Rich nations to emit more greenhouse gases, says
U.N.
BERLIN — The world's most industrialized countries will increase their emissions
of the gases blamed for global warming by 17 percent this decade, a setback
after a near stabilization in the 1990s, a U.N. report said Tuesday.
The predicted increase comes despite international efforts to tackle greenhouse
gas emissions, and experts said nations needed to do more.
"These findings clearly demonstrate that stronger and more creative policies
will be needed," said Joke Waller-Hunt, executive secretary of the U.N. climate
change convention.
She said countries should increase development of climate-friendly technologies
and persuade businesses, local governments, and citizens of the need to cut
emissions of energy-related gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).
The United States, the world's biggest air polluter, has refused to ratify
the 1997 U.N. Kyoto Protocol seeking to cut greenhouse gas emissions from
the developed world by 2012 to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.
Scientists say greenhouse gases could cause global warming, resulting in
more destructive weather and rising oceans.
The report said the most industrialized countries of Western Europe, North
America, and Japan were likely to see their greenhouse emissions rise by
17 percent from 2000 to 2010.
The nations of central and eastern Europe would likely see increases after
a 37 percent tail-off in the 1990s. That fall, largely due to the Soviet
Union's economic collapse, enabled developed countries as a whole to register
a 3 percent drop in emissions from 1990 to 2000.
Industrialized countries, with 20 percent of the global population, account
for 60 percent of annual emissions of CO2.
The results are to be discussed at a 10-day summit starting Wednesday that
will prepare for the next world climate summit in Milan in December.
To become binding, the Kyoto pact must be approved by states accounting for
at least 55 percent of the industrialized world's 1990 greenhouse gas emissions.
Russia's expected ratification this year would push the percentage to about
60 percent.
Source: Reuters 4/6/03
G8 Leaders Pledge Marine Protection, Clean Water
EVIAN, France, - Leaders of the world's eight largest industrialized
democracies wound up their annual three day meeting today in Evian on the
shore of Lake Geneva, with a joint statement that emphasizes environmental
responsibility and sustainable development. Economically, "major downside
risks have receded and the conditions for a recovery are in place," the G8
leaders said, and they called for measures to prevent marine pollution and
improve tanker safety, and adopted a plan of action to help halve the number
of people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
All during the meeting, activists protesting G8 policies clashed with police
on both sides of the lake. More than 100,000 came out on Sunday. Denonstrators
were tear gassed, chased and beaten. Hundreds were arrested, and one activist
climber in Lausanne was seriously injured when the rope from which he hung
was cut by police.
Leaders of the G8 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia,
the United Kingdom and the United States - pledged the ratification and implementation
of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and urgent restoration
and maintenance of global fish stocks.
"There is growing pressure on the marine environment," the G8 leaders acknowledged.
"The decline in marine biodiversity and the depletion of fish stocks are
of increasing concern, as is the use of Flags of Convenience, especially
for fishing vessels, as a means to avoid management conservation measures,"
they said.
The sinking of the oil tanker "Prestige" off the coast of Spain in November
2002, said the leaders, "has again demonstrated that tanker safety and pollution
prevention have to be further improved." In addition, the leaders "agreed
to take all necessary and appropriate steps to strengthen international maritime
safety." They also agreed to accelerate the adoption of guidelines on places
of refuge for vessels in distress such as the "Prestige."
Calling for support of the International Maritime Organization's efforts
to strengthen maritime safety, the G8 action plan urges acceleration of the
phaseout of single hull oil tankers, "mandatory pilotage" in narrow and restricted
waters in conformity with International Maritime Organization rules, and
enhanced compensation funds to benefit victims of oil pollution.
In their statement, the G8 leaders said that in addition to efforts to improve
the safety regimes for tankers, they are "committed to act on the significant
environmental threat posed by large cargo vessels and their bunkers," and
they are encouraging the adoption of liability provisions including, where
appropriate, through the ratification of international liability conventions.
Noting that "global sustainable development and poverty reduction requires
healthier and more sustainably managed oceans and seas," the G8 leaders promised
to maintain the productivity and biodiversity of important and vulnerable
marine and coastal areas, including on the high seas.
The establishment of ecosystem networks of marine protected areas by 2012
in their own waters and regions is a priority under the action plan the leaders
said, and they pledged to work with other countries to help them establish
marine protected areas in their own waters.
Fresh water is a matter of "human security" the G8 leaders said, assuring
each other and the world that they would act to "reverse the current trend
of environmental degradation through the protection and balanced management
of natural resources." They made particular mention of the importance of
proper water management in Africa, in support of the New Partnership for
Africa's Development, as stated in the G8 Africa Action Plan. They promised
to promote river basin cooperation throughout the world, with particular
attention to African river basins.
Good governance, capacity building, and financial resources are needed to
increase and stabilize water supplies, and the G8 leaders said, "We are committed
to playing a more active role in the international efforts towards achieving
these goals." At the same time they underlined the need for "the United Nations
to take a key role in the water sector."
While offering to share best practice technologies in the delivery of water
and sanitation services including the "establishment and operation of partnerships,
whether public-public or public-private, where appropriate," the G8 leaders
clearly favor the public-private partnership model.
They decided to promote public-private partnerships by "inducing private
sector investments" and encouraging use of local currency, facilitating international
commercial investment and lending through use of risk guarantees, encouraging
the harmonization of operational procedures, and facilitating the issue of
national and international tenders. To ensure sustainable forest management,
the G8 leaders confirmed their determination to strengthen international
efforts to tackle the problem of illegal logging.
On the health front, the leaders pledged to fund the fight against HIV/AIDS,
malaria, tuberculosis, and to eradicate polio. "We welcome the increased
bilateral commitments for HIV/AIDS," they stated, "whilst recognising that
significant additional funds are required." The spread of SARS demonstrates
the importance of global collaboration, including global disease surveillance,
laboratory, diagnostic and research efforts, and prevention, care, and treatment,
the leaders stated, and promised to collaborate on this effort.
The pre-eminent threat to international security, the leaders said, is the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery,
which "poses a growing danger to us all," as well as the spread of international
terrorism. North Korea's uranium enrichment and plutonium production programs
and its failure to comply with its safeguards agreement under the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) undermine the non-proliferation regime and are
a clear breach of North Korea's international obligations, the G8 leaders
stated. "We strongly urge North Korea to visibly, verifiably and irreversibly
dismantle any nuclear weapons programs, a fundamental step to facilitate
a comprehensive and peaceful solution." Iran came in for a stern warning
as well. "We will not ignore the proliferation implications of Iran's advanced
nuclear program," they said, stressing the importance of Iran's full compliance
with its obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "We urge
Iran to sign and implement an IAEA Additional Protocol without delay or conditions.
We offer our strongest support to comprehensive IAEA examination of this
country's nuclear program," the G8 leaders stated. The eight leaders reaffirmed
their commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons
Convention, and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, and urged all
countries that have not yet joined these agreements to do so.
The leaders adopted an Action Plan on how best to use science and technology
for sustainable development focused on three areas:
global observation
cleaner, more efficient energy and the fight against air pollution
and climate change
agriculture and biodiversity
Russia, the sole country whose ratification of the Kyoto Protocol could bring
it into force, indicated that it is ready to ratify this year by agreeing
to the common statement, "Those of us who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol
reaffirm their determination to see it enter into force."
The protocol is an international treaty under the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change. It requires 37 industrialized countries to reduce their
emission of six greenhouse gases an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 emissions
during the five year period 2008-2012.
The rules for entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol require 55 Parties to
the Convention to ratify the Protocol, including the industrialized countries
governed by the protocol accounting for 55 percent of that group’s carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions in 1990. To date, 43.9 percent of CO2 emissions are
covered. Russia's ratification will bring the protocol into force.
Despite these positive statements for support of sustainable development,
across the lake in Geneva, Switzerland, demonstrators against the G8 broke
windows at the World Meteorological Organization and other buildings housing
international organizations. In return, police attacked the Center of Independent
Media in Geneva on Sunday. The G8 protests extended far afield, even to the
Jordan-Iraq border. Since Saturday, a delegation from Ya Basta, an Italian
activist organization, repeatedly has been refused entry into Iraq, according
to Indymedia UK. Timed to coincide with the G8 Summit, the delegation was
sent to establish links between elements of civil society in Iraq, Palestine,
and Europe, including the Baghdad Independent Media Centre. "Yesterday at
3:08 UK time," the independent media organization said today, "we began receiving
text messages from the delegation who feared that U.S. forces would shoot
them at the border. The activists staged a sit down protest, but American
soldiers then violently dragged them onto the rear of a truck, injuring nine.
ENS 3/6/03
"Dying for water," world marks environment day
BEIRUT — Seeking to ease a water crisis threatening one-third of humanity,
the United Nations marked world environment day on Thursday with calls for
governments to double aid to poor countries and for ordinary people to fix
leaky taps.
Under the slogan "Water — 2 billion people are dying for it!," projects
ranged from draining mosquito-infested pools in Kenya to a tasting in Brussels
of tap water from around Europe.
"Water-related diseases kill a child every eight seconds," U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said in a message on the anniversary of a landmark environmental
conference in Stockholm on June 5, 1972. "One person in six lives without
regular access to safe drinking water. More than twice that number — 2.4
billion — lack access to adequate sanitation," he said.
Bangladesh launched a tree-planting drive meant to turn the nation into a
"garden of green" by 2015. In Egypt, politicians and celebrities helped sweep
the streets and planted 600 trees in one of Cairo's oldest and poorest neighborhoods.
The United Nations says the world must do far more to meet goals of halving
the proportion of people who lack safe drinking water and sanitation by the
year 2015, part of an overall drive to halve global poverty.
"If we are to meet the commitments ... the world will have to spend up to
US$180 billion annually, more than double what is being spent today," said
Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.
He told a news conference in Beirut, hosting the annual event, that big investments
were needed in everything from sewage treatment to irrigation.
PEOPLE CAN DO THEIR BIT
And the United Nations says ordinary citizens can do their bit with simple
measures like plugging leaks at home, collecting rainwater, turning off the
tap when brushing their teeth, or taking a short shower instead of a bath.
In China, the world's most populous country, the government said it planned
to invest more than $30 billion over the next few years to fight water pollution
and help relieve shortages.
But environmentalists reiterated concern over China's Three Gorges Dam —
the world's largest hydroelectric project — which China began filling on
Sunday. The WWF environmental group said 1,700 dams planned around the world,
like the Three Gorges, would suck rivers dry.
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri said the budget of the U.S.-led war
on Iraq exceeded the cash needed to alleviate the plight of people suffering
from water shortages.
In Moscow, parliamentarians wrangled about delays in the country's planned
ratification of the U.N.'s Kyoto protocol meant to rein in emissions of gases
blamed for global warming. Under a complex weighting system, Kyoto's fate
hangs on Russia.
Some accused President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet, but others said
issues like a crumbling nuclear industry were more urgent than the long-term
threat of climate change that may cause more severe storms, floods, and droughts.
"When your house is on fire, you don't worry about washing the dishes," said
Robert Nigmatulin, chairman of the ecological council of Russia's lower house
of parliament.
In Rome, Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural
Organisation, said better water management would lead to "fewer disasters
like the current food crisis in southern Africa and the Horn of Africa."
The United Nations says water is the world's most precious resource. European
and U.S. space probes are heading to Mars this year to seek evidence of water
— a sign life might have existed on the red planet.
Source: Reuters 6/6/03
New Zealand Goes Green In Record Numbers
New Zealander’s commitment to the environment has been highlighted by a record
number of entries for this year’s Green Ribbon Awards.
