Earths.net

12/15/01
5:24:09 PM

t r u t h o u t | 12.16

Pakistanis Welcome al-Qaeda And Taliban

http://www.truthout.com/12.16A.Pakistan.Taliban.htm

Missile Defense System Canceled | Navy Program Woes Cause Bush Setback

http://www.truthout.com/12.16B.NMD.Cancel.htm

DASCHLE | Democratic Radio Address | Response to the President

http://www.truthout.com/12.16C.Daschle.Radio.htm

Wall Street Journal | The Straw Demon The Desperate Demonization of Tom Daschle

http://www.truthout.com/12.16D.Straw.Demon.htm

Thomas Frank | The Enron Outrage

http://www.truthout.com/12.16E.Enron.Outrage.htm

New York Times Editorial Comment | Misusing Executive Privilege

http://www.truthout.com/12.16F.Misusing.EP.htm

12/15/01
12:50:56 PM

Are We Winning Yet?

3,500 Civilians Killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Bombs University of New Hampshire Economics Professor Releases Study of Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Monday Morning on Democracy Now! Radio/TV Show

DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE - December 10 - More than 3,500 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan by U.S. bombs, according to a study to be released December 10 by Marc W. Herold, Professor of Economics, International Relations, and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Professor Herold will announce his findings on Monday, December 10 in a discussion with award-winning journalist, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! in Exile's War and Peace Report (http://www.democracynow.org). Professor Herold has been gathering data on civilian casualties since October 7 by culling information from news agencies, major newspapers, and first-hand accounts. "I decided to do the study because I suspected that the modern weaponry was not what it was advertised to be. I was concerned that there would be significant civilian casualties caused by the bombing, and I was able to find some mention of casualties in the foreign press but almost nothing in the U.S. press," said Herold.

Herold's data will be available at http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/.

For each day since October 7, when the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan began, he lists the number of casualties, location, type of weapon used, and source(s) of information. Following are several examples from his daily calculations:

On October 11, two U.S. jets bombed the mountain village of Karam, comprised of 60 mud houses, during dinner and evening prayer time, killing 100-160 people. Sources: DAWN, (English language Pakistani daily newspaper), the Guardian of London, the Independent, International Herald Tribune, the Scotsman, the Observer, and the BBC News.

On October 13, in the early morning, an F-18 dropped 2,000 lb. JDAM bombs on the Qila Meer Abas neighborhood, 2 kms. South of the Kabul airport, killing four people. Sources: Afghan Islamic Press, Los Angeles Times, Frontier Post, Pakistan Observer, the Guardian of London, and the BBC News.

On October 31, in a pre-dawn raid, an F-18 dropped a 2,000 lb. JDAM bomb on a Red Crescent clinic, killing 15 - 25 people. Sources: DAWN, the Times of London, the Independent, the Guardian, Reuters, Associated Press, and Agence France Presse. Professor Herold has sought whenever possible to cross-corroborate accounts of civilian casualties. He relied upon British, Canadian, and Australian newspapers; Indian newspapers, especially The Times of India; three Pakistani daily newspapers; the Singapore News; Afghan Islamic Press; Agence France Press; Pakistan News Service; Reuters; BBC News Online; Al Jazeera; and a variety of other reputable sources, including the United Nations and other relief agencies.

The Pentagon has repeatedly denied reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and most U.S. media outlets have qualified their reports of casualties with the statement "could not be independently confirmed." But Professor Herold has been able to confirm the number of casualties and has found that the number is climbing toward 4,000. "People have to know that there is a human cost to war, and that this is a war with thousands of casualties," said Herold. "These were poor people to begin with, and, on top of that, they had absolutely nothing to do with the events of September 11."

12/15/01
12:44:12 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

SIX NEW NATURAL WONDERS PROTECTED FOR ALL HUMANKIND

HELSINKI, Finland, December 14, 2001 (ENS)- The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has inscribed six new natural sites on the prestigious World Heritage List and has added extensions to three others during its annual meeting here in Helsinki.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-14-01.html

EPA CONSIDERS ACCEPTING HUMAN TESTS OF TOXICS

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2001 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering accepting studies involving human testing of toxic substances such as pesticides. In a letter released today, the agency asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the scientific and ethical issues posed by studies that use human subjects to identify or quantify toxic effects.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-14-06.html

CHINA'S FIRST RAPTOR RESCUE CENTER TAKES FLIGHT

BEIJING, China, December 14, 2001 (ENS) - With their acute vision, hooked beaks, and large, sharp talons, wild birds of prey do not appear to need help, but when they are injured by pollution or by capture for sale, these raptors do need skilled care. Until now, there has been no specialized facility in China to care for injured hawks, eagles, falcons, and owls and prepare them for release into the wild.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-14-02.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: DECEMBER 14, 2001

ExxonMobil Pays $11.2 Million in Hazwaste Case

Soot Hurts Lungs as Much as Smoking

Citizens Group Wins Hearing Over MOX Plant

San Francisco Diverts 46 Percent of Waste

Nature Conservancy Targets Cumberland Plateau for Protection

800 Acres Protected in Maryland

Navy, EPA to Clean Unexploded Ordinance Off Adak Island

Colored Plastics Guide Plant Growth

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-14-09.html

12/15/01
12:32:05 PM

It's Time To Speak Up

by Helen Thomas

WASHINGTON - 12.14.01 | If there ever was a time when Americans should speak up on behalf of people in this country whose rights are being abridged, that time is now.

I remember with tremendous sadness the statement of Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran minister in Berlin, after World War II as a warning of what can happen when people do not come to the defense of others whose civil liberties have been taken away.

Niemoller said, "In Germany they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me -- and by that time, no one was left to speak up."

Niemoller had founded the Pastors Emergency League to Resist Hitlerism and had been confined to Nazi concentration camps for eight years before his release in 1945.

Happily, we do not have that kind of environment in the current terrorist crisis. But there is always the possibility that we could create an atmosphere where dissent and freedom of speech are not tolerated on grounds of national security.

We all know America is admired by people around the world because of its freedoms, especially those under the Bill of Rights, which protects citizens and even non-citizens. We are a nation that has been governed by laws that have endured for more than 200 years. If we lose our title of "land of the free," what have we got?

Under his authority as commander-in-chief, President Bush seems to have given his Cabinet carte blanche in pursuing suspects, detaining immigrants secretly and establishing military tribunals that could impose the death penalty by a two-thirds vote of the jury without judicial review.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, summoned last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, was masterful in showing that the best defense is a good offense.

He bluntly attacked the panel's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and other critics who had voiced concerns about lost liberties. "We need honest, reasoned debate, not fear-mongering," Ashcroft said. "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: 'Your tactics only aid terrorists -- for they erode national unity and diminish national resolve."'

Actually, the real erosion takes place when we allow the chipping away of the bulwark of the U.S. Constitution and our overall record on human rights, which have made us a beacon around the globe.

Where are the modern-day Patrick Henrys and Thomas Paines when we need them? Henry was the most celebrated orator of the American Revolution. Every schoolchild has learned his ringing call, "Give me liberty or give me death." And Paine is remembered for his pamphlets on behalf of political equality, tolerance, civil liberties and human dignity.

But Ashcroft argued that people who hope the kind of terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11 will not be repeated "were living in a dream world."

He held up a training manual for al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terror network, and said it showed that "terrorists are taught how to use America's freedoms as a weapon against us."

With strong support in the public opinion polls, the administration obviously feels it is free to proceed in curbing civil liberties.

In their questioning of Ashcroft many of the senators, except for Leahy and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., rolled over. After all, who wants to be called unpatriotic in these times?

Where are the profiles in courage? There are not many on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers seem to be giving up their own rights to set rules on the treatment of immigrants and others in this country who are detained or sought by the government for questioning.

To Bush, Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, I would ask this: Please remember the quote of Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1950s who said, "Democracy is great not just because the majority prevails but because it is safe to be in the minority."

The attorney general, accusing the critics of exaggerating or misstating the dangers of the government's new curbs on civil rights, insisted that the Justice Department "has sought to prevent terrorism with reason, careful balance and excruciating attention to detail."

Of course, Americans are willing to defer some of the freedoms they once had for valid security reasons. No one can dispute the need for strict enforcement of the rules at airports and in vulnerable public buildings. Arrests of foreign-born residents accused of violating immigration laws or of having knowledge of terrorists or their plans are certainly legal. But those detained should also be given due process rights and equal protection of the laws. And the long detentions of innocent persons based on little or no evidence should be stopped.

