Earths.net

2/2/01
5:46:35 PM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

1. UP SHEET CREEK The middle of the West Antarctic ice sheet -- one of the world's largest collections of water -- is shrinking and could contribute to a dramatic rise in global sea levels, according to a study published in the journal Science. The researchers found that part of the ice sheet, the Pine Island Glacier, thinned by 30 to 36 feet and retreated by three miles from 1992 to 1999. No one is certain, of course, but global warming might be driving the change. Andrew Shepherd, the lead author of the study from the University College London, noted, "The disintegration of Antarctic ice shelves is a commonly predicted effect of global warming."

straight to the source: Toronto Globe and Mail, Martin Mittelstaedt, 02 Feb 2001 <http://www.globeandmail.com/gam/International/20010202/UICEEN.html>

straight to the source: Philadelphia Inquirer, Paul Recer, 02 Feb 2001 <http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/02/02/national/MELT02.htm>

catch it only in Grist Magazine: Global warming survivor -- the comic adventures of Zed, last of his species <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/zed/zed120500.stm>

2. TRASH TALKING The first piece of legislation signed by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo requires local governments to reduce waste disposal by 25 percent across the county in five years, mostly through re-use, recycling, and composting. Macapagal, who came into office the same day as U.S. President Bush, said, "I am told no other country in the world has adopted this integrated ecological approach to solid waste management." The country currently has big trash problems. Only 84 percent of Manila's trash gets collected, with the rest ending up in vacant lots or rivers. In Quezon City, about 217 squatters were killed last year by a giant trash avalanche when a portion of a landfill collapsed.

straight to the source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Amy Bainbridge, 27 Jan 2001 <http://www.inquirer.net/issues/jan2001/jan27/frontpage/front_3.htm>

straight to the source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dennis M. Arroyo, 29 Jan 2001 <http://www.inquirer.net/issues/jan2001/jan29/features/fea_3.htm>

3. THE MILKY WAY Got fresh organic milk? Nope? Well, all you milk-drinkers out there ought to try a glass -- and learn just what we're giving up in taste and quality for the questionable privilege of living far away from the sources of our increasingly industrialized food. A drink or two of the sweet stuff causes columnist Donella Meadows to wonder -- with all of our supposed progress, what are we rushing toward and what are we leaving behind? Read more on the Grist Magazine website.

read it only in Grist Magazine: Are we losing touch with good, simple things? <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/citizen/citizen013001.stm>

4. A TRADER TO THEIR CAUSE Several U.S. corporations are doing an about-face: To get Democrats in Congress to stop holding up free-trade agreements, some representatives of Big Business are abandoning their long-held opposition to linking free trade with environmental and labor standards. For example, Caterpillar CEO Glen Barton said in a letter last month to the Clinton administration that the U.S. hadn't done enough to encourage such linkages and that U.S. officials should consult more seriously with -- gulp -- opponents of the World Trade Organization. Boeing, the American International Group, and others are considering whether to join Caterpillar in endorsing a U.S.-Jordan trade agreement that includes environmental and labor clauses. Of course, there are still voices within the business community that come from the dark side and argue against tying trade to such conditions, but some progress is better than none. Right?

5. CROP FAILURES Almost 30 percent of farmers in the U.S. who grew genetically modified corn last year violated planting restrictions meant to keep insects from becoming resistant to the crop, according to a biotech industry survey submitted to the U.S. EPA this week. More than 90 percent of the farmers thought they had followed the rules, but many couldn't identify the correct restrictions when asked in the survey. A spokesperson for biotech giant Monsanto pointed to the fact that 71 percent of farmers correctly followed rules and said the survey showed that "farmers want to do the right thing." But Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists countered that a lot more work needs to be done.

straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, 01 Feb 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/524896.asp>

The 10 worst corporations in the world -- and other gems from assorted magazines in our Best of the Rest section

http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/best/best012601.stm#corporations

Nary a drop to drink -- a review of "Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource" in our Books Unbound section

<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books010901.stm>

As the worm turns -- or: how I learned to start vermicomposting and love the worm -- in our Main Dish column

<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/ness101100.stm>

2/2/01
5:38:19 PM

EcoNet News

http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/enindex.html

Help Form a Campus Coalition Against the FTAA

This is a call for a mass mobilization of students from colleges across the East coast to attend the next Summit of the Americas in April 18-22, 2001 in which the proposed FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) document, an extension of NAFTA to the entire Western Hemisphere, will be discussed by trade ministers and corporate executives.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/981086179/index_html

Brazilian Farmers Seize Monsanto Facilities in Anti-GE Protest

More than 1,000 poor Brazilian farmers, bolstered by foreign activists from the international "Anti- Davos" summit, stormed a U.S.-based Monsanto biotech plant and threatened on Friday to camp out indefinitely to protest genetically modified (GM) food.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/981086343/index_html

Uphold Logging Moratorium - PNG's Review of New Concessions Marred

The review of some 30 proposed logging operations being carried out in Papua New Guinea (PNG) appears to be a grand masquerade; full of deception, political interference and lack of good faith. Join with PNG communities and NGO groups in demanding that the government of PNG maintain the moratorium until all proposed and ongoing operations have been thoroughly reviewed and remedial actions taken.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/981088030/index_html

Industry Group Sues to Stop Calif. Plan to Ban MTBE

U.S. manufacturers of MTBE said they filed a lawsuit on Wednesday under the federal Clean Air Act to block California's plan to ban the fuel additive from state gasoline supplies by the end of 2002.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/981088151/index_html

Colorado Prairie Dog Summit Set for March

The Colorado Prairie Dog Summit will focus on prairie dog colonies along Colorado's Front Range with the objective of determining the best methods for preserving these colonies where they are and the best methods for relocating those facing development or destruction.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/981088279/index_html

EcoNet Headlines: February 2, 2001

Wrecked Galapagos Oil Tanker "To Stay Where It Is"

Salvage teams have given up trying to move the stricken oil tanker that fouled Charles Darwin's Galapagos island paradise, and will have to leave it where it is, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981083901/index_html

India-Bound Mercury Shipment Turns Back to U.S.

Waste mercury on its way to India has been recalled to the United States by its owner amid growing protests in both countries.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981084039/index_html

The Great Canadian Timber Heist

It has been revealed that commercial logging companies in British Columbia, Canada, have robbed the province of an estimated $138 million in timber revenues over a 15-month period.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981084286/index_html

Lawsuit to Protect Salmon from Pesticides

Commercial fishermen have joined forces with two environmental groups to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failure to protect salmon from the harmful effects of pesticides.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981084516/index_html

Settlement Requires Boaters to Brake for Manatees

Florida's endangered manatee population received a welcome boost last week in a landmark legal settlement reached in principle between conservationists and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The agreement will slow down boats in manatee habitat, reducing the risk of collisions between the rare mammals and boat propellers.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981084609/index_html

World Bank Not Transparent on Forest Policy, Charge Environmentalists

A letter sent Tuesday by more than 40 conservation groups says that there has been little feedback and communication from the World Bank on the new strategy and policy since regional consultations were completed.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981084816/index_html

Major Glacier in Antarctica Is Shrinking, Say Scientists

A major glacier formation in Antarctica is shrinking, according to a new scientific report which is likely to heighten concerns that global warming is causing the world's ice cover to melt.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981084947/index_html

Tallgrass Prairies May Provide Early Warning of Climate Change

While their size has diminished over the years - only an estimated 5 percent of the original tallgrass prairie in the United States exists today - their importance in the ability to predict climate changes has not, according to research conducted by two Kansas State University scientists.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981085080/index_html

RACHEL: Biotech, the Basics, Part 1

Genetic engineering is an extremely powerful technology whose mechanisms are not fully understood even by those who do the basic scientific work. In this series, we will review the main problems that have been identified with genetically engineered crops.

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981085384/index_html

GREEN/Defenders: No Money for Listing but Plenty for Welfare Ranching

A new report by Forest Guardians finds that although there is "insufficient funds to list additional endangered species," there is millions in subsidies for livestock grazing that "comes at an enormous cost to the natural environment and the endangered species that depend on it."

http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/981085647/index_html

2/2/01
5:31:18 PM

Public Citizen

Feb. 2, 2001

Firestone Report Reveals News Data Supporting Recall of Non-Decatur Wilderness AT Tires

Statement of Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen

While Firestone's report today states that there was no single cause for the tread separations experienced in the recalled ATX and Decatur-made Wilderness AT tires, one thing is clear: Firestone's own warranty data support a recall of Wilderness AT tires produced at other plants.

Embedded on page nine of the lengthy report is new data acknowledging that the adjustment rate ¯ that is, the rate at which customers brought their tires in for problems ¯ was essentially the same, whether the tires were made in Decatur, Joliet or Wilson. This means that the tires were equally problematic regardless of the plant in which they were manufactured, and that all Wilderness AT tires could crack and separate.

It also raises a serious safety concern for drivers everywhere, because when Firestone recalled Decatur-made Wilderness AT tires, the company often replaced them with Wilderness AT tires made at other plants. If these tires, too, are unsafe, as Firestone's own data indicate, there should be an immediate recall of all Wilderness AT tires.

