7/14/01
9:19:22 PM

So Much for Early Warning...

Superpowers' fail-safe fails to materialize

By Peter Baker, Washington Post

MOSCOW - To prevent false alarms about missile launches with catastrophic consequences, the United States and Russia decided to build a joint nuclear early warning center to share information. They liked the idea so much that they announced it twice.

Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin first unveiled the plan to ''avert nuclear war by mistake,'' as Clinton put it, in September 1998. When Clinton came back here in June 2000, the two countries pulled out the news release again. ''A milestone in enhancing strategic security,'' said Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin.

Yet now, as the presidents of Russia and the United States prepare for another summit, this ''milestone'' remains nothing more than an abandoned kindergarten building surrounded by overgrown shrubbery on the outskirts of Moscow.

Planning for the early warning center has ground to a halt, stymied by conflicting priorities, geopolitics, and legal issues.

After Clinton and Yeltsin first agreed to the plan, the war in Kosovo the following spring soured Russia on the West and everything was put on hold for nearly a year. After relations thawed a bit, Clinton and Putin signed a memorandum of understanding last June to put it back on track.

But it became mired in details - Russians said their law required Americans to pay taxes on the equipment brought into the country and to assume liability for construction, while the US side did not want to set a precedent that would affect larger aid programs. More important, the project lost momentum in the lame-duck days of the Clinton administration and has remained frozen pending the Bush team's review of its Russia policy. The two sides have not met for months.

The three-year odyssey of the early warning center that wasn't offers a lesson in how good intentions can go awry when it comes to relations between the world's two major nuclear powers. The failure to establish the center underscores the limitations of international summitry and the difficulty of turning rhetoric into reality.

Presidents Bush and Putin will meet for the first time in Slovenia on Saturday with missile defense at the top of the agenda. But if the two countries cannot find a way to jointly build an $8 million center considered noncontroversial by both sides, collaboration on a hotly disputed $100 billion missile defense system promises to be far more problematic.

''This shows very clearly that if it's just a political ploy to make everybody look better, then nobody will move it forward,'' said Pavel Podvig, a researcher at the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies in Moscow. ''We are no longer in that mode where anything cooperative is such a great idea that all the bureaucracies would just clear away.''

Perhaps more ominously, in the view of arms control specialists, the stalemate over the early warning center leaves unaddressed a problem with potentially disastrous ramifications: Russia's huge blind spots in detecting missile launches. A mistaken warning could cause Russian leaders to launch their own missiles and trigger an unintended nuclear conflagration.

As it was, the joint warning center was seen by experts such as Podvig as an inadequate response to a serious problem, one that would be useful mostly if it served as a first step to a more meaningful solution. Critics asked whether Russians would really trust American data showing that the United States was not attacking.

Theodore Postol, a national security specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that initially he considered the joint plan not serious enough, but at least ''a good thing'' in the context of a broader approach to the issue. Now, given the result, he has come to see it as a propaganda tool by the Americans.

''This has just been a smoke screen to look like they're doing something when they're not,'' Postol said. ''I really lay this at the feet of the Americans because they have the resources.''

The notion of shared early warning information arose shortly after the end of the Cold War. In February 1992, just weeks after the collapse of the Soviet Union, US and Russian officials began discussing the creation of a center where each side would have access to data from the other.

The danger of misunderstanding became vividly evident in 1995 when Russian military officials briefly mistook the launch of a Norwegian scientific rocket for a US intercontinental ballistic missile. Yeltsin was brought his black suitcase known as the ''nuclear football'' to make a decision about whether to retaliate, but the Russians came to conclude that they were not under attack.

The potential for trouble has only intensified since then with the deterioration of the Russian early warning system. Only two to four of the nine high-elliptical satellites that Russia had in orbit in 1995 are still functioning today, according to arms control experts, and at least seven hours a day Russia is blind to possible launches from US missile fields. Just last month, a fire at a ground control center cut off communications with several military satellites.

Russia built seven satellites to reestablish full coverage but has never launched them, apparently for lack of money.

The decision to build a Joint Data Exchange Center would create the first permanent US-Russian military facility, modeled on a temporary joint center established in Colorado to deal with the Year 2000 computer bug.

According to Pentagon briefing papers, the center would be staffed 24 hours a day by a detachment of 16 US officers joined by a similar number of Russians. US and Russian officers would sit back to back, each with computers linked to their respective early warning headquarters.

Officials picked a site for the facility, but today the building sits empty and unrenovated in a leafy residential neighborhood in Moscow. Instead of being in its operational test phase, as planned for this month on the way to a September opening, it serves mostly as a clandestine hangout for young beer drinkers.

This story ran on page A30 of the Boston Globe on 6/14/2001.

7/14/01
9:14:15 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

MAKAH GET MORE WHALING RIGHTS IN 2ND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

By Drew Snider

WASHINGTON, DC, July 13, 2001 (ENS) - The Makah Indian Tribe of Washington State will get broader scope for their controversial whale hunt under a new Environmental Assessment released today by the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-13-02.html

WASHINGTON DC LANDLORD LIED ABOUT LEAD PAINT HAZARDS

WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2001 (ENS) - A Washington, DC area landlord has pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and making false statements to federal officials, in order to conceal his failure to notify tenants of the presence and hazards associated with lead based paint. The case is the first ever criminal prosecution in the United States related to lead hazard warnings that are required by the federal Lead Hazard Reduction Act of 1992.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-12-06.html

U.S. CONGRESS EMBROILED IN BATTLE OVER ENERGY PLANS

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, July 13, 2001 (ENS) - President George W. Bush is facing a fierce battle in Congress over his long term energy plans for the United States. The President won a round this week when the Senate refused to block proposed oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but seems to be losing his fight to open national monuments to oil and natural gas exploration.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-13-06.html

U.S. GRAPPLES WITH BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS COMPLIANCE PROTOCOL

WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2001 (ENS) - The U.S. State Department's special negotiator for chemical and biological arms control says the Bush administration has "serious substantive concerns" with the existing text of a proposed protocol to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-12-01.html

BELGIUM SETS FORTH PRESIDENCY'S GREEN PRIORITIES

BRUSSELS, Belgium July 13, 2001 (ENS) - Belgian Environment Minister Magda Aelvoet laid out her plans for the country's six month presidency of the European Union Council of Environment Ministers Thursday. In an address to the European Parliament's Environment Committee, she promised a focus on measures to achieve "sustainable production and consumption patterns."

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-13-01.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 12, 2001

Four Firefighters Killed in Washington Wildfire

Judge Halts Logging in Roadless Area

Diesel's Cancer Risk Dwarfs All Other Air Toxics

Petroleum Refiner Agrees to Cut Emissions

International Protection Headed for the Florida Keys

Greater Ship Safety Sought Along Olympic Coast

USGS Launches New Website for Nation's Water Data

Drought Can Increase Air Pollution

More Fulbright Ecology Scholarships Made Available

Critical Habitat Proposed for Carolina Heelsplitter

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-12-09.html

7/14/01
9:10:59 PM

TomPaine.com

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1776

Where does campaign finance reform go from here? This week TomPaine.com interviews two experts about the House imbroglio, and a New Yorker examines the behavior of his former congressman.

REPUBLICAN RETREAT BODES WELL FOR REFORMERS

Listen to an interview with Trevor Potter

"This is about as desperate as I have seen the House leadership," says Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman. He discusses yesterday's chaos surrounding the House campaign finance reform debate, and what it means for the bill's prospects. Hint: The ex-FEC chair, appointed by a Republican president, says the bill stands a better chance of passing than ever.

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/07/13/index.html

WILL SHAYS-MEEHAN HURT MINORITIES?

Listen to an interview with Ron Faucheux

Some minority lawmakers say that banning soft money will make it harder to elect non-wealthy candidates. Mr. Faucheux, editor of Campaigns and Elections magazine, tells us how a soft money ban will affect voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.

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

TomPaine.commentary: THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON

by Mike Ryan

Need an example of why we should fix the way we pay for politics? Take a look at how former Representative Gerald Solomon helped General Electric. It would be utterly illegal for GE to contribute money to legislators who regulate pollution. But GE, with Mr. Solomon's help, got around the law.

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/07/11/index.html

7/13/01
7:41:03 PM

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CAMP-AUGUST 18-24 2001

BE THERE: The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)/WISE-Amsterdam and Nuclear Free Great Lakes Campaign are sponsoring The International Conference for a Sustainable Energy Future: Confronting Nuclear Power with People Power. The event will begin with two days of workshops and speakers at DePaul University in Chicago (August 18-19) and then move to a campsite in Yorkville, Illinois, about 13 miles from the Dresden nuclear power complex, from August 20-24. The location is convenient to O'Hare International Airport.

LEARN, TEACH: The Action Camp will combine issues seminars, strategy sessions, organizational and tools development workshops, non-violence training, and actions. Key focus areas will be on radioactive waste transportation, globalization of the nuclear power industry, global climate change and nuclear power, sustainable energy, and the attempted resurgence of the atomic industry. We need to strategize and cooperate internationally if we are to stop new nuclear reactors and move toward a sustainable energy future. Non-violence and direct action trainings will be offered daily.

GATHER, GROW: We plan to bring the best and most active minds from across the U.S. and throughout the world to gather, plan, strategize, grow stronger. Our goal is to inspire and empower people with the tools and resolve to return to their communities and build a nuclear-free world. We invite activists, students, whistleblowers, and researchers from everywhere to join us. Confirmed participants will arrive from all across the U.S., Russia, Germany, Holland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Spain and Slovakia. Participants are also expected from Korea, Japan, South Africa and elsewhere.

ACT! On August 23, we will target the Exelon-owned Dresden nuclear complex with a legal rally and non-violent action. Exelon-the largest nuclear utility in the United States--is a multi-national conglomerate owned by Unicom (formerly Commonwealth Edison), PECO Energy and British Energy; it is a symbol of the increasing globalization and consolidation of the nuclear industry. Exelon currently is the only U.S. utility that says it wants to build new atomic reactors.

CAMP INFO: The camp will provide three vegetarian/vegan meals daily. Full sanitiation facilities also will be provided. You should bring a sleeping bag and ground pad, a tent (unless you have pre-reserved room in a cabin) and other camping gear and eating utensils (note: no camp stoves please), a rainsuit or poncho, other personal items, some warm clothing (it can get cool on summer evenings), and a flashlight. Please do not bring, or expect to use, any alcohol or drugs (except by prescription) at the camp. Don't forget to bring a willingness to learn, to network, to organize and to participate. Expect to be challenged, expect to learn, expect to make a difference...

Check the NIRS' website http://www.nirs.org for schedule information, speakers lists and other updated news.

NOTE: NIRS has a very limited amount of funds available for scholarships for U.S. and Canadian activists. These can be used for transportation and/or to defray registration/food costs. If you want to come to the camp, and absolutely need some financial assistance, please contact Michael Mariotte at nirsnet@nirs.org. Please include your name, organization, how much money you would need and what it would be used for. Conference fees are $30 and $7/day for food.

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

1424 16th Street NW

Washington, DC 20036. 202.328.0002

f: 202.462.2183

nirsnet@nirs.org

http://www.nirs.org

7/13/01
7:35:24 PM

BioDemocracy News #34 Agbiotech Aggression

By: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association

July 2001 http://www.OrganicConsumers.org http://www.PureFood.org

Quote of the Month:

"Genetically modified food is viewed as unsafe by most [Americans], and the public wants warning labels on food, a new ABCNEWS.com poll finds. 52% believe such foods are unsafe, and an additional 13% are unsure about them.93% say the federal government should require labels on food saying whether it's been genetically modified . 57% also say they'd be less likely to buy foods labeled as genetically modified. The image problem of genetically modified food is underscored by contrast to organic foods. While only five percent of Americans say they'd be more likely to buy a food labeled as genetically modified, 52 percent say they'd be more likely to buy food that's labeled as having been raised organically."

Source: http://www.ABCNews.com 6/20/01

7/13/01
7:28:51 PM

The Nation

The drive for campaign-finance reform collasped yesterday when House Republicans stalled the measure indefinitely.

And besides having to watch Congress fail again to advance even the mild political reforms proposed by Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold, we are witnessing such epic cynicism in the Capitol that the people responsible for the failure seem to believe that if they spin hard enough, they can evade all responsibility.

Read John Nichols' latest dispatch from Washington for more details. Available now at:

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat

And dig into some recently archived installments of Nichols' web-only feature The Online Beat for a look at how Gary Condit is getting a free pass from moralizing right-wingers in Congress and why the Bush Administration is busy burning its bridges with the NAACP. Also available currently at:

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat

You can also find numerous new editorials, articles and columns on a wide-range of subjects from the July 23, 2001 issue of The Nation:

ROBERT DREYFUSS: Till Earth and Heaven Ring

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=dreyfuss

DIANA R. GORDON: Ashcroft Justice

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=gordon

NATION EDITORS: Milosovic on Trial

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=editors

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Israel Shahak, 1933-2001

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=hitchens

WILLIAM GREIDER: For Utilities, the Fix Is In

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=greider

ROANE CAREY: Letter From Palestine

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=carey

DAVID COLE: Scalia's Kind of Privacy

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=cole

JONATHAN SHAININ: Death On The Installment Plan

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010723&s=shainin

RECENT NATION ARTICLES:

And don't miss the host of recent articles of interest still available including Jason Vest on DynCorp's Drug Problem; Katrina vanden Heuvel's look at a possible blueprint for a progressive future; Patricia Williams on the execution of Timothy McVeigh; David Corn on Elliott Abrams; Christopher Hitchens on Henry Kissinger; Molly Ivins on George W. Bush and Victor Navasky on Cold War Ghosts. All accessible at:

http://www.thenation.com

7/13/01
7:04:10 PM

Simplistic Views Threaten Diversity

By David Suzuki

Last week I complimented Canada's Supreme Court for upholding a Quebec town's ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides and herbicides. It was the right move for several reasons, from the toxicity of the chemicals to the lack of proper testing to questions as to who should shoulder the burden of proof of their safety. Of course, another problem with the unrestricted use of pesticides is that they are nonspecific. Not all insects are pests. In fact, most are beneficial. Unfortunately, pesticides usually can't tell the difference, so they end up killing both wanted and unwanted insects. That is, until the insects become resistant and the cycle is repeated with a new chemical.

Managing ecological problems in such a simplistic way usually doesn't work very well, and not just for insects. On the plains of North America, for example, prairie dogs have been considered pests for a century. Much of their habitat was ploughed under to make way for agriculture. Furthermore, cattle ranchers felt that these rodents were competing with their livestock for food, so governments spent millions attempting to eliminate them with poisons. Today their numbers are less than one percent of their historic levels.

But in ecosystems everything is interconnected, so one species cannot be isolated and removed without causing unforeseen changes throughout the entire system. As the prairie dogs were killed off, for example, ferret populations plummeted because prairie dogs were their primary food source. Today the black-footed ferret has been extirpated from Canada and is one of the most endangered species in North America.

Ironically, recent studies have shown that prairie dogs are actually beneficial to the overall productivity and health of the grasslands. Studies by U.S. Forest Service biologist Dan Uresk, for example, have found that total plant production is 24 percent higher in areas inhabited by prairie dogs than in areas that are grazed by cattle. And in areas where both animals are present, plant biomass (the weight of plant material) is 13 percent higher over areas where just cattle are present. So contrary to popular belief, prairie dogs are actually good for both natural ecosystems and ranchers.

Next month, the U.S. Forest Service will release a new management plan for remaining U.S. grassland areas. Proposed changes to management methods could help bring back prairie dogs, along with ferrets and many species of birds and other animals that have not fared well due to overgrazing by cattle.

This sort of change represents an important shift in the way we "manage" ecosystems. For example, at one time it was assumed that if we streamlined ecosystems around human needs, they would be more productive. According to this reasoning, removing prairie dogs would make the grass grow faster and give the cattle more to eat. We now know that such simplified versions of ecosystems are wrong.

In fact, studies have shown that generally, the greater the diversity of plants and animals in an ecosystem, the more productive and stable it is. We are just beginning to understand this relationship, so some researchers have questioned it, suggesting that the conclusions of such studies may be a function of the experiment design, rather than of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function. An analysis of these studies last week in the journal Nature, however, found that this relationship is most likely an ecological phenomenon, not an experimental anomaly.

The more we learn about our ecosystems, the more alarming the current rate of biodiversity loss becomes. As we lose species and genetic diversity, ecosystems may become less stable, less productive, and less effective at providing services that people and other animals depend on — services such as cleansing water, filtering air, and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. If we want to ensure that these services are still viable for future generations, we must pursue more thoughtful ways of balancing immediate human needs with the complexities of the natural world.

Source: http://www.davidsuzuki.org

7/13/01
6:55:07 PM

A San Francisco radio station, KGO, will present more than $303,000 Friday to the family of a 10-year-old boy savagely mauled by three pit bulls last month.

The money was donated by the station's listeners. Shawn Jones suffered severe facial injuries in the attack and will need extensive reconstructive surgery. "The true credit goes to our listeners, whose generosity is apparent and overwhelming," said station President and General Manager Michael Luckoff. "... We hope this money will help in providing Shawn (Jones) with the care that he and his family will need."

7/13/01
6:49:24 PM

This sounds like a shaggy dog story, but Religion Today reports about Preta the prayerful pooch who goes to church every Sunday.

The publication quotes a Portuguese newspaper telling how every Sunday morning at 5, the dog leaves her owner's house in the small northern Lusitanian town of Sobrado and trots to the neighboring village of Ermesinde, some 8 miles away. She arrives at the local Catholic church just in time for the 7:30 Mass.

Preta saunters right up to the church's chancel and lies down by the side of the altar. When the congregants rise for the Kyrie or the Gospel lesson, so does she. When they sit down, she'll stretch out on the stone floor again.

After the blessing, Preta heads home, another 8 miles. That is, if nobody gives her a lift.

The newspaper reports the church is filled to capacity every Sunday, because everyone wants to see Preta.

7/13/01
6:48:51 PM

This sounds like a shaggy dog story, but Religion Today reports about Preta the prayerful pooch who goes to church every Sunday.

The publication quotes a Portuguese newspaper telling how every Sunday morning at 5, the dog leaves her owner's house in the small northern Lusitanian town of Sobrado and trots to the neighboring village of Ermesinde, some 8 miles away. She arrives at the local Catholic church just in time for the 7:30 Mass.

Preta saunters right up to the church's chancel and lies down by the side of the altar. When the congregants rise for the Kyrie or the Gospel lesson, so does she. When they sit down, she'll stretch out on the stone floor again.

After the blessing, Preta heads home, another 8 miles. That is, if nobody gives her a lift.

The newspaper reports the church is filled to capacity every Sunday, because everyone wants to see Preta.

7/13/01
5:47:24 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

NUCLEAR MURDER: AMERICA'S ATOMIC WAR AGAINST ITS CITIZENS AND WHY IT'S NOT OVER YET

by David Proctor, Boise Weekly

-- Mutant babies, astronomical cancer rates, government cover-ups, and other equally scary facts have come to light--just as a new push is underway to build more nuclear power plants and scrap weapons treaties.

COUNTERPUNCH'S FAVORITE 100 NONFICTION BOOKS IN TRANSLATION, PUBLISHED SINCE 1900

by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch

-- In the summer heat, the thought of lounging with a book becomes even more appealing. Luckily, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair from the sassy political newsletter Counter Punch have done it again, compiling a list that covers topics as diverse as expeditions to the South Pole, the history of sexuality, and linguistics.

JORGE CASTANEDA, MINISTER OF DEMOCRACY

by James E. Garcia, PoliticoMagazine.com

-- How does a man go from being a super-radicalized, left-leaning iconoclast to working for Vincente Fox, a Mexican cross between Ronald Reagan and Lee Iacocca? James E. Garcia explains why Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda is worth watching.