Ashcroft plans to offer immigrants help in obtaining citizenship if they snitch on their friends or acquaintances as dangers to the Republic. But such an official policy would undermine our nation's reputation for probity and decency.

What we need now are more leaders who are students of civics, democracy and especially the Constitution. For to become great Americans, we must know why the founders of our country were so outstanding.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/12.15E.Thomas.Speak.Up.htm

12/15/01
12:24:22 PM

Bush Makes Justice Papers Secret

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Since taking office, President Bush has sent a clear message to Congress: Some sensitive information Capitol Hill lawmakers have been used to getting will be off limits.

Bush sent the most powerful part of the message Thursday when he invoked executive privilege to protect the confidentiality of prosecutorial documents Congress has often received in the past.

Kept out of lawmakers' hands are documents pertaining to the FBI's handling of mob informants in Boston in the 1960s and the Clinton-era fund-raising probe of the 1990s.

"This is the beginning of a real constitutional confrontation," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. "I think they ran into the wrong chairman, the wrong committee and maybe the wrong Congress."

The House Government Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., had subpoenaed the Boston material.

"I think it's just a power grab" and "a clever maneuver politically," Catholic University political science professor Mark Rozell said of the president rebuffing congressional demands.

After a prolonged battle, Attorney General Janet Reno turned over much material to the Republican-led Congress from the fund-raising investigation of the Clinton campaign of 1996.

The Bush White House's strategy is "to make a sharp turn to get them back" to where the Republicans think the privilege should properly be, said St. John's University law professor John Barrett.

Rozell said it is disturbing that the White House takes the position that a dispute involving a prosecutorial matter is automatically resolved in the executive's favor.

The Justice Department almost always withholds materials from Congress in ongoing investigations, but in closed probes the need for secrecy is greatly reduced.

Withholding information from Congress has become a White House habit.

The president didn't bother to consult the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman before disclosing his plan for military tribunals. Since last spring, Vice President Dick Cheney has been refusing to disclose his secret energy meetings with power industry executives and lobbyists.

Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Grassley questions Bush's position that access to the Justice Department documents would be contrary to the national interest.

"Anything that limits legitimate congressional oversight is very worrisome," Grassley said. "This move needs to be carefully scrutinized, particularly in an atmosphere where Congress is giving the Justice Department additional powers and authority."

At a hearing before Burton's committee, Justice Department criminal division chief of staff Michael Horowitz argued keeping deliberative documents away from Congress would "insulate career line prosecutors and their internal deliberations from political pressure."

"What you have said is extraordinarily insulting," responded Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

"We all think this is stonewalling. It's a terrible, terrible precedent to set," Burton said. "We might be able to go to the (House) floor and take this thing to court."

The full House, controlled by Republicans, would have to vote to find Bush in contempt to start such a court battle.

"The point is if you have corruption in the Justice Department and you let an executive decision stand, you can't root out corruption," Burton said. "This is not a monarchy."

In the Boston case being examined by the committee, Joseph Salvati spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, even though the FBI had evidence of his innocence.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Reporter Melissa Robinson in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/12.15A.Bush.Secret.htm

12/15/01
12:18:46 PM

t r u t h o u t | 12.15

BUSH Makes Justice Papers Secret

http://www.truthout.com/12.15A.Bush.Secret.htm

KERRY Threatens to Block Nominations

http://www.truthout.com/12.15B.Kerry.Judicial.htm

DASCHLE on Election Reform Agreement

http://www.truthout.com/12.15C.Daschle.Voting.htm

ASHCROFT Praises German Law Banning Terrorist Religions

http://www.truthout.com/12.15D.Ashcroft.German.htm

HELEN THOMAS | It's Time To Speak Up

http://www.truthout.com/12.15E.Thomas.Speak.Up.htm

12/15/01
12:00:19 PM

Attacking The First Admendment

When the War on Terrorism Turns on the Wrong Targets

by Joe Davidson

The government's current approach to the war against terrorism’s domestic front runs the risk of putting press freedom in harms way.

Using the Justice Department as central command and an attorney general who puts the emphasis on "general," President Bush has pursued a strategy that threatens civil liberties and the civil rights of non-citizens in particular.

Though direct White House assaults on journalists have been limited, there certainly is indication enough that the administration believes there can be too much freedom during wartime. Furthermore, Congress now is considering legislation that critics say would cripple a basic tool journalists and others use to discover information the government would not other wise disclose.

The Critical Infrastructure Information Security Act of 2001, introduced in September by GOP Senators Bob Bennett and Jon Kyl, would, among other things, protect certain information from the reach of the Freedom of Information Act. Using national security as a cover, Bennett and Kyl would allow companies to voluntarily submit information, on things from computer security to oil spills for example, to 13 designated government agencies.

"Doing so means that specific information shared with a federal agency for analysis, warning or ... study will not be disclosed in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)," says a Bennett statement.

Sponsors of the legislation say it would encourage companies to share critical data with the government, while keeping that information out of terrorists' hands. The Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, however, calls the bill "a corporate lobbyist’s dream for suppressing information about dangerous business practices for which a company should be held responsible." If the measure is attached to other legislation already up for consideration, there would be no Senate hearings on the FOIA impact.

While Congress contemplates enervating FOIA, other administration actions to restrict longstanding freedoms clearly inhibit journalists' ability to report. One example is the White House plan to try terrorism suspects in military tribunals, which would operate with much greater secrecy than regular courts.

Even without using the tribunals, the round up of at least 1,100 people since September 11 has been conducted with much more mystery than American standards generally tolerate. This severely restricts the media’s ability to fully convey the extent to which Constitutional protections might be in jeopardy.

Now, the government has decided to cover its tracks even more. No longer does Justice release the number of detainees, which allowed the press and the public to know the number being held. This affinity for secrecy works as a brake on press freedom even without a direct hit on the First Amendment.

The administration did attempt a direct hit when the State Department tried to stop the September broadcast of a Voice of America (VOA) interview with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. After a delay, the VOA wisely rebuffed State and scored a point for press freedom.

Actions like this by the State Department and others on the domestic front recently prompted an upstanding group of folks to form a blue ribbon panel to protect freedom of the press and our other civil liberties. The Constitution Project, part of the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, organized an Initiative on Liberty and Security.

Floyd Abrams, a first amendment lawyer who represents The New York Times and CNN, said he joined the Initiative more to protect against potential abuse than to protest administration actions so far. Nevertheless, Abrams found National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice’s telephone call to television networks executives, urging them to review and edit Osama bin Laden’s remarks before broadcasting them, too aggressive.

"If she simply asked them to be thoughtful about it during a speech, it would have been far less troubling than in effect calling them on the carpet and pushing pretty hard," he said in an interview.

Abrams also fears misuse of the espionage act. Under it, he explained, revealing "information relating to the national defense" for the purpose of aiding a U.S. adversary or hurting the American cause is a crime. "That is very loose language," Abrams complained. While the courts have interpreted the act narrowly, "it sits there as a potential source of abuse," he warned. The loose language, he added, "provides an angry government with a dangerous weapon."

A paper released by the Constitution Project noted times the government has used its weapons to stifle descent, starting from the very beginning of the Republic. The Alien and Sedition Act of 1796 made it a federal crime to falsely criticize the government or government officials. "Numerous individuals were sentenced to prison for speech that was mild and ineffectual," according to the Project.

During World War I, Congress made criticizing the war effort, and the draft in particular, a federal crime. Eugene Debs, the famous socialist, called draftees "cannon fodder" and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. "The Supreme Court upheld both of these convictions and sentences, even though there was not the slightest evidence that they had any effect on the war effort," says the Constitution Project’s survey of wartime laws.

And during the Cold War, the survey noted, some people were convicted under the Smith Act for conspiring to advocate the government’s overthrow because they studied Marx and Lenin.

This history and the far-reaching investigative techniques since September 11 create a scary picture. But the picture will only get worse if those who benefit from constitutional freedoms -- including freedom of the press -- do nothing when they are diminished.

Joe Davidson is a commentator for NPR's "Morning Edition," and writes for the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times.

