Federal Authorities Crack Down on Sea-Borne Oil Polluters

The M/V Snow Flower, a 568-foot refrigerated container ship, was outbound from Los Angeles when it began experiencing serious problems in the engine room.

In Ecuador, Resentment of an Oil Company Oozes

SHUSHUFINDI, Ecuador - Mention to Anita Ruíz the name of the giant oil company Chevron, and she trembles with rage. At her wooden hut here in the Amazon forest, where oil-project flares illuminate the night sky, she points to a portrait of her youngest son, who died seven years ago of leukemia at age 16.

"We believe the American oilmen created the pollution that killed my son," said Ms. Ruíz, 58, who lives in a clearing where Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells.

'Dirty Tricks' Over Toxic Waste

London's High Court will on Wednesday hear allegations of dirty tricks in the biggest class action ever brought before the British courts.

It arises from the dumping of toxic waste three years ago in Ivory Coast's largest city, Abidjan.

In the aftermath, up to 100,000 people fell sick and 16 died.

The waste belonged to a multi-national oil trading company, Trafigura. In the wake of the incident, 30,000 Abidjanis are suing them for damages.

Cleaner Air From Reduced Emissions Could Save Millions of Lives, Says Report

Tackling climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions could save millions of lives because of the cleaner air that would result, according to a recent study.

Researchers predict that, by 2050, about 100 million premature deaths caused by respiratory health problems linked to air pollution could be avoided through measures such as low emission cars. The economic benefits of saving those lives in developing countries such as China and India could also strengthen the negotiating hand of the UK and Europe at a crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December.

EPA Seeks Rules for Utilities' Polluted Runoff

Faced with new evidence that utilities across the country are dumping toxic sludge into waterways, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to impose new restrictions on the level of contaminants power plants can discharge.

Mission to Break up Pacific Island of Rubbish Twice the Size of Texas

Scientists and conservationists on the expedition will begin attempts to retrieve and recycle a monument to throwaway living in the middle of the North Pacific.

Bhopal Residents Bring Toxic Warnings

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Sarita Malviya wasn't born when an explosion at a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, on Dec. 3, 1984, sent a cloud of deadly gas containing the compound methyl isocyanate into the old section of the city, searing the lungs and causing the deaths of at least 4,000 people.

When her family moved to Bhopal years after the world's worst industrial disaster, "we had no idea that Union Carbide left toxic waste in three ponds," she said through an interpreter.