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

7/13/01
5:46:56 PM

Also in yesterday's news released by associated press titled " Ancient Bones Found in Ethiopia; May Be Oldest Traces Of Human-like Life", suggest the 5.8 million year old human bones may be the missing link. The research team, led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the University of California at Berkeley said " the specimens revealed a primitive version of Ardipithecus ramidus, an early hominid species whose oldest known fossils were previously found in 4.4-million-year-old sediment in Ethiopia". He said with further research, the bones might turn out be a new species altogether. Well it just so happened I had scheduled Jack "Kewaunee" Lapseritis, Cryptozoologist and author of 'The Psychic Sasquatch' weeks ago for today's show. It couldn't have been better timing. Wait until you hear what he has to say. I asked him some very challenging questions. As you know I do my best to keep a firm foot in science while I bridge the gap to the esoteric.

http://www.unlimited-resources.com/bigfoot.html

7/13/01
5:46:14 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Shade grown coffee seeks 'green' spotlight in US market - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11542

Ontario Power cuts NOx emissions at Lakeview plant - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11561

Retailers seek to cash in on energy awareness - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11545

Senate panel cuts Yucca mountain waste site funds - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11553

Ethanol lobby hopes to lock in huge new market - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11543

US lawmaker pulls plan to raise fuel standards - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11539

UPDATE - US Senate backs offshore Florida oil deal - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11537

Premcor agrees to cut Illinois refinery pollution - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11536

CHRONOLOGY - The fight against global warming - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11550

New Zealand gets wind of greenhouse gas breakthrough - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11556

Kyoto treaty becomes a numbers game without the US - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11534

Future climate change could be sudden - scientists - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11544

Maldives calls for US support on global warming - MALDIVES http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11559

Recycle plan faces tough ride in German upper house - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11546

German wind energy capacity up 13.5 pct in H1 - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11554

EU wants Bush promise not to block climate talks - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11549

INTERVIEW - EU's Wallstrom fears US may wreck climate talks - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11560

Kyoto pact faces death or stay of execution in Bonn - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11551

FACTBOX - What is the Kyoto protocol? - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11547

FACTBOX - Where do the countries stand on Kyoto? - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11548

Critics oppose Quebec dolphin aquarium project - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11535

Brazil takes new crack at controversial nuke plant - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11540

Australia joins tiger protection group - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11552

Australia's dugongs in fight for survival - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11558

Parts of Asia face deadly climate changes and natural disasters - ASIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11541

7/13/01
5:30:33 PM

Public Citizen

Department of Energy Should Extend Deadline for Comments on Radioactive Metals Recycling

Comment Period on Scope of Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement Is Too Short

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen has requested that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) extend its deadline to receive comments on a proposal that is critical in establishing how radioactively contaminated scrap metals will be disposed of. The current deadline for comments is Sept. 10, which allows the public only two months to examine what are highly complex issues.

The DOE on Thursday published a Notice of Intent for a document called a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), which is designed to examine alternatives for disposing of the contaminated materials. The notice lists various policy alternatives, all of which allow for the disposal of radioactively contaminated metals in unlicensed sanitary landfills, where they would be treated as "non-radioactive."

The PEIS also could permit the "unrestricted release of scrap metals from DOE radiological areas and scrap metals outside radiological areas that may have residual surface radioactivity." This would allow the metals to be recycled, where they could end up in any number of consumer and industrial products. It is highly unlikely that any such materials would be tracked or labeled, so consumers would be denied the opportunity to make informed choices and avoid any radiation hazards.

"All of these possible outcomes sound frighteningly similar to previous policies of the NRC, which attempted to assist the nuclear industry by eliminating some types of nuclear waste from regulatory control," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Although Congress wisely revoked those policies in 1992, it looks as though DOE is attempting to revive them by tinkering with the language and attaching various euphemisms to what is really the recycling of nuclear waste."

The Notice of Intent also announced that six public meetings are to be held around the country beginning at the end of July. This provides less than three weeks for concerned citizens who plan to participate to study the relevant issues and prepare accordingly.

"Considering the enormous impact such a policy could have, public participation must be taken seriously, and processes must be conducted with integrity, " Hauter wrote in a letter to Carolyn Huntoon, assistant secretary of the Department's Office of Environmental Management. "Unless corrected, the unacceptably short comment period will further erode public confidence in the department's handling of the dangerous materials of our nation's nuclear legacy."

The DOE was instructed in January by then-Secretary Bill Richardson to publish the Notice of Intent by March 20. However, by publishing it this week, the department in effect extended its own deadline by 114 days.

"If the agency can extend the deadline for itself, we certainly hope it will extend the same benefit to the public," said Dave Ritter, policy analyst for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "The agency has all the resources, while the public does not. Further, people's summer schedules are irregular. And once the scope of this document is set, there's no going back. It's critical to get it right now, and the public should have at least until December to do that."

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

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

A copy of Hauter's letter to the agency is available at

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/radmetal/July12LtrHuntoon.htm

7/12/01
8:01:20 PM

Public Citizen

Campaign Reformers Beat House Leadership

Statement of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook

It is encouraging that a Republican-crafted ploy that would have threatened the passage of significant campaign finance reform has been defeated in the House of Representatives today. Thanks to the efforts of House Democrats and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), the rule that would have divided the reform amendment into twelve parts and required a separate vote on each one was confusing and rightfully voted down. Rather than face the threat of passing a bill they have never supported, the Republican leadership used sneaky tactics to deny Americans a cleaner, less corrupt government.

The defeat of this rule is a positive sign that a majority of the House is ready to pass significant campaign finance reform, but the Republican leaders have insured that the road to reform will be littered with more obstacles. Their true intentions were shown when, only minutes after the procedure was defeated, Speaker Hastert asserted that he didn't know when campaign finance would appear on the floor again, and that it was time for the House to move on with the rest of its legislative agenda.

It's shameful that this significant piece of legislation to give Americans better access to their government is threatened by a circle of Republican leaders. Congress must now do the right thing next week: adopt a fair procedure under which the bill may be voted upon, pass the legislation, and stop hoodwinking the American people.

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

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

7/12/01
7:59:07 PM

The Nation

Stem cell research is among medicine's most promising fields of study. Because embryonic stem cells have the singular ability to evolve into any human organ or tissue, advances in this area may lead to bold new treatments--even cures--for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

But much of that progress lies in jeopardy as George W. Bush currently decides on whether to bar federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, urged to do so by far-right opponents of abortion. The benefits of this research are so obvious that even prominent antiabortion conservatives such as Senators Orrin Hatch and Strom Thurmond have come out in favor of continued federal funding, arguing that the microscopic cells do not constitute a human life and that it is crucial to support research that could potentially save tens of thousands of lives.

Bush, however, is paying close attention to Catholic and antiabortion groups who wish to eliminate federal funding for the experiments. He is expected to make a decision anytime in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please help keep the pressure on him and his advisors by sending an informed letter in support of embryonic stem cell research. Our Act Now! page provides all the details and relevant tools, as well as further information. Available at:

http://www.thenation.com/alert/actnow/

7/12/01
7:57:15 PM

Public Citizen

Mexican Truck Vote Goes Far in Protecting United States Motorists

Statement of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook

Senate lawmakers today took a commendable and critical step toward ensuring the safety of American motorists by requiring inspections and audits of Mexican truck companies before they are certified to enter the United States.

Praise is due to Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Richard Shelby (D-Ala.) and other members of the Senate Appropriations Committee who confronted this difficult issue and passed an effective mandate to DOT to address the potential threats of unsafe Mexican trucks. These are essential because Mexico - unlike the United States and Canada - does not have mandatory safety standards in effect for large trucks.

The committee's measure: 1) requires a full safety audit of Mexican trucking firms before granting them a conditional operating certificate and a follow-up safety audit within 18 months before a permanent operating certificate is granted; 2) prohibits opening the border to Mexican trucks until a policy is in place to ensure that Mexican truckers comply with United States hours-of-service rules; 3) provides funding for 80 additional border inspectors; prohibits opening the border until border crossings have weigh scales and until there is an accessible database to allow for monitoring the safety performance of all Mexican firms applying for certificates to operate in the United States.

The House voted by an overwhelming majority to prohibit any funding to allow operating certificates for Mexican trucks. (A House committee previously rejected a proposal similar to today's measure.) By contrast, the provisions approved today are affirmative efforts to improve the safety of these vehicles, and we urge the full Senate to approve them.

It is also important to note that the NAFTA arbitration panel said that the United States is not required to treat applications from Mexican trucking firms in exactly the same manner as from United States or Canadian firms, as long as they are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and it is acknowledged that U.S. authorities are responsible for the safe operations of trucks within this country, whether the ownership of the trucks is United States, Canadian or Mexican.

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

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

7/12/01
4:58:14 PM

Environmental Group Sues Over Discarded Arsenic Rule

By Environmental News Network

The Natural Resources Defense Council has filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's suspension of the new arsenic-in tap-water standard. Several U.S. senators have joined the conservation group in opposing the rule's suspension. In January, after two decades of work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new standard for the permitted amount of arsenic in tap water, reducing the existing standard of 50 parts per billion (ppb) by 80 percent. When President George W. Bush took office in February, he suspended the arsenic rule along with many other Clinton-era regulations and later called for a new round of studies that could lead to the complete disposal of the new arsenic standard.

"The Bush EPA's suspension of the arsenic is a distressing, unscientific, and illegal threat to the health of millions of Americans," said Erik Olson, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "There is no excuse for delaying or weakening the standard just finalized in January of this year."

Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Harry Reid of Nevada, both Democrats, are among the legislators who have announced their support of NRDC's suit. They indicated that they will file an amicus curae (friend of the court) brief in support of NRDC's effort to overturn the arsenic rule's suspension.

The NRDC's lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., circuit, dismisses the EPA's argument that, although the agency has suspended the rule, it has not violated the law's requirement that the updated standard must be in place by June 22, 2001.

Other key claims in the litigation are that the EPA unlawfully reversed its position on the arsenic rule without scientific or legal justification and that the agency violated procedural and substantive requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Administrative Procedure Act in suspending the arsenic rule.

Although the Bush administration says it will issue the new standard next year and ensure that it is enforced in 2006, the EPA has failed to respond to arguments from water utilities. The EPA states that agency officials will be unable to implement the suspended rule in this compressed time frame.

The environmentalists' lawsuit argues that the EPA's suspension of the "right to know" provisions of the arsenic rule have been violated. The right-to-know rule requires water utilities to notify the public no later than July 2002 of the level of arsenic in their water and the health implications of drinking arsenic in their tap water. Suspension and review of the arsenic standard will delay and undermine public health protection, the lawsuit claims.

After 25 years of delays, at least three missed statutory deadlines, and broken promises to update an outdated standard, the government is unlikely to honor its promises of expeditious action, the NRDC warns.

The EPA made a legal finding in its January 2001 rule that it would take water systems five years to comply with a new arsenic standard. The agency is likely to face stiff legal challenges from industry if it tries to cut this five-year compliance period or if it issues a new arsenic standard in 2002 and seeks to require compliance within four years.

The arsenic standard that the EPA issued in January would have lowered the maximum allowable level of arsenic in tap water from the current standard of 50 parts per billion, which was established in 1942, to 10 ppb. That is the same standard adopted by the World Health Organization and the European Union a few years ago.

NRDC and other public health advocates believe that the EPA should have lowered the standard for arsenic in drinking water to 3 ppb.

The EPA proposed a 5 ppb standard in June 2000 but increased it to 10 ppb last January in response to industry pressure.

The NRDC's Olson noted that the EPA took more than two decades to develop this rule, and Congress has repeatedly ordered the agency to update the standard during the last 25 years. In 1996, Congress ordered EPA action on arsenic for the third time, making January 2001 the deadline for a new standard. An appropriations rider in the fall of 2000 extended the deadline to June 22, 2001.

In February 2000, the NRDC issued a report documenting widespread exposure to arsenic in tap water across the nation. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) then published a study reaching a similar conclusion, with a national map showing arsenic occurrence in ground water.

"Unfortunately, President Bush apparently won't listen to reason or scientific evidence," Olson said, "so NRDC is left with no choice but to sue."

Source: http://www.enn.com

7/12/01
4:48:01 PM

Public Citizen

Hospitals in Nearly Every State Violate Federal Patient Dumping Law, Study Shows

527 Hospitals Violated Law Regarding Screening, Treating ER Patients

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Hospitals in nearly every state in recent years have violated a federal law prohibiting them from dumping patients, leading to people with medical emergencies being improperly screened or refused treatment altogether, a new Public Citizen report has found.

In its sixth in a series of reports on patient dumping, Public Citizen found that 527 hospitals violated the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). That law contains rules that virtually all hospitals in the United States must follow regarding the provision of emergency medical services. When a hospital emergency department denies medical screening or stabilizing treatment, or if it inappropriately transfers an individual whose condition is not stable, the hospital is "dumping" the patient. Taking data from all six reports into account, more than one in five hospitals throughout the country have violated the law since it was passed. The report concludes that most hospital staff are familiar with the law but break it anyway.

"It's distressing that this law has been in place for 15 years, and hospitals are still flaunting it," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "The government needs to do more to force hospitals to comply. People shouldn't be denied desperately needed emergency medical care when they go to a hospital. Failing to impose fines on most hospitals violating the law amounts to an invitation to dump sick patients."

Most of the violations cited in the current report were confirmed in 1997, 1998 and 1999, although a few were confirmed in 1996 and 2000. Not all the hospitals violating the act actually dumped patients; some violations were administrative in nature, involving such things as omitting documentation or failing to post signs spelling out patients' rights. The report lists the name of each hospital, the nature of the violation and any fines assessed against the hospital. Of the 500 hospitals that had confirmed violations in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and were eligible to be fined, only 85 (17 percent) had been fined as of April 2001.

According to records reviewed by Public Citizen, hospitals in 46 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were cited for violations. States with no confirmed violations were Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico and Wyoming. Consumers wishing to find out which hospitals in their state violated the law can visit

http://www.Citizen.org

go to "Questionable Hospitals," click on a map of the United States and select their state. A copy of the report is also posted there.

Among the report's key findings:

For-profit hospitals had a significantly higher rate of violation (1.7 times higher) than not-for- profit hospitals.

Up to a third of surveyed emergency room registration staff recently told the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General that patients might be asked for insurance information before a screening is provided or while it is taking place, and 35 percent said they contact health plans for authorization of screening exams at some point. These actions violate the law if they delay treatment.

Hospitals are being fined more than in previous years. Civil money penalties increased from $130,000 in fiscal 1988 to more than $1 million in each of 1998, 1999 and 2000. However, the amounts paid are still paltry compared to a hospital's overall budget and do nothing to discourage hospitals from turning needy patients into the streets. Worse, most hospitals with confirmed violations are not fined.

"The sad truth is that it's cheaper for a hospital to break the law and pay a fine than to treat an uninsured patient," Wolfe said. "Hospitals know that the risk of getting caught is low, and even if they are caught, the risk of being fined is even lower and the fines are minuscule compared to hospitals' operating budgets."

Some of the more egregious examples of patient dumping include:

A mentally retarded patient was brought by ambulance to Mercy Hospital in Merced, Calif., with symptoms of abdominal distress and shortness of breath. An on-call surgeon repeatedly refused to come to the hospital to treat the patient, who subsequently suffered a cardiac arrhythmia and died despite a resuscitation attempt. Documentation revealed that the surgeon made disparaging remarks about the man's mental retardation, including the statement that "no one would miss him if he died." The man had lived in a board-and-care home for 15 years. As of April 2001, the hospital had not been fined.

A woman who went to Baptist Hospital in Miami, Fla., was found to have a large mass in her lower abdomen and an elevated white blood cell count, indicating she might have an infection. She was admitted for surgery, but before it occurred, the surgeon asked her for a deposit. The woman said she didn't have the money, so the surgeon ordered the patient to be discharged. She left without receiving treatment. As of April 2001, the hospital had not been fined.

A patient went to the emergency room of Houston Medical Center in Warner Robbins, Ga., vomiting blood and complaining of a loss of appetite and a swollen and painful stomach. The patient's symptoms indicated blood loss. He was treated with an IV solution, given prescriptions and discharged. An ambulance returned him to the ER about five hours later, at which point he was in full cardiac arrest and died six minutes later. As of April 2001, the hospital had not been fined.

Friends of a 15-year-old boy who had been shot in the abdomen dragged him into an alley next to Ravenswood Medical Center in Chicago and asked the hospital emergency room staff for help. The staff refused to go out to treat him or bring him into the hospital. After staff refused requests of police officers who repeatedly asked ER staff to come out and help, a police officer wheeled the boy into the ER in a wheelchair. Despite resuscitation efforts, the boy died. The hospital was fined $40,000.

While the records reviewed by Public Citizen generally don't reflect the reason a patient was dumped, often it is because the patient was uninsured, Wolfe said. The law prohibits emergency room personnel from delaying screening or treatment to ask whether a patient has insurance, but personnel still do. Further, some HMOs require pre-authorization for exams or treatment, and some HMOs refuse to pay for emergency room treatment later if the patient is found not to have a condition that constitutes an emergency. This often means the hospital gets stuck with the bill, providing hospitals with a deadly incentive to dump uninsured or poor patients.

Federal legislation or new federal regulations could help, Wolfe said. The EMTALA could be amended to create liability for insurers that require pre-authorization or that refuse to reimburse hospitals for emergency screening and treatment.

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

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

7/12/01
4:43:38 PM

Shame on Seattle: The Death Penalty Fr Pooping

By Jackie Alan Giuliano

This time of year, the Sun visits Seattle, Washington more and more each day, sparkling off the lakes and streams as residents and visitors enjoy warm, crisp air. Tourists flock to the city and there are festivals nearly every day. But this time of year also brings a stain - a blood stain - to the Emerald city as thousands of majestic Canada Geese are rounded up and murdered. Their capital offense: they have defecated on parks, golf courses and private property.

I discuss these shameful killings in this week's Healing Our World commentary, on the Environment News Service at

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-06g.html

As the former manager of the 534 acre Discovery Park, Seattle's largest park, I often observed the Parks Department ignoring the challenge to develop a meaningful solution to complex problems. They usually took the quickest, easiest path possible in order to silence the few, often affluent, vocal individuals who have the ear of Department management.

Video footage of a recent kill at Seattle's Gas Works Park showed the absolute callousness displayed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture workers and the confusion and stress that the geese endured. One hundred geese were roughly handled, captured, and stuffed into death chambers that were too small for them. One can only imagine the terror endured by these peaceful animals.

Unfortunately, Seattle is not alone in these atrocities. Similar kills are going on in many states.

Please join me, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Northwest Animal Rights Network in protesting this atrocity, no matter where you live. My commentary will tell you who to contact to voice your outrage.

We like animals when it is convenient, when they don't get our shoes dirty. Shame on the City of Seattle and its Parks Department for killing these beautiful creatures because they do not have the will or the heart to seek non-lethal solutions. Shame on us as a society if we dare to put animals to death because they mess up our lawns.

I wish you peace in examining your own relationship to the natural world around and pray that compassion in your heart sets the tone for your actions.

http://www.healingourworld.com

7/12/01
4:37:51 PM

U.N. Effort to Cut Arms Traffic Meets a U.S. Rebuff

By Barbara Crossette

NITED NATIONS, July 9 — The Bush administration, which has already pulled away from a range of international treaties, warned today that it would not join a pact to curtail the international flow of illegal small arms if it infringed on the American right to own guns.

Speaking to the opening session of a conference on the trafficking of weapons that fuel increasingly brutal civil wars and expanding networks of organized crime, John R. Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, invoked the Second Amendment.

"The United States believes that the responsible use of firearms is a legitimate aspect of national life," he said. "Like many countries, the United States has a cultural tradition of hunting and sport shooting." Americans, he said, do not find all guns "problematic."

The bluntness of his remarks surprised some other delegates to the two-week conference. But the American reluctance to expand gun controls internationally is shared by other countries, among them China, India and Russia, diplomats said.

United Nations officials insist that this conference is not about taking guns away from Americans, but about keeping hundreds of millions of weapons out of the hands of child soldiers and pickup armies, often in the poorest countries.

But the meeting has set off a reaction in the United States among those opposed to gun control. The United Nations has received scores of angry letters and faxes and has collected some strongly worded press releases and posters from groups concerned about the issue.

Last week, Jayantha Dhanapala, the under secretary general for disarmament, announced the publication of a booklet called "Setting the Record Straight," which was intended to allay American fears.

But a widening gap between Europe and the United States over how broad an agreement is needed to combat the spread of weapons — along with charges from officials and private groups represented here that plenty of legal American guns are finding their way into crime and combat around the world — has heightened American sensitivity.

Representative Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican on the House Judiciary Committee who is also on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association, rejected United Nations efforts to calm the gun lobby. He is attending the conference as an official observer.

"You look at this," Mr. Barr said, holding up a working paper at a news conference, "and there are a number of areas very explicitly set forth that could very well be used to directly involve the United Nations in domestic firearms policy."

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 500 million small arms in the world. It says 40 percent to 60 percent of them have been acquired illegally — on the black market, by bartering commodities like diamonds or through deals that obscure or lie about the source or destination of the weapons.

There is no legally accepted definition of small arms or light weapons, though the United Nations tried in 1997 to describe them collectively as "any weapon that can be fired, maintained and transported by one person."

Such arms include pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars and some missiles. They are the hallmarks of contemporary warfare, which is often irregularly organized and generally hardest on civilian populations.

Some regions of the world have created their own treaties or agreements on controlling small arms. The Organization of American States, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of African Unity all have agreements, though these have not stopped arms flowing into guerrilla wars. The United Nations conference now in session is the first attempt to find a global agreement.

Mr. Bolton defended the record of the United States in controlling its own exports and asked that other nations be equally vigilant. In his speech, he said the plan of action being discussed could constrain legal arms manufacturing and trade and said calls for anti-gun campaigns by international organizations should be removed from the plan.

He objected to mandatory reviews of progress on curtailing the illegal arms trade, and he rejected any provisions that could prohibit private ownership of small arms. "The United States will not join consensus on a final document that contains measures abrogating the constitutional right to bear arms," he said.

