International Polar Year returns, focuses on climate-change research
3 Jan 2007 at 12:01pm
Happy International Polar Year! If you didn’t get us a gift yet, don’t sweat it — the fourth-ever IPY doesn’t officially kick off until March, and researchers from some 60 countries will actually poke around in the icy Arctic and Antarctic for two years. The last IPY occurred in the …
Umbra on New Year’s resolutions
3 Jan 2007 at 12:01pm
We’re a few days into 2007, and advice maven Umbra Fisk has finally recovered from the effects of all those organic chai latte spritzers she imbibed on New Year’s Eve. With a clear head and an even clearer sense of purpose, she uses today’s column to review the success of …
U.S. DOE backs off plan to sell neurotoxin to rest of world
3 Jan 2007 at 12:01pm
Caving in to critics and maybe, just maybe, its own conscience, the U.S. Department of Energy has decided against selling off nearly 1,300 tons of mercury left from pre-1960s weapons production. Though the neurotoxin brings a quick buck on the world market — it’s popular with developing countries that use …
Why The Economist’s recent assault on "ethical food" missed the mark
3 Jan 2007 at 12:01pm
One thing you probably don’t want to tell a person who’s devoting his life to the local-food movement is that the local-food movement doesn’t work. But that’s not the only thing that got farmer Tom Philpott riled up about a recent food package in The Economist. He explains where the …
After years of controversy, India completes massive dam project
3 Jan 2007 at 12:01pm
One of the world’s longest-running social and environmental campaigns is sleeping with the fishes as of Sunday, when the last bucket of concrete was poured on the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the Indian state of Gujarat. The project, initiated nearly 20 years ago, diverts India’s fifth-largest river, the Narmada; authorities …
