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environment and social justice news stories and special environment action alerts August 2003

Arctic Wildlife Refuge is in danger Sign Petition to Save Arctic Wildlife Refuge click here The Michoacan Reforestation Fund Needs Your Help. here Ban Fishing in Third of All Seas, Scientists Say All fishing should be banned in a third of the world's oceans to reverse a catastrophic decline in fish stocks such as cod and tuna, British scientists have warned. In a new study, they recommend that large areas of ocean, including the North Sea, around the Falklands, and the Gulf of California, should be made into legally protected marine reserves, policed by naval patrols and satellites. The dramatic proposal - expected to be endorsed by an international conference on wildlife reserves next month - follows mounting alarm about the worldwide collapse of fish, dolphin, whale and turtle populations, and the destruction of ancient coral reefs.  full story Hippo Population is Down 95 Percent in Past 30 Years, Conservation Group Says The hippopotamus population in eastern Congo, once home to the world's largest concentration of the water-loving animals, has been dramatically reduced by civil war and poaching, the World Wildlife Fund says. A survey in Virunga National Park by the WWF and local conservation bodies showed that only 1,300 hippos remain, compared with 29,000 less than 30 years ago -- a reduction of more than 95 percent, the WWF said. ''WWF is concerned that unless trade is closely controlled and poaching is stopped, hippos will be threatened with extinction,'' said Susan Lieberman, director of WWF International's species program, on Friday.  full story Hot Summer Sparks Global Food Crisis This summer's heatwave has drastically cut harvests across Europe, plunging the world into an unprecedented food crisis, startling new official figures show. Separate calculations by two leading institutions monitoring the global harvest show that the scorching weather has severely reduced European grain production, ensuring that the world will not produce enough to feed itself for the fourth year in succession, and plunging stocks to the lowest level on record. And experts predict that the damage to crops will be found to be even greater when the full cost of the heat is known. full story Chile, Argentina Urge Rich Countries to Cut Greenhouse Emissions Argentina and Chile on Friday agreed to jointly study climatic changes here in the southern tip of South America and urged the developed countries to reduce their emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. The commitment was contained in a statement signed by the President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and his Chilean counterpart, Ricardo Lagos, as they sailed the chill waters of Lago Argentino, against the imposing backdrop of the Perito Moreno glacier.  full story Oil Slick a Disaster, Says Report A joint committee of the health ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) after an impact assessment into the oil spill in Karachi has declared the incident as an environment catastrophe of massive proportions having hazardous health impact. The committee has suggested to ban fishing by providing alternative means of livelihood to fishermen and temporarily discontinue the use of seafood for chicken feed.  full story Feds Slash Proposed Vernal Pool Habitat The Bush administration has slashed the acreage proposed as critical habitat for California's vernal pool species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Aug. 6 that it was recommending only 740,000 acres of the 1.7 million proposed acres be protected. The government claimed that economic interests were more important than protecting vernal pool habitats. The move exposes more than 15 endangered plant and animal species to potentially devastating development pressures.  full story Modern Global Warming More Damaging Than in the Past "Some people will tell you that the planet has warmed in the past and that species always managed to adapt, so there's no cause for alarm. Unfortunately that's not the case," said Johannes Foufopoulos, assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment. Foufopoulos says new research illustrates major differences between global warming today and past natural climate fluctuations as they relate to species extinctions.  full story IFAW Facilitates Law Enforcement Training to Protect Tibetan Antelope A 3 day Enforcement Workshop for the Protection of Tibetan antelope, jointly organized by the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) Management Authority of China and the CITES Secretariat, successfully ended today in Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region of China. The workshop, sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), covered areas of international and national wildlife law, wildlife law enforcement and intelligence techniques, collaboration with other international law enforcement agencies and various national agencies.  full story WWF Warns of Threat to Hippo The international conservation body, the WWF, has called for urgent action to protect the hippopotamus. A survey conducted in one of the animals former strongholds, the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, found that only 1,300 of the animals remain in the park, a drop of 95% in 30 years. The WWF, formerly known as the World Wide Fund for Nature, says the steep decline is due to demand for hippo teeth sold in the illegal global ivory trade.  