Thursday, 29 Apr 1999

Electric Cars Run Out of Gas

Honda has pulled the plug on its production of electric vehicles, becoming the first major automaker to admit that the battery-powered cars aren't making inroads with consumers. Honda plans to focus on other alternative-fuel technologies, such as fuel cells, and some industry watchers speculate that the company's move may indicate that it has another zero-emissions vehicle in the pipeline. California officials are unhappy with Honda's decision and question the company's ability to meet a 2003 state deadline by which 4 percent of new cars sold must be zero-emissions vehicles.

Flipper Flip-Flop

The Clinton administration today is expected to give tuna processors and canners the go-ahead to label their products "dolphin-safe" even if they use large, encircling nets that can snare and kill dolphins. That fishing method was once thought to have killed 100,000 dolphins a year and spurred a 1990 import ban on tuna caught by such nets. The annual death toll in recent years has dropped to 3,000, however, and the Commerce Department has concluded that there is "insufficient evidence" that encirclement poses a significant threat to dolphins and that the import ban should be dropped. The three major tuna processors in the U.S. have said they will continue to refrain from processing tuna caught with the encirclement method. Environmentalists are split on the issue, with some groups lambasting the change and others saying it is an important step to opening up the U.S. market and encouraging other countries to adopt some form of dolphin protection.

Swedish Chef, Dutch Oven Cook Up Controversy

The European Union is struggling to pull together a common climate change strategy ahead of the next round of international talks on the issue to be held in Bonn in June. The European Union's German presidency plans to call a special meeting of EU environment ministers on May 18 to hammer out an agreement. The Netherlands and Sweden have held up negotiations by pressing for greater flexibility in meeting targets for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions; the two nations want to be able to trade credits or undertake projects in other countries rather than implement dramatic reductions domestically. The European Commission wants a limit on the use of these flexible mechanisms.

The Death of Frankenfood

Britain's largest grocery store chain, Tesco, gave the boot to genetically modified foods yesterday, saying it would phase them out from its shelves. Two popular British food processors also pledged to work toward eliminating genetically modified ingredients from their products, reacting to consumer outcries against the altered foods. Modified crops are not yet licensed to be grown in Europe, but the U.S. exports a significant amount of gene-altered foods, particularly soy.

Don't Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke It

Meanwhile, British researchers announced on Tuesday that they had genetically engineered tobacco plants to make them capable of removing explosives from soil. The plants, which can break down unstable ingredients in explosives such as TNT and nitroglycerin, could be used to clean up areas around weapons factories and munitions dumps, according to an article in the journal Nature Biotechnology. The plants still need to be field tested.

Scientists Poo Poo Chemical Threat in Water

U.S. water supplies are seriously threatened by microbes, warns a report from the American Society for Microbiology, but efforts to control water pollution have concentrated on chemical risks rather than microbial ones. The report claims that dangerous organisms such as E. coli O157, cryptosporidium, giardia, hepatitis A, and pfisteria pose a greater risk to human health than chemical pollution. Much of the microbial contamination stems from human waste that finds its way into water sources; waste from cattle and chickens is also a problem.