Question Earthority!

“The Defense Department is refusing to comply with orders or sign contracts to clean up 11 hazardous waste sites, and has asked the White House and Justice Department to intervene on its behalf. The dispute between the Pentagon and the Environmental Protection Agency has simmered over the last year since the EPA began issuing orders compelling the Air Force and Army to clean up four properties where contamination poses an ‘imminent and substantial’ risk to public health and the environment.” (06/30/08)

http://tinyurl.com/4z4dc9

“The government wants your old-fashioned energy-hungry incandescent tungsten light bulb gone, and gone soon. But some people are willing to go to great lengths to hang onto the lights they love. Incandescent bulbs — that’s the traditional kind to you or me — waste 95% of the energy they use, according to Greenpeace. They calculate that phasing them out in the UK will save more than five million tonns in CO2 emissions a year. And yet some households are so attached to them that they not only keep buying them — they’re stockpiling them ahead of the day when they’re no longer available.” (06/30/08)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7480958.stm

“The Western Governors’ Association convened for its annual conference Sunday in Jackson Hole in northwest Wyoming. Governors from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming voted to form the Western Wildlife Habitat Council.” (06/29/08)

http://kjct8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8575942

“Former British prime minister Tony Blair urged the Group of Eight rich nations on Friday to agree to a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, despite signs top carbon emitter the United States would not back the target. ‘What we should do this year is to establish the workplan necessary so that we can get an interim target next year that is realistic,’ Blair told a news conference.” (06/27/08)

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37509

“Solar water heaters will be required in new single-family homes in Hawaii under legislation signed into law by Gov. Linda Lingle Thursday. The measure specifically prohibits the issuing of building permits for single-family homes that do not have solar water heaters, effective Jan. 1, 2010. Exceptions will be made in cases where homes are built in areas with low levels of sunshine, such as forests, and if the house uses a substitute renewable energy source.” (06/27/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5x5cdp

“Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honeybees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. ‘No bees, no crops,’ North Carolina grower Robert Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. A record 36 percent of U.S. commercial bee colonies have been lost so far this year and worse may be yet to come, experts told the panel. Colony collapse disorder is characterized by a sudden decline in a bee colony’s population and the inexplicable absence of dead bees.” (06/27/08)

http://tinyurl.com/47z3ws

“A day after releasing details of its long-secret nuclear program, North Korea on Friday plans to destroy a highly visible tower at a facility where officials now acknowledge they extracted plutonium to build nuclear weapons. The massive implosion at the Yongbyon facility is intended to be a powerful public symbol of a move to end nuclear activities by the Communist nation once branded a member of an ‘axis of evil’ by U.S. President George W. Bush.” (06/26/08)

http://tinyurl.com/53p9zw

“Orange County groups plan to sell fireworks despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s request Wednesday that Californians not buy Fourth of July fireworks. The governor’s request was in response to the hundreds of wildfires raging throughout northern California and the unusually dry conditions. The governor issued the unique plea during a press conference in Big Sur, near the Basin Complex Fire where more than 19,000 acres have already burned. ‘I know that the people that are selling all this stuff are going to go crazy now when I say this, but don’t buy any of the fireworks,’ Schwarzenegger said. ‘Don’t go out and do fireworks this year.’ Schwarzenegger has not decided whether to declare a state of emergency and impose a statewide ban on fireworks sales, said spokesman Aaron McLear.” (06/26/08)

http://tinyurl.com/6hfm9n

“California on Thursday took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries. The plan, which aims to reduce pollutants by 10 percent from current levels by 2020 while driving investment in new energy technologies that will benefit the state’s economy, is the most comprehensive yet by any U.S. state. It could serve as a blueprint not only for the rest of the United States, but also for other big polluting nations like China and India, planners and environmental groups said.” (06/26/08)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2529055820080626

“A tribal man in India who rescued an abandoned bear cub to help his daughter overcome her mother’s death has fallen foul of forestry officials. They confiscated the animal arguing that its capture was in contravention of wildlife laws. As a result, Ramesh Munda, 35, was briefly jailed and the bear was sent to a zoo where some reports say it has refused to eat. His daughter is now distraught over the loss of a ‘much-loved’ family friend.” (06/25/08)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7473188.stm