12/7/00
11:14:15 AM

Please call your local media about this & ask them to call UCS[202-223-6133] & Critical Mass[202-546-4996], otherwise this is great but useless information. People and Congress have to know just how how abusive NRC is re their mandate to protect the public.

UCS On NRC Lies: http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/nrcprocessflawed.html

Critical Mass On NRC Cronyism: http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/violations.html

HOME PAGE for great links: http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert

12/7/00
11:13:24 AM

Here are today's Reuters 'World Environment News' headlines, proudly brought to you by Planet Ark.

Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm

GE to fight any EPA order to clean up Hudson River - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9246

US Gulf War study cuts chemical release by half - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9251

UPDATE - US to phase out home, garden use of diazinon - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9252

US considers steps to cut oil pipeline corrosion - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9253

Nuclear power at crossroads in UK, says BNFL chief - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9248

Amsterdam trams, metros to be powered by garbage - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9249

Netherlands wants exemption from EU bone meal ban - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9250

EU, US meet in last-ditch bid to save climate deal - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9247

12/7/00
11:11:49 AM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

EPA, GENERAL ELECTRIC CLASH OVER HUDSON RIVER CLEANUP

By Brian Hansen

NEW YORK, New York, December 6, 2000 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today recommended that the General Electric Company finance a $460 million effort to dredge more than 100,000 pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River in upstate New York.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-06-15.html

CAVIAR CRISIS LOOMS AS STURGEON NUMBERS DWINDLE

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, December 6, 2000 (ENS) - Caviar, long a symbol of luxury, is emerging instead as a sign of environmental mismanagement as Caspian Sea sturgeon populations - source of much of the world's caviar - plummet. As sales of caviar increase this holiday season, environmental groups are warning that demand for the prized treat could drive the long lived fish to extinction.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-06-06.html

EU PROPOSES MARITIME SAFETY AGENCY AFTER OIL, CHEMICAL SPILLS

BRUSSELS, Belgium, December 6, 2000 (ENS) - To deal with massive oil spills such as the one last December from the tanker Erika off the French coast, the European Commission today published a second set of legislative proposals to improve maritime safety.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-06-02.html

CANADIAN SPECIES AT RISK LIST GROWS

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, December 6, 2000 (ENS) - The list of Canadian species at risk has grown by 11.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-06-10.html

LARGEST SOLAR SYSTEM DEDICATED IN CALIFORNIA

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California, December 6, 2000 (ENS) - The largest private commercial solar power system in the Western Hemisphere was dedicated today in California.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-06-03.html

EUROPEAN AWARDS RECOGNIZE GREEN FRIENDLY FIRMS

BRUSSELS, Belgium, December 6, 2000 (ENS) - A company's whose technology allows medical images to be obtained without the use of chemicals was among those recognized as the best and brightest at the European Awards for the Environment 2000.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-06-11.html

12/6/00
7:37:39 PM

Call the White House: (202) 456-1414 or 202-456-1111 Fax the White House: (202) 456-2461

----- Original Message ----- From: "Lisa Gue" <LISA_GUE@citizen.org> Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 5:46 PM Subject: Action Alert: Follow-up to sign-on letter

(Apologies for cross-posting. Please circulate to your membership!)

President Clinton: Stop the transportation of nuclear waste to Utah!

Background Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a consortium of 8 commercial nuclear utilities, is preparing to transport 40,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste ("spent fuel") across the country to an interim storage facility in Utah.

Spent fuel (high-level nuclear waste) is a waste product from nuclear power plants. It is both thermally and radioactively hot and remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. There is no known way to dispose of nuclear waste; it can only be stored. Currently, most spent fuel is stored on site, near the reactors where it was generated. But the PFS utilities are running out of space on site to store their radioactive garbage, so now they want to dump it in Utah!

The PFS facility would be located on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, approximately 45 miles west of Salt Lake City. The facility would consist of above-ground, dry-cask storage for up to 4,000 canisters of spent nuclear fuel. PFS hopes to begin shipping radioactive waste to Skull Valley as soon as 2003.

The PFS facility is being proposed to temporarily store nuclear waste for a period of 20-40 years. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement presumes that the waste will then be transported (again!) to a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain Nevada. But although Yucca Mountain is now being studied as a potential nuclear waste repository, the decision on whether to open a permanent facility is still pending!

Transporting high-level radioactive waste is inherently dangerous because it exposes people along transportation routes to the risk of radiation release in areas where emergency responders may not be equipped for a nuclear accident. The PFS interim storage facility would unnecessarily increase this risk by requiring waste to be transported more than once over long distances.

Because the PFS proposal is a private industry initiative, it does not require the consent of Congress. But, private industry should not be permitted to transfer liability for its dangerous waste to residents of Utah and people living along potential transportation routes!

Take Action! President Clinton has on numerous occasions issued statements opposing the transportation of spent nuclear fuel to an interim storage facility. In April 2000, President Clinton vetoed Senate Bill 1287 which, among other things, would have opened an interim storage facility in Nevada. Ask Clinton to issue an Executive Order to block nuclear waste transportation to the PFS interim storage facility in Utah!

Write: Sample letter with address follows Call: (202) 456-1414 Fax: (202) 456-2461 E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov

Also contact: Linda Lance, White House Center for Environmental Quality 722 Jackson Place NW, Washington, D.C. 20503 phone: (202) 395-5750; fax: (202) 456-6546

Scott Beale & Matt Bennett, White House Department of Intergovernmental Affairs Old Executive Office Building, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20502 phone: (202) 456-6220; fax: (202) 456-7060

. . . and your Representatives in Congress!

For more information, contact Public Citizen at (202) 454-5130; e-mail: lisa_gue@citizen.org. View our website at www.citizen.org/cmep

SAMPLE LETTER

President Clinton White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Clinton,

I am concerned with the proposal of Private Fuel Storage (PFS) to transport high-level nuclear waste to an interim storage facility in Utah. Transporting high-level nuclear waste is inherently dangerous because it exposes people along transportation routes to the risk of radiation release in areas where emergency responders may not be equipped for a nuclear accident. The PFS interim storage facility would unnecessarily increase this risk by requiring waste to be transported more than once over long distances.

In addition, the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the PFS facility explicitly assumes that nuclear waste stored in Utah would eventually be moved to a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This assumption, at a time when no final decision has been made about the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, puts undue pressure on and undermines the integrity of the Yucca Mountain site characterization and licensing processes.

It is clearly unacceptable to allow PFS to proceed with this flawed proposal, which places the economic interests of the nuclear industry above the safety of citizens along potential transportation routes and the integrity of democratic process in setting national energy policy.

President Clinton, I appreciate your strong statements in opposition to previous proposals to transport high-level radioactive waste unnecessarily to an interim storage facility. I applaud your veto last spring of Senate Bill 1287, which would have allowed for temporary "back-up" storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Now, I urgently request that you issue an Executive Order to prohibit the transport of high-level nuclear waste to a PFS interim storage facility in Utah.

Sincerely,

Your name

cc. Ms. Linda Lance, White House Center for Environmental Quality Mr. Scott Beale, White House Department of Intergovernmental Affairs Mr. Matt Bennett, White House Department of Intergovernmental Affairs

12/6/00
5:41:55 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

10 Natural Sites Placed on UNESCO Heritage List

CAIRNS, Australia, December 4, 2000 - Ten of the Earth's most fragile and precious places have been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List which now contains 690 sites.

To see the entire list of 61 newly designated World Heritage Sites visit: http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2000/00-131be.shtml

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-02.html

FIRST WING OF WORLD'S LARGEST SOLAR ARRAY DEPLOYED IN SPACE

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston, Texas, December 4, 2000 (ENS) - How and when to finish unfurling the world's largest set of solar panels 235 miles above the Earth on the International Space Station is a decision that will be made today by officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-09.html

FISHING PRESSURES HURTING STELLER SEA LIONS

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2000 (ENS) - Commercial fishing activities in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bearing Sea are jeopardizing the endangered western population of Stellar sea lions and other imperiled species, declares a long awaited biological opinion released by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-16.html

TOXIC LEGACY RESTS WITH POPs TREATY NEGOTIATORS

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, December 4, 2000 (ENS) - Delegates from more than 120 countries are poised to finally agree on a legally binding global treaty to reduce or eliminate 12 persistant organic pollutants.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-10.html

CLINTON SAFEGUARDS HAWAIIAN CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEM

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2000 (ENS) - President Bill Clinton today took action to preserve and protect the pristine coral reef ecosystems of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a remote archipelago of atolls, reefs and submerged lagoons home to a vast array of fish, invertebrates, birds, sea turtles and marine mammals.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-15.html

INUIT EYES ON MANDELA DURING POPs CONFERENCE

IQALUIT, Nunavut, Canada, December 4, 2000 (ENS) - Canada's Inuit people hope former South African president Nelson Mandela will support efforts to reduce persistant organic pollutants (POPs) in the Arctic.