Source: http://tompaine.com/features/2001/12/13/index.html

12/15/01
11:34:43 AM

TomPaine.com

http://www.TomPaine.com

LEADING THE DEMOCRATIC CORPSE

Looking For Signs of Life on the Left

These days it's getting near impossible to tell a Democrat from a Republican, at least without taking a pulse. Republicans have one.

http://tompaine.com/opinion/2001/12/13/1.html

ATTACKING THE FIRST AMENDMENT

When the War on Terrorism Turns on the Wrong Targets

by Joe Davidson

The Bush administration, the Justice Department and the Attorney General are pushing scary new legislation through Congress to fight the "war on terrorism." In these cases, though, the collateral damage will be our rights.

http://tompaine.com/features/2001/12/13/index.html

NO RETURN TO EXECUTION

The U.S. Death Penalty as a Barrier to Extradition

by Amnesty International

A clear majority of countries have decided justice is not to be found at the hands of state executioners. The United States' growing isolation on this fundamental issue has significant consequences for its foreign relations.

http://tompaine.com/features/2001/12/07/1.html

SCRIPTING BIN LADEN'S LAST ACT

Closing the Curtains on the Pentagon's Propaganda Play

by Richard Blow

Media organizations, knowingly or not, have helped the Pentagon prep the public for the desired climax of the Afghanistan campaign: an unheroic death for Osama bin Laden.

http://tompaine.com/news/2001/12/12/index.html

VICTORY ABROAD THROUGH GLUTTONY AT HOME

by Jane Holtz Kay

It's time to turn SUV headlights on the danger of pursuing "victory" abroad through gluttony at home. This year, we'll inscribe Kerouac's question on our holiday cards: "Whither thou goest, America, in thy shiny car in the night?"

http://tompaine.com/opinion/2001/12/11/index.html

MR. ARAFAT, YOU'RE NO BEN-GURION

by M. W. Guzy

"Ben-Gurion died widely regarded as a visionary statesman, a stature history is unlikely to confer on political-opportunist Arafat. Yet, both men have benefited at the negotiating table from terrorism they supposedly deplored."

http://tompaine.com/history/2001/12/11/index.html

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Our Readers React: Another One Bites the Dust ... A Little More Outrage Please ... Letting It All Slip Away ... Forgetting History ... more.

http://tompaine.com/opinion/2001/12/13/index.html

12/15/01
11:29:56 AM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE <http://www.gristmagazine.com>

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Leading experts take on Bjorn Lomborg's book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," in a special edition of Grist: <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/lomborg121201.asp?source=daily>

I'M MISTER HEAT MISER

The Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances is the poster child for international environmental agreements; thanks to its success, chlorofluorocarbons (and, we hope, the ozone hole) are on their way to oblivion. But is there a dark side to this happy tale? HCFCs and HFCs, the chemicals replacing CFCs, are powerful greenhouse gases -- in some cases, 1,300 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the planet. Yet non-ozone depleting, non-greenhouse gas alternatives are readily available for the same applications. What gives? Reporting from an annual Montreal Protocol meeting in -- where else? -- Montreal, Grist correspondent Jason Anderson takes on the fragmentation of environmental issues, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: The hole in the ozone layer policy -- are higher temperatures the price of saving the ozone layer? -- by Jason Anderson <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/anderson121401.asp?source=daily>

OIL IN YOUR STOCKING

This holiday season, be sure to take a little time to think about ... oil. Yep, oil. The stuff that helps define U.S. foreign policy and could be conveniently pumped through Afghanistan given a friendly government. Also the stuff that powers your trip to grandmother's house and fills the tanks of the trucks and ships and airplanes that bring a Harry Potter action figure to every Toys "R" Us in the world. And, oh yeah, the stuff that releases greenhouse gases when burned. Don't want to be a part of that? Taking the holiday season as a starting point, Grist columnist Elizabeth Sawin pulls on the thread connecting her to the big tangled mess of oil dependency, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: Deck the halls with CFLs -- an oil-free holiday season -- in our Global Citizen section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/citizen/citizen121401.asp?source=daily>

do good: Take action to change a habit <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#tips>

BUY, BUY, MISS AMERICAN PIE

Uncle Sam wants you to go to the mall! With the White House, Congress, and the media flacking for the financial sector in the name of patriotism, surely the least you can do for your country this holiday season is max out your credit card. David Helvarg takes on the war economy and the new urgency behind the "shop till you drop" ethic, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: Everything's changed, including zero-down financing -- by David Helvarg <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/helvarg121401.asp?source=daily>

do good: Take action to boycott Discover Card <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/rivers.asp?source=daily#discover>

I WANT YOU ... TO BUY MORE STUFF!

World War I was fought to make the world safe for democracy; World War II for ourselves and our allies. Is this new war being fought largely to make the world safer for consumption? Jane Holtz Kay compares the "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" ethic that governed the WWII home front with the consume-for-your-country campaign currently underway, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: Gluttony at home is not necessary for victory abroad -- by Jane Holtz Kay <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/kay121401.asp?source=daily>

do good: Take action on waste issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/waste.asp?source=daily#junkmail>

STEAL THESE BOOKS

Consumption and land conservation are the subjects of two very different books reviewed this week in Grist. "Affluenza," by John de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor, takes a look at materialism run amok, while "Red" by Terry Tempest Williams argues that the minimalism and grandeur of the red rock wilderness provide a critical escape from the corrosive forces of capitalism. Reviewer Elizabeth Grossman looks at our desire for the good life and our need for wild places, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: A review of "Affluenza" and "Red" -- in our Books Unbound section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/grossman121401.asp?source=daily>

do good: Take action and crush capitalism with your pen <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/consumption.asp?source=dail y#capitalism>

I GOT YER HOLIDAY CHEER RIGHT HERE, BUDDY

Species going extinct. Warming temperatures. Environmental skeptics on the rise. An all-oil team in the White House. Yep, we at Grist sure do have fun writing about the despoiling of Mama Earth. But even Grist staffers need to take time out once in a while. We'll be on vacation for the last two weeks of the year 2001. We know you'll miss your daily fix of green news, but fret not -- we'll be back at work on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2002, in better humor than ever. Thanks for all your support this past year!

Happy holidays: <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha121201.asp?source=daily> <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha121500.stm?source=daily> <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha122099.stm?source=daily>

12/14/01
5:30:16 PM

http://indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=99633&group=webcast

"Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S."

By WILLIAM J. BROAD, NY Times

The high quality, the adviser said, lends credence to the idea that someone with links to military laboratories or their contractors might be behind the attacks. "It's frightening to think that one of our own scientists could have done something like this," he said. "But it's definitely possible."

From: http://sf.indymedia.org/2001/12/111201.php

Irradiation of US mail is in the pipeline (December 3 2001)

In order to create a system that would allow the mailing of items like seeds, film, drugs, food, etc., a complex series of loopholes would have to be created, which could then be used to circumvent this expensive (and dangerous) "Anthrax Defense System".

Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety have released a report on dangerous changes in food (the formation of unique radiolytic compounds) caused by the lower levels of irradiation" [now in use on foods in the US]

Question: If one of our own agents or scientists is suspected of perpetrating the Anthrax scare, why are we proposing to spend billions of more dollars on a faulty remedy?

Government eyes its own for anthrax

The FBI investigates federal laboratories and contractors as possible sources for the pathogen used in the attacks.

NEW YORK TIMES

The FBI has expanded its investigation of the anthrax attacks to include the laboratories of the government and its contractors as a possible source of anthrax that has infected and killed five people, say scientists and law enforcement officials.

While theories about the culprit have focused mainly on domestic loners and foreign states or terrorists, law enforcement officials are now examining the possibility that the criminal may be a knowledgeable insider.

Asked if the FBI was investigating U.S. military and nonmilitary laboratories that held the anthrax strain used in the attacks and individuals associated with such centers, a law enforcement official replied, "Certainly."

Separately, a private expert in biological weapons, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, has recently published a paper contending that a government insider, or someone in contact with an insider, is behind the lethal attacks.

Though not an expert on criminal profiling, Rosenberg, a molecular biologist at the State University of New York, has testified on biological weapons before Congress, advised Bill Clinton when he was president and addressed international arms control meetings, including one a few days ago in Geneva.

Law enforcement officials said Rosenberg's assertion might turn out to be well founded, though they emphasized that the investigation was still broad-based.