"We've received more than 200 nominations for the awards this year and this
reflects the hard work the community is putting in for the environment,"
Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said.
"People like the Green Ribbon winners are critical in changing community
attitudes and behaviours to the environment. The government has a role such
as through the Water Programme of Action and through partnerships as in the
Clean Streams Accord. But it's people like these who make the difference
on the ground day after day.
"The work these people do is often hard, time-consuming and unrewarded. Yet
it is vital to improving the quality of our environment.
"All the winners and nominees for these awards are doing their bit and are
providing leadership in their communities, inspiring others to follow," Marian
Hobbs said.
The 2003 Green Ribbon Award winners are:
Caring for the rural environment (joint winners)
- The Pohutukawa Trust for rehabilitatioon of the flora and fauna of Kawau
Island and John and Janet Somerville of Ohuka, near Wairoa in the Hawkes
Bay for conservation and native restoration since the 1960s.
Caring for the urban environment
- Mabel Pollock for transforming seven aand a half acres of an illegal dump
on Navy-owned land into a native forest, the Mary Barrett Glade, in Devonport,
Auckland.
Caring for our biodiversity
- The Windy Hill Rosalie Bay Catchment TTrust, Great Barrier Island, for creating
a sanctuary on the island, including removal of pest species without poisons,
job creation and the reintroduction of species.
Raising awareness of environmental issues (joint winners)
- The Chinese Conservation Education Truust for bringing an environmental
message to a community new to New Zealand, including organising tree planting,
beach clean-ups, a web site and newsletter. And the Kaipatiki Ecological
Restoration Project, Glenfield, Auckland for success in coordinating community
involvement in the restoration of Kaipatiki Steam and its native forest margin.
Business caring for the Environment
- Fulton Hogan Ltd for environmental impprovements and rehabilitation of the
Renwick Quarry, near Blenheim. Project Manukau at Mangere, Auckland, is Highly
Commended for its new waste-water treatment plant and restoration of former
treatment ponds, while the Creeksyde Holiday Park, Queenstown, is highly
commended for its ongoing commitment to run an environmentally friendly business.
State of the environment reporting
- The Rotorua District Council for havinng a strong environmental indicator
focus including the use of nationally recognised environmental performance
indicators as well as ones developed to suit local circumstances and issues.
Kids who care
- Vauxhall Primary School, Devonport, Auuckland, for the Travelwise to School
programme started in Feb 2002 and was the first of its kind in New Zealand.
The programme aims to address congestion at the school gate and encourage
alternative transport systems.
Special Award: International Year of Freshwater (joint winners)
- BOC Limited for the Where There’;s Water Community Environmental Grants,
funding the community to understand, maintain, protect and improve their
water environment. Taieri Trust for its unique and highly effective approach
to catchment management in New Zealand, and for bringing its community together
to work on water quality. Waitakere Hospital is highly commended for its
stormwater project.
In the past 13 years, 46 individuals, businesses, voluntary organisations,
schools and councils from all over New Zealand have been honoured with Green
Ribbon Awards. This year’s winners bring the number to 59.
Friday, 6 June 2003, Press Release: New Zealand Government
Harbour dredging threatens acquifier
Hutt Valley's undersea water supply could be jeopardised by plans to dredge
silt from Wellington Harbour to make way for bigger ships, the Conservation
Department and fisher groups fear.
Wellington port company CentrePort is proposing to shift thousands of cubic
metres of silt from port areas in the harbour to make berthing easier for
existing ships and to accommodate larger, new generation container ships.
But submitters to the proposal before Wellington Regional Council say the
dredging could break through the Hutt Valley aquifer - an undersea fresh
water supply - and contaminate it with salt water.
Their fears follow concerns that the dredging would displace potentially
lethal DDT toxins on the sea floor. The concerns threaten to hold up the
dredging project - deemed essential by CentrePort.
The company has lodged resource consent applications for dredging the harbour
and for dredging and disposal of material in the inner harbour. Both are
the subject of public hearings on the 11th and 25th of this month.
CentrePort chairman Nigel Gould said ships now had to time their visits and
wait for the tide to be right before they could berth and the company could
not remain competitive if deeper channels were not dug.
Wellington Recreational Marine Fishers Association secretary Jim Mikoz acknowledged
a deeper channel was needed, especially for oil tankers. But he said the
threat to the aquifer had been overlooked. "The more seawater that gets in
(to the aquifer) the higher the seawater level (inside it) gets. Which generation
is going to get to the situation where they have run out of water? You can't
suck it out or repair it," he said.
The Department of Conservation was also concerned about possible breaches
to the aquifer and wanted consent to be granted only if a plan to protect
the water supply was made.
However, conservator Allan Ross said the department's primary concern was
the DDT-contaminated sediment at Aotea Quay and Thorndon Quay which the company
planned to dump in a hole in the seabed off Matiu-Somes Island.
He was also concerned the Lynx fast ferry passed near the dumpsite and could
stir up the toxic sediments.
Mr Gould could not specify how CentrePort's proposal alleviated any of the
concerns, but he said: "It's something that we have obviously taken a hell
of a lot of advice about". All advice had satisfied CentrePort that there
was no probability of a breach, he said.
The company believed the toxic sediment was better off moved to the proposed
dumpsite which was deeper and less likely to be stirred up than where it
was now.
NZPA 6/6/03
Rich Countries' Greenhouse Gas Emissions Ballooning
BONN, Germany, - The emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases from Europe, Japan, the United States and other industrialized countries
could grow by 17 percent from 2000 to 2010, despite measures in place to
curb them, according to a new United Nations report. Greenhouse gases blanket
the Earth, trapping the Sun's heat close to the planet's surface.
Based on projections provided by the governments themselves, the report is
under consideration at a two week meeting of the UN Climate Change Convention’s
190 member governments that opened at the Maritim Hotel in Bonn Wednesday.
It is intended to help governments plan their future climate change strategies.
“These findings clearly demonstrate that stronger and more creative policies
will be needed for accelerating the spread of climate friendly technologies
and persuading businesses, local governments and citizens to cut their greenhouse
gas emissions,” said Joke Waller Hunter, executive secretary of the UN Climate
Change Convention.
Emissions rose in all major economic sectors, including energy, transport,
industry and agriculture. The exception was waste management, where emissions
declined slightly. The figures do not include emissions and removals from
land use change and forestry.
Governments adopted a more comprehensive set of policies and measures during
2000 and 2001 for addressing their emissions such as emissions trading, carbon
taxes and green certificate trading. The greatest number of policies and
measures are being put to use in the energy sector.
The value of this report, an official UN document entitled "Compilation and
Synthesis of Third National Communications," has been improved by the growing
quantity, quality and timeliness of the underlying national reports, called
national communications, the Climate Change Convention Secretariat says.
Thirty-one third national communications from developed countries have been
submitted along with 100 initial national communications from developing
countries.
The emissions of Central and Eastern European countries are starting to increase
as their economies recover from early and mid-1990s lows, says the report
based on projections provided by these governments.
Developed countries saw their combined emissions fall during the 1990s, by
three percent, due to a 37 percent decline in the emissions of Central and
Eastern European countries.
Most of the reductions in the emissions from developed countries was due
to the steep economic decline in the countries of eastern Europe and the
former USSR, resulting from the transition from centrally planned to market
economies and associated structural changes, the secretariat says. In recent
years most of these countries have experienced appreciable economic growth
which is projected to lead to increased emissions in the future.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the highly industrialized countries as a whole
rose by eight percent from 1990 to 2000. According to the report, the European
Union’s total emissions decreased by 3.5 percent from 1990 to 2000, with
individual member states varying between a decrease of 19 percent and an
increase of 35 percent.
Emissions increased in most other highly industrialized countries - five
percent in New Zealand, 11 percent in Japan, 14 percent in the United States,
18 percent in Australia, and 20 percent in Canada.
With very few exceptions, the secretariat says, the reporting governments
underlined the importance of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in shaping their domestic
climate policy responses. They said their emissions reduction targets under
the protocol are a first step towards long term and continued emission reductions.
This international treaty under the UN Climate Change Convention requires
37 industrialized countries to reduce their emission of six greenhouse gases
an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 emissions during the five year period 2008-2012.
The protocol broke new ground with three innovative mechanisms - joint implementation,
the clean development mechanism (CDM) and emissions trading. These aim to
maximize the cost effectiveness of climate change mitigation by allowing
parties to the protocol to pursue opportunities to cut emissions, or enhance
carbon sinks, more cheaply abroad than at home.
The cost of curbing emissions varies considerably from region to region as
a result of such differences as energy sources, energy efficiency and waste
management. The parties may maximize the effectiveness of their funding for
climate change mitigation by cutting emissions, or increasing removals, where
it is cheapest to do so, given that the impact on the atmosphere is the same.
The Executive Board of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
met over the weekend, and for the first time, considered methodologies needed
for evaluating and monitoring CDM projects. If such methodologies are approved,
the first CDM projects could be registered during the third quarter of 2003.
At a side event on poverty and climate change Waller-Hunter introduced a
report entitled, "Poverty and climate change: Reducing the vulnerability
of the poor through adaptation."
World Bank representative Kristalina Georgieva said the report offers adaptation
measures that will assist developing countries to deal with the impacts of
climate change and reduce their vulnerability.
Although the United States will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol under President
George W. Bush, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman Friday announced that
for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will give consideration
to management practices that store carbon dioxide and reduce greenhouse gases
in implementing forest and agriculture conservation programs.
“Farmers, ranchers and forestland owners can play a unique role in reducing
the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy,” Veneman said.
Generally, the UN report concludes, climate change has increased in importance
in the national policy agendas of countries that are Parties to the Convention.
Linkages were established in a number of national communications between
climate change issues, such as energy and mobility, and sustainable development.
ENS 9/6/03
John Kaminski: The Bursting Of The Dam Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 11:36 amColumn:
John Kaminski
The Bursting Of The Dam
By John Kaminski
"A dream is a wish that your heart makes. "
— Jiminy Cricket
This is a dream. I am standing in front of a giant dam. The vast expanse
of beige concrete stretches across the field of my vision, towers above me.
I am dwarfed into utter insignificance. A soft chorus of whispering voices
from my past, perched on ledges in the cliffs at the side of the dam, clatters
in my ears, telling me to run, urging me to save myself, reminding me of
past events. My feet are bolted to the ground. Suddenly a new low rumble
begins. The sun glints over the crest of the titanic wall. Then I realize
what the voices are saying. The dam is breaking. I am not afraid. I'm not
going anywhere.
A huge crack explodes in the middle of the wall. Monstrous torrents of white
froth burst through above me. Chunks of concrete and white water in slow
motion spew out above me, rain down upon me like a giant hammer, suddenly
crush me in their fury as the entire wall collapses and everything around
me is swept away. And yet I am still standing there, while the pent up but
now freed river races past me, scourging everything in its path. Boulders
roll, earth shakes, sirens wail. And still I hear the voices, and remember
the awful, awesome sound of the dam first cracking, like an echo in the heart,
like Armageddon's song.
In addition to the other voices of my past, I hear the welter of new voices
in the flood, all warning me to flee, to hide, lest I be swept away like
them in the torrent of the unleashed river, and destroyed by the fury of
once-imprisoned but now liberated natural forces that crushed the dam into
pulverized dust and murky mud. But I am still standing there, listening intently
to these new voices as they rush past me in the maelstrom.
