Environment

Next month, the U.S. will host the thirtieth G8 Summit, a meeting of the "leaders of the world's major industrial democracies," in Sea Island, Georgia. The setting is "in keeping with President Bush's emphasis on environmental quality" and "will showcase the complementary benefits of environmental stewardship and a strong economy," according to the Summit website.

"Despite budget crunches, poor air quality, maintenance backlogs and other problems, the public is not likely to hear any bad news from staff of the National Park Service (NPS)," BushGreenwatch.org writes.

As area residents and activists prepared to participate in a public hearing on DuPont Titanium Technologies' request to increase polluting activities at its plant outside Pass Christian, Mississippi, they had no idea they'd have a long wait before getting a turn to speak. "When they realized a handful of prominent supporters - including economic development directors, chamber boosters, bankers and several plant employees - had reserved the first hour and a half of floor time, the hundreds of concerned residents grew livid," reports Greg Harman.

Recently the Center's John Stauber had lunch with journalist Laurel Wellman to discuss the Center's prescient 1997 book by Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Mad Cow USA. The resulting column in today's San Francisco Chronicle notes that in the month after December's discovery of a mad cow in Washington state, 80,000 people downloaded Mad Cow USA for free off of our website.