Produced in cooperation with Nunatsiaq News http://www.nunatsiaq.com/nunavut/index.html

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-11.html

PESTICIDE LEVELS IN UK BABY FOOD ABOVE NEW LIMIT

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 4, 2000 (ENS) - Tests on baby food carried out by a UK government watchdog have discovered pesticide residues that may disrupt the hormone system.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-04-12.html

12/6/00
5:38:50 PM

From: www.envirolink.org/orgs/earthrights

Earth Rights Institute Statement of Purpose

Earth Rights Institute is dedicated to securing the democratic human right to the earth via local-to-global land value taxation and ground rent policies. Profiteering and speculation in land and natural resources has now been clearly identified as the root cause of the maldistribution of wealth that plagues market economies. The correction lies with earth trustee policies which affirm that the earth is the common heritage of all.

Earth Rights Institute associates have considerable expertise in the implementation of fiscal and public finance policies based on the earth trustee ethic. Variously known as 'geonomics,' 'ground rent collection,' 'land value recapture,' or 'land value taxation', this policy approach shifts the taxation base away from individually created wealth (labor and productive capital) and onto the land and resource base. The earth's common wealth in this way can support the needs of the community as a whole and/or be distributed as earthshare dividends directly to individuals.

Seven Nobel prize winners and many other notables have endorsed this equitable, efficient approach to land and natural resource allocation and conservation. Various emerging movements throughout the globe now strongly recommend this policy. The United Nations Action Agenda for Habitat II urges its implementation under the Ensuring Access to Land heading in Section B (56).

Earth Rights Institute can assist you and your community through all stages of the implementation of this policy approach, beginning with the initial education and advocacy process, through the political groundwork that may be required to obtain enabling legislation, into land assessments, establishing accurate land cadastres, and the structuring of specific fiscal instruments that will secure the collection of ground rents for the benefit of all.

We stand willing to serve you to the best of our capacity in this important endeavor.

12/6/00
5:38:12 PM

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS: MEASURING LIFESTYLE IMPACT

What impact do your eating habits, living conditions and mode of transportation have on the earth? And how many acres of land are needed to produce your food, shelter and fuel?

The answer is your ecological footprint -- a way to measure what effect your lifestyle has on the planet's ecosystems. Now that mark can be measured using a simple Internet calculator posted by an Oakland, California-based group called Redefining Progress.

The 13-question `footprint calculator' asks questions about everyday eating habits, such as how many daily meals you consume that include animal-based products like eggs, meat or dairy. The questionnaire also asks about annual transportation patternsamount of air travel, use of ride sharing, fuel efficiency and home size, and whether energy-efficient electrical appliances are used.

Using this data, the program computes the number of acres needed to maintain your standard of living. The website allows users to keep check on their monthly consumption using a spreadsheet program calculator engine.

The group also analyses data on a global basis and posts statistics on human consumption. While current world population numbers mean there should be 5 to 6 acres to support every human being on the planet, research by Redefining Progress shows that many earthly inhabitants are using far more.

The United States leads the pack in leaving the biggest mark on the environment, according to the group's website ranking of 1995 numbers from nations around the world. On average, Redefining Progress found, US citizens need about 24 acres to maintain their current lifestyles. The United Kingdom uses 11 acres per person, while Japan uses 10. China is toward the bottom of the list, at 4 acres per person.

Meanwhile, citizens in some developing nations have a much more diminished environmental impact. It takes 2 acres to sustain a resident of Pakistan and Ethiopia, about 1 for someone living in Bangladesh.

Redefining Progress recommends that Americans reduce the size of their ecological footprint by embracing the concept of sustainability. Better use of natural resources and decreasing consumption will help make it possible for everyone to "secure their quality of life within the means of nature," according to the group's website. (Source: American News Service)

The footprint calculator can be found at www.rprogress.org/progsum/nip/ef/ef_main.html

More information: Our Ecological Footprint Reducing Human Impact on the Earth by Mathis Wackemagel and William Rees: www.ire.ubc.ca/ecoresearch/ftprbook.html

12/6/00
5:37:08 PM

Environmental insiders are pinning part of the blame for the collapsed climate change talks at The Hague, Netherlands, on the top U.S. climate negotiator, Frank Loy. The knock on Loy, the undersecretary of state for global affairs, is that he failed to get back to his European counterparts in time with the U.S.'s final offer, which might have contained enough goodies to win over the Europeans. Still, despite the tough loss at The Hague, enviros aren't giving up on the Kyoto climate change treaty. Not even the prospect of a President George W. Bush scares them. Read more on the Grist Magazine website.

Did the top U.S. negotiator at The Hague drop the ball? -- by Ben White in Muckraker http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck120400.stm

And then there were none -- endangered species are in deep doo-doo -- and other gems from assorted magazines in our Best of the Rest section http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/best/best102000.stm#none

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of farmers contends that the maker of the StarLink biotech corn variety was negligent in bringing the corn to market. StarLink was not approved for human consumption, but has been found to have made its way into the food stream, leading to a nationwide recall of millions of taco shells and a fall in the price of American corn in the U.S. and abroad. The suit says that StarLink's maker, Aventis, failed to inform farmers that the corn had been approved by the U.S. EPA for use only in animal feed. Aventis had no comment on the suit, but it has already agreed to compensate some farmers for losses. It has also asked regulators to approve StarLink for human consumption because it may take as many as four years for the corn now in the country's grain storage system to be processed.

New York Times, David Barboza, 04 Dec 2000 http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/04/business/04CORN.html

A StarLink Thanksgiving -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha111700.stm

Free-range at last, free-range at last -- is cheap meat worth the karmic cost of industrial animal production? -- by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho112000.stm

12/6/00
5:17:45 PM

There's still time to call the White House at: 202-456-1111 and tell them NO to EBRD funding of the K2/R4 NPPs in Ukraine. Washington is the most influential EBRD player. "Highly Hazardous" is how the University of Vienna characterized K2/R4, Chernobyl's possible relacements.

Please dissemenate this as widely as possible.

LEAKED REPORT SAYS CHERNOBYL REPLACEMENTS A HAZARD

UK: December 1, 2000

LONDON - A LEAKED REPORT IN LONDON ON THURSDAY WARNED THAT TWO NUCLEAR PLANTS DESIGNED TO SUCCEED REACTORS AT CHERNOBYL IN UKRAINE AND WHICH NEED MAJOR WESTERN FUNDING ARE IN A "HAZARDOUS" CONDITION.

The Greenpeace environmental group released the Vienna University report, prepared for the Austrian government, ahead of a decision by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development next week on whether or not to back the project.

Greenpeace says safety concerns at the reactors strengthen its argument that the $1.5 billion plan should be shelved.

They argue that Chernobyl, scene of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986, should be replaced with conventional power capacity and not more high-risk nuclear plants.

"These reactors are dangerous, they are not needed, and the EBRD must now delay its decision on whether to finance them in light of this safety study," Tobias Munchmeyer, nuclear campaigner at Greepeace, told a news briefing.

EBRD directors will formally vote on the $215 million loan, which would be the London-based bank's largest single project, on December 6 or 7. An approval would give a strong signal to the other partners to go ahead, banking sources said.

The report says that the Soviet-designed nuclear power reactors at Khmelnytsky and Rivne (K2/R4), which are already 80 percent complete, are "highly hazardous".

It says that seismic risks at the sites have been underestimated and that Ukraine lacks the funds to meet the EBRD's modernisation programme. It also supports Greenpeace's argument that other forms of power should be sought.

"Other...investments in operating installations will help the Ukrainian economy much more effectively - without new nuclear power plants, " the report said. "It would be highly appropriate if they were supported by the EBRD."

BANK SAYS SAFETY ITS MAIN CONCERN

An EBRD spokesman said safety was its main concern in approving the K2R4 programme, and that practical concerns were also a major factor.

"If it was not done this way then there is a very good chance the Ukrainians would get it done anyway but to a lower standard," he said.

The Bank's president Jean Lemierre supports funding the new reactors on condition that Ukraine's energy company Energoatom introduces a nuclear safety programme.

But that and other conditions placed on Kiev could further aggravate the risks of the K2R4 projects, Greenpeace said.

"There is a priority for the repayment if (EBRD) loans," Munchmeyer said. "The nuclear monopoly is almost broke and already there is a lack of money for repair and maintenance. This will be even worse when Ukraine has to repay the loans."

Ukraine has said it will close down Chernobyl on December 15, but only in return for aid to complete the two reactors.

Munchmeyer said Ukraine knows of the dangers of continuing to run the troubled plant and would not renege on a promise made during US President Clinton's visit to Kiev in June.

