hybrid gas-electric versions of half of its models across its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicle line-ups by 2010. Perhaps not coincidentally, the announcement comes on the heels of record high gas prices around the country. Ford's 2006 Escape hybrid […]
The Canadian government has joined the last-ditch effort by activists to prevent oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Citing a 1987 bi-lateral agreement to protect the Porcupine River caribou herd that migrates from the Canadian Yukon to ANWR’s coastal plain each year, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew is urging the U.S. to honor its 18-year commitment by halting its drilling plans.