At a news conference, Mr. Bolton, a former executive vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization in Washington, cautioned against viewing the conference and its plan of action, which would not be legally binding, as merely exploratory. "From little acorns, bad treaties grow," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/10/world/10ARMS.html

7/12/01
4:03:17 PM

HE'S A HERO AND HE PLAYS ONE IN THE MOVIES, TOO

It was Indiana Jones -- er, Harrison Ford -- to the rescue. For the second time in a year, the actor flew his helicopter into the Wyoming backcountry for a rescue -- this time for a missing Boy Scout in a forest just south of Yellowstone National Park.

Ford -- who has a ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo. -- joined a search for the missing scout who had wandered off a trail Monday and spent a night shivering as rain pelted the area. CBS News reports that after two hours of flying Tuesday, Ford, 58, and another searcher spotted 13-year-old Cody Clawson. He landed nearby to whisk the soggy, cold, tired and hungry scout to safety.

Last July, Ford plucked an Idaho Falls, Idaho, hiker off Table Mountain in Teton County, Wyo., after altitude sickness and dehydration left her sick and unable to climb down. Ford picked her up and flew her to a Driggs, Idaho, hospital.

7/12/01
11:58:49 AM

Pentagon Report Reveals Flaws In Missile Defense

By John F. Tierney

Not too long ago, the Pentagon's purchase of $400 hammers and $640 toilets raised eyebrows in Congress and among the public. Yet few people claimed those deluxe hammers couldn't cleanly hit their targets - most likely overpriced nails. And the toilets were said to flush with exquisite efficiency.

Not so the Pentagon's latest folly - an obscenely expensive but flawed missile defense system the Bush administration appears determined to deploy as early as 2004, even though the individual who was charged with evaluating its readiness has declared that it will not be ready, even in a limited form, until 2011.

Philip Coyle, formerly the Pentagon's chief civilian test evaluator, testified last September at a hearing before the national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform, of which I am a member. Coyle outlined the findings of a report he prepared during the National Missile Defense Deployment Readiness Review a month earlier. I asked him to provide his report, which is unclassified, to the subcommittee. Neither he nor Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, director of the missile defense program, expressed reservations about making the report public. The subcommittee voted unanimously to make the report part of the hearing record.

Finally pried free two weeks ago - after eight months, six official requests, threats of subpoenas, a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 55 House Democrats, and over the continuing objections of Pentagon officials - the report confirms the glaring deficiencies in the testing program that Coyle raised last September.

The report describes a phenomenon in simulation exercises called ''phantom tracks'' in which interceptors were accidentally launched against missiles that did not exist. Although operators attempted to take emergency actions to override these launches, they failed every time. The system ''simply was not behaving according to operator actions.''

Coyle concluded that the system's effectiveness is not yet proven, even in the most elementary sense. In fact, according to his report, the program is so immature that ''a rigorous assessment of potential system performance cannot be made.''

Yet the Pentagon has no plans to test basic elements of the system, not even to conduct flight tests with more than a single missile, even though the Pentagon concedes that multiple engagements are the most likely scenario. The testing program also ignores widely available decoys that adversaries would find simple to implement.''

The report describes how flight tests are being dumbed down to ensure the public perception of success. The Pentagon, for example, is reducing the number of decoys, operators are relying on artificially ''canned'' scenarios, and interceptors are being given advance information they won't have in real engagements. Even with these ''adjustments,'' the program has experienced embarrassing failures.

Significantly, the report finds that the system can't defend against accidental or unauthorized launches from major nuclear powers, as originally envisioned. The Pentagon has been backtracking on this issue and no longer considers it a key goal.

Despite these warnings, President Bush proposes accelerating deployment and spending $3 billion more for all missile defense next year - a 57 percent increase. The Pentagon will move to deploy a ''rudimentary'' system, even before this limited and flawed testing is complete, just to build ''something'' by the politically significant date of 2004.

As Congress examines the president's missile defense program, and as the administration begins testing components of the system this weekend, I submit that the 52 recommendations in the Coyle report should be the minimum standard by which the new program is evaluated. And the Pentagon's ''you-can't-handle-the-truth'' attitude that kept this report bottled up for eight months must give way to a constructive and reasoned public dialogue based on full disclosure and honest information.

Absent that, the Pentagon might consider those $640 toilets as a more reliable way to dispose of the $200 billion to $300 billion that this flawed system could cost our nation.

John F. Tierney of Massachusetts is a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives.

Source: http://www.Boston.com

7/12/01
11:53:30 AM

Star Wars

The battle is taking shape against the militarization of space. Your involvement and support for the planning of 13 October Actions is critical. This battle, if we will make a difference, will require as many world citizens as possible to unite with the Global Network and 181 Endorsing Organizations for actions at 64 sites worldwide so far. The following items describe Star Wars efforts in both directions. Regarding item 3, thanks to Frida Berrigan and the Brandywine Peace Community for their inspirational efforts in Pennsylvania!

For more information on plans for October 13 visit

http://www.space4peace.org.

7/12/01
11:47:49 AM

One Big Happy Channel?

By Eric Boehlert, Salon

Pomp and circumstance ruled at the signing into law of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Held inside the rotunda of the Library of Congress, a bill-signing first, the ceremony featured an array of bipartisan legislators praising the comprehensive package. Newly appointed Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich heralded the act as a jobs and knowledge bill. Vice President Al Gore stressed how public interest was central to the telecommunications revolution.

After speaking by videoconference with students at Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington, Gore watched as President Clinton signed the bill using the same pen President Eisenhower did in 1957 to sign the bill that created the interstate highway system, which had been written by ex-Sen. Gore, D-Tenn., the vice president's father. Clinton then used a digital pen to sign an electronic copy to be posted on the Internet.

In his remarks that day Clinton boasted that the "landmark legislation fulfills my administration's promise to reform our telecommunications laws in a manner that leads to competition and private investment, promotes universal service and provides for flexible government regulation."

Five years later nobody doubts that the law was indeed a landmark -- not only because congressional efforts to update the country's vast communications industries for the first time since the 1930s had themselves dragged on through the '80s and well into the '90s but also because the Telecom Act, as it became known, unleashed unprecedented deregulation and media consolidation, among the most pronounced in American history. Nowhere has that consolidation been more acutely felt than in radio --where just two companies, Clear Channel and Infinity, now dominate the nation's commercial radio stations. The result, many longtime radio industry observers feel, has been the degradation of commercial radio as a creative, independent medium.

But Clear Channel and Infinity are also raking in the cash. So now the question is, who's next? Because just across the broadcast spectrum, big owners in the television industry are looking at what happened to radio and licking their lips. If they get their way, the same thing that happened to radio may well happen to TV: more consolidation, more homogenization and, of course, more profits for the few at the top.

In late 1995, when the Telecom Act was being assembled, it was most often portrayed by its backers as a way to allow Baby Bell phone companies to get into the long-distance business, promote competition, introduce the V-chip to parents, police Internet porn and deregulate cable rates. Indeed, the Telecom Act's laundry list of initiatives covered nearly 200 pages of legislation. Down toward the bottom of that list, though, was a provision, one that received very little public attention (Clinton never even mentioned it during his extended remarks at the bill signing), that lifted all ownership limits for radio station broadcasters nationwide -- and allowed them to operate as many as eight signals in the country's largest markets.

To describe the new law's sweeping implications for radio as "radical" would be an understatement. Prior to this law, tightly regulated broadcasters could own just 40 stations nationally, and only two in a given market. Years earlier, those limits had been relaxed, very cautiously, by the Federal Communications Commission. But suddenly, without the FCC's input or any public hearings, the kind of sweeping deregulation that most broadcasters hadn't even fantasized about two years earlier was ushered in overnight.

"We were watching the vote come down in a hotel room in '95 and we were high-fiving each other," recalls the former head of a major radio group, who requested anonymity. "We knew the multiple-station deals we'd been working on would come to fruition."

Over at Jacor Communications, billionaire investor Sam Zell, who got into the radio business in the early '90s with an eye on the coming consolidation, was pounding on the desk of his CEO, Randy Michaels, telling him to start buying stations immediately. Michaels did. And so did lots of other deep-pocketed investors. Since the passage of the Telecom Act, 10,000 radio station transactions worth approximately $100 billion have taken place, according to BIA Financial Network. Consequently, there are 1,100 fewer station owners in the business today, down nearly 30 percent since 1996. The largest operator, Clear Channel Communications (whose radio chief is Michaels), owns nearly 1,200 stations. (According to this consolidation chart, Clear Channel today consists of what were once 70 separate broadcast companies.)

In theory, the Telecom Act was supposed to allow scores of aggressive radio companies to acquire a couple of hundred stations each and cash in on efficiencies of scale. And that did happen within months of the act's signing. But it didn't stop there. Spurred on by a flood of Wall Street investment money, a handful of conglomerates simply kept acquiring until they had essentially carved up the dial.

"Some of the mega-mergers took my breath away," says Susan Ness, who became an FCC commissioner in 1994 and left her post this spring. "You have a situation today where two companies basically control the major markets."

Those two companies -- Clear Channel and Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting -- together control one-third of all radio advertising revenue; in some individual markets their stations command nearly 90 percent of the ad dollars.

Today, radio is a much more lucrative, successful business than it was before the Telecom Act (thanks in part to an unprecedented number of commercials jammed into each hour). So from a purely economic perspective, there has been some benefit from deregulation. Back in 1991, thanks to fragmented ownership and a brutal media recession, 59 percent of all radio stations in America were losing money, according to a National Association of Broadcasters report.

"There wasn't a bank in America that would lend you money to buy a radio station," says longtime radio broker Gary Stevens, who recalls selling a Boston FM around that time for $9 million. The station today would go for at least $90 million.

The accelerated consolidation can be seen as a sign of strength. "As an economist, that signals to me how significant the efficiencies are," says Mark Fratrik, vice president at BIA. "The market tells you a lot of information."

But even in light of the depressed market for radio stations in the early '90s, was the removal of all ownership caps warranted? Surely a more measured raising of caps could have strengthened the economic health of radio without giving control of the entire medium to the highest bidder.

According to critics, local competition has all but vanished from radio in the wake of a consolidation that Congress did not anticipate. That consolidation, in turn, has cleared the way for listless, homogenized and automated programming, along with a near abandonment of local news, all in the name of rampant cost cutting. (One 25-year radio veteran, and current Clear Channel station executive, estimates the Telecom Act has eliminated nearly 10,000 radio-related jobs.) "It's been fabulous for shareholders, but terrible for listeners and employees," says a former broadcast group chief. "I wanted to see radio deregulation. But I think Telecom has done a disservice to what was once a great business."

"The unintended consequences [of the act] have changed irrecoverably the face of radio," says Ness, the former FCC commissioner.

The irony is that even though radio deregulation was an "afterthought" in the Telecom Act, as Stevens puts it, no other communications industry has been so dramatically affected by the legislation. And far from being viewed as a mistake by the leaders of other communications industries, it is seen as a role model.

Has deregulation helped or hurt radio? The answer to that question could have profound implications outside the world of AM and FM. That's because some of the nation's largest television station owners, as well as newspaper publishers, are lobbying Congress for the same type of sweeping deregulation radio got in the Telecom Act.

Many of the provisions currently eyed by TV station owners and newspaper publishers, such as allowing broadcasters to own stations and newspapers in the same market, as well as a lifting of the cap on the number of individual TV stations one company can own, were part of the original telecom bill. But they were taken out at the last minute to appease the White House's objections about unfair media concentration. (At the time, Clinton told aides that if the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which did not support him, had been allowed to own TV stations as well, he never would have been elected governor.)

Now, five years later, and with a new Republican administration signaling its eagerness to usher in further media consolidation, those exact same deregulatory provisions are back on the table on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission.

If successful, the current deregulation push would represent "the most aggressive media consolidation initiative ever taken by a democracy," says Reed Hundt, appointed by President Clinton to the position of FCC chairman. Hundt served during the time of the telecom's bill passage and was opposed to lifting radio's ownership caps.

Some analysts and regulators suggest that before any further ownership relaxation occurs in TV, the effects of radio deregulation need to be closely examined.

"Deregulation without reasoned justification is nothing more than deregulation for its own sake. We have already been down that road and we have seen the troubling results in the radio marketplace," wrote Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a recent Washington Post Op-Ed piece. "Let us not repeat the mistakes that led to the rapid consolidation in radio in the marketplace for TV programming."

Additionally, in contrast to 1995, when the National Association of Broadcasters lobbied strenuously in favor of radio deregulation, a major internal rift now divides TV broadcasters on the question of whether ownership caps should be lifted. Basically, the networks and the larger station groups, with an eye to owning more profitable affiliates, badly want the caps lifted. The medium- and smaller-sized broadcast companies do not. (Most, as a rule, are highly profitable, offering a sharp contrast to the position of independent radio stations in the early '90s.)

The NAB has sided with the smaller broadcasters; and NBC, CBS and Fox have quit the trade group in protest over the issue. But the smaller broadcasters are alarmed by what they see in the radio insustry.

"Radio is the ultimate example of what can happen if you change the ownership caps," says Jerry Waldron, an attorney representing a group called Network Affiliated Stations Alliance (NASA), which opposes lifting ownership caps.

Former FCC chairman Hundt agrees. "Radio is the model. That's the harbinger for what's going to happen to TV."

According to the Telecom Act, broadcast companies are allowed to own television stations that reach 35 percent of the American viewing audience, but no more. For instance, Paxson Communications operates smaller-market stations, and owns 60 TV signals, according to BIA. CBS, NBC and ABC, though, whose owned-and-operated affiliates are in major markets, have just 16, 13 and 10 stations, respectively. The Telecom Act increased the maximum viewing-audience percentage from 25 to 35 percent. The deregulatory push now is to raise that cap again, to at least 50 percent.

NASA station members oppose raising the cap for two main reasons: They're afraid of losing local control of programming to national networks, and they're afraid of being bought up by larger competitors. "That debate is falling on more receptive ears on Capitol Hill," says Mark O'Brien, executive vice president of BIA. "Whenever you invent something you hypothesize what's going to happen, [as was done with] radio deregulation. When you do it the second time [with TV], it's a matter of looking at what happened the first time."

Hollings, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, is scheduled to hold a hearing on media consolidation during the third week of July. Thanks to the recent party switch of Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., those hearings will have a much different tone than they would if the former chairman, a fierce media deregulatory proponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were overseeing the proceedings.

Nonetheless, new FCC chairman Michael Powell (whose Senate patron is McCain) has expressed support for lifting the cap beyond 35 percent, recently couching the issue in a freedom-of-speech context. "There is something offensive to First Amendment values about that limitation," he told an audience of NAB members. (However, Powell's commitment to the First Amendment is somewhat contradictory -- earlier in June, the FCC startled some music industry executives, not to mention First Amendment activists, when it fined a pop radio station in Colorado $7,000 for playing an edited, or cleaned-up, version of an Eminem rap song.)

For now, the question of ownership caps is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. There, Viacom is contesting a similar ownership cap for cable companies. In the spring, the court ruled that the 30 percent cap for cable was arbitrary and seemed to have been "plucked out of thin air." Hearings for that case begin in the fall, with a possible ruling by year's end. Powell has signaled he'll await the outcome of that case before proceeding with any FCC action on TV ownership limits.

NASA members insist that the very notion of locally controlled television is at stake in that case. In a blistering complaint filed with the FCC, NASA detailed how time and again networks have tried to hamper independently owned affiliates from breaking away from network programming, even for additional local news, a presidential debate or a charity telethon. (According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, virtually none of the networks' owned-and-operated local affiliates air the association's telethon.)

Network executives at ABC, CBS and NBC declined to discuss the ownership cap issue.

Independent radio advocates often complain that conglomeration leads to poor quality programming. This is not an argument one hears in the current TV regulatory debate. Indeed, some critics say that local TV programming, such as the six o'clock news, is dismal already.

But others fear that local news programming could get even worse. "Look at the radio group that helped lead the fight to lowball costs and introduce national content -- it's Infinity," says Robert McChesney, communications professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He notes that Infinity was run by renowned cost-cutter Mel Karmazin, who is now president of Viacom, the owner of CBS. With any additional TV consolidation, you can bet Karmazin's "not going to be pumping money into the Little Rock newsroom," says McChesney.

The bigger TV consolidation debate, though, centers on the affiliates' "right to reject" provision. According to the FCC, that provision allows them to pass up network programming "that the licensee feels to be unsatisfactory or contrary to the public interest," or to air "any program which in the station's opinion is of greater local or national importance."

Networks as a rule want their affiliates nationwide to carry as much network programming as possible, which boosts the networks' ratings. But sometimes affiliates simply don't want to air rating dogs, like NBC's XFL prime-time football league. Other times it's more about local choice, such as being forced to air major league playoff games rather than presidential debates. Independently owned affiliates insist that the "right to reject" provision has become a hollow one -- with some networks leveling punitive fines for preemptions or threatening to terminate a station's network affiliation -- and would become virtually nonexistent with further ownership consolidation.

If the networks are able to own more and more affiliates, the ability for local stations to control any of their programming would essentially disappear. Instead of local programmers deciding what should go on the air, the decisions would all be made by the network, with affiliates acting merely as storefronts.

If left unchecked, or even accelerated by deregulation, "the nation's local network-affiliated television stations will ultimately be transformed into mere passive conduits for their networks' national programming," reads the NASA statement.

In a word, says NASA attorney Waldron, "homogenization."

Sound familiar? That's the same complaint being leveled about today's consolidated radio.

Radio has "become homogenized. Radio is not as alive, not as immediate. Because what's happened in large markets is [that] you have two large players divide up the [music] formats so they're not competing head to head anymore," says former FCC commissioner Ness. She suggests that consolidation has eliminated competition. Clinton himself, in a speech this month to broadcasters, expressed "mixed feelings" about the Telecom Act's impact on radio, noting there has been "more consolidation than we wanted."

So how did all this happen? How did the Telecommunications Act ignite a radio deregulation revolution that some jealous TV broadcasters now want to duplicate?

The quick and easy excuse is to blame it all on Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Or, more specifically, on the success of the 1994 Republican revolution, which is often credited to -- or blamed on -- Hillary Clinton's healthcare fiasco. Because literally within hours of capturing control of the House of Representatives, legislative leaders, led by Newt Gingrich, began working on sweeping new media deregulation legislation. Gingrich's affiliated think tank, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, even put together the "Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age," a veritable call to arms for telecommunications deregulation.

"Losing the House in '94 was without question a seminal moment in the political history of the media," says former FCC chairman Hundt.

As the New York Times reported in early '95, broadcast "lobbyists have seldom met more receptive lawmakers. Committee Republicans have held numerous meetings with industry executives since January, at which they implored companies to offer suggestions about the ways that Congress could help them."

The version of the telecom bill that originally passed easily in the House offers ample proof of the New York Times' report. That version would have allowed one company to own the only cable television system in a market, the only daily newspaper, a TV signal and every local radio station.

But oddly enough, as the telecom bill was being debated, advocates of radio's deregulation ended up benefiting from its devalued status as a serious news and information provider. So while the more extreme reductions in ownership caps on television and newspaper ownership in the House-passed bill were removed in the final version, radio deregulation sailed through.

"Radio is not regarded as having the same role in the political debate; that's why a lot of people on both sides of the aisle just felt it wasn't an important topic," says Hundt.

Radio station broker Steven agrees: "Politicians only care about TV news dissemination; they want that finger on that button. We've made the case that radio offers such a minimal service of information flow, politicians were not worried about it and let us go."

Radio broadcasters were also aided by the NAB's stealth lobbying campaign, which purposely kept the radio ownership issue off the radar as the Baby Bells and cable companies grabbed most of the Telecom Act attention. "The NAB knew to lay low," says one source familiar with the trade association's strategy at the time. "The secret was not to be out front and center on it. If there had been a separate radio deregulation bill, it wouldn't have passed. There would have been hearings, and a real hue and cry."

If you listen today, there is an audible hue and cry. It's just coming five years late.

Eric Boehlert is a senior writer at Salon

Source: http://www.Salon.com

7/12/01
10:47:32 AM

A Pollution-Free Car in Every Garage

By Peter Castles, Chico News and Review

It sounds too good to be true -- an automotive power source that efficiently converts a limitless supply of chemical energy into electricity without producing smog-causing emissions.

But more and more, hydrogen fuel-cell-powered vehicles are being touted as The Answer. To our everyday air quality problems. To the long-term threat that continued burning of fossil fuels poses to the environment and our atmosphere. To skyrocketing gasoline prices, the dwindling supply of petroleum, and America's shaky dependence on foreign oil.

The nascent fuel cell technology appears so promising that many in the automotive and energy industries are already claiming it's just a matter of time before hydrogen becomes the fuel of choice for motor vehicles. A recent article in Popular Science magazine went so far as to opine that the fuel cell might represent the "biggest leap in automotive history -- a practical replacement for the internal combustion engine."