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl's Soviet-designed reactor number four exploded, spewing tonnes of radioactive dust and contaminating vast areas of Belarus, Russia and much of Europe.

Officials say one in 16 Ukrainians continue to suffer grave health disorders linked to the disaster, including cancer and diseases affecting their blood, breathing and nervous systems.

Story by Mike Collett-White

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

12/6/00
5:16:37 PM

There's still time to call the White House at: 202-456-1111 and tell them NO to EBRD funding of the K2/R4 NPPs in Ukraine. Washington is the most influential EBRD player. "Highly Hazardous" is how the University of Vienna characterized K2/R4, Chernobyl's possible relacements.

Please dissemenate this as widely as possible.

LEAKED REPORT SAYS CHERNOBYL REPLACEMENTS A HAZARD

UK: December 1, 2000

LONDON - A LEAKED REPORT IN LONDON ON THURSDAY WARNED THAT TWO NUCLEAR PLANTS DESIGNED TO SUCCEED REACTORS AT CHERNOBYL IN UKRAINE AND WHICH NEED MAJOR WESTERN FUNDING ARE IN A "HAZARDOUS" CONDITION.

The Greenpeace environmental group released the Vienna University report, prepared for the Austrian government, ahead of a decision by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development next week on whether or not to back the project.

Greenpeace says safety concerns at the reactors strengthen its argument that the $1.5 billion plan should be shelved.

They argue that Chernobyl, scene of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986, should be replaced with conventional power capacity and not more high-risk nuclear plants.

"These reactors are dangerous, they are not needed, and the EBRD must now delay its decision on whether to finance them in light of this safety study," Tobias Munchmeyer, nuclear campaigner at Greepeace, told a news briefing.

EBRD directors will formally vote on the $215 million loan, which would be the London-based bank's largest single project, on December 6 or 7. An approval would give a strong signal to the other partners to go ahead, banking sources said.

The report says that the Soviet-designed nuclear power reactors at Khmelnytsky and Rivne (K2/R4), which are already 80 percent complete, are "highly hazardous".

It says that seismic risks at the sites have been underestimated and that Ukraine lacks the funds to meet the EBRD's modernisation programme. It also supports Greenpeace's argument that other forms of power should be sought.

"Other...investments in operating installations will help the Ukrainian economy much more effectively - without new nuclear power plants, " the report said. "It would be highly appropriate if they were supported by the EBRD."

BANK SAYS SAFETY ITS MAIN CONCERN

An EBRD spokesman said safety was its main concern in approving the K2R4 programme, and that practical concerns were also a major factor.

"If it was not done this way then there is a very good chance the Ukrainians would get it done anyway but to a lower standard," he said.

The Bank's president Jean Lemierre supports funding the new reactors on condition that Ukraine's energy company Energoatom introduces a nuclear safety programme.

But that and other conditions placed on Kiev could further aggravate the risks of the K2R4 projects, Greenpeace said.

"There is a priority for the repayment if (EBRD) loans," Munchmeyer said. "The nuclear monopoly is almost broke and already there is a lack of money for repair and maintenance. This will be even worse when Ukraine has to repay the loans."

Ukraine has said it will close down Chernobyl on December 15, but only in return for aid to complete the two reactors.

Munchmeyer said Ukraine knows of the dangers of continuing to run the troubled plant and would not renege on a promise made during US President Clinton's visit to Kiev in June.

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl's Soviet-designed reactor number four exploded, spewing tonnes of radioactive dust and contaminating vast areas of Belarus, Russia and much of Europe.

Officials say one in 16 Ukrainians continue to suffer grave health disorders linked to the disaster, including cancer and diseases affecting their blood, breathing and nervous systems.

Story by Mike Collett-White

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

12/6/00
4:29:05 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

CLIMATE CHANGE TOO SERIOUS TO IGNORE, TALKS RESUME

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, December 5, 2000 (ENS) - Informal consultations are scheduled to begin Wednesday in Ottawa in an attempt to revive the stalled climate negotiations.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-05-03.html

INTERFOR WORKERS PLEAD GUILTY TO ELAHO VIOLENCE

By Neville Judd

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, December 5, 2000 (ENS) - Five forestry workers have pled guilty for their part in a violent attack last year on an environmentalists' camp in the Elaho Valley, north of Vancouver. But environmentalists claim dozens more escaped justice.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-05-10.html

RAIN WASTED IN ARID ISRAEL AS GOVERNMENTS QUARREL

By David Sugarman

JERUSALEM, Israel, December 5, 2000 (ENS) - Ongoing disputes between local authorities in Israel may bring on the next infrastructure disaster with the next rainstorm.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-05-01.html

RUSSIA DENIES LEAKED PLAN TO HANDLE NUCLEAR WASTE

MOSCOW, Russia, December 5, 2000 (ENS) - The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry has denied reports by several Russian environmental organizations that it is planning to store and dispose of radioactive wastes in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-05-02.html

UK HORROR STAR'S ANTI-VIVISECTION AD BANNED

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 5, 2000 (ENS) - UK radio authorities have banned a series of ads by an animal welfare group deeming them too political. The ads feature movie star Christopher Lee warning that donations to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) "cause suffering and death for not one, but thousands."

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-05-11.html

12/6/00
4:26:07 PM

Here are today's Reuters 'World Environment News' headlines, proudly brought to you by Planet Ark.

Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm

UPDATE - Clinton creates vast Hawaiian coral-reef preserve - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9240

UPDATE - Maker of diazinon to phase out insecticide - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9242

NJ Gov expected to soon introduce solid waste bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9226

Energy Department releases distributed power strategy - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9228

US farm group against sale of unapproved corn seed - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9238

Italy to launch green power exchange in 2001 - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9229

UPDATE Kelda wants "long term" water regulation - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9245

Europe's move on BSE poses lethal waste threat - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9243

INTERVIEW - Lack of big market slows UK green energy - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9232

WWF warns of looming collapse in caviar market - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9223

Sweden to examine health risks of burning biomass - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9230

SE Norway watercourse levels to stay high - agency - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9225

World loses two animal breeds a week - FAO - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9224

India Soymeal-Trade eyes Europe after feed ban - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9234

EU meat meal industry wants handout to survive ban - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9244

Celanese, Honda to make car fuel cells - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9231

EU's Fischler rejects calls to limit soy imports - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9236

French feed industry warns of rising meat prices - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9235

EU states agree to boost renewable energy use - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9227

Canadian farm group calls for moratorium on GM foods - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9237

Canada declares Walkerton water safe from E.Coli - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9241

Canada urged to speed up detection of GM grains - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9233

Australian crops escape feared locust plague - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9239

12/6/00
4:24:30 PM

Dec. 6, 2000

Consumer, Environmental Groups Urge President to Intervene in Industry Plans for Nuclear Waste Storage in Utah

Private Consortium Wants to Transport Nuclear Waste to Utah Site

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A broad coalition of consumer and environmental groups has asked the White House to block a proposal to store high-level radioactive waste from commercial nuclear reactors on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah.

Private Fuel Storage, Ltd. (PFS), a consortium of eight nuclear utilities, is advancing a proposal to transport 40,000 metric tons of nuclear waste from around the country to an aboveground, interim storage facility on the reservation, which is near Tooele, Utah, approximately 45 miles west of Salt Lake City. PFS intends to open the facility in 2003, initiating an unprecedented and dangerous cross-country nuclear transportation scheme.

In a Dec. 5 letter to President Clinton, 23 national organizations and dozens of grassroots organizations outline their concerns with this proposal and request an executive order to prevent the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from licensing the PFS facility.

"Transporting high-level nuclear waste is inherently dangerous because it exposes people along transportation routes to the risk of radiation release in areas where emergency responders may not be equipped for a nuclear accident," the letter says. The proposal "would unnecessarily increase this risk by requiring waste to be transported more than once over long distances."

Furthermore, the project's draft environmental impact statement gives inadequate attention to transportation issues, and no public hearings have been scheduled outside Utah. PFS refuses to specify which routes would be used to transport the waste, making it difficult for concerned citizens to discern how their communities may be affected by the proposal.

National policy and procedures also are at issue. In the letter, the signatory groups "object in the strongest terms to the precedent that the PFS proposal sets for granting private industry the authority to decide upon remote siting and policy for high-level [radioactive] waste storage. . . . It is clearly unacceptable to allow PFS to proceed with this flawed proposal, which places the economic interests of the nuclear industry above democratic process and the legitimate safety concerns of citizens."

The groups also have requested a meeting with the White House. To read the letter, please visit www.citizen.org/cmep/RAGE/radwaste/utahexecutiveorder.htm.

