Free Republic

Culture ministry says it will press charges against activists for damage to world heritage site as UN climate talks began in Lima Greenpeace has apologised to the people of Peru after the government accused the environmentalists of damaging ancient earth markings in the country’s coastal desert by leaving footprints in the ground during a publicity stunt meant to send a message to the UN climate talks delegates in Lima. A spokesman for Greenpeace said: “Without reservation Greenpeace apologises to the people of Peru for the offence caused by our recent activity laying a message of hope at the site of...

Seattle (AP) - Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has been hailed as a visionary and a leader on environmental issues, helping persuade nearly 1,000 mayors around the country to abide by the standards of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. But an environmental issue of a more basic sort — the city's inability to clear streets during paralyzing snowstorms last winter — might have set the stage for his political undoing. Nickels narrowly trails two challengers following Tuesday's primary and is at serious risk of not advancing to the general election in November, potentially ending his eight-year run at City Hall....

Americans are suffering a new psychological disorder: news-induced political numbness. It's not the return of Jimmy Carter's "malaise." Despite the steady stream of Congressional absurdities and conservatives' growing impatience with the president, we're doing pretty well for a nation at war. But the incessant 24/7 television-newspaper-Internet barrage has caused people to tune the world out instead of reserving energy to think about the events that must be the focus of our attention. All of us, especially the White House, desperately want a break to rest and recuperate. But that's not an option. Times are tough, and we just have to...

RiskWorld Home Page Radiation Risk and Ethics by Zbigniew Jaworowski* (Reprinted with permission from Physics Today, 52(9), September 1999, pp. 24-29, American Institute of Physics.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The established worldwide practice of protecting people from radiation costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year to implement and may well determine the world's future energy system. But is it right? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The psychosomatic disorders observed in the 15 million people in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia1 who were affected by the April 1986 Chernobyl accident are probably the accident’s most important effect on public health.2 These disorders could not be attributed to the...

No charges for judge who cut trees Prosecutor's decision angers park authorities By SAM SKOLNIK SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER It was wrong for a federal judge who wanted a better view of Lake Washington to allow his gardener to cut down 120 trees in a public park. But the judge committed an error, not a felony, King County prosecutors decided yesterday. Jerome Farris, a senior judge with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, mistakenly believed he had permission from the city to cut down the trees in Colman Park next to his gated home, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said...