full story Whaling Could be Suicide for Iceland An estimated 43,000 minke whales are believed to live in Icelandic waters, eating two million tonnes of fish and shrimps every year. So what does it matter if 38 whales are killed? That is the official line of Iceland's Ministry of Fisheries, which says it needs to know how many fish, and of what sort, whales eat in order to control and protect its largest single source of income, the cod.  full story EPA: Vehicle Emissions Don't Qualify as Pollutants The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday said it would not force automakers, oil companies or others to reduce "greenhouse-gas" emissions from motor vehicles, a decision that might complicate efforts by states to limit the release of carbon dioxide. The EPA denied a 1999 petition from environmental groups, which had asked the agency to use its powers under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide and other gas emissions from new vehicles. Instead, the agency concluded that carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons and other emissions did not meet the legal definition of "air pollutants" under the Clean Air Act.  full story Oil Spill off Pakistan Worse than First Thought A devastating oil spill off Pakistan's southern coast is much worse than originally thought. And port authorities fear the broken tanker responsible could crack and leak further. A senior official with the Karachi Port Trust, Brigadier Iftikhar Arshad told newsagency AFP rough estimates now put the total oil spillage from the ship at 24,000 tonnes, compared to earlier estimates of 15,000 tonnes. The oil spill by the Greek-controlled MV Tasman Spirit has been dubbed the worst spill to blight Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast.  full story U.S. Eases Air Pollution Rules In one of its most far-reaching environmental actions, the Bush administration signed a rule that will allow thousands of power plants, refineries, pulp and paper mills, chemical plants and other industrial facilities to make extensive upgrades that increase their pollutants without having to install new anti-pollution devices.  full story S.Africa, Australia Arrest Toothfish Ship Crew Australian and South African officials boarded a ship suspected of poaching the rare Patagonian toothfish and arrested the crew Wednesday, ending a 20-day chase through Antarctic seas. The Uruguayan-flagged Viarsa would be escorted on a seven-day trip to Cape Town, from where the crew of about 40 would be flown to Australia to face charges of illegally fishing for the valuable fish, an environment ministry spokeswoman said. full story U.S. Suffered Record Levels of Smog in 2002 2002 was the worst smog season in recent years, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Smog monitors in 41 states and the District of Columbia recorded unhealthy levels of air pollution on some 8,800 occasions in 2002, a 90 percent increase over the number of violations of the national health standard for smog in 2001.  full story Save the Whale: Judge Orders Subs to Limit Sonar Citing concern for marine mammals, a federal judge today limited the United States Navy's use of a new sonar system designed to detect enemy submarines. The decision scuttles the Navy's plans to test the low-frequency sonar in most of the world's oceans, confining it instead to areas with few marine mammals and endangered species. The case was launched by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental organisations that claimed the powerful sonar system harassed and could even kill marine mammals.  full story Scientists Turn up Heat on Global Warming A group of scientists in East Anglia has launched an ambitious campaign to tackle the threat of global warming in an effort to shame ministers into stronger action on climate change. The task they have set themselves is formidable: to slash the region's emissions of carbon dioxide in half the time the government believes is possible. At first glance, the project, known as Cred, for carbon reduction, might easily be dismissed as well-meaning nonsense. But the team behind it, Keith Tovey and his colleagues at the University of East Anglia, belong to the most prestigious environmental science department in the country.  full story Court Settlement Requires Clean Air Rules for Parks and Wilderness Areas Under the terms of a court settlement announced this week, the federal government must adopt limits on the air pollution that clouds the skies of national parks and wilderness areas. The settlement, which results from a suit filed on behalf of Environmental Defense by Earthjustice, requires the U.S. EPA to adopt rules by early 2005. “Cleaning up the power plants and other industrial sources that pollute our national parks and wilderness areas will protect some of the nation’s most revered scenic vistas,” said Environmental Defense senior attorney Vickie Patton.  full story Federal Court Restricts Global Deployment of Navy Sonar A federal judge ruled today that the Navy's plan to deploy a new high-intensity sonar system violates numerous federal environmental laws and could endanger whales, porpoises and fish. In a 73-page opinion, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte barred the Navy's planned around-the-world deployment and ordered the Navy to reduce the system's potential harm to marine mammals and fish by negotiating limits on its use with conservation groups who had sued over its deployment.  full story Commercial Poaching Pressures Zimbabwe's Rhinos WWF, in collaboration with the Zimbabwean Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and other conservation agencies, is assisting in emergency responses to increasing rhino poaching in Zimbabwe. Since March 2002, at least 16 black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and several elephants have been slaughtered in the Matusadona and Hwange National Parks in northern and western Zimbabwe. The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has responded through enhanced patrol efforts, despite crippling shortages of manpower, fuel, and equipment. Four poachers have been killed in recent firefights, and several have been arrested.  full story It's Public be Damned at the EPA For nearly two years, officials at the federal Environmental Protection Agency have denied that they failed to properly inform New Yorkers of the dangers of toxic releases from the collapse of the World Trade Center. But last week, an investigation released by the EPA's own inspector general made a stunning revelation: The trail of public health misinformation began inside the White House. The news that White House staff ordered the EPA to minimize potential health dangers near Ground Zero was bad enough. But the details in the 165-page report about how the EPA lied to the public - and even subverted its own safety standards in the process - are chilling.  