Chartering a New Course
United Nations - A delegation from the Cousteau Society (founded in
1973 by French oceanographer/environmentalist Jacques-Yves Cousteau)
has presented United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a
petition calling for stronger UN action in defense of the Earth’s
environment. The petition, bearing the signatures of more than 9
million people from more than 100 countries, insists that “future
generations have a right to an uncontaminated and undamaged Earth and
to its enjoyment.” The petition asks that this commitment be
incorporated into the UN Charter. Cousteau Society volunteer Pierre
Chastan carried the petitions from the society’s Paris office to New
York during a solo trans-Atlantic voyage in a 34-foot boat.
Coal Is Bad; Charcoal Is Worse
Kenya - Nine percent of the energy in oil-rich Nigeria is derived from
burning charcoal. Most of the residents of Africa and Southeast Asia
still get much of their heat from charcoal. The Journal of Geophysical Research reports that the production of charcoal is generating more CO2 than the
combustion of fossil fuels. Although charcoal burns cleaner than wood, Science News explains, “inefficiencies in its manufacture result in much of the
carbon in the original wood literally going up in smoke.” Charcoal
manufacture also produces methane and carbon monoxide.
Tinder or Tenure?
Ethiopia - “Ethiopia is currently losing 200,000 hectares every year as
a result of forest fires,” warns agriculturist Dechassa Lemessa, “If
something is not done soon… there will be no forest land in 15 to 20
years.” Lemessa is the co-author of a UN study on the country’s
increasingly catastrophic fires. Only 40 years ago, 40 percent of the
country was covered with forests. Today only 2.7 percent of the land is
forested. Most fires are caused by farmers burning the land to prepare
for spring planting. In January 2000, these deliberately set fires
erupted into a conflagration that destroyed more than 300,000 hectares
of forests, crops and wildlife habitat. It took $39 billion and an
international force of 15,000 firefighters to combat the fires that
raced through the Bale and Borena forests. Lemessa’s report concluded
that the key to saving the remaining forests was to transfer
state-owned land to local communities “who would then have a greater
incentive and responsibility to care for the land. Land tenure is
perhaps the single most important factor in natural resources
management.”
Be It Resolved…
Africa - World Trade Organization rules covering the patenting of
“intellectual property rights” are being used to grant multinational
corporations the rights to claim “ownership” of traditional food crops
and medicinal plants exchanged freely between farmers for generations.
These laws, crafted and promoted by US trade negotiators, would prevent
small-scale farmers from saving or exchanging seeds once they have been
“patented” by the multinationals. The introduction of seeds genetically
modified to survive the application of patented pesticides would make
it possible for a company like Monsanto to spray cropland, killing any
natural plant that it does not yet “own.” Last November, US California
Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters [House of Representatives, Washington, DC 202515, (202) 224-3121]
introduced House Resolution 260, the AFRICA (Agriculture and Farm
Resources for the Indigenous Communities of Africa) Resolution. HR 260
would protect the right of African farmers to control their seeds and
food crops. The resolution is consistent with the position of the
Africa Group, which maintains that seeds, plants, crops and other
agricultural genetic resources must never be patented for private gain.
[Africa Faith & Justice Network, 3035 4th St., NE, Washington, DC 20018, (202) 832-3412, http://afjn.cua.edu]
Corn Oil: The Great Well of China
China - Faced with the prediction that its gas and oil reserves will
run dry within 30 years, China began construction of its first
fuel-ethanol plant last November. While ethanol is still expensive to
produce, Chinese officials expect to see costs fall as the market for
“home-grown” fuel increases. In its first year, the new plant will turn
1.92 tons of corn into biofuel that will be blended with gasoline or
diesel fuel. According to the Reuters News Agency, Beijing is
encouraging the use of ethanol by including trial fuel ethanol
production in its five-year plan.
Responsible Carry-away
Nepal - To most people, Nepal is “the Roof of the World” but to some
well-known chemical companies it’s more like “the Basement of the
World.” Nepalese agricultural technicians, working with a team of
Greenpeace activists from India, Germany, Switzerland and the
Netherlands, announced a deadly harvest of six tons of chemical
pesticides abandoned in rusting barrels scattered across Katmandu. The
chemicals were shipped to Nepal through international aid organizations
more than 25 years ago. Ostensibly called “donations,” the shipments
were intended to open new markets for Western pesticide products. The
donations also included products so dangerous that they had not been
registered for use in their countries of origin. The chemicals were
manufactured by Bayer, Shell, Union Carbide (Dow), Sandoz, Du Pont,
Monsanto and Rhône Poulenc (now Bayer). “It’s time for the chemical
industry to move beyond “responsible care” rhetoric and take genuine
responsibility for its products from cradle to grave,” Greenpeace trade
expert Andreas Bernstorff stated. Greenpeace has invited the giant
chemical firms to carry the toxic burden back to their home countries
for proper disposal. Greenpeace estimates that 500,000 metric tons of
obsolete pesticides have been dumped and abandoned around the globe -
mainly in developing countries. Greenpeace has called for the industry
to make a full accounting of all these dump sites and make plans for
the safe retrieval and disposal of the chemical wastes. [Greenpeace International, Keizersgracht 176, 1016 DW Amsterdam, www.greenpeace.org]
Time to Stop Cloning Around
Japan - Research at Tokyo’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases
(NIID) revealed that cloned mice have something in common - premature
death. Or, as The Guardian (London) put it: “a clone’s life is wheezy, liverish and short.” According to findings published in the journal Nature Genetics,
NIID’s 12 cloned mice began dying within a year of birth and the
survivors barely lived longer than two years. Autopsies revealed that
the clones all had severe pneumonia and seriously damaged livers. The
scientists concluded that the “possible negative long-term effects of
cloning, as well as the high incidence of spontaneous abortion and
abnormal birth of cloned animals, give cause for concern.”