Throughout this fiasco, company executives have dodged questions, dragged their feet and danced around the hard issues. It's time for them to admit that more tires are out there on the roads right now that could lead to more tragic deaths and injuries. We need a complete recall now.

http://www.Citizen.org

2/2/01
5:25:28 PM

The Nation

ON US POLITICS:

KATHA POLLITT: No Olive Branch http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010219&s=pollitt

SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE: Winning Politics http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010219&s=wellstone

ELLEN WILLIS: Freedom From Religion http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010219&s=willis

ON THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT:

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Wiesel Words http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010219&s=hitchens

GRAHAM USHER: Waiting for Sharon http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010219&s=usher

And don't miss recent articles by Vincent Bugliosi, Gregory Palast, Michael Eric Dyson, Gore Vidal, Harvey Wasserman and JoAnn Wypijewski, among many others. All available at:

http://www.thenation.com

2/2/01
5:22:58 PM

THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE

Bismarck, North Dakota

Hemp may loom large in farming's future

By Jerry W. Kram

MINOT -- Industrial hemp could become as important as canola as a crop in North Dakota, according to the director of agricultural research at North Dakota State University.

Cole Gustafson summarized the work NDSU is trying do on industrial hemp at a seminar Friday at the KMOT Ag Expo in Minot. He said there already is a well developed niche market for hemp products that North Dakota producers could fill. However, before that happens, federal anti-drug regulations will have to be changed. Hemp is the same species as marijuana, but has extremely low levels of the chemical that makes people high.

"Just to have a research plot, we have to get a permit from the Drug Enforcement Agency," Gustafson said. "That means we have to put up a chain-link fence topped with three strands of barbed wire."

He estimated that NDSU will have to spend about $14,000 to establish a research plot, mostly for the required security measures.

The DEA has turned down two applications from NDSU to establish a hemp research plot. Thanks to assistance from the state's congressional delegation, Gustafson thinks a third application should be approved this year.

The purpose of the plot will be to answer basic agronomic questions, such as when to plant the crop, how much fertilizer it requires and what varieties will grow the best in the state.

"We have almost no information on how to grow hemp in North Dakota," Gustafson said. Researchers in Indiana and Hawaii as well as Canada are working with hemp, he added, but even research done in Canada won't exactly translate to North Dakota because of geographic differences, such as climate and soils.

"We need answers to just about every basic question on how to grow hemp," he said.

Gustafson said NDSU also has state of the art equipment to do other kinds of hemp research that is better tolerated by the DEA. These include chemical analyses of the valuable oil extracted from hemp seed and developing machines to harvest the tough, fibrous stems.

NDSU is neutral on the question of legalizing hemp, Gustafson said, but is responding to increasing producer interest in the crop. He said his office gets more questions on hemp production than any other potential crop.

Permission soon?

Robert Robinson, founder of Modern Hemp, a nonprofit group in Minot that is pushing for the legalization of hemp, believes Congress could soon reverse the federal government's stand on hemp. He thinks farmers could be growing it as soon as 2003.

"I have talked to our governor and he said he will continue what Gov. Schafer has done for hemp," Robinson said.

He pointed to 14 states that have deregulated or legalized hemp production, as North Dakota did in 1999. A growing number of senators and representatives are joining North Dakota's delegation in supporting the deregulation of hemp.

"Nearly everybody I've spoken to at the Ag Expo has been in support of it," Robinson said. "People understand industrial hemp is a different product than marijuana."

Robinson said that hemp is grown legally in many countries, including Canada, and hasn't caused problems for law enforcement agents in those countries. In the United States, however, the DEA is trying even harder to crack down on hemp.

"The DEA is trying to adopt regulations that would effectively ban all hemp oil products for human consumption," he said. "That would include banning hemp shampoo, lotions and lip balms from the United States."

Robinson said the reasons the DEA opposes hemp production are nonsensical and the public and lawmakers are starting to recognize that. He said fears that children could associate products like hemp tennis shoes or hemp clothing with marijuana are probably counterproductive.

"If the United States government continues to portray hemp as making marijuana OK, they're wrong," Robinson said. Quoting a study on that question he continued, "It is only the DEA's failure to distinguish between an agricultural crop and a drug crop that is sending a wrong message to children. Our information-enabled generation is rapidly learning the truth about industrial hemp and will become far more skeptical about government pronouncements as time passes."

He added that this distrust of government information may make it harder to convince children of the harm done by drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

http://www.ndonline.com/tribwebpage/news/jan2001/127200192710.html

2/2/01
1:13:23 PM

Press Release

Religious Campaign to Nation's Capital on Mission to Save America's Forests Church and Synagogue Leaders ask Bush to protect Nation's Forests

Taking its crusade of forest preservation to Congress and a new Administration, the Religious Campaign For Forest Conservation begins a round of meetings in Washington, D.C. this week with Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, members of Congress, and other Bush Administration officials Long dismayed over industrial logging in the National Forests, the assembled coalition of clerics and laypersons will press for legislation to end commercial timber harvesting on America's public lands.

Founded three years ago against a backdrop of disappearing ancient forests, the Religious Campaign For Forest Conservation represents a broad swath of America's religious groups making common cause to convince lawmakers that logging public land is a moral and spiritual affiance Campaign Coordinator Fred Krueger, of Santa Rosa, California, said, "We have requested a meeting with President Bush so that we may explain that religion carries a profound moral obligation to protect the Creator's forests. Americans of faith are reaching out to the new President to help him and his Administration realize that protecting God's final forests is a vital concern to large numbers of Christians and Jews."

At a Monday morning prayer breakfast, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service Michael Dombeck will receive an award from the group in recognition of his efforts to save what remains of America's pristine forests. Throughout the week, delegates from the Religious Campaign will meet with members of Congress to urge passage of legislation protect all National Forests from continued clear-cutting.

Mr. Krueger stressed that his group also aims to be heard by the incoming Administration. "President Bush must recognize that America's religious communities are heartsick at the way our nation's forests are being logged to obliteration by a few unaccountable corporations. He has the responsibility to halt the rampant destruction going on in the Creator's forests. Ours is a spiritual message that we pray he will hear and take to his heart."

As industrial logging has reduced old-growth forests in the United States to a fraction of their former glory, there has been a corresponding upswing in the number of religious leaders speaking out for strong governmental protections.

Stressing that their campaign is a religious one rather than a gathering of environmental activists, the Reverend Owen Owens, recently retired as director of racial and environmental justice for the American Baptist Churches' Office of National Ministries, said, "Must we destroy tomorrow to live today? No! Jesus calls us to live so that we lay the foundation for better days to come. Today, vast clear-cut wastelands cry out for Christ's stewards to save the remnants of ancient forests so they may continue to glorify their Maker."

Affirming the religious message, Connie Hanson, national president of Christians Caring for Creation, stated "The commercial logging and destruction of our National Forests, God's creation, is an outrage, and a wrong that must be righted. This is a moral and a spiritual issue! That is why we are calling for protection and restoration of our forests." Recognizing that cessation of timber harvesting can cause economic dislocations, Mrs. Hanson also wants what she calls "restoration jobs for forest communities and their workers."

Speaking for many of the Campaign's Jewish members, Rabbi Warren Stone, Chair of the Environmental Affairs Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, stated that "As a Jew and a Rabbi, preserving and protecting God's creation of forests, wilderness and diverse species is a moral and spiritual mandate of my Jewish tradition. How important it is to join other faith traditions who share this common vision."

Additional comments:

Endorsing the position that their national effort is part of Jewish belief, Dr. Barak Gale, chair of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Coalition for the Environment and Jewish Life, said that "Our campaign in Washington coincides with Tu B'Shevat, our New Year of the Trees, and we will recite blessings over the fruit of the trees and the earth. The work of the RCFC in advocating for responsible stewardship of our National Forest is a major blessing for the earth."

Highlighting the group's belief that forests are one of God's unique creations, Brother Keith Warner, ofm, a Roman Catholic Franciscan friar at Mission San Juan Bautista, California, relates that "St. Francis of Assisi sang of the beauty of Creation, and found God in it. The destruction our society is meting out on forest ecosystems is a travesty, and people of faith must speak out with a moral voice to stop it."

A second Franciscan, Brother Jacek Orzechowski, from Durham, North Carolina, stressed that "believing in God and caring for the integrity of God's forests are two sides of the same coin."

Reflecting the history of the Episcopal Church's involvement with social issues, Beverly Meeker, a member of the Episcopal Environmental Network at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, said "When I stand in the wilderness, I am in awe, as in the Beginning; eyes open for the first time, I ken the hand of God at every turn. And God says to me, this is your home. Now care for it, grow with it, protect it."

Another Episcopalian, the Reverend Sally Bingham of the Episcopal Committee on the Environment, in San Francisco, succinctly states that "Any arbitrary destruction of Creation is a direct insult to our Creator."

With only a scant three percent of America's original forests still standing, some RCFC members express a sense of urgency in their mission. Dr. Robert Jonas of Watertown, Massachusetts, believes that "The work of the Campaign is a Godsend at this time in our nation's history. People of diverse Christian and Jewish denominations are finding a common focus in our love for God's forests. We expect more and more churches and synagogues to join us in our fight to protect the cathedrals of our National Forests."

Dr. Bob Marshall of Kenna, West Virginia, asserts that "the evidence is clear and irrefutable that our public forests are dangerously abused by commercial timbering. I am encouraged that so many Christians and Jews are now taking seriously the Scriptural mandates that we must defend, protect and preserve God's sacred forests."

For the Reverend Peter Moore-Kochliacs, a Methodist minister from San Diego, forests are part and parcel of God's handiwork. "God's forests have a right to life, a right not intrinsically linked to the human. We humans are to be earthkeepers for God's good creation. When we endanger God's forests, we diminish God and also ourselves."

The thrust of the Religious Campaign appears to enjoy broad, national appeal among religious leaders, as shown by a glance at the map. As the Reverend Lisa Gray of the American Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. explained, "I am involved in the Religious Campaign because God gave us dominion over the earth, which means a loving preservation of Creation. Our leaders need a lesson in God's grammar, so that they understand the true meaning of the Creation Story, and of our assignment on this earth."