Beneath the water, in a blue green turmoil of washing machine chaos, I see
like passing souls tiny bubbles speaking, all with urgency. The first group
of bubbles has a golden glow about them.
"Take care for your soul," the first ones seem to say. "Adhere to your holy
books, they will get you through and keep you safe. And you will find tranquil
glory with your father in heaven." I smile at their concern, and wonder passively
where it exactly is that they are going, and what they will do there.
The second group of talking bubbles, bouncing angularly in the torrent mixed
with chunks of concrete, seems less urgent, more benign, less panicked, somewhat
placid. "We are passing to where we began," they chant serenely. "We will
choose where we return to the sea of life, but at any time we may escape
to the light and sing happily in the lovely air forever. Bye bye, fare well,
see you again soon," they seem to say.
The third wave of bubbles, muddy colored and arranged in some kind of mathematical
order as they flow past, seem to be wearing — wow — neckties! Hey, it's only
a dream. Some even wear sunglasses! They speak to me in a low, confidential
tone, with an implied threat of certain power. "Don't tell anybody about
this," they dictate, "or you could be in real trouble. You will be debriefed
at a later time."
I shake my head and chuckle. I should have known this was a government project.
But I ponder a riddle: was it the bursting of the dam that was a government
project, or the entire dream itself? Neither, I finally decide. No government
would ever tell me to resist all the power it could throw at me and just
persevere until the crisis was past.
And then I ask: is this a message from God? I wonder for a moment and surmise:
certainly not the God talked about by all religions, which try to get you
to believe He said something to someone that was supposed to apply to everyone
else, and should be followed obediently no matter what the circumstances
actually were. The Lockstep God. No, this message wasn't from him, but it
might yet have come from the real God, who speaks directly to everyone in
times of peril without the necessity of intermediary priests.
In fact, that's the real difference between the real god that everybody can
talk to at any time (especially on airplanes in bad weather) and the fake
god tossed around by fools in vestments who are trying to make big money
(and succeeding) off people who need to believe some magical being created
them and is always protecting them.
And so the dam let its watery prisoner past. The flood subsided, the bubbles
flicked away into the sunny air and liberated the voices from my head. And
I stood there, extremely damp but unhurt, having lived through the crisis
of my own desire, having heard the messages of everyone I've ever known as
well as everyone I ever would know (remember, it's a dream), I remained unchanged,
mute, knowing that I was in the right place at the right time, did what I
had to do, was proud of it, was proud that I did not take the easy way and
accept someone else's version of the truth but instead forged my own, did
my best to help others solve the ever-present puzzles, and in the end accepted
no one's advice but my own.
The danger of the bursting dam destroying me did not bother me so much as
maybe missing the chance to know why it was bursting. It was bursting, as
all dams will one day burst, because humans tried to chain mother nature,
and she will not be chained, no matter what the holy books say.
So if that lesson were to have cost me everything, it would not have been
too high a price to pay.
It's not that I don't have much to lose, for, after all, I am in love with
life and cherish each moment as if it were my last. But if the bursting of
the dam would have been my last, I would have known I had been true to myself
and those I love, and for those and other reasons, I also have much than
can never be taken away.
And then suddenly I awoke, and knew what I had to do, and did it, while there
was still time.
*************
- John Kaminski is the author of "Americca's Autopsy Report," soon to be published
by Dandelion Books.
Dust and water
Recent articles in the press relate how all over the world enormous quantities
of dust, debris and similar material are transported by the wind. There is
dust from Asian deserts on the summit of the Alps and dust from the Sahara
in the Mediterranean , etc.
When a thunderstorm breaks out or rain falls in western Europe cars are sometimes
covered with yellow or red dust or are just simply dirty. The rain contained
dust which was circulating in the air either because human activity had put
it there (aerosols, factory emissions, incinerators, heating installations,
etc.) or it was of natural origin such as ash from volcanic activiy or simply
soil or sand lifted by the wind and sometimes carried over thousands of kilometres.
High altitude winds sometimes bring soil from the Taklan Makan desert in
China to the Alps. In Iceland it is said that the intense volcanic activity
in 1784 was one of the causes of the French Revolution : the ash carried
by the wind caused abundant rainfall in France which in its turn was responsible
for the failure of the crops and when people are hungry… Saharan dust clouds over the Canary Islands - Photo Nasa
Researchers from the University of Bordeaux estimate that 800 millon tons
of dust derived from deserts are deposited every year on the surface of the
earth. Very small particles are carried up 5 to 7 kilometres into the air,
they explode in full sunlight and are sucked up to altitude where they are
transported by violent winds. A third of the dust falls due to its weight
and the remainder returns to earth with rain and snow. This is why particles
from Asia have been found in glaciers in the Alps over the last 20 years
(most certainly before this period too). In less than two weeks they have
travelled 20.000 kms over the Pacific ocean, North America and Greenland
before falling on the Alps. Their journey has been traced from the dust deposited
all along the route. Dust is also brought to Europe from the Sahara or Middle
East by winds from the south.
As well as natural particles circulating in the air there are also those
resulting from human activity (anthropogenic emissions) and pollutants. It
has been known for a long time that DDT used in agriculture has been found
in the fat of animals living near the poles where pesticides are not used
and rightly so! Dust also comes from metallurgical industries, incineration
(is it really a good idea to burn waste from human activities) and other
sources. On this point we do not need to ask questions about globalization
to understand that humans are poisoning the whole planet. Europe pollutes
Asia, Asia pollutes America and America pollutes Europe and so on… not to
mention fungi, bacteria and viruses…
Dust from the Sahara is red or ochre in colour. It contains iron and these
particules fall over the Mediterranean sea (approximately 12 tons per square
kilometre). This iron is dispersed and stimulates the production of plankton
in the sea at a time when production is low. The same thing has been observed
in the Atlantic but here the particles which are too abundant cloud the water
and disturb the development of the coral reef (in the Caribbean for example),
all the more so since they transport fungi which are harmful to coral.
SeaRivers Newsletter 16/6/03
World Struggles to Fend Off Desertification
NEW YORK, New York, - Every year, vast patches of the Earth turn barren
and unproductive, the consequence of drought and poor land management. This
process - known as desertification - has far reaching costs to humanity,
United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan said today, and poses "an ever increasing
global threat."
In a message marking World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, Annan
warned that increasing land degradation is threatening food production and
triggering humanitarian and economic crises.
"Because the poor often farm degraded land that is increasingly unable to
meet their needs, desertification is both a cause and a consequence of poverty,"
Annan said. "Fighting desertification must, therefore, be an integral part
of our wider efforts to eradicate poverty and ensure long term food security."
Drought and desertification threaten the livelihood of more than 1.2 billion
people in some 110 countries, with 135 million around the world at risk of
being displaced.
Human activities such as overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and
poor irrigation practices are key factors in this trend, Annan said, and
arable land per person is shrinking throughout the world.
Arable land per person has declined from 0.32 hectares per person in 1961-63
to 0.21 hectares in 1997-99 and is expected to drop further to 0.16 hectares
by 2030.
An estimated six million hectares of productive land are lost every year
because of desertification, land degradation and declining agricultural productivity,
according to the UN.
Last year, for example, millions of tons of productive topsoil in Australia
blew away in dust storms, as the country suffered through its worst drought
in more than a century. In India, dry spells and deforestation turn 2.5 million
hectares in wasteland every year.
And some 70 percent of all land in Mexico is vulnerable to desertification,
one reason why some 900,000 Mexicans leave home each year in search of a
better life as migrant workers in the United States.
"But nowhere is the problem of desertification more acute than in sub-Saharan
Africa," Annan explained, "where the number of environmental refugees is
expected to rise to 25 millions in the next 20 years.
Sustainable water resource management is the theme of this year's World Day
to Combat Desertification and Drought, highlighting the issue of water scarcity
and the need for better water conservation and management.
The Secretary General urged countries to support the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification and Drought - the only legally binding treaty to address
desertification and drought with a focus on sustainable development.
Since the treaty was adopted in 1994, "numerous projects have been initiated,
despite limited resources," Annan said, but much more needs to be done to
reverse the trend of continued desertification.
Some 187 nations are Parties to the convention, but funding has not matched
this tacit support for the measures needed to address the problems of drought
and desertification.
"Let us today recommit ourselves to the goals of the Convention, and to achieving
sustainable development for all, including in the dryland rural areas where
the world's poorest people live," Annan said
ENS 17/6/03
The Earth Is Heating Up Despite the Lies
Hold on to what is good
even if it is
a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe
even if it is
a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do
even if it is
a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when
it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when
I have gone away from you.
-- Nancy Wood
I have become really tired over the years of presenting the “other side”
when discussing global warming with students or the public. While I knew
that the vast majority of climate scientists are convinced that the Earth’s
temperature is increasing due to a build up of greenhouse gases from human
activities, the news media regularly reported that there were scientists
who claimed it wasn’t true. I dutifully presented both sides. But recently,
I learned that even I was duped by a carefully orchestrated effort to convince
the media and the pubic that there was division among global warming researchers.
It turns out that major energy companies were underwriting a pre-planned
and well funded campaign to lie to us all. And the Bush administration joined
the ranks of the deceivers this week when the Environmental Protection Agency
was directed to eliminate a long section describing the risks from rising
global temperatures from a soon to be released report on the state of the
environment.
John C. Topping, Jr., president of the Climate Institute and a former Republican
staff director of the Office of Air and Radiation of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, told the Cox News Service earlier this month that some
energy companies devised a plan to attack the credibility of climate science
in the late 1980s. Playing off the news media’s tendency to include both
sides of an issue - and not looking too closely at the details - the companies
were able to create the impression that scientists were deeply divided over
whether or not global warming existed. Topping said, “It was all very shrewdly
done.”
As a result of this manipulation of the news media, further fueled by most
mainstream reporters’ lack of critical examination of the issues, people
were led to believe that science was still unsure of the cause of global
temperature increases.
The truth is that most climate scientists have thought for a long time that
the significant rise in the Earth’s global temperature that came to light
in the 1980s is due to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,
largely from the burning of fossil fuels. Many of the scientists who dispute
the validity of global warming have deep ties to energy industries.
A recent study challenging global warming was underwritten by the American
Petroleum Institute. Two of the study’s five authors have ties to the coal
and gas industries. Two others are senior scientists with an organization
supported by ExxonMobil Corporation.
In the book “The Heat is On,” author Ross Gelbspan writes, “The contradictory
statements of a tiny handful of discredited scientists, funded by big coal
and big oil, represent a deliberate – and extremely reckless – campaign of
deception and disinformation.”
Modern science represents itself as universal, value free and able to arrive
at objective conclusions about life. Yet how can any endeavor be free of
judgment and completely objective, especially when politics and business
interests interfere?
Even if a research program is free of political and industrial entanglements,
studies have shown that a researcher will nearly always observe data and
draw conclusions that fit within the boundaries of her or his expectations.
After all, humans are thinking, feeling, and subjective beings. Add to this
dynamic political maneuvering and payoffs, and scientific investigation no
longer becomes the purveyor of objective truth.
Vandana Shiva, a theoretical physicist and feminist scholar from India, observes
that modern science claims to be a liberating force for humanity as a whole.
Yet worldwide experiences do not support this claim.
Science and technology are used throughout the globe as a political and economic
force to bring lesser developed countries up to North American standards.
In these developing countries, in order to support this new set of values
brought about by these supposed improvements, the separation from the natural
world must, sadly, increase. For example, healthy, productive land is cleared
for cattle ranches, the consumption of meat increases, and the production
of local food ceases as production efforts are deflected to exportable goods.
