Question Earthority!

“Gourmets in Chicago can order foie gras again after the city council on Wednesday repealed a two-year restaurant ban on a delicacy that critics say is produced at cruel expense to geese and ducks. The aldermen voted 37-6 to drop the ban on restaurants serving foie gras, an ordinance that had passed with a single dissenting vote in April 2006. The city had issued a few warnings to restaurants for flouting the ban and one defiant eatery was fined.” (05/15/08)

http://tinyurl.com/48ejbg

“Brazil has been accused of turning its back on its duty to protect the Amazon after the resignation of its award-winning Environment Minister fuelled fresh fears over the fate of the forest. The departure of Marina Silva, who admitted she was losing the battle to get green voices heard amidst the rush for economic development, has been greeted with dismay by conservationists. ‘She was the environment’s guardian angel,’ said Frank Guggenheim, executive director for Greenpeace in Brazil. ‘Now Brazil’s environment is orphaned.’ In a letter to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Ms Silva said that her efforts to protect the rainforest acknowledged as the ‘lungs of the planet’ were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies. ‘Your Excellency was a witness to the growing resistance found by our team in important sectors of the government and society,’ she wrote.” (05/15/08)

http://tinyurl.com/3mu4lo

“A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration’s plans today for logging three tracts in the northern Sierra and said the government has failed to justify a critical element in its plan for the forests — selling trees to lumber companies to pay for removing brush that increases the threat of fire. Preventing fires is important, ‘but are there no alternative ways of getting money to do the clearing?’asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court said the U.S. Forest Service has not explored the obvious alternatives: finding the money elsewhere in its budget or asking Congress for more.” (05/14/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5gbtbx

“Just how green should you feel driving the new Chevy Tahoe hybrid sport utility vehicle? The eight-passenger vehicle is plastered with “hybrid” labels. An automobile magazine panel that included the executive director of The Sierra Club named it the ‘Green Car of the Year.’ But the Tahoe gets only about 20 miles per gallon - not much better than the nonhybrid Honda Pilot SUV, which also seats eight. The celebrated Toyota Prius gets around 46 miles per gallon. ‘How a 6,000-pound behemoth can be the green car of the year is beyond me,’ said David Champion, director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Division. ‘It’s a marketing exercise rather than reality.’” (05/14/08)

http://tinyurl.com/3eueet

“Homeowners near Egyptian Lacquer Manufacturing Co. say they’re prepared to take the paint manufacturer to federal court to sue them to clean up the pollution under their homes if action on the matter isn’t taken in the next three months. Environmental attorney Elizabeth Murphy says three homeowners she represents are worried about their health, families and homes because of the continued exposure to pollution flowing to Liberty Creek and the Harpeth River.” (05/14/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4sgxbd

“Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are talking more about ‘clean coal’ and less about global warming as they woo voters in West Virginia and Kentucky — two states that sit at the heart of the nation’s coal economy. In a bid to draw voters ahead of Democratic primaries in West Virginia on Tuesday and Kentucky on May 20, both candidates are playing up the ascendant role of commercially untested and so far economically nonviable ways of converting America’s plentiful coal supplies into electricity without spewing massive quantities of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. … Coal-fired power plants generate about half of U.S. electricity supplies, and account for about 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — the biggest single industrial source. Clinton has a plan to require U.S. industry to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, but she hasn’t brought that up in numerous appearances in West Virginia and Kentucky in recent days.” (05/13/08)

http://www.enn.com/energy/article/36158

“Chinese disaster officials, battling bad weather and rubble-strewn roads, tried to reach an estimated 25,000 people trapped under debris after the country’s strongest earthquake in more than half a century. The 7.9-magnitude quake two days ago left 18,645 people trapped under rubble in Mianyang, a city of more than 5 million, with thousands more buried in other parts of Sichuan province, state-run Xinhua News Agency said. The 12,335 people killed in the quake include 7,395 in Mianyang, Xinhua said in its latest report on the death toll.” (05/14/08)

http://tinyurl.com/66f58x

“Arizona Sen. John McCain broke with the Bush administration and Republican Party orthodoxy Monday as he not only declared global warming real, but reached out to Democrats and independents with a free-market solution that includes capping carbon-fuel emissions. The GOP presidential contender also prodded China and India, two major emitters of the greenhouse gases blamed for the planet’s warming, to join the effort, although he muted planned talk of tariffs against them in favor of ‘effective diplomacy’ to encourage their compliance. An aide later said that McCain didn’t want to be interpreted as being ‘at odds with his commitment to open trade.’” (05/13/08)

http://tinyurl.com/3jd9xs

“Sponsors of a measure to halt shipments of oil to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve — offered as a way to help bring down record gasoline prices — say they are confident the bill will pass. The proposal was the lone measure endorsed in both Senate Republican and Democratic gasoline price plans. House and Senate plans set for a vote today would halt deliveries to the reserve until December unless oil falls to $75 a barrel for more than 90 days. ‘Everyone expects it to pass,’ said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman, speaking of Senate prospects. ‘Oil got up to $125 per barrel, and it no longer made sense,’ Wicker said of Republicans decision to support the measure.” (05/13/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4vgbtd

“Air pollution heavy in small particles may cause blood clots in the legs, the same condition air travelers call ‘economy class syndrome’ from immobility during flight, researchers said on Monday. Dr. Andrea Baccarelli of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues said they found the link after looking at 870 people in Italy who had developed deep vein thrombosis between 1995 and 2005. … Air pollution from automobiles and industry can contain tiny particles of carbon, nitrates, metals and other materials that have been linked over the years to a variety of health problems. While lung diseases were an initial concern, later research has indicated it may cause heart disease and stroke, possibly because it increases the rate at which blood can coagulate, Baccarelli and colleagues said.” (05/12/08)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN12282206