Up in Hallowell, Maine, Beth Wheatley believes that humans "have a fundamental responsibility to protect and care for all life. What are forests but life? We must end industrial logging in the National Forests now. Before even more life is lost."

Joining the delegates will be Julia "Butterfly" Hill, whose two-year occupation of the thousand year-old redwood tree known as "Luna" brought worldwide attention to the destruction of America's forests. "We are at a critical point in the history of ancient forests," said Ms. Hill. "It is imperative that we protect the fragments of forest we have left so that future generations may enjoy the Creator's gifts."

Allen Johnson, producer of Creation Song radio in Dunmore, West Virginia, offers a glimpse of the effect of over-logging in Appalachia. "I live in a forest community that has felt the effects of a boom-and-bust extractive economy. Trees and people are both treated as expendable. Our nation must come to value the people who live in forest communities."

A perspective from the Eastern Orthodox Church comes from Dr. Vincent Rossi, a theologian in Forestville, California, who demonstrates the common linkage between various beliefs under the RCFC umbrella. "It is spiritually and morally impossible for any truly religious person to separate the worship of God from loving and respecting creation," said Rossi. "If you don't love trees, you don't love God."

"The bible guides my approach to forests," said Tom Herschelman, from the Saron United Church of Christ's Eco-Justice Task Force in Sheboygan Falls, WI. "In the creation story, God saw ‘goodness' in the creation before and after humans were created. For this reason we respect the created order and love and respect God's creation. Rather than dominate creation, we are to have dominion -- which means to care for the life and processes created by God as God would care for it. For this reason, I am asking legislators to honor God by ceasing commercial logging on our public forests."

Jim Davidson, a businessman and member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod in St. Paul, Minnesota, also reflects on Scripture and our national predicament. "Most Americans know Christ's parable of the Prodigal Son: A son squanders his inheritance in sinful living. America IS that prodigal son, squandering an inheritance of earth's most magnificent forests on junk mail and slick ads. As a nation, we must repent and return to the Creator's plan, passing a legacy of healthy forests on to future generations!

And from the damp wintry reaches of the Pacific Northwest, Pentecostal Minister Peter Illyn of La Center, Washington, said "Stewardship is not idolatry; it is faithfulness. I became an environmentalist because I am a hristian. If I love the Creator," Reverend Illyn concluded, "I must take care of creation."

Unity of the faiths on the issue of forests was a theme of Peggy Bruton, a Lutheran from Olympia, Washington. "The faith community needs to unite and remind itself that concern for the earth is our mandate. We have to assert that our approach to the natural world must not be informed by greed. Our goal has to be to live in sustainable harmony with nature. We've strayed from this mandate and we have to restore the balance. With the future of our forests in jeopardy, we must remember our God-given mandate for forest stewardship."

The delegation of the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation will be in Washington, D.C. through February 8th. "During these busy days," said Campaign Coordinator Fred Krueger, "we hope to sound a clarion call to the new President and the Congress that men and women of religious belief demand that this immoral destruction of God's remaining forests be ended now."

Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation

409 Mendocino Avenue Suite A Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Fred Kreuger Director (707) 573-3162

2/2/01
1:09:04 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

ASHCROFT CONFIRMED; ENVIRONMENTALISTS RECOILE

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - A bitterly divided Senate today voted to ratify controversial U.S. Attorney General designee John Ashcroft. He is a conservative Republican whose suitability to serve as the nation's top legal official was furiously denounced by a phalanx of abortion rights supporters, civil rights leaders, and environmental groups.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-15.html

INDIAN QUAKE SHAKES UP FEAR OF DAM COLLAPSE

By Tara Chand Malhotra

AHMEDABAD, India, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - As India struggles to come to grips with devastation and loss after the worst earthquake in living memory, critics of a controversial dam on the Narmada River warn that it is located in a seismically active zone of Gujarat state.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-01.html

LONDON MAYOR HITS THE RAOD WITH AIR STRATEGY

LONDON, United Kingdom, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - The poisonous smog that gave London its foggy reputation has gone, only to be replaced by nitrogen oxide and fine particles - mostly invisible, but just as deadly. On Wednesday, London Mayor Ken Livingstone presented the Air Quality Strategy for one of the most polluted cities in Europe.

For full text and graphics, visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-11.html

HOME FIRES TARGETED IN DANISH DIOXIN WARNING

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - The Danish environmental protection agency (EPA) today launched an information campaign aimed at householders, warning of the environmental hazards of burning waste in domestic heating boilers and wood stoves.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-02.html

FERN SOAKS UP ARSENIC FROM SOIL

GAINESVILLE, Florida, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - The solution to one of man's most vexing environmental problems may lie in one of nature's most remarkable plants. University of Florida scientists have discovered a fern that soaks up arsenic from contaminated soil.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-06.html

LAND POLICY WREAKS HAVOC ON ZIMBABWE'S WILDLIFE

WEST NICHOLSON, Zimbabwe, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - Wildlife are increasingly the victims in Zimbabwe's internal struggle for land ownership. The owners of Chipizi game ranch in Matabeleland South Province tell ENS they have lost giraffe, zebra, warthog, cheetah and wildebeeste to poachers intent on quickly generating income.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-11.html

TALLGRASS PRAIRIES COULD BE CLIMATE EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS

MANHATTAN, Kansas, February 1, 2001 (ENS) - Long term studies in tallgrass prairies may be able to predict and help researchers better understand how ecosystems across North America might respond to certain aspects of climate change, such as global warming, droughts and changes in precipitation amounts, says Kansas State University professor Alan Knapp.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-07.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: FEBRUARY 1, 2001

California Water Agencies to Pump with Renewable Power

Bank of America Dims Lights in California

Geologist Seeks Ways to Squeeze Oil From Rocks

Saving Salmon Important to Entire Ecosystem

Right Whale Calf Found Dead Off Florida

Uranium Contaminates Space Around Earth

Conservation Groups Propose Long Island Sound Reserve

Dixie Chick Plays 'Millionaire' for Nature Conservancy

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-01-09.html

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

TO ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT EDITORS:

Bioenergy, Inc. Positions Itself for Growth With New Patents and Additions to Management Staff

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Feb. 1 -/E-Wire/-- Bioenergy, Inc. announces that the U.S. Patent Office has issued two patents covering the ability of Bioenergy Ribose(TM) to boost energy during and after exercise as well as during recovery from illness, and to prevent muscular soreness and cramping in both athletic and medical situations. Both patents have domestic and international applications.

/CONTACT: Bioenergy, Inc., Matt Smith, 763/757-0032 or 614/296-6334 (cell) or Morgan&Myers, Bernice Neumann, 612/825-0050 or 612/802-1832 (cell)/

/Web site: http://www.bioenergy.com//

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/01Feb0105.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

New Report Shows - Clean Diesel Power Key to Success of Maritime Industry

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb.1 -/E-Wire/-- Diesel powers the American economy- including almost the entire commercial maritime fleet. This is the conclusion of an extensive study conducted by Charles River Associates and released by the Washington based Diesel Technology Forum. In addition to cargo ships, tankers, tugs, and towboats, diesel powers 94% of all freight shipments, 85% of all public transit buses, two-thirds of all farm equipment, and all heavy construction equipment. Forum representatives are carrying this message to the "Conference on Marine Vessels and Air Quality" being held in San Francisco on February 1st and 2nd.

/CONTACT: Allen Schaeffer 703/234-4411 or 301/346-2086, email: aschaeffer@dieselforum.orgom/

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

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/01Feb0104.html

TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Small Landowners Fear Corporations Seek Backroom Deal on Endangered Species

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb.1 -/E-Wire/-- Large corporations are pressuring the Bush Administration for special exemptions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for their benefit at the expense of smaller landowners, says a grassroots coalition.

/CONTACT: Kathleen Benedetto 202-255-2064/

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

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/01Feb0103.html

TO BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Chipnology(TM) Named To Participate In EPA's New Pesticide Educational Outreach Pilot Program For Nation's Schools

ORLANDO, FLA., Feb. 1 -/E-Wire/-- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting interested parties to participate in a new pesticide educational outreach pilot program to be developed with Orlando-based Chipnology, Inc., which will create and distribute educational kits for use in schools throughout the country using some of Chipnology's unique talking technologies.

/CONTACT: Laura Dye, Chipnology, Inc., 301-529-5700/

/Web site: http://www.everidge.com/

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/01Feb0102.html

TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR:

Environmental Resource Center Celebrates Its Twentieth Anniversary

CARY, N.C., Feb. 1 -/E-Wire/-- Environmental Resource Center, a leading provider of environmental, health, and safety consulting and training, is proud to announce the celebration of its twentieth anniversary beginning on February 1, 2001 and continuing throughout the year.

/CONTACT: Tammy Silverthorne of Environmental Resource Center, 919-469-1585, ext. 226/

/Web Site: http://www.ercweb.com/

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/01Feb0101.html

SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS

2/2/01
1:00:16 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

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

FACTBOX - Senate bill would boost clean coal technology - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9676

Calif. seeks energy savings to avoid summer blackouts - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9680

California green groups split over power policy - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9681

UPDATE - Alcoa sets new $1 bln cost reduction target - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9683

Arsenic-eating plant could improve environment - study - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9675

Dry summer drying out NZ farming regions - NIWA - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9673

ANALYSIS - Europe's green farming crusade to face obstacles - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9682

Activists urge Nepal to sign global landmine treaty - NEPAL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9678

FEATURE - Great bio-treasure hunt in Australia's barrier reef - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9674

Honeywell, Amadeus form energy pact - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9677

Anti-logging protesters moon Australia's Howard - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9679

2/2/01
12:53:40 PM

Irish Times

Deception Over Health Risks of Depleted Uranium

by Lara Marlowe

Is depleted uranium, the waste product of the nuclear industry used to make tank-piercing weapons, responsible for Gulf War syndrome and Balkans syndrome?