Cancers that have been unknown until now in the lesser developed countries
are on the rise as peoples' lifestyles shift towards high animal protein
diets and the abuse of substances such as caffeine and tobacco. The increase
in stress that accompanies a more consumer oriented lifestyle, the quest
for the "American Dream," results in higher blood pressure and an increase
in circulatory diseases such as heart attacks and strokes which, together,
kill 15.3 million people a year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirms that shifts in the lifestyles
of the industrialized world, made possible by scientific and technological
advances, have dramatically impacted the health of the world. Diseases of
affluence are now rampant in developing countries, as they are in the West,
and WHO estimates that cancers from these diseases will rise a remarkable
40 percent by the year 2020.
The mainstream news media seems dedicated to promoting an ideal that may
have never existed - that science is absolute and objective. With the recent
revelations of journalistic fraud, and the lack of oversight by editors of
very well known news organizations, it is not too hard to conclude that the
assumptions we have been making about our world based on news reporting by
these organizations will need reassessment.
Since the scientific revolution in the 1600s, people in the developed nations
of the Earth have walked inexorably down a path towards reliance on technological
solutions to life's choices. These technological solutions have inevitably
involved the creation of huge amounts of chemicals and materials that we
now know to be toxic, and the need for their disposal.
Yet we do not choose to stop using substances that we know cause harm. Those
who lead our industrial complex and those political leaders who support economic
health over human and ecosystem health have chosen instead to continue producing
and disposing of toxic substances in our air, water, and soil.
Even the concept of disposal is flawed and fallacious - there is no place
for our toxic trash to go except here on our Earth, dispersed in our air
or buried or dumped among its inhabitants.
There is no such place as "away." Everything is still in our backyard or
someone else's backyard. The inescapable web of life brings us into daily
contact with these substances, and with their life threatening effects.
But everything is OK, isn't it? So many people are tired of all the talk
of doom and gloom. Everything is going to work out, most hope. That is certainly
a very safe and comfortable belief.
But the danger of such a belief is that we fall into what I call the Lullaby
of Misplaced Responsibility. When we do not wish to examine the dark side
that naturally accompanies the activities of our greed based society, then
we won't want to take responsibility for any of the consequences, whether
intended or unintended. I believe that all will be all right, too - eventually,
but only after much hardship and darkness, and only if we the people force
our eyes open.
The effects of these toxic practices on our world and our health can no longer
be debated as they were when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962
and awakened the world to the folly of ignoring the interconnectedness of
all life.
Eight generations have now grown up in a world where toxic substances have
made their way deep into the webs of our lives and of our planet. Many thousands
of generations of animal, insect, bird, and plant life have felt the magnifying
effects of toxic exposure. We have consumed many of these toxics in our foods.
Global warming is real. Pesticide poisoning is real. The greed and corruption
of many of our political leaders is real. We have to stop denying and hoping
that the worst is not possible and begin facing the realities of our world.
The idea of there being two sides to every issue has been overstated and
abused. Look into your heart, past the social conditioning and the fears,
and see the truth.
RESOURCES
1. See an article about the energy industry ties of global warming researchers
at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/124642_warming02.html
2. Check out the Climate Institute at: http://www.climate.org
3. Learn about Ross Gelbspan’s book at: http://www.heatisonline.org
4. Keep the media under control with the help of Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting at: http://www.fair.org/
5. Get help watching the media from the Center for Media and Democracy at:
http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/index.html
6. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell
them it is time to put planetary health ahead of greed and self-interest.
If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
7. Get a very different perspective on the news from: http://www.indymedia.org/
Healing Our World: Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
ENS 22/6/03
Pollution in Indonesia is reaching catastrophic
levels, says the World Bank
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Acid rain, hazardous industrial and fecal waste being
dumped unchecked, and other pollutants are having an alarming impact on Indonesia's
environment and people, the World Bank said Tuesday.
Indonesians are paying "a high price in human health and environmental degradation,"
the World Bank said in its first environmental report on Indonesia.
One-third of children are at risk of serious damage to their brains, lungs,
and digestive systems from lead poisoning because most vehicles still use
leaded fuels, the Indonesia Environment Monitor 2003 report said.
Indonesia has the highest number of typhoid cases in Asia and has been plagued
by repeated epidemics of gastrointestinal infections, amid high levels of
pollution in drinking water, it said.
More than 90 percent of household and industrial garbage is discarded in
largely uncontrolled dumps, with toxic material seeping into the groundwater.
Rivers and canals are clogged with rubbish, polluting the water that many
Indonesians drink. Fecal contamination is rampant as human waste is disposed
directly into waterways.
Choking smoke from annual forest fires, mainly on Sumatra and Borneo islands,
has caused respiratory problems in hundreds of thousands of people. Garbage
is often burned, adding to air pollution.
Pollution levels are "so badly neglected in Indonesia that it is affecting
the health and lives of all people here," said Tom Walton, an environmental
adviser at the World Bank in Jakarta. "A lack of political will to enforce
environmental law, entrenched corruption, and lack of understanding in pollution
management are blocking efforts to overcome the problems."
The government denied it lacked the commitment to improve the environment.
"Political will is not like an Aladdin's lamp: You rub it and everything
improves," said Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim.
He said the 1997 Asian financial economic crisis was partly to blame for
the country's poor environment. "At the height of the crisis, the number
of factories and power plants decreased but what was left were the worst
polluters," he said.
The World Bank pointed to the banning of leaded gasoline in the national
capital, Jakarta, by mid-2001 as a success in curbing pollution. But it said
the nationwide lead-phasing-out deadline of January was not met, and polluting
fuels were not expected to be eradicated until 2005.
Acid rain is on the rise, destroying crops, especially in Java and Sumatra
islands, where factories and power plants are concentrated.
Toxic waste from mining, including mercury-laced soil, is often discarded
in rivers and the sea, killing marine life. Forty percent of the country's
sprawling coral reefs are "seriously damaged" because of excessive fishing
and pollution, it said.
Source: Associated Press 25/6/03
French Cabinet approves plan for a new environmental
charter
PARIS — France's Cabinet approved a plan Wednesday that would modify the
constitution to give environmental protection as much weight as human rights.
President Jacques Chirac is behind the environment charter, an attempt to
make France a world leader in promoting environmental concerns. The bill
is expected to go before parliament this fall.
Chirac called the Cabinet's backing of the plan "an historic advance."
"A pioneer among major countries, France must from now on stand as an example,"
Chirac said in the Cabinet meeting, quoted by government spokesman Jean-Francois
Cope.
The charter has 10 articles. The first says that "everyone has the right
to live in an environment that is balanced and healthy." The second says
people have the duty to "preserve and improve" the natural world.
The charter also says that people must pay damages for harming the environment.
Under current law, for example, if there is an oil spill, fishers can claim
damages if their nets are ruined or sales are hit. But under the new charter,
polluters would also be financially responsible for soiled beaches and slick-covered
birds.
If the bill is passed, the preamble of the national constitution would be
changed to mention the new environment charter. It would be the first time
the preamble — the Constitution's overarching philosophical statement — has
been modified since the document went into effect with the start of the Fifth
Republic in 1958.
The charter would then be on equal footing with France's landmark 1789 human
rights document, the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen."
The most contentious article in the new charter says there is a "principle
of precaution" that would oblige officials to take temporary measures to
halt practices that may or may not be risky.
Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, president of France's powerful group of business
leaders, Medef, has worried the principle could make innovative companies
afraid of taking risks and cause investors to flee France.
Before the plan can take effect, it must either be put to the French in a
referendum or approved by both houses of parliament in a joint session.
Source: Associated Press 26/6/03
Amazon destruction jumps; environmentalists are
shocked
BRASILIA, Brazil — The deforestation rate in Brazil's Amazon, the world's
largest jungle, has jumped a dramatic 40 percent, sparking alarm Thursday
among environmentalists.
"This is shocking," said Mario Monzoni, a project coordinator for Friends
of the Earth group in Brazil. "The rate of deforestation should be falling;
instead the opposite is happening."
Preliminary figures from the environment ministry, released late on Wednesday,
showed deforestation in the Amazon jumped to 9,840 square miles last year
— the highest since 1995 — from 7,010 square miles in 2001.
The ministry said the new center-left government, which has an environment
minister from the Amazon, would announce measures next week "to reverse this
situation" which led to the deforestation of an area slightly smaller than
Haiti.
The Amazon, an area of continuous tropical forest that is larger than Western
Europe, has been described as the "lungs of the world" because of its vast
capacity to produce oxygen. But environmentalists fear its destruction because
it is home to up to 30 percent of the planet's animal and plant life and
is an important source of medicines.
Most of the deforestation takes place due to burning and logging to create
farms, and the jump in 2002 suggests soy farming is growing rapidly in the
area, as has been feared for years by environmentalists. Brazil is expected
to overtake U.S. soy production in a few years, making it the world's No.
1 producer of a crop which offers large profits for farmers and gives a sizable
boost to Brazil's trade accounts as a bumper export.
"It was a long, dry season, but the deforestation figures are at least 30
or 40 percent higher than historical trends," said David Cleary, director
of the Amazon program at the Nature Conservancy in Brazil. "It's clear that
the soy boom is an important element of this in the southern Amazon, and
if ways are not found to minimize the impact of the inevitable spread of
soy farming, it is difficult to see these figures falling in coming years,"
he said.
Monzoni said the surge in deforestation was also worrying, as last year Brazil's
economic growth was in a slump, and deforestation rates normally tend to
fall in such periods.
Because of the size of the Amazon, it is virtually impossible to control
deforestation, which is carried out by farmers, illegal loggers, and miners.
The poor are often drawn to the Amazon from other parts of Brazil and take
part in illegal logging, which is extremely lucrative, especially in the
trade of rare tropical timber species like mahogany.
Source: Reuters 27/6/03
Rare sunfish found at beach
RARE FIND: Park ranger Ian Surgenor takes a look at a sun fish washed
up on Christchurch's Southshore beach.
A rare fish that washed up on Christchurch's Southshore beach was mistaken
for a small whale. The sunfish, weighing 540kg and measuring 2m by 2m, was
first spotted floundering in shallow water on the beach on Wednesday afternoon.
The species can grow to weigh a tonne.
The fish is a rare sight in this part of New Zealand. It tended to live
in warmer seas north of Cook Strait, park ranger Ian Surgenor said. The species
feed on jellyfish. "There is very little known about them because they are
so rare."
In 1998, also at Southshore, children found a sunfish measuring about 1m.
Mr Surgenor said he knew of only about three washed up in Canterbury in the
last 30 years. Mr Surgenor said the sunfish may have become disorientated
by the colder water or may have succumbed to disease. It had parasites on
lesions on its body.
The sunfish is considered a tasty meal in other countries, but Mr Surgenor
said this one did not look good eating. The fish was buried, but its skeleton
will be recovered in a year for scientific purposes.
The Press 2/5/03
Environmentalists are worried about proposal to
give big farms a break from pollution laws
WASHINGTON — Environmentalists say they are alarmed by an agriculture industry
proposal to give factory-style farms a two-year break from air quality and
toxic waste cleanup laws if they take part in a planned $11 million research
program.
Environmental Protection Agency officials said Tuesday the negotiations
with industry are only meant to address concerns raised by the National Academy
of Sciences last year about the difficulty of measuring emissions from animal
feeding operations. The academy's report faulted EPA's system for measuring
emissions from the manure of animals such as pigs, beef and dairy cattle,
and poultry and said the lack of certainty makes it hard for government regulators
to do their jobs.