One official close to the federal investigation called the Rosenberg theory "the most likely hypothesis." Referring to her paper, the official said, "I might not have put it so strongly, but it's definitely reasonable."

Other analysts, including some scientists and experts in germ weapons, expressed more skepticism that it was an insider, contending that the skills and knowledge needed to produce the type of anthrax in this attack were widely available.

The paper laying out Rosenberg's thesis was distributed on Thursday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an arms control group.

Rosenberg, who conducts research at State University of New York and is chairwoman of an arms control panel at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington, D.C., has argued repeatedly that states, not individuals, have the wherewithal to make advanced biological weapons.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/attack/stories/xanthfbi_20011202.htm

---

US Expert Believed Behind Anthrax Attacks

GERMANY: November 29, 2001

BERLIN - The anthrax attacks in the United States were probably the work of a member of a U.S. biological warfare programme, the magazine of environment pressure group Greenpeace Germany reported yesterday.

The magazine said its article was based on information from a U.S. delegation source at the United Nations biological weapons conference in Geneva that began last week. The attacks have killed five people.

"The U.S. delegation believe it is an inside job... Their members also have more information than has been made public," Kirsten Brodde, a reporter for the magazine, told Reuters. The magazine said: "It seems the attacker...wanted to force through an increase in the budget for U.S. research on biological weapons." It speculated that the attacker, who used anthrax-laced mail, had probably wanted to cause panic rather than kill anyone.

U.S. investigators have still not determined who was behind the attacks, but Attorney General John Ashcroft has signalled the authorities were inclined to believe they had a domestic source. The attacks occurred in the aftermath of the September 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington and prompted initial accusations by President George W. Bush that Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden may been responsible.

Asked about the magazine article, an FBI spokesman reiterated that investigators were pursuing a number of leads but no arrests appeared imminent. A spokesman for the U.S. delegation in Geneva said he did not have any information about the article. The magazine is linked to the environmental lobby group and shares its offices, but it said it was financially and editorially independent.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

SEE ALSO

Pentagon Denials and Civilian Death in Afghanistan

http://AlterNet.org/story.html?StoryID=12044

BUSH Abandons ABM | Congress : "This is Not a Monarchy"

http://www.truthout.com/12.14B.ABM.Out.htm

12/14/01
5:09:56 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

http://www.utne.com/webwatch

MAKING A MEMRI

by Tim Cavanaugh, Online Journalism Review

-- Heard the one about the Palestinian doctor's celebration of anthrax or the Saudi Arabian debate about ridding the world of Christians and Jews? It's all part of the Middle East Media Research Institute's (MEMRI) determined campaign to stir up animosity toward the Muslim world. And according to Tim Cavanaugh in the Online Journalism Review, there are few news services more valuable to Americans at the moment.

THE POWER OF SONG IN THE PROTECTION OF NATIVE LANDS

by Melissa Nelson and Philip M. Klasky, Orion Afield

-- Chronicling the songs and stories of American Indians' ties to native lands is the first step in preserving habitat, says one group trying to record a tribe's oral history.

CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE LAW AND POLICY

Web site review by Kate Garsombke

-- The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, a nonprofit organization aiming for equality of women through reproductive rights, spolights the struggle for women's human rights on their Web site.

Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch

12/14/01
5:07:31 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

COALITION CALLS FOR REFORMS IN HYDROPOWER LICENSING

WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2001 (ENS) - An antiquated process for relicensing hydropower dams on U.S. rivers is delaying dam reforms that could improve the health of these rivers and the species which depend upon them, argues a new report by the Hydropower Reform Coalition. The report echoes comments made this week by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for licensing the nation's hundreds of dams.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-06.html

BERING SEA POACHING BY RUSSIAN MAFIA UNCOVERED

WASHINGTON, DC, December 12, 2001 (ENS) - The World Wildlife Fund today issued the findings of a year long investigative study by TRAFFIC, its wildlife trade monitoring network, that accuses "the Russian mafia" of illegal fishing in the western Bering Sea.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-02.html

BLAZE DESTROYS NORWEGIAN WHALE MEAT FACTORY

LOS ANGELES, California, December 13, 2001 (ENS) - The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is denying that anyone from the organization is involved in a fire that swept through a Norwegian whale meat processing plant Tuesday night and another fire that sank a Norwegian whaling ship last week in the Lofoten Islands.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-03.html

2002 DECLARED YEAR OF THE MOUNTAIN

NEW YORK, New York, December 13, 2001 (ENS) - War and other conflicts, and the poverty of mountain peoples, are leading to the decimation of mountain ecosystems and the species which depend upon them, the United Nations said Tuesday. Mountain forests are vanishing across the globe, prompting the organization to designate 2002 as the International Year of Mountains.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-07.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: DECEMBER 13, 2001

Farm Subsidies Pay for Handful of States

Anti-Terrorism Assessments Crafted for Power Plants

Fish Poachers Nabbed by Satellite Data

Climate Change Could Boost Cotton Yields

Carbon Capture Could Benefit Air, Oceans

Loud Noises Could Give Whales the Bends

Four Wolves Shot in Wisconsin

Giant Umbrellas Will Not Solve Global Warming

FARM SUBSIDIES PAY FOR HANDFUL OF STATES

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-13-09.html

12/14/01
5:03:15 PM

AlterNet Headlines Brief summaries of leading stories from AlterNet -- the independent news and syndication service -- for December 14, 2001. http://www.alternet.org

COLLATERAL DAMAGE MADE REAL Deborah James, AlterNet A visit to refugee camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan indicates what the future holds for post-war Afghanistan. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12077

PREDICTING 9-11 Chris Wright, Boston Phoenix Osama bin Laden's terrorists surprised America on September 11, but apparently more than one astrologer saw it coming. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12082

LABOR FIGHTS TERRORISM AND BUSH SIMULTANEOUSLY Marc Cooper, AlterNet Some 650 unionized workers died in the Sept. 11 attacks, and the ensuing recession has made hundreds of thousands jobless. On top of that, says the AFL-CIO's leader, Bush is waging a "war on workers." http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12080

NIGGERS, OLD & NEW Keith Owens, Detroit Metro Times Do black folks feel more relieved and less under the gun after the Sept. 11 tragedy because now the pressure is off them and on the Arabs? http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12081

THE FEMININE MISTAKE Erin Aubry Kaplan, LA Weekly Are whites making more progress in the gender wars than blacks? Is dressing skimpily in public an admirable goal? The hard questions of post-post-feminism catch up with one young writer. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12074

THE TABLOID ENVIRONMENTALIST Colin Woodard, TomPaine.com Taken in by claims in Bjorn Lomborg's new book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," that the earth's health is improving and pesky environmentalists are just using bad science to scare us, the supposedly skeptical big media got duped -- big time. *In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18

GOLDEN STATE TERRORISTS Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com If President Bush is steadfast in his belief that "if they [countries] fund a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they house terrorists, they're terrorists," look out California! http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12073

EIGHT WEEKS IN JAIL: LIFE ON ASHCROFT'S ENEMIES LIST Carole Bass, New Haven Advocate The Justice Department has detained more than 1,100 people in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, most because of their national origin. Finally, some of their stories are starting to emerge. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12062

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF RACIAL PROFILING Nicole Davis, ColorLines Anti-racial profiling activists have to develop new strategies to challenge the current war rhetoric, which gives law enforcement license to target people of color. *In HumanRights USA: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=22

TECHSPLOITATION: SEX STUDIES AT MIT Annalee Newitz, AlterNet The world-renowned MIT Media Lab has just unveiled its latest project, the Erotic Computation Group, studying everything from digital erotica to sex robots. Well, at least, they would like to... http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12064

HOW DOES POT WORK? Mark D Fefer, Seattle Weekly All you know is that it gets you high. Ever wonder what's really going on in your brain when you take a hit? *In DrugReporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17

MAD DOG: I'M BEGINNING TO SHOP A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS Mad Dog, AlterNet Christmas is going to be different this year. It won't just be that the outside of every house will be decorated in red, white, and blue bulbs. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12066

