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New York Times
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Aug 31, 08 5:18 PM CDT
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Beijing wants to create a greener and more modern economy without losing its grip on society—but that leaves officials in a bind, Thomas L. Friedman writes in the New York Times . A green, knowledge-based economy requires personal freedoms that China may be unwilling to provide. But it must act, writes Friedman, for the oil that fueled China's boom is now pricey and its labor force is no longer Asia's cheapest.
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Aug 28, 08 8:47 PM CDT
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Incoming freshmen are jumping on a Wisconsin college’s offer of a brand-new bike in return for leaving their cars at home, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Ripon College aims to save parking spots, and perhaps the planet, with its Velorution Project. The initiative, one newly minted student cyclist says, shows that Ripon is “innovative and changing with the times.”
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Washington Post
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Aug 28, 08 2:00 PM CDT
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Whether it's John McCain or Barack Obama, the next US president will instantly face "the most momentous political challenge of all time"—saving the world from catastrophic climate change, Carlos Pascual and Strobe Talbott write in the Washington Post . We have 7 years to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophe: a submerged Manhattan, an even dryer Nevada, and millions of "climate refugees" the world over, they note.
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Associated Press
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Aug 27, 08 1:37 PM CDT
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The committee assembling the Republican Party’s election platform has officially taken drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off the table, in an effort to help John McCain’s presidential campaign, the AP reports. McCain doesn’t support tapping the protected lands, and committee members say they’d rather convert McCain on the issue after he’s elected.
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News & Observer (Raleigh)
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Aug 26, 08 8:35 PM CDT
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A German prosecutor is investigating allegations that chemical giant Bayer CropScience knowingly sold a pesticide that kills honeybees, the Raleigh News & Observer reports. The investigation follows complaints from German beekeepers and environmentalists that the company covered up incriminating data on chlothianidine. In the US, meanwhile, an environmental group sued the EPA last week to release its data on the pesticide.
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Associated Press
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Aug 25, 08 4:12 PM CDT
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Campus cafeterias across the US are phasing out lunch trays, but the move has some students feeling, ahem, de-trayed, the AP reports. The point is to conserve dishwashing water and reduce food waste by discouraging huge piles of food, though hungry scholars say it’s not worth it. "I'll just keep coming back for seconds," one says.
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Associated Press
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Aug 25, 08 3:51 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Environmentalists say the US border-security fence is to blame for water backups in southwestern Arizona and Mexico, where steel-mesh panels meant to keep illegal immigrants out are getting clogged with flood debris, the AP reports. Critics are focusing their attacks on Homeland Defense Secretary Michael Chertoff, who waived environmental laws three times to meet the year-end deadline for the 670-mile fence.
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Independent (UK)
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Aug 25, 08 1:46 PM CDT
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A portion of a major UK nature reserve is being abandoned to the rising tides, the Independent reports. In the face of eroding sea defenses, Titchwell Marsh has decided to make a “managed retreat” inland, giving up much on a substantial portion of the birdwatching hotspot. “The erosion has been going on for years,” said a marsh official, “but it is being accelerated by sea level rise.”
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Spiked
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Aug 24, 08 3:07 PM CDT
(Newser) -
A new UK campaign urging people to be more “water wise” lays bare a flaw in the environmental movement, Brendan O’Neill writes in Spiked. The campaign urges people to be conscious of the “virtual water” used on their behalf to carry out tasks like growing coffee beans and feeding cows—as if rich countries airlifted gallons of the stuff away from developing nations.
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Agence France Presse
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Aug 22, 08 6:30 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Taiwanese environmentalists are working to douse the flames of "Ghost Month," during which Taoists and Buddhists burn ritual paper money to honor ancestors. Setting one ton of money ablaze releases at least an equal amount carbon dioxide, the AFP reports; temples and households can now turn over their money to state incinerators "cleansed" by monks and designed to better handle the exhaust.
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National Geographic
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Aug 21, 08 2:19 PM CDT
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South Africa's 1995 ban on culling elephants has proven wildly successful—perhaps too successful, writes Karen Lange in National Geographic . As the population has skyrocketed from 8,000 to 13,000 in the years since, starving elephants are now ravaging vegetation and taxing the nation's ecosystem, forcing experts to consider the unthinkable: a fresh wave of killing.
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Wall Street Journal
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Aug 19, 08 12:58 PM CDT
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As critics pan bottled water as wasteful and frivolous, many Americans are turning back to tap water—only to find a debate of equal concern waiting at their kitchen sinks. The Wall Street Journal examines the controversy over tap-water purity, and why many argue the federal government isn’t doing enough to protect us from newly discovered impurities.
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New York Times
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Aug 18, 08 1:00 PM CDT