full story Exxon Fights $4Bln Award for Oil Spill A federal appeals court has again ordered a court in Alaska to reconsider a multibillion dollar punitive damages award against ExxonMobil Corp. for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said late last week it should pay no more than $25 million in damages -- a fraction of the original $5 billion award. A jury in Alaska approved a $5 billion award to punish the company for spilling 42 million liters of crude oil into Prince William Sound in 1989.  full story The Maize in Spain: an Uncontrolled Experiment Spain is the only country in the European Union that tolerates the release of genetically engineered (GM) crops on a commercial scale. Though only cultivated on relatively small areas, the potential impact of Syngenta's GE maize on environment, agriculture and health and the total lack of information and precaution are of serious concern. The GM maize (corn) contains a genetic construct called Bt 176, consisting of a gene from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis that encodes an insecticidal toxin able to kill the European Corn Borer. It also has a gene that confers increased tolerance to a herbicide and a gene conferring resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin.  full story Fluoride Linked to Low IQ, Studies Show Children's intelligence declines as their natural drinking water fluoride levels increase, concluded a Chinese study in the May 2003 journal, "Fluoride." Children scored inferior IQ's even when fluoride levels were similar to that added to U.S. water supplies to prevent tooth decay(1). "As the fluoride levels in drinking water increased, the IQ fell and the rates of mental retardation and borderline intelligence increased," write researchers Xiang, et al.  full story The Big Spill: Pak Scrubs Up but Stains Will Remain Dead marine life, respiratory disorders, a blackened coastline and 90,000 jobless fishermen -those are just some of the casualties of the environmental disaster caused by the recent oil spill off the south Pakistan city of Karachi. The authorities are only now coming to terms with the ravages of the Aug 14 catastrophe in which a Maltese tanker spilled 15,000 tons of crude across a 25-mile stretch of the Karachi coast. Environmentalists say things could get worse as the ship has plenty more crude left in its hold.  full story Space-age Face Cream for World's Most Polluted Cities It's what every girl in Mexico City needs - an anti-pollution face cream designed with the help of a satellite orbiting 500 miles above earth. The cosmetics giant L'Oréal has teamed up with the European Space Agency to create a set of moisturisers, shampoos and creams designed specifically for the world's most polluted cities.  full story Global Warming? Bring it on, Says Bush Government The George W. Bush administration plans to open a huge loophole in US air pollution laws, allowing an estimated 17,000 outdated power stations and factories to increase their carbon emissions with impunity. Critics of draft regulations due to be unveiled by the US environmental protection agency next week say they amount to a death knell for the Clean Air Act, the centerpiece of US regulation. The rules could represent the biggest defeat for American environmentalists since the Bush administration abandoned the Kyoto Treaty on global warming two years ago. But the energy industry welcomed them, saying they were essential for maintaining coal-fired power stations.  full story Public Backing for Green Power People living near Scotland's largest wind farms support more of the country's energy needs being produced from renewable sources, a new survey has found. Four out of five respondents (82%) in the Mori Scotland research favoured an increase in electricity generated from wind energy. The people questioned lived within 20km of the country's 10 largest wind farms.  full story Former UN Chief: Bomb was Payback for Collusion with US The reason the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad were bombed is because the UN has been taken over by the US and turned into a "dark joke" and a "malignant force", according to one of the UN's most internationally respected former leaders. Denis Halliday, the former UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq, attacked the UN as an aggressive arm of US foreign policy in the immediate aftermath of the truckbomb attack on the UN mission in Baghdad which killed at least 23 people - many of whom were Halliday's former friends and colleagues. full story World Must Confront Massacre of Whales Iceland has once again begun whaling, slaughtering these magnificent creatures for encroaching on humankind's territory by eating too many fish. It was heartbreaking to see television news coverage of crews repainting the decks of whaling ships and dusting off harpoon guns that had stood idle for 14 years. Iceland has sent out three boats on a six-week mission to kill 38 minke whales, an operation it insists is for scientific purposes to protect its fish stocks.  full story Photographer Captures Devastation of Pollution in Former Soviet Union In the early 1990s, California-based photographer Gerd Ludwig documented the devastating effects of pollution in the former Soviet Union – in places where few photographers have been permitted before or since. Carolyn Weaver has the story of a photographer’s art, and the indelible images he captured in a broken empire. German-born photographer Gerd Ludwig lives in Los Angeles, and works out of his huge concrete house built into the side of a canyon. But that’s only his home base. He spends weeks at a time in remote places on shoots for National Geographic and other magazines.  