The US Department of Defence and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation both still deny it. But in July 1990 - the month before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait - a report submitted to the US army by Science Applications International Corporation compared the merits of tungsten and depleted uranium (or DU) as armour penetrators. DU is a "low level alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, and chemical toxicity causing kidney damage", the report said.

Following combat, it added, "the condition of the battlefield, and the long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic penetrators . . ." The report warned that "aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant, with potential radiological and toxicological effects". A navy memo dated September 1990 alludes to "the hazard created from residual radiation of a spent round" and notes that "prolonged exposure could cause illness".

How can one explain that children of Gulf War veterans suffer the same birth defects as Iraqi children born in zones contaminated by DU? That the same symptoms - fatigue, depression, respiratory and kidney problems and in many cases leukaemia - affect civilians and soldiers exposed to DU in both the Gulf and the Balkans? And if DU is harmless, why is Kuwait paying private companies millions of dollars to decontaminate its battlefields? Who will pay to decontaminate Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo?

Three journalists, Martin Meissonnier, who is French, the Belgian Frederic Loore and Roger Trilling from the US, have spent two years investigating DU production, use and effects. Their conclusions - published in Paris on Monday by Robert Laffont in a book, Depleted Uranium, the In-visible War – are causing tremors in the defense establishments of the US and Britain, the only states to have used DU weapons.

The book and a television documentary by the same journalists show the US government was at best grossly negligent and deceitful towards US nuclear workers, soldiers and the civilians of Iraq and former Yugoslavia. At worst -as stated by Paul Sullivan, the head of the National Gulf War Resource Centre - the US is guilty of knowingly contaminating parts of the Gulf and former Yugoslavia for the next 4.5 billion years.

Uranium is found in nature. Those who oppose the use of DU in weapons do so on emotional, not scientific, grounds, NATO and Pentagon spokesmen tell us. If there is no proof, most people conclude, then why worry?

But when he says that DU is a safe material, US Col Eric Daxon ignores even the study produced by his own Armed Forces Radiology Research Institute, which concluded that DU forms tumors and mutates genes in laboratory mice. "Strong evidence exists to support detailed study of potential DU carcinogenicity," the institute's study concluded.

So why did NATO only recently warn Albanian Kosovars not to let their children play on destroyed tanks? Why was a video on the dangers of DU, made in 1995 by Capt Doug Rokke of the US army, never shown? Why were US servicemen and women now suffering from Gulf War syndrome allowed to scramble over destroyed Iraqi armour taking photos? Why did their commanding officer, Gen Barry McCaffrey, wear nuclear-biological-chemical protective clothing when he visited units in the desert?

Mr. Trilling admits that "there's a doubt in everybody's mind" about the exact relationship between DU and cancer, and he does not exclude the likelihood that vaccines given to soldiers, the bombing of chemical plants in Serbia and Iraq and the oil well fires in Kuwait also contributed to ailments. "DU is a terror weapon in the sense that no one really knows what it does," he says. "The Gulf veteran groups are desperate to find out. The people we talk to are half mad with terror."

The authors were among the first to report that uranium at the only three US plants which process DU was contaminated with transuranics - highly radioactive elements including plutonium. The plants were meant to process natural uranium, but in the 1950s, without notifying the workers or surrounding communities, the US Department of Energy decided to reprocess spent fuel from military nuclear reactors.

In other words, the hundreds of tonnes of DU fired in the Gulf and in the Balkans were not so "depleted" after all. It was in response to a question from Mr. Trilling on January 17th that the outgoing Pentagon spokesman, Kenneth Bacon, acknowledged the plutonium contamination that independent scientists began to suspect in the early 1990s.

THE US anti-DU activist Dan Fahey sums up the Pentagon's attitude as, "Don't look, don't find". Congress ordered the Pentagon to investigate the effects of DU in 1993, but nearly eight years later it has undertaken no serious research on the inhalation of DU or the birth defects afflicting veterans' children. When Gerry Wheat, a Gulf War veteran wounded with DU shrapnel, complained of pain in his left kidney, the Veterans' Administration hospital insisted on checking his right kidney instead.

It was known from 1952 that the defoliant Agent Orange caused cancer, degenerative diseases and birth defects. Yet when Vietnam veterans suffered these afflictions, the Pentagon insisted there was no evidence they were caused by Agent Orange. Workers at Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which produced DU in Kentucky, breathed and touched carcinogenic plutonium dust for decades before the Department of Energy admitted in 1999 that the entire place was contaminated. Ten thousand Paducah workers, many of them cancer-stricken, are now suing the US government.

In Italy, Belgium and France, criticism of NATO's use of DU is growing. Yet the number of countries with DU weapons has doubled to more than 40 since Meissonier, Loore and Trilling began their research. "It's a burgeoning industry," Meissonier says. "There aren't any wars on at the moment, so why can't there be a moratorium until the scientists figure out what these weapons do?"

Comments:

This is more in the line of the US Govt hiding additive dose effects linked directly to chemical illnesses. DU dust is fine and anyone walking thru it stirs up enough in the air to exceed daily occupational dose levels. DU has long retention time in the lungs and body, and adds to other toxins from industry, nature, and the gulf war infrastructure releases. DU is a factor from two points - its long retention on bone is important and its lymph node bioconcentration is important. Other toxics like fluorides follow a similar pathway, and also increase the toxic load on the lymph systems cells forcing them to malfunction.

Bottom Line, The US Govt, the Govts labs and scientists, and NATO are conducting a snow job and lying to avoid gross liabilities and charges that may get into war crimes - especially in regard to stalling simple research into this problem and in fact intentionally driving keeping the ills defined as mysterious.

These are gross violations of the US national security of this country as harming the citizens and their armed forces with such tactics is nothing short of covering up a global disaster.

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0201-01.htm

2/2/01
12:31:12 PM

Irish Times

Deception Over Health Risks of Depleted Uranium

by Lara Marlowe

Is depleted uranium, the waste product of the nuclear industry used to make tank-piercing weapons, responsible for Gulf War syndrome and Balkans syndrome? The US Department of Defence and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation both still deny it. But in July 1990 - the month before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait - a report submitted to the US army by Science Applications International Corporation compared the merits of tungsten and depleted uranium (or DU) as armour penetrators. DU is a "low level alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, and chemical toxicity causing kidney damage", the report said.

Three journalists, Martin Meissonnier, who is French, the Belgian Frederic Loore and Roger Trilling from the US, have spent two years investigating DU production, use and effects. Their conclusions - published in Paris on Monday by Robert Laffont in a book, Depleted Uranium, the In- visible War - are causing tremors in the defence establishments of the US and Britain, the only states to have used DU weapons.

The book and a television documentary by the same journalists show the US government was at best grossly negligent and deceitful towards US nuclear workers, soldiers and the civilians of Iraq and former Yugoslavia. At worst - as stated by Paul Sullivan, the head of the National Gulf War Resource Centre - the US is guilty of knowingly contaminating parts of the Gulf and former Yugoslavia for the next 4.5 billion years.

But when he says that DU is a safe material, US Col Eric Daxon ignores even the study produced by his own Armed Forces Radiology Research Institute, which concluded that DU forms tumours and mutates genes in laboratory mice. "Strong evidence exists to support detailed study of potential DU carcinogenicity," the institute's study concluded.

Mr Trilling admits that "there's a doubt in everybody's mind" about the exact relationship between DU and cancer, and he does not exclude the likelihood that vaccines given to soldiers, the bombing of chemical plants in Serbia and Iraq and the oil well fires in Kuwait also contributed to ailments. "DU is a terror weapon in the sense that no one really knows what it does," he says. "The Gulf veteran groups are desperate to find out. The people we talk to are half mad with terror."

In other words, the hundreds of tonnes of DU fired in the Gulf and in the Balkans were not so "depleted" after all. It was in response to a question from Mr Trilling on January 17th that the outgoing Pentagon spokesman, Kenneth Bacon, acknowledged the plutonium contamination that independent scientists began to suspect in the early 1990s.

Comments:

This is more in the line of the US Govt hiding additive dose effects linked directly to chemical illnesses. DU dust is fine and anyone walking thru it stirs up enough in the air to exceed daily occupational dose levels. DU has long retention time in the lungs and body, and adds to other toxins from industry, nature, and the gulf war infrastructure releases. DU is a factor from two points--------its long retention on bone is important and its lymph node bioconcentration is important. Other toxics like fluorides follow a similar pathway, and also increase the toxic load on the lymph systems cells forcing them to malfunction.

Bottom Line, The US Govt, the Govts labs and scientists, and NATO are conducting a snow job and lying to avoid gross liabilities and charges that may get into war crimes--------especially in regard to stalling simple research into this problem and in fact intentionally driving keeping the ills defined as mysterious.

These are gross violations of the US national security of this country as harming the citizens and their armed forces with such tactics is nothing short of covering up a global disaster.

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0201-01.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0201-01.htm</A

2/2/01
12:27:47 PM

The Nation

Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, the man who maintains one of the most progressive voting records in Congress has stirred a political firestorm on the left with his unexpected support for George W. Bush's most controversial cabinet appointment, the newly confirmed attorney general John Ashcroft.