Versatility, Thy Name is Kenaf
Japan - Kenaf, the plant that has been used to produce “tree-free” issues of Earth Island Journal,
is now being used to produce “pollution-free” air in downtown Nagoya
City. Sachio Ogasawara, a researcher with the Kenaf Club of Japan,
convinced the city’s Public Works Bureau to plant kenaf on the traffic
islands. While the fast-growing plant is adding greenery to the
scenery, it is also sucking nitrogen oxides and other pollutants from
the air. “The harvested kenaf is burned to make charcoal,” Ogasawara
explains. The charcoal is then used to filter impurities from the
Hori-kawa River, which flows through Nagoya. After finishing its
service as a water filter, Ogasawara reports, the kenaf-charcoal “will
be tilled into the soil as a fertilizer.”
Dhaka Says ‘Bag It!’
Bangladesh - Like many poor countries, Bangladesh is plagued by the
detritus of discarded plastic. Each year more than 9 million
polyethylene bags are tossed into the streets of Dhaka, the capital
city. As many as 90 percent wind up clogging storm drains and sewer
lines. The bags do not biodegrade and when they are burned, they
produce deadly hydrogen cyanide gas. With the support of Environment
and Forest Minister Shahjahan Siraj, the Environment and Social
Development Organization [House 307/1, Road-8A, West Dhanmondi Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh, http://www.esdobd.org]
convinced the government to impose a ban on poly-bags in Dhaka as of
January 1. “Please let’s come forward hand in hand to make this ban
successful,” ESDO activist Hossain Shahriar declared. “We can start
with a polythene-free city, which will gradually lead to a
polythene-free country.”
Tobin or Not Tobin
France - French Foreign Minister Lionel Jospin has placed himself as a
front-runner in the country’s presidential race this year by publicly
proposing that France adopt the “Tobin tax.” The levy, proposed by
Nobel prize-winning Yale Economics Professor James Tobin, would impose
a 1 percent tax on all international currency trades. With global
financial speculation moving $1.5 trillion every day, the tax would
generate billions of dollars in aid for the world’s poorest nations.
Jospin confessed that his dramatic announcement had come in response to
the arguments of French anti-globalization campaigns. The British
group, War on Want, has challenged the Labour government to support the
Tobin tax. The Bush administration, predictably, is opposed to this
reform. Expressing widely-felt exasperation, French Foreign Minister
Hubert Vedrine declared: “We shall pursue our efforts towards a humane
and controlled globalization, even if the new high-handed American
unilateralism doesn’t help matters.”
A Good Right’s Sleep
UK - In an act of desperation, red-eyed residents living near London’s
Heathrow Airport (the world’s fourth-busiest with 64.6 million
passengers a year) complained to the European Court that the airport
noise was depriving them of sleep. In October 2001, the court ruled in
the residents’ favor and declared that a good night’s sleep was “a
human right.” John Stewart, chair of the coalition that hauled Heathrow
into court, explained that his group would not be satisfied until there
was total ban on night flights. Buoyed by the court’s decision,
neighborhoods in the flight path of Birmingham International Airport
are demanding an end to night flights as well.
Foxes Escape Scot-Free
Scotland - On February 13, after months of passionate debate, the
Scottish Parliament voted 83 to 36 to ban the ancient practice of
pursuing foxes with hunting dogs for sport. The Protection of Wild
Mammals Bill outlaws a tradition that has existed for centuries. (On
March 18, Britain’s House of Commons voted to ban fox-hunts in Britain.
The next day, the House of Lords voted against the ban.)
It’s Not Noise: Call It a ‘Blare’
UK - Despite complaints and lawsuits from people living near Heathrow
Airport, the Labour government plans to build a fifth airport at the
sprawling complex. Labour Transport Secretary Stephen Byers argues that
Britain must spend £2.5 billion ($3.5 billion) on a new terminal to
stay “competitive.” It would make more sense to build a new airport
elsewhere, countered Robert Evans, who represents the Heathrow
residents in the European Parliament. With increased security measures,
passengers are spending more time in terminals and, Evans charged,
British Airways simply “wants to encourage us to spend money in the
terminals.” The new terminal would add another 25 million passengers
and another 20,000 flights per year. Green Party Member of the European
Parliament (MEP) Caroline Lucas called the plan “breathtaking in its
inability to comprehend the impact of aviation on climate change.”
