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EU Launching Emissions-Trading Plan
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A new front opens this weekend in the battle against global warming as the European Union launches the world's first international carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme. Starting New Year's Day, energy-intensive businesses will have to monitor and lower their carbon emissions or face a penalty. full story
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EPA Takes Pest Killer Diazinon Off The Shelves
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Beginning today, consumers can no longer buy one of the most popular lawn and garden insecticides of all time. A powerful neurotoxin, diazinon is highly poisonous to fish, birds and other wildlife. A single granule can kill a small bird and it is one of the most commonly found pesticides contaminating air, rain
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and water. full story
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Tsunami Highlights Climate Change Risk,
Says Scientist
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"What we are talking about in terms of climate change is something that is really driven by our own use of fossil fuels, so this is something we can manage." The melting of the Greenland ice sheet will raise sea levels up to 23ft, Sir David said. That would take time, but other effects of global warming, such as increased
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storms and flooding, is already happening. full story
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'Pharma Crops' Threaten Food Safety
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Medicine and farming are merging as genetically engineered maize and soy crops promise cheap drugs, but they also threaten to contaminate food and the environment. The US has planted small amounts of these experimental 'pharma crops' since the early 90s. Although full-scale production is a few years away,
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a new report is warning that when it begins, the US food supply will be contaminated sooner or later. full story
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Manipulating The Mekong
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Japan blames China's smokestacks for increased volumes of acid rain. Chinese timber companies have pressed into neighboring Burma to harvest hardwoods. And throughout Southeast Asia, farmers and fishermen complain that China's thirst for hydroelectric power is choking the Mekong, a
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waterway that sustains some 70 million people. full story
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Global Analysts Dispute Perceived US Generosity
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The US is contributing $35 million to the tsunami relief effort. Both on a per capita basis and as a percentage of the nation's wealth, America's emergency relief in Asia and development aid to poor countries actually ranks at the bottom of the list of developed nations, some of the world's top economists and analysts
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of international development aid said yesterday. full story
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Five Million People In 11 Countries
Lack The Basic Requirements For Life
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The death toll from the south Asian tsunami is likely to surpass 100,000 and the United Nations said at least £1bn in emergency aid was needed after it calculated that the Boxing Day disaster left up to five million people across 11 countries without access to the basic requirements for life - water, food and sanitation.
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full story
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'Sex-Change' Chemical Cocktail
Threatens Otters With Extinction
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A report shows that otters, one of our most endangered aquatic animals, contain worrying levels of organochlorines and the toxic heavy metal mercury. It also indicates the presence of persistent toxic pollutants in Scottish waters. The cocktail of chemicals which have been found in Scottish otters is suspected
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of causing sexual deformities in other species, decreasing fertility and threatening to reduce population numbers. full story
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Plan Would Let Sewage Flow Into Michigan Lakes
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Michigan government leaders and environmentalists are at odds over proposed federal standards that would allow communities to dump partially treated sewage into local waterways during heavy rainfalls. The new rules could send more potentially harmful contaminants into the Detroit River or Lake St. Clair,
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the source of drinking water for much of Metro Detroit. full story
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Agencies Seek To Avoid Pollution Rules
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The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has asked contractors to evaluate more than 100 streams to determine whether anyone swims in them. If not, the streams could be exempted from the new rules, and sewage operators could continue to dump bacteria-laden effluent into them. full story
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Water Is Key To Averting Epidemics Along Coasts
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Tens of thousands of tsunami survivors are at risk from diseases spread by dirty water, mosquitoes and crowding, and the best medicine is large quantities of clean water, officials of the WHO said yesterday. While no epidemics have been confirmed in the areas devastated by the tsunamis on Sunday, the officials
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said they were most worried about diarrheal diseases and liver diseases like hepatitis A and E. full story
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How Safe Is The Water?
