environment news stories on Newser

Environmentalists Fear New Biotech Corn

Matt Cantor — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:33:05 CDT

Debate is raging over a new biotech corn engineered by Dow Chemical. The corn, called "Enlist," is intended to solve farmers' struggle against tough weeds; that's because it's resistant to a powerful herbicide, also made by Dow. But environmentalists fear that wind, heat, and humidity would carry the herbicide toward...

Oceans Acidifying at Highest Rate in 300M Years

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:32:14 CST

Industrial emissions are causing the oceans to acidify at a fast rate—the fastest in 300 million years, say researchers from Columbia University. That could spell danger for sea creatures. In the last century alone, the pH of the oceans dropped by 0.1 units. That's 10 times faster than...

Mining Company: Those 2-Headed Fish No Big Deal

John Johnson — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:42:53 CST

If you reel in your fishing line in southern Idaho to find a two-headed trout staring back, it's ... no big deal? The New York Times explains: The JR Simplot Company wants the federal government to allow higher levels of the mining byproduct selenium to appear in local waterways. The company...

Hey, GOP: Bring Back Our 2nd Party

Mark Russell — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:17:52 CST

Just like you get to throw in your tiles when Scrabble gives you seven useless vowels, so too do Republican voters keep picking again—and coming up with the same useless tiles, says Thomas Friedman in the New York Times . That's because the GOP is an out-of-date "captive of conflicting...

Things Congress Talks About: Caribou Sex

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:36:20 CST

A Texas Republican congressman is adamant in his backing of the trans-Alaska pipeline, but not because of silly energy independence. No, we must keep the oil flowing for the sake of ... caribou romance. So argued Rep. Louie Gohmert, tongue perhaps in cheek, during a meeting of the House Natural Resources...

Greenhouse Gases Surging: US Report

Matt Cantor — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:48:05 CST

Carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases continued to build in the atmosphere last year, a federal report finds: Between 2009 and 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s yearly index of greenhouse gases—which measures said gases' combined heating effect—jumped 1.5%, to 1.29. It has climbed...

Grand Canyon Killed Bottle Ban After Coke Balked

John Johnson — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:59:53 CST

Visitors to the Grand Canyon can still bring plastic water bottles into the national park, and they might thank Coca-Cola for the privilege. The New York Times explains: The park came thisclose to instituting a ban this year to cut down on trash. But the top US parks official killed...

A Challenge From a Planet About to House 7B People

Matt Cantor — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:07:32 CDT

The world’s population is set to hit 7 billion within a week, according to UN estimates, and we’re looking at 10 billion people by century’s end. And that raises a new challenge for Westerners, who must must "shake off, at last, the view that large and growing numbers of people...

Environmental Strategy of GOP: 'Too Dirty to Fail'

Matt Cantor — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:44:01 CDT

House Republicans claim that to create jobs, we need to loosen environmental regulations. To that end, they’ve “averaged roughly a vote every day” in session to weaken the rules—and have already cut back the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other laws, writes EPA chief Lisa Jackson...