Toxic Testing Gets Serious
France - By a vote of 242 to 165, the European Parliament called for
widespread testing of the environmental and health risks of 30,000
chemical products. The European Commission is set to introduce a new
standard on testing and labeling chemicals later this year. The goal,
explained Inger Schoerling, a Green Party MEP from Sweden, is a new
regime where “no marketing [of a chemical product] will be possible
without data.” Western Europe’s $430.7 billion (488 billion euro)
chemical industry produces one-third of the world’s chemical products.
The European consumers association, BEUC, noted that hairsprays
contain, on average, 15 potentially harmful chemical ingredients. A
joint statement from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the World
Wildlife Foundation noted that “little is known about the safety and
environmental hazards” of the chemicals. Europe’s chemical industry
complained that rigorous testing would be too cumbersome, costly and
would “kill many small firms.”
As If DU Wasn’t Bad Enough…
Kosovo - Scientists in Ireland report that rounds of depleted uranium
(DU) shells fired by NATO troops in Kosovo contained plutonium. In
addition, The Irish Times reports, the DU rounds contaminated local water supplies and people
exposed to DU contaminants are now suffering from cancer and leukemia.
Overfishing Now a Global No-No
Malta - Last December, the United Nations celebrated the ratification
of the first global treaty to control overfishing on the high seas. The
treaty went into effect when Malta became the 30th nation to adopt the
new rules. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization believes that more
than two-thirds of the ocean’s fisheries are being unsustainably
overfished. Lisa Speer, of the Natural Resources Defense Council (which
devoted two years to crafting the treaty) calls ratification “a very
big step” but notes that “it only applies to the parties to the
agreement.” The US, which is a party to the treaty, will now be allowed
to use Coast Guard ships to intercept, board and detain vessels
suspected of violating sustainable fishing practices.
Fission Fades as Renewables Rise
Sweden - Prime Minister Goeran Persson plans to close the Barseback 2
nuclear reactor by 2003. The powerplant’s energy will be offset by
renewable energy projects and conservation measures. In Belgium, the
government plans to start phasing out the country’s seven nuclear
reactors as early as this December.
Wind’s Up, So Wind Down Nukes
UK - The British government is contemplating spending £6 billion ($10
billion) to construct six 600 MW nuclear powerplants. But for a mere
£100 million ($143.2 million), the British Wind Energy Association
estimates, the UK could build 117 500-MW windfarms - more than 16 times
the power for 1/60th the cost. The Institute for Public Policy Research
(IPPR) has challenged the Labour Party to stop “pandering” to nuclear
power interests and invest in renewable energy. The IPPR’s research
suggests that the typical British home could supply all its electric
needs in-house by retrofitting central heating boilers to also generate
electricity. Instead of relying on transmission lines, which lose 70
percent of the power, the IPPR notes, solar panels, solar water heaters
and household energy systems can “generate power and heat more
cost-effectively… where we need it.”
Missile Pretense System
UK - There’s a big problem with the Pentagon’s plan for bringing down
enemy missiles during a “boost-phase interception.” While it’s easier
for a US missile to locate and hit a flaming booster rocket within the
first six seconds of its launch, destroying the booster would most
likely not destroy the nuclear warhead, which would then proceed to
tumble back to Earth considerably short of its target. According to MIT
Professor Ted Postol, if the US intercepted a missile fired from North
Korea, the nuclear payload could come down in Alaska or Canada; a
similar missile destroyed after blasting off from Iraq could land in
Britain or Europe. US nuclear physicist Richard Garwin notes
pragmatically that: “If you ask how many people are going to be killed,
you’re better off having the warhead fall short.” Of course, Garwin
adds, “the people who it’s going to land on may have a different view.”
Courting the Earth
France - “People no longer look to their political representatives to
defend their interests,” notes Francine Cousteau, president of the
Cousteau Society. Faced with a lack of responsive leadership, “civil
society is getting organized and demanding accountability and action.”
On June 19, 2001, 130 countries met at the Permanent Court of
Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague and approved a set of rules for the
international arbitration of disputes involving natural resources and
the environment. The PCA is now empowered to hear cases from people
seeking justice for ecological damages. “This is a major victory for
the environment and the rights of future generations,” Cousteau
declares. As to the dream that someday the world will see the convening
of an International Court of the Environment, Tjaco T. van den Hout,
Secretary General of the PCA observes that, “a growing number of
thinkers see a role here for the Permanent Council.”