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What's disturbing is what's showing up in the water: industrial chemicals, human and veterinary drugs, feces, natural and synthetic hormones, microorganisms, detergents, and even fire retardants. Water companies do not yet test for most of these substances, and their effects on health and the
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environment are largely unknown. full story
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Pod Of 20 Whales Beached On
Remote Australia Coast
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Twenty adult female sperm whales have been found washed up on a remote Australian beach but wildlife officials on Tuesday were unable to explain the third such mass stranding in the same area in a month. The whales, each between 23-32 ft long, were discovered dead late on Monday on a beach near Strahan on the
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southern island state of Tasmania. full story
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Coral Reefs May Take Years To
Recover From Tsunami
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A 9.0-magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Sunday unleashed a devastating series of giant waves that killed nearly 70,000 people in around 10 countries. Precious coral reefs and mangrove areas would have been crushed by the huge tsunami waves that have devastated
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southern Asia, an environmental and economic setback that could take years to reverse, experts say. full story
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Earth's Permafrost Starts To Squelch
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In parts of Fairbanks, Alaska, houses and buildings lean at odd angles. Some slump as if sliding downhill. Windows and doors inch closer and closer to the ground. It is an architectural landscape that is becoming more familiar as the world's ice-rich permafrost gives way to thaw. Water replaces ice and
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the ground subsides, taking the structures along with it. full story
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Illegal Loggers Declared ‘Public Enemies’
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President Arroyo declared yesterday as public enemies illegal loggers and unleashed the government’s might against them to protect the country’s natural resources. Mrs. Arroyo said she will ensure the prosecution "to the fullest extent of the law" of illegal loggers who wreak havoc on the environment.
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full story
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Pollution Tests To Widen In Endicott, NY
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Scientists will intensify efforts in Broome County to find and fix property tainted with a class of chemicals called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. The chemicals, used as solvents by many industries, have been found flowing through the ground and, in some instances, forming gases that have pushed their way
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into buildings through a process called vapor intrusion. full story
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Supermarket Giants Crush Central American Farmers
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Across Latin America, supermarket chains partly or wholly owned by global corporate goliaths like Ahold, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have revolutionized food distribution in the short span of a decade and have now begun to transform food growing, too. The megastores sudden appearance has brought
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unanticipated and daunting challenges to millions of struggling, small farmers. full story
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Pentagon Is Pressing To Bypass Environmental Laws For War Games And Arms Testing
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The Defense Department, which controls 28 million acres of land across the nation that it uses for combat exercises and weapons testing, has been moving on a variety of fronts to reduce requirements that it safeguard the environment on that land. The Pentagon has won exemptions in the last 2 years from parts of
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the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
full story
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Die-Off Tied To Pesticide Label?
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Five years after EPA said that malathion labels should contain a warning about impacts on fish or shellfish, the label still lacked the warning. Tons of Fyfanon were sprayed to kill mosquitoes in neighborhoods that drain to Long Island Sound. The restrictive language didn't appear on Fyfanon packaging until the following
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month, a few weeks after millions of lobsters began to die in the Sound. full story
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US Disclosures Signal Wider Detainee Abuse
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The abuse of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay was much broader than the Bush administration has portrayed it since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal became public. An FBI agent email reported hearing of ''numerous serious physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees: strangulation, beatings, placement
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of lit cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings, and unauthorized interrogations" and refers to ''coverup efforts." full story
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Grass Flourishes In Warmer Antarctic
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Grass has become established in Antarctica for the first time, showing the continent is warming to temperatures unseen for 10,000 years. Scientists have reported that broad areas of grass are now forming turf where there were once ice-sheets and glaciers. Some fear the change portends a much wider melting
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of the ice-cap that formed at least 20m years ago. full story
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More Fuel Is Thought Spilled
From Freighter Off Alaska
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Punishing winds and mammoth swells shoved the freighter Selendang Ayu hard ashore in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska two weeks ago, cracking the ship in two, and setting off an oil spill originally estimated at more than 40,000 gallons. Now the Bering Sea’s harsh weather has sharply tilted the bow half of the
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freighter and almost fully sank it late last week. In the process up to 316,000 additional gallons of oil are thought to have spilled. full story
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On This Freedom Ride,
Fuel Comes From The Fryer
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Wherever French fries are consumed, there is bound to be a quantity of cooking grease. Diesel engines can be made to run on grease. It therefore stands to reason that the French fry, if made in quantity, can result not only in a side dish. It can be counted on, as well, to leave behind a cheap supply of fuel Brent
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Baker has modified the diesel engine of his bus so that it can run on vegetable oil. full story
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Pollution Alters Body Chemistry
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Scientists have begun to recognize that chemical contaminants in the environment have far-reaching effects on the endocrine systems in living creatures. The endocrine system is the group of organs, including the thyroid and pituitary glands, that produce hormones that regulate mood, growth and
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development, tissue function, and metabolism, as well as sexual function and oductive processes. full story
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Bush Left In The Cold By Climate Allies
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George Bush's two closest allies in his attempt to sabotage international action to combat global warning last week dramatically distanced themselves from him. Saudi Arabia announced that it had approved the Kyoto Protocol. Australia, while still rejecting it, parted company from the US by saying that it was
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prepared to negotiate its successor. full story
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'Dirty' Firms Fight Right-To-Know