Whoa! Have we discovered a path to energy Nirvana here? Are we finally poised to wean our petrochemically dependent society off the parched and withered teat of Mother Earth's shrinking hydrocarbon deposits, from which we've so selfishly gulped all these years?

After countless false starts and half-hearted efforts to incorporate cleaner, renewable alternative fuels into the energy mix, perhaps we are finally due for some real and lasting change. If it's any indication, fuel cell politics has already made some strange bedfellows, as major automakers and energy corporations find themselves collaborating in earnest with regulators, technology manufacturers and clean-air advocates to develop this cheap and enormously abundant source of power.

But while there are certainly many respected voices who think that fuel cells are positioned to change the face of transportation, most also admit that, as with any groundbreaking technology, there are significant hurdles to clear before hydrogen-powered vehicles gain widespread viability.

So what are fuel cells and how do they work? Simply put, fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity -- without combustion. Compared to the complexities of the internal-combustion engine, the process of producing energy with the fuel cell is remarkably straightforward. The fuel cell has no moving parts and relies on the most ubiquitous substance in the universe, hydrogen, as its power source. The result is clean energy with no nasty emissions. The only waste is heat and water.

The hydrogen fuel cell concept is no real marvel of science -- in fact, the first fuel cell device was created way back in 1839 by British inventor Sir William Grove. But practical applications remained elusive until the 1960s, when NASA began developing the technology to power equipment onboard its spacecraft. Today, fuel cells continue to provide electricity (and even potable water) for the space shuttle.

Only recently has the technology advanced into the realm of viability for vehicle use. Initially, developing fuel cells for transportation purposes involved bulky and expensive prototypes limited by the techniques of producing and storing hydrogen. But exponential advances in technology and design have brought rapid reductions in the size of the power plants, yielding new models that now feature nearly as much usable interior space as conventional cars.

"The technology has undergone a dramatic curve of improvements. You can liken it to the computer revolution, in that fuel cells have become smaller but much more powerful," says Joe Irvin, spokesman for the Fuel Cell Partnership, a California-based collaborative of automakers, government agencies, manufacturers, and energy companies that comprises the world's foremost test center for fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

Although most fuel cells being tested in vehicles are powered by pure hydrogen, which is stored onboard in secure tanks, engineers are also considering the possibility of installing reformer systems that produce hydrogen from carbon-based fuel sources such as gasoline and methanol.

But if we want fuel cells to run cleanly, why power them with polluting fossil fuels? The answer to that question reveals the most significant challenge facing fuel cell vehicles today.

Though fuel cell vehicles are nearly a market reality, with some automakers projected to roll out limited numbers as early as 2004, the fueling infrastructure needed to service larger numbers will take years, perhaps decades, to establish.

That's why many believe the most likely route for commercialization of fuel cells will be through fleet vehicles. A shift to hydrogen for city buses and delivery trucks would help reduce the cost of manufacturing fuel cells while helping to win public acceptance.

"The first step is going to be fleet use, where you can install a central fueling station to handle many vehicles," says Irvin. Already, hydrogen buses cruise the streets of Chicago and Vancouver.

In the meantime, the first generation of fuel cell passenger cars will most likely use onboard reformers that produce hydrogen from some type of "transition fuel," one that does not necessarily live up to the full potential of clean hydrogen energy.

Nevertheless, this transition approach would allow drivers to fuel up on gasoline or methanol at existing gas stations. And, according to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report, onboard fuel processors -- even those using gasoline -- represent a major advance in reduction of pollutants over conventional vehicles.

Part of the Fuel Cell Partnership's mission is to explore the different fuel options and test the cars' performance under a wide variety of conditions. But if there is a favored fueling choice, nobody is tipping his hand.

"Hydrogen is the mother's milk of the fuel cell," says Irvin. "But if you want to get fuel cells in front of the consumer early, than to do so might mean using a familiar fuel that is cost-effective in terms of distribution."

But will carmakers really follow through on their promises to deliver cleaner transportation choices to the car-buying public? To some extent, they have no choice but to. Prompted by air quality mandates, car manufacturers are committed to developing models that prove commercially viable.

"Fuel cell vehicles present the opportunity for what we call 'sustainable mobility,'" says Irvin. "It's a way to affordably preserve our concept of a mobile society with much less impact on the environment."

Once infrastructure is in place, the cost of filling up with hydrogen should be much more affordable than gasoline -- and nowhere near as vulnerable to the wild price fluctuations that distinguish the global petroleum market. DOE has said that producing hydrogen for fuel cell use today would cost the equivalent of $1.92 per gallon, about the same as a gallon of gas here in California. That figure would certainly go down as the technology grows and consumer use expands.

Filling up with hydrogen is easy and safe. And, while making fuel cell vehicles safe for the road is no slam-dunk, safety is not considered an obstacle to commercialization. In fact, most experts agree that hydrogen can be at least as safe as today's fuels.

What about vehicle cost? Once enough units are built to establish an acceptable economy of scale, cost won't be an issue. Studies by Ford and General Motors conclude that fuel cell motors eventually could be built for about the same price as an internal-combustion engine.

And performance? So far, the cars being tested seem to be proving the technology can provide good performance in a variety of conventional passenger models, including compacts, SUVs and minivans.

Irvin says fuel cell vehicles may eventually run twice as far between fuelings as current automobiles. "The automakers are confident they will get exceptional range," he says. "It may take some time, but with the efficiency of fuel cells, we could see about a 50 percent improvement or even a potential doubling of the ranges that we're used to, so you might get 600-700 miles per fueling."

So when will significant numbers of fuel-cell-powered vehicles ride on our roads and highways? Forecasts estimate that Americans will see some form of mass production (more than 100,000 vehicles) well before 2010.

With the auto industry, mass transit agencies and technology companies all working to make hydrogen vehicles a reality, where else can help be found? Well, don't look now, but even Big Oil is jumping on the fuel cell bandwagon.

It wasn't long ago that oil executives were openly deriding the notion that fuel cells could ever replace the internal-combustion engine. Now, the world's oil giants -- aware that this new technology could someday put them out of business -- have joined in the hunt for the perfect fuel cell solution.

Hmm, maybe for once it's too good not to be true.

7/12/01
10:44:31 AM

It Can Happen Here

by Sheldon Rampton, E Magazine

As infections go, mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease don't have much in common. Mad cow disease is hard to transmit, takes years to incubate in an infected animal and is almost impossible to detect until symptoms emerge late in the course of the infection. Foot-and-mouth, by comparison, is one of the most contagious animal diseases known. Unlike mad cow disease, which is hard to spread but always fatal, foot-and-mouth disease spreads quickly but rarely even kills animals and is considered harmless to human beings.

The fact that both diseases have emerged in the United Kingdom is mostly a matter of British bad luck. But both have something to teach us about the virtues of precaution. Diseases of livestock and people lurk in hidden crevices of the world, and the very technologies that we celebrate as emblems of modern progress can also serve as vehicles for transforming those diseases into epidemics. Just as AIDS spread throughout the world thanks in part to the speed and ease of modern travel, other diseases are cropping up with increasing frequency as a result of factors including increasing urbanization of wildlife habitats and intensive livestock farming practices.

Origins of an Epidemic

The recent British outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease began in early February on a farm in Northumberland, England's most northerly county. By February 25, most of the country had been declared a contaminated area. Its spread was assisted on February 13 when 40 sheep were purchased in Northumberland and shipped to Devon, a county on England's southwest peninsula. By the time the outbreak was identified as foot-and-mouth disease, consignments of sheep and pigs had already been shipped from infected areas throughout the country and to other parts of Europe. By March 1, the number of detected cases had reached 30, with new outbreaks occurring in Ireland and Scotland. Europe started slaughtering animals imported from Britain as soon as the epidemic became apparent, but by then, antibodies to foot-and-mouth were already being found in Germany. By March 21, nearly 400 cases had been detected, and the army had been called in to help with the disposal of carcasses as thousands of animals were slaughtered in an effort to eradicate the disease.

Europe will spend billions of dollars bringing this particular outbreak under control. But outbreaks of foot-and-mouth have risen throughout the world, due to activities that spread the disease, such as illegal smuggling of animals, international tourism and the globalization of trade. "The last two years have been among the worst on record, with more than 60 countries experiencing outbreaks, including many which have not had one in generations," reports the Guardian of London. Examples include Taiwan, Korea, Brazil and South Africa, as well as an outbreak last year in Japan that was traced back to diseased straw imported from China via Russia.

Unlike foot-and-mouth disease, which has vexed farmers for centuries, mad cow disease is a recent phenomenon created by technical innovations in agricultural production itself. The innovation that caused it was actually quite simple. In order to dispose of slaughtered animal parts that have no commercial value, the meat industry put them through a "rendering" process that consisted of grinding them up and cooking them in large vats to produce a product called "meat and bone meal" that was then fed back to other animals. This created what was essentially a cannibalistic feeding loop, as cows consumed the remains of other cows, sheep were fed to sheep, pigs to pigs, chickens to chickens and so forth.

Common sense might dictate that this practice is a bad idea, but the scientists and farmers who used this material genuinely believed it would be safe. What they didn't realize was that this feeding loop was also an amplification loop through which mad cow disease -- something that had never even been detected prior to the 1980s -- would become a devastating epidemic that has so far killed more than 170,000 cattle and began to kill human beings in 1996. To date, nearly 100 people have died, presumably from eating infected beef, and scientific projections for the eventual death toll in Europe range from a few hundred to 100,000.

Renderers like to point out that they deserve credit for helping to dispose of large quantities of animal waste that would otherwise putrefy and create a massive disposal problem. But modern large-scale agribusiness has created a problem that it only partially manages to solve. Even today, notwithstanding the nightmare that mad cow disease has meant for Europe, the U.S. meat industry and regulatory agencies have failed to take all the precautions needed to protect animal and human health. Europe has adopted tough regulations that ban the use of animal meat and blood in livestock feed.

Inadequate Protection

The U.S. has adopted regulations too, but with glaring holes. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confiscated two flocks of sheep imported from Europe, which they believe may have been exposed to mad cow disease. Unfortunately, U.S. agencies continue to rely heavily on attempts to interdict foreign imports that may carry the disease, while winking and nodding at practices that could cause equally devastating homegrown equivalents to emerge. It is still legal in the U.S., for example, to feed rendered cows to pigs, whose remains are fed in turn back to cows. And it is still perfectly legal to use cow blood in cattle feed, a practice banned in Europe. The regulations that do exist are limply enforced. Bovine meat and bone meal is supposed to be labeled, "Do not feed to cows," but a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation found that hundreds of feed makers are violating the law.

Modern feedlot farming, which force-feeds animals "scientifically blended rations" designed to maximize growth and minimize costs, has also introduced a variety of other practices that threaten to spread diseases. In addition to the rendered remains of their cousins, livestock today consume a variety of substances that are quite different from the grass and hay on which they conventionally have been nurtured, including industrial wastes, such as sawdust, wood chips, twigs, ground-up newspapers, cement dust from kilns and even treated manure and sewage sludge from municipal composting plants. This may not make particularly appetizing reading as you are about to sit down to dinner, but from industry's perspective, there is no harm in it. These materials help cut down on costs, dispose of wastes and translate into benefits for the consumer in the form of lower prices for your Chicken McNuggets.

As far as industry is concerned, there is no proof that these practices are dangerous, so why should they hesitate? But scientific research is still lacking in regards to the risks associated with these practices. No one knows how the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease arrived in England, but it got there anyway. No one knew in advance that feeding livestock rendered meat and bone meal would cause an epidemic of mad cow disease, but it did. And no one knows today whether the introduction of genetically modified organisms into our food supply will create previously unknown allergies or other health problems in the people who consume them.

An International Problem

What we do know is that illnesses stemming from modern agriculture seem to be a growing problem worldwide. In October of last year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that increasing movements of people, animals and animal products for trade are leading to a greater spread of animal diseases across national borders. It noted that a number of livestock diseases have been diagnosed for the first time outside their "normal" areas of origin -- sometimes thousands of miles away. In Yemen, close to the Saudia Arabian border, some 100 people have died from the first known outbreak of Rift Valley fever outside Africa. Outbreaks of bluetongue disease, a viral disease of sheep, have been reported in Bulgaria and Sardinia, locations where the disease was previously unknown. In addition to mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease, the United Kingdom saw an outbreak of classical swine fever, a disease believed to have been eradicated in the UK many years ago. The recent infection is thought to have been introduced through imported meat products.

Foodborne diseases among people also appear to be rising. In 1990, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences attributed the increase to "automated food processing, increased reliance on fast foods, greater use of prepackaged foods and microwave ovens, urbanization, public naivete about food production and slaughter methods and lack of knowledge about the hygienic precautions required at all stages of food handling." The foodborne nature of many illnesses often goes unrecognized by the victims, but government agencies have estimated that as many as 81 million cases of foodborne illness occur in this country each year, accounting for approximately 9,000 deaths.

The most common killers are not exotic diseases like mad cow disease, which the USDA has yet to detect in the U.S. They include E.coli O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes -- bacteria that have become ubiquitous in the human food supply. Severe forms of E. coli food poisoning, often originating from fast food, kill 500 people a year.

Salmonella, which causes an intense flu-like illness that can be fatal, has been linked to the consumption of eggs, poultry, milk and dairy products and a variety of other foods. The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition estimates that two to four million cases of salmonellosis occur every year in the U.S. The Center says, "[Salmonella] isolations from humans have shown a dramatic rise in the past decade, particularly in the northeast United States (six-fold or more)."

Listeria, which can cause fatal blood poisoning, miscarriages in pregnant women and meningitis, is believed to spread through ready-to-eat foods such as hot dogs, luncheon meats or cold cuts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 2,000 people in the U.S. come down with serious cases of listeriosis each year, which is responsible for approximately 500 deaths.

The benefits of modern agricultural innovation are evident. The cost, however, is that we are performing a massive global experiment with ourselves and our children as the test subjects.

Sheldon Rampton edits PR Watch and is the co-author, with John Stauber, of "Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?" and "Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future."

Source: http://www.emagazine.com

7/12/01
10:39:29 AM

Growing Population Stamps Heavy Ecological Footprint

NEW YORK, New York, July 11, 2001 (ENS) - Right now, on World Population Day, the number of people on Earth is estimated at 6,169,232,446 and climbing. In the three minutes it may take a reader to finish this article, the world's population will have increased by 438 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Speaking on the occasion of World Population Day, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan linked the growing population to ecological stress on the planet's resources. Calling attention to deforestation, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, he said, "Our ecological footprints on the earth are heavier than ever before."

World Population Day is defined by the United Nations as an annual observance spotlighting the urgent need for solutions to global population problems in the context of sustainable development. World Population Day evolved as an outgrowth of the Day of Five Billion, set aside July 11, 1987 to build awareness of population issues.

"Humanity must solve a complex equation," Annan said. "We must stabilize our numbers, but, equally important, we must stabilize our use of resources and ensure sustainable development for all."

To slow population growth, Annan advocated special measures for women who, despite making up more than half the world's agricultural workforce, are often denied the right to learn, to own or inherit land, and to control their own fertility.

"Enhancing women's opportunities enables them to make informed choices about family size - and to break the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation," he stressed.

Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the UN Population Fund, underlined the connection between reproductive health and sustainable development. "Women who can choose have smaller families - and that means slower population growth - have a little more time to meet basic needs and make vital decisions," she said.

Amy Coen, president of Population Action International, an independent policy group in Washington, DC, agrees. "Women are often the primary caretakers of their environment, as well as their families," Coen said today. "A woman who has the means to manage her own fertility is in a far better position to help manage and conserve the natural resources her family depends on."

"Life is not separated into tidy little categories, with reproductive health, environment, and development as isolated issues to be dealt with separately," said Coen. "Instead, these issues are fundamentally linked to, and dependent on, each other."

The United Nations Population Division says world population is currently growing at an annual rate of 1.2 per cent, or 77 million people per year.

Six countries account for half of this annual growth: India for 21 percent, China for 12 percent, Pakistan for five percent, Nigeria for four percent, Bangladesh for four per cent, and Indonesia for three percent.

China's first exposition on new technology and products in the family planning and reproductive health fields opened in Beijing today, marking World Population Day with 300 exhibits. This is the first time China has held such an event, said Zhang Weiqing, director of the State Family Planning Commission.

Zhang told the state Xinhua News Service that China will make joint efforts with other countries to seek ways to control population growth and promote sustainable development.

Pakistan Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf today called for a "small family norm." In remarks in observance of World Population Day, he said, "The theme for the next year happens to be of special significance for Pakistan which has one of the highest density of population causing a serious drain on the civic amenities, denuding the forests and generally creating adverse conditions for environment."

The population of more developed regions, currently 1.2 billion, is anticipated to change little during the next 50 years because fertility levels are expected to remain below replacement level, the UN predicts.

By mid-century the populations of 39 countries are projected to be smaller than today. Japan and Germany will be 14 percent smaller. Italy and Hungary will be 25 percent smaller, and the Russian Federation, Georgia and Ukraine will be up to 40 percent smaller, UN population analysts forecast.

World population is expected to be around 9.3 billion by 2050, the UN estimates, but it could be anywhere between 7.9 billion and 10.9 billion, depending on fertility, longevity and rates of death.

To watch the World Population grow, visit:

http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop

To access in depth analysis of World Population Trends, visit the United Nations Development Programme:

http://www.undp.org/popin

The World Population Film and Video Festival is online at:

http://www.wpfvf.com

7/12/01
10:08:13 AM

AlterNet.org

THE ANTI-BUSH MAJORITY: STILL MAD AS HELL

Tamara Straus, AlterNet

According to a recent poll, a majority of Americans are still angry about the 2000 election. You wouldn't know it from the press, but on the Web that anger is red-hot.

http://www.alternet.org

LEAVE NO EMBRYO BEHIND!

David Corn, AlterNet

If opponents of embryonic stem-cell research truly believe their own arguments, they ought to be storming fertility clinics to "liberate" frozen human embryos.

http://www.alternet.org

DRUG TRAFFICKING ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY

Kate Silver, Las Vegas Weekly

Want your Viagra, Soma, Valium, Steroids, Propecia or Zyban? Then get on the Web. But do it quickly before new cyber laws are passed.

http://www.alternet.org

BLACK MUSIC AND THE PRESIDENTIAL EXPERIENCE

Jimmy Dean Smith, PopPolitics.com

At a ceremony marking Black Music Month, President Bush proved himself unsurprisingly clueless.

* In Media Culture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19

IN DEFENSE OF IDENTITY POLITICS

Martin Duberman, In These Times

Identity politics are under attack, but until the left acknowledges difference among its ranks, group identity will continue to be an appropriate site of resistance and a source of comfort.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11160

A SECOND CHANCE FOR BLACK FARMERS?

Carol Estes, YES! Magazine

USDA policy has turned the clock back 60 years to the pre-Civil Rights South. Yet despite the hardship, African-American farmers refuse to quit.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11165

I SURVIVED A COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARY DEATH SQUAD

Louis Gilberto Murillo, Pacific News Service

About one in four of Colombia's 42 million citizens are black -- but they account for some 70 percent of those displaced by violence.

* In Drug Reporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17

MAD COW: IT CAN HAPPEN HERE

Sheldon Rampton, E Magazine

Savage outbreaks of animal-borne diseases raise fears that the next epidemic could be in the U.S. Modern agriculture may be the culprit.

* In EnviroHealth http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18

BUSH VERSUS SMART SEX

Lara Riscol, AlterNet

Like a pimply teenager smoking his first pack of Marlboros despite its warning label, President Bush has soundly rejected the Surgeon General's latest advice about sex.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11153

ONE BIG HAPPY CHANNEL?

Eric Boehlert, Salon

The Telecommunications Reform Act paved the way for just two companies, Clear Channel and Infinity, to dominate the nation's commercial radio stations. Will TV be next?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11158

THE MYTH OF THE (BLACK) TEEN SUICIDE EPIDEMIC

Mike Males, AlterNet

Suicide "experts" have recently told us that teens, especially blacks, are are killing themselves in record numbers. But it's a false crisis, manufactured by twisted stats.

* In Human Rights USA: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=22

A POLLUTION-FREE CAR IN EVERY GARAGE

Peter Castles, Chico News and Review

Within five years, your car may run on hydrogen fuel cells -- a power source that converts a limitless supply of chemical energy into electricity with no emissions.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11157

MEDIA MASH: NPR PICKS AND BRAZEN COMCAST

This week from the Masher: NPR Picks AlterNet ... Total Cable Consolidation ... Spying in Tampa.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11169

GIVING AWAY TRUTH: ON THE ROAD WITH THE OUTBREAK TOUR

Mikhaila Richards, WireTap

The sleek, well-branded anti-tobacco campaign doesn't tell youth to "Just Say No," but it does use commerical tactics to sell them on the ills of the Tobacco Industry.

http://www.alternet.org/wiretapmag/story.html?StoryID=11150

DRIVING IN ESPANOL

Domenico Maceri, Latino Beat

Must you be fluent in English to drive a car? Yes, says U.S. English, a group whose goal is to maintain English as the country's dominant language.

http://www.latinobeat.net/html/010702maceri.html

REGULATING THE GLOBAL BROTHEL

Leah Platt, The American Prospect

As feminization of migration continues, prostitution becomes the prototypical global industry. How do we "protect" its workers?

