State to sue feds over emission law California plans to sue the Bush administration next week to demand action on the state's request to restrict greenhouse emissions from cars and trucks. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office says the state has waited too long for a decision from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. California wants to start implementing a 2002 state law that limits auto emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming. But it needs EPA's approval because the statute is stricter than federal clean-air standards. California requested federal permission to enforce the state law in December 2005. California's auto emissions law is a model for similar statutes passed in 11 other states.
City pushes national park status When out-of-towners visit Brian LoPinto, the Empire State Building isn't the first place he takes them. Instead, his sightseeing excursions begin in his hometown, at the 77-foot waterfalls that pound into the Passaic River and once brought this faded industrial hub power and glory. "I take them off Route 19 … and then all of a sudden you bear to the right, go into the parking lot and there's this beautiful piece of nature that God created," says LoPinto, 29, who grew up a few blocks from the towering falls. "It's majestic. That's the one place I go to whenever I want to gather my thoughts." Overshadowed only by Niagara, the Great Falls are the second-largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River based on width and volume, an unexpected pocket of natural splendor in the heart of a city better known in recent years for poverty and crime than pastoral respites. Now twin efforts are underway to create a state and national park around the falls that officials say would provide badly needed open space for residents, become a magnet for development and burnish the frayed image of New Jersey's third most populous city. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote late today on legislation to create a national park around the falls. A similar bill is currently before a Senate committee. In addition, the state has set aside $10 million for the first phase of turning it into a state park....
At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it's not fiction. The scenes are playing, at the start, in slow motion: The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away. The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low; this summer the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska. Where explorer Robert Peary just 102 years ago saw "a great white disk stretching away apparently infinitely" from Ellesmere Island, there is often nothing now but open water. Glaciers race into the sea from the island of Greenland, beginning an inevitable rise in the oceans. Animals are on the move. Polar bears, kings of the Arctic, now search for ice on which to hunt and bear young. Seals, walrus and fish adapted to the cold are retreating north. New species -- salmon, crabs, even crows -- are coming from the south....
U.S. warms to the Earth's 'untapped potential' The federal government has been sending teams to the geysers and lava fields of Iceland in recent weeks to search for ways to reduce U.S. dependence on coal and oil. Their answer might lie deep under Iceland's black rocks, where hot water percolates from the heat of the earth's internal movements — and provides 72 percent of the island nation's energy. Members of Congress and officials from the Energy Department have been taking tours of the Hitaveita Sudurnesja geothermal plant outside the capital, Reykjavik. "The workers here, they're always learning bit by piece," said plant manager Thordur Andresson as he talked about the growth of Iceland's geothermal energy industry. "We can do it everywhere with our knowledge." Mr. Andresson swung his right arm upward to describe steam rising from holes drilled into caves to power the turbines for his electricity-generating plant, which droned away behind him....
Wood in short supply for music instruments Behind a violin's soaring notes or a guitar's chime are fine woods vibrating along with plucked or bowed strings. Orchestras, bands and parlor pickers for two centuries have enjoyed affordable instruments made from the finest tone woods cut from old-growth forests. The best tone woods are becoming unavailable or prohibitively expensive as the world's forests succumb to overharvesting, illegal logging and pollution. "Most people don't realize the situation with wood," said Anton Krutz, a violinmaker in Merriam, Kan. "We give tours of our shop, and I find even advanced players are not cognizant of this." The instrument business will adapt with other woods or synthetics and survive, experts said. But as fine woods for clarinets, guitars and violin bows dwindle, price increases could make fine instruments unaffordable for many musicians....
Wis. city bans archery in Archery Park The city's Archery Park may need a name change. How about No-Archery Park? Tom Draper was surprised recently when he found a sign that cited a city ordinance prohibiting bows and arrows. "Several archers that I've talked to are kind of in disbelief," Draper said, who along with his bowhunting friends have practiced archery at the park for more than 20 years. The park is next to the Eau Claire River, and the city had developed earthen berms and even an archery tower for deer hunters to practice shooting from a platform. Wooded hillsides helped provide barriers to arrows flying out of the park, but it wasn't enough, Parks Superintendent Phil Johnson said. The park was closed to archery in September after a neighbor complained of finding an arrow in his yard, Johnson said. It was the latest of several similar complaints from neighbors over 15 years or more, he said....