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Some of Britain's biggest polluters are trying to block new "freedom of information" rules which will force them to release confidential data about radioactive leaks, air pollution and their role in causing global warming. Britain's largest power companies, nuclear stations, oil refineries and water utilities are now
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lobbying ministers to get themselves exempted from the sweeping new rules. full story
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Oil Spill Hits Mexican Beaches
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Beaches and wildlife in eastern Mexico were covered with oil after an explosion in a pumping station ruptured a pipeline, dumping 5,000 barrels of crude into a river that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Ducks, fish and water plants were covered in oil as swimming was barred at some beaches. full story
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PCBs Suspect In High Amount
Of Respiratory Disease Along Hudson
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A review of eight years' worth of hospital records in New York showed a 20 percent higher rate of treatment for respiratory disease in the ZIP codes bordering the Hudson, from Westchester and Rockland counties north to Hudson Falls, and bordering hundreds of waste sites, compared with
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other areas. full story
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Environmentalists Slam Court's Decision
Favouring Newmont
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Environmentalists on Friday said US mining giant Newmont must stand trial despite a court ruling that declared illegal a police investigation into alleged pollution by the firm. The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Coalition in Environmental Law Enforcement urged the Supreme Court to review the ruling to ensure
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Newmont faces charges it dumped toxic waste that caused fatal illness among residents near one of its mines. full story
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Environmentalists Sue Cement Company
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"According to its own pollution monitors, Mountain Cement has violated its air pollution permit thousands of times in the last five years," the groups said in a release. The groups claim the particles being released by the plant are one-seventh the diameter of a human hair, small enough to get into a person's lungs. They
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allege that such particles are closely linked to respiratory diseases and asthma. full story
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SUVs Morphing To Meet Concerns
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After a decade of automotive domination, those bulky, gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles preferred by soccer moms, suburbanites and status-seekers could be rolling toward extinction. The automotive market is taking a new direction with the booming popularity of the so-called Crossover Utility Vehicle, or CUV,
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which is part car and part SUV. full story
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Experts Worry About Cleanup Of Arctic Oil Spills
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As the world's energy industry begins a cautious return to Arctic waters, environmentalists, scientists and governments are increasingly concerned about its ability to clean up after the accidents some say will inevitably follow. "There continues to be no effective method for cleaning up an oil spill on ice," said
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Samantha Smith, director of the WWF's Arctic program. full story
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U.N. Group Drafts Turtle Guideline
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A U.N. organization is compiling the first international guideline for protecting sea turtles from fishing operations, according to Japanese government sources. One of the major reasons why the worldwide sea turtle population is declining is that many of them die after being caught or trapped by
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fishing devices. full story
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Fresh Efforts To Tap Solar Energy
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China is expected to boast a production capacity of 51 million square metres of solar heat panels by the end of the year, with a production value exceeding 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion). "The figure will rank China first worldwide in solar heat panel production" sais Li Zhongming, an analyst from the National
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Engineering Research Centre for Renewable Energy. full story
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Logging Company Devotes Land To
Congo Gorillas, Elephants
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The rare and endangered gorillas, forest elephants and antelope of the Republic of Congo have been given a gift of habitat. Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, a forest products company headquartered in Pokola, says that will set aside about one-third of its logging concession for wildlife. "The newly identified tract
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contains a region called the Djéké Triangle, home to the world's only habituated group of western gorillas." full story
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Judge Orders U.S. To Review
Yellowstone Cutthroat Status
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A federal judge has determined that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally rejected a request by conservation groups to protect the Yellowstone cutthroat trout under the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency must undertake a 12 month review of the species and then reconsider the petition,
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according to the U.S. District Court Judge ruling full story
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Warming May Be Taking Toll On Pikas, Study Reveals
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Populations of the American pika, a hamster-like rodent unable to survive in warm climates, continue to decline in the West, apparently due in part to global warming, a new study says. "We're witnessing some of the first contemporary examples of global warming apparently contributing to the local extinction of an
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American mammal at sites across an entire eco-region," full story
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Administration Overhauls Rules For U.S. Forests
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The Bush administration issued broad new rules Wednesday overhauling the guidelines for managing the nation's 155 national forests and making it easier for regional forest managers to decide whether to allow logging, drilling or off-road vehicles. The rules relax longstanding provisions on environmental
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reviews and the protection of wildlife on 191 million acres of national forest and grasslands. They also cut back on requirements for public participation in forest planning decisions full story
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Cleaning Products 'Wheezing Link'
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Exposure to cleaning products while in the womb could be linked to persistent wheezing in young children research suggests. Experts looked at families' use of a range of products such as bleach, paint stripper and carpet cleaners. Children born into the 10% of families which used these products the most
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were twice as likely to suffer from wheezing as those who used the least. full story
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Guizhou Reports Progress
In Environmental Protection
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China's southwestern province of Guizhou has made remarkable progress in protecting environment and bio-diversity, setting up 116 natural reserves. The 116 natural reserves cover an area of 879,600 hectares, accounting for 5 percent of the total land area of the province, said Liu Jiayan, director of the bureau's
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nature division. full story
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Hong Kong Fades Under China's Smog
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Increasingly Hong Kong's acclaimed beauty is falling beneath a dense blanket of smog from southern China. Oil and especially coal-burning factories and power plants in Hong Kong's neighbor, Guangdong Province, pump about 690,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air each year, compared with Hong Kong's 80,000.