* In Globalization: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=21

DYNCORP'S DRUG PROBLEM

Jason Vest, The Nation

Is the U.S.'s $1.3 billion stake in Plan Columbia actually funding drug running? Perhaps, if the State Department's antidrug contractors are running a business on the side.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11162

GARCIA: AMERICA'S LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH IMMIGRANTS

James E. Garcia, PoliticoMagazine.com Why, in a land desperate for heroes, do we belittle, wound and sometimes even kill our newest immigrants?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11159

DURST: BETWEEN THE BUSHES: A FATHER TO SON CHAT

Will Durst, AlterNet

What do the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States talk about when their golf cart leaves the journalists behind?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11156

HIGHTOWER: PRESIDENT BUSHWA

Jim Hightower, AlterNet

Little George's overall job-approval rating has dropped to a pitiable 53 percent, and its even worse on specific issues like environment (39 percent) and energy (33 percent).

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11154

SOLOMON: MEDIA ALL-STARS TAKING THE FIELD

Norman Solomon, AlterNet

Its All-Star Season again. Solomon compiles a roster for his team of Media heavy-hitters for the year 2001. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11155

DRUG WAR BRIEFS: UK ENDS "ZERO TOLERANCE"

Kevin Nelson, AlterNet

Britain softens its hard line on marijuana, moving closer to legalization.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11152

HUFFINGTON: WHO WANTS MORE POWER PLANTS?

Arianna Huffington, OverthrowTheGov.com

Not only does the public overwhelmingly support energy conservation over a massive build up of new power plants, so do Republicans, by a ratio of two-to-one.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11164

7/12/01
9:58:17 AM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

GROWING POPULATION STAMPS HEAVY ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

NEW YORK, New York, July 11, 2001 (ENS) - Right now, on World Population Day, the number of people on Earth is estimated at 6,169,224,890 and climbing. In the three minutes it may take a reader to finish this article, the world's population will have increased by 438 people, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-01.html

U.S. FIRMS REJECT EUROPEAN TAX BREAKS FOR GREEN PRODUCTS

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 11, 2001 (ENS) - American firms operating in Europe have rejected a key element of European Commission proposals for an integrated product policy. In a new position paper, the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce says a plan to introduce lower sales tax rates on ecolabelled products is "backward looking and innovation stifling."

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-03.html

WORLD LAND DATABASE CHARTS COURSE OF HUMAN CONSUMPTION

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, July 11, 2001 (ENS) - Over the past 300 years, humans have dramatically transformed the land surface of the Earth, changing vegetation, reshaping hills and valleys, and altering the course of rivers. In doing so, humans have set in motion a scenario of global environmental change with impacts that promise to be at least as severe as global climate change, scientists reported today at a meeting in Amsterdam.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-06.html

GALAPAGOS MARINE RESERVE RECOMMENDED AS WORLD HERITAGE SITE

SANTA CRUZ, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, July 11, 2001 (ENS) - Ecuador's Minister of the Environment, Lourdes Luque de Jaramillo, is preparing the country for the likely declaration of the Galapagos Marine Reserve as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This wider ocean area surrounds the 19 Galapagos Islands which were listed as a World Heritage Site in 1978.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-02.html

REPORT CITES BENEFITS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

MEXICO CITY, Mexico, July 11, 2001 (ENS) - Many developing countries might reap great benefits from genetically modified foods, crops and other organisms, concludes the Human Development Report 2001, commissioned by the United Nations Development Program and released Tuesday. These crops could significantly reduce malnutrition and help poor farmers working marginal lands, the report says.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-07.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 11, 2001

Jeffords Assumes Chair of Senate Environment Committee

Hog Factory Farms Settle Water Pollution Suits

Interior Department Promotes Energy Development on Public Lands

$3.4 Million Program Targets Estuary Restoration

Greenpeace: Dry Cleaning Chemical Linked to Deaths

U.S., France Cooperate on Nuclear Power Research

Groups Ask Judge To Prevent Buffalo Slaughter

National Park Service Report Details Important Trends

Petition Seeks Endangered Listing for Green Sturgeon

Manatee Coalition Rejects Federal Delays in Creating Sanctuaries

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-11-09.html

7/12/01
9:54:23 AM

Cell Out

by William Saletan

A new camp has emerged in the debate over abortion and fetal tissue. A group of Republicans led by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, and former Sen. Connie Mack of Florida is lobbying President Bush to support federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells. Right-to-life groups oppose such research on the grounds that the harvesting of these cells kills the embryos, which are left over from in vitro fertilizations. The Hatch-Mack-Smith camp, however, says it's possible to be both "pro-life" and "pro-stem cells." The senators—let's call them pro-pros—are trying to give Bush a rationale for stem-cell research that doesn't entail acceptance of abortion. But if Bush embraces their principles, he'll be what they are: functionally pro-choice. Let's look at those principles.

1. Personhood is situational. The pro-pros concede that if personhood begins at conception, it's immoral to destroy IVF embryos by taking cells from them. But personhood doesn't begin at conception, they say. It begins when the embryo is implanted in a womb. "To me, a frozen embryo is more akin to a frozen unfertilized egg or frozen sperm than to a fetus naturally developing in the body of a mother," Hatch wrote in a letter he forwarded to Bush last month. In an ABC interview, Hatch flatly declared, "Human life begins in the mother's womb, not in a petri dish or a refrigerator." At a recent hearing, Smith added, "If you have a stem cell in a petri dish and you keep it there for 50 years, you'll end up with a stem cell in a petri dish. And until you place that in a woman, you are not going to create a life."

On this theory, the value of human life, like the value of a house, is determined by location, location, location. Whether it's an egg or an embryo is less important than whether it's in a womb or a freezer. But location, unlike fertilization, is easily reversed. Take the embryo out of the woman, and it ceases to be a person. The pro-pro response to this objection is that you can't take the embryo out, since it's already a person. But if location, not fertilization, is what makes the embryo a person, then doesn't changing its location change its status? You don't have to kill it; you can just put it in a dish or a freezer. That's what happens to eggs in IVF, and the pro-pro senators have no problem with it. Is it OK to do this to an egg but not to an embryo? Why? The only difference is fertilization, which the pro-pros have dismissed as the standard of personhood. Having stipulated that a frozen embryo is more like a frozen egg than like an embryo in the womb, they have no grounds to complain. The adjective trumps the noun.

In his letter, Hatch noted that he "helped lead the effort to outlaw partial birth abortion." He concluded, "I simply cannot equate this offensive abortion practice with the act of disposing of a frozen embryo in the case where the embryo will never complete the journey toward birth." But wait a minute. The first step in partial-birth abortion is induced delivery. If the frozen embryo is a non-person because it "will never complete the journey toward birth," then why isn't the same true of a prematurely delivered five-month fetus? You can't shove the fetus back into the woman. Like the frozen egg or embryo, it's no longer "naturally developing in the body of a mother." In fact, by Hatch's standard, a five-month fetus has less claim to personhood than a frozen embryo does, because whereas the completion of the embryo's "journey toward birth" is unlikely (depending on whether some woman will consent to have it implanted), the completion of the fetus's journey, given current technology, is impossible.

Hatch says his position on stem cells should be accepted as pro-life because his position on partial-birth abortion is pro-life. But the two positions aren't just irreconcilable. They're exact opposites. On the one hand, Hatch proposes to ban the one abortion procedure in which the fetus is removed from the womb intact and then dismembered. Like other advocates of this selective ban, he justifies it precisely on the grounds that the abortion is performed in this sequence. On the other hand, Hatch tells Bush that it's OK to dismember an IVF embryo, since the egg from which that embryo was created has already been removed from and fertilized outside the womb. The criteria are exactly the same—location and sequence—but the position is reversed.

2. It's OK to dismember an embryo if it's unwanted. According to Hatch, surplus IVF embryos "are going to be thrown away. They are going to be discarded. They're going to be killed, if you will. Why can't we take the pluripotent cells from them and utilize them for the best benefits of mankind?" One of the telling oddities of the stem-cell debate is this constant use of the passive voice. Somebody else will do the killing; all we can do is make the best of it. This is precisely the attitude of resigned relativism that pro-lifers despise in pro-choicers. When pro-choicers say it's acceptable to get an abortion if the baby is unwanted and would die or be abandoned, pro-lifers reply that the baby can and must be given a good home. The pro-life outlook is idealistic: Tragedy isn't inevitable, and instead of watching it, you can do something to avert it. From that point of view, the government should preserve IVF embryos and facilitate their implantation in women who want to adopt them, as 14 House members proposed in a June 28 letter to Bush.

3. Keep embryo dismemberment safe and legal. "Policymakers should also consider another advantage of public funding of stem cell research as opposed to leaving this work beyond the reach of important federal controls," Hatch wrote. "Federal funding will encourage adherence to all of the safeguards outlined above by entities conducting such research even when a particular research project is conducted solely with private dollars." Or, as pro-choicers would put it: If you try to stop abortions, you'll just drive them underground.

4. Embryo dismemberment is pro-life and pro-family because it prolongs lives and helps families. "The most pro-life position would be to help people who suffer from these maladies" that could be cured through stem-cell research, Hatch told the Washington Post. "This is about extending life, facilitating life," he told ABC. Smith took the point further: "Part of being pro-life is helping the living." In his letter to Bush, Hatch added, "It is also worth noting in the pro-family context that stem cell research is of particular interest to pediatricians. … [T]he knowledge gained through biomedical research can be harnessed for critical pro-life, pro-family purposes. When one of our loved ones is stricken by illness, the whole family shares in the suffering."

These flexible interpretations of "pro-life" and "pro-family" aren't original. Pro-choicers commonly argue that abortion is "pro-life" when it helps the living and "pro-family" when it helps a family. In the partial-birth debate, they reason that late-term abortions are pro-life and pro-family because such abortions ensure that women with abnormal pregnancies won't require hysterectomies, and therefore those women will be able to bring other lives into the world and raise families. The catch, of course, is that the "life" that's helped isn't the one that's taken. By this utilitarian logic, the Chinese government's policy of executing prisoners and harvesting their organs for transplant is pro-life. Such lethal utilitarianism is exactly what the right-to-life movement was founded to resist. It's easy to be "pro-life." What's hard is defending the right to life.

5. Embryo dismemberment is the parents' choice. In a Post op-ed two months ago, Mack pointed out that the stem cells sought for research had been "donated with the informed consent of couples." Quoting those words in his letter, Hatch advised Bush, "Senator Mack's views reflect those of many across our country and this perspective must be weighed before you decide." Hatch concluded: "It is significant to point out that no member of the United States Supreme Court has ever taken the position that fetuses, let alone embryos, are constitutionally protected persons. To do so would be to thrust the courts and other governmental institutions into the midst of some of the most private of personal decisions."

It's hard to imagine how anyone who wrote those words could truly believe in an unborn child's right to life. That doesn't mean the pro-pros are insincere about abortion or stem cells. It just means they haven't yet put two and two together. This is how morality changes. An issue troubles your conscience, and you look for ways to revise your thinking on that issue without upsetting your thinking on other issues. But gradually, you come to see that it's all connected. That's the nature of thinking. Eventually, you realize that you've lost faith in what you used to believe. The pro-pros set out to change the president's mind. They'll end up changing their own.

Source: http://www.Slate.com

7/11/01
11:27:30 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Venezuela's Cavsa in aluminum deal with Glencore - VENEZUELA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11520

UPDATE - Senate backs drilling ban on national monuments - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11518

US energy companies propose carbon dioxide emission caps - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11519

US lawmaker seeks to raise fuel standard to 40 mpg - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11521

Wise Foods says no trace of StarLink in chip tests - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11522

Genome map leader urges US ban on genetic bias - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11523

LIPA, KeySpan propose Long Island, NY power plant - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11517

Bush wants EPA to have Cabinet status - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11531

FEATURE - Officials predict long, hot US wildfire season - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11528

Exxon global warming boycott gets new push - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11526

WRAPUP - Smoke clearing but Indonesia says fires serious - THAILAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11533

Putin opens gates for nuclear fuel imports - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11527

Possums going to the dogs - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11529

Morinaga recalls potato snack over GM concerns - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11530

Time bomb ticks on Mexico, Centam coffee plantations - GUATEMALA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11524

EU's Fischler sees targeted farm policy review - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11532

UPDATE - Canadian greenhouse gas emissions up again in 1999 - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11525

7/11/01
11:24:54 PM

Public Citizen

Appeals Court Protects Anonymous Internet Critics of New Jersey Company

Judge Upholds Public Citizen's First Amendment Arguments

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Adopting arguments made by attorneys for Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of New Jersey, a New Jersey appeals court today rejected a company's attempt to discover the identities of anonymous Internet message critics by going to court. The case is the first time any appeals court in the nation has considered this question.

The company, New Jersey-based Dendrite International, failed to meet the stringent legal standards required to obtain subpoenas for the disclosure of the identities of people who post Web messages about companies, Judge Robert Fall ruled in an opinion for a three-judge panel of the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division.

"Several other courts have articulated similar standards for deciding whether to compel the identification of anonymous Internet speakers, but this decision marks the first time that any appeals court has considered such a request for identification," said attorney Paul Levy, who filed a brief for Public Citizen as a friend of the court. "Because it sets forth strict procedural and evidentiary standards for compelled identification, and then shows that these standards can truly protect anonymity, this decision is a tremendous victory for free speech."

Levy predicted that the decision is likely to be especially influential in future cases. Yahoo! recently told a judge in another case that it has received thousands of subpoenas like Dendrite's.

The court issued the ruling in a case in which Dendrite International, a supplier of sales force software products and support services to the pharmaceutical industry, sued four people who anonymously posted messages critical of the company on a Yahoo! message board. Dendrite alleged that three of the message posters had made false statements, that two of the posters who identified themselves as employees had violated employment agreements, and that three of them had published secret information. After Dendrite asked the court to require Yahoo! to identify the defendants, Superior Court Judge Kenneth MacKenzie ordered Dendrite to post a notice of its request on the Yahoo! message board to alert the posters that their anonymity was at issue. Two of the posters hired lawyers to defend their right to remain anonymous, and Public Citizen entered the case as a friend of the court to argue for a limited right to anonymity. After Judge MacKenzie ruled in favor of the two posters, Dendrite appealed the denial of its request to identify just one of the posters.

The court accepted Public Citizen's argument that courts must "strike a balance between the well- established First Amendment right to speak anonymously, and the right of the plaintiff to protect its proprietary interests and reputation [against] actionable conduct of anonymous, fictionally named defendants." To achieve this balance, Judge Fall adopted a four-part test, following the standard proposed in Public Citizen's brief, to ensure that the right to speak anonymously can be lost only if the plaintiff can show that it had a valid case against the speakers that could not be pursued without identifying the speakers.

Under this standard, the court should first require the plaintiff to attempt to notify the anonymous posters that their identities are being sought and give the defendants an opportunity to oppose the request. The plaintiff must identify the exact statements alleged to be unlawful. The court must then decide both whether the complaint states a valid claim for relief and whether the plaintiff has enough evidence to support its claim. Finally, if these first three criteria are met, the court must balance the defendant's First Amendment right of anonymous free speech against the strength of the case and the necessity of identifying the poster.

The court upheld Judge MacKenzie's ruling that Dendrite had not met this standard, because there was no proof that the messages had caused its stock price to fall or had otherwise caused it harm.

Public Citizen argued in its brief that because the main purpose of such suits is often to unmask company critics, the identification of those critics should be treated as a major form of relief that cannot be awarded without proof of wrongdoing. A company should not be able to deny members of the public the right to speak anonymously simply by filing a complaint and making vague allegations of wrongdoing.

"Judge Fall has set an important precedent protecting the free speech rights of all Internet posters," Levy said. "He established tough standards that we hope other courts will follow."

Public Citizen filed the brief because it champions free speech rights. The organization recently represented a person who posted anonymous messages on a Yahoo! message board about Thomas & Betts Corporation, a Tennessee manufacturer of electrical components. That company dropped the case with a statement that it did not want to chill free speech on the Internet. Public Citizen is also representing an employee who anonymously posted a message on the Internet about an executive of Ohio-based AK Steel Company. The executive has sued to learn the identity of the employee.

J.C. Salyer of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey Foundation was local counsel in this case. Judges Edwin Stern and Ariel Rodriguez joined Judge Fall's opinion. A second similar case, Immunomedics v. Doe, was argued in tandem with the Dendrite case but has not yet been decided.

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

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

The Appellate Division's opinion is at

http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/dendriteappeal.pdf.

Judge MacKenzie's opinion is at

http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/dendrite.pdf

Public Citizen's brief is available at

http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/dendwebamicus.htm

7/11/01
11:19:21 PM

MediaChannel.org

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE ACTORS' UNION

First the Screen Actors' Guild hired a former Disney executive as "CEO" -- then he quit less than two weeks later. MediaChannel advisor and SAG board member Roy Boggs' dispatch from the Hollywood frontlines

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#sag

NEWS DISSECTOR: UNITED NATIONS, UNREPORTED

The United Nations made a new bid for relevance with its recent Special Session on AIDS, but the trend of neglect by the press that Danny Schechter spotted last year hasn't disappeared.

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/unsummit.shtml

DAILY MEDIA NEWS

Breaking news stories about the international media, from mainstream and alternative sources.

http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/

**FROM OUR AFFILIATES**

WILL THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DROP MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES?

Efforts to end limits on corporate ownership of TV have critics alarmed about a future of concentrated media power.

http://www.mediachannel.org

CONDEMNING INDIA'S CORPORATE PRESS

South Asia has half the world's hungry people - and a food surplus. The Indian media ignore both. How dare the press cover fashion and business but not poverty and starvation?

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#india

CENSORSHIP BY SCOTLAND YARD?

A pair of award-winning reporters claim that under pressure from Scotland Yard, the Guardian newspaper killed their investigation into U.K. police corruption.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#police

NEW FRONTS IN THE MIDEAST'S MEDIA WARS

Independent Web sites help Mideast journalists avoid censorship and activists launch a media freedom campaign ... with a pie.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#pie

AFRICAN WOMEN FIGHT PRESS BRUTALITY

Southern African media systemically ignore or victimize women, argues a persuasive and practical guide to changing the system.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#women

7/11/01
11:16:18 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

SPIN OF THE DAY

PR Watch, Web site review by Al Paulson

-- That talking head on the tube with the confident, authoritative voice would never lie to you. Or would they? Or is the truth in there somewhere, but completely unrecognizable. Keep up with the latest doses of convoluted truth on PR Watch's Spin of the Day.

WHY MEN LIE (ABOUT WAR)

by Tom Vannah, New Mass Media

-- From President Bush to Senator John Kerry to your neighbor down the street, men lie about their wartime experiences. Tom Vannah examines the case of Mount Holyoke professor and author Joe Ellis as a way to get at this curious phenomenon.

LEARN TO PLAY GUITAR

About.com, Web site review by Al Paulson

--Dig that guitar out of the closet, dust it off, sit down in front of your computer monitor, and learn to play. It's easier and cheaper now than ever with About.com.

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

7/11/01
11:11:52 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

REPORT DETAILS HUMAN THREATS TO WORLD'S WHALES

WASHINGTON, DC, July 10, 2001 (ENS) - As the International Whaling Commission prepares to meet in London in less than two weeks, a new report released by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today discloses some of the serious threats which continue to threaten the survival of the world's whales.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-06.html

DOBRIANSKY WILL LEAD U.S. DELEGATION TO CLIMATE TALKS

WASHINGTON, DC, July 10, 2001 (ENS) - The United States delegation to the climate change negotiations in Germany later this month will be led by Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Dr. Paula Dobriansky, the State Department announced today.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-03.html

BUSH ENERGY PLAN COULD INCREASE AIR POLLUTION

WASHINGTON, DC, July 10, 2001 (ENS) - The Bush administration's energy plan would boost levels of dangerous air pollutants at a time when respiratory diseases such as asthma are at an all time high across the nation, environmental and public health groups charge.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-07.html

PACIFIC UNITES TO SUPPORT WHALE SANCTUARY

By Rowena Singh

VAVA'U, Tonga, July 10, 2001 (ENS) - Whale watching is a valuable legacy that many in the Pacific hope to pass on to their children. It is a vision shared by Felipe Tonga, educator and guide with Whales Alive! and Melinda Sea Adventures in Vava'u, Tonga.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-02.html

ARGENTINE NGOs PRESENT A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR BIODIVERSITY

By Alejandra Herranz

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, July 10, 2001 (ENS) - Argentina's non-governmental organizations have drafted an agenda to conserve Argentina's natural heritage. The document is intended to become the Argentine national strategy to protect the country's biodiversity.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-04.html

ANIMAL CRUELTY RISING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

LONDON, United Kingdom, July 10, 2001 (ENS) - Despite its reputation as a nation of animal lovers, animal cruelty is on the rise in the United Kingdom, new research published by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) shows.