12/14/01
5:01:23 PM

t r u t h o u t | 12.14

BUSH Invokes Executive Privilege to Deny Subpoena

http://www.truthout.com/12.14A.Exec.Priv.htm

BUSH Abandons ABM | Congress : "This is Not a Monarchy"

http://www.truthout.com/12.14B.ABM.Out.htm

PUTIN | U.S. ABM Withdrawal a 'Mistake'

http://www.truthout.com/12.14C.Putin.ABM.htm

DASCHLE | Briefing ABM: "Undermines Fragile Coalition"

http://www.truthout.com/12.14D.Daschle.ABM.htm

LEVIN-GEPHARDT on ABM | Question "Provocative Unilateral Steps"

http://www.truthout.com/12.14E.Levin.Gephardt.htm

REPORT | Jerusalem Explosion May Have Been an Attempt on Life of US General Zinni

http://www.truthout.com/12.14F.Zinni.Bomb.htm

12/14/01
4:59:28 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Bush decision on ABM advances Republican dream - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13718/story.htm

Moon power "could plug energy gap" - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13720/story.htm

Governor seeks more oversight of Alaska oil wells - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13721/story.htm

Scientists see threat of abrupt world climate change - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13722/story.htm

UPDATE - Brit Energy, Amec to build 600 mln stg UK wind farm - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13713/story.htm

Leaked report calls for nuclear-free power - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13713/story.htm

Spain's Gamesa takes over rest of wind power unit - SPAIN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13715/story.htm

UPDATE - EU court says French ban on British beef is illegal - LUXEMBOURG http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13719/story.htm

Hydrogen burst may have occurred at Japan reactor - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13714/story.htm

Japan's maverick PM praises reformist car - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13716/story.htm

12/14/01
4:57:53 PM

Flowers

A new business was opening and one of the owner's friends wanted to send flowers for the occasion. They arrived at the new business site and the owner read the card. It said, "Rest in Peace." The owner got angry and called the florist to complain. He let the florist know in no uncertain terms how angry he was about the obvious mistake.

The florist wisely diffused the man's anger when she calmly said, "Sir, I'm really sorry for the mistake, but just imagine this ... somewhere there is a funeral taking place today, and they have flowers with a note saying, "Congratulations on your new location!"

12/14/01
4:51:58 PM

The Tabloid Environmentalist

How A Pseudo-Scientist Duped The Big Media -- Big Time

by Colin Woodard

Bjorn Lomborg's new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, brings us glorious news. The world's environment is getting better, not worse. Contrary to what the experts have been telling you, forests are spreading, air and water pollution are improving, global warming will have mild effects, and there won't be any food shortages as the world's population grows. And there's no need to worry about the ozone hole, species extinction, or acid rain; all those pesky environmentalists have just been exaggerating to try to scare you.

If this sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.

The Skeptical Environmentalist presents itself as a work of impartial scholarship, an attempt to test the validity of various environmental concerns through a careful analysis of the evidence. In fact, it's a polemic, an intellectually dishonest tract filled with glaring omissions, appalling errors of fact and analysis, and inaccurate characterizations of contrary arguments. There are some valid points as well -- Greenpeace and other advocacy groups have distorted scientific information for their own ends -- but Lomborg must be read with a very skeptical eye.

Unfortunately, the media reaction has been surprisingly un-skeptical. The book has become a runaway hit on both sides of the Atlantic following a wave of credulous features, book reviews, and Lomborg guest essays published in many of the English-speaking world's most respected newspapers and magazines.

Before the book was even available in the Britain, newspapers were signing its praises. The London Observer's environment correspondent, Anthony Browne, announced it had "demolished almost every ... environmental claim with a barrage of official statistics. "The London Times science correspondent reported Lomborg's global warming claims in a story without other sources. The Economist gave a glowing review and invited Lomborg to write a 2,500 word essay, while the more liberal Guardian published a three-part series. Time International opined that "Of all the sacred cows, only global warming remains unslain" by Lomborg.

The coverage quickly generated a maelstrom of criticism from leading scientists --including Lomborg's own colleagues at the University of Aarhus. Many of his claims were publicly discredited, but you'd never know that from reading the subsequent coverage in this country. The New York Times carried a sympathetic 2,000 word feature on the book, calling it "a substantial work of analysis." The Washington Post Book World was gushing in its praise, calling it "a magnificent achievement" and "the most significant work on the environment since ... Silent Spring." The Post reviewer, Dennis Dutton, a philosopher in New Zealand who lectures on "the dangers of pseudoscience" even decreed that the book "is now the place from which environmental policy decisions must be argued."

How did the supposedly skeptical media get so taken in? Weren't there clues that should have cast suspicion on Lomborg's motives and analysis? Well, yes and no.

At first glance, Lomborg looks credible. Unlike past anti-green polemicists, Lomborg is a tenured professor at the environmental studies institute of a prestigious university. He's a self-declared "environmentalist ... former Greenpeace member [and] left-wing sympathizer" who doesn't eat meat because he doesn't want to kill animals.

Lomborg isn't an environmental scientist and has never published a scientific paper on climate change, ecology, atmospheric pollution, or any other topic he takes on in his book.

More importantly, his book is published by Cambridge University Press, an academic publisher that supposedly peer reviews manuscripts prior to publication.

"He's a tenured professor at a major university published by an important press," says Bruce Lewenstein, who teaches science communications at Cornell University, after looking over Lomborg's bio. "If someone with some credentials is questioning the conventional wisdom, that's a story."

It may be a story, but it's one that smells fishy from the very first sniff.

Lomborg isn't an environmental scientist and has never published a scientific paper on climate change, ecology, atmospheric pollution, or any other topic he takes on in his book. That's because he's not even a natural scientist, but rather a political scientist with a background in statistics and game theory.

"Here's one guy taking on a whole spectrum of issues who has never written a paper on any of them and is in opposition to absolutely everyone in the field, Nobel prize-winners and all," says Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Columbia University who says virtually all of Lomborg's facts on biodiversity are simply wrong. "It ought to have raised some red flags." Political reporters often follow the money; science reporters should follow the data. Those that did discovered that many of the book's 2,500 footnotes led not to hard data, but to newspaper stories, Web pages, and magazine interviews with rival scientists. Some stunning assertions -- that "our oceans have not become defiled" for instance -- aren't substantiated by any research at all.

"He asserts with no analysis that only the mildest [climate change] impacts will happen and that the dangerous ones won't happen," says Stanford University's Stephen H. Schneider, lead author of several chapters of the International Panel on Climate Change's reports. "That the media sucked it up is really incredible."

"Journalists feel they need to give equal emphasis to a single skeptic on one side and, say, the scientific consensus of several thousand of the world's scientists on the other."

Part of the problem is the media's propensity to treat scientific disagreements as they might a political one: quote both sides and let the reader decide on their own. But, as most science writers know, such an approach is entirely inadequate for reporting on science and technology issues. It's important to report on bold, unorthodox theories, because some hold true and lead to new discoveries. But the science journalist has a duty to place them in their proper context: the shared, established opinion of dozens or hundreds of experts in the field does in fact carry more weight than that of a single dissenter.

"Journalists feel they need to give equal emphasis to a single skeptic on one side and, say, the scientific consensus of several thousand of the world's scientists on the other," as in the debate over climate change, says Lisa Sorensen, staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. "This leads readers and viewers to think these opinions have equal weight when, in fact, they do not."

Not everyone sees it this way. Anthony Browne, whose articles in the London Observer first brought attention to the English-language edition of The Skeptical Environmentalist, says most environmental journalists spend most of their time "acting as publicists to those who have a vested interest in scaring people about the state of the environment." He said that when somebody like himself airs the views of skeptics, "those who believe with a passion that we are all doomed heap anger and contempt on them." Browne says journalists shouldn't test "the validity of certain bits of science," but simply judge if someone appears credible and give them an airing to foster debate.

The editor in chief of The Economist, Bill Emmott, stands behind Lomborg's book and denies that it has been given a free ride by the media. "The real problem for the critics is that as far as we can see his data is incontrovertible. That is awkward for those who have made claims in the past that the data flatly contradicts," Emmott says. He said that in all the debate, he had yet to see a critic establish that the book contains "egregious" errors. "He has wiped the floor with his opponents, which is probably why he has created such ire." Grist Magazine has compiled a series of articles from leading scholars that illustrate how wrong Lomborg and Emmott are.