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full story
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Mining Giant Was Warned On Pollution In Indonesia
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An internal company report warned top executives at the Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, in 2001 that the company was putting tons of toxic mercury vapors into the air in Indonesia. The report adds fuel to charges from Indonesian officials who say they intend to prosecute the company for
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pollution, as well as accusations by former employees that Newmont willfully flouted environmental safeguards around the globe. full story
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U.S. Rethinks Human Studies On Pesticides
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Human studies involving dangerous pesticides are making a comeback in the US, despite intense criticism from public interest groups which say that industry-sponsored research is inherently biased and designed to prove that its products are safe. Called the Children's Environmental Exposure Research
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Study the study targets children ranging in age from infants to 3 years old. For taking part, each family is promised $970. full story
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New Forest Plan Would Lessen Restraints
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Managers of the nation's 155 national forests will have more leeway to approve logging and other commercial projects with less formal environmental review under a new Bush administration plan. the final plan gives regional forest managers more discretion to approve logging, drilling and mining operations without having
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to conduct formal scientific investigations known as environmental impact statements. full story
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A New Push To Clean Up The Great Lakes
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The Great Lakes, it's safe to say, are in trouble. In ecological terms, the lakes have been deteriorating rapidly: invasive species, toxic waste, development, sewage, pollution from agriculture and industry have all been taking a toll. In response, officials launched a collaborative restoration effort this month that is
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unprecedented in its scale and bureaucratic complexity. full story
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EU Fisheries Council Fails Again
To Protect Fish Stocks
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WWF strongly criticizes recent decisions made by the EU Fisheries Council rejecting measures to save dwindling fish stocks, while continuing to protect EU fishing industries. Proposals for closed areas in the North Sea and reduced quotas for vulnerable deep-sea species were also cast aside, as Ministers again
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ignored scientific advice from such institutions as the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas. full story
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Brazil Protects Three Million Hectares
Of Amazon Forests
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The government of the Brazilian state of Amazonas has announced the creation of a mosaic of conservation areas totaling over three million hectares. According to Amazonas State Governor Eduardo Braga, the creation of these protected areas "is a commitment by the State to conserve biodiversity and
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to improve the quality of life of our people who depend on the forest".
full story
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President Authorized Abu Ghraib Torture,
FBI Email Says
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Repeated references in an internal FBI email suggest that the president issued a special order to permit some of the more objectionable torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prison facilities around Iraq. The email was among a new batch of FBI documents revealed by civil rights advocates.
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Other documents describe the initiation of investigations into alleged incidents of torture and rape at detention facilities in Iraq. full story
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Appeal: The Rhino Returns
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In the long saga of man slaughtering other living inhabitants of the earth there have been many appalling bloodbaths, but there has probably been nothing quite like what has happened to the black rhino. It has undergone what has been described as the biggest deliberate assault on a single species of mammal in the
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world's history. In two great lurches it has dropped from having a seven-figure population to the brink of extinction.
full story
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America's War On Itself
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"We could interpret the activities of Bush's government at the climate talks in Buenos Aires last week as another vigorous attempt to destroy its own interests. US economic growth depends on the rest of the world's prosperity. The greatest long-term threat to global prosperity is climate change, which threatens
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to wreck many of America's key markets in the developing world."