Money Makes the World Go Green
Denmark - The European Environment Agency (EEA) wondered why wind
energy was making faster strides in Germany than in Britain; why solar
panels were being installed more readily in Spain than in Greece. An
EEA investigation concluded that the keys to successful transition to a
renewable included “political, legislative, fiscal, financial and
administrative support.” The EU’s members are committed to producing
22.1 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.
Bové Unbowed
France - Farmer, activist and author José Bové was sentenced to six
months in jail for destroying a field of genetically altered rice in
1999. Bove’s supporters were routed from the courtroom by riot police
firing tear gas. Bové‘s appeal to the Cour de Casation, France’s
highest court, was rejected. “If they put me in prison… the battle
will continue from behind bars,” Bové declared.
Freiburg’s Latest Solar Goal
Germany - The university town of Freiburg, known far and wide as the
“sunniest city in Germany” because of its towering solar-powered
downtown train terminal and the “Zero Emissions Hotel Victoria,” has
added two more environmentally sustainable attractions for solar-minded
ecotourists. Freiburg now boasts a “Solar Cafe” and the city’s main
soccer stadium is now solar-powered.
‘Solar Is Hip in Germany’
Germany - Solar power is blazing hot in Germany thanks to the
government’s passage of the Renewable Energies Law (REL) in April 2001.
“It was not fear of power outages, high gas prices or tripled power
bills, but economic incentives that jump-started the solar revolution
in Germany,” says reporter Reiner Gaertner. Solar power used to be
associated with Müslies and Ökos (i.e., Granola-eaters and eco-freaks), but 2000 saw the sales of 75,000
solar systems generate $435 million in revenue. The REL, brainchild of
Germany’s Social-Democratic/Green government, pays citizens for
producing their own power - 7 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for
biomass, 9 cents per kWh for wind and 43 cents per kWh for solar. The
government’s “100,000 roofs” campaign, which provides low-interest
loans to install solar panels on roofs, led to a 50 percent increase in
the number of orders for 2000. Last year, the program financed the
installation of 65 MW of rooftop power. “We should start discussing a
1,000,000-roof initiative,” joked Philippe de Renzy-Martin, an official
with Shell Solar BV. Seven “Solalrfabriks” (solar factories) are now
running day and night in Germany and British Petroleum (BP) and BP
Solar have joined forces to build an eighth Solarfabrik with an annual
capacity of 20 MW. “Solar is hip in Germany,” enthuses Rian van Staden,
executive director of the International Solar Energy Society [Villa Tannheim, Wiesentalstr. 50, 79115 Freiburg, Germany, http://www.ises.org].
“People are not just in it to save money, they really believe in
alternative energies with their hearts and are willing to jump in
head-first.”
Greeting Guests with Open Palms
Dubai - Two immense man-made islands are being built off the coast of
Dubai. The islands, which will add nearly 75 miles (120 km) of new
beaches to the country’s coast, are being built in the shape of two
palm trees. Knowing that oil reserves will not last forever, Crown
Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is spending $3 billion to
transform 80 million cubic meters of rock into a world-class tourist
mecca, complete with dozens of hotels, golf courses, two marinas and a
marine park featuring captive whales and dolphins. Luxury villas
(starting at $550,000) will be offered to wealthy foreigners with
100-year leases. Dubai’s Palm Islands will be visible from space. The
only other man-made artifacts visible from space are the Great Wall of
China and the Fresh Kills garbage landfill in New York.
US Blocks Critical Investigation
Iraq - Six years after the Gulf War, cancer cases in Iraq had nearly
doubled to 10,931, according to Iraq’s Health Ministry. Iraqi health
officials blame exposure to the toxic residue of depleted uranium (DU)
munitions for unprecedented increases in cancer, leukemia, birth
defects and fetal deformaties. Iraq’s plea for an independent United
Nations investigation of the health impacts of DU weapons was defeated
by a 45 to 54 vote of the UN General Assembly (there were 45
abstentions). According to Reuters, UN observers attributed the defeat
to “a lobbying campaign by Washington.”
Gene-Pooling Earth’s Resources
Brazil - Activists from 50 countries gathered at the World Social Forum
in Porto Alegre in February, called for a global treaty recognizing the
gene pool as a global commons. More than 250 nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) pledged support for the Treaty Initiative to Share
the Genetic Commons, which “aims to prohibit all patents on plant,
microorganism, animal and human life.” Governments around the world
will be asked to support the treaty at the Rio+10 Conference in South
Africa in August-September. [www.tradeobservatory.org]
Trading Forests for Trade
Mexico - Between 1993 and 2000, 19 million acres of Mexico’s jungles
and forests disappeared forever. If present trends continue,
environmentalists fear that the country will become a totally
deforested barrens by 2059. Unless the government moves to spend four
to five times more to address the problem, the jungles of the Yucatan
Peninsula and the Lacandon rainforest of Chiapas state - the most
biologically rich area in Mexico - could be gone in 10 to 30 years.
