New UN Talks Bid to Save Fish, Plants and Timber

Long a forum for protecting endangered species like whales or tigers, a U.N. meeting in Bangkok next month will seek a wider role in regulating the billion-dollar trade in timber, fish and medicinal plants. >> Read the Full Article

Chevron Touts Social Responsibility

ChevronTexaco Corp., in "a brief update" for 2003, on Tuesday added new information to the corporate social responsibility report that it issued nearly a year ago, mixing disclosures of recent events and data with anecdotes about projects that showed the huge oil producer in a positive light. >> Read the Full Article

China Puzzles Over Mountain of Waste Appliances

China is figuring out what do do with a mountain of electronic waste as more and more computers and other appliances find their way on to the garbage heap, the Xinhua news agency says. >> Read the Full Article

Pollination fears prompt FDA to launch intensive study of bioengineered grass

Alarmed by new research showing that pollen from genetically modified grass can spread for miles, federal regulators are questioning the environmental safety of moving biotechnology into golf courses and suburban lawns. >> Read the Full Article

Blizzard of Bill signings in California Pleases Conservation Groups

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday released a tidal wave of environmental laws, signing more than 20 bills that establish significant new policies to reduce diesel soot, ban pollution from cruise ships and require more old cars to get smog checks. >> Read the Full Article

Coming Soon &#151 gene-engineered insects

Coming soon to a jungle near you — mosquitoes genetically engineered so they cannot give people malaria. But this time scientists want to do it right. >> Read the Full Article

Macedonia Hosts U.N.-Organized Regional Conference on Environment

International experts and officials from southeastern Europe gathered in the Macedonian capital this week to discuss ways of joining forces in tackling the region's environmental problems. >> Read the Full Article

Plan Would Turn Farmland Back to Marshes and Mudflats for Salmon Runs at Washington Wildlife Refuge

A 15-year plan would restore salt marshes and mudflats for migrating salmon at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, more than 100 years after the farmland was drained and diked. >> Read the Full Article

Owls Use Dung to Fish for Beetles and Other Stories

Owls are tool-users, a new study finds. Douglas Levey and his colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville suspected burrowing owls (Athene cuniculari) of collecting dung to lure in their favorite food: dung beetles. After all, their front stoops were coated in the feces of local mammals, and the owls' own droppings were full of beetle parts. >> Read the Full Article

China's Energy Crisis Blankets Hong Kong in Smog

To gaze across Hong Kong's harbor at the city's glittering skyscrapers and soaring peaks is to take in one of the world's most spectacular urban vistas. >> Read the Full Article