12/5/00
10:31:31 AM

Some great soothing reggae music from Amsterdam, Holland. Listen in at http://www.mp3.com/orangegrove TekkitEZ, Mike

12/4/00
8:24:43 PM

We wanted to note, with great sorrow, the passing of The Nation's European Correspondent Daniel Singer at the age of seventy-four this past Saturday in Paris. An irreplaceable colleague, thinker and friend, Daniel touched countless lives with his writings, his activism and his generosity of spirit. We'll dearly miss him. Our thoughts are with his wife, family and friends.

This Thursday we'll be posting a collection of his prolific and prescient Nation writings along with a memorial of his life at www.thenation.com.

Best Regards, Peter Rothberg Asociate Publisher

12/4/00
8:23:22 PM

Here are today's Reuters 'World Environment News' headlines, proudly brought to you by Planet Ark.

Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm

Astronauts install new space-station solar array - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9214

Sierra Nevada logging suspended - report - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9217

English beaches cleaner than ever - EU study - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9211

GM chicken eggs may become cancer busters-report - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9219

EU Nice meet to mull climate talks restart - report - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9220

UN conference on toxic chemicals seeks global ban - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9212

UPDATE - Talks start on accord to ban toxic chemical output - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9215

UN dangerous chemicals conference - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9222

Fossils of man's earliest ancestor found in Kenya - KENYA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9216

Germany produces 11 pct more hydro power Jan-Sep - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9213

UPDATE - Greenpeace protesters in dinghies block GM beans - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9218

Asia, Australia facing more extreme weather - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9221

12/4/00
4:17:50 PM

From the Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org:

National Geographic Films and Avenet-Kerner will be producing Disney's film "WinterDance," which will glamorize Iditarod cruelties. Please ask them not to produce this film. A sample letter and email addresses are below:

John M. Fahey, Jr., CEO National Geographic 1145 17th Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 Email: askngs@nationalgeographic.com Email: jfahey@ngs.org

Jordon Kerner Avnet-Kerner Co. 3815 Hughes Ave. Culver City, CA 90232-2715 Phone: 310-838-2500 Jordon Kerner can be reached through the Starbight Foundation. Email message box: http://www.starbright.org/contact/index.html

Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. Fahey and Mr. Kerner:

I understand National Geographic and Avnet-Kerner Company are planning to produce "WinterDance," which glorifies the Iditarod dog sled race. I would like to bring some facts to your attention. This race is condemned by animal protection groups across the United States.

In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles over a grueling terrain in 9 to 14 days, which is the approximate distance between Denver and LA. Dog deaths and injuries are common in the race. Jon Saraceno, sports columnist for USA Today, called the race "Ihurtadog" and "an outrage." Please visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website http://www.helpsleddogs.org to view kennel pictures and for more information.

The Iditarod violates accepted standards regarding animal cruelty as is shown by the laws of 38 states and the District of Columbia. These 38 states and the District of Columbia have animal anti-cruelty laws that say "overdriving" and "overworking" an animal is animal cruelty. The California law is typical:

"597. Cruelty to animals. (B) Every person who overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks... any animal... is, for every such offense, guilty of a crime punishable as a misdemeanor or as a felony or alternatively punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony and by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000)."

--Animal Welfare Institute, Animals and Their Legal Rights

The dog deaths and injuries in the Iditarod show that these dogs are "overworked" and "overdriven." If the Iditarod occurred in any of these 38 states or the District of Columbia, it would be illegal under the animal cruelty laws. Unfortunately, the State of Alaska's animal anti-cruelty law does not say that "overdriving" and "overworking" an animal is animal cruelty.

In almost all of the 27 Iditarod races, at least one dog death has occurred. The first race is reported to have resulted in the deaths of 15 to 19 dogs. In 1997, the Anchorage Daily News reported that "at least 107 (dogs) have died." In the three years since that report, seven more dogs have died in the Iditarod, bringing the grand total of dogs who have died in the Iditarod to at least 114. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years and this count relies only on a reported number of deaths.

Causes of death during the last ten years have included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also been blamed. In 1985 a musher kicked his dog to death. The 1975 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was banned for life in 1990 after being accused of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996 Rick Swenson's dog died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice.

The race has led to the proliferation of husky dog kennels in Alaska. In these kennels, many dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200. None of the kennels is inspected or supervised by the State of Alaska or by anyone else.

It is standard for the dogs to spend their entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary means of enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law applies. A dog who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and defecate where he sleeps which conflicts with his natural instinct to eliminate away from his living area. Being close to his own to his own fecal material, a dog can easily catch deadly parasitical diseases by stepping in or sniffing his own waste.

In their kennels, the dogs are never given the opportunity to run free even in a fenced in area. Many of them drink water from hard-to reach rusty cans that are bolted to their doghouses and are rarely cleaned or disinfected.

Injured and old, arthritic dogs are kept outside in the winter when the average daily minimum temperatures range from -24 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It is painful for these dogs to be in the intense cold. Some dogs are never bathed, and nothing is done to help them cool off no matter how hot it gets in the summer. The only shade they get is inside their dirty doghouse, or under their doghouse if they are lucky enough to have one that's raised off the ground.

Some kennels have few employees, so that each dog gets little attention. Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs. Dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head.

Iditarod dogs are unhappy prisoners with no chance of parole. Please do not produce "WinterDance."

Sincerely,

12/4/00
12:17:55 PM

From: http://indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=10211

New documents shed more light on FBI's "Carnivore"

The FBI released additional documents about its controversial Carnivore technology Thursday, and critics immediately lambasted it as proof that the email-tapping program is more powerful and invasive than the government has disclosed.

"The little information that has become public raises serious questions about the privacy implications of this technology," EPIC general counsel David Sobel said in a statement. "The American public cannot be expected to accept an Internet snooping system that is veiled in secrecy." Among the information included in the documents was a sentence stating that the PC that is used to sift through email "could reliably capture and archive all unfiltered traffic to the internal hard drive." The FBI document was dated June 5 and contained scores of deleted words and phrases.

12/4/00
12:16:30 PM

MONSANTO: WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE HONEST ABOUT MISLEADING YOU Monsanto announced yesterday that it will restrict sales next year of one variety of genetically modified corn and delay until 2002 the introduction of another in order to avoid disrupting U.S. grain exports. American corns sales to Japan and other countries have fallen markedly this fall after the StarLink biotech corn variety, which was not approved for human consumption, was found to have made its way into the food stream. Monsanto also pledged yesterday to be more open about its biotechnology endeavors and to engage in dialogue with its critics. "We missed the fact that this technology raises major issues for people -- issues of ethics, of choice, of trust, even of democracy and globalization," said Monsanto President Hendrik Verfaillie. But biotech critic Jeremy Rifkin said the company was still missing the point. "They've got it all wrong if they think the issue was arrogance or transparency," Rifkin said. "Genetic engineering creates some serious potential environmental and health problems."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bill Lambrecht, 28 Nov 2000 http://www.postnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/
ByDocID/205E1E855191E5BE862569A50 03AC3E6

New York Times, 28 Nov 2000 http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/28/business/28FOOD.html?pagewanted=2

A StarLink Thanksgiving? -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha111700.stm

do good: Take action against genetically modified foods http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/food.stm

12/4/00
12:15:31 PM

ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT, THIS SUCKS Someone recently used a chainsaw to slice into Luna, the 1,000-year-old redwood made famous by Julia "Butterfly" Hill. Hill lived in the tree in Northern California for two years to protest old-growth logging, and only came down from her perch last December after striking a deal with Pacific Lumber Co. to spare the tree and a buffer zone of redwoods around it. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, environmentalists visiting the tree found that a chainsaw had cut about one-quarter of the way through the trunk. The tree is still standing, but it is now more vulnerable to windstorms. "I feel this vicious attack on Luna as surely as if the chainsaw was going through me," Hill said. Authorities are investigating the vandalism.

Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, 28 Nov 2000 http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001128/t000114152.html

San Francisco Chronicle, Glen Martin, 28 Nov 2000 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/11/28 /MN117539.DTL

Pictures of the damaged tree: Earth Films http://www.earthfilms.org/luna.html

12/4/00
12:14:24 PM

From: http://www.igc.org/wri/trends/fragment.html

Fragmenting Forests: The Loss of Large Frontier Forests

Over the past 8,000 years, nearly one half of the forests that once covered the Earth have been converted to farms, pastures, and other uses. But the human impact on forests did not stop there. Most of the forests that are left have been heavily altered by humans, often rendered into a patchwork of smaller forested areas. According to a 1997 World Resources Institute (WRI) assessment, (see at http://www.igc.org/wri/ffi/lff-eng/), just one fifth of the Earth's original forest remains in large, relatively natural ecosystems -- what are known as frontier forests [see at http://www.igc.org/wri/trends/004-nts.html#fragment01].