Several scientists interviewed for this article were dumbfounded that with all the scientific and environmental expertise available in the United States, the Washington Post's book review assigned the book to a philosophy professor in New Zealand with no more expertise to assess the arguments than the Post's own science reporters. The reviewer, Dennis Dutton, was chosen because of his "neutrality, remove, record ... and his interest in the environment," according to the paper's Book World editor, Marie Arana. She said that assigning the book had been the subject of an unusually wide-ranging debate, which resulted in a decision not to assign the book within the newsroom.

Dutton, whose popular Arts and Letters Web site includes a paean to the late environmental skeptic Julian Simon in its list of classic articles, declined to comment for this article. "It is the accuracy or inaccuracy of the book that is at issue, as far as I am concerned," he wrote by e-mail. "If you think the book is factually wrong, and if reviewers have been misled, I'd be keen to learn how."

But many of Lomborg's most troubling deceptions don't require scientific training to detect, and should have been obvious to any editor with even a passing interest in the environmental debate. Much of the book is deliberately misleading. Lomborg devotes entire chapters to "revealing" that we are not running out of oil or metals, although virtually nobody in the environmental movement has claimed otherwise in the past twenty years. He also marshals statistics to prove that human life expectancy and the global Gross Domestic Product have improved over the past two centuries and that the green revolution increased agricultural production, as if anyone is arguing the contrary. Lomborg shows the Kyoto agreement will have only a slight impact on global warming, apparently unaware that the treaty is indeed conceived as a "down payment" on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Much of the media -- conservative and liberal alike -- were duped by the imprimatur of Cambridge University Press, whose reputation has been damaged by the publication of Lomborg's book.

Conservatives love Lomborg's message because it suggests that the status quo is pretty good. The Cooler Heads Coalition -- a group spearheaded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute which seeks to "dispel the myths of global warming" -- helped kick-off The Skeptical Environmentalist's U.S. release by sponsoring Lomborg's very own Capitol Hill briefing on October 4th. Not surprisingly, conservative columnists have heaped praise on the book. Katherine Kersten, senior fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, told her Minneapolis Star-Tribune readers not to be taken in by "environmental fearmongering" and that "celebration, not despair, is in order." Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune questioned how environmentalists have "resisted the impulse to carry Lomborg off on their shoulders, wildly celebrating all the achievements of our era." The reason: environmentalists take "a solemn vow of melancholy."

Asked about how he assessed Lomborg's work, Chapman said that he didn't pretend to be a scientist and might change his opinion of the book if it were shown to be fraudulent. "All a layman like myself can do is try to learn about a subject by listening to what scientists on either side say and make a judgment of who is right," he said. "We do the same thing with non-scientists like economists and military people, whose knowledge is far deeper than our own."

Much of the media -- conservative and liberal alike -- were duped by the imprimatur of Cambridge University Press, whose reputation has been damaged by the publication of Lomborg's book. "Despite the sales that have been generated, CUP's credibility and reputation will suffer," says Jane Lubchenco, distinguished professor of zoology at Oregon State University and past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Many of us have inquired of our Cambridge contacts how they could have published a book that so clearly could never have passed peer review."

The book was acquired by CUP's social science group, rather than its natural science division. Editor Chris Harrison declined to comment on rumors that natural science editors had been kept in the dark about the book until a very late date. He said by e-mail that he had been very skeptical about the book when it first landed on his desk, and was surprised when all four of the scientific "referees" who reviewed the English manuscript recommended it for publication. He said referees always remain anonymous, but that all four were "senior figures … from leading departments on both sides of the Atlantic" and included two from "environmental science departments, one from climate science, and one from a social science department."

Harrison said he had no regrets about publishing the book and that Cambridge University Press prided itself on publishing a variety of voices. "The book has been noticed and debated and that is surely a valuable contribution to public and academic debate in an open society," he said, adding that he himself was a "green tinted liberal" and not part of some conservative agenda.

Others dispute that The Skeptical Environmentalist's contribution will be positive.

"This book is going to be misused terribly by interests opposed to a clean energy policy," says Ms. Sorensen of Union of Concerned Scientists, whose organization is publishing a series of scientific critiques of Lomborg's science. "Hopefully that will help counter the claims and minimize the damage that could be done by a book like this."

Earth Day Network's Grist Magazine.com commissioned a series of reviews by prominent scientists from the fields that Lomborg tackled in his book.

For details, http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/12/11/1.html

Colin Woodard is the author of Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas. He currently lives in Port Isabel, Texas.

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/12/07/index.html

12/14/01
4:45:45 PM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE <http://www.gristmagazine.com>

WATER, AT YOUR SURFACE

A water shortage in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, has grown so severe that authorities have called in the army to distribute drinking water to the city's residents. The shortage is fueled by 6 percent annual population growth, mushrooming housing complexes, and severe pollution of the nearby Buriganga River. Riverside industries dump hundreds of tons of waste and toxic chemicals directly into the water, making it unsuitable for human use -- but as the city's clean water supply runs short, some people have no choice but to drink from the river. Groundwater levels have been falling by six feet per year, largely because of pumping from deep wells for irrigation and other purposes. A surface water treatment plant scheduled to open next June could help matters, but it will only have a daily capacity of 59 million gallons of water, compared to the 420 million gallons needed each day by residents.

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 13 Dec 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13708/story.htm>

SUDDENLY SIZZLIN'

Global warming is typically thought of as a gradual process, but a report released this week by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences warns that greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants could cause massive, sudden, and potentially disastrous climate shifts. The authors of the report relied on paleontological evidence, the historical record, and computer modeling to demonstrate that in the past, gradual climate change was punctuated by sudden temperature increases. For example, the report concluded that roughly half of the warming that has taken place in the northern Atlantic Ocean since the last ice age occurred in just one decade, triggering floods and droughts across the globe.

straight to the source: Washington Post, Eric Pianin, 12 Dec 2001 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28650-2001Dec11.html>

HUMMER BUMMER

Oy vey. From the department of mad consumerism, reckless fuel consumption, and paramilitary chic comes this latest gem: the Hummer H2, the latest sports utility monstrosity from General Motors. Built to resemble the Humvees rumbling through Kabul, the Hummer H2 gets about 13 miles per gallon and, at 8,600 pounds, weighs just enough to evade federal fuel efficiency standards. It's not cheap to own the beast -- fifty grand sticker price, plus all that fuel -- but nonetheless, GM expects to sell around 40,000 Hummers per year. Enviros are outraged, but hope the new vehicle will help spur the fight for fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs.

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Michael Ellis, 13 Dec 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13701/story.htm>

PAINE ON THE ASS

If you read yesterday's special issue of Grist Magazine on Bjorn Lomborg's "The Skeptical Environmentalist," you know that the experts largely disagree with Lomborg's thesis that environmental problems are just hyperbolic hooey. So why does the mainstream media love him? Writing for TomPaine.com, Colin Woodard casts a critical eye at the glowing reviews in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Economist, and elsewhere.

straight to the source: TomPaine.com, Colin Woodard, 07 Dec 2001 <http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/12/07/index.html>

SOUND EFFECTS

The Pacific Northwest's Puget Sound is not a great place to be a marine animal, according to a report released this week by the group People for Puget Sound. The report assessed dozens of scientific studies on toxic chemicals in the sound and concluded that although the water is considerably cleaner than it was a few decades ago, marine animals from orcas to herring continue to be contaminated by PCBs, DDT, dioxins, mercury, lead, and other toxins. Every level of the marine food chain in the sound is affected. People for Puget Sound hopes the report will help persuade the Washington state legislature and Gov. Gary Locke (D) to fund a state effort to phase out the worst chemicals and eliminate discharges into state waterways.

straight to the source: Seattle Times, Craig Welch, 12 Dec 2001 <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134377232_pcborcas12m.html>

12/14/01
4:39:08 PM

Public Citizen

FDA Action on Red Cross Long Overdue

Statement of Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, Director, Public Citizen's Health Research Group

A year ago, Public Citizen requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ask that the American Red Cross (ARC) be held in contempt of court because of longstanding, dangerous practices that are jeopardizing the safety of the U.S. blood supply. On Thursday, the FDA finally made that request.

While we are pleased the government took action, it is long overdue, and we urge the court to act swiftly. Records indicate that the Red Cross has not come into compliance with a 1993 consent decree or with U.S. laws and regulations concerning blood and blood products.

