The 54-year-old Rock Creek woman isnt talking as she awaits trial on a battery charge. Her neighbor, environmental activist Judy Bonds, says she was on the receiving end of the slap.
And Bonds - like many in a place where labor disputes have a violent history - fears more blows will follow as the fight escalates over mountaintop removal, the uniquely Appalachian form of strip mining that involves blowing tops off mountains and dumping the rubble in valleys.
For nearly a decade, environmentalists and the mining industry battled in courtrooms and the Capitol. Arrests were unheard of.
This year, as mountaintop removal has - - - - >

The Environmental Protection Agency is close to proposing ethanol standards. But two years ago, when Congress ordered a huge increase in ethanol use, lawmakers also told the agency to show that ethanol would produce less pollution linked to global warming than would gasoline.
So how will the EPA define greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol production and use? Given the political clout of farm interests, will the science conflict with the politics?
Environmentalists, citing various studies and scientific papers, say the agency must factor in more than just the direct, heat-trapping pollution from ethanol and its production. They also point to “indirect” impacts - - - - >

Early results from two pivotal federal studies compare wastewater at treatment plants that handle sewage from drugmakers with those that do not. The studies cover just a small fraction of the 1,886 pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities counted in a 2006 U.S. Census report.
In one study, samples taken at two treatment plants down the sewer line from drugmaking factories contained a range of pharmaceuticals - among them opiates, a barbiturate and a tranquilizer at “much higher detection frequencies and concentrations” than samples taken at other plants, according to preliminary research by the U.S. Geological Survey.
One drug, the muscle relaxant metaxalone, was measured - - - - >

The long sought after Northwest passage is no longer a fable. Years of ice melting has opened the shipping lanes and given the world a new way to move cargo across the globe. The question remains who will get access the the region, everyone or just the North America club.
“It’s our view that the Northwest Passage is for international access and unfettered access needs to be maintained,” James Steel, a U.S. Embassy environment counselor in Ottawa, said at a Montreal conference on Arctic shipping.
Arctic sea ice shrank to the smallest area on record last year, opening up the Northwest Passage, - - - - >

The agreement with the World Wildlife Fund is the first on the world’s sixth-largest island to curb deforestation, Hermien Roosita, Indonesia’s deputy minister of environment, announced at an International Union for the Conservation of Nature meeting.
Sumatra, with 45 million residents, has lost almost half of its rain forest since 1985 to make way for palm oil and pulpwood plantations, according to the WWF. Deforestation in Riau Province has resulted in an 84 percent decline in the elephant population and a 70 percent drop of Sumatran tigers, the group said.
Implementing the new forest preservation policy will require coordination between Sumatra’s 10 - - - - >

In Kenya, elephants formed a mafia to raid crops, and were met with stiff resistance from farmers. One is followed by rangers who get text messages that are send from his collar when the beast moves toward a town.
The huge bull elephant had a long history of raiding villagers’ crops during the harvest, sometimes wiping out six months of income at a time. But this time a mobile phone card inserted in his collar sent rangers a text message. Lesowapir, an armed guard and a driver arrived in a jeep bristling with spotlights to frighten Kimani back into the Ol - - - - >

A survey of municipal water systems prompted by the Associated Press have revealed that a certain number contain medical and other chemical substances. The total number of people affected number 46 million at the most recent tally. In todays society we cant help but get a little runnoff into the water tables, but recycling oil and batteries in the proper places can help.
That’s up from 41 million people reported by the AP in March as part of an investigation into the presence of pharmaceuticals in the nation’s waterways.
The AP stories prompted federal and local legislative hearings, brought about calls for - - - - >

European sports cars leave the competition sitting at the curb, and they are also a topic of debate with environmental groups. Can the massive horsepower coexist with gas conservation minded citizens? Emissions aside, classic manufacturers are coveted for their sophistication as well as the roar of the motor.
Environmentalists say today’s supercars, with huge engines pumping out up to three times as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as the average vehicle, have no place in a world struggling to rein in climate change.
But Lamborghini and its rivals argue that theirs is a rare art that needs protecting, blending timeless European design - - - - >