See also "Many of Earth's Forests Have Been Cleared or Degraded" at http://www.igc.org/wri/powerpoints/trends/sld042.htm

12/4/00
12:12:55 PM

From: http://www.igc.org/wri/trends/deforest.html

Deforestation: The Global Assault Continues

Although public awareness of the impact of global deforestation has increased in recent years, it has not slowed the rate of deforestation appreciably. A comprehensive assessment of the state of the world's forests, recently released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), indicates that total forested area continues to decline significantly. According to the FAO analysis, deforestation was concentrated in the developing world, which lost nearly 200 million hectares between 1980 and 1995. This loss was partially offset by reforestation efforts, new forest plantations, and the gradual regrowth and expansion of forested area in developed countries. The result was a net loss of some 180 million hectares between 1980 and 1995, or an average annual loss of 12 million hectares [1].

According to FAO, the rate of deforestation dropped slightly during its last survey period. Between 1990 and 1995, annual forest loss in developing countries was estimated at 13.7 million hectares. This rate compares with a rate of 15.5 million hectares annually between 1980 and 1990 [2]. (See Forest Loss is Severe in the Tropics.) This small decline is largely due to reported decreases in the deforestation rate in the Amazon in the early 1990s. Even this small decline is disputed by some forest experts, who regard FAO's calculations for 1990 to 1995 as underestimates [3]. Deforestation rates have actually increased. In addition, evidence from other sources suggests that deforestation rates in some important regions have increased since the assessment.

In the Brazilian Amazon, for example, the annual deforestation rate declined from a peak of more than 20,000 square kilometers in 1988 to just over 11,000 square kilometers in 1991. However, newly released data from the Brazilian Government show that it rebounded to more than 29,000 square kilometers in 1995 before declining to 18,100 square kilometers in 1996 [4]. (See Amazon Deforestation Rate Remains High.) Official estimates of Amazon deforestation in 1997 are not available yet, but there are indications that the deforestation rate may have risen again. Satellite data for the Amazon region show a 50-percent increase from 1996 to 1997 in the number of forest fires set by farmers to clear land for cultivation or pasture. Many of the fires are set to clear old cattle pastures or secondary forest areas, but about one third of the fires are set to clear virgin forest and thus represent one of the principal means of deforestation in the region [5].

Fire-related deforestation also rose sharply in Indonesia in 1997, as severe drought conditions helped spread fires set by plantation workers and farmers into forest areas. Preliminary estimates of the forest area destroyed run from 150,000 to 300,000 hectares [6]. Although most of the burning took place in secondary forests rather than virgin rainforest, the impact has nonetheless been high, destroying habitat for a variety of wildlife species from orangutans to tigers. The fires may increase pressure on adjacent virgin forests by increasing access to formerly remote sites [7].

The FAO analysis concludes that the leading causes of deforestation are the extension of subsistence farming (more common in Africa and Asia), and government-backed conversion of forests to other land uses such as large-scale ranching (most common in Latin America and also Asia). Poverty, joblessness, and inequitable land distribution, which force many landless peasants to invade the forest for lack of other economic means, continue to drive forest clearance for subsistence farming in many regions. Often, people move into forest areas as logging activity creates roads that open formerly inaccessible regions. As for centrally planned forest conversion schemes, these are often used to spur short-term economic development, gain better political control of remote forest regions, and expand agricultural output [8].

The state of the world's forests is not simply a matter of their extent. Increasing attention is focused upon the health, genetic diversity, and age profile of forests, collectively known as forest quality. Measures of total forest area do not reveal the degraded nature of much regrowth forest. For example, in FAO's forest assessment, logging is not counted as deforestation, since logged-over areas can, in theory, regrow to fully functioning forests. But logging often does degrade forest quality, inducing soil and nutrient losses and reducing the forest's value as habitat. Logging pressures in many of the remaining large, virgin rainforest areas continue to increase, with logging activities shifting from the largely deforested areas of Southeast Asia to the rainforests of the Amazon region, Papua New Guinea, and the Congo Basin.

Nor do deforestation numbers reflect the reduced ecological and aesthetic values of plantations that sometimes replace natural forests. Between 1980 and 1995, forest plantations in the developed countries increased from approximately 45 million to 60 million hectares to about 80 million to 100 million hectares [9]. In the developing world, the area in forest plantations doubled from about 40 million to about 81 million hectares over the same period. More than 80 percent of plantations in the developing world are found in Asia, where demand for wood-based panels and paper continues to boom.

Forest quality in the developed countries is also of concern. FAO reports that forest cover in Europe (excluding the former Soviet Union) increased by more than 4 percent between 1980 and 1994 [10], but forest conditions worsened. Trees are being damaged by fire, drought, pests, and air pollution. More than 25 percent of trees assessed in a 1995 survey of forest conditions in Europe were suffering significant defoliation. Annual European survey results show the number of completely healthy trees falling from 69 percent in 1988 to 39 percent in 1995 [11].

Overall, the convergence of population growth, rising demand for lumber and fuelwood, and the conversion of forests to agriculture (particularly in Africa) are expected to put increasing pressure on the world's forests in the next few decades. The result will likely be a considerable loss in forest area and quality, with the remaining forest fragmented into smaller isolated tracts [12]. (See Fragmenting Forests: The Loss of Large Frontier Forests.)

Continued forest loss and degradation will have serious implications at local, regional, and global levels. Exploitation and clearance of natural forests are destroying the environment and way of life for tens of thousands of indigenous people. Disappearing forest cover also represents incalculable losses in biological diversity and ecological services, including nutrient recycling, watershed management, and climate regulation.

12/4/00
12:09:41 PM

WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT

Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy

To subscribe to the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin, simple send an email at Majordomo@chasque.apc.org with the following command in the body of your email message: subscribe wrmfriends

- Malaysia: Campaign against plantation and pulp mill project in Sabah

A plantation project that would occupy about 3% of the area of Sabah, in northern Borneo, and provoke the clearcutting of 6% of its dwindling primary forests is being promoted in Kalabakan by a joint-venture between the State-owned company Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd, Lions Group of Malaysia and the China Fuxing Pulp and Paper Industries of China. The plantation and pulp and paper mill megaproject, whose cost has been evaluated in U$S 1.1 billion, will require the felling of 240,000 hectares of forest to be replaced by a massive monoculture plantation of black wattle trees (Acacia mangium) --also known as dry acacia or mangium tree-- a fast growing tree native to Australia.

The project has sparked criticism because of its expected impacts and for not having even adhered to the weak legal environmental requirements existing in Sabah. According to the Sabah Conservation of Environment Prescribed Activities, any forest which is cleared for the felling of timber covering an area of 500 hectares or more or any development of forest plantation of 500 hectares or more requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Nevertheless 12,000 hectares of the land of the proposed project have already been logged without a single EIA done. Innoprise Corporation has claimed that no EIA is required since the logging operation was approved before the State EIA requirement was enforced, and announced the logging of another 33,000 hectares. The company completely ignores the Federal Government's Environment Quality Act of 1974 and the Environmental Quality Order of 1987 which oblige to perform EIA for these kind of activities. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) --Friends of the Earth Malaysia-- has denounced that by allowing the logging to proceed without an EIA, the Sabah Government is completely disregarding the environmental impacts of the logging activities and is manipulating the law in favour of the interests of big companies and to the detriment of forest conservation.

It is reasonably feared that this huge plantation will provoke deletereous impacts on the environment. The plantation area will cut the biggest remaining block of continuous forest in the region which extends between the Danum Valley and the Maliau Basin, both classified as Class One Protection Areas. The area contains high biodiversity levels, including 120 mammal, 280 bird, and more than 2500 tree species. This biodiversity rich ecosystem is in danger of being substituted by a uniform and biodiversity poor agrosystem. Already wild animals are reported to have been sighted more often, probably fleeing from the logged area. Since the land of the proposed project is mostly steep, felling for plantations will expose the soil to direct erosion by rainfall. Sediments could reach the coastal mangrove vegetation in Cowie Bay, depleting marine resources. Consequences are already apparent: with only 12,000 hectares logged the Danum Valley has been recently flooded. Local microclimate will also be affected because often once the rainforest is replaced with a plantation it will dry and heat up. Additionally, this could create negative conditions for the plantation itself, which would become more prone to fires.

The effects of pulping and bleaching are also threatening. The use of chlorine in bleaching the pulp has caused the industry to be the third largest source of dioxin and its related compounds in the world. This problem is further compounded by the fact that Malaysia still has no policy on dioxin damage prevention. Carbon dioxide, sulphur oxides and chloroform are some of the polluting gases emitted by this industry. Furthermore about 300 chemicals, among them organic pollutants, chlorophenicols, acidic and organichlorine compounds have been identified in pulp and paper mill effluents.