For full text and graphics, visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-10.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 10, 2001

Federal Fee Protesters Ticketed During Colorado Demonstration

Faulkner to Oversee DOE's Efficiency and Renewables Programs

Minnesota Orders Utilities to Use Renewable Energy

Cleaner Diesel Fuel Could Clear Mount Rainier Views

Peruvian Amazon Is Haven for Mammals

Automakers Asked to Help Get Mercury Out of Cars

Tallgrass Prairie Refuge Coming in August

Coastal Science System Could Foreshadow Nationwide Network

Arches Photo Wins Parks Pass Contest

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-10-09.html

7/10/01
10:08:14 PM

Chat Live With Woody Harrelson

July 15, 2001 at 6:30 PM PST

Los Angeles, CA - On Sunday July 15, 2001 at 6:30 PM PST, actor and long time environmental activist Woody Harrelson will be hosting a "live chat" on his new web site

http://www.VoiceYourself.com

If you're interested in conserving our earth's resources, alternative energy use, sustainable living, improving your diet & health, or just want to let Woody know what's on your mind - log on and sound off. To join in, please visit the home page at

http://www.VoiceYourself.com

and click on the "live chat" link to participate in an open dialogue with Woody on issues you care about.

7/10/01
10:02:51 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

US says sending delegation to Bonn climate talks - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11506

House panel boosts science, space program funds - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11495

UPDATE - Home Depot sees strong energy product sales - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11496

Jeffords named Senate environment panel chairman - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11497

UPDATE - Town meetings planned on Bush energy policy - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11498

EPA urged to broaden review of US clean air rules - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11499

FEATURE - Pilots help teach whooping cranes to migrate - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11515

Senator McCain urges Bush to act now on climate change - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11507

US, Japan aides reach no deal in whaling dispute - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11516

US House panel set to boost vehicle fuel standards - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11494

Cameras helping retrieve dropped nuclear fuel - BNFL - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11505

UK Ofgem must protect small power producers-minister - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11503

UPDATE - Big Oil makes the grade in FTSE ethical indices - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11502

Thai researchers striving to save the papaya - THAILAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11504

Nigeria Supreme Court to resume oil resource case - NIGERIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11508

Global warming to hit poor states' food output - study - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11510

Moveable power plants to turn fat into electricity - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11511

Hazy Malaysia keeps air quality data under wraps - MALAYSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11513

INTERVIEW - Japan in quandary how to lure US to Kyoto pact - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11512

Israelis told not to drink contaminated water - ISRAEL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11514

Ecologist named French environment minister - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11501

EU, Japan industry lend backing for Kyoto pact - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11500

INTERVIEW - Australia says leave Kyoto door open for US - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11509

7/10/01
10:00:55 PM

WILD ALERT

The FY 2002 Interior Appropriations bill will be taken up by the full U.S. Senate starting *tomorrow* (July 11). In particular, two amendments affecting national monuments and parks -- one good, one bad -- could be offered. You helped make the difference last month when the bill was in the U.S. House -- your calls and faxes are needed again:

http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=517

or call the U.S. Senate at (202) 224-3121.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) will offer an amendment to protect National Monuments from oil and gas drilling and other new energy development. This amendment is similar to one that won approval in the U.S. House of Representatives last month on a solid bi-partisan vote, in large part due to *your* calls and faxes.

The amendment will prohibit the expenditure of funds for any pre-leasing or leasing activities under the Mineral Leasing Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in National Monuments created by various Presidents since passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906.

Some of our newest National Monuments have been targeted for energy development -- spectacular landscapes containing important archeological features, unique ecological attributes, or places of special historic significance, including Grand-Staircase Escalante, Upper Missouri River Breaks, Carrizo Plain, and Hanford Reach National Monuments.

DENALI THREATENED BY SNOWMOBILES

Another amendment that could be offered would revoke the National Park Service regulation closing the designated Wilderness core of Denali National Park and Preserve to snowmobiles. This regulation underwent an exhaustive public process and had overwhelming public support. Out of more than 6,000 comments submitted, 96% of all respondents -- and 91% of Alaskans -- supported the closure.

According to language provided by the snowmobile industry, the amendment would:

- Revoke the Park Service regulation protecting Denali National Park.

- Violate the long-standing Park Service decision to keep Denali a pristine Wilderness. Snowmobiling has never been allowed in the core of Denali; it has been prohibited there since the dedication of the area as Mt. McKinley National Park in 1917.

- Take away valuable quiet and pristine land from the public. Over 95% of federal and state lands in Alaska, or 32.8 million acres, are already open to snowmobiles according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

ABSAROKA-BEARTOOTH WILDERNESS

The Interior Appropriations bill includes a provision to extend for 50 years a non-conforming special use permit for a cabin located in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area in Montana. The U.S. Forest Service, which administers this Wilderness, is concerned that allowing the cabin to remain could set a precedent, and is contrary to the Wilderness Act, Forest Service policy, and the Custer National Forest Management plan.

The cabin was owned by Bruce Crippen, a former state senator in Montana, who tried to have the permit extended, but was denied by the Forest Service. He then gave the cabin to Montana State University-Billings. But the special-use permit cannot be transferred and was terminated when the cabin was conveyed to the university, which has yet to re-apply for the permit.

The provision is already in the Senate bill, but not in the House version. So we are asking Senators to remove the provision when the bill goes to a Conference Committee, during which the two bills will be reconciled.

TAKE ACTION

Please contact both of your Senators today -- send a fax from

http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=517

or call the U.S. Senate at (202) 224-3121. Ask your Senators to:

- SUPPORT the Durbin amendment to protect our National Monuments from mining and oil and gas drilling.

- OPPOSE any anti-environmental riders, including any rider to revoke the Park Service regulation protecting Denali National Park Wilderness from snowmobiles.

- OPPOSE the provision extending the non-confirming special use permit for the Crippen cabin on the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Montana, which is contrary to the Wilderness Act, Forest Service policy, and the Custer National Forest Management Plan.

For a full list of Action Items, visit

http://www.wilderness.org/whatcan/takeaction.htm

7/10/01
3:44:18 PM

Global Warming Encourages Mosquito Invaders

by ENN

Asian tiger mosquitoes that carry tropical diseases are likely to spread far and wide as global warming creates hotter temperatures outside their historic habitat, according to new research from the University of Florida. "Our research shows that, like many mosquitoes, this species breeds faster as the temperature gets higher," said Barry Alto, a University of Florida entomology doctoral student and co-author of the study which appeared in the July 2 issue of the "Journal of Medical Entomology."

"If global warming trends continue, the Asian tiger mosquito may become common in places it's not found today," Alto warned.

Though small, Asian tiger mosquitoes bite aggressively, attacking humans, livestock, and wildlife, mainly during daylight hours. This species can spread over 100 diseases, says Florida's Sarasota County Mosquito Management Division.

The Asian tiger mosquito may be just the beginning of a northern invasion of other species of mosquitoes. "Some research indicates that global climate change may alter the current distributions of other mosquito species," Alto said.

Native to East Asia, the Asian tiger mosquito has spread widely in the last two decades, transported into the United States in shipments of used automobile tires containing its eggs from Japan or Taiwan. In 1986, the Asian tiger mosquito was initially discovered in Florida at a tire dump site in Jacksonville. Over the next eight years, it spread to all of Florida's 67 counties.

Warmer regions of North and South America, Europe and Africa now harbor the species, known scientifically as Aedes albopictus. In the tropics, it carries dengue fever, which infects tens of millions but is usually not fatal. A severe, hemorrhagic form of the disease infects hundreds of thousands each year and kills about five percent of those infected.

It was first reported in the United States in 1985 and has reached at least 25 states, mainly in the East and South. "This mosquito spread quickly in the South," Alto said, "whereas in the Midwest, it's less common although it arrived in the mid-80s."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that, "Global warming may increase the risk of some infectious diseases, particularly those diseases that only appear in warm areas. Diseases that are spread by mosquitoes and other insects could become more prevalent if warmer temperatures enabled those insects to become established farther north." The EPA says these diseases include malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis.

Alto's study compares reproduction of Asian tiger mosquitoes housed at 79, 75 or 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Mosquitoes kept at 79 degrees reproduced fastest, while those at 72 degrees reproduced slowest.

"The difference between the low and high temperatures, seven degrees, matches some estimates of how much global temperatures will increase in the next 100 years," he said.

The study shows that higher temperatures, when considered alone, would probably allow the mosquito to spread farther north and possibly survive year-round in areas where winter freezes now kill it off, Alto explained.

Steven Juliano, an Illinois State University biological sciences professor and co-author of the study, said global warming is also predicted to affect rainfall and humidity, so the study does not make definite predictions about the mosquito's possible spread. Still, he said, it provides some valuable insight.

"Insect population dynamics are affected by many variables," Juliano said. "But this study helps us highlight what we need to know to plan for the future."

The EPA says that in spite of these risks, increased mortality is not an inevitable consequence of global warming. "Malaria, for example, is rare in the United States even in warmer regions where the mosquito that transmits the disease is found, because this nation has the ability to rapidly identify and contain outbreaks when they appear," the agency says.

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of World Health Organization recognized in 1999 that global warming is facilitating the spread of malaria carrying mosquitoes. "In several locations around the world," she told an audience on World Meteorological Day, "malaria is now reported at higher altitudes than in preceding decades, such as on the mountain plateaus in Kenya."

"One possibility that we have to take seriously, if the trends continue, is that climate change is contributing to the spread of this major disease," she said.

"Health scientists, including some at the Copenhagen and Rome offices of WHO, are beginning to address this as a serious research issue," said Dr. Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister who led the United Nations commission that coined the phrase "sustainable development."

Juliano and Alto are conducting follow-up research on the invasion biology of the Asian tiger mosquito at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach.

The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and involves researchers from UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Illinois State University, Yale University and Brazil's ministry of health.

Source: http://www.enn.com

7/10/01
3:37:43 PM

Arctic Oscillation Causes Climate Change

by ENN

Climate change linked to the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases may not be the only cause of recent warmer winters in the Northern Hemisphere. A little known climate pattern called the Arctic Oscillation has been linked to warming winters by new research conducted at Colorado State University. "Public perceptions that winters are becoming less wintry appear to be as much or more due to the change in the Arctic Oscillation as to global warming," said David Thompson, an assistant atmospheric science professor at Colorado State University.

Global warming due to the concentration of greenhouse gases produced by the burning of coal, oil and gas could be operating in tandem with the Arctic Oscillation. "It is conceivable that this change in the behavior of the Arctic Oscillation could be linked to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Thompson said.

The Arctic Oscillation -- also called the North Atlantic Oscillation or the annular mode -- is a climate pattern defined by winds circulating counterclockwise around the Arctic at about 55 degrees north latitude, roughly in line with Moscow, Belfast, and Ketchikan, Alaska.

Thompson and John Wallace, a UW atmospheric sciences professor, examined daily January-through-March weather data from specific stations for each year from 1958 through 1997.

In the July 6 edition of the journal "Science," the researchers report finding a strong correlation between the Arctic Oscillation's negative phase and near-record cold days and snow storms over a much broader region of the hemisphere than was previously thought.

In its negative phase, the Arctic Oscillation's ring of air spins more slowly and is more easily disturbed, allowing cold Arctic air to spill out of the far north regions and into mid-latitudes. In the positive phase, the ring of air spins faster and acts much as a dam that impedes frigid air moving south.

"The Arctic Oscillation flips back and forth a lot between positive and negative phases within a winter," Thompson said. "These changes affect weather throughout much of the hemisphere."

Arctic Oscillation effects on weather patterns appear to be as far-reaching as those triggered by El Niño in the South Pacific.

Thompson and Wallace found that days on which the Arctic Oscillation is in its negative phase are on average several degrees colder than normal over most of the United States, Northern Europe, Russia, China and Japan.

Cities with normally mild winters, such as Seattle, Dallas, Paris and Tokyo, experience most of their subfreezing temperatures and snow and ice storms on negative-phase days.

Negative-phase days bring to New England a greater likelihood of strong coastal storms known as Nor'easters.

Positive-phase days show a greater frequency of high winds over northern Europe and North America's Pacific Northwest.

In the 1980s and 90s, the Arctic Oscillation was mostly in the positive-phase, the researchers said. That reduced the number and frequency of days with subzero temperatures or substantial snowfall in the mid-latitudes.

John Walsh, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, supports these conclusions. "Much of the warming during this period is likely due less to the greenhouse effect than to changes in the atmospheric circulation," he says on the Arctic website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"A large-scale pattern of atmospheric pressure and winds, known as the Arctic Oscillation, brings relatively warm air to northern Eurasia and, to a lesser extent, northwestern North America when it is in a particular phase. This phase has been dominant for the past 20 years, while the opposite phase predominated in the 1960s," Walsh explains.

The changing wind pattern since 1960 has favored warming in the same Arctic areas where the strongest warming has been detected.

While the Arctic warming of recent decades may have multiple causes, longer temperature reconstructions from paleoclimatic data - tree rings, ice cores and temperature records - indicate that the Arctic was warmer during the 20th century than at any time since 1600, Walsh says.

Wallace expects the Arctic Oscillation to continue the tendency it has shown in recent decades. "If this trend of the last 30 years is human induced and if it continues, snow in Seattle or Dallas or Tokyo will become an even rarer event than it is now," he said. "But if that trend reverses, all bets are off."

The research by Thompson and Wallace was paid for by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Source: http://www.enn.com

7/10/01
2:12:41 PM

A New York state filmmaker has made a video featuring an all-animal cast delivering a humane message about love.

"Fuzz Buzz" features real dogs and cats frolicking together in gentle and humorous ways. The 26-minute video is the brainchild of Susan Elias, who spent two years filming the 12 unusual vignettes of animal houseplay. Segment titles include "Shake That Paw and Wag That Tail" and "Thrilla on the Pilla." The actions range from a hide-and-seek game under the sheets, to a cat wrestling with a dog, to a dog nursing two adopted kittens.

"The message of course, is about friendship and tolerance. If these cats and dogs can overcome their differences surely human beings can," said Elias.

The filmmaker came up with the idea for the video after seeing how her dog Phoebe and newly arrived cat Smokey had bonded the instant they met.

http://www.FurryFilms.com

7/10/01
2:00:47 PM

Public Citizen

No More Excuses: Pass Campaign Finance Reform Now

Statement of Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen (From 6/10 press conference in Washington, D.C.)

We are here to bury soft money, not to perpetuate it. Today, we are closer than ever to putting soft money to rest for good and reducing the crushing grip special interests have on our government policies. In recent days, we've seen some members of Congress waffling on pledges of support for banning soft money. The time for excuses is over. These House members are jeopardizing their futures, because the public is fed up with the legalized corruption of politics today. We must pass the Shays-Meehan measure.

Shays-Meehan is a huge step forward. It's even better than McCain-Feingold, since it maintains the $1,000-per-election limit on individual contributions to House candidates. (The Senate hiked the maximum to $2,000 for all federal candidates, $4,000 for the primary and general elections.) Nearly half of all individual contributions to federal candidates in 2000 came from donors who gave at least $1,000, even though these contributors comprised only one-ninth of one per cent of the population. The House should sustain the lower Shays-Meehan level for its own races -- which would not jeopardize final Senate approval of the legislation.

With the House having voted by decisive, bipartisan majorities for versions of Shays-Meehan in 1998 and 1999, there is no excuse for members to change their votes at this juncture. It would be hypocritical to twice vote against the corruption of our political system by soft money, then block reform when it is so close to becoming reality. Now is the best chance for the House to flush special interest money out of the halls of Congress for good.

No House member who votes against the Shays-Meehan bill can claim to be a reformer. No member who votes for a "poison pill" amendment - which would break apart the pro-reform coalition - can pretend to be a reformer. And no member who asserts that our political parties need to depend on big chunks of special interest money to get out their vote represents the spirit of democracy. Before the soft money explosion of the past 12 years, Democrats and Republicans traditionally used hard money and volunteers to get out the vote, and will do so again after soft money is banned.

It's time for lawmakers to stop defending special interest money and give the government back to the people. Let's say our final goodbyes to soft money - today.

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

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

7/10/01
1:56:47 PM

Corporate Consolidation From Argentina To Alaska

The latest free trade deal endangers workers’ rights, the environment, and democracy throughout the hemisphere

by Leif Utne, Utne Reader

Despite what you may have heard in the major media, NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) has worsened conditions for Mexican workers. These children outside Tijuana are in a church daycare program much of the day and night because their parents work long hours at foreign-owned factories. Many other children are home alone for long stretches of time.

If you missed media coverage of the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City last April, you’re not alone. The massive protests outside the meeting of 34 heads of state—every country in the Western hemisphere except Cuba—flashed across the headlines for a few days, then vanished. But the issues the demonstrators were protesting have not gone away.

The Summit’s official Web site billed it as a chance for leaders to "address common hemispheric issues and challenges," including "improved access to education, poverty alleviation, strengthening human rights and democracy, and economic integration." In reality, it was an elaborate kickoff party for a new round of negotiations aimed at creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a deal that would extend the dubious "benefits" of NAFTA—the North American Free Trade Agreement—from Alaska to Argentina.

In the seven years since the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed NAFTA, investors and financiers in all three countries have enjoyed huge success as trade and investment ballooned. Yet NAFTA’s promise of "a rising tide that lifts all boats" has left workers and the environment high and dry.

An Economic Policy Institute survey of NAFTA’s impact on labor "finds a continent-wide pattern of stagnant worker incomes, lost job opportunities, increased insecurity, and rising inequality." Meanwhile, pollution in all three countries has continued to rise, particularly in the maquiladora factories along the U.S.– Mexico border. And numerous environmental, food safety, occupational health, and consumer standards—which were supposedly protected under NAFTA’s labor and environmental side accords—have been struck down as unfair barriers to free trade by panels of trade judges operating behind closed doors. For example, in 1997 Canada banned the use of MMT, an octane-boosting gasoline additive that was found to be a human neurotoxin. Virginia-based Ethyl Corporation, the world’s sole manufacturer of MMT, sued the Canadian government for $250 million under NAFTA’s "investor protection" provisions. In 1998 the case was settled for $13 million and the ban was reversed.

The FTAA takes things from bad to worse. In a report for the International Forum on Globalization, Canadian activist Maude Barlow argues that the FTAA "goes far beyond NAFTA in its scope and power . . . to create a trade powerhouse with sweeping new authority over every aspect of life in Canada, the Americas, and the Caribbean."

According to the public interest group Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch (http://www.tradewatch.org), the FTAA rolls the worst aspects of NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, and several other international trade bureaucracies into one neat package that will "[handcuff] governments’ public interest policymaking capacity and [enhance] corporate control at the expense of citizens." This would be accomplished by the following means:

• by installing new ‘investor protections’ that create closed-door trade tribunals where corporations can sue governments over domestic policies that may undermine future profits;

• by limiting governments’ abilities to stabilize their economies through regulation of foreign investment and speculative capital;

• by allowing foreign governments and corporations to bypass a nation’s legal system thanks to secret international trade tribunals;

• by providing corporations with new legal rights and political tools to attack government standards for food security, public health and safety, worker safeguards, and the environment; and

• by expanding the scope of trade to include the service sector, which will increase economic pressure on governments to privatize and/or deregulate already vulnerable public services.

Under current plans, the FTAA negotiations are scheduled to conclude in 2005, though several member countries, including the United States and Chile, are pressing for a 2003 deadline.

George W. Bush remarked at the close of the Quebec summit that "trade helps spread freedom." Delegates even voted to include a "democracy clause" stipulating that any country admitted to the FTAA must have a democratically elected government. Critics dismissed the clause as a cynical attempt to deflect criticism that the treaty is anti-democratic while in reality further cementing the exclusion of Cuba from the hemispheric economy.

The irony of Bush’s statement was palpable in the streets of Quebec, where police went to unprecedented lengths to shut the public out of the proceedings, constructing a 12-foot-high, 2.5-mile-long cement and chain-link wall around the already-walled old town. But protesters outside the "wall of shame," as it was dubbed by the Canadian media, soared to new heights of creativity to get their message across. After a group from the anarchist Black Bloc tore down a section of the wall, "a medieval-themed faction rolled up its catapult and flung pink stuffed animals at the police," reported David Moberg on Salon.com (April 23, 2001).

Not all of the activists took to the barricades, however. The Second People’s Summit of the Americas (http://www.peoplessummit.org)—the first was in Santiago, Chile, in 1998—drew labor, indigenous, environmental, women’s, human rights, and other citizens groups from throughout the hemisphere. At a parallel set of meetings during the days leading up to the trade talks, activists discussed ways to promote an alternative vision of global cooperation. The product of these discussions is a soon-to-be-published update of the document "Alternatives for the Americas: Building a People’s Hemispheric Agreement." First drafted during the 1998 summit, the document is a comprehensive plan offering "concrete and viable alternatives, based on the interests of the peoples of our hemisphere, to the FTAA."