Loss of these forests and jungles would alter the course of entire
watersheds, destroy soil fertility and increase landslides. Mexico’s
Environment Secretary Victor Lichtinger admits that illegal logging
plays a role but he believes a larger villain is behind Mexico’s
environmental woes. According to the Associated Press, “Lichtinger
blames NAFTA-related government policies that subsidize the expansion
of farmlands in an effort to compete with the US and Canada’s farming
subsidies.” As many as 15 million poor Mexicans have been driven into
the forests in a desperate attempt to make a living from farming and
logging.
Foiling the Aluminum Dams
Brazil - Three of the world’s largest aluminum companies - Alcoa, BHP
Billiton (Australia) and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (Brazil) - want to
build a huge dam in the Amazon to generate electric power to process
aluminum. The Santa Isabel dam, planned for the Araguaia River, would
flood an ecological reserve, displace 7,000 people and destroy the
culture of the indigenous Suruí-Aiwekar tribe. The Big Three are
responsible for building the Tucurui dam which displaced 35,000 Amazon
Basin dwellers and flooded 2,820 sq. km. of rainforests in 1984.
According to Hélio Meca of Brazil’s Movement of Dam-Affected People,
“By investing in energy efficiency and conservation, and alternatives
such as biomass and wind energy, the expulsion of families from their
homes for Santa Isabel can be avoided.” “The Araguaia should be kept
dam-free,” says Glenn Switkes of International Rivers Network [1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703, (510) 848-1155, www.irn.org]. “The Araguaia is an ecological jewel which supports world-class wetlands, rare pink dolphins and Amazon turtles.” [To protest the dam, contact: Alcoa Corporation, 201 Isabella St., Pittsburgh, PA 15212-5858, (412) 553-4545.]
Storming the Fortis
Belize - A power company from Newfoundland is playing hardball in
Belize in an attempt to build a dam in a rainforest. Fortis, the power
company, wants to erect a 50-meter-tall Chalillo dam in the Macal River
Valley. Burning biowastes from Belize’s sugar fields could generate
twice as much electricity as the 7.3 MW Chalillo dam and for seven
cents per kilowatt-hour. According to Canada’s National Post,
“Belize consumers now suffer power rates two to four times higher than
Mexico and other Central American countries.” Belizeans pay a premium
for power because Fortis has become the majority owner of Belize
Electricity, a state-protected monopoly. The National Post reports that Fortis “is using its monopoly power [to] shut out local
power producers, keep out imported Mexican power, deny Belize consumers
low-cost power and undermine Belize’s fastest growing industry,
ecotourism.” Belize environmental leader Tony Garel has traveled to the
Toronto Stock Exchange to publicize Fortis’ strong-arm tactics. Garel
has also asked the Belize Public Utilities Commission to dissolve
Fortis’ monopoly and open the energy field to competition. With anger
against Fortis rising and Belize Reporter columnist Meb Cutlack
characterizing the company as an “expensive evil,” Canada’s Probe
International has advised the company to “see the writing on the wall
and call off its bulldozers.”
That Sinking Feeling
Tuvalu - Rising seas linked to global warming are forcing the
evacuation of an entire country. Earlier this year, 10,000 citizens of
the Pacific Island of Tuvalu became environmental refugees. The
Tuvaluans will be relocated to New Zealand in a series of mass
evacuations that will take 20 to 30 years. According to the Australian
quarterly Third Opinion [PO Box K133, Haymarket 1240, Australia]:
“The islanders are fiercely critical of nations that do not support the
Kyoto Protocol, which they believe might perhaps have saved their
country.” On March 3, Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Koloa Talaka announced
that his nation was considering suing the US and Australia in the
International Court of Justice for their refusal to ratify the 1997
Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Australia was
targeted because it generates the world’s highest levels of greenhouse
gas emissions per-capita.
An Unsettled Legacy
New Zealand - Under a settlement handed down by the Nuclear Claims
Tribunal, 1,700 surviving victims of US nuclear testing in the South
Pacific were to share in a payment of $60 million. Between 1946 and
1958, the US exploded 67 nuclear weapons in the South Pacific, exposing
tens of thousands of islanders to dangerous levels of radioactive
fallout. Marshall Islands Finance Minister Michael Konelious has
complained that the Bank of New York has so far refused to release the
$60 million settlement.
Kennedy to Bayer: “Chicken Out”
US - The Bayer chemical corporation’s plans to sell fluoroquinolone
antibiotics to owners of factory-farmed chickens has run afoul of
Robert Kennedy, Jr. and a coalition of health and environmental groups
who fear that the overuse of antibiotics “puts consumers’ health at
risk.” Abbott Laboratories has agreed to respect an FDA ban on the
product but Bayer has fought to keep the fluoroquinolone Baytril on the
market. [www.bayerwatch.com; www.keepantibioticsWorking.com].