To stop further destruction, SAM has called the State Government of Sabah and the Federal Government to halt all further logging activities, take action against the parties that are responsible for logging the 12,000 hectares of forest without an EIA, undertake a comprehensive EIA of the project, seek extensive and genuine feedback from the public in relation to the reviewing of the EIA, review as a whole given the magnitude and scale of its expected environmental impacts. Additionally an international campaign has been launched to oppose this project. Those interested in participating are invited to visit our new web site (www.wrm.org.uy) under Action Alerts - October 2000.

Article based on information from: "International alert to save Sabah Rainforests from Pulp and Paper project in Kalabakan" by Friends of the Earth Malaysia - Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), October 2000. E-mail: meenaco@pd.jaring.my

12/4/00
12:05:41 PM

Here are today's Reuters 'World Environment News' headlines, proudly brought to you by Planet Ark.

Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm

US, EU look for ways to restart climate talks - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9198

USDA seeks feedback on biotech crop segregation - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9203

Oil spill cleanup continues on Mississippi River - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9190

Dams harm wildlife on Missouri River, study says - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9193

Chernobyl's last reactor starts up for final weeks - UKRAINE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9195

WRAPUP - Mad cow scare spreading beyond Europe - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9204

UPDATE - Scots fishermen fear EU cod cuts will kill industry - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9205

Equitas sees higher asbestos claims reserves - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9209

"Living fossils" discovered off South Africa coast - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9207

Analysts wary over early Norway emission trading - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9191

Japan govt, residents agree over pollution lawsuit - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9192

Japan FY99 final energy consumption up 2.5 pct y/y - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9206

India to relocate polluting chemical units - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9208

FEATURE - Idyllic Indian beach is turtle killing ground - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9202

RWE wants interim storage for fuel rods at Biblis - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9194

Germany's Plambeck sets up Polish wind energy joint venture - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9196

UPDATE - Clinton seeks climate deal this year - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9200

Most consumers not hostile to GMO food - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9201

France hopes to use banned animal feed as fuel - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9197

Murchison to study Boliden Spanish mine - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9210

Australia crop losses A$500-600 mln - USDA attache - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9199

12/3/00
6:37:18 PM

URGENTLY IN NEED OF SUPPORTDear Fellow Animal Lover:

Hi,

I want to bring something to your attention that I believe is the worst, most disgusting thing that could ever happen to poor, innocent animals.

I'm referred to the growing insidious practice of cloning them and experimenting on them by injecting human genes into their eggs in a desperate effort to produce cheap pharmaceuticals.

If you feel the way I do, I urge you to join with me to protest the visit to New York City by the world’s leading cloner of animals, Dr. Helen Sang, a transgenic scientist at Roslin Institute, whose fellow scientists made Dolly the Sheep, a man-made affront to nature for no purpose other than to demonstrate that man can make his own animals. They’re now aiming at other animals and irresponsibly mixing human and animal genes in a greedy, immoral conspiracy that’s using the eggs of poor, innocent animals as “bioreactors” in which to manufacture cheap drugs. What will come next? A human head on a chicken?

My name is Adrienne Mazzone. We have two Rottweilers in our family, Bear and Harley, whom we love dearly. We also love sheep, chickens, cows, dogs and cats. We want Dr. Sang and the Roslin Insitute to know how we feel about their evil agenda and to stop experimenting with animals.

Please let me know if you would like to join a demonstration on Monday, Dec. 11th at the Office of The British Consulate General at 845 Third Avenue at 51/52 Street in Manhattan. I'm assembling people in front from 4:30-7 where Dr. Sang is being honored at a reception. We will have signs and placards expressing our disagreement with scientists playing at creation.

12/2/00
12:36:48 PM

THE RAPID CITY JOURNAL Rapid City, South Dakota November 28, 2000

Pine Ridge group receives Canadian hemp – via Kentucky Hemp growers in Kentucky offered to help replace hemp plants destroyed in a federal raid last August.

By Heidi Bell Gease Journal Staff Writer

They can't grow it, but they can truck it in.

A trailer full of Canadian hemp is on its way to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, courtesy of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association and the Madison Hemp & Flax Company.

The hemp will replace thousands of plants seized by federal authorities in August from two test plots on the reservation. The crop was to be used for hemp bricks and other building materials.

"We've got enough (bales) to finish the house they're working on and probably start on another one," said Joe Hickey, executive director of the Kentucky hemp group, as crews were busy loading bales there Monday.

Hickey notes the irony in the gift. "It's exactly the same stuff," he said. "There's no genetic difference between what we're going to bring up there and what (federal agents) destroyed ... which is crazy."

The Slim Buttes Land Use Association has worked to develop industrial hemp use on the Pine Ridge reservation for several years. Members built most of a house near Slim Buttes, using "hempcrete" blocks made from Canadian hemp.

Last spring, they planted two test plots of industrial hemp at Pine Ridge. On Aug. 24, just before the harvest, federal agents confiscated 3,782 plants in Alex White Plume's 1.5-acre plot, plus the plants in a second plot near Slim Buttes.

While Oglala Sioux Tribal law allows hemp plants with less than 1 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance in marijuana that gives users a "high"), the federal government does not.

Despite the fact that the U.S. government encouraged farmers to grow hemp during World War II, federal officials say the law does not distinguish between marijuana, which is smoked to get high, and hemp, which can be used to make paper, fabric, rope, building materials and other items.

For possessing 1,000 or more plants, punishment upon conviction in the federal system is 10 years to life in prison. No one has been arrested in connection with the hemp raid, but authorities said in August they expected grand jury indictments.

White Plume said federal officials told him they weren't making any arrests because they "didn't want to get into a political controversy" over sovereignty and other issues.

Mark Vargo, who is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney's office, could not be reached Monday. Meanwhile, the Kentucky hemp growers and Madison Hemp & Flax Company offered to replace part of the hemp destroyed in the raid. The Slim Buttes Land Use Association accepted.

"Essentially, we are picking up exactly the same material destroyed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. That's absurd," said Tom Cook, project coordinator for the land use group. "We aren't going to let their foolishness stop our program."

Former Kentucky Gov. Louie B. Nunn will formally present Slim Buttes Project Spokesman Joe American Horse with the hemp at the Kentucky State Capitol rotunda today. Nunn will then travel back to Pine Ridge with the group, which expects to arrive here on Friday.

Nunn called the trip "an effort to educate the public" about the benefits of hemp, and also to show that people need to work together to develop a better agricultural and economic future for all people.

The Kentucky group isn't building with hemp. "We're not quite as inventive as these guys (from Pine Ridge) are," Hickey said. "We're using hemp for horse bedding for the thoroughbred horse industry here." He said hemp is more absorbent and produces less dust than straw, which is commonly used in horse stalls. "They won't eat this like they'll eat the straw, too."

Comments? Call Heidi Bell Gease at (859) 394-8419, or e-mail her at heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com.

12/2/00
12:35:12 PM

DAVID BROWER CELEBRATION TODAY

Deacember 2, 2000

Hello everyone,

Many of you will already know that the great environmental warrior, David Brower, died on November 5th, aged 88. His passing leaves a blank space no-one will ever fill.

Today, Saturday December 2nd, a Memorial Celebration of David's life will be held at the Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way (at Milva). The public is invited. Doors open at 12:30pm and a program of speakers, music, photography, videos and conversation will take place from 2-4pm.

Those who cannot attend the Berkeley celebration in person can join it via a streaming webcast at http://www.earthisland.org.

To David's wife Anne, his children Ken, Robert, Barbara & John, and his grandchildren Anne, Rosemary, and David, we offer our hearfelt condolences.

And to Dave, whose memory we will treasure, we can only say, THANK YOU!

12/2/00
12:28:25 PM

All those who will be surprised by a revelation that some DOE folk are conspiring with the nuclear industry in the campaign for Yucca Mountain, raise your hands. The rest of us can read the following article to see the latest "smoking gun."

DOE WANTS YUCCA SECRET REPORT OBTAINED BY SUN SHOWS AGENCY HAS PICKED SITE WITH SCIENCE INCOMPLETE; SENATORS CRY FOUL

Las Vegas Sun -- December 1, 2000 by Jeff German and Mary Manning

The Department of Energy has been collaborating behind the scenes with the nuclear industry to prepare a public report that will recommend Yucca Mountain as the site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste repository, secret DOE documents show.

Federal law prohibits the DOE from taking sides during the site-selection process. A draft of a 60-page DOE overview, obtained by the Sun, concludes that Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is safe to store the radioactive waste, even though an epic study of the Nevada site has not been completed.

Attached to the draft is a two-page note, put together by DOE contractors, that suggests the overview is designed to help nuclear industry officials sell the Yucca Mountain project to Congress.