As Maude Barlow is careful to point out, critics of corporate globalization do not believe that all international economic cooperation is bad. "As long as [agreements] are based on a different set of fundamental assumptions, such as the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights and strong environmental rules," writes Barlow, "citizens would be prepared to enter into a process to develop closer ties with one another and around the world. However, it cannot start with the assumptions and goals of the current FTAA."

-- Leif Utne From Utne Reader

Discuss FTAA in the Globe forum at Cafe Utne: http://cafe.utne.com

7/10/01
1:50:32 PM

Sarasota County Green Party - Protest ExxonMobil Wednesday July 11 7PM On Wed. 7/11/01, The Sarasota County Green Party,in conjunction with the Florida Green Party and the Global Green Party will join forces with Pressure Point,in an international day of protest and boycott against ExxonMobil corporation. A provocative direct action in support of this protest will occur in Sarasota at the intersection of highway U.S.41 and Gulf Stream Drive. It will begin at 5P.M. and conclude at 7 P.M. Expect colorful signs, large banners and street theatre in redress of the following issues:

Currently, ExxonMobil leads the oil industry in lobby pressure with a view to open up vast reaches of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wilderness to oil exploration and development.

While ExxonMobile budgets no funding for research and development into clean burning alternative energy technologies, their lobbying efforts have derailed international hopes for an accord to reduce the destructive climate changes produced by fossil fuel emissions.

ExxonMobile has also been sited by human rights watch groups for numerous abuses including the use of acts of terror and genocide in Indonesia, Cameroon and the Caucasus republics.

For more information concerning this action please call Sarasota Green Party Media Coordinator - Captain Wayne Genthner, 941 755.1632 or 941 365.6353.

Sarasota County Green Party: http://www.SarasotaGreenParty.org

Pressure Point: http://www.PressurePoint.org

7/10/01
1:41:10 PM

Odd News For A Laugh

1. WILL THE REAL DUMMY PLEASE STAND UP? AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. " He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence.

2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS! Police in Oakland, California spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them, shouting "Please come out and give yourself up".

3. WHAT WAS PLAN B??? An Illinois man pretending to have a gun kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines. The kidnapper then proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

4. THE GETAWAY! A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop, and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.

5. DID I SAY THAT??? Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a line-up. When detectives asked each man in the line-up to repeat the words, "Give me all your money or I'll shoot," the man shouted, "that's not what I said!"

6. ARE WE COMMUNICATING?? A man spoke frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!" "Is this her first child?" the doctor asked. "No!" the man shouted, "This is her husband!"

7. NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER!! In Modesto, CA, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun, but unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket.

8. THE GRAND FINALE Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert, an hour east of Bakersfield, California, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their brand new 22-ft. Bayliner to perform. It wouldn't get on a plane at all, and it was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power was applied. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted over to a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong.

9. THE TRAILER A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working order. The engine ran fine, the outdrive went up and down, the prop was the correct size and pitch. So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer.

7/10/01
1:36:26 PM

Inspirational Posters For Real Life

1. Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings . . . they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

2. If you can stay calm, while all around you is chaos . . . then you probably haven't completely understood the seriousness of the situation.

3. Doing a job right the first time gets the job done. Doing the job wrong fourteen times gives you job security.

4. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

5. Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

6. A person who smiles in the face of adversity... probably has a scapegoat.

7. Plagiarism saves time.

8. If at first you don't succeed, try management.

9. Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.

10. Teamwork... means never having to take all the blame yourself.

11. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

12. Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.

13. We waste time, so you don't have to.

14. Hang in there, retirement is only thirty years away!

15. Go the extra mile. It makes your boss look like an incompetent slacker.

16. A snooze button is a poor substitute for no alarm clock at all.

17. When the going gets tough, the tough take a coffee break.

18. Indecision is the key to flexibility.

19. Succeed in spite of management.

20. Aim low, reach your goals, avoid disappointment.

7/10/01
1:27:37 PM

US May Resume Nuclear Weapons Tests

The Guardian - Special report: George Bush's America

by Julian Borger in Washington

The Bush administration has commissioned a study on how quickly nuclear test sites in the Nevada desert could be put back into action, as part of a broad strategy of freeing the US from the constraints of the nuclear test moratorium and the 1996 comprehensive test ban treaty.

A readiness review of the Nevada test site has been ordered by General John Gordon, the head of the national nuclear security administration (NNSA), who told a congressional committee: "During this year we will look hard again at improving test site readiness and will review whether an appropriate level of resources is being applied to this vital element of stockpile stewardship."

The US signed the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) five years ago, but in 1999 the Senate - then under Republican control - voted not to ratify it. Meanwhile, the US is abiding by a nine-year-old moratorium on nuclear tests.

The new administration is reviewing both the treaty and the moratorium, in the belief that they represent an obstacle to maintaining the efficacy and safety of the US nuclear stockpile, and that they are fundamentally unverifiable.

Pentagon officials are also examining the potential of a new range of low-yield "bunker-busting" nuclear weapons, which would require testing to develop, they say.

Asked in a recent interview whether the US would break the moratorium, the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz said: "Well, there may be circumstances where, particularly if we develop questions about the reliability or safety of our nuclear weapons, where you would have to contemplate doing that."

US nuclear experts believe that it would take up to three years to get the Nevada underground test site ready, from the moment a presidential decision was taken. A congressional commission said earlier this year that it wanted to cut that time to three to four months.

The White House has also been investigating ways of extracting the test ban treaty from the Senate so that the administration could formally withdraw from it, but has been told by lawyers that there are no legal means of doing so.

However, although the Democrats now have a majority in the Senate, they concede they do not have the two-thirds majority necessary to ratify the CTBT and force the president's hand.

Therefore the treaty is in limbo and administration officials have said that that is where the White House is content to leave it. "We don't support CTBT and we don't support its ratification," one official told the French Press Agency yesterday. "The key is to have an effective counter-proliferation programme. In our view, CTBT is not an effective anti-proliferation regime."

The Bush administration's strategy now is to persuade its European allies to place less weight on the CTBT, portraying it as a cumbersome leftover from the cold war - the same line as Washington is taking with the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty.

To that end, the US is trying to remove discussion of the CTBT from the agenda of the G8 summit in Genoa later this month, and to scrub any mention of it from the summit's final communique.

Meanwhile, news that the administration is taking the first steps necessary for a resumption of nuclear tests in Nevada has alarmed local activists. Preston Truman, the director of one group, the Downwinders organisation, said: "The Bush administration has been undermining the ABM treaty, and the outer space treaty; now this signal that they may resume below-ground testing also leads to an ominous conclusion - that the US is preparing to unilaterally jettison an arms control regime fostered by every president since Eisenhower."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,518717,00.html

7/10/01
1:20:43 PM

Sperm On The Wane

Scientists from around the world are alarmed by a dramatic increase in genetically damaged human sperm

By Aaron Derfel - The Montreal Gazette

Scientists from around the world are alarmed by a dramatic increase in genetically damaged human sperm - a trend that is not only causing infertility in men, but also childhood cancers in the offspring of those who can reproduce.

It's now estimated that up to 85 per cent of the sperm produced by a healthy male is DNA-damaged, a leading authority on the subject revealed yesterday at an international conference being held in Montreal.

"That's very unusual," said John Aitken, head of biological sciences at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

"If you were to take a rat or a mouse or a rabbit, usually more than 80 per cent of their sperm would be normal."

For the last 20 years, scientists have known about declining sperm counts. But researchers are now learning that the quality of human sperm is steadily eroding, and might be causing birth defects as well as brain cancer and leukemia in children.

Abnormal sperm is also being blamed for a global increase in testicular cancer - a disease that strikes men in their 30s. Scientists believe that when a DNA-damaged sperm fertilizes a woman's egg, it can trigger a mutation of a key gene in the embryo.

And even if men today can reproduce, their damaged sperm might lead to infertility in their male progeny, Aitken suggested. "You're likely to see lots of diseases that are related to poorer semen quality."

Scientists suspect a wide range of environmental causes for the abnormal sperm - from exposure to pesticides and heavy metals to electromagnetic radiation.

"We're all exposed to 10 times more electromagnetic radiation than our forefathers," Aitken said. "It's all the electrical appliances we use, including microwave phones."

There is a consensus in the scientific community that men who smoke cause damage to their sperm, and that this might be responsible for childhood cancers. "If you are a man and you smoke, your semen profile won't be obviously affected," Aitken said. "You'll still have lots of sperm swimming around and you'll be fertile. But the DNA in your sperm nucleus will be fragmented."

The average ejaculate of human sperm contains 80 million spermatazoa, each genetically programmed to fertilize a woman's egg. Scientists examining human sperm have discovered that not only are sperm counts on the decline, but that the vast majority of sperm is sluggish, poorly structured, their DNA fragmented and that they generate a lot of cellular waste called free radicals.

"Generally speaking, everything is bad with the sperm," Aitken said.

Fortunately for most couples, it's the undamaged or least damaged sperm that tends to fertilize the egg.

As a result of increasing male infertility, scientists have developed a new technique to help couples conceive. It's called Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). In the lab, a technologist will take from the would-be father a single sperm, or even a cell that is on its way to becoming a sperm, and fertilize it in the test tube with the woman's egg. The resulting embryo is then transferred to the woman's uterus.

Dr. Keith Jarvi, of the University of Toronto-Mount Sinai Hospital, said the ICSI technique has revolutionized the treatment of male infertility. But he wondered about the health outcomes of the ICSI children.

That human sperm is of poorer quality than that of other mammals is not surprising. The human species is the only one that wears clothes, and healthy sperm need to be kept a couple of degrees cooler than the full body temperature. But clothing alone is not responsible for the extent of abnormal human sperm, Aitken argued.

More than 130 scientists are attending the Conference on Male-Mediated Developmental Toxicity.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/010622/5081326.html

7/10/01
1:19:19 PM

TotalFinaElf Seeks Permit For Wind Farm In Belgian Waters

PARIS, France, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - The giant oil and chemicals company TotalFinaElf is planning to build a wind generation facility in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Belgium.

Through its subsidiary Fina Eolia S.A./N.V., TotalFinaElf has applied to the Belgian Electricity and Gas Regulatory Commission for a concession to build and operate a wind farm in Belgian waters.

With this project, the company says its intention is to support the development of electricity generated from renewable energy sources, in line with targets set by the European Union and the Belgian State Department of Energy and Sustainable Development.

The project calls for the installation of 40 wind turbines at a distance of eight to 17 kilometers from shore, in two lines perpendicular to the coast to minimize the visual impact.

If approved, the turbines will be connected to the onshore power transmission grid by a subsea cable that will make landfall near the Port of Zeebrugge.

The company says that the proximity of the proposed route to existing undersea pipelines and cables will minimize the project's impact on the seabed and on existing fishing zones.

The wind farm would be installed and commissioned in two 50 MW phases, one in 2003 and the second in 2004. The installed capacity will be enough to supply electricity to an estimated 150,000 people, the company said.

The concession application is the first stage in a one year authorization process that will include further studies to assess the environmental impact on the sea, as well as on fishing, shipping and tourism. The studies will be carried out in close cooperation with local communities, local, regional and national authorities and other concerned parties.

TotalFinaElf said engineering studies are moving ahead to validate technological choices and to determine more accurately the required investment. The final investment decision will depend upon the introduction of an appropriate tariff structure.

TotalFinaElf has operations in more than 100 countries, from oil and gas exploration and production to the refining and marketing of refined products as well as international trading in both crude and refined products. TotalFinaElf is a major player in the chemicals markets, through its branch Atofina.

TotalFinaElf said it is committed to "leveraging its expertise" in the offshore oil industry to develop this renewable energy project.

7/10/01
1:18:57 PM

Northern Congo Rainforest Spared By German Loggers

NEW YORK, New York, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - One of the last pristine rainforests in Africa will not be logged by a German timber company. Known as the Goualogo Triangle, the 100 square mile forest in the Republic of Congo contains some of the highest densities of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in central Africa.

During a news conference at the Bronx Zoo Friday, Henri Djombo, minister of forests of the Republic of Congo announced the protection of what scientists are calling Africa's last Eden.

With a troop of lowland gorillas watching from the Bronx Zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit, Djombo was joined by officials from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the zoo's parent organization, and Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), a private timber company.

After learning of the Goualogo's biological richness, CIB gave up its legal rights to harvest the forest, which were leased from the government. The government of Congo will add the Goualogo Triangle to the already existing Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, which the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) helped create in 1993.

The agreement marks the first time a timber company working in Africa has voluntarily turned over virgin forest in the name of conservation. The Goualogo Triangle contains vast tracts of mahoganies and other valuable hardwoods.

Wildlife Conservation Society president, Dr. Steven Sanderson, hailed the Republic of Congo's government for its vision, and CIB for its courage.

CIB president Dr. Hinrich Stoll said, "Timber industry companies, mine included, are not in the habit of walking away from timber rich forests. But the Goualogo Triangle is a very special place. Wildlife and forestry surveys by WCS and CIB convinced us to preserve this forest, and both organizations worked hand-in-hand to protect it."

Surrounded by swamp forests and two rivers, Goualogo's geographic isolation has kept humans out. WCS surveys have documented that some of its wildlife, particularly chimpanzees, show little evidence of ever encountering humans before.

Chimpanzees are heavily hunted in Africa, and most respond with fear when encountering people. The apparent absence of fear in Goualogo is a curiosity, leading scientists to believe the area has suffered no human intrusion.

Dr. John Robinson, a WCS senior vice president called the agreement, "An unprecedented victory for conservation in tropical Africa. CIB and the government of Congo have shown extraordinary leadership in setting aside this wildlife area of global significance."

"The Republic of Congo depends on forest resource use for economic development, but it is also deeply committed to biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management," Dr. Robinson said.

Djombo said that protecting the Goualogo Triangle, an area rich in biodiversity but originally part of the Kabo Forest Management Unit, a logging concession allocated to CIB, reaffirms this commitment.

The Republic of Congo has already set aside about 11 percent of the country's surface area as protected areas, 90 percent of which is tropical forest. In January, country expanded Odzala National Park to 1.3 million hectares, more than four times its original size, protecting forests previously set aside for timber exploitation. The action will secure the habitat of the world's highest concentration of western lowland gorillas.

"The park will be a pioneer in conservation in central Africa and one of the main tourism resources in our country," Djombo said at the time.

The Bronx Zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit played a role in the establishment of the new park addition. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo first discussed the possibility of protecting the Goualogo at the Bronx Zoo during his September 2000 visit.

Following that visit, Congo held further deliberations with CIB concerning the joint CIB/WCS biological surveys, and the economic ramifications of protecting Goualogo. WCS's recommendations were accepted, resulting in the decision to protect the region.

But CIB has not always been as conservation conscious. According to environmentalists such as Korinna Horta of Environmental Defense who visited the Congo in 1996, CIB logged an enormous tract in the northern Congo just outside the Ndoki National Park in a manner the company wanted to keep her from seeing.

"While my entry visa into the Congo was good for the whole country," Horta told the "Christian Science Monitor" at the time, "the company had such clout that a simple fax sent from its headquarters to the travel agent in charge of my transportation led to the cancellation of my visit."

An official she identified as "foreign" told her, "Had you gone to that area, you would have seen the carcasses of dead gorillas and other endangered wildlife dangling down from the logs being transported on company trucks, and that would have been bad public relations for the company."

The northern forests of the Republic of Congo are one of the last remote areas of central Africa. Pressures to develop the country through timber harvesting and processing have increased over the past ten years at the same time as a bloody civil war has displaced more than 200,000.

Still, the Goualogo Triangle has remained unspoiled. Dave Morgan, a WCS researcher spent 80 days on a pilot study of the Goualogo Triangle chimpanzees in 1999. "Walking the network of elephant trails enables us to travel quietly and efficiently while searching for chimpanzees," he wrote. During that pilot study, the WCS team identified 103 chimpanzees.

To draw attention to the perilous situation of the greater Congo Basin rain forest ecosystem, WCS opened the Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit at the Bronx Zoo in 1999, and says it has educated millions of visitors. With more than 300 animals, including one of the largest breeding groups of lowland gorillas, it is the most spectacular exhibit ever created at the Bronx Zoo.

The exhibit has also raised more than $2.5 million from its admission fee, which is spent on the Wildlife Conservation Society's field programs in central Africa.

Wildlife Conservation Society website

On the creation of the Congo's Nouabale-Ndoki National Park is online at:

http://www.wcs-congo.org/natpk.htm

7/10/01
11:37:09 AM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

AUSTRALIA, JAPAN BACK AWAY FROM KYOTO CLIMATE PROTOCOL

TOKYO, Japan July 9, 2001 (ENS) - A high level delegation from the European Union has failed to win unequivocal Japanese and Australian support for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol without U.S. involvement.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-01.html

U.S. FOREST SERVICE BEGINS ROLLBACK OF ROADLESS RULE

WASHINGTON, DC, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - The U.S. Forest Service has begun reevaluating the roadless rule, a Clinton administration regulation aimed at protecting roadless areas of national forests. The agency says it will not appeal a federal court decision halting implementation of the rule, and will seek additional public comments before modifying and perhaps scaling back the rule to satisfy the timber industry.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-06.html

UN AGENCIES CALL FOR SAFETY TESTING OF BIOTECH FOODS

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - A United Nations commission has agreed on the first global principles for assessing the safety of genetically modified foods, the two agencies organizing the effort announced on Friday. The proposed rules could some day prompt governments to call for increased safety testing of foods and food ingredients created through biotechnology.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-07.html

NORTHERN CONGO RAINFOREST SPARED BY GERMAN LOGGERS

NEW YORK, New York, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - One of the last pristine rainforests in Africa will not be logged by a German timber company. Known as the Goualogo Triangle, the 100 square mile forest in the Republic of Congo contains some of the highest densities of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in central Africa.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-03.html

MULTINATIONAL OIL GIANT SEEKS TO BUILD WIND FARM OFF BELGIUM

PARIS, France, July 9, 2001 (ENS) - The giant oil and chemicals company TotalFinaElf is planning to build a wind generation facility in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Belgium.

Through its subsidiary Fina Eolia S.A./N.V., TotalFinaElf has applied to the Belgian Electricity and Gas Regulatory Commission for a concession to build and operate a wind farm in Belgian waters.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-02.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 9, 2001

Robert Kennedy Jr. Jailed for Vieques Protest

Russian Caviar Smuggler Lands in U.S. Jail

Sea Lion Protection Efforts May Be Misguided

Planned Montana Mine Could Be Environmental Disaster

Rule Will Protect Miners from Diesel Pollution

California Nuclear Plant to Boost Power Output

Bill Proposes Tax Credit for Home Windmills

Pollution Protesters Target West Virginia Power Plant

New Zoo Exhibit Promotes Sport Hunting

Missouri Halts Elk Restoration Effort

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-09-09.html

7/10/01
11:28:14 AM

A Tree Project Helps the Genes of Champions Live On

by Jim Robbins

BIG TIMBER, Mont. — As a bald eagle wheels overhead against a crystalline blue sky, Martin Flanagan walks toward a grove of towering cottonwood trees beside the Yellowstone River, which is the color of chocolate milk as the spring runoff rushes past.

As Mr. Flanagan leaves the glaring sun of the prairie and enters the shady grove, his eyes search for a specific tree. As he reaches a narrow-leaf cottonwood, a towering giant, he cranes his neck to look at the top. "This is the one I plan to nominate for state champ," he says, spanking the bark with his hand. "It's a beauty, isn't it?"

When Europeans first came to North America, one of the largest primeval forests in the world covered much of the continent. Experts say a squirrel could have traveled from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River without touching the ground. But only about 3 percent of America's native old-growth forest remains, and many of the trees they hold are those that were not big enough to attract a logger's eye. The result is a generation of trees that barely resemble the native forests that once blanketed the country.

That makes some scientists suspect that the surviving forests have lost much of their genetic quality, the molecular muscle that made them dominate the landscape. When the loggers swept through, these scientists say, only poor specimens were left to reproduce. Other researchers wonder what — whether environmental factors or just plain luck — may explain a good part of the supertrees' success.

To answer those questions, the mightiest trees of their types, or genetically identical offspring, must be preserved for study, and that is what is being done by a handful of enthusiasts, including Mr. Flanagan and David Milarch, a nurseryman from Copemish, Mich. They are searching out the largest tree of each species and taking cuttings of new growth to make copies — genetic clones — of the giants. With tissue culture and grafting, they have replicated 52 of the 827 living giants and are planting the offspring in what they call "archival living libraries." More than 20,000 offspring have been planted.

The work is part of the Champion Tree Project, which began in 1996 with financial help from the National Tree Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington.

"These big trees are the last links to the boreal forests," Mr. Milarch, president of the Champion Tree Project, said.