full story Rule Lets Power Plants Bypass Anti-pollution Laws The Bush administration has decided to allow thousands of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants and refineries to upgrade their facilities without installing the latest anti-pollution equipment. Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Marianne Horinko said yesterday that she will sign the new regulation next week and that it will take effect this fall. The administration last month had agreed to reconsider provisions of the new regulations in response to legal pressure from state attorneys general and environmental groups.  full story EPA Misled Public on 9/11 Pollution In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available. That finding is included in a report released Friday by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA. It noted that some of the agency's news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information was deleted.  full story Bush Rejects Razing Dams to Make Way for Salmon President Bush waded deeper into controversy over his environmental policies in the Pacific Northwest on Friday as he rejected calls for hydroelectric dams to be razed to make way for endangered migrating salmon. Bush viewed water ladders at Washington's Ice Harbor Lock and Dam, meant to help the fish get up and down the Snake River to spawn, after facing several thousand demonstrators angry about issues from the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq to proposed forest thinning in Oregon.  full story Federal Appeals Court Rules Fishery Violates Endangered Species Act The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency charged with managing the nation’s fisheries, violated the Endangered Species Act by authorizing longline fishing off California without analyzing the fishery’s impacts on endangered sea turtles and seabirds. The Ninth Circuit reversed a previous decision by a district court judge that no such analysis was required. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network, two environmental groups working to protect endangered marine life from destructive and wasteful fishing practices.  full story Sewage Kills Thousands of Fish in North Indian River For nearly 50 years, Ramakant Nishad caught and sold fish. He is now sitting idle because the sewage-filled Gomati River that runs through this northern Indian state capital cannot breed fish anymore. Nishad's two sons already have taken to rag picking. He, too, is learning the intricacies of handling scrap. "The Gomati River has turned poisonous.... It doesn't have fish; all have died," said Nishad, sitting in his mud hut this week on the banks of the river flowing through Lucknow, capital of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. He is among more than 500 people whose families for generations eked out their living by selling fish. full story Pollution Fear for South African Coast Environmentalists have expressed fears of a potential pollution disaster following the spillage of oil from a container ship off the South African coast. The vessel carrying 3,700 tons of fuel ran aground on Thursday on Table Bay near Cape Town. South African press reports say the Sealand Express is also carrying 50 tons of uranium ore concentrate bound for the United States to be turned into nuclear fuel.  full story 2003 Ozone Hole May be Record Size The ozone hole over the Antarctic is growing at a rate that suggests it could be headed for a record size this year, Australian scientists said on Friday. A study by Australian Antarctic bases attributed the development to colder temperatures in the stratosphere where the ozone hole forms. "The growth at the moment is similar to 2000 when the hole was a record size," Australian Antarctic Division scientist Andrew Klekociuk told Reuters on Friday. The ozone hole in 2003 presently covers all of the Antarctic.  full story EPA Easing Pollution Rules In a move angering environmentalists and pleasing industry, the Bush administration is poised to issue new Clean Air regulations that would allow many old factories to escape pollution controls, a newspaper reports. The Environmental Protection Agency is prepared to announce as early as next week the final version of a new rule it first proposed last December. Under the new rule, an old factory will be able to make additions equal to the cost of replacing 20 percent of its equipment without having to add pollution controls, The New York Times reports, quoting leaked administration documents.  full story $700 Million Deal Announced in Anniston PCBs Cases Solutia Inc. and Monsanto Co. have agreed to pay $700 million to settle claims by more than 20,000 Anniston residents over PCB contamination, plaintiff's attorneys said Wednesday. The agreement, which will end a long-running trial in state court over decades-old pollution from a chemical plant in the east Alabama city, includes payments to homeowners and cash to fund a PCB research laboratory, lawyers for the residents said in a statement.  full story NRDC Sues EPA for failing to Protect Endangered Wildlife from Herbicide The Environmental Protection Agency has failed to protect endangered species in the Chesapeake Bay, Mississippi River, Missouri River, and other major Midwestern and Southern rivers from the herbicide atrazine, according to a lawsuit filed today by NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). The group alleges that EPA is permitting the widespread use of atrazine even though the agency acknowledges the weed-killer might harm endangered species.  full story Early Signs Point to Largest Ozone Hole This year's Antarctic ozone hole will be among the largest ever recorded, early signs suggest. Despite NASA's recent announcement that Earth's shielding ozone layer is repairing itself from human damage, Australian scientists said the hole was heading towards a record size. The most extensive ozone hole yet, in 2000, was about 27 million square kilometres. It led to daily health bulletins in South American cities, in which residents were told to stay indoors and a state of emergency was mooted.  