The importance of having a safe blood supply cannot be overstated. The American public relies heavily on the Red Cross blood supply, and patients should know that when they receive blood, it will not be tainted. Records indicate that the ARC has improperly released blood products containing cytomegalovirus, a virus that can cause blindness in newborns. Also, FDA inspectors found that blood donors had incorrect histories and that Red Cross staff failed to follow test kit instructions for HIV.

Although the FDA insists the blood supply is safe, these findings cause grave concern. If proper procedures are not followed, it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously harmed. That would be inexcusable, particularly given the fact that the government has known about the Red Cross' violations forwell over a decade. Even the ARC's former president, Dr. Bernadine Healy, said in an Aug. 14, 2000, meeting that she found the FDA's findings "alarming" and that the severity of the situation held the potential for "grave impact" to patients, court records show.

We strongly support the efforts to hold the Red Cross in contempt of the consent decree. Unfortunately, given the lengthy history of this case, the fines that would accompany a contempt of court citation appear to be the only way the Red Cross will respond.

NOTE: Public Citizen's December 2000 letter to the FDA can be found at:

http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=6750

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org

12/14/01
4:36:12 PM

ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS--PART 2

by Peter Montague

Here we continue summarizing the main points from the 327-page report titled OECD ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK[1] from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which describes current environmental trends in the OECD's 30 member nations.[2] (See Rachel's #737.)

The OECD report forecasts environmental trends to the year 2020, using a traffic signal to highlight major conclusions: green lights where it's OK to "proceed with caution," yellow lights for important issues that are still shrouded in uncertainty and red lights for problems that require "urgent action" because they are likely to "significantly worsen" by 2020. (pg. 279) Notice that even the "green light" issues warrant only a "proceed with caution" advisory from the OECD.

Here we continue listing the most important "red light" problems that the OECD has identified:

** Energy: Total energy use will increase 35% in OECD regions by 2020, and 51% elsewhere in the world. Oil will remain the OECD's energy mainstay, and the share of oil supplied by OPEC countries[3] will increase from 54% today to 74% by 2020. Only 6% of energy will come from renewable sources (such as solar power) by 2020, says the OECD, and even this "will depend upon financial incentives from government." (pg. 148)

The OECD report does not say so, but any such financial incentives would be subject to challenge under World Trade Organization rules as illegal restraints of free trade. The WTO does not allow governments to subsidize particular industries, such as solar energy, though of course military subsidies to keep the oil flowing from the Middle East are allowed. By 2020, the share of OECD energy supplied by nuclear power may decline slightly from its current 11%, the OECD says, because the technology lacks popular support everywhere. (pg. 148)

** Global warming: "Global warming is a reality," says the OECD report. (pg. 157) As the Earth warms, we should expect more extreme weather in some regions (floods, droughts, and perhaps more "catastrophic" events such as large hurricanes and typhoons). We should also expect the sea level to rise somewhere between 6 inches and 37 inches by the year 2100, inundating valuable and densely-populated coastal lands. (pg. 162) Serious human diseases carried by mosquitoes, such as dengue fever (also called "breakbone fever" because it is so painful) and malaria, are likely to increase in both the northern and southern hemispheres, says the OECD. (pg. 162) "The possible effects of climate change are a widely recognised future threat to human health," says the OECD. "Climate change might result in new infectious diseases, as well as changing patterns of known diseases, and loss of life due to extreme weather conditions." (pg. 252)

"Overall studies show that some of the most adverse impacts [of global warming] are bound to occur in the Southern Hemisphere where countries are most vulnerable and least likely to easily adapt to climate change," says the OECD. (pg. 162)

Humans are contributing to global warming by releasing "greenhouse gases" -- mainly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Of these, CO2 is the largest. The OECD forecasts CO2 emissions rising 33% in OECD countries and 100% in the rest of the world by 2020. To meet the goals of the Kyoto agreement, intended to curb the damage from global warming, OECD countries will need to reduce their CO2 emissions by anywhere from 18% to 40% depending on what non-OECD countries do. (pg. 160) Given that the U.S. increased its CO2 emissions 11% between 1990 and 1998, even an 18% reduction by 2020 would require a Herculean political commitment to reverse "business as usual." (pg. 159)

** Chemicals: Although the chemical industry creates large quantities of hazardous waste, an even bigger problem is its products. The OECD says there are somewhere between one and two million chemical preparations on the market today, each a mixture of two or more individual chemicals that do not react with each other. Each of these preparations must be considered in light of workplace hazards, accidents involving hazardous materials, and harmful exposures of workers in other industries, consumers, the general public, and the natural environment, says the OECD. Unfortunately, there is "an immense knowledge gap about chemicals on the market," says the OECD: governments "lack adequate safety information about the great majority of chemicals." (pg. 223) The "unknown hazard" from chemicals is a "major concern," says the OECD. (pg. 226)

"Major concerns exist about the possible impact on the environment and human health of substances produced by the chemicals industry, which are found in virtually every man-made product," says the OECD. "Many are being detected in the environment, where particular problems can be caused by persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals. Concern is growing, for example, about chemicals which cause endocrine disruption and which persist in the environment," OECD says. (pg. 223) Endocrine disruption refers to industrial chemicals, released into the environment, that interfere with the hormones that control growth, development, and behavior in all birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, snails, lobsters, insects, and mammals, including humans.

Evidently the OECD does not have confidence that governments --or the chemical industry itself -- can control the chemical problem because the report explicitly says that vigilance by non-governmental organizations -- the environmental movement --will be "critical" to the success of efforts to assess the hazards of chemicals that are already on the market. (pg. 233) And of course assessing the hazards is only a first step --prelude to the much more contentious question of curbs, phase-outs, forced substitutions, or bans.

In sum, persistent toxic chemicals "are expected to continue being widespread in the environment over the next 20 years, causing serious effects on human health," the OECD says. (pg. 19)

** Human Health: "The loss of health due to environmental degradation is substantial" in OECD countries. (pg. 253) The "most urgent issues" are "air pollution and exposure to chemicals," the OECD says. The "greatest cause for concern" is the "threat of continuing widespread release of chemicals to the environment." (pg. 252) "This is not only a question of the amount of chemicals that end up in the environment, but more a question of their characteristics and effects. Unfortunately, the latter are often unknown, as the recent discovery of the endocrine disrupting effects of certain pesticide ingredients has shown," the OECD says. (pg. 252)

The OECD estimates that environmental degradation causes somewhere between 2% and 6% of all human disease in OECD countries and 8% to 13% in non-OECD countries. (pg. 250) In OECD countries this presently translates into health-care costs between $50 billion and $130 billion per year, the OECD says. (pg. 252)

The OECD report highlights two kinds of air pollution that can harm humans: ground-level ozone, and fine particles, both created by cars and trucks. Ground-level ozone -- a component of smog --exacerbates asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and other chest ailments, and diminishes lung capacity even in healthy children. Health standards for ozone are exceeded at 95% of monitoring sites in the U.S. and Japan and at 90% of sites in Europe, the OECD reports. (pg. 188)

Fine particles -- soot so small that you can't see it, except as a haze -- presently kill twice as many people as automobile accidents each year, the OECD says. (pg. 176) And particles produced by diesel engines cause lung cancer -- in the U.S. alone, an estimated 125,000 new cases each year, the OECD says.

Environment and health costs from transportation presently amount to 8% of GDP (gross domestic product) in Europe, not counting the costs of traffic congestion, the OECD says. (pg. 176) And motor vehicles will increase 32% in OECD countries by 2020, and 74% worldwide. (pg. 170) As we approach 2020, stricter emission controls will reduce urban air contaminants in many OECD countries, but much of the rest of the world will be driving older cars and trucks without benefit of modern controls.

Environmentalists, of course, would like to add many details to the OECD's sobering report. The most blatant omission is the biggest killer of all -- the workplace environment. As we have reported previously, work-related injuries and disease kill about 165 workers EACH DAY in the U.S. alone -- a mammoth, ongoing human rights violation that the OECD report has managed to ignore. (See RACHEL'S #578.)

By cherry-picking data and sometimes fudging the details, writers like Bjorn Lomborg manage to confuse the public by claiming that environmental problems have been exaggerated or don't really exist.[4] But this is the wrong time to be pretending that all is well because the trends are otherwise. The world's oceans, forests and biodiversity are clearly in trouble. Global warming is real and, given the political power of oil and coal companies, intractable. Waste is immense and growing, but toxic PRODUCTS are an even bigger problem. Toxic chemicals can now be measured at low levels in the bodies of living things everywhere on Earth, from the bottoms of the deepest oceans to the most remote mountain tops. Exotic industrial poisons have been introduced into all of us without our informed consent -- invading our bodies even before we are born -- and new harms from these toxic trespassers are discovered almost daily as ignorance and cover-up give way to openness and knowledge. But we needn't wait for yet another scientific study. We already know enough to act and act decisively.