State and federal agencies and private organizations have been keeping track of the largest trees in each state for some time. The largest effort is the National Register of Big Trees, run by American Forests, a 125-year-old nonprofit group based in Washington. But the Champion Tree Project takes things a step further by perpetuating the largest trees.

The supertrees' genetic legacy is being preserved in five main tree libraries in different climates. The repositories are at Arlington National Cemetery; the gardens of George Washington's Virginia home, Mount Vernon; the Florida Botanical Gardens, near Tampa; the Oregon Botanical Gardens, in Salem; and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, in Michigan.

Eventually the Champion Tree Project hopes to replicate enough exemplary trees for a nationwide reforestation project. The offspring of the native trees, should they prove genetically superior, could be especially valuable in urban settings, where the average tree lives just 7 to 10 years. But things like soil conditions, moisture and other environmental factors can also affect the success of the trees.

But it remains to be seen whether superior genetics — characteristics like insect or drought resistance or fast growth — is behind the longevity of the giant trees or whether something else is responsible.

"Nobody has done any research to investigate the genetics of these trees," said Dr. John C. Alleyne, a plant geneticist at the Florida Botanical Gardens, who has begun that work. But the results of that research are 5 to 10 years away, Dr. Alleyne said.

"The genetics might be responsible," he said, "and there's every reason to believe it is, but chance could be the reason they survived. That's why we need to get them into a library and studied."

Three measurements determine a champion. Each tree measured gets a point for each foot of height, a point for each four feet of crown spread and a point for each inch of circumference, measured at chest height. Champions are often dethroned and new ones proclaimed, as larger trees are found and old ones die.

A related program is run by American Forests, which replicates and sells historic trees from famous properties like President Dwight D. Eisenhower's home in Abilene, Kan., and Elvis Presley's home, Graceland, in Memphis. Officials of American Forests say they are peeved that the Champion Tree Project is using its list to raise money. "They basically reinvented our program," said Dr. Deborah Gangloff, the American Forests executive director.

The Champion Tree Project bases its search on the National Register of Big Trees, which American Forests has kept since 1940, when foresters grew alarmed at the number of trees being rapidly cut because of demand for wood in the war years. The list was established and updated by a cadre of dedicated tree hunters, who fan out across the landscape competing to find the largest trees so they can be preserved.

Some experts, including those at American Forests, say claims that champion trees possess a genetic superiority are misleading.

"From an emotional standpoint," said Dr. Roger Funk, a plant physiologist who is head of research at the Davey Tree Expert Company in Kent, Ohio, which works with American Forests, "there is interest in perpetuating an organism with superior qualities." But from a scientific standpoint, Dr. Funk said, "it's very speculative."

"You can move an individual as little as 20 feet," he said, "and have different characteristics."

But to Dr. Frank Gouin, a plant physiologist who cloned the Wye Oak, a national champion in Wye Mills, Md., for the Champion Tree Project, it makes sense.

"A lot of white oaks get blight, but I have never seen a blight on this tree," Dr. Gouin said. "These trees are like people who have smoked all their lives and drank all their lives and are still kicking. Let's study them." Dr. Gouin is the retired chairman of the horticulture department at the University of Maryland.

Compared with the genetics of crops, the genetics of trees has not been well researched. "In plants it's known which genes confer which traits," said Dr. Denny Townsend, a research geneticist at the National Arboretum. So few genes have been cataloged in trees, he said, that the only way to tell whether one tree is better than another is "to propagate them and compare traits, and that can take years."

Trees taken from national champion cuttings have been grown for about four years. So far, there is little to distinguish them from other trees, nursery experts say.

"There's nothing that jumps out that's different about them," said Keith Warren, director of product development at J. Frank Schmidt & Son nursery in Boring, Ore., which is growing green ash and Norway maple commercially from champion stock. "But you are not going to be a national champion if you are below average. I suspect it's above-average genetics with quite a bit of luck."

Preservation efforts, supporters say, are a race against time, for national champions are dying. There were 67 national champions in Michigan when the Champion Tree Project was conceived; there are now 51. Such trees are lost to wind, age, ice storms and, especially, development. Climate change and pollution may also be taking a toll.

In at least one case, a champion has filled a need. Terry Mock, executive director of the Champion Tree Project, took cuttings from a national champion silver buttonwood a year before it was destroyed in a hurricane on a golf course in Key West, Fla. Two years later the project presented Key West with clones of the champion to replant.

Because America's forests have been cut so many times, most of the national champions are found in urban areas.

"There are 13 national champions in inner-city Detroit," Mr. Milarch said. "The national champion white ash is in Palisades, N.Y., in front of Tony's Steak and Lobster House."

All states have at least one champion tree, though Florida has the most, 170. The champions range in age from 300 to 3,500 years old.

Expanding America's urban forests, Mr. Mock said, is critical to improving urban environments. Trees filter rain, for example, slowing its fall. In doing so, the ground better absorbs the water. Without trees, much of the rain runs off into storm sewers and does not recharge aquifers.

The United States Forest Service supports the Champion Tree Project for such reasons. It points to a 1999 Forest Service study showing that in California's San Joaquin Valley, for example, a single large London plane tree in a front yard saved $29 in summer air-conditioning costs, absorbed 10 pounds of air pollutants annually, intercepted 750 gallons of rainfall in the crown, cleaned 330 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air and added 1 percent to the sale price of the house.

But the emotional reasons for the Champion Tree Project may be as valid as the scientific aims. People are fascinated by big trees.

"The champions are what the old- growth forest used to look like," Mr. Mock said. "What people alive on the planet see today are bushes compared to what trees used to look like."

http://www.ChampionTrees.org

7/10/01
3:52:20 AM

nickoli tesla was building a free unlimited energy source . he was shut down by westinghouse. he almost built it and ran out of money. is anyone out there who is interested in building a tesla energy collector ? i am a builder and i have a partner who is a physicist. compleatly free , unlimited energy, non polluting , it would elimate poverty and want, and eco-disaster. bill moore

7/9/01
8:08:45 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Calif. opens new power plant, awaits summer crunch - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11482

ANALYSIS - Bush drilling a dry hole in US energy output boost - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11488

UPDATE - Biotech "Frankenstein crops" may yield food to poor - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11485

Green groups blocking help for poor nations - UN - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11486

Climate group says Kyoto must proceed without US - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11492

INTERVIEW - Any Kyoto deal better than none - climate expert - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11484

UPDATE - Japan tells EU it wants US in Kyoto pact - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11493

Waste shipment from German n-plants postponed - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11483

German Cabinet to pass nuclear phaseout law in September - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11487

Actor Redford slams Bush on the environment - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11490

EU says Kyoto deal might not be possible at Bonn - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11491

Rosy outlook for wind power as new markets emerge - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11489

7/9/01
7:25:53 PM

World-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim re-ignited a heated controversy in Israel by breaking the decades-old, unwritten ban on performing music by German composer Richard Wagner, a favorite of Adolf Hitler and credited with inspiring Nazi cultural propaganda.

Following a Saturday night performance of selected pieces by composers Schumann and Stravinsky at the annual Israel Festival, Barenboim addressed the audience in Hebrew, saying, "This is something very private between you and me," while holding his fingertips together. He then offered to play parts of the Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde."

Many people applauded the offer, chanting, "We want. We want."

Most of the audience stayed -- though once the Wagner piece began, sounds of doors banging and people walking out could be heard throughout the hall. Afterwards, the performance received a standing ovation.

Barenboim's decision to perform the work of the controversial composer is the latest chapter in an ongoing argument that began several months ago when he told the Israel Festival's organizers that he wanted to play Wagner. The organizers had initially given Barenboim permission to perform Wagner. But following objections by Israeli president Moshe Katsav, the minister of culture, and the Knesset's education committee, they asked him not to play the piece.

7/9/01
7:21:47 PM

The Bush Twins

Jenna Bush, one of President Bush's twin 19-year-old daughters, was fined $600 Friday for violations of Texas laws against underage drinking and her driver's license was suspended for 30 days.

Bush was sentenced in two separate cases -- one in which she had earlier pleaded no contest to being a minor in possession of alcohol at an Austin bar April 27 and a second in which she allegedly misrepresented her age to buy liquor at an Austin restaurant May 29. She did not appear in court. The legal drinking age in Texas is 21.

In the first case, Community Court Judge Elisabeth Earle revoked deferred adjudication because of the second offense. Bush was fined $500, and the Texas Department of Public Safety was ordered to suspend her driver's license for 30 days.

Earlier in the same case, Bush had been ordered only to pay $51.25 in court costs, serve eight hours community service and attend an alcohol awareness course, which she completed. The level of punishment was stepped up after the second alleged offense.

"That secured a solid conviction on this offense, which is why it was revoked in community court," Austin Municipal Court Clerk Rebecca Stark said.

On the new charge, Bush pleaded no contest Friday. Municipal Judge Karrie Key ordered Bush to pay $100 in court fees, work a total of 36 hours of community service, and attend a Victim Impact Panel meeting to hear the real life effects of drunken driving.

Stark said the first conviction will remain on Bush's record, but she can have Friday's no contest plea removed if she follows the terms of plea agreement.

Jenna was with her twin sister, Barbara, at Chuy's restaurant May 29, along with a friend, when they were all cited by Austin police. The restaurant manager made a 911 call to police to report alleged underage drinking was going on at the Mexican cafe.

Barbara pleaded no contest and was sentenced to deferred adjudication, eight hours of community service and an alcohol awareness class. She has until Sept. 7 to comply with the order and it will be removed from her record.

Jenna Bush is a student at the University of Texas at Austin and Barbara attends Yale University at New Haven, Conn.

7/9/01
7:15:46 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

ARREST MY KID: HE NEEDS MENTAL HEALTH CARE

by Anne-Marie Cusac, The Progressive

-- Desperate to get help for their troubled children, parents are having them arrested in hopes that the juvenile correction system will deliver the mental health care they need, but can't afford. Sometimes, however, the "help" kids receive turns out to be more damaging than none at all.

A NEW GREEN DEAL

by Mark Hertsgaard, Mother Jones

-- "The government helped launch the digital revolution by investing in technology - so why not do the same to create an energy-efficient economy?" Is it because the fossil fuel cabal doesn't want to change?

I'D LIKE TO FORCE THE WORLD TO SING - THE MAKING OF A YES GENERATION

by Joshua Glenn, The Baffler

-- What better way to create a new right-wing friendly generation than by the marketing of a soft drink? Was that the hidden agenda behind the sudden appearance of OK Cola in the nineties?

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

7/9/01
7:15:16 PM

Planetary Citizenship

Foundation For Global Community

The Foundation for Global Community is a project-based nonprofit educational organization, dedicated to reconnecting people, the planet, and prosperity. Recognizing that natural, social, and economic systems are all parts of a single interconnected whole, the Foundation has been promoting cultural change, facilitating personal development, and strengthening community connections for over 50 years

Global Community: http://www.globalcommunity.org/

7/9/01
7:14:56 PM

Environment & Ecology

Ecological Footprint

The footprint measures human impact on nature. In order to live, people consume what nature offers. So, every one of us has an impact on our planet. This is not bad as long as we don't take more from the Earth than it has to offer. But are we taking more than we should? The Ecological Footprint measures what we consume of nature. It shows how much productive land and water we occupy to produce all the resources we consume and to take in all the waste we make. How big is your footprint? The average American uses 30 acres to support his or her current lifestyle. This corresponds to the size of 30 football fields put together. In comparison, the average Canadian lives on a footprint one third less, and the average Italian on 55 percent less.

Redefining Progress:

http://www.rprogress.org/programs/sustainability/ef/

7/9/01
7:13:52 PM

German Village Experiments With Auto-Free Living

Germany - Vaubon, a former military base outside the German city of Freiburg, has become one of Europe's latest experiments in auto free living. The 280-home, 94-acre, car-free village is just exactly what increasing numbers of people are seeking according to German lawmaker Franziska Eichstaedt-Bohlig, a Green party housing expert. "People are looking for places where they're not constantly being confronted with cars."

There is a garage outside the auto-free area where residents who want a parking space must pay $18,000. Car-free households contribute $3,500 to a fund that holds a plot of land in trust in case more parking is needed someday. If they later buy a car, the payment will be applied toward a garage space.

"Our goal was not to be so dogmatic - making people promise till the end of their lives never to get a car," says Claudia Nobis, who oversees traffic issues at Vauban. "But whoever doesn't have a car gets a big financial break."

About half the 280 households in Vauban's auto-free district have so far opted to go car-free. Private cars are allowed in for pick-ups and deliveries, but can't stay, and anyone who violates the parking rules can be ticketed by the city. The biggest hazards, however, are the jumble of bicycles outside almost every front door.

Adapted from an article by Guy Dauncey in Econews:

http://www.earthfuture.com

7/9/01
7:13:18 PM

"Conversations With God" Author Launches New School

USA - Oregon - Neale Donald Walsh, author of the wildly popular "Conversations With God" book series, recently announced the opening of a new school based on the educational principles described in the book.

The first HeartLight School has just opened its doors in Ashland, Oregon, emphasizing a democratic, non-coercive approach to education. Students of all ages participate in determining what they will do, as well as when, how, and where they will do it. The idea is that students should set their own curriculum and choose which skills they wish to acquire, rather than being told what to learn. This approach, proponents claim, increases motivation to its highest level, and life skills are acquired quickly, easily, and joyfully.

Freedom is a key to the HeartLight approach and is based on the idea that everyone is curious by nature; that the most profound learning takes place when initiated by the learner; that multi-age groups promote growth; and that freedom develops personal responsibility.

This means that students initiate all their own activities and create their own environments, which in turn stimulates them to be independent, trusted, and treated as responsible individuals. School government is by participatory democracy and there are no evaluations, grades, nor transcripts.

The HeartLight founders see the school embracing the best of a variety of alternative educational models, including the Waldorf, Sudbury and Montessori approaches. Day-to-day operations as well as classes and activities in subjects such as Understanding Power, Peaceful Conflict Resolution, Elements of Loving Relationships, Sharing, and Meditation all incorporate the principles found the CWG material.

You can visit HeartLight at http://www.heartlightschool.com

7/9/01
7:12:59 PM

Environmental Info Now Available By Zip

USA - NEW YORK - Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) recently announced the launch of a new non-commercial web site that delivers detailed, zip code specific environmental information for every community in America.

The site, called "For My World," offers people across the USA facts and advice tailored specifically to their communities, so users can access information quite literally about their own backyards," said Environmental Defense executive director Fred Krupp.

For My World offers customized Neighborhood Reports with detailed local data. Each report contains ways to take community action to improve the environment.

Users can receive reports on four different topics:

* Pollution studies: levels of contaminants in local air, waters and soils, as well as local toxic manufacturing emissions.

* Nature: provides a detailed overview of native animals, from native birds to common area snakes, in addition to information on local natural recreation areas;

* Recycling: rounds up area recycling centers for everything from Junk mail to motor oil to used batteries.

* Gardening: supplies facts about native plants and monthly gardening tips.

"The Internet is the ultimate expression of 'think global, act Local,'" said Krupp. "The web gives Environmental Defense and the National Wildlife Federation the unique chance to offer pooled Resources in a way we'd never be able to do offline."

"People look to our organizations to give them the information they Need to discover and care for the world around them," said NWF President and CEO Mark Van Putten. "The Internet gives us an ideal opportunity to give people the information they want and the opportunity to make a difference for their community, their nation And their world."

Visit the For My World website at http://www.formyworld.com

7/9/01
7:12:40 PM

System Would Harness GPS Signals To Study Environment

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Engineers at Purdue University and NASA have developed a new technique for monitoring the environment by using routine signals that already are being beamed to Earth by global positioning systems. Conventional techniques for gathering information about global climate change and other environmental data require systems that have their own transmitters and receivers on satellites or aircraft. The equipment, though, is relatively heavy and consumes large amounts of power.

The new technique could be used for alternative or complementary systems on aircraft and satellites. The method does not require a transmitter because it uses the signals already being transmitted by GPS satellites. That makes it possible to design a system that only requires a receiver, other hardware and special software that is one-tenth the weight and uses about one-tenth the energy of conventional systems, said James Garrison, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University.

Garrison will present a paper on this technique July 13 at a special session during the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, in Sydney, Australia. The conference is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Satellite GPS systems are constantly broadcasting microwave signals to Earth. The signals are used for everything from military maneuvers to directions for lost motorists, and ship navigation to measurements for agriculture. The systems work by timing how long it takes for signals to get from the satellite to a receiver on the ground. Because the speed of the signal is known, the difference between when the signal is sent and when it is received reveals the distance of the receiver. Signals from several satellites are needed to provide a three-dimensional fix — a precise location of the receiver on the Earth's surface.

Those same microwave signals, however, also bounce off of the Earth's surface and oceans and can be picked up by receivers on aircraft or satellites, recorded and used to study conditions on the planet.

"Twenty-four hours a day, all around the world, they are broadcasting this signal," Garrison said. "Our transmitter is provided by the GPS satellite. So we get the transmitter for free 24 hours a day."

The new system, invented by Garrison and NASA engineer Stephen Katzberg, would use GPS signals to collect environmental data for studies aimed at understanding global climate change.

"The small size and low cost of the instrumentation would make operational deployment on balloons or small aircraft very affordable," Garrison said.

Because water is an especially good reflector of GPS signals, the new technique is promising for studying how ocean-related conditions affect global circulation and world climate. For example, scientists monitor wind patterns near the surfaces of the oceans to track global circulation, which influences climate.

As each GPS signal bounces off of the water, it reflects from numerous facets on the rough, undulating surface. The signal is then picked up by a receiver, located on an aircraft or a satellite, and then software interprets the data, providing detailed measurements of the changing ocean surface.

"The roughness of the surface is directly related to near-surface meteorological conditions," said Garrison, a former NASA engineer who began the research while working for the space agency.

Several research papers to be discussed during the upcoming conference in Sydney will specifically address the feasibility of a satellite instrument to measure ocean surface meteorological data using reflected GPS signals.

Garrison and Katzberg originally were trying to invent a system that would use GPS signals to take images of objects on the Earth's surface, an application that would have various potential uses, including military operations. They were awarded a patent for that application in 1999 and still may pursue the research, depending on the availability of funding, Garrison said.

Because the system is lighter and uses less energy than conventional systems, it would be ideal for installation on small remotely piloted drones called unmanned aerial vehicles. It also would have benefits for satellite systems, he said.

"In the design of satellites, power is a big concern because systems that use a lot of power require larger solar arrays," Garrison said. "The larger solar arrays require a larger satellite structure, and large solar arrays also put more demand on attitude control."

The new technique also has other advantages. It works well when there is heavy moisture in the atmosphere during storms, unlike some of the conventional remote-sensing systems. It also is easier to use because it does not require complicated calibrations now required for conventional systems.

Tests using aircraft equipped with the system have yielded "significant data," which will be used to improve the technology so that it might be incorporated into satellites, Garrison said.

Engineers are working on a new version that will not require conventional GPS navigation hardware. Instead, software will perform all of the functions now needed for the GPS hardware, making the system more versatile and increasing its potential applications.

Garrison and Katzberg recently won an Exceptional Space Act Award from NASA for the patented system. The awards are granted for scientific and technical contributions that have been "determined to have significant value in the conduct of aeronautical and space activities," according to a NASA description.

Garrison said he intends to use his findings as a teaching tool for graduate students learning about GPS signals.

Source: Purdue University http://www.purdue.edu

Related Web sites:

International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium:

http://www.IGARSS2001.org

James Garrison:

http://AAE.www.ecn.purdue.edu/AAE/Fac_Staff/Faculty/jgarriso

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/07/010706081013.htm

7/9/01
7:12:13 PM

DNA Analysis Of Salamanders Turns Up New Species Under Almost Every Log, UC Berkeley Zoologists Find

Berkeley -- A new species of salamander discovered in an isolated range of hills in southeastern Mexico highlights the agile inventiveness of evolution as well as the many species still waiting to be discovered in out of the way spots and even under our noses.

The soil dwelling salamander looks identical to a salamander living in mountain foothills several hundred miles away, but DNA analysis by zoologists at the University of California, Berkeley, showed them to be distinct species. Experts can't tell them apart, but they apparently evolved from different ancestors and are not one another's closest relatives.

The finding, reported this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates an evolutionary concept called parallelism, a situation where two organisms independently come up with the same adaptation to a particular environment.

The discovery is one of many surprises that have emerged in the past few years as biologists use DNA comparisons to distinguish species and chart family trees. More and more researchers are finding that what once were thought to be separate populations of the same species are, in fact, different species or lineages, each as genetically distinct as a horse from a cow.

"Biodiversity has been grossly underreported," said David Wake, professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley and co-author of the PNAS paper with former graduate student Gabriela Parra-Olea, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and soon to take up a post at the University of Mexico in Mexico City.

This unsuspected diversity, often termed "cryptic biodiversity," is turning up in everything from whales to birds, fungi to flowering plants. It has implications for those who keep track of