The Old Shell Game
US - A Shell Oil refinery in Louisiana has been responsible for
pollution, chemical leaks and accidents that have risked the health and
lives of the nearby residents of Norco. The African American community
has demanded to be relocated to a safer site. For 15 years, Shell has
refused. [Send a message to Shell at: PO Box 2463, Houston, Texas 72252, USA, or fax (713) 241-5522.]
EPA Cover-up Charged
US - The EPA’s top whistleblower, Ombudsman Robert J. Martin, is suing
to keep his job after EPA Chief Christie Todd Whitman announced that
she was closing down his office. Martin’s sin? He exposed a conflict of
interest between Whitman’s husband John and the managers of a Superfund
site in Colorado. “This is far worse than a gag order,” said Government
Accountability Project (GAP) Legal Director Tom Devine, “It is an
effective death sentence for the concept of an independent citizens’
watchdog at EPA.” John Whitman is a partner with a venture capital firm
controlled by Citicorp whose parent, Citigroup, mishandled the cleanup
of the Shattuck Superfund site in Colorado. Whitman herself holds
between $100,000 and $250,000 in Citigroup stock.
In another potential conflict of interest, EPA Chief Whitman
assured residents living around New York City’s Ground Zero that it was
safe to breathe the air. Tests by University of California at Davis
researcher Thomas Cahill subsequently revealed that the collapse of the
World Trade towers caused the greatest man-made pollution event in
history, releasing deadly clouds of finely pulverized asbestos, iron,
copper, zinc, vanadium, nickel and mercury. Now that firefighters and
neighbors are complaining of heart problems, emphysema and asthma, GAP
points out that Travelers Insurance (the company handling medical
claims for Ground Zero victims) is also owned by Citigroup. When
Whitman was New Jersey’s governor, she gave a $1.6 million state grant
to an Internet company directed by her husband.
Bearing the Truth
Canada - Last November, scientists with Environment Canada (the
Canadian equivalent of the EPA) were puzzled to discover that bears in
Jasper National Park were going into hibernation a month earlier than
usual. Environment Canada [351 St. Joseph Boulevard, Hull, Quebec, K1A 0H3]
had forecast a dry, warm winter but, according to folklore, early
hibernation is a telltale sign of a long and snowy winter. “Our
forecast isn’t good for skiers, farmers or the water table,”
Environment Canada’s Dan Kulak told the Calgary Sun. “Maybe the
grizzlies do know something we don’t know.” A late-February check with
Jasper Park officials reveals that the park had expeienced its coldest,
snowiest winter on record. “The bears were right,” a park information
officer told the Journal.
Something to Get Steamed About
US - There’s a lot of sun and wind in Nevada, but the state’s biggest
renewable energy resource might lie in the superheated water trapped
far underground. Nevada’s nine geo-thermal plants could easily become
90 plants, Jane Long, dean of the Mackay School of Mines at the
University of Nevada in Reno told the Las Vegas Sun.
US geothermal plants (located mainly in the West) currently produce
about 2,700 MW - sufficient to satisfy the power demands of 3.5 million
people.
Botswana Beats US
US - A survey of the “environmental health” of 142 countries has placed
Finland in the top spot, followed by Norway, Sweden, Canada and
Switzerland. When it comes to protecting land, water and air, the US
places 51st - taking a back seat to Botswana (15) and Cuba (47).
(Botswana and Cuba beat out the US by virtue of the fact that they are
not highly industrialized economies.) The US ranked higher than Germany
(54), Japan (62) and Britain (98). Bringing up the rear were Haiti,
North Korea, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (the last three
are oil-rich states). The survey, conducted for the World Economic
Forum by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the
Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science
Information, torpedoed the myth that economic wealth guarantees
environmental quality. Proven beyond a doubt, however, was the fact
that “the more corrupt the government, the less likely it is to pay
attention to the environment.” Sadly, not even Finland can take heart
at it’s ranking. As the report’s authors conclude: “No country is on a
truly sustainable path.”
Trees and Bogs: Climate Refugees
US - Scientists with the Pew Center on Global Climate Change warn that
rising temperatures will cause a 400-mile northward shift in the
Earth’s ecosystems within the next 100 years. According to the Pew
report on Aquatic Ecosystems and Global Climate Change,
as the planet’s temperature rises from 3 to 10 F during this century,
“silver maple-ash-elm forests of the upper Midwest could be replaced by
cypress-tupelo swamps” and familiar lakes, rivers and streams would be
replaced by marshes, swamps and bogs. It would be difficult enough for
plants and animals to relocate 400 miles north in the space of a
century but the problem is compounded by the existence of thousands of
man-made barriers - cities, suburbs, highways, dams and flood control
projects - that now block potential migration corridors. The Cox News
Service noted that “one potential dramatic result of global warming
could be peat fires covering thousands of square miles.” The fires
would result from the melting and drying of permafrost in Alaska,
Canada and Russia. If the permafrost were to ignite, it would release a
pall of CO2 that would likely extinguish most life on the planet.
Irradiation Worse than Anthrax?
