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Author |
Published |
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Hit 'Em Where It Hurts
Chinese bosses could see salary cuts for water pollution |
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27 Feb 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:47 PM on 27 Feb 2008 China is considering a law that would cut a head honcho's income by up to half if his or her company was found to be "directly responsible for causing severe water pollution incidents." From the Archives Good Luck, Little Buddy. Renewable-energy bill passes House, likely to be short-lived. Time Is Money. Daylight-saving time leads to higher energy ... |
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| Topics: business, China, greening biz operations, legislation, news, water pollution (all these topics) |
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The Damages Done
Exxon will try to convince Supreme Court it's paid enough for oil spill |
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26 Feb 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 9:58 AM on 26 Feb 2008 On Wednesday, Exxon Mobil Corp. will try to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that it should not have to pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages to Alaskan folk affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon, which earlier this month posted an annual profit of $40.6 billion, will argue that the $3.4 billion or so that it's paid in cleanup costs and other fines should totally ... |
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| Topics: Alaska, Big Oil, energy, news, oil, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Threatened to the Gills
World fisheries still in danger of imminent collapse, says U.N. |
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25 Feb 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:07 AM on 25 Feb 2008 When last we checked in on the world's commercial fish stocks, they were in danger of collapsing within decades. And, sorry to say, they still are, according to a United Nations Environment Program report ominously titled "In Dead Water." Factor in climate change, overfishing, and pollution "and you see you're potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of w ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, climate, climate change impacts, fishing, food, news, oceans, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Cyanide Cynthia's flack attack
Mining behemoth responds to Gristmill |
Glenn Hurowitz |
13 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A mine similar to the one proposed for the Bristol Bay area. Photo: Ben Knight. This past Christmas, I named Anglo-American Mining Company CEO 'Cyanide' Cynthia Carroll the 'world's biggest scrooge' for planning to plop one of the world's biggest gold mines right atop the richest salmon fishery in the world in Alaska's Bristol Bay -- and wreaking massive devastation to the landscape, wildlife, and economy of Alaska (you can see pictures of this landsca ... |
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| Topics: Alaska, fishing, mining, toxics, water pollution, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Massey watch
W. Va. Supreme Court to get out of bed with Blankenship, reconsider his case |
David Roberts |
29 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A while back, loathsome mountaintop-mining outfit Massey Energy was hit with a $50 million judgment in a West Virginia court, in a ruling that they had illegally driven other area mining companies out of business. They appealed to the W. Va. Supreme Court, which overturned the ruling in a vote of 3-2. Later, pictures turned up of loathsome Massey CEO Don Blankenship vacationing on the French Riviera with W. Va. Supreme Court justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard ... |
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| Topics: business, coal, energy, litigation, shenanigans, waste, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Wan Lake
China unveils plan to fix polluted lakes |
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23 Jan 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:35 PM on 23 Jan 2008 China has unveiled a plan to limit pollution in its lakes by 2010 and return lakes to their original, unpolluted state by 2030. Officials have specific plans to attain their goal: strictly regulate release of wastewater, close factories that heavily contribute to water pollution, improve sewage treatment, remove or limit fish farms, and ban highly toxic pesticides and phosphorus-containing detergents near large l ... |
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| Topics: China, news, progress, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Massey Business
Coal company penalized for Clean Water Act violations |
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17 Jan 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 5:16 PM on 17 Jan 2008 Massey Energy Co., the nation's fourth-largest coal producer, has agreed to a $30 million settlement with the U.S. EPA over allegations of Clean Water Act violations. Massey was accused of polluting streams and waterways in West Virginia and Kentucky with the detritus of mountaintop-removal mining on at least 4,500 occasions between 2000 and 2006. The company must pay $20 million in civil pena ... |
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| Topics: coal, energy, litigation, mining, news, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Suin' 'Bout the Schlock of the Bay
San Francisco sues over oil spill, South Korea spill cleanup ongoing |
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11 Dec 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 12:54 PM on 11 Dec 2007 The city of San Francisco has sued the owners of the container ship that hit the iconic Bay Bridge last month and blackened the bay with 58,000 gallons of oil. The "wholly avoidable" accident caused "more injury to the San Francisco Bay Area than we can yet begin to fathom," says the suit, which seeks damages for costs ranging from overtime ... |
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| Topics: habitat loss, news, oil, San Francisco, South Korea, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Turtle tryst?