The Sierra Club circulated a statement on Monday saying the Bush administration
was holding closed-door meetings with livestock and poultry industry officials
to exempt them from government lawsuits and clean-air laws. The stench and
waste from corporate farms has increasingly become an issue as it has irritated
neighboring communities.
"Exempting animal factories from basic environmental laws like the Clean
Air Act would quite simply put thousands of communities at risk," said Brent
Newell, a Sierra Club attorney.
The club also released a copy of a nearly year-old confidential memo to
EPA officials from Washington-based agriculture lobbyist John Thorne proposing
two years of industry-paid research — estimated to cost about $11 million
— into the science behind air emissions monitoring. During that time, Thorne
said, EPA could provide immunity or "safe harbor protection" from government
lawsuits to the several thousand farms expected to participate in the planned
research.
J. P. Suarez, EPA's enforcement chief, said an immunity deal with industry
could be accomplished by having EPA agree not to sue industry groups during
the two years of research, though any agreement would require animal feeding
operations to eventually comply with clean air and Superfund laws.
"We would gather data and at the end of the day we would evaluate which
farms would be subject to the Clean Air Act," Suarez said.
Thorne, who represents many of the largest agricultural groups, said the
impetus for the proposal was to better understand the science of monitoring
for nitrous oxide, soot, and volatile organic compounds, as required by the
Clean Air Act, and for ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, as required by Superfund's
emergency reporting provision.
"The main reason for the whole discussion with EPA is research. We're not
talking about a permanent exemption from the laws. All we're asking for is
that no one can take the data we're paying to generate and use it against
us," Thorne said. He said the goal is to clarify which farms must comply with
the laws.
But giving the industry immunity isn't a good idea, wrote Bill Becker, who
heads a group representing state and local air pollution program administrators
and control officials, in a letter to EPA Administrator Christie Whitman last
month. Becker told Whitman it would "impede the ability of states and localities
to address agricultural air emissions and also set troubling precedent in
air quality legislation."
Source: Associated Press 7/5/03
Green Scissors Shows Congress $58 Billion In Cuts
WASHINGTON, DC, - American taxpayers are spending $58 billion to fund
wasteful and environmentally damaging federal programs, charges a new report
released today by a coalition of environmental, taxpayer and consumer groups.
The Green Scissors 2003 Report says eliminating these 68 federally funded
programs could put the nation on a path toward fiscal and environmental responsibility,
but warns that Congress and the Bush administration are taking the nation
down a different road.
"Congress continues to fund industries and programs that put undue on our
health, our environment and our economy," according to the report. "At a time
in history when security is on the minds of all Americans, our leaders appear
to be actively working to cultivate financial and environmental insecurity."
This is the eighth year Friends of the Earth, Taxypayers for Common Sense
and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) have released its lists
of wasteful and environmentally harmful programs. Over the last eight years,
$26 billion in spending programs targeted by the Green Scissors Campaign have
been cut or eliminated from the federal budget.
Congress and the administration, according to the report, have turned the
nation's $5.6 trillion surplus into a projected deficit of $1.8 trillion over
the next decade. The report says it is time to cease subsidizing timber sales and the
extraction of the nation's natural resources.
"This massive and continuing draw on the federal treasury undermines our
economic security and threatens the stability of essential government programs
that many Americans rely on for their basic needs," the report says.
It slams much of the nation's existing energy policy, in particular the
Energy Department's fossil fuel research and development programs, which
it says could cost taxpayers $1.7 billion over the next five years. Subsidies
to the coal, oil and gas industries should be cut, the report finds, because
of the environmental damage these industries cause.
"These subsidies are going to some of the nation's wealthiest and dirtiest
companies, leaving a trail of pollution in their wake," according to the report.
The government should reject proposals to restart the Tennessee Valley Authority's
(TVA) Browns Ferry nuclear power plant, according to the report, a move that
would save at least $2.1 billion. It recommends the elimination of the Energy
Department's Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, a nuclear fuel reprocessing program
that will cost taxpayers $315 million over the next five years.
"With the country facing the worst deficits in history, politicians need
to dam the river of red ink," said Aileen Roder, program director at Taxpayers
for Common Sense. "By blocking the tracks of the special interest gravy train,
we can get our fiscal ship in shape and preserve the environment at the same
time."
The energy bills under discussion in the House and Senate do little to curb
many of these harmful program, the coalition says.
"The Senate energy bill is based on 19th century energy policy that will
cost taxpayers at least twenty billion 21st century dollars and will harm
public health well into the next century," said U.S. PIRG environmental advocate
Navin Nayak.
The report criticizes Congress for not reauthorizing the Superfund tax on
polluters. Polluters benefit from tax breaks, the report finds, and the expiration
of this tax has come as cleanup has dropped dramatically.
Reinstating the tax would earn $5.8 billion for current and future Superfund
cleanups.
Green Scissors suggests cutting the U.S. Forest Service's timber roads construction
program, which would save $170 million over five years.
The Forest Service has built more than 380,000 miles of roads in national
forests to subsidize the timber industry. These roads have had negative impacts
on water quality and wildlife habitat, and has left the federal government
with a $10 billion backlog in needed road maintenance.
"Logging, mining, road building, and other developmental activities have
destroyed more than half of our national forest," says the report. The $191 million Yazoo Pumps project is part of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers' plan to "replumb" the Mississippi River.
Congress should cease assistance to large factory farm operations through
an Agriculture Department program that provides assistance to farmers and
ranchers seeking to improve the environmental quality of their operations,
according to the report.
A change in last year's Farm Bill lifted the cap on who could access a pool
of $11.6 billion over 10 years, allowing the nation's largest livestock operations
to receive up to $450,000 over six years.
Curbing irrigation subsidies to agricultural industries could save up to
$1.1 billion a year, according to Green Scissors. Other ill advised water
policies - such as dredging and flood control - waste some $9 billion.
The $1.2 billion Freedom CAR initiative is a waste of money, the report
finds, because it lacks any meaningful benchmarks to ensure action.
Terminating it could save $634 million over the next five years, says the
report.
"Now is a critical time for federal and state budgets," said Erich Pica,
senior policy analyst at Friends of the Earth. "It is inconceivable that members
of Congress and the administration are actually proposing more handouts to
industries that drill and mine our public lands, pollute our air and contaminate
our waters."
The full report is available at www.greenscissors.org
ENS 8/5/03
Waipori consents to court
Several resource consent conditions attached to Trustpower's continuing
operation of its Waipori hydro-electric power scheme will go before the Environment
Court.
The Otago Regional Council granted consents to the Tauranga-based electricity
generator and retailer late last year to continue operating its series of
four dams on the Waipori River, 60km southwest of Dunedin.
The scheme draws water from Lake Mahinerangi to generate 84MW of power.
However, Trustpower, the Save Mahinerangi Society, and the Dunedin City
Council appealed some of the conditions on the consent. Most of their objections
have been settled by negotiation, but issues relating to operating levels
for Lake Mahinerangi, erosion management around the lake and a condition involving
a $100,000 mitigation payment will be heard by the court, probably in August.
Trustpower spokesman Graeme Purches said the Environment Court action did
not affect the scheme's generation in the meantime, as it continued to operate
on expired consents until the court made its decisions.
Trustpower bought the Waipori scheme from the Dunedin City Council in a
purchase that also included Aramoana land it subsequently investigated for
wind generation.
Mr Purches said yesterday that land had since been sold to a neighbouring
farmer but an easement would allow wind generation there in the future. Under
the easement, other parts of the farmer's land could also be used.
Plans for wind generation at the site were on hold while other more promising
locations were investigated, he said.
Trustpower hoped to double generation from its Tararua wind farm and was
looking at new sites in the North and South Island.
ODT Tuesday, 13-May 2003
NZ supports pro-GM case against Europe
New Zealand's decision to join a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes
case against the European Union (EU) over its refusal to open its market to
genetically engineered products has angered environmentalists.
The chairman of the Sustainability Council, Sir Peter Elworthy said the
move was "a blow to our marketing and to consumer perceptions of New Zealand".
"Why is New Zealand joining a fight that pits us against our biggest trading
partner over products we do not even grow?" he asked.
However, Acting Trade Negotiations Minister Phil Goff defended the decision,
saying New Zealand was taking part in the case to protect its overall interests,
not because it was likely to produce genetically modified grains or oilseeds.
The action against the EU is being taken by the United States, Argentina,
Canada and Egypt. New Zealand is joining as a third party along with Australia,
Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
Announcing the trade case, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said
the EU's refusal to approve new biotech food was "in complete violation of
international trade rules".
Mr Goff said New Zealand had decided to join the WTO disputes case because
of its belief a rules-based trade system based on transparency and science
was needed.
"New Zealand has a strong interest in defending the integrity of the international
trading system, in particular the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement which
requires members to set health-related standards based on scientific evidence
and risk analysis.
"Our participation does not mean that we wish to promote New Zealand exports
of GM (genetically modified) crops. We do not produce GM grains or oilseeds
and are not likely to. But the way to deal with consumer fears is to ensure
they have proper information and that a sound regime is implemented for any
restrictions on particular products," Mr Goff said.
But Greenpeace, the Green Party and the Sustainability Council warned New
Zealand risked alienating its biggest trading partner.
In a statement released by the Sustainability Council, Sir Peter pointed
out that less than a month ago, the Government published advice showing that
20 per cent to 30 per cent of consumers would cease purchasing New Zealand
goods if it released any genetically engineered organisms.
"Now, before Erma has even approved any such release as in the national
interest, Government is effectively advertising New Zealand's support for
growing GM food."
Surveys showed 71 per cent of Europeans did not want to eat GM foods.
"New Zealand is joining a fight that is not ours, about a product we don't
grow, and against the interests of food exporters who continually work to
reassure customers our products are GM free."
The co-leader of the Green Party, Jeanette Fitzsimons, said this "aggressive
move from the United States to manipulate WTO regulations" did not bode well
for New Zealanders' efforts to get comprehensive labelling introduced for
GE foods, most of which come from the US.
The decision by the majority of Europeans to reject GE food was supported
by many scientists and medical professionals on the basis that GE crops were
"inherently unpredictable and GE foods have never been tested for safety",
she said.
"It is ironic that the prime minister lectured the European Policy Centre
just a few weeks ago on the benefits of 'fair' trade... because there's nothing
'fair' in trying to use the dogma of international fair trade regulations
to force GE food down the throats of people who don't want it."
Greenpeace spokesman Steve Abel said the US administration was "effectively
declaring war on consumers". "But it is a war the US will not win. "To launch
a WTO case to help the desperate genetic engineering industry to market its
unwanted GE products is an insult to the European public," he said.
He quoted the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, David
Byrne as saying the EU's powerful response to the challenge confirmed that
consumer rejection was the real reason for GE's failure in Europe.
NZPA 15/5/03
Opinion: Juiced on SUVs and Prozac
EVERGREEN, Colorado, - Every time I have the misfortune of unwittingly
getting caught in rush hour traffic, I am struck by the magnitude and incivility
of the condition. No civilized people should allow themselves to be subjected
to such trauma.
Recovering from the experience, I keep expecting to read headlines or see
news bulletins about the crime of today’s massive traffic tie-up. But apparently
this is now normal urban activity, undeserving of notice.
What is interesting to note is that, as roads and public places have become
increasingly congested, the average car interior, along with the average home’s
square footage, have bloated proportionately. It’s not unreasonable to conclude
that the reason we have bigger and bigger cars and houses is to compensate
for our shrinking public spaces. Rush hour traffic, Denver, Colorado, November 2001
But instead of showing news coverage of people being herded like cattle,
the TV is showing an ad for a cavernous SUV. The ad does not show a suburbanite
yakking away on a cell phone, obliviously hurling tons of steel across lanes
of choked traffic, while rushing from mall to mall on robotic shopping errands.