The wording of the unsigned note has angered Nevada's two Democratic Senators, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, who called it convincing evidence of "bias" by DOE against the state. The note says the overview presents Yucca Mountain as the "key component in the DOE's proposed solution" to the country's nuclear waste problem. "It is narrowly focused on the suitability of the site because decision makers and the public are equally concerned about transportation and other issues that bear upon the site recommendation decision," the note says. "In fact, the technical suitability of the site is less of a concern to Congress than the broader issue of whether the nuclear waste problem can be solved at an affordable price in both financial and political terms."

Those words, Bryan said, "trivialize" the years of technical work done at Yucca Mountain. "That is in fact saying the public and the health and safety of Nevada be damned," he said.

The overview, meanwhile, says the new price tag for the Yucca Mountain dump and the transportation of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste here has soared to $58 billion, well above the previous $36 billion estimate of the mid-1990s.

Summarized in the overview is the DOE report of a 15-year Yucca Mountain study, which could be made public by the end of this year. The report is being prepared by contractors for the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), the agency overseeing the study.

"The report concludes that a repository that is likely to meet the safety standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the licensing requirements of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can be designed, constructed and operated at the Yucca Mountain site," the draft says. "The report is based on more than 15 years of field investigations, analytical work and engineering data."

Selected DOE officials and contractors pushing the Yucca Mountain Project have received copies of the draft and have been asked for their input into the final version of the overview.

The attached two-page note says the overview "makes a convincing case that Yucca Mountain is a technically suitable site for a repository, though a formal suitable finding will not have been made."

The note suggests that the overview, which is expected to be signed in its final form by Ivan Itkin, director of the DOE's Radioactive Waste Management office in Washington, is being put together to provide the nuclear industry with more ammunition in its intense campaign to persuade Congress to make Yucca Mountain the site of the high-level repository.

"The overview provides information that potential supporters can use in expressing support for a site recommendation," the note says. That has drawn outrage from Reid and Bryan. "The Department of Energy never surprises me," Reid said. "They can't get out of bed with the nuclear power industry, and this is another example."

Reid said he planned to haul NRC officials, who ultimately will decide whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable site, before his Environment and Public Works Committee early next year to make sure they understand concerns being raised about the DOE's bias. The committee has oversight over the national nuclear waste plan.

Bryan said the latest DOE documents leave little doubt in his mind that the DOE is working in concert with the nuclear industry, which he said is "totally inappropriate." He called the relationship between the DOE and the nuclear industry an "unholy alliance" that is threatening the integrity of the site selection process. "The tenor of these documents," Bryan said, "seems less interested in science and substance than tone, which I think most Nevadans will find offensive and which makes the point that Nevadans have been making for years -- this is not science. This is spin to support the nuclear power industry."

The documents give the public "no confidence" in the DOE's ability to make an objective recommendation on Yucca Mountain, Bryan added. The DOE, he said, appears bent on "stacking the deck" against Nevada. "This is not a done deal," he said. "But they're treating it like a fait accompli."

Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, described the draft overview as a "slick sales brochure" aimed at convincing the pubic everything is fine at Yucca Mountain. "The DOE is on a mission to build a repository here," he said. "It's never been anything else."

Note is denounced

In a telephone interview from Washington, Itkin disavowed the language of the two-page note, which he confirmed was attached to the first draft of the overview a couple of months ago. "When I saw that section, it troubled me immensely," Itkin said. "It's not the position of the department. "The department's position, as long as I'm director, is to do a professional job -- that is, to make a scientific and technical evaluation of Yucca Mountain to see if it's suitable for the repository."

Itkin said the note has been removed from subsequent drafts of the overview passed around the DOE community. He said he believed it was written by one of the DOE's contractors looking at the Yucca Mountain site, but he did not recall the name. Allen Benson, the spokesman for the Yucca Mountain Project in Las Vegas, later said several contractors had a hand in writing the note. But he declined to identify them. "It is a contractor document," Benson said. "The comments are something someone thinks should be done. It is simply not acceptable to the DOE."

The note solicits opinions about the draft overview from other DOE contractors and asks that they be sent to DOE officials Chris Kouts in Washington and Richard Craun in Las Vegas. Bryan said his concerns about the DOE's bias have not been eased by Itkin's disapproval of the note.

"Whatever the circumstances, I find it troublesome that those two sheets of paper were packaged with the draft overview," he said. "It's absolutely alarming and outrageous. "Whoever wrote that should have been reprimanded or fired. This report is supposed to be scientific." Itkin, meanwhile, acknowledged that he is close to recommending Yucca Mountain as a safe site for the repository. "We do not see any show stoppers," he said. "So far, the work that we've done leaves us to suspect this could be a suitable site. But we need to do further scientific work."

In the original 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress made the DOE responsible for studying several sites across the country as potential nuclear waste repositories. By 1987, however, Congress singled out Yucca Mountain as the lone site to study after the DOE argued that examining three to five sites would be too time-consuming and expensive.

Decision looms

The final decision on Yucca Mountain rests with the next president and energy secretary in July, Itkin said. Before the energy secretary makes a recommendation to the president, the DOE must get input from citizens at public hearings, which could get under way early next year. The energy secretary also must notify Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn and the state Legislature of its recommendation one month before formally notifying the president.

Nevada has the right to lodge a protest with the Congress, which could delay the selection process. But the process would move forward if both the president and Congress approve the site. The DOE expects its comprehensive report ultimately will build public confidence that the volcanic layers of Yucca Mountain combined with man-made barriers will protect local residents from radioactivity for 10,000 years.

The repository could be ready to accept its first nuclear waste shipment in 2010 and final one 35 years later in 2045, the draft overview says. With natural rock barriers and man-made shields preventing ground water from reaching the buried wastes, "the DOE is confident that a Yucca Mountain repository will protect public health and safety and the environment and comply with proposed EPA standards and NRC regulations," the draft asserts.

Nevada scientific experts have called the site unsuitable for years. Their studies focus on threats from deep hot water invading the site, the potential failure of metals the DOE plans to use as burial containers and the possible threat of earthquakes and volcanoes.

NRC consultant Brittain Hill also has warned the DOE that the greatest risk posed from buried nuclear waste is a violent volcanic eruption through the repository. Hill said that even if the NRC issues a building permit, that will not end strict federal oversight. Before the DOE ships a single waste container to the site, the NRC must conduct further public hearings, Hill said. And before the repository can open, the NRC will have to review the plan and license the DOE to accept the waste, which is expected to come from 43 states.

Mathematician Ronald Bourgoin of North Carolina said it is impossible for the DOE to claim Yucca is safe after less than 20 years' research there. "Let's face it: It's been politics, not science, all along, and it'll continue to remain so," Bourgoin said. "The only force that will defeat putting waste in Yucca is political."

12/2/00
12:17:13 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

ENVIRONMENT IN THE BALANCE AS SUPREME COURT HEARS ELECTION ARGUMENTS

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - The U.S. Supreme Court made history today by delving into the legal morass surrounding Florida's disputed Presidential election, the final outcome of which will propel either Texas Governor George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore into the White House.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-15.html

HYDROELECTRIC POWER NOT FREE OF GREENHOUSE GASES

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - The reservoirs of many large dams built to generate hydroelectric power do produce greenhouse gases, the World Commission on Dams says in a comprehensive report issued earlier this month. This finding is in contrast to the widespread assumption that such emissions are zero or negligible.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-01.html

MISSOURI RIVER REPORT FAVORS MANAGING WATER FOR WILDLIFE

WASHINGTON, DC, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - The Missouri River should be returned to a more natural flow, conclude the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers in their final biological opinion on current Missouri River dam operations. The report concludes months of consultations and controversy, and sets the stage for recovery of troubled Missouri River wildlife.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-06.html

CLAMS HOLD STORY OF AILING COLORADO RIVER DELTA

BLACKSBURG, Virginia, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - The biological productivity of the Colorado River Delta is just five percent of what it was before the river's water was diverted for human uses. Researchers from the U.S. and Mexico used shellfish to examine the delta's health, pioneering a technique that could be used in other waterways around the world.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-07.html

EUROPE CUTS QUOTAS TO HALT FISHERIES COLLAPSE

BRUSSELS, Belgium, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - The European Commission wants to cut fishing quotas by up to 74 percent to protect populations close to collapse.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-12.html

LAKE VICTORIA BATTLES BIODIVERSITY BREAKDOWN

NAIROBI, Kenya, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - For a lesson in how quickly ecosystems fragment across international borders, a report today suggests looking no further than Lake Victoria.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-11.html

AUSTRALIA'S CHAMBER SHEDS LIGHT ON SMOG

SYDNEY, New South Wales, Australia, December 1, 2000 (ENS) - Australian scientists have built a high tech chamber to understand the chemistry of smog and help predict its precise impact on human health.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-10.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: DECEMBER 1, 2000

Global Warming Could Reduce Rice Harvests

Forest Service Vulnerable to Lawsuits over Timber Contracts

Bridge Builders Fined for Dumping Debris

Congregations for Cleaner Air Promote Green Power

Microbes Make Mine Waste Drinkable

Last VX Landmines Destroyed at Johnston Atoll

WTO Protest Veterans Vow to Fight On

Student Summit Dives into Ocean Issues

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-01-09.html

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.