The basic problem is that "free market" ideology regards the natural environment as an inexhaustible supermarket for raw materials and a bottomless free toilet for wastes. Both of these conceptions are dead wrong, and therefore "markets" must not be free -- they must be moderated by social covenants and government policies -- ranging from simple generosity and sharing on an international scale, to fessing up and taking responsibility for the consequences of our actions on a corporate scale, plus a range of government sanctions and strictures, including purchasing preferences, subsidies for clean technologies, green taxes and fees, precautionary regulations and actions, guarantees of workplace safety and health (with real teeth), stiff fines, and even prison for repeat polluters. The key reforms must aim to create a vastly more responsive democracy, allowing people to make decisions by talking together about those things that affect their lives, displacing the elitist corporate rule that both Democrats and Republicans today call government.

Reversing environmental decline will require above all the commodity in shortest supply: courageous political commitment and democratic policy innovations based firmly and explicitly on the principle of forecaring or precaution, to counteract decades of "free market" theology that have left governments weakened, democracy vitiated, and the environment inadequately protected. If we and our unelected "leaders" can't -- or won't -- face up to the necessary changes, the environmental outlook for our children and grandchildren will be grim indeed.

Source: http://www.Rachel.org

12/14/01
4:18:09 PM

A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors indicates hunger and homelessness increased significantly in the last year in nearly all 27 cities surveyed and the pace appeared to pick up in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Conference President Marc H. Morial of New Orleans calls the findings "sobering."

"Twenty-five of the 27 cities surveyed showed an increase in demand for emergency food," Morial told a news conference Wednesday. "These cities on average show the increased demand was 23 percent. That is the largest increase our survey has shown since 1991. Twenty-three, approximately, of the 27 cities showed increase in demand for emergency shelter. This reflects in the individual cities an average of about 13 percent increase, the second highest since 1994."

Morial said it is not uncommon for there to be more hungry than homeless people simply because people's money is being stretched so thin, "they cannot properly feed their families."

12/14/01
4:02:12 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

HISTORIC GLOBAL FISHERIES AGREEMENT ENTERS INTO FORCE

NEW YORK, New York, December 12, 2001 (ENS) - Canada prepares to confront a Spanish owned, Belize flagged trawler suspected of illegal fishing for turbot off eastern Newfoundland. This conflict, played out repeatedly in the early 1990s, will be less likely to happen now that a new fisheries management regime is in place.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-12-01.html

LOW RADIATION DOSES MAY POSE HIGH RISK

NEW YORK, New York, December 12, 2001 (ENS) - Low doses of radiation from natural sources can trigger widespread mutations in living cells at much lower doses than the amount scientists previously believed could do such damage. New research from Columbia University suggests that public health officials may need to reconsider what levels of radiation in nature should be deemed safe.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-12-06.html

CLIMATE CHANGE COULD COME QUICKLY, STUDY WARNS

WASHINGTON, DC, December 12, 2001 (ENS) - Climate change may come on fast and furious, wreaking sudden and catastrophic damage on people, property, and natural ecosystems, warns a new report from the National Research Council. The study suggests that human caused greenhouse warming may increase the possibility of abrupt and unwelcome climatic events.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-12-07.html

BRAZIL CRACKS DOWN ON THE ILLEGAL MAHOGANY TRADE

BRASILIA, Brazil, December 12, 2001 (ENS) - The Brazilian government has acted to protect whatever mahogany trees in three states that remain after the predation of illegal loggers. The historic announcement in effect means an end to the illegal mahogany industry in Brazil, said a Greenpeace campaigner who has worked in partnership with the Brazilian environment ministry to put a stop to the destruction of mahogany trees.

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-12-03.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: DECEMBER 12, 2001

Fisheries Conservation Act Passes House

Scientists Patent Coal Purifying Bacteria

Alaska's Columbia Glacier Melting Away

$10.7 Million Funds Low Sulfur Fuel Research

Landfill Gas Turned Into Fuel, Soda Bubbles

Former Senator Targets Diesel Engine Pollution

"The Birds" Setting Named as Important Bird Area

$130,000 Donated to Help Kabul Zoo

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-12-09.html

12/14/01
3:59:51 PM

SojoNet News Daily Headlines

http://www.sojo.net/news

Pope calls for an end to Iraqi sanctions

Pope John Paul II called for an end to the embargo on Iraq and said the Church would share in the "unjustly inflicted" suffering of Iraqis on Friday, a day of fasting for Catholics.

http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/12/11/vatican.iraq.ap/index.html

A Warning on Climate Change

While recent climate change studies have focused on the risks of a gradual rise in the Earth's temperature, a new National Academy of Sciences report has concluded that greenhouse gases and other pollutants could trigger large, abrupt and potentially disastrous climate changes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28650-2001Dec11.html

U.S. to Pull Out of ABM Treaty

Critics of Bush's plan are unpersuaded. Many say that Sept. 11 proved that America's major vulnerabilities have little to do with missile attacks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/12/international/europe/12MISS.html

Mexico's War on Terror Continues

Threats to the lives of two environmentalists from Mexico continue, even after their release from prison and the murder of their lawyer, Digna Ochoa.

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/archive.tpl?d=12/12/2001

Britain warns against widening anti-terror campaign

Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, the chief of defence staff, acknowledged for the first time that Britain and the United States were at odds over the future of the US-led campaign. Not only were Britain's armed forces already stretched far enough, he said, but they might find themselves taking part in operations that may "contradict national policy".

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/12/12/FFX31C1K2VC.html

Perpetrators of East Timor massacre jailed for crime against humanity

Ten members of a gang responsible for one of the worst massacres linked to East Timor's 1999 vote for independence were found guilty of crimes against humanity and given jail terms of up to 33 years.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011211/1/236ob.html

The Hypocrisy of Trade Promotion Authority

The administration's selective adherence to its professed free trade principles confirms criticisms that public interest groups have long lodged against the agreements. Far from promoting free trade, the agreements favor power and privilege, and allow wealthy countries like the United States to flout them.

http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/12/11/index.html

The War's Implications for U.S. Military Spending

One exception to the rule of military budget expansion was the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which helps Russia dismantle its nuclear weapons, secure its remaining arsenal, and divert its nuclear scientists, via productive employment, from selling their skills to, for example, terrorist networks. These programs took an $86 million hit.

http://www.fpif.org/faq/0112milfund.html

12/14/01
3:54:45 PM

ACLU Action Network Members

Without observing the legally mandated period of public review and comment, Attorney General Ashcroft has implemented a new eavesdropping regulation that gives the government, without judicial oversight or meaningful standards, the unprecedented power to listen in on conversations between prison inmates and their attorneys.

The new regulation renders the age-old tradition of attorney-client privilege worthless and essentially guts the right to counsel guaranteed by the Constitution. Furthermore, the new regulation is unnecessary since the Department of Justice already has the legal authority to record attorney-client conversations by going before a judge and obtaining a warrant.

Take Action! The Bureau of Prisons is compiling public comments through December 31 and a huge public outcry could force Ashcroft to rescind the regulation. Now is the last time to speak out! You can read more and send an email to the Bureau of Prisons from our action alert at:

http://www.aclu.org/action/attorney107.html

12/14/01
3:52:33 PM

t r u t h o u t | 12.13

KENNEDY | Statement on Bush Secret Tribunals

http://www.truthout.com/12.13A.Kennedy.Tribunals.htm

RANGEL | Hundreds of Billions for Corporate Tax Cuts -- Little for the Unemployed

http://www.truthout.com/12.13B.Rangel.Tax.cut.htm

ENRON Rejects Congress Request to Testify

http://www.truthout.com/12.13C.Enron.Snub.htm

Robert Scheer | Los Angeles Times | Connect the Enron Dots to Bush

http://www.truthout.com/12.13D.Enron.Dots.htm

REUTERS, Report | Bin Laden Escaped to Pakistan

http://www.truthout.com/12.13E.OBL.Pakistan.htm