No, it instead presents scenes of forests, rivers and mountains, scenes of
nature where the only visitor is Modern Man and his supersized SUV. OK, sometimes
MM is accompanied by the family.
The image is always one of space and openness and freedom. What is being
marketed here is not security, not utility, not even macho independence, but
room.
As I contemplated this, another commercial came on, this time for some psychiatric
drugs. It occurred to me that these pills might be considered the SUV’s of
the inner environment. “Feeling constricted, things closing in on you? Well,
take our little overpriced pill and maybe you won’t notice any more.” Traffic
jams will no longer bother you. Having to pay for space, serenity, quiet,
clean air and water - these things will no longer bother you.
Thank goodness there are still some basic, straightforward products being
sold on TV, products like...well, orange juice, for example. But wait. This
orange juice commercial shows a young suburbanite, maniacally dashing through
the morning tasks, fueled by...orange juice? Is this what’s it’s come to,
selling orange juice as speed? “Not to be taken with... Side effects were
generally mild...” Happy pills
So are SUV’s being sold as happy pills, to treat a society where all the
walls are closing in? Or are ingestibles being sold as SUV’s, vehicles for
personal freedom?
I don’t know, but consider this. As uncongested open space becomes more
scarce, advertisers are increasingly turning to computer generated imagery
for the “natural” settings in which to place their clients' vehicles. In
other words, even the images of room now need to be manufactured. Virtual
reality, therefore, is behind not only the way we’re sold products, but the
mental images and preset expectations for the things we purchase, both to
swallow and to drive. No wonder we have nature scenes as wallpaper on our
computer monitors - more soothing, stupifying reinforcers of our denial.
And it wouldn’t be economically productive for the media or the government
to go out of their way and upset us with all these notions. It seems as if,
to satisfy the merchants of sprawl, who conspire with the illusionists of
growth, who abet the demigods of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product], we’ve allowed
our delusions of progress to back us into subdivided, commercially zoned
corners. While, to divert our attention, we’re thrown bones of increased interior
space, both physical and mental.
Speaking of which, I continue to flip through the channels looking for some
good escapist fare. Oh, look. There’s George Bush, telling the rest of the
world that global warming doesn’t exist, and that preserving the shrinking
natural environment is less important than expanding our domestic economy.
Where are my pills?
{Harv Teitelbam is an ecologist, certified treeclimber, and writer who lives
in Evergreen, Colorado.}
ENS 16/5/03
One Thousand Brazilian Babies Poisoned by Mercury
ITAITUBA, Brazil, May 20, 2003 (ENS) - The Evandro Chagas Research Institute,
linked to the Brazilian Health Ministry, has found high levels of mercury
contamination among 60 percent of the newborns at three hospitals in the city
of Itaituba, in the Brazilian Amazon.
The institute tested the blood of all the 1,666 babies born during 2002
in the three hospitals of the city and found 1,000 of them to be contaminated.
Some of the children had 80 parts per million (ppm) of mercury in the blood.
The highest acceptable level, according to the World Health Organization,
is 30 ppm.
The contamination is due to gold mining activities that took place in the
rivers of the region during the 1980s. In those years, Itaituba became the
biggest gold producer in the world. Most of the gold is gone now, but the
problems remain. The city of Itaituba on the Tapajós River
The National Department for Mineral Production estimates that around 600
tons of mercury was thrown into the Tapajós River, one of the biggest
tributaries of the Amazon River, over a 10 year period.
This mercury enters into the circle of life, through the small species like
algae and vegetarian fishes. These end up feeding some carnivorous species
which are very popular in the Amazon menu, like tucunaré and pirarucu.
Other studies have shown that the level of mercury in these species makes
them unsuitable for human consumption. When they are consumed by humans, the
mercury in their bodies is ingested but not excreted, and higher and higher
concentrations accumulate in the blood. Then, it passes from mother to child.
In addition, contamination by mercury may cause irritation of skin and eyes,
neurological problems, joint pains, fainting, loss of appetite, diarrhea and
learning deficiencies in children. According to scientists at the institute,
some of the effects of the metal on human health have yet to be discovered
by science.
The study by Evandro Chagas Institute, a reference center for tropical diseases,
is the first of such detail conducted in mining areas of the Amazon forest.
In the future, researchers at the institute intend to keep studying 200
of the contaminated children to track the long term effects of the mercury's
presence in their bodies.
As they grow older the contamination in their bodies could become even worse,
as the children will stay in the area and suffer further exposure to the metal
through their food. In the laboratory at the Evandro Chagas Institute which develops studies
and scientific research in the fields of biological sciences, the environment
and tropical medicine.
On the other hand, if there is no further exposure, the levels of mercury
in their organisms tend to be reduced, because of excretion through the hair,
fingernails and urine.
The mothers of the subject babies have also been examined by researchers.
The result of their evaluation has yet to be published, but in some cases
the mercury contamination was also dramatic. Some of the victims were found
to have as much as 177 ppm of mercury in their blood.
The municipality of Itaituba, a city located in the southeastern part of
Para State, said it already has knowledge of the problem, but officials still
do not know what measures could be taken to minimize the future effects of
mercury contamination.
The mercury, a liquid metal also known as quicksilver, is usually used in
mining areas, to isolate the gold from the ore in which it occurs. There is
no control on its utilization, and there are many communities and cities of
the Brazilian Amazon affected by this indiscriminate use.
One known mercury victim is the present Brazilian Environment Minister Marina
Silva, a former senator. Born in the Amazon Region, Silva lived in a small
community of rubber tappers during her childhood and teenage years, when she
probably was contaminated. She discovered the sickness in 1992, when she
experienced strong headaches and weak appetite. This contamination sometimes
forces Silva to be absent from public meetings for health treatments.
ENS 20/5/03
Pacific dry spell could last 30 years
New Zealand could be in for another 30 years of depleted hydro lakes and
power supply problems.
New Zealand climatologists now believe Pacific-wide weather circulations
flipped from a wet phase to a dry phase after a particularly strong El Nino
event in 1997-98, signalling broad-scale changes in the weather and causing
the latest power shortage.
Yesterday, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa)
was awarded $1.2 million by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
for a six-year programme to investigate the effects of climate on energy supply
and demand.
Evidence gathered by scientists in the last few years points to the existence
of a long-term atmospheric and oceanic cycle, which is like a bigger cousin
of the phenomenon that causes El Nino and La Nina events and which exaggerates
their effects. Known as the Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), it occurs
on a time-scale of 25 to 30 years, about 10 times longer than a typical El
Nino or La Nina.
Niwa climate dynamics principal scientist Jim Renwick said research indicated
that the country had been in a broadly dry phase of the IPO from about 1947
until 1977, with related extended dry spells for the Mackenzie Country lakes.
The cycle then flipped to a generally wetter phase for about 20 years until
the most recent shift back to a drier climate five years ago, he said.
"The net annual effect of these changes isn't huge, say a 10 per cent change
in rainfall for the West Coast, but over 25 years or so that adds up to a
lot of rain."
The six-year programme would allow climatologists to pin down the extent
to which oscillations affecting the entire Pacific could affect New Zealand's
electricity supply and demand.
"It will allow us to build better models of observed variations over New
Zealand. If we know that the IPO is in its dry phase and a La Nina happens,
we can look at what sort of daily rainfalls we might expect around the lakes
over a season," Dr Renwick said.
Niwa would work closely with agencies to help the Government and industry
plan energy strategies which considered likely year-to-year and decade-to-decade
climate variations.
The Press 21/5/03
Delta blues: Louisiana's coast has eroded faster
than previously thought
NEW ORLEANS — The erosion of Louisiana's fragile coast is even worse than
previously thought, and one-third of the state's shoreline — home to the fabled
Mississippi River Delta — could be wiped out by 2050 without urgent action,
the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Between 1932 and 2000, about 1,900 square miles of Louisiana's marshy coast
washed away, up from the previous estimate of 1,500 square miles, said the
USGS, an Interior Department bureau charged with safeguarding the environment.
The new figure was presented this week to President Bush's environmental
policy adviser, Jim Connaughton, who traveled to Louisiana to learn about
erosion around the Delta.
"Over the next 36 hours you will witness the greatest kept secret, you will
see the pending destruction of the seventh largest delta in the world," said
King Milling, chairman of Gov. Mike Foster's advisory committee on coastal
restoration. "We believe that this administration should not become an unwitting
partner to these catastrophic events."
To win hearts for a massive restoration project, the state is highlighting
the importance of the business, wildlife, and culture on the Delta — birthplace
of the Blues, home to endangered species like the Louisiana black bear and
American alligator, and a wintering ground for migratory songbirds.
Louisiana wants the federal government to approve a major coastal engineering
plan that could cost about $14 billion over several decades. Scientists say
the bill is relatively cheap: Doing nothing, they estimate, will cost more
than $100 billion just to restore infrastructure.
Over the next 50 years, an additional 700 square miles of coastline are
expected to be washed away, meaning one-third of the Louisiana coast could
be gone by 2050 unless new Mississippi River sediment is diverted to swamps
and marshes, the USGS said. Louisiana represents about 90 percent of coastal
wetlands loss in the lower 48 states, it said.
The coast's problems date back to 1928, when the Mississippi River was corralled
by levees and dams, which stopped flooding but also kept sediment — needed
to replenish the coast — from reaching the deltaic plain. Navigation canals,
oil and natural gas exploration, and hurricanes also have chewed up the coast.
Connaughton's trip includes a visit to Port Fourchon, which is key to the
country's oil supply, and a meeting with Foster, who has begun a campaign
to raise awareness nationally of Louisiana's coastal erosion.
"I'm here to get a sense of the big picture," Connaughton said at a briefing
this week in New Orleans before leaving on a helicopter trip to the coast.
Connaughton said Bush is interested in preserving wetlands and infrastructure.
He said he will use what he learns about Louisiana's problem to better counsel
the president on what can be done.
The condition of the coast south of New Orleans in the Barataria and Terrebonne
basins is the worst, said James Johnston of the Geological Survey's National
Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette.
Since 1990, about 66 percent of the state's coastal loss occurred south
of New Orleans, and scientists estimate the area could produce as much as
80 percent of the loss over the next 50 years unless restoration work is
done.
In the last decade, Louisiana has spent more than $400 million on about
65 restoration projects, which have dealt with about 22 percent of the land
loss, said Randy Hanchey, assistant secretary for coastal restoration at the
state Department of Natural Resources.
A group of state and federal agencies is working on the broader $14 billion
restoration plan and hopes it will be ready for Congress next year.
"We will continue making the argument that this is not only our problem
but the nation's problem," Hanchey said.
Source: Associated Press 23/5/03
Earth's Vital Signs Show the Pain of Poverty
WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2003 (ENS) - An examination of Earth's "vital signs"
reveals alarming trends of poverty, disease and environmental decline that
threaten global stability, according to the Worldwatch Institute's annual
report on trends shaping the world's future.
There is little for humanity to cheer about in the organization's "Vital
Signs 2003," which outlines how the continued failure to address widespread
poverty serves as a lightening rod for health, social and environmental problems
across the world.
The consumption choices of the rich and the inability of political leaders
to act has brought this situation to bear, says Michael Renner, coauthor and
project director of Vital Signs 2003, and there are few signs that things
will change anytime soon.
Vital Signs 2003 was produced researchers at the Worldwatch Institute, an
international environmental and social policy research organization, in cooperation
with the United Nations Environment Programme.
Humanity's challenge, Renner explained at a press briefing held today in
Washington D.C., is to find a way to balance the need to protect the Earth's
ecosystems without denying the world's poorest individuals the opportunity
to achieve a better life.
"These twin goals cannot be achieved as long as humanity remains divided
into the extremes of rich and poor," Renner said.
But this divide is growing, not shrinking. Globalization has deepened economic
disparities, Renner explained, and the gap between the world's poorest and
richest nations has more than doubled since 1960. Some 815 million people worldwide are chronically hungry.
The scope of the world's poverty is severe - almost half of humanity lives
on less than $2 a day - and the "world economy is rigged against the interests
of the poor," Renner said.
Agricultural subsidies in the developed world, trade barriers, unequal trade
relations and the crippling $2.4 trillion in foreign debt owed by the world's
poorest nations all contribute to this growing disparity.
Less income often means individuals are far more susceptible to disease
- the infant mortality rate in low incomme countries is some 13 times higher
than in the world's wealthier countries.
Infectious diseases kill some 14.4 million people a year, most of whom are
among the world's poorest. Those who perish from infectious disease are often
individuals in the early or prime years of life and the loss of these individuals
can contribute to further economic and social stress on a nation.
The recent outbreak of the new disease SARS "shows how quickly economies
can be thrown out of whack," said coauthor Molly Sheehan.
Lack of clean water or sanitation kills some 1.7 million people each year,
90 percent of which are children.
Seventy percent of the world's HIV positive people live in sub-Saharan Africa
and 82 percent of the world's 1.1 billion smokers live in developing countries.
The consequences of poverty manifest in the form of terrorism, war and contagious
diseases, Renner said, and the effects are felt both by the world's poor and
its rich.
"An unstable world not only perpetuates poverty," Renner said, "but will
ultimately threaten the prosperity that the rich minority has come to enjoy."
Desertification has made even subsistence farming difficult for many
of the world's poor.
And just as the fruits of the world economy are not shared equally, neither
are the consequences of environmental degradation.
The poor are more vulnerable to weather related disasters caused by land
clearing, deforestation and climate change.
Weather related economic losses were highest in industrial countries, but
the human toll was far greater for developing countries.
In 2002, more than 150,000 Kenyans were displace by massive rains, while
more than 800,000 Chinese struggled with the most severe drought in more than
a century.
The report concedes that weather related disasters are likely to worsen
as the climate continues to change, a trend that highlights how the actions
- or inaction - of the world's rich affeect the poor.
Last year was the second warmest since record keeping began in the late
1800s and most scientists are convinced this trend will result in more erratic
weather and rising seas.
The report finds that the burden of responsibility for climate changes falls
squarely on the shoulders of the industrial nations, in particular the United
States.
The United States has five percent of the world's population but produces
some 25 percent of the total of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global
warming.
The pressures on the Earth's ecosystem brought about by poverty are striking,
the report finds, including evidence that more than 12 percent of the bird
species face extinction within the next century.
Among the few positives in the report are some progress in combating AIDs,
a slight increase in communication technology within the developing world
and the global increase in clean energy use.
But even these favorable developments come as the world wrestles with increased
security concerns, Renner said, that have prompted the industrial world to
ramp up defense spending instead of using their wealth to address social,
health and environmental problems.
Low income nations tend to follow suit, Renner explained, and although low
income countries only account for seven percent of global military spending,
this is more than double their share of the world's gross economic product.
The aftermath of war often leaves many without stable food supplies.
The 32 richest nations spent some $839 billion on defense in 2001. The United
States responsible for some 36 percent of the global defense spending.
"The message of increased military spending is that violence pays," Renner
said.
The continued and seemingly unbreakable chain of poverty for many in the
world can foster a loss of hope, Renner explained, and cause some to engage
in desperate and destructive measures.
"Terrorism is the final symptomatic outcome of a larger problem," he said.
Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin added that the world's
focus on terrorism and unrest in the Middle East, combined with a faltering
economy, will further divert resources needed to address the causes and consequences
of global poverty.
Political will is needed to move beyond words and into action, Flavin said,
and the human tragedies underscored by the statistics in this latest report
need to serve as "compelling reminders that social and environmental progress
are not luxuries that can be set aside when the world is experiencing economic
and political problems."
"We must not forget that a very large share of the human population has
been left behind," Flavin said. "Suffering that is allowed to fester today
will lead to adverse and unpredictable consequences for many tomorrows to
come."
ENS 22/5/03
Canada needs plan to protect its diverse ecosystems,
says WWF
TORONTO — Canada risks irreparable harm to its vast natural resources if
it does not act now to protect the diversity of its "island of green," the
World Wildlife Fund Canada said Monday.
After a two-year study, the fund released its "Nature Audit" and concluded
that much needs to be done to conserve the country's forests, marine life,
mammals and birds, and sensitive regions like the Arctic, which are already
in decline because of human intrusion and industrial development.
"We've lost an astounding amount of natural capital since 1600, and we are
viewed globally as this island of green," said Monte Hummel, president of
WWF Canada. "I daresay we've lost much more than Canadians realize, and much
more is under pressure than they may realize. If we don't turn this around,
we are jeopardizing our economy, we are jeopardizing our health, and ... throwing
away a natural heritage and our birthright."
Canada, the world's second largest country after Russia, has the world's
longest coastline and is home to one-quarter of the globe's wetlands and more
than 10 percent of its forests.
The audit said the country should launch a national strategy to protect
and better manage its ecosystem. The WWF noted that populations of long-lived
species that have slow reproductive rates — such as whales, turtles, and yellow
cypress trees — are in decline and needed to be restored.
Canada must also do more to prevent invasive species — such as zebra mussels
that harm some fish population in the Great Lakes — from coming into the country
via ships' ballast water or in packaging crates, by introducing tougher inspections
and regulations, the WWF said.
"We won't stop every species," said Lindsay Rodger, senior manager of biodiversity
conservation at the WWF. "With the amount of trade and individual travel back
and forth from countries, there will likely be species that come over. But
we will able to reduce them. Canada is a country that has one of the best
opportunities to do something significant for biodiversity conservation if
it acts."
Source: Reuters 27/5/03
Land Use Statistics Confirm the Changing Face of
Farms
The New Zealand landscape has changed - fewer sheep, more dairy cows, more
trees, burgeoning vineyards and spreading avocado orchards and olive groves,
have become permanent features of New Zealand's farm landscape. Significant
diversification in land-use patterns took place throughout the 1990s, as described
in the final results from the 2002 Agricultural Production Census.
Land use statistics from the first census of its type since 1994, have just
been released. The 2002 census was a joint undertaking by Statistics New Zealand
and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF).
The census shows that the land area used for grazing, arable, fodder and
fallow land fell significantly between 1994 and 2002, as farmers and growers
responded to more profitable alternative land uses.
Grazing land totalled 12.0 million hectares in 2002, down 1.5 million hectares
from 1994. Over the same period, land under forestry and native bush increased,
as did the number of small blocks of land.
An estimated 400,000 hectares of predominantly marginal grazing land were
converted to forestry intended for timber production. According to the 2002
census, total planted production forest was estimated at 1.9 million hectares.
Between 1994 and 2002, there was a substantial trend towards splitting off
small blocks of agricultural land. Small blocks were estimated to have increased
from about 500,000 hectares in 1994 to more than 700,000 hectares in 2002.
It is estimated that splitting off small blocks accounts for some 600,000
hectares of the decrease in grazing land as captured by the 2002 Agricultural
Census. This is because small blocks in the1994 census comprised just over
100,000 hectares.
In 2002, small blocks of land comprised about one percent of the total census
hectares and MAF is arranging for a separate survey of small holdings. The
results from this survey are expected to help fill the gap in our information
base on small blocks of land.
Some 200,000 hectares of marginal grazing land were also converted to bush
land between 1994 and 2002. The area in mature native bush and regenerating
bush totalled 1.7 million hectares in 2002, up from 1.5 million hectares in
1994.
Changes in pastoral land use since 1994 were dominated by the improved profitability
of dairying over other types of pastoral farming. This resulted in expanded
herd sizes, more dairy farms in Canterbury, Southland and Otago, and the grazing
of dairy stock on former sheep and beef areas. Dairy production contributed
23 per cent to New Zealand's export income for the year ended June 2002. It
contributes significantly to regional economies.
The total area of forest intended for timber production in the North Island
was estimated to have increased by 280,000 hectares since 1994 to 1.4 million
hectares in 2002. Over the same time, production forest in the South Island
increased by 115,000 hectares, to 529,000 hectares in 2002. Significant plantings
of production forest between 1994 and 2002 were recorded in the Gisborne,
Manawatu-Wanganui, Northland, Otago and Tasman regions.
The census highlighted the diversification that took place in the horticultural
sector since 1994. Land used for olives was 2,600 hectares as at 30 June 2002,
and the area in avocados, grown mainly in the Bay of Plenty and Northland,
doubled to 3,100 hectares.
Due to profitable wine exports, the land under grapes in Nelson, Marlborough
and the Hawke's Bay more than doubled in the eight years to June 2002. Over
the same period, some land was taken out of apple and pear production. Overall,
land in horticulture increased by 5,600 hectares to 109,400 hectares in 2002.
More information from the 2002 Agricultural Production Survey will be released
in June.
This will include information on farm counts, farm types, livestock numbers
and also new information on Maori businesses, irrigation, organic land and
grazing of animals for rent.
This census, which will be carried out every five years, will be followed
up this year with a survey of 40,000 randomly selected farmers, horticulturists
and foresters. This will update farming data and continue the monitoring of
the sectors which produce two-thirds of New Zealand's merchandise export earnings.
Press Release: Ministry Of Agriculture And Forestry, Wednesday, 28 May 2003
Discord over dairy pollution plan
A plan to end dairy farm pollution of waterways has been rejected by farmers
and recreational fishermen.
The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord – developed by dairy co-operative
Fonterra in consultation with Local Government New Zealand, the Ministry
of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Ministry for the Environment – was launched
yesterday.
The accord appears to be a response to the New Zealand Fish and Game Council's
"dirty dairying" campaign that highlighted the problem of dairy farm pollution
two years ago.
Under the accord, Fonterra agrees to assess suppliers' environmental performance
during the 2003-04 season.
Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden said the assessment would eventually
be included in farmers' supply terms and conditions.
Fonterra would work with regional councils to develop action plans to deal
with pollution from dairying, he said.
The accord calls for 50 per cent of streams to be fenced by 2007 and 90
per cent of streams fenced by 2012.
However, Fish and Game director Bryce Johnson described the accord as "wimpy".
"Quite apart from the ridiculously long target for something as cheap, simple,
and effective as putting up a single or double wire electric fence, no mention
was made of the last 10 per cent of farm situations which are in all probability
the worst 10 per cent contributing the greatest proportion of the pollution."
Mr Johnson said the worst pollution cases should be attacked first.
The accord also calls for farmers to have nutrient budget systems in place
by 2007 to minimise fertiliser use.
Mr Johnson said fertiliser could leach into groundwater and that major fertiliser
companies already offered free nutrient budgeting "... so the target date
of 2007 was unnecessarily long".
"If this was written
to keep Fish and Game happy it hasn't achieved it."
Kevin Wooding Federated Farmers dairy chairman
"The science tells us dairy cows are 50 times more likely to defecate/ urinate
when they walk through water ... no mention of the last 10 per cent just showed
how serious the industry was to clean up its environmental act."
North Canterbury Fish and Game environmental officer Rochelle Hardy said
stock were still getting into waterways in Canterbury and many local farmers
did not accept it was a problem.
She said Lake Pearson, on the highway to Arthurs Pass near Cass, and the
Kaiapoi River were problem areas.
Federated Farmers dairy chairman Kevin Wooding was also unhappy with the
accord, which he said was not flexible enough. "If this was written to keep
Fish and Game happy it hasn't achieved it. "The thing has shot through with
shocking consultation and I doubt the outcomes set out in it will be achieved."
It was a mistake to take a national approach to water quality problems because
some of the solutions proposed in the accord were not economically viable
on some properties.
The environmental outcomes envisaged in the accord could be achieved without
doing all the things required by it, Mr Wooding said.
"A lot of cows don't go in waterways now so you don't have to fence them
because of the type of contour and the type of farm.
"There is no reason for a cow to go in there if they are grazing the pastures."
Fences around waterways were often damaged in floods. If the accord became
mandatory farmers would spend much of their time fixing fences around waterways.
Mr Wooding questioned the fairness of requiring a Fonterra supplier to fence
waterways and allowing a neighbouring beef farmer to do nothing.
The Press 28/5/03
Exploring the Link Between Health and Environment
WASHINGTON, DC, - The global environment is changing - with far reaching
and complex consequences for human health - and the world's efforts to address
global health issues will fall short unless policymakers embrace this link,
say global health experts who have gathered in Washington for the 30th annual
conference of the Global Health Council.
The theme of the four day conference, said the organization's president
and CEO Nils Daulaire, is to bring the voice of the global health community
"to the front lines of the ongoing dialogue about international environmental
policy."
The interactions between health and the environment are complex, Daulaire
said, but that should not tempt humanity to shy away from studying these important
connections.
"We know our health depends on the air we breathe, the water we drink and
the food we eat," Daulaire said
"Advocates for global health share common ground with the environmental
movement, and the goals of both our movements are the same - the creation
of a sustainable world where life can flourish and where justice is our common
currency," Daulaire said. About half the world's population relies on biomass to cook food or heat
their homes, a statistic that has environmental and health implications.
But creating this sustainable world will be anything but easy.
The world seems distracted by issues of war and security, Daulaire said,
even as the outbreak of SARS demonstrates the ability of an infectious disease
to jump from the environment to humans and to rapidly spread across the world.
"Most of us do not see ourselves as environmental activists," Daulaire told
attendees at today's opening session. "But each person in this room is an
infectious agent for change."
Some 2,000 health and development professionals, policymakers and advocates
from more than 60 nations have gathered at this week's conference to discuss
the consequences of global environmental change on human health.
It is the lack of political will and financial commitment that undermines
efforts to address global health and environmental issues and no crisis exposes
this more than the fight against AIDS, said Stephen Lewis, United Nations
Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Lewis, in a rousing speech at this morning's plenary session, said that
at first glance Africa seems to be "under some kind of otherworldly curse."
But upon closer examination, Lewis explained, it is clear that "Africa reaps
what the world sows - and with a vengeance."
Lewis traveled to four nations in Southern Africa last year to explore the
link between food shortages and HIV/AIDS. What he found was not only a link
between these two, but an interconnection to destructive weather patterns
that many believe are linked to climate change.
Populations weakened by AIDS/HIV are decimated by food shortages, Lewis
explained, which in turn are heightened by unfriendly trade policies and
increasing extreme weather.
"What we are dealing with in southern Africa, entwined with everything else
- make no mistake about it - is the mostt ominous environmental threat on the
planet: climate change," Lewis said. The burdens of disease and food insecurity weigh heaviest on the world's
poor children.
Lewis noted that the concern that climate change would disproportionately
affect the world's poor were identified by the first International Conference
on Climate Change in 1988, but the industrialized world has not heard its
own warnings.
The rich nations of the world are stuck in a "cycle of self centeredness,"
Lewis said.
"We are responsible for climate change," he said. "We are responsible for
the extremes of weather. It is our greed which serves to compromise food security
in Africa and stokes the pandemic in the process."
And climate change is occurring more rapidly than scientists thought, explained
Paul Epstein, associate director at Harvard Medical School's Center for Health
and the Global Environment.
Epstein cited evidence of decreasing polar ice, warming ocean waters, increased
rain at higher latitudes as well as decreased salinity in the North Atlantic,
but said the "most profound part of climate change" is the extreme weather
events.
Yet it is perhaps the more subtle elements of climate change - warmer winters,
warmer nights and shifts in the onset of spring and fall - that pose the greatest
challenge for those focused on global health. Biological systems are responding
to the warming of the climate, Epstein said, and this has implications for
vectors of infectious diseases.
"We are seeing geographic shifts of vector borne diseases," he said, citing
new findings of malaria at higher elevations and the rapid spread of West
Nile virus in the United States.
Warmer weather gives insects - such as the spruce bark beetle - a much greater
window for destruction on forests. A disease like West Nile, Epstein said,
hits wildlife and could skew the predator prey relationship with implications
for human health.
"We are in the midst of an emergence of new diseases," Epstein said. "How
will we respond?"
The response of the international community to global health and environmental
concerns is very much a target for this week's conference. Past promises of
grand action have left many waiting for results, said Thais Corral, executive
director and founder of REDEH, the Brazilian-based Network for Human Development
and a co-chair of the conference.
In her speech Corral detailed disappointment with the implementation of
the lofty goals of sustainable development first explored at the Rio Summit
in 1990.
The global community has stumbled in its effort to address the underlying
issues of poverty that cause many of the world's health and environmental
problems, Corral explained, and this failure falls hardest on the world's
women and children.
"The road has been much more rough and complicated than expected," Corral
said.
The impact of poverty on global health can not be understated, according
to Corral and others at the conference. Some 25 percent of the world's population
has 70 percent of the wealth and nearly half of the world lives on less than
$2 a day.
Roughly 113 million primary school age children in the developing world
are not in school, and 60 percent are girls. Increased torrential rains are an expected result of climate change.
Health, development and education programs are still not reaching those
most in need, Corral said, and "women continue to be grossly invisible and
under represented."
And the reason some 800 million people are malnourished is because of poverty,
not because the world does not produce enough food, added Margaret Catley-Carlson,
chair for the Global Water Partnership and former director of the Canadian
International Development Agency.
"Poverty always makes environmental impact on health worse," said Catley-Carlson,
who is a conference co-chair.
This link is perhaps most clear, Catley-Carlson said, when considering issue
of water.
Access to clean water is the "single greatest health factor," she said,
as some 29,000 people die daily because they do not have such access. The
World Health Organization estimates that some 76 million people will die
for lack of safe drinking water between now and 2025.
To reach the goals set out by the UN, some 280,000 people each day would
have to be given access to clean water by 2025, she explained
"This is not going to happen under the current circumstances," Catley-Carlson
said.
Providing individuals with a reliable and affordable supply of clean water
is a vital step in improving the lives of the world's poor, explained Mike
Muller, director general of South Africa's Watery and Forest Affairs Department.
Muller detailed how his nation has committed to ensuring all of its citizens
have access to water and said this has helped lay the foundation for other
positive change.
Convenient access to clean water and sanitation "is about much more than
public health," he said. "It is about dignity, it is about human rights, it
is about the right to have an environment protected for the benefit of present
and future generations."
In 1994 some one third of South Africa's population did not have access
to safe drinking water, but since then some nine million people have been
provided with a stable and safe water supply.
"We have demonstrated in a very practical way that by addressing poverty,
we could mobilize the social and political support we needed to protect our
natural environment, a lesson with global implications," Muller said. The industrialized world is largely ignoring its responsibility for environmental
and economic policies that affect the health of the poor, says Stephen Davis,
UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa.
But the global implications of this are not so clear. South Africa, while
a developing country, has much greater resources than many developing nations.
And global health and the environment always comes back to poverty and to
the industrialized world's - willingness or lack there of - to support efforts
to improve the conditions of the poor.
Speakers at the conference expressed dismay at the stalled efforts by the
world's rich nations to address climate change. Pick a global health threat
- malaria, HIV/AIDS, polluted water, inddustrial chemicals - and there is a
legacy of under funding and blustery rhetoric.
Lewis noted that the international global fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria is nearly out of funding. Even the latest pledge by the United
States, which the Bush administration touted as $15 billion over three years,
only amounts to $200 million in guaranteed funding per year for this fund.
The UN estimates that just to combat AIDS, the world needs some $15 billion
a year by 2007.
"What is so intolerable about the continued funding crisis is not just the
staggering loss of life, so much of it completely unnecessary, but what it
says about us, the donor nations and our lamentable, incomprehensible behavior,"
Lewis said.
"We know what we are doing, but we do it anyway."
ENS 28/5/03
Half U.S. Climate Warming Due to Land Use Changes
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, - The growth of cities and industrial agriculture
is responsible for more of the rise in temperature across the United States
than scientists previously believed, according to a new study by scientists
at the University of Maryland. They found that land use changes may account
for up to half of the observed surface global warming.
Meteorologists Dr. Eugenia Kalnay and Dr. Ming Cai have found evidence that
the observed temperature increase of 0.13 degrees Celsius (.234 degrees Fahrenheit)
over the past 50 years has been influenced by changes in land use. "Our estimates
are that land use changes in the United States since the 1960s resulted in
a rise of over 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (F) in the mean surface temperature,
an estimate twice as high as those of previous studies," said Kalnay. "We
expect to extend our study to obtain global results later this year," she
said.
A Distinguished Professor of meteorology at the university and a Member
of the National Academy of Engineering, Kalnay served as director of the
Environmental Modeling Center of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction
of the National Weather Service from 1987 through 1997. There she led the
development of ensemble forecasts and other modeling improvements at the
National Weather Service that made possible accurate three and five day forecasts.
Kalnay and Cai estimated the impact of land use effects by comparing trends
in surface temperature measurements taken at 1,982 surface weather stations
around the country with trends based on data from satellite and weather balloons
from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National
Center for Atmospheric Research. Over the past century, the Earth has warmed
by about one degree Fahrenheit, and scientists expect the average global temperature
to increase an additional two to six degrees F over the next 100 years.
Most scientists think the global warming trend is mainly the result of human
activities, such as the emission of greenhouse gases from power plants, manufacturing,
cars and trucks. Land use change has been seen as a smaller factor in this
trend. "The larger effect found in this study is likely because our method
covers all changes in land use. Previous methods for estimating the impact
of land use change relied on measures - population counts or satellite measures
of light at night - that only provide an indication of the effects of urbanization,
but not of other changes in land use," said Kalnay.
The effects of land conversion to agriculture has not been taken into account
in previous studies. But the comparison of urban and rural weather stations,
without including agricultural effects, would underestimate the total impact
of land use changes, Kalnay and Cai write in their paper.
The well known "urban heat island" effect actually takes place at nighttime,
the two scientists write, "when buildings and streets release the solar heating
absorbed during the day." At the time of maximum temperature, the urban effect
is one of slight cooling due to shading, aerosols, and to thermal inertia
differences between city and country that are not currently well understood,
they write.
The effect of agricultural development, increasing evaporation during the
day, also would tend to decrease the maximum temperature, but "irrigation
would increase the heat capacity of the soil, thus increasing the minimum
temperature," they state.
They conclude that, "Both urbanization and agriculture effects could be
consistent with the general increase in the minimum temperature and slight
decrease in the maximum temperature." The actual changes in temperature may
appear small, but when