On Tuesday, Feingold was the sole Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote to recommend Ashcroft's confirmation by the full Senate. And, today he became one of only eight Democratic senators out of fifty to vote in support of Ashcroft's nomination. Civil rights, women's rights, labor and environmental activists, who have long been among Feingold's most fervent supporters, are furious at the senator they used to consider one of their most reliable allies on the Hill.

But, in an exclusive interview with The Nation's John Nichols, Feingold insisted that he hasn't gone over to the political dark side and explained his thinking in his only extended interview regarding the Ashcroft matter. Read the full conversation in the latest installment of Nichols's Online Beat available only at:

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat

Also exclusively available on The Nation's website is David Corn's examination of the continuing inspections in numerous Florida counties of various sets of controversial election ballots by different news organizations, including The Miami Herald and USA Today. His conclusion: In a better-run contest--with better machines, better pollworkers, and better voters (who assiduously followed instructions)--Gore would have won. Read Corn's piece in its entirety at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=corn20010131

And still available is Vincent Bugliosi's explosive report, "None Dare Call It Treason," published recently in the pages of The Nation and sparking controversy coast to coast. Available only at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010205&s=bugliosi

2/2/01
12:25:03 PM

MEDIA ADVISORY: DOUBTS ON MASSACRE: Media Ignore Questions About Incident That Sparked Kosovo War

February 1, 2001

In 1999, the discovery of bodies in the Kosovo village of Racak helped push NATO into war. New evidence casting doubt on claims that the bodies were civilian victims of a massacre has stirred debate in the European media-- but there has been a virtual blackout on the news in the U.S. press.

In January of 1999, the American head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Kosovo announced that 45 Kosovar Albanians from the village of Racak had been massacred by Serb soldiers. U.S. diplomat William Walker condemned the killings as a "horrendous" massacre, stating that the dead were all civilians who had been brutally executed, many of them mutilated after death.

Once the massacre story was reported in heart-wrenching detail by media across the globe, pressure for war intensified and previously reluctant European allies took a major step toward authorizing airstrikes. A Washington Post article (4/18/99) reconstructing the Kosovo decision-making process found that "Racak transformed the West's Balkan policy as singular events seldom do."

Troubling questions soon emerged, however, about whether or not there had actually been a massacre at Racak, or whether the incident had been manipulated to push NATO into war-- questions almost completely ignored by the U.S. media at the time.

Front-page news articles by veteran Yugoslavia correspondents questioning William Walker's account were published in French newspapers like Le Figaro ("Dark Clouds Over a Massacre," 1/20/99) and Le Monde ("Were the Dead in Racak Really Massacred in Cold Blood?," 1/21/99). The German daily Berliner Zeitung reported in March (3/13/99) that several European governments, including Germany and Italy, were pressing the OSCE to fire William Walker based on information from OSCE monitors in Kosovo that the Racak bodies "were not-- as Walker declared-- victims of a Serbian massacre of civilians," but were mostly KLA fighters killed in battle.

The Sunday Times of London (3/12/00) reported that Walker's team of American observers was covertly working with the CIA, pursuing a policy intended to push NATO into war. "European diplomats then working for the OSCE claim it was betrayed by an American policy that made airstrikes inevitable," the Sunday Times reported.

After the massacre, the European Union hired a Finnish team of forensic pathologists to investigate the deaths. Their report was kept secret until now, two years later. The U.S. media is ignoring the story, despite the report's finding that although people did indeed die at Racak, there is no evidence of a massacre.

According to the Berliner Zeitung (1/16/01), the Finnish investigators could not establish that the victims were civilians, whether they were from Racak, or even exactly where they had been killed. Furthermore, the investigators found only one body that showed traces of an execution-style killing, and no evidence at all that the bodies had been mutilated.

The Berliner Zeitung also reports that these findings were completed as early as June 2000, but that their publication had been blocked by the UN and the EU.

Except for one brief wire story from United Press International (1/18/01), not a single U.S. media outlet has run a story on the Finnish team's findings. News outlets continue to refer to the Racak massacre without qualification, despite the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the story.

A recent Chicago Tribune report (1/23/01) about the Albanian separatist militia in southern Serbia speculated that the Serbs might "revert to form and respond to an Albanian provocation with a Racak-style retaliation." (The KLA-linked militia, called the UCPMB, are reportedly preparing for a new war and recently fired on British KFOR troops-- London Guardian, 1/26/01.) The Tribune made no mention of any questions surrounding the Racak incident.

A recent Philadelphia Inquirer story (1/23/01) about Yugoslavia's relationship with the war crimes tribunal at The Hague claimed that "Serbs refuse to accept the world's vision of them as aggressors," and noted that Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica "alleges the killings [at Racak] were staged to look like a massacre to embarrass Yugoslavia." The Finnish team's findings about Racak, which prompted Kostunica's recent allegations, went unmentioned.

An Associated Press article (1/18/01) did elliptically note the new report's existence, reporting that Kostunica wants to discuss with The Hague "reports attributed to Finnish pathologists saying there was no evidence of a Serb massacre" at Racak (1/18/01).

With tensions in southern Serbia mounting and fears of a new Kosovo war escalating daily, the U.S. media's silence on this story is troubling.

2/2/01
12:16:40 PM

PLASTICS NEWS

A Crane International Newspaper for the Plastics Industries

Johnson Controls hits new high with idea

PICTURES: 2001 Sebring door panels with caption; "Johnson Controls Inc. has started production of door panels consisting of polypropylene, kenaf and hemp."

By Rhoda Miel Plastics News Staff

The newest addition to Johnson Controls Inc.'s automotive interior lineup has a different kind of a buss to it.

Hemp.

Not the illicit marijuana variety of plant, but its industrial cousin - grown for use in ropes, paper and textiles and now part of the Eco-Cor bio-composite plastic JCI is using as a sub-strate in door trim panels for DaimlerChrysler AG's 2001 Sebring convertible.

JCI's Plymouth, Mich.-based auto unit just started production of the panels at its Holland, Mich., facility. The parts are made of a blend of 50 percent polypropylene, 25 percent hemp and 25 percent kenaf.

It is one of a growing number of substrates made with bio-composites, a mix that also features natural fibers such as flax and jute, developed to improve strength and decrease weight in structural plastic parts.

"When [the development team] looked to natural fibers, they really liked what they saw," said David Phillips, director of material and process development for JCI's interiors unit.

The natural fibers are inexpensive and renewable - a new crop comes in every year - and industrial hemp offers increased strength in a plastic blend, said Rob Springer, lead process engineer for JCI. Hemp has a longer fiber than kenaf, which helps the panel stand up to deep cavities in a mold, such as an armrest in a door panel.

Composite panels also weigh less than all-plastic parts.

JCI makes Eco-Corby compression molding composite sheets, which allows it to make a thinner part then does injection molding. The PP in the mix also provides a natural adhesion to cover stock such as a cloth or thermoplastic polyolefin, Phillips said.

But do not expect 1970's counterculture heroes Cheech and Chong to turn up in a Sebring in their next movie. Lighting up this hemp will not get anyone high.

Industrial hemp is bred for its fiber length and strength, not its drug properties - although the links to its illegal cousin, marijuana, have kept it out of farm fields in the United States since 1950's.

Most of the hemp going into the JCI substrate comes from Canada.

Besides, Springer noted, the blend in the plastic door panels is formulated for fire resistance.

"It's self-extinguishing," Springer said. "It's not going to burn, no matter how hard you try." (END)

Cranes Communications, Inc. 7040 North Rush Street Chicago, Illinois 60611-2590

2/2/01
12:14:13 PM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

1. DO THE HUSTLE U.S. companies are hustling down to Mexico to build power plants to supply energy-starved California, and Mexican environmentalists aren't happy about it. Mexican officials and the power companies say that the economic benefits of the new plants will outweigh the pollution they add to the air. Alejandro Calvillo, director of Greenpeace Mexico, counters that the environmental costs are unacceptable and the U.S. has no right to export more of its dirty industry problems to Mexico.

2. O-OH, HE'S A LITTLE RUNWAY The Bush administration wants to speed construction of more runways at major airports in the U.S. by streamlining reviews of their environmental impacts. The Federal Aviation Administration has done an about-face and now argues that more runways offer a quicker solution to airport gridlock than updating air-traffic-control computers. But the current process of obtaining federal and state environmental permits for new runways can take 10 years or more. A report by Congress's General Accounting Office has found that the time delay does not always lead to better environmental protection. Enviros, however, are in a tizzy about the idea of speeding up runway approval. Marty Hayden of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund said, "Streamlining is a code word for either truncating or waiving environmental laws and reducing or eliminating meaningful public participation."

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20010201/t000009446.html

3. MCCHICKEN SANDWICHED Stung by a backlash from some farmers and consumers, Monsanto has been saying recently that it pursued the wrong course in trying to win market approval of genetically engineered foods without addressing concerns that the foods might pose risks to human health and the environment. Listen in on Monsanto CEO Hendrik Verfaille: "We tried to convince the opponents or activists that we were right and they were wrong, that they should listen to us and that they basically should shut up." At a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Verfaille spoke fondly of a new approach -- actually talking with activist groups to try to reach common ground. Wow. On the same panel, McDonald's chair and CEO, Jack Greenberg, complained that it's unfair for anti-globalization activists to target his corporation during protests because the chain is actually a collection of small, locally owned businesses.

