“Federal investigators said Wednesday that BP energy traders cornered the U.S. propane market in the winter of 2004 and illegally manipulated prices, driving up heating and cooking costs for rural consumers. The charges come at a time when oil and gas companies are under intense scrutiny from consumers and Congress over soaring energy prices and […]
“A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory. Archaeologists say the find indicates early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed. The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet tall, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 […]
“Spain’s parliament is to declare support for rights to life and freedom for great apes on Wednesday, apparently the first time any national legislature will have recognized such rights for non-humans. Parliament is to ask the government to adhere to the Great Ape Project, which would mean recognizing that our closest genetic relatives should be […]
“Let there be no doubt that the war on malaria has failed. It is estimated that 800,000 children in Africa die from the disease every year, and as many as three million people altogether every year. We know how people contract it: from mosquitoes. We know how to control it: kill the carrier mosquitoes. And […]
“Air-conditioners are not inherently right-wing devices. You’ll hear them whirring all over Washington, D.C., this time of year, outside offices occupied by Republicans, Democrats and political groups across the spectrum, from the NRA to NOW and beyond. Only a tiny number of politicians, and no leading member of either major party, would dare put ecological […]
“Who among us hasn’t experienced a touch of the trots from stomach flu or food poisoning? For those of us fortunate enough to live in an industrialized country with ready access to health care, diarrhea is little more than a nuisance, most often involving some discomfort and bloating, and a day or two off from […]
“Last week’s release of a National Academies of Science (NAS) report entitled ‘Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years’ was the result of a congressional request to look into the controversy surrounding the now-famous ‘hockey stick’ temperature curve. The media portrayed the findings of the NAS review panel as some sort of new statement […]
“The Energy Department just announced that crude oil supplies rose 1.4 million barrels to 347.1 million for the week ended June 16. Analysts had been expecting a drawdown, so this news caught them by surprise. More, crude oil supplies in the U.S. are now at their highest levels since May 1998, when oil was trading […]
“There is a certain natural order to this world, things you have come to expect and rely on. That the sun will rise every morning. That Republican and Democratic legislators will begin each January talking about a new spirit of cooperation, right up until the time they begin bashing each other’s brains out. That they […]
“Last year, when my friend and colleague, Carolyn Dean, MD/ND, said in her tell-all book, Death by Modern Medicine, that 784,000 people died every year in the U.S. from using the products and services of the modern American health care system, I was pretty shocked. Many other people were also. With that death count still […]