SEND NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Student-Designed House Demonstrates Eco- Friendly Living without Compromise

PRESCOTT, AZ, Dec. 1, -/E-Wire/-- Brad Tito wants to show people they don't have to sacrifice or compromise modern day conveniences to be environmentally friendly.

/CONTACT: Karlyn Haas, Prescott College Institutional Advancement Office, 520/778-2090 ext. 4503, khaas@prescott.edu/

/Web site: www.prescott.edu/news/news.html/

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Nov00/01Dec0004.html

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE TO BUSINESS AND FEATURES EDITORS:

Grinch Movie Forgets the Real Meaning of Christmas

The Grinch is a star, his own movie in the can. But what would he think of the marketing plan?

Visa and Hershey's, with products to plug, Are hawking their wares with the mean one's green mug.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 1, -/E-Wire/-- Need story ideas about a low-consumption Christmas? Think maybe, perhaps, the holiday means a little bit more? Check out Environmental Media Services' Christmas page at http://www.ems.org/green_holidays/grinchpromo.html.

/CONTACT: Jan Vertefeuille, Environmental Media Services, 202/463-6670

/Web site: http://www.ems.org

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Nov00/01Dec0001.html

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE TO BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

IRG and AED Merge

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 -/E-Wire/-- International Resources Group, Ltd. (IRG) and Alternative Energy Development, Inc. (AED) of Silver Spring, Maryland, announced today the merger of the two companies, effective January 1, 2001. With the addition of AED, IRG augments its $40 million a year business providing international technical advisory services in energy, environment, natural resources and relief and reconstruction.

/CONTACT: Cynthia Pflugh of International Resources Group, Ltd, 202-289-0100; or Ann Herendeen of Alternative Energy Development, Inc., 301-608-3666/

/Web sites: http://www.irgltd.com /Web site: http://www.aedglobal.com/

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Nov00/01Dec0003.html

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE TO BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

TripleE Announces a Greener Way to Travel

U.S. travel agency becomes the first to offer travel with a net zero impact on global climate change

PORTLAND, OR, Dec. 1 -/E-Wire/-- TripleE (www.TripleE.com) unveiled a "first-of-its-kind" Travel Cool program at the United Nations conference on Global Warming in the Netherlands last week. The Travel Cool program offsets greenhouse gas pollution to prevent air travel from contributing to global warming.

/CONTACT: Mitch Rofsky: 503-223-2626; Erica Bollacasa: 503-223-2626

/Web site: http://www.triplee.com/member/join.cfm

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Nov00/01Dec0002.html

12/2/00
12:13:01 PM

MEDIA ADVISORY: PACIFICA MANAGEMENT MOVES TO UNDERMINE WBAI'S INDEPENDENCE Free speech may be issue in firing of long-time New York station manager

December 1, 2000

In a move reminiscent of last year's attack on Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, the Pacifica Foundation told WBAI-New York's long-time general manager Valerie Van Isler that it is removing her from her position. On Tuesday, November 28, during what was supposed to be a routine evaluation, Pacifica's executive director Bessie Wash informed Van Isler that she was being reassigned to a newly created position in Washington, DC. Van Isler, who has been at the helm of WBAI for 10 years, said she wanted to remain at the station, and was told that she would therefore be fired.

Pacifica, a network of community-supported radio stations, has long been torn by charges that its national board is bent on taking the network in a more timid, ratings-driven, commercialized direction. Listeners, as well as staff at some stations, have organized protests against the board's continuing centralization of power.

Van Isler had been told to report to her new position, "executive producer of national programming," in Washington, DC, in January. Though she had recently brought WBAI into the black, Van Isler had locked horns with Pacifica management over the airing of a speech that Cuba's Fidel Castro delivered in New York on September 8.

According to a station insider, Van Isler was also upbraided by Pacifica management for WBAI's coverage of the Palestinian Right-of-Return March in Washington DC on September 23. According to the source, Pacifica management admonished Van Isler after receiving a complaint from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a presidentially appointed agency that provides funding to the Pacifica Foundation. Van Isler had also clashed with Pacifica officials recently over the network's treatment of Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.

Pacifica plans to replace Van Isler as early as Monday. WBAI management and staff were shocked by the sudden decision, which Pacifica has yet to formally inform them about. Pacifica has not yet named an interim General Manager. [See attached letter from WBAI Management Team to Pacifica Executive Director Besse Wash.]

Pacifica's latest move is reminiscent of the 1999 removal of KPFA's general manager Nicole Sawaya, general manager at Pacifica's KPFA-Berkeley, which led to protests by thousands of listeners and volunteers, the arrest of staff and the closing of the station for several weeks.

The firing of Van Isler follows other attacks on Pacifica staff and programming, including the transfer of Pacifica news director Dan Coughlin, who like Van Isler was forced out of his position after airing a 30-second headline about a protest against Pacifica. Pacifica has also recently threatened to fire Amy Goodman, co-host of the network's flagship national newsmagazine, Democracy Now!, who recently filed grievances against Pacifica for censorship, harassment and gender harassment.

For more information, go to: http://www.savepacifica.net

To: Bessie Wash, Executive Director, Pacifica Foundation From: WBAI Management Team Date: November 30, 2000 Re: Actions proposed against station manager

It has come to the attention of the WBAI management team that Pacifica's executive management is in the process of an attempted removal of the station manager at WBAI. We find it incredible that you would even contemplate such a move because such behavior is a clear contradiction to the document that you authored and circulated throughout the network, Pacifica in the New Millennium: Community Radio with Vision.

In this document you spoke forthrightly about the need to change the culture of Pacifica as it related to personnel. You wrote:

"We intend to improve policies and procedures that assist employees to air concerns and receive thoughtful, responsive and fair replies. We also intend to put into place mechanisms that promote respect and teamwork. This includes responsiveness, dialogue and better communications."

We saw these proclamations as a necessary and welcome departure from the philosophy and actions of previous administrations and are anxiously awaiting their implementation.

However, the actions you are now proposing are a direct contradiction to what you told us you intended to do. We took you at your word and it appears that you have violated our trust. We believed that we were headed in a new direction and here we are back in 1998 - a time even the most inexperienced observer would agree was a management and fiscal disaster that threatened the very framework of Pacifica. Your proposed actions tend dangerously toward a replication of that awful time.

Another reason we find your proposed actions unconscionable is because they would destroy all of the hard-earned goodwill and positive energy that we have built up with our listenership over the last several months. As a result of what took place in Berkeley, we began to lose membership (and income).

Our listeners began to lose faith in Pacifica. It was the efforts of this management team that promised to repair that damage by renewing the trust that was lost through no fault of our own.

Your non-consultative and ill-advised proposition to immediately install an "interim manager" at WBAI is as untenable as it is procedurally out of order, inasmuch as Valerie van Isler is--and we expect her to remain for the foreseeable future--our station's manager. It is unclear to us whether you have followed personnel guidelines in this matter, as well as in your claim to be opening a "search" for the position. Even if it were your intention to change management at WBAI at this inopportune time, any person sent here under such circumstances would almost certainly be unable to function in an effective manner, given the mistrust, the opposition, the community ill will

and the confusion implicit in your proposal.

This management team demands an audience with you regarding actions proposed against our station manager and, therefore, against our station. This meeting should take place as quickly as possible. We are proposing Friday, December 1, 2000, in our conference room. We are sure that you wish to get beyond this precarious moment as much as we do. So, please respond as quickly as possible.

12/2/00
12:02:00 PM

This morning, lawyers for George W. Bush asked the US Supreme Court to end the 25-day war over who won the White House, as they faced off against Al Gore's legal team in an extraordinary 90-minute hearing witnessed live by only a select group of reporters, politicians and other observers. In keeping with its tradition, the High Court barred all cameras from the premises.

For an up-to-the-minute account of the proceedings, read David Corn's just-filed report, available only on The Nation's web-site. Corn was in the courtroom and reviews the spectacle, the arguments and the possible outcomes of the latest chapter in Indecision 2000.

Read this exclusive web report only at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=corn20001201

You can also find new post-election coverage and commentary from the pages of The Nation currently by Christopher Hitchens, Jonathan Schell and Calvin Trillin as well as recent analysis by Lani Guinier, Katha Pollitt and Eric Alterman at:

http://www.thenation.com

Finally, don't miss our history section with excerpts from The Nation's coverage of Election 1876, matching the favorite, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, against his Republican challenger, Rutherford B. Hayes - the last time a presidential race has been as contested and controversial as Election 2000.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=history&s=1876elec