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Adrian Croft, 31 Jan 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9669>

straight to the source: New York Times, Kurt Eichenwald, Gina Kolata, and Melody Petersen, 25 Jan 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/business/25FOOD.html>

read it only in Grist Magazine: One man takes on globalization and, yes, McDonald's -- by Donella Meadows and Hal Hamilton <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/citizen/citizen071700.stm>

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

4. FUND-AMENTALS Enviros are taking on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to enforce rules that require companies to disclose what it could cost them to make sure they don't mess up the environment. Calvert Funds, a socially responsible investment firm, and the nonprofit World Resources Institute say that investors aren't being given enough information about the financial impact that environmental compliance and clean ups have on companies' bottom lines. Calvert's Julie Fox Gorte said, "This lack of transparency could pose a heightened risk for investors."

<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books090199.stm>

5. AAAAY, IT'S THE FRONDS! A common fern can thrive on big amounts of arsenic and could possibly be put to use soaking up arsenic from contaminated land and water, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. The fern, a nonnative plant that grows in the Southeastern U.S. and California, is the first known plant to do well on a diet of the toxic nasty. Lena Ma, who led the study team at the University of Florida at Gainesville, said, "When I take people to my greenhouse to look at a fern with 8,000 parts per million of arsenic, they can't imagine it's toxic waste." This being America, a company in Virginia has already bought the rights to market the fern commercially.

straight to the source: MSNBC, Associated Press, 31 Jan 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/524400.asp?cp1=1>

straight to the source: BBC News, 31 Jan 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1146000/1146555.stm>

Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:

Tell us which sucks most -- Detroit automakers, the Bush administration, or enviros <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho012601.stm>

How to pardon Clinton -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha013001.stm>

How's the weather? -- taking the Earth's temperature -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/weather011101.stm>

2/2/01
12:07:31 PM

Become a Lake

An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, he sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.

"How does it taste?" the master asked.

"Bitter," spit the apprentice.

The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the master asked, "How does it taste?"

"Much fresher," remarked the apprentice.

"Do you taste the salt?" asked the master.

"No," said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside the young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, "The pain of life is pure salt, no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things... Stop being a glass. Become a lake."

2/2/01
11:51:18 AM

Food irradiation - the global agenda

You may find my web site of interest regarding the global agenda for food irradiation. Excerpted in this month's Nexus Magazine.

http://www.squirrel.com.au/~sbryce/irradiationaustralia.html

2/2/01
11:31:14 AM

The Tyack Permit" Overview:

In the early 1980s, the U.S. Navy identified as a special threat the new, quieter generation of submarines being built by the Soviet Union. The undersea passive sonar systems deployed throughout the world by the U.S. Navy supposedly would not be able to detect these new submarines.

The Navy conducted a review of available technology and selected the alternative of low frequency active sonar as the best response. The Navy made this decision without preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the potential damage this technology could cause to the ocean environment and ocean life.

The Navy proceeded to design, engineer, fabricate, and test this system in remote areas of the world. The Navy took the position that these tests did not need permits under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Navy's internal documents reveal that the Navy was well aware that the low frequency sounds might be harmful to cetaceans. The entire development and testing process took place in secret.

In 1995, the Natural Resources Defense Council discovered the program and wrote the Navy a letter citing numerous laws being violated by the development and testing program.

In 1996, the Navy agreed to prepare an EIS for the system, known as SURTASS LFA. As part of preparing the EIS, the Navy also agreed to perform a Scientific Research Program (SRP) for low frequency active sonar (LFAS). Dr. Peter Tyack of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution participated as a member of the SRP team.

In the three phases of the SRP, the research revealed that whales diverted from their normal migration routes to avoid the sound, that whales ceased singing in response to broadcasts of the sonar, and that whale songs changed after broadcasts. The testing took place at broadcast levels thousands of times less than the levels to be used by the Navy during routine operation of the system.

In 1998, the SRP conducted research off Hawai`i under a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). These tests resulted in numerous reports from whale watch captains and shore observers that the Humpback Whales fled from the test area. A snorkeler exposed to a broadcast emerged from the water with symptoms a doctor compared to a trauma patient in a hospital. A separated Humpback Whale calf and a separated dolphin calf appeared during the testing. A separated melon head whale calf appeared shortly after the testing.

Based on this evidence and other reports of adverse effects, various groups and individuals filed lawsuits against the Navy, the National Marine Fisheries Service (now NOAA Fisheries), and other federal agencies.

The Navy terminated the tests and convinced the judges to dismiss the cases remaining as moot because the research was complete and the Navy did not intend any further testing.

In March 2000, the Navy's research manager of the LFA program sent an email detailing plans to conduct further tests off the Azores, Dominica, and possibly Hawai`i. An NMFS staff member referred to this research as Phase IV of the SRP. The Hawai`i County Green Party moved to reopen the suit it filed in 1998.

In response, the Navy filed an affidavit from the program manager saying that no such research was going to be funded or conducted.

In May 2000, Dr. Peter Tyack filed an application with NMFS to conduct low frequency active sonar testing on whales in the Azores to begin in July.

Neither the application nor the Federal Register Notice of the application prepared by NMFS referred to the testing as including low frequency active sonars.

In August 2000, NMFS granted Dr. Tyack a five-year permit to conduct such research. The permit allowed harmful impact on the whales far in excess of anything permitted in the 1998 tests.

To summarize:

-- the Navy conducted secret tests of a technology known to be potentially harmful to cetaceans without obeying the applicable environmental laws;

-- after the existence of the technology and the testing program came to public attention, the Navy conducted a minimal research program examining only a few of the potential effects on a very limited number of ocean species;

-- when adverse effects became public and led to litigation, public controversy, congressional calls to suspend the program, and other undesirable impacts, the Navy backed out of directly funding further research;

-- the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution permitted Dr. Peter Tyack to provide an alternative to the Navy research;

-- the National Marine Fisheries Service cooperated with Dr. Tyack to disguise the nature of the research and to permit the research to be conducted far from U.S. waters. Dr. Tyack is required to file a report only once a year. Locating the research in the Azores and limiting reports to once a year means that the network of individuals and organizations opposed to deployment of this technology will be prevented from monitoring the research.

Having begun as an illegal, secret program, LFAS surfaced briefly to reveal its true nature. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NMFS then cooperated to take the program back into a semi-secret level to avoid further exposure.

The rest of this document is available at http://www.geocities.com/shootdaguy/research/tyackpermit.html

2/2/01
11:08:36 AM

Participate in the LFAS discoveries

I am just now bringing this information to people and I thought that you might like to share it with your readers who have continued to show an interest in preventing acoustic damage being done to marine life.

I will paste here an invitation which I have also posted on the Internet at these two locations:

http://manyrooms.net/invitation.html

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/fishattorney/LFAS/invitation.html

I am just now bringing this information forth.

Thanks. Cheryl A. Magill

Today, on January 31, 2001, you are invited to read several documents.

1. You are invited to read Mr. Lanny Sinkin's report titled, "LOW FREQUENCY ACTIVE SONAR RESEARCH: The Tyack Permit"

This report is being hosted at the following Internet locations:

http://www.geocities.com/shootdaguy/research/tyackpermit.html

http://manyrooms.net/TyackPermit.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/fishattorney/LFAS/tyackpermit.html

Attorney Lanny Sinkin identifies a process by which agendas for LFA acoustic testing were likely pushed through even while court litigation remained unresolved. In the report, Mr. Sinkin illustrates concerns that the five-year acoustic research project may have been facilitated through a private surrogate research group so as to effectively insulate government agencies against then on-going litigation. Last year, Mr. Sinkin was representing eleven plaintiffs in federal court at the time when this five-year acoustic testing permit was being processed.

The Stop LFAS Worldwide Network continues to applaud Mr. Sinkin's efforts. We have a majority of members who agree with his assertions, and a consensus, which continues to encourage similar on-going discoveries.

2. Additionally, you are further invited to read the responses prepared by six environmental groups in response to a request for a letter of authorization regarding Shock Tests proposed to be done on the Winston S. Churchill. These responses were prepared only a few days ago and appear at this URL:

http://www.geocities.com/shootdaguy/shock/comments_on_shock_testing.html

"Comments on the Proposed Rule for the U.S. Navy's Letter of Authorization to take a small number of marine mammals incidental to shock testing of the USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81):"

Comments offered in the responses to this proposed rule all discuss Level A Harassment Criterion as relate to serious injury and temporary threshold shift. The self-described responsibilities of NMFS/NOAA Fisheries come under examination in exploring the agency's responsibilities for "consulting" versus "cooperation." The need is sited for less arbitrary or less "capricious" interpretations of acoustic impacts.

3. Furthermore, you are invited to use a copy of the Federal Register notice regarding NPAL / ATOC in order to prepare your response to:

"Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Operation of a Low Frequency Sound Source by the North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory"

http://angelfire.com/ca/fishattorney/NPAL/noaanpal.htm

Comments on the application and the proposed regulations are due to be mailed by February 5th, 2001.

4. Also, because the Final Environmental Impact Statement for SURTASS LFA Sonar is rumored as "soon to be released," you are invited to stop at the following web locations and to look for more updated information regarding same once we have received notice of final publication.

http://listen.to/lfas viewpoints

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/fishattorney/FinalEIS/

Please know that the information referenced herein may be revised or changed at any time.

Thank you for considering these invitations.

Best regards,

Cheryl A. Magill Coordinator Stop LFAS Worldwide Network cheryl@manyrooms.net

2/2/01
10:59:34 AM

EXPLORATORY INITIATIVE ON THE NEW HUMAN GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES

January 30, 2001

NO HUMAN CLONING

The recent announcement that a private consortium of scientists intends to begin cloning human beings is a very serious development. (See URLs below.)