What the fate of two old turtles says about China's future |
Ashley Braun |
10 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Having spent two summers researching amphibians and reptiles, I have a poster of endangered frogs and salamanders on my wall what one might call a healthy fascination with these endearing ectotherms. Being thus inclined, my eyes lit up when I stumbled on The New York Times' latest feature, 'China's Turtles, Emblems of a Crisis.' It's part six of their series China: Choking on Growth, in which they 'examin[e] the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China ... |
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| Topics: biodiversity, China, endangered species, water pollution, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Dead Meat
Practice of composting animals raises red flags for greens |
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16 Nov 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 4:56 PM on 16 Nov 2007 A growing number of states are allowing farmers to bury their deceased horses, cattle, and chickens and allow the remains to decay into compost. Environmentalists are leery of the practice, concerned that livestock pumped up with antibiotics and growth hormones might leach chemicals into groundwater as they decompose. Growth hormones in the water, growth hormones in the milk -- watch out, orang ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, news, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Enviro movie of the year?
A review of The Host |
Kit Stolz |
16 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| What is an environmental movie? Is it a movie that uses the beauty of wilderness to make us fall in love with the earth, as for example Into the Wild, or Brokeback Mountain? Is it a movie that explicitly tackles an environmental issue, such as Erin Brockovich, or The China Syndrome? Or is it a picture that exploits the power of raw film to open up an environmental theme -- such as the risk of radiation -- with sheer imagination, such as (the original) God ... |
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| Topics: movies, toxics, waste, water pollution (all these topics) |
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The River Defiled
Record amount of sewage dumped into China's Yangtze River |
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14 Nov 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 10:09 AM on 14 Nov 2007 Last year, China's state media deemed the Yangtze River "cancerous" with pollution; to stick with the analogy, it appears the cancer has spread, as a record amount of sewage was dumped into the river in 2006. That's 30.5 beeeeeellion tons of (mostly untreated) industrial and human waste, an increase of 3.1 percent over the year before. sources: Xinhua, Agence France-Presse < ... |
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| Topics: China, news, waste, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Junk the Bunker
Group urges Congress to ban bunker fuel in wake of S.F. oil spill |
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13 Nov 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 12:31 PM on 13 Nov 2007 In the wake of the catastrophic oil spill in San Francisco Bay, green group Friends of the Earth has started a petition drive urging Congress to ban the use of bunker fuel, which is gooey, chock full o' toxins, and slow to break down. The fuel, a byproduct of oil refining, is favored by the shipping industry because it's cheap; it's also "the dirtiest fuel on the planet," ... |
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| Topics: energy, Friends of the Earth, news, oil, Russia, San Francisco, water pollution, wildlife (all these topics) |
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This week in ocean news
Six tons of fish soup in Russia, 500 tons of pee in the Pacific |
Andrew Sharpless |
10 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Investigators found that fisherman caught twice their legal quota of bluefin tuna in European waters this year, despite an early closure to the season due to the stocks' precipitous decline ... ... a trout farm in Nova Scotia was torn apart by Tropical Storm Noel, freeing an estimated 500,000 fish and causing $1 million in damages ... ... endangered humpback and fin whales swam hundreds of miles north of their usual habitats in search of colder waters. 'All si ... |
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| Topics: fishing, oceans, wildlife, water pollution (all these topics) |
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As a matter of fact you can't take your eyes off these people
Oil companies target the fragile Arctic continental shelf for oil drilling |
David Roberts |
08 Nov 2007 |
Gristmill |
| You're probably against drilling in the Alaskan Refuge, but what you really ought to be worried about is offshore drilling on Alaska's continental shelf, which isn't protected by law or by close attention from environmentalists -- and where the likelihood and impact of accidents are far worse. Read Peter Matthiessen's definitive piece in The Nation: When one considers the more than four thousand spills -- over one a day -- recorded by the oil industry in its land ... |
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| Topics: Alaska, energy, oceans, oil, oil and gas drilling, water pollution, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Gnarly Sheen
Ship crashes in San Francisco Bay, leaks 58,000 gallons of oil |
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08 Nov 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 12:46 PM on 08 Nov 2007 A container ship larger than the Titanic collided with San Francisco's Bay Bridge on Wednesday, tearing a 160-foot gash in its hull and spilling at least 58,000 gallons of oil. The leak nauseated some bystanders, closed down beaches and fishing, and could threaten the health of seals, birds, and other wildlife. The spilled substance, known as bunker oil, "tends to be rather heavy, a ... |
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| Topics: California, news, oil, San Francisco, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Loony behavior
Mercury pollution is driving loons crazy |
Erik Hoffner |