US - Irradiating mail to zap potential anthrax spores is making
millions for manufacturers of electron (e-beam) irradiators but it
could be making Americans sicker, not safer. An investigation by Public Citizen reveals that bombarding suspect envelopes with the equivalent of 233
million chest x-rays can damage shipments of film and pharmaceuticals
and leave paperclips and staples unacceptably radioactive. The e-beam
kills spores by “breaking down water,” Public Citizen’s Wenonah
Hauter explained. But anthrax spores are only 15 to 20 percent water.
Since the e-beams only penetrate 3.75 centimeters, anthrax spores
packed in the center of a package would escape harm. Meanwhile, the
ozone produced by the e-beam devices will endanger the lives of
operators. “The long-term effect on lungs can be deadly,” Hauter warns.
Fluoride Gets the Brush-off
Canada - Two Canadian dental researchers, writing in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association,
have characterized the practice of fluoridation as “immoral.” Howard
Cohen, Ph.D. and University of Toronto Professor David Locker reviewed
studies on the benefits of fluoridation and concluded that “the quality
of the evidence provided by these studies is poor.” Locker, who is also
the director of the university’s Dental Health Services Research Unit
concluded that most studies “exaggerated” the benefits of fluoridation
and “minimized” the risks. “The percentage of the population with
severe enough dental fluorosis requiring costly dental restorations to
repair defective tooth structure has been steadily increasing,” Locker
and Cohen wrote. Hardy Limeback, the university’s Head of Preventative
Dentistry, concurs that “Dental fluorosis should never have been
classified as a simple ‘cosmetic’ side effect - it is a biomarker for
systemic fluoride poisoning during early childhood.” Limeback cited
studies showing that systemic fluoride exposure can “permanently affect
bone and tooth growth and the mechanical properties of these hard
tissues.” Noting that modern fluoridation standards rely on
epidemiological data “collected more than 50 years ago,” Cohen and
Locker called for “new guidelines… based on sound, up-to-date
science.” In the absence of unequivocal evidence that fluoridation’s
benefits outweigh its risks, Cohen and Locker concluded that “the moral
status of advocacy for this practice is, at best, indeterminate and
could perhaps be considered immoral.” [www.fluoridealert.org]
Bush Boosts Tobacco Terrorists
US - The Bush White House attempted to sneak a provision into the
Financial Anti-Terrorism Act that would have protected US tobacco
companies accused of smuggling cigarettes abroad in a scheme to avoid
paying US taxes. A two-year investigation by the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reports that the
backroom deal would have protected RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris and
British American Tobacco from lawsuits filed by Canada, the European
Union, Colombia and other South American countries under the US
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). According to
a report in Public Citizen,
the ICIJ unearthed evidence of “tobacco company involvement in
cigarette smuggling and corporate ties to organized crime.” The
original version of the bill would have outlawed “any scheme to
defraud… a foreign government” if such conduct would constitute a
violation of interstate commerce laws in the US. The US Chamber of
Commerce wrote to Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill twice last October
proposing language to water-down the money laundering provisions.
According to Public Citizen, the Chamber’s wording “appeared in near-identical form one day later in the House bill.” One insider told Public Citizen that “the White House put pressure on us to make the case even
stronger.” The move was pushed by Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX), who has bagged
$64,500 from tobacco company Political Action Committees since 1999.
The Democrats torpedoed the pro-tobacco rule and it was stripped from
the final version of the PATRIOT Act.
Author Offers Cash to Trash Dam
US - The nation’s largest Superfund site consists of toxic runoff from
abandoned mines that has accumulated in the sediment behind a dam at
the confluence of the Clark and Blackfoot Rivers near Missoula,
Montana. Atlantic Richfield (ARCO), the company responsible for the
cleanup, would prefer spending $20 million to strengthen the dam and
leave the toxic sediment in place. Environmentalists prefer a $120
million plan to raze the dam, remove the sediment and restore the
river. Historian and best-selling author Stephen Ambrose has offered
$250,000 to help restore the watershed.
Sylvan Savior or Frankentree?
US - A privately owned biotech company has created a genetically
engineered “Empress Tree” that grows four times faster than a normal
tree and promises to “revolutionize the US and international timber
markets.” World Tree Technologies, Inc. believes the Empress Tree will
be an environmental boon because, with four times the growth and four
times the leaves, the tree can “consume four times as much CO2 [and]...
emit four times the oxygen.” The Empress is designed to be grown in
timber plantations, not in forests. But if the tree’s patented pollen
were to spread to wild woods, its engineered features could create a
mutant species that might dominate nature’s time-tested trees.
Ground the Airlines: Save Amtrak
US - After the September 11 calamity grounded the nation’s airlines,
the US turned to Amtrak. The railroads helped save the US economy but
now the Bush administration (which handed a $15 billion gift to the
airline industry) plans to gut the nation’s rail system. “What other
transportation mode can move so many for so little, while polluting far
less per passenger mile?” asks Andrew Whittaker of the Northern Forest
Forum. “Infatuation with high-speed rail at the same time we lack a
plan to upgrade existing track is rather ludicrous.” Also ludicrous:
Congress’ failure to increase fuel-efficiency for cars and SUVs.