full story EERC Develops Regional Framework for Emissions Reduction Partnership The University of North Dakota (UND) Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) has developed a collaborative regional framework to support a comprehensive effort by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to control carbon dioxide emissions. The "Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership" (PCORP) will help explore new methods for carbon sequestration --a means of protecting the environment by capturing carbon dioxide and storing the emissions--in the northern Great Plains of North America. PCORP includes private-entity partners from five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and Wyoming) and two Canadian provinces (Saskatchewan and Manitoba).  full story El Nino's Surprising Steady Pacific Rains Can Affect World Weather Scientists using data from a NASA satellite have found another piece in the global climate puzzle created by El Nino. El Nino events produce more of a steady rain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This is important because whenever there is a change in the amount and duration of rainfall over an area, such as the central Pacific, it affects weather regionally and even worldwide.  full story Celebration for World’s Largest Fully Protected Marine Reserve Australia’s 6.5 million hectare Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) Marine Reserve is the largest fully protected marine area in the world. A model of cooperation between environment groups, the fishing industry, scientists, and government, the reserve not only protects a variety of marine species, but will help protect stocks of the valuable Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) and help to decrease the threat of illegal fishing. WWF today recognizes the declaration of this reserve as a Gift to the Earth – a globally significant action that demonstrates environmental leadership.  full story Scientists Fear Long-term Repercussions of Oil Slick Marine ecosystem of Karachi is severely stressed, as the latest oil slick has aggravated biochemical oxygen demand, which was already terribly abnormal prior to the slick, scientists feared. As a result, the sea has washed up dead fish, crabs and even turtles, whose pelagic habitat has yet to be blackened with crude oil, spilled from oil tanker MT Tasman Spirit, which ran aground on July 27 and subsequently started spilling oil. Foul smell and carbonaceous fumes continued pervading the coastline, where Edhi volunteers have removed three truckloads of dead species since Monday last. "One of our volunteer fainted due to the stench," Edhi office said.  full story UN Workers the Latest Victims of Illegal American War Five months after the United States ignored the will of UN member states and of the international community and invaded Iraq, unknown attackers struck at headquarters of the United Nations in Baghdad, killing at least 17 and wounding hundreds. Like thousands of Iraqi civilians and dozens American troops, U.N. civil servants now finds themselves the victims of an illegal war whose main justifications have turned out to be boldfaced lies.  full story  more Experts Warn Global Changes Threaten World's Protected Areas Experts today warned that global changes such as climate change, growing population, and invasive alien species are threatening the unprecedented gains made in establishing parks and protected areas worldwide which today cover nearly 13 percent of the world's land area. Since the establishment of Yellowstone as the world's first national park in 1872, there are now 102,101 protected areas covering 18.8 million square kilometers. The total protected areas have more than doubled in the last ten years. This is larger than Canada, the United States, and Germany combined.  full story Mobil Fined $100,000 for Oil Slick Mobil has been fined $100,000 for an oil slick off the Victorian coast four years ago. The 39,731-tonne Sylvan Arrow left a 30 kilometre long oil slick just west of Wilsons Promontory in December 1999. Judge Tim Wood of the Victorian County said the spill was probably accidental from an on-board mechanical failure.  full story Greenwashed Indonesian Wood Hits U.S. Market On Tuesday, August 5, a new shipment of old growth, tropical hardwood from Indonesia labeled “RIL verified” slipped virtually unnoticed into the United States through the port of Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia. The wood arrived as part of a reduced-impact logging (RIL) pilot program, a partnership between U.S. corporate interests, USAID and Indonesian timber barons, and is the latest marketing ploy to greenwash the sale of lauan, an endangered Indonesian hardwood also marketed as meranti, in the U.S. Rainforest Action Network and allies support Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s May 13, 2002 call for a moratorium on logging in Indonesia until processes are put in place to protect endangered rainforests and secure the rights of indigenous people to their ancestral homelands.  full story WWF and Asia Pulp And Paper Sign Agreement on Forest Management WWF-Indonesia has today signed an agreement with Asia Pulp and Paper Co. Ltd. (APP) and its Indonesian fiber suppliers, the Sinar Mas Group forestry companies (SMG) to work together to protect the natural heritage of Riau and Jambi Provinces, in Sumatra, Indonesia. This agreement represents a considerable shift in the way the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia and its stakeholders work together to manage and conserve the country’s natural resources.  full story Bush Waging a War On Our Parks, Forests A WAR IS RAGING. It involves lands essential to our nation, and will dramatically affect future generations. No, I am not speaking of Iraq or Afghanistan. This war is right here: the Bush administration's radical, all-out attack on America's wilderness and public lands. Our national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands total 623 million acres -- 14 times the size of all six New England states, or almost six times the size of California. They constitute a natural engine that cleans our drinking water, purifies the air, produces medicines, provides resources, and enhances our quality of life in countless other ways. Most important, these lands connect Americans directly with the miracle of God's creation.  