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R.I.P. The Global Climate Coalition, which since 1989
has been injecting a lot of hot air into the global-warming debate,
has finally run out of steam.
The industry-funded association, created solely to attack the
growing body of science linking industrial emissions to global
warming, had an early membership that included Exxon, Ford, General
Motors, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But as evidence mounted
that greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming were linked,
companies began to desert the organization. In early 2002, the
misinformation machine closed its doors. (See "Lay
of the Land," July/August 2000.)
DUMPING ON NEVADA Better known for silver mines and
slot machines, Nevada may soon become synonymous with nuclear waste.
In July, the Senate approved a repository at Yucca Mountain, despite
the serious safety concerns of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review
Board.
Already endorsed by President Bush, the plan would bring 77,000
tons of radioactive byproducts from reactors around the country to
the Yucca Mountain site, just 90 miles from fast-growing Las Vegas.
Environmental groups and the state of Nevada are mounting legal
challenges to ensure that any manmade glow on the horizon is from
the lights of the Strip. (See "Lay of the
Land," July/August.)
FARMERS ON THE DOLE Senators from states large and
small waddled away fat and happy from the federal trough after
President Bush signed a six-year farm bill that dramatically
increases subsidies for everything from soybeans and wheat to
chickpeas and lentils. Even ginseng growers and catfish farmers got
a piece of the action. The bill was touted as being good for all
farmers (it raises subsidies overall by 80 percent), but in fact it
mostly benefits corporate growers. Three-quarters of these funds go
to the top 10 percent of large-scale farmers. Environmentalists won
more than $17 billion for conservation programs, including a new
"Grasslands Reserve Program," but were disappointed overall. (See "Lay of the
Land," January/February.) Up to
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