full story
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Lake Tahoe Warmer, Study Finds
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Lake Tahoe is getting warmer and the likely cause is global warming, making it the largest lake in North America where rising temperatures have been linked to climate change, according to a study by UC Davis researchers. The warming trend may promote algae formation near Tahoe's surface and help make those
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waters more opaque, a condition long blamed on a combination of air and water pollution from runoff, chimney smoke and auto emissions. full story
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Deadline Extended On Pesticide Phaseout
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The production of Dursban, the most commonly used termite killer in new home construction, was to have stopped by 12/31/04 and its use phased out by 12/31/05, under an agreement between the EPA and Dow. However, that agreement, announced in 6/00, allowed for continued production of Dursban, a trade
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name for the chemical chlorpyrifos, depending on the results of a safety analysis by Dow. full story
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Unregulated Contaminants Found In
Over 100 Communities In State
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More than 100 Massachusetts communities have confirmed at least trace levels of 3 different contaminants in their drinking water supply that the U.S. EPA does not regulate, according to a new report. Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group, released a report that documents the
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discovery of 3 different types of unregulated contaminants that pose varying levels of threats to local water supplies. full story
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Nation Gambles On Amped-Up Push
For Renewable Power
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With new policies that guarantee revenue for renewables and tax petroleum, solar panels have become commonplace on new German houses and huge new windmills are a typical sight in rural areas, especially in the more windy north. A solar-power project built by a Berkeley company may point
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Germany toward a pollution-free future. full story
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Catching Our Breath
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Dirty air pushed 2,200 people into an early grave during the past two years in the San Joaquin Valley. The death figure comes from state research on pollution that doesn't even violate the health standard. Nobody knows how many more people died prematurely from breathing the Valley's chronically
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unhealthy haze. full story
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Water Funding Plan Floated
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An unusual coalition of environmental, business and farm groups has proposed an ambitious plan to raise $80 million a year to clean up contaminated lakes and rivers by charging most Minnesotans an extra $36 a year on their water bills or property taxes. The proposal, called "Clean Water Legacy: a partnership
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to restore Minnesota's impaired waters," is certain to receive hearings at the State Capitol. full story
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Rhino Population At Indonesian Reserve
Drops By 90 Percent In 14 Years
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The Sumatran rhino, the most endangered of all rhinoceros, is fast heading to extinction with its population at one of its last reserves in Indonesia dropping by 90 percent in 14 years to 50, an official said. The director for forest protection and nature conservation at the forestry ministry said the number
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of Sumatran rhinos at Kerinci Seblat national park was now down to about 50 from around 500 in 1990. full story
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The Deadly Cocktail Dumped On Our Shores
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The seas and beaches around the British Isles are polluted with a cocktail of man-made detritus, including anti-tank missiles, phials of anthrax vaccine, drums of toxic chemicals and even parts of Ministry of Defence missile systems, according to one of the most authoritative reports on the marine environment.
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full story
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Thai Pachyderms Ambush Food Trucks
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Elephants in a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand are using their oversize bodies as road blocks, ambushing vehicles transporting sugar cane, tapioca and fruit, the sanctuary's chief says. The estimated 200 elephants in the Khao-Ang Rue-Ni sanctuary turn desperate and wily in the dry season, when water and
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food supplies shrink. It's then that the animals stage their heists.
full story
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Abnormal Fish Found Closer To Washington
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Male fish that are growing eggs have been found in the Potomac River in Maryland, a federal scientist said last week. The pollutants are spewed out by sewage plants, feedlots and factories, and they apparently are able to interfere with the natural hormone systems that guide all animals' development. full story
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Cost, Risks Fuel Debate Over Safety
|
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The debate over the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate has become a tug of war between those worried about the nation's health and those charged with the nation's defense. On one side is the potential harm to the nation's most vulnerable people, newborns and babies still in the womb. On the other side is the threat to the
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nation's armaments and a cleanup bill that could reach into the tens of billions of dollars. full story
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Now Mobile Phone Masts
Can Be Built Right Next To Schools
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Ministers have accepted that mobile phone masts can be built next to schools, despite radiation fears, in defiance of the recommendations of an official inquiry. The decision is expected to lead to an "explosion" of the masts at schools around the country. at least 8,000 new masts are to be erected around Britain over the
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next three years. full story
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The Birds Are Falling:
Avian Losses Could Hit Ecosystems Hard
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If many bird populations dip toward extinction in the coming century, as scientists predict, widespread harm could come to ecosystems that depend on these birds to pollinate plants, disperse seeds, scavenge carrion, and control insects. Scientists forecast 500 to 1,300 species will vanish by the end of this century, and that
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up to 1,050 others will become so depleted that they'll serve no significant ecological function. full story