The Rich-Poor Gap Divides the Earth
The first attempt to study wealth and poverty on a global level has
produced disturbing news. The five-year study for the World Bank,
published in the January issue of the Economic Journal,
reports that the richest 1 percent of people (50 million households)
earn more than 60 percent of the world’s poorest 2.7 billion people.
The study by economist Branko Milanovic was the first to compare
incomes across countries. The survey covered 84 percent of the world’s
population and 93 percent of world income. According to the BBC Online, “the gap between rich and poor is much greater than previously understood.”
During the five years of the study, world per-capita incomes rose
5.7 percent but all these gains accrued to the richest 20 percent of
the world’s people. While incomes of the top fifth rose 12 percent, the
earnings of the poorest five percent plummeted 25 percent. “The study
raises the concern about the lack of a ‘middle class’ at the world
level,” the BBC commented. “The huge gap between rich and poor with 84
percent of the world receiving only 16 percent of its income - has
become more worrying since the world has faced the threat of organized
terror from groups based in some of the world’s poorest countries.”
Thanks to the growing reach of global telecommunications, more and
more people will be getting the message that the world’s richest 10
percent now earn 114 times more than the world’s poorest ten percent.
The situation has become so dire that UK’s top finance official,
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, has called for the world’s
industrialized nations to double financial aid to the world’s poor. The
White House has rejected this appeal. Meanwhile, the BBC observes, “aid flows and the movement of private capital to poor
countries continues to slow” signaling that the consequences of the
world’s spreading equity gap will only grow “more urgent in the future.”
Buy a ‘Green Thermometer’ And Help Us Plant Trees
When mercury thermometers break or are discarded, the mercury escapes
into the environment. Now there is a solution: A plastic wallet-sized
card that contains a flat mini-thermometer imprinted with a delicate
pattern of heat-sensitive liquid crystal dots. Made by NexTemp [(888) 930-4599], these non-toxic temp-takers register 96 to 104.8 F and last up to five years. Earth Island Journal’s Green Pages Fund has joined with NexTemp to create a special “Plant a Tree” card. Help
us keep the Earth’s temperature down buy purchasing a card with a $3
donation to the “Green Pages Fund.” We use the donations to help plant
trees around the world.
Journal staff contribution. Can be reprinted for non-profit purposes. Please credit and notify Earth Island Journal.
The Rise of Robots and the Decline of Humanity
In the new millennium, we will become our machines,” says Rodney
Brooks, director of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Brooks
noted that work is well advanced on the creation of a new species of
sentient machines known as “Robo Sapiens.”
“We are talking about the emotional coupling between the robot
and the human,” Brooks says. “It’s inevitable.” Brooks foresees that
these thinking, autonomous robots - with their enhanced computational
skills and physical strength - will find ready use both in the business
world and on the battlefield.
Autonomous robots are not just inevitable: they are imminent. In
May 2001, ActiveMedia Research reported that “a multifunctional android
capable of almost substituting for a general-purpose waiter is likely
five to 10 years away” while “personal robots will be commonplace in
the nation within 10 years.” ActiveMedia foresees a 3,500 percent
growth in the production of robots and a 2,500 percent increase in
revenues transforming robotics into a $17 billion industry by 2005.
Honda has invented Asimo, a child-sized robot that can walk, climb
stairs, turn lights off and on and perform small household tasks (see
photo on page 37). Interactive Week notes that Honda’s mini-robot “is being outfitted with programs and artificial sensors that will make it autonomous.”
Children in Japan and the US are growing up playing with robotic
pets - Sony’s robot puppy Aibo, Toy Quest’s robot dog Teckno and
Hasbro’s bizarrely-named robot doll, “My Real Baby.”
At the last Robodex expo in Japan, Sony introduced its astounding
“Dream Robots,” which dazzled spectators by jumping, dancing and
kicking balls.
In laboratories around the world, engineers who might once have
used their talents to fashion human prosthetics are now designing body
parts for robots - feet, knee-joints, prehensile hands, supersensitive
ears and eyes and “haptic” sensors that approximate the sense of touch.
The MIT Media Lab’s robot, Kismet, has been trained to recognize
and respond to human emotions. Kismet can communicate its mood through
facial expressions ranging from happiness to anger. Interactive Week reports that the next goal is to teach Kismet “that actions have
consequences, just like a child learns how to behave through
interaction with other children and adults.”
In the words of Bob Metcalfe, founder of 3Com and inventor of
Ethernet: “Robots are becoming more human and humans are becoming more
robotic.”
Freelance writer contribution. Can be reprinted for non-profit purposes. Please credit and notify Earth Island Journal. Courtesy Sony.
autonomous.”
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