Environment

Carbon Neutral: A New Frontier for Spin?

Voluntary carbon trading markets in the United States have doubled in volume over the past year, demonstrating that companies and consumers increasingly seek to offset their role in creating greenhouse gasses by fostering reductions in carbon elsewhere. But the market lacks quality control and a reliable referee. Some companies may take more interest in pushing brand identity than good works.

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Oregon Health Officials' Rocket Science

In 2004, Oregon health officials began investigating whether perchlorate, a rocket fuel chemical present in some of the state's water wells, "might be creeping into the breadbasket region's produce and dairy milk." Their conclusion, based on "limited food sampling," is that "perchlorate doesn't pose a health danger to area residents." But records obtained by The Oregonian reveal that the Northwest Food Processors Association "urged top state health administrators to kill the food study," claim

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One Hand Gives, The Other Takes Away

One of the projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been to immunize children living in Ebocha, Nigeria. But at the same time the foundation owns shares in the French oil company, Eni, that pollutes the residents air and water by the open air burning of gas considered to be waste.

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More Nukes? Moore Spin

Patrick Moore, a former environmental activist who left Greenpeace twenty years ago and is now a PR consultant, argues "it is now far more effective to work with governments and industries to encourage positive change." As a consultant, Moore has dismissed concerns about the impact of logging in the Amazon, supported Newmont Mining over controversies at its mines in the U.S., Ghana and Peru, defended the use of PVC in plastics and e

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The Path to a Pink Slip

As a reporter for Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T), a small industry trade publication, Paul Thacker discovered an entire industry built around spinning science for the purpose of confusing the public while benefiting big business. He wrote exposés documenting the tobacco and oil industry ties of Steven Milloy's junkscience.com, which purports to debunk bad science about issues such as global warming.

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Coming to the Table in 2007: Cloned Beef?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has tentatively determined that milk and meat from cloned cows are safe to eat and indistinguishable from non-cloned cows. The agency may complete approval procedures for consumption of the animals and milk before the end of 2007.

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Nuclear Industry Ads Challenged as Misleading

The Canadian Nuclear Association's $1.7 million ad campaign touting nuclear power as "clean, reliable and affordable" is the target of a false-advertising complaint filed by a coalition of environmental, health and church groups. "Our concern is that the nuclear industry's advertising budget and approach distorts objective decisions ...

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With Only 23 Months Left, Undeclared Candidates Are Positioning

The 2008 U.S. presidential race is already taking shape. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani "are lining up on opposite sides of their home state's debate over a controversial nuclear power plant," reports The Hill.

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