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Activists Say New Trees No Justification
For Missing Mountains
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A type of strip mining, mountaintop removal, is an especially extreme coal extraction technique. Using heavy explosives and large machinery, coal companies blast and scrape up to 800 feet off the top of mountains to expose the coal seams underneath. The coal is removed, and the "overburden", everything left,
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is pushed into the neighboring valleys. full story
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States Try To Force EPA To Reduce
Pesticide Residue In Food
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The petition challenges the EPA's action on 5 pesticides widely used on corn, peanuts, potatoes, wheat and soybeans among other fruits and vegetables, according to the attorneys general for NY, Ca, Ct and Mass. "The EPA's failure to protect children from poisonous pesticides is unconscionable
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and unlawful," said Connecticut Attorney. full story
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Many Counties Failing Fine-Particle Air Rules
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About 1/3 of all Americans live in counties that do not meet 7-year-old standards for microscopic particles of pollution that cause thousands of premature deaths a year, the EPA said Friday. The 20 states affected, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, now have three years to develop plans to bring their
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problem counties into compliance by 2010, or face the loss of federal highway money. full story
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U.S. And Europe At Loggerheads Over
New Campaign Against Global Warming
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Europe and the US clashed at the UN climate change conference on the measures that must be taken to reduce harmful greenhouse gases. Bush rejected the Kyoto protocol in 2001 saying it would cost industry too much to meet the gas emission cuts sought under the accord. The U.S. stance has infuriated Europe
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and others who have signed up for Kyoto. full story
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Transboundary Puget Sound Orcas
Win Threatened Listing
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A group of 84 killer whales that lives on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border will be proposed for a listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, federal fisheries officials said Thursday. These whales, known as the Southern Resident population, spend several months each year in Puget Sound where
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they are risk from pollution and vessel traffic. full story
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Some States Split With Bush On Emissions
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Two sets of Americans have come here to talk global warming: the US, opposed to controls on carbon emissions, and a bloc of US, from Maine to Delaware, that plan to impose them. More than 2 dozen U.S. states have taken action individually to reduce co2 emissions, by ordering cuts in power plant emissions
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and limiting state government purchases of fuel-inefficient sport utility vehicles. full story
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Unocal Settles Out Of Court With Myanmar Villagers
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Oil giant Unocal has settled out of court in two lawsuits filed in the US by villagers in Myanmar who allege the company benefited from human rights abuses they suffered during the construction of the Yadana gas pipeline. The 15 villagers sued Unocal in 1996, claiming the company should be held liable for
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murder, rape, torture, extortion, forced labor, and the forced relocation of whole villages. full story
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Pentagon Proposes Loosening
Its Environmental Policy
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The Defense Department, which has won congressional exemptions from environmental laws in the last two years, now wants to change an internal policy that commits the department to sound environmental practices. "The Pentagon is transforming itself in to an entity concerned only about its own
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logistics and facility management and the public be damned." full story
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Florida Farmers Allowed To Use
More Methyl Bromide
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Florida farmers are likely to have an adequate supply next year of a soil fumigant that is controversial because it is known to damage the ozone layer, the blanket of gas that protects the Earth from ultraviolet radiation. The U.S. EPA released regulations Thursday that will allow U.S. growers to use 2 million
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pounds more of methyl bromide than they used in 2003. full story
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Greens Concede Kyoto
Will Not Impact 'Global Warming'
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After a relentless attack on the US for opposing the Kyoto Protocol, environmental groups concede the international treaty will have no impact on what they believe to be impending catastrophic global warming. The groups themselves concede the Protocol will only have "symbolic" effect on climate because they believe
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it is too weak. full story
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Global Warming Disrupting North American Wildlife
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Global warming is already affecting North American species and could cause major shifts in ecosystems across the continent, according to new research by U.S. wildlife experts. Caribou, polar bears, migratory songbirds, waterfowl and alpine amphibians are among the North American species that have already
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responded to global warming by shifting habitats, altering breeding patterns, or rerouting their migrations. full story
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Ways Sought To Save Rare Whales
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The National Marine Fisheries Service is mobilizing federal agencies to find ways to protect right whales. There are only an estimated 350 Atlantic right whales still alive after they were hunted almost to extinction by the early 1900s . Scientists say an estimated 60% of right whales become entangled in fishing lines. They
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also can be struck by vessels. full story
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Urgency Mounts At UN Climate Negotiations
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Argentine President Nestor Carlos Kirchner opened the high level segment of the United Nations climate change conference Wednesday by urging the industrialized countries to acknowledge that their development has been achieved by using global communal property, the atmosphere without cost.