31 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This year I spent some lazy late-summer days watching loons patrol a wilderness area lake I'd backpacked to. I should have been totally relaxed and enjoying this gorgeous and remote spot in the Adirondacks, but I couldn't help wondering if these birds had succeeded in hatching a brood, with no sign of little ones about. A friend at the Biodiversity Research Institute had told me of a paper they were soon publishing, which demonstrated the negative impacts of methyl merc ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, mercury, toxics, water pollution, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Transitions
Soviet-induced water crises push Eastern European nations to consider solutions |
Grist |
23 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest essay from Eric Pallant, professor of environmental science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., and codirector of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Integrated Water Resources Management. He is reporting from the National Disasters and Water Security conference in Yerevan, Armenia. ----- October 19, 2007 I have to hand it to NATO for dishing out money to sponsor Advanced Research Workshops on environmental security. And I must con ... |
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| Topics: Armenia, Georgia, international politics, politics, water crisis, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Clean water jacked
While industrial agriculture fouls the Mississippi, the EPA cowers in the corner |
Tom Philpott |
18 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Industrial agriculture thrives on its ability to skulk away from -- or, to use economist's argot, "externalize" -- the costs of its considerable ecological messes. Often, it does so with the tacit approval of the federal government, in direct violation of federal law. In Iowa, for example, the state's 2,100 CAFOs (confined-animal feedlot operations) regularly violate the Clean Water Act by failing to adequately dispose of the 50 million tons of waste they p ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, legislation, Mississippi River, politics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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On Being a Second-Class Iowa Citizen
A frustrated resident speaks out |
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17 Oct 2007 |
Grist Feature |
| The following letter was mailed anonymously to Marian Kuper, whom we featured in last week's "A Tale of Two Counties." She shared it with Tom Philpott so we could give readers a sense of the frustrations brewing in CAFO country. We welcome responses from other perspectives. I know that others still believe the United States and Iowa are sound democracies. I cannot be one of those. For about a dozen years ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, food, industrial ag, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Huck Finis
Report says EPA not doing enough to protect Mississippi River |
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16 Oct 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 3:51 PM on 16 Oct 2007 The longest river in the United States has been abandoned by the very agency that should be protecting it, says a new report from the National Research Council. A 13-member panel assessed the Mississippi River's health and evaluated efforts to implement the federal Clean Water Act along the waterway's 2,300 miles. Conclusion? The U.S. EPA has made the river an "orphan," leaving th ... |
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| Topics: Mississippi River, news, water pollution (all these topics) |
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They're Busy Not Enforcing the Clean Air Act
EPA not enforcing Clean Water Act, says report |
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12 Oct 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 1:35 PM on 12 Oct 2007 The U.S. EPA is not so much enforcing the Clean Water Act, says a new report from green group U.S. PIRG. According to EPA data, 57 percent of the country's industrial plants and municipal wastewater facilities dumped more than the allowable level of pollutants and sewage into waterways at least once in 2005, the most recent year that records are available. The average vio ... |
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| Topics: Indiana, news, politics, regulation, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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We'll Worry About This Later
Boosting crops for fuel will hurt water supplies, says report |
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10 Oct 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 3:02 PM on 10 Oct 2007 Increased production of corn and other crops to fulfill America's biofuel gluttony could threaten both availability and quality of water supplies, according to a report released today by the National Research Council. Fulfilling President Bush's stated goal of producing 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2017 "would mean a lot more fertilizers and pesticides&quo ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, news, scientific research, water conflicts, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Through Hell and High Yogurt
Yogurt-maker Dannon agrees to pay fine, treat wastewater in EPA settlement |
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10 Oct 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 6:21 AM on 10 Oct 2007 International yogurt giant Dannon has agreed to pay a fine of $71,350 and install a multimillion-dollar automated wastewater control system as part of a settlement with the U.S. EPA. There have been some 10 illegal discharges over the past few years at the company's 3-million-cup-a-day yogurt plant in Ohio -- and it's not just spilled yogurt. In February 2005, ... |
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| Topics: business, news, United States, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Have You Herd?
China relocates Tibetan herders in interest of environment |
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03 Oct 2007 |
News |
| Posted at 4:48 PM on 03 Oct 2007 Ugh: China is ordering 100,000 ethnic Tibetans to give up their traditional nomadic habits and settle in towns because their way of life is threatening the environment, state press reported Tuesday. Glaciers in the province where the herders live are an initial source for both the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers; somehow we imagine that the impact on the rivers from overgrazing and erosion pales ... |
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| Topics: China, insanity, news, Tibet, water pollution (all these topics) |
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