Currents

Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, a an ethical cosmetics firm that was a pioneer in socially conscious business, has died suddenly after suffering a brain hemorrhage in England on September 10.

The accelerating effects of global warming—which are rapidly melting Arctic sea ice—have forced scientists to conclude that polar bears will be extinct in the U.S. by 2050.

In a few days, President Bush will be hosting a climate summit in Washington, and Congress will begin what promises to be a long series of deliberations on climate legislation.

The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity last week filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Department of Interior for improper interference with 55 different endangered species cases in 28 states over the course of the last several years. The lawsuit maintains that unqualified, non-scientist bureaucrats edited scientific documents, overruled scientific experts, and falsified economic analyses to justify lessening endangered species protections mandated by federal law.

A petition filed last week by the plaintiffs in the long-running legal case surrounding the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the full $5 billion punitive fine initially imposed on Exxon (now ExxonMobil) in 1994 by a federal district court jury Anchorage, Alaska.

Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, the smallest and most endangered of the sea turtles nesting on American shorelines, have made their own astounding comeback thanks to a unique and ongoing partnership between biologists, regulatory entities, environmentalists and fishermen.

The government of Iceland last week announced that it is calling off its controversial whale hunt due to lack of demand for the product. Environmentalists are cheering the decision, hoping that it signals an end to commercial whaling in the region.

The greater Reno-Tahoe area may soon be better known as a hub for renewable energy innovation. Nevada’s unprecedented, all-encompassing approach to "green" energy issues and Senator Harry Reid’s leadership set an example for other states to unleash their own clean energy potentials.

Two editors from website The Daily Green dissect Leonardo DiCaprio’s epic environmental documentary, The 11th Hour. One finds it enlightening, though perhaps a bit dire following the cautionary tale of An Inconvenient Truth. The other decides DiCaprio’s film is geared too much toward ADD-viewers, like pretty much everything produced in Hollywood.

A new report published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that exposure of developing human fetuses to such chemical compounds as PFOS and PFOA, often used in non-stick cookware, may reduce birth weight and size.