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Now the world is warming, due to the emission of greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil and gas. full story
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Climate Change Hits Bottom Line
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The WMO has announced that 2004 is expected to be the fourth warmest year worldwide since records began. And the insurance industry says this year will face unprecedented claims for damage from weather-related disasters. Overall economic losses, the majority of which were uninsured, are expected to
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be about $90bn full story
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Kenyan Nature Reserve Welcomes New Baby Rhino
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A black rhinoceros translocated from Lake Nakuru National Park to the newly created Mugie Ranch rhino sanctuary in northern Kenya has given birth to a baby girl, the first black rhino birth in the area in 25 years. The black rhino has suffered a catastrophic decline across Africa over the last two decades, both in
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numbers and extent of its range. full story
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Bush Wants To Limit Lawsuits
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A White House conference on the economy turned into a forum for bashing trial lawyers Wednesday as President Bush and his allies demanded congressional action to limit lawsuits. Surrounded by a panel of enthusiastic supporters, Bush said lawsuits against businesses and manufacturers were a drag on the
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economy and must be reined in. full story
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Bush’s Pick For Energy Secretary Has Polluted Record
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Bush’s pick for the next Energy Secretary, Sam Bodman, spent fourteen years at the helm of Cabot Corp., a Boston-based chemical company with a spotty environmental record, leaving many conservationists worried about the effects his tenure there may have on the nation’s natural resources.
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full story
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Oversight On Bioengineered Crops
Is Poor, Report Says
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Federal oversight of crops genetically engineered to produce medications in their seeds and leaves is inadequate to prevent unwanted contamination of food crops, according to an analysis released yesterday by a scientific advocacy group. As a result, the report concludes, consumers are at risk of inadvertently
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dosing themselves with prescription drugs while eating a morning bowl of cereal. full story
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One In Four Bird Species Could Disappear
By Century's End
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A quarter of the world's bird species will likely be extinct or critically endangered by the end of the century, according to a new study by U.S. researchers. This projected extinction wave has implications beyond the fate of individual bird species, the researchers said, as the loss of birds will have
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negative impacts on the environment and may encourage the spread of human disease. full story
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Climate Change Affecting Species, Study Shows
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Subtle shifts, documented in the first comprehensive assessment of climate change's impact on North American wildlife, indicate that warming has already altered migration routes, blooming cycles and breeding habits of animals and plants across the continent. Altered weather patterns, rising sea levels and hotter
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temperatures are already transforming regional ecosystems and having other observable effects. full story
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South Africa Temps May Rise Up To 3%
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Temperatures could rise between one and three percent by the middle of this century in South Africa. Van Schalkwyk said it had also been projected that rainfall would be reduced 5 - 10% in this time. He also predicted that there would be a drop in food production including a drop of 20% in grain
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production, the extinction of numerous plant and animal species, and the certainty of prolonged and intense water restrictions. full story
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Eskimos Seek To Recast Global Warming
As A Rights Issue
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The Inuit, about 155,000 seal-hunting peoples scattered around the Arctic, plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the US, by contributing substantially to global warming, is threatening their existence. Reps of poor countries, from the Arctic fringes to the atolls of the
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tropics to the flanks of the Himalayas, say they are imperiled by rising temperatures and seas through no fault of their own. full story
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Details Of Marines Mistreating Prisoners
In Iraq Are Revealed
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Marines in Iraq conducted mock executions of juvenile prisoners last year, burned and tortured other detainees with electrical shocks, and warned a Navy corpsman they would kill him if he treated any injured Iraqis, according to military documents made public Tuesday. The ACLU contends that the abuse of
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prisoners goes far beyond the handful of soldiers charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. full story
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WWF Calls For Risk Assessment As
Bering Sea Oil Spill Worsens
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WWF is calling on US federal and Alaskan state officials to follow up on the Selendang Ayu wreck and fuel spill. The fuel spill off Unalaska Island threatens an area identified in 1997 by WWF and The Nature Conservancy as one of the highest priorities for conservation in the Bering Sea. The spill is likely to
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take a toll on local subsistence fishing and sensitive wildlife. full story
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Durban's Poor Fight For Clean Air
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Residents of South Durban, like many in poor communities around the globe, have faced the problem of investigating their claim that industries on their doorsteps are making them sick. A tenacious local alliance has become the first African grassroots group to take the science into their own hands by taking
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their own air samples. full story
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Setting A Watermark For A Toxin
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Perchlorate is its name, and it has plenty of people worried. A primary ingredient in rocket fuel and fireworks, the toxic chemical has been found in the water supply of at least 20 states. If ingested in high-enough amounts, perchlorate blocks iodide uptake into the thyroid gland, an essential function that aids
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the development of fetuses, newborns, and children. full story
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A Quarter Of Bird Species In
Danger Of Extinction, Study Warns
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By the end of the century one in 10 species of birds in the world will be extinct and a further 15 per cent will be on the brink of extinction according to one of the largest studies of avian biodiversity. The dire state of birds is documented in an American university study which shows their decline will accelerate rapidly in a
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world of habitat loss, disease, climate change and over-exploitation.