These scientists have the skills and resources to create human clones. They are operating outside any structures of public or scientific accountability. In a growing number of countries, their efforts to clone human children would be felonies punishable by imprisonment.

Human cloning is a crime against human dignity and humanity. It is a step toward the commodification and brutalization of human life. We must not allow ourselves to be pushed any further down this road. If we can't stop human beings from being cloned, try to imagine what we won't be able to stop next.

The Exploratory Initiative on the New Human Genetic Technologies is in discussion with other organizations about what needs to be done, and will report on this soon.

In the meantime, here is what people can do:

1. On Saturday and Sunday February 24-25 a major conference on "Globalization and Technology" will be held in New York City. (See the URL below.) The Saturday night plenary, and sessions on Sunday, will focus on genetic engineering, including human genetic engineering. There will be a special session on Sunday on the situation regarding human cloning and what needs to be done. We encourage everyone who can do so to attend these sessions. IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND PLEASE LET US KNOW by reply to this email, so that we can facilitate arrangements.

2. On Monday Feb. 26, from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm, there will be a special strategy meeting on human cloning and the challenge of the new human genetic technologies, also in New York City. IF YOUR ORGANIZATION WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A REPRESENTATIVE THERE PLEASE LET US KNOW by reply to this email.

We will be holding similar meetings concerning human cloning in Northern California and elsewhere in the near future. Information about these meetings will be shared in subsequent Bulletins.

The Exploratory Initiative is producing materials for people who want to work to stop human cloning. Copies will be available at the meetings noted above, and information on how to obtain copies will be given in future Bulletins. We are setting up a web page and other support activity as well.

We believe that humanity's technological abilities are a great gift and a great responsibility. We must take action now to prevent their dangerous misuse and ensure their wise use in the decades and centuries to come. Our common humanity is at stake.

INFORMATION ON THE PROPOSAL TO BEGIN HUMAN CLONING:

Washington Post: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53307-2001Jan26.html

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/print/20010128/t000008216.html

BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1144000/1144694.stm

INFORMATION ON THE "GLOBALIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY" CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK CITY: www.ifg.org.

Exploratory Initiative on the New Human Genetic Technologies 466 Green Street, San Francisco, CA 94133 ph: 415-434-1403 email: rhayes@publicmediacenter.org subscribe to GENETICS CROSSROADS: teel@adax.com staff: Richard Hayes, Dr. Marcy Darnovsky, Rev. Douglas Hunt, Tania Simoncelli

2/2/01
10:56:43 AM

HOUSE BILL PROPOSES LIFTING BAN ON ASSASSINATIONS BUSH ADMINISTRATION WASTING NO TIME IN MOVING TOWARD WAR FOOTING

Armitage The Executioner

FTW 1/24/01 - HR 19, Introduced by Republican Georgia Congressman Bob Barr on January 3, 2001, the first day of the new 107th Congress, would legislatively repeal sections of three Executive Orders specifically prohibiting assassinations by the United States Government. Entitled the "Terrorist Elimination Act of 2001", the bill, submitted to the House International Relations Committee, would specifically nullify sections of three previous Executive Orders including one initiated by Ronald Reagan in 1981. It is interesting to note that acts of Congress are not required to nullify previous Executive Orders (EOs) which are, by definition, orders issued by the President and Commander in Chief to all federal employees (including military) under his authority. All that is necessary to reverse one EO is another EO. This is exactly what President George W. Bush did with respect to EOs issued by President Clinton on the environment in the last days of his administration.

Section 3 of HR 19 specifically states: "The following provisions of Executive orders shall have no further force or effect:

(1) Section 5(g) of Executive Order 11905. (2) Section 2-305 of Executive Order 12306. (3) Section 2.11 of Executive Order 12333." [By Ronald Reagan] Section 5 (g) of Executive Order 11905, signed by Gerald Ford on 2/18/76 specifically prohibited "political" assassination. Section 2-305 of Executive Order 12036, signed 1/24/78 by Jimmy Carter renewed the ban. Section 2.11 of Executive Order 12333, signed by Ronald Reagan on 12/4/81 renewed the ban on assassinations, or conspiracy to commit assassinations, as part of a broader package which gave virtually complete control of the American National Security apparatus to then Vice President George H.W. Bush.

The full text of HR 19 may be viewed at http://thomas.loc.gov. Enter a search in the 107th Congress for 19 and it will take you straight to the bill.

The bold move, unreported and ignored by any major media, offers a chance for an early referendum on the new administration's full-speed run at a more violent and brutish foreign policy.

The current bill, introduced by staunch Bush supporter and Clinton impeachment leader Barr, indicates that the Bush administration is seeking to add legitimacy to the move by implying that Congress and the American people support the action. This can only mean that there is quite likely a list of people the Bush Administration wants to start killing fairly quickly. The appointment of career covert operative and Annapolis graduate Richard Armitage as Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell only underscores the clear message that the Bush Administration is sending to the world.

Armitage, who was denied a 1989 appointment as Assistant Secretary of State because of links to Iran-Contra and other scandals, served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan years. U.S. Government stipulations in the Oliver North trial specifically named Armitage as one of the DoD officials responsible for illegal transfers of weapons to Iran and the Contras. But Armitage's dirty past goes much deeper. A Vietnam veteran and graduate of Annapolis, Armitage's roots have been thoroughly intertwined with the likes of CIA veteran Ted Shackley, Richard Secord, Heine Aderholt, Elliot Abrams, Dewey Clarridge, Edwin Wilson and Tom Clines. All of these men have been directly linked to CIA covert operations, the drug trade, the abandonment of U.S. prisoners of War after Vietnam and/or Iran-Contra. Armitage has also been routinely discussed in FTW as a Bush-era covert functionary who has been linked to covert operations, drug smuggling and the expansion of organized crime operations in Russia, Central Asia and the Far East.

In 1986 a private dispute between POW activist Ross Perot and Armitage went public as photos of Armitage with a topless Vietnamese nightclub owner Nguyen O'Rourke brought allegations of gambling and prostitution very close to Armitage's doorstep. The stories went public when TIME and "The Boston Globe" wrote lengthy stories on the feud in 1986 and 1987. That scandal arose as a result of 1984 investigations by President Reagan's Commission on Organized Crime in which the photo and documentation of gambling charges and prostitution led directly to Armitage's close association with O'Rourke. Then LAPD Assistant Chief Jesse Brewer, a former Commanding Officer of this writer, served on the Reagan Commission.

The 1992 best-seller "Kiss The Boys Goodbye" by former "60 MINUTES" producer Monika Jensen-Stevenson details Armitage's role as Reagan point man on Vietnam POW-MIA issues and describes why Armitage has earned the enmity of many POW activists. However, in a 1995 interview with "The Washington Post", Colin Powell referred to Armitage as his "white son." This, notwithstanding the fact that the 6 foot, balding, power-lifter, now 56, can still bench press 300 or more pounds and reportedly "enjoys killing." William Tyree, Special Forces Veteran who has provided much reliable information and documentation to FTW in the past said, "Armitage used to 'sit ambush' on the trails in Laos and Cambodia. He liked it. Now when Powell, 'the dove,' sits down at a table with Armitage 'the killer' beside him the message will be that Armitage can reach across the table and deal with the other party on the spot." That message will not go unheard. [For more on Armitage we recommend using the search engine at www.copvcia.com and also at The Progressive Review, www.prorev.com.] There is reason to believe that a repeal of the assassination ban would lead to an immediate series of deaths. Remember, the Iran-Contra team is coming back to power with a vengeance.

The completion of a February 11, 1982 memorandum between Reagan Attorney General William French Smith and CIA Director Bill Casey removed any requirement for CIA to report drug trafficking by its agents, contractors and proprietary employees. Immediately thereafter cocaine consumption into the United States multiplied as imports rose from approximately 80 tons in 1982 to 600 tons by 1989.

[A copy of that memorandum, published by the CIA in 1998, is available in FTW's Extracts and Commentary on Volume II of the CIA Inspector General's Report" originally published on 10/8/98.]

There are no choices and this is no longer a convenient exercise of protected liberty. This is now a true struggle against tyranny. Call your Congressman. Call your local media. Call your neighbor. A loud enough uproar can stop this criminal move in its tracks. Silence can only invite bloodshed.

Special thanks to Mike Whybark and Jim Galasyn of Independent Media Centers for bringing this travesty to my attention. Please visit their site at http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=19541.

This message may be copied and reproduced in any "not-for-profit" mode so long as proper sourcing appears."

2/2/01
10:49:28 AM

FDA panel recommends banning blood from some former Europe residents

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP)

As a precaution against mad cow disease, anyone who lived or traveled in France, Portugal or Ireland for a total of 10 years since 1980 should be banned from donating blood in the United States, government advisers recommended Thursday.

People can catch the human version of mad cow disease by eating infected beef, but there's no proof they can then spread the illness through blood. Still, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration called the new blood-donor ban a prudent step as Europe's crisis over the disease continues to spread.

The FDA already bans anyone who spent at least six months in Britain between 1980 and 1996 from donating blood. That's because Britain is the epicenter of the mad cow scare: Tens of thousands of British cattle were infected with the brain- destroying illness in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and 91 Britons so far have been diagnosed with a human version caught from infected beef.

The question now is whether the FDA will accept the panel's advice, something it isn't required to do but usually does.

Nor does anyone know just how many Americans would be barred from donating blood if the new ban is accepted, although some estimates suggest the move would affect fewer than 1 percent of blood donors.