full story The Once-mighty Rio Grande has Slowed to a Trickle For much of the past two years, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border had never been easier. You just strolled down Boca Chica Beach until you noticed that all of the cars parked on the beach had Mexican license plates. You’d just walked straight into Mexico. There should have been a river in the way: the mouth of the fourth-longest river in the United States, in fact. But the Rio Grande was gone, sapped completely dry before it could reach the Gulf of Mexico by the thirsty farms and cities of northern Mexico and southern Texas.  full story Europe's Largest Glacier Shrivels under Global Warming Switzerland's Aletsch glacier, the largest in the Alps, is imposing enough to generate a wind of its own, but the 23-kilometre long (14-mile) river of ice is visibly shrivelling under the impact of global warming. "In the last 140 years it has moved back three kilometres (two miles)," Laudo Albrecht, a Swiss nature conservation expert said, standing on a ridge above the sweating glacier. He was clutching a graph which also shows that the ice flow has melted faster in the past decade or two, and this summer's heatwave is likely to deepen the trend.  full story Smoke from Forest Fires Threatens Coral Reefs, Australian Scientists Warn Smoke from fires in tropical forests near coastal reefs can wipe out virtually all coral and fish for hundreds of kilometres (miles), according to research unveiled Sunday by Australian scientists. Researchers at Canberra's Australian National University said they had established that smoke from the fires produces an algae bloom known as red tide which is toxic to most marine life. Their discovery has also provided the reason for the mysterious deaths six years ago of almost all coral and fish in a 400-kilometre (250-mile) stretch of Indonesia's Mentawai Islands reef, southwest of Sumatra.  full story EPA Nominee Plays to Middle Environmentalists say Leavitt is a Humvee in camouflage, a ruthless politician whose charm disguises a militantly pro-business agenda. Too many times, they warn, he has talked conciliation but played hardball, leaving them bruised, angry — and wiser. “What we will see is a lot of pro-environmental talk but a lot of anti-environmental action” with Leavitt running the EPA, said Lawson LeGate, the Sierra Club’s senior southwest regional representative. “This is the administration that characterizes the damaging of forest management as the ‘Healthy Forests’ initiative. Their proposal which threatens to dirty the air is called the ‘Clear Skies’ initiative. They recognize in Mike Leavitt another good spinmaster.”  full story Iraqis Say U.S. Blackout No Comparison to Their Prolonged Outage A power generator hummed in the corner of a popular Baghdad menswear shop where Leith Tamimi sat smirking Friday as he listened to news of the massive electrical blackout that plagued the Northeastern United States for the second day. "It's not in Iraqi nature to be happy when someone is suffering, but I thank God for allowing them to see how we live," Tamimi said. "I saw Americans on TV and they were enraged. If they were enraged after two days without power, how do they think we feel after four months?"  full story Coral Reefs Doomed, Centuries of Overfishing Killing Ecosystems Pummeled by overfishing, the world's coral reef ecosystems "will not survive for more than a few decades" unless drastic action is taken to protect them, experts warn. To forestall a disaster that could devastate marine life, expose populous coastlines to stormier waves and economically devastate a tourism-dependent nation like Australia, the United States and other nations should vastly expand the designated "no take" zones -- where fishing and other exploitation is banned -- in coral ecosystems, said one author of an article for Friday's issue of Science.  full story Tighter Controls Needed to Curb Increasing Threats to Snow Leopards The snow leopard, one of the most endangered big cats in the world with an estimated population of only 4000- 7000 is being severely threatened by illegal killing and trade, according to a new study released today. TRAFFIC, WWF and the International Snow Leopard Trust are calling for urgent action to strengthen enforcement and management of snow leopard conservation efforts and to address the root causes of illegal killing and the continuing trade in the cats and their parts.  full story Pakistan Begins Oil Spill Clean-up Pakistani authorities have begun a massive clean-up campaign to tackle the thousands of tonnes of crude oil that have spilled from a wrecked tanker off Karachi. Maritime experts say 12,000 tonnes of oil have spilled into the Arabian Sea while another 35,000 are still on board the Greek-registered Tasman Spirit. Dead fish and turtles littered two main beaches and a key mangrove forest had been badly hit, environmentalists said, while doctors reported dozens of people suffering from nausea. full story Lake Ecosystem Critical to African Food Supply Threatened by Climate Change In an important new study directly linking climatic warming with the survival of lake organisms, researchers have found multiple lines of evidence showing that increasing air and water temperatures and related factors are shrinking fish and algae populations in a major lake. The lake holds 18 percent of the world's liquid freshwater and is a critical food source in East Africa. Reporting in the August 14, 2003, issue of the journal Nature, scientists, announce that climate change in the region is harming Lake Tanganyika's ecosystem, decreasing fish stocks by as much as 30 percent over the past 80 years. full story Reef Report Prompts Calls for Urgent Action to Slow Climate Change A new report that shows coral on reefs around the world could be extinct within 30 years has heightened calls for international action to slow current rates of climate change. The Opposition's environment spokesman Kelvin Thomson says the Federal Government must act urgently to scale down Australia's contributions to global greenhouse gases. He says the damage already done to the world's reefs shows that protecting them from overfishing and land run-off is not enough.  