full story
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Climate Forecast Soars Into The Red
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By 2050 heatwaves like that of 2003, which killed 15,000 in Europe and pushed British temperatures above 38C for the first time, will seem "unusually cool", the Hadley Centre for Climate Change says. The Greenland ice sheet could disappear, ultimately raising the global sea level by 7 metres. This could
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proceed at the rate of 5.5mm a year, and this with the 3mm rise caused by the thermal expansion of sea water. full story
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Pollution: A Life And Death Issue
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Air: 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually. • Water: Diseases carried in water are responsible for 80% of illnesses and deaths in developing countries, killing a child every eight seconds. • Soil: Contaminated land in industrialised countries - former factories and power stations can
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leave waste like heavy metals in the soil. full story
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The High Cost Of Gold
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Villagers near Newmont's foreign mines, environmental groups and others say the company's operations are anything but a model. Throughout the world, in many places where Newmont uses its heavy machinery and cyanide-extraction process to disgorge the gleaming metal problems follow. The company is
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battling accusations of misdeeds ranging from contaminating land and water to misusing its power with local governments and disrupting communities. full story
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Green Groups Draft EU Legislation
To Outlaw Illegal Wood Imports
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Three environmental organizations launched a draft EU Regulation to outlaw illegal wood imports in Europe and to promote sustainable forest management worldwide. The call for legislation to achieve these goals is supported by a statement signed by 150 social and environmental organisations from around the
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world. full story
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Effects Of Oil Spill In Alaska
Could Linger In Remote Bay
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It took a few hours for the Selendang Ayu to spill thousands of gallons of oil into a remote Alaska bay. The effects could linger for years. The immediate damage has already become apparent, as biologists tell of at least one sea otter and various birds swimming amid oil and thick goo along the western
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side of Unalaska Island. full story
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Pa-aling Fishing Stopped In The Philippines
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A massive shipping vessel capable of removing 10–20 per cent of an area's fish standing stock was found pa-aling in a protected marine park in the western part of the Philippines archipelago. Pa-aling fishing involves divers using hoses attached to a surface air compressor to form a virtual bubble curtain which
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forces fish out into the nets. full story
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Bird Flu Outbreak Reported In Indonesia
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An outbreak of bird flu in eastern Indonesia has infected more than 20,000 chickens, highlighting the country’s continuing struggle against the disease, a media report said today. The World Health Organization has warned that if the current avian flu virus mutates into a form that spreads easily among
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people it could lead to the next global flu pandemic, which could kill tens of millions of perople worldwide. full story
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Alaskan Oil Spill Assessment And Control Begins
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Assessment began Sunday of the damage done by the wreck of a Malaysian flagged freighter that grounded and broke in two Wednesday, spilling fuel oil off Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Island chain. Six crewmen were lost in the rescue effort. The vessel was carrying about 483,000 gallons of heavy bunker
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fuel oil and 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel. full story
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Testy Sea Hampers Response To Alaskan Spill
|
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A ship operator for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, is preparing to sail his 120-foot vessel, the Tiglax, to what is potentially the worst spill in Alaska since Valdez . The latest spill is near the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea, in some of the most punishing waters on the planet, and Captain Bell is
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not optimistic that he can ferry biologists close enough to truly assess the impact of the spill. The current estimate of the oil spill is 40,000 gallons. full story
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Fighting Back
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At mines in Peru and Indonesia, Denver-based gold company Newmont faced bitter, sustained opposition. In September, as thousands of Peruvian peasants blocked access to Newmont Mining Corp.'s richest gold mine high in the Andes, the company's Denver-based managers scrambled for a solution. They
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evacuated the families of managers and dropped workers into the mine by helicopter. full story
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Controversial U.S. Groups Operate
Behind Scenes On Iraq Vote
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Even as the White House decries the ominous prospect of Iranian influence on the upcoming Iraqi national elections, US-funded organizations with long records of manipulating foreign democracies in the direction of Washington’s interests are quietly but deeply involved in essentially every aspect of the
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upcoming Iraqi elections. full story
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Money Spied Off A Vanishing Coastline
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Desperate to fund programs that could rescue the disappearing Louisiana coast, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco will attempt to force the federal government to share the money it gets from energy companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana's campaign, if successful, would be likely to send more
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than half a billion dollars each year to gulf states, which include some of the poorest in the nation. full story
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