[ If the doctors blame it on Alzheimer's, there will be less panic and less lawsuits. So there is incentive to cover the whole thing up. It is more common than people know - even in America... ]

2/2/01
10:46:37 AM

Mad Cow Disease

by Steve Jacobson

BSE (Mad Cow disease) is a full-blown crisis in Germany. They had found about 10 sick cows by the time I left there last Saturday. Every day the news covers every aspect of the situation, from the plight of the farmers perhaps having to bear the cost of testing each animal, to the sausage packing houses closing, to McDonalds offering 30% off everything to keep people coming in, to the firing of two government officials who were responsible for allowing it to happen there, impact on slaughterhouses, how many people are ill in England and elsewhere, and the research to find how BSE becomes CJD, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. It is publicly discussed by many forums, all aspects of this crisis.

Shortly before coming home from Germany last Saturday, Terri informed me that there was found a sick herd of cows in Wisconsin, and that there was also found a sick herd of "managed" elk (game farm animals fed the mad cow feed) that had to be destroyed. I came home expecting to find news reports and heard the most fearful sound of all, SILENCE.

There must be a news blackout, because there is nothing to find in TV, radio, internet, or the papers I've seen. I remember hearing of a farmer that found Mad Cow in one of his animals in way up north Minnesota, and that he was going to sue for being sensationalized in the news. This was last September or October on National Public Radio or Minnesota Public Radio. Now I can't find mention of this news clip on their website either.

This should be front page, leading story, special expose material here. It is big enough that Red Cross is denying blood donations from visitors to England and other countries. See the attached clipping that KSTP forwarded by request but didn't have otherwise available on their website. Notice how they say that no BSE has been found in the USA.

You should stop eating all beef and dairy immediately, unless you can be assured that the animals were never given feed that contained ground up dead cows in it (a common practice that is the biggest cause of BSE spreading). To kill this bacteria (or is it a virus?) it has to be heated to 275 degrees F at 2 atmospheres, for 18 minutes. That takes a pressure cooker. They are not cooking the dead cows they grind up into the cow feed anywhere near this high, and thus the spread of the disease. Your McDonalds burger isn't cooked anywhere near that hot either, neither is cheese or milk or any other dairy / cow food product.

Just because they haven't proven the link from BSE to CJD doesn't mean there isn't one. Just because it isn't in the news doesn't mean we don't have to worry here. Be afraid, be very afraid that the news is censored in favor of big business, even if it means a possible epidemic of CJD. You can bet McDonalds doesn't want to offer 30% off everything here, nor any of the "American Beef/Cattle Growers Associations" wish to see a drop in sales.

The silence of this crisis is an indication that something is terribly wrong here in the USA. Germany had their heads up their behinds thinking it couldn't happen there. Now they are scrambling. It's time to cover your own behinds and do due diligence. Do research to prove me wrong, or find why the news is so silent, the extent of the outbreak, anything. Just be aware, educate yourself if information is available, and share it with those you care about.

It is easier to prevent Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease by not eating cow or elk, than to watch a loved one slowly die from it because there isn't a cure yet. I don't know if other bovines like goat or sheep are immune from it, they were mentioned in the German news but I couldn't follow the language well enough to know if they were getting sick too, but showed a farmer feeding sheep from bagged feed, the source of the spread of the disease there.

I hope I'm terribly off-base and that BSE isn't in this country. I hope no one I know gets ill because the news isn't informing the public of the potential. Please share with me and others this and any news you find in your own research and share it with others.

We'll all end up dead some day, but let it be by natural means, not for profit protection.

To your health, Steve Jacobson

2/1/01
1:29:47 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

NEW PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT CLEANS HOUSE

By Michael Bengwayan

MANILA, Philippines, January 31, 2001 (ENS) - Alarmed by the worsening garbage problem in Manila which threatens to throw the country into a public health crisis, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has signed law which deals firmly with the mountains of trash in Metro Manila and is aimed at arresting similar problems throughout the country.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-04.html

ENVIRONMENT FIRST IN U.S. TRADE OUTREACH TO CHINA

WASHINGTON, DC, January 31, 2001 (ENS) - The environment, air and water pollution, energy development, and aviation safety are the top priorities as a U.S. federal agency reopens relations with China on a level closed since 1989.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-01.html

GROUPS SUE TO PROTECT NORTHWEST SALMON FROM PESTICIDES

SEATTLE, Washington, January 31, 2001 (ENS) - Commercial fishermen joined forces Tuesday with two environmental groups to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failure to protect salmon from the harmful effects of pesticides. The move came as the new EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman prepared to lead the agency.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-06.html

UK COUNTRYSIDE SCHEME GIVES BIRDS ROYAL TREATMENT

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, United Kingdom, January 31, 2001 (ENS) - Wild geese and swans wintering at one of Europe's most important wetland nature reserves are dining on specially grown, nutrient rich rye grass under a government scheme to encourage less intensive farming.

For full text and graphics, visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-11.html

INTERNATIONAL HELP SOUGHT FOR KENYAN WETLAND

LAKE NAIVASHA, Kenya, January 31, 2001 (ENS) - An international award bestowed on a group trying to protect Kenya's Lake Naivasha may not be enough to save the wetland from the effects of a dramatic rise in population and development along its fragile shores.

For full text and graphics, visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-10.html

UN THE STAGE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY AND CLEAN TRANSPORT EXPO

NEW YORK, New York, February 1, 2001- (ENS) - A public exhibition of cutting edge energy and transportation technologies will be staged this April in New York outside the Secretariat Building of the United Nations. The expo will be a collaboration of industries and national governments.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-02.html

MIGRATORY MESSENGERS MOTIVATE BELIZE CONSERVATION FUNDING

DUBLIN, Ohio, January 31, 2001 (ENS) - The annual flight of migratory birds between Toledo, Belize in Central America and this town less than 100 miles from Toledo, Ohio has created a connection that is preserving a pristine tropical forest in Belize.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-03.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JANUARY 31, 2001

California Extends Operations Limit on Emergency Generators

Pacific Coral Reefs Get Ecosystem Based Management Plan

List Shows Fisheries that Affect Marine Mammals

Oyster Growers Seek New Approach to Control Shrimp

Hudson River Activists Rally Tonight

Everglades Volunteers Plant Cypress Trees

Environmental Leadership Workshops Supported by AT&T

Eco-Index Website Offers Conservation Information

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-31-09.html

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DIESEL FORUM PRAISES MASSACHUSETTS' NEW TRUCK AND BUS EXHAUST SMOKE TESTING PROGRAM

BOSTON, MA January 31, -/E-Wire/-- A new Massachusetts truck and bus exhaust smoke testing program, which begins tomorrow, (2/1/01) has drawn support and praise from the Washington, DC - based Diesel Technology Forum, according to executive director Allen Schaeffer, who called the new regulation "a proven method to help improve air quality within the region."

/CONTACT: Ken Cynar, of Rowan & Blewitt Incorporated New York, 516/741-8877 ext. 26

/Web site: www.dieselforum.org

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Jan01/31Jan0105.html

TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Conservation Fellowships Offered in Montana

BOZEMAN, MT, Jan.31 -/E-Wire/-- The Kinship Conservation Institute (KCI) is an exciting new summer program offered by PERC (Political Economy Research Center). This month-long institute is designed to educate conservation leaders in the early stages of their careers on the prospects of using market approaches to solve environmental problems.

/CONTACT: Eric Noyes, Development Director, PERC, 406-587-9591, enoyes@perc.org/

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

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Jan01/31Jan0104.html

TO ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Harza Energy to Assist California Water Agencies With Power-Generation Solutions

CHICAGO, IL, Jan.31 -/E-Wire/-- In an effort to ensure the safety and continuity of California's water supply during the escalating energy crisis, the Association of California Water Agencies has signed an agreement with Harza Energy to make available the engineering and installation of Capstone MicroTurbine(TM) power systems to ACWA member facilities.

/CONTACT: Harza Engineering Co., Chicago, Natalie Holz, 312/831-3414 or Harza Energy LLC, Chicago Steve Chippas, 312/831-3500/

/Web site: http://www.microturbine.com /Web site: http://www.harzaenergyllc.com/

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Jan01/31Jan0103.html

TO TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Put Your Business, Organization, and Yourself on the Great Map of the Outdoors:

Literally and Online at www.maptech.com Using MapServer's New My Maps Toolbox:

The Largest Collection of Free Topographic Maps and Charts for Land, Sea, and Air

GREENLAND, NH, Jan 31 -/E-Wire/-- Maptech adds a new dimension to its MapServer, the largest free, online mapping resource for maps and charts on land, sea, and air. The new My Maps feature is the ultimate "mapping show-off" system available to the public.

/CONTACT: Martin Fox, PR Manager 888-433-8500/Ext. 209 mfox@maptech.com Maptech, Inc., 655 Portsmouth Ave., Greenland, NH 03840/

/Web site: http://www.maptech.com/

http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Jan01/31Jan0102.html

TO STATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Fund for Animals Applauds Governor Tom Vilsack for Vetoing Dove Hunting Bill

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 31 -/E-Wire/-- The Fund for Animals, a national animal protection organization with 200,000 members and supporters, many of whom live in Iowa, applauded Governor Tom Vilsack for vetoing legislation that would have opened the state's first sport hunting season on mourning doves since 1918. House File 43 passed the House and Senate by narrow margins, and Governor Vilsack vetoed the bill last night.

/CONTACT: Michael Markarian of the Fund for Animals, 301-585-2591 ext. 216/

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

http://ens.lycos.com/ewire/Jan01/31Jan0101.html

SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS

2/1/01
3:55