full story Pollution Concern in Ethiopia by Almaz Mequanint I am so happy to learn that this year (2003) is declared to be an international year of fresh water. Being one of the victims of polluted water and air; at the same time; I feel helpless and in despair when I think of myself, my whole family and for the 100,000 voiceless residents of Wonji, Wonji/shoa and Metehara. Thousands of children and adults are at risk by drinking the poisonous water in these industrial communities. Eventhough, famine and Aids/HIV is the priority concern nowadays in Ethiopia, there is a silent killer like industrial pollution which had affected and still affecting thousands of lives of residents who live in Wonji, Wonji/Shoa, and Metehara sugar factories.  full story Iscor 'Hid Facts' in Pollution Scandal Iscor employees were told last year to destroy documents that might point to its polluting ground and runoff water in Vanderbijlpark, the newspaper Beeld reported on Friday. In a "top-secret" email sent to Iscor management staff at the Vanderbijlpark works by Dr Ockie Fourie, charged with developing a master plan for rehabilitation of the polluted area, Fourie said that only his consultant team would be allowed to possess such documents. Fourie said the directive came from Iscor's top management.  full story Troops in Iraq Face Pay Cut Pentagon says tough duty bonuses are budget-buster The Pentagon wants to cut the pay of its 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, who are already contending with guerrilla-style attacks, homesickness and 120- degree-plus heat. Unless Congress and President Bush take quick action when Congress returns after Labor Day, the uniformed Americans in Iraq and the 9,000 in Afghanistan will lose a pay increase approved last April of $75 a month in "imminent danger pay" and $150 a month in "family separation allowances."  full story Karachi Oil Tanker Breaks up An oil tanker which ran aground off the coast of Pakistan has broken into two. The tanker, which was carrying 67,000 tonnes of crude oil, broke apart when the tide changed. Port authorities say the worst of the spillage is over, but a large amount of crude oil remains on board the vessel. A thick black layer of oil covers much of the coastline around the city of Karachi, causing major environmental concern. full story Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior Sails to the Whales of Iceland The Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior is en route to Iceland to campaign against the hunting of minke whales, which the government is attempting to justify on "scientific" grounds. Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace International said: "No science justifies the killing of whales. This is simply an underhand attempt by the Icelandic government to resume commercial whaling." full story Global Warming Cuts Lake's Fish Stock A new study blames global warming for a decline in fish harvests in Africa's Lake Tanganyika, an important source of food and revenue for several poor nations. Scientists say a combination of higher air temperatures and slower wind speeds have reduced the amount of mixing between the lake's surface water and deeper, nutrient-rich layers. As a result, they say, algae growth has declined about 20 percent since the 1970s. Less food for the fish means fewer fish, and catches in the lake have fallen as much as 50 percent. full story Kamchatka Faces Ecological Disaster The Kamchatka peninsula is facing an ecological disaster. A 20 ton container of toxic chemicals, owned by the US-based chemicals group DuPont, was destroyed in a storm. Quoting sources in the Kamchatka regional administration, the Vostok Media news agency reports that birds and animals are dying in the Komandorsky Biosphere Reserve. The Komandor Islands have recently been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is inhabited by about 300,000 fur seals and sea lions, and more than 500,000 birds. 21 species of whales and cetaceans live in coastal waters.  full story Sherman Austin Sentenced to One Year in Prison Sherman Austin, webmaster of RaisetheFist.com, was sentenced today, August 4, 2003, to one year in federal prison, with three years of probation. Judge Wilson shocked the courtroom when he went against the recommendation of not only the prosecution, but the FBI and the Justice Department, who had asked that Austin be sentenced to 4 months in prison, and 4 months in a half-way house, with 3 years of probation.  full story California City in Eye of Perchlorate Pollution Storm Janitors conducting a termite inspection at J.P. Kelley Elementary School last February found a five-foot-long missile beneath the auditorium stage. Over the past 50 years, thousands of missiles were manufactured in the city, and the Army stored thousands more here. Missiles, armed and not, contain rocket fuel, and within rocket fuel is perchlorate. The chemical allows combustion and has many uses, from space shuttle rocket boosters to road flares. But it also has been proved to inhibit the production of growth hormones in fetuses and young children. At high levels, it can cause thyroid cancer.  full story Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence His name was Joe, from the U.S. government. He carried 40 classified slides and a message from the Bush administration. An engineer-turned-CIA analyst, Joe had helped build the U.S. government case that Iraq posed a nuclear threat. He landed in Vienna on Jan. 22 and drove to the U.S. diplomatic mission downtown. In a conference room 32 floors above the Danube River, he told United Nations nuclear inspectors they were making a serious mistake. At issue was Iraq's efforts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes. The U.S. government said those tubes were for centrifuges to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. But the IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, had uncovered strong evidence that Iraq was using them for conventional rockets.  full story Americans Pay Price for Speaking Out Dissenters Face Job Loss, Arrest, Threats But Activists not Stopped by Backlash He's a Vietnam War hero from a proud lineage of warriors who served the United States, so he never expected to be called a traitor. After 39 years in the Marines, including commands in Somalia and Iraq, Gen. Anthony Zinni never imagined he would be tagged "turncoat." The epithets are not from the uniforms but the suits — "senior officers at the Pentagon," the now-retired general says from his home in Williamsburg, Va. "They want to question my patriotism?" he demands testily. To question the Iraq war in the U.S. — and individuals from Main St. merchants to Hollywood stars do — is to be branded un-American. Dissent, once an ideal cherished in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, now invites media attacks, hate Web sites, threats and job loss.  full story Climate Change Threatens Britain's Crumbling Transport System with Chaos Britains roads, railways and runways will need "major upgrades" to cope with rising temperatures, the Government's scientific advisers on climate change have warned. The threat of buckled rails caused widespread delays last week when managers were forced to impose speed restrictions throughout the country because tracks had overheated. However, far more drastic measures could soon be necessary, according to experts advising ministers on the impact of global warming on Britain's infrastructure.  full story Pollutants, Runoff Threaten Fabled Chesapeake Bay's Ecosystem As the sun rose on Chesapeake Bay, waterman Larry "Boo" Powley was still on the docks, repairing holes in the nets he had strung near the shore. Long strands of anthozoan, a plant that looks like seaweed and thrives in polluted waters, had tangled the nets and weighed them down so much that they tore. Bobby Darnell already was out checking the crab pots he had set in the waters around Calvert Cliffs. There, he found another sign of an ecosystem out of balance: blue crabs clinging with death grips to the inside of the metal cages, trying desperately to escape the oxygen-poor water.  full story Judge Finds Ohio Power Plant in Violation of Clean Air Act A federal judge in Ohio ruled Thursday that Ohio Edison Co. violated the federal Clean Air Act when it made physical changes in a large coal-fired power plant and sought to pass them off as "routine maintenance." The ruling was a setback for owners of 51 power plants sued by the Environmental Protection Agency and several northeastern states during the Clinton administration and charged with violating a provision of the Clean Air Act.  full story Bush Misuses Science, Report Says The Bush administration has repeatedly mischaracterized scientific facts to bolster its political agenda in areas ranging from abstinence education and condom use to missile defense, according to a detailed report released yesterday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). The 40-page document, "Politics and Science in the Bush Administration," was compiled by the minority staff of the House Government Reform Committee's special investigations division. It marks the launch of a new effort by Waxman and others in Congress to highlight simmering anger among scientists and others who believe that President Bush -- much more than his predecessors -- has been spiking science with politics to justify conservative policies in areas such as reproductive rights, embryo research, energy policy and environmental health.  full story Greenpeace Caravan Promoting Marine Resource Preservation in Thai Gulf The Eastern Seaboard received “famous” visitors last week when the internationally recognized Greenpeace organization toured the area to promote marine resource preservation. The Bike caravan rode down Pattaya Beach Road, encouraging local citizens to become aware of the ecology and environmental problems in the Gulf of Thailand. Fifty cyclists and accompanying support vans took a road trip from Bangkok to Rayong, beginning on July 31 and ending August 4. The message they were spreading was “Save the Gulf of Thailand - Our Food Basket”.  full story Woodland Caribou: Species on the Brink Defenders of Wildlife and other conservation groups are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate about a half-million acres of critical habitat in Washington and Idaho to save woodland caribou from extinction. The latest census counted only 34 caribou in the Selkirk Mountains, the last population in the Lower 48. There are so few of these magnificent animals remaining that they have become known as "the ghosts of Selkirk." full story WWF Condemns Iceland's Decision to Begin Whaling World Wildlife Fund condemned the announcement by Iceland today that it would begin hunting 38 minke whales this month under the guise of science. The announcement comes just 9 months after Iceland rejoined the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which bans commercial whaling but allows for limited killing of whales for scientific research. full story Pollution Woes Persist at Beaches in Harbor The $4.1 billion investment in the cleanup of Boston Harbor has been a shining success story with an unfortunate footnote: It's still unsafe to swim at city beaches on many summer days. The threat of high bacteria counts led the state to post swimming warnings on harbor beaches 56 times since July 1, a frequency that has already far exceeded all of last year's beach closings. Carson Beach in South Boston has been closed about one of every six days this summer; Malibu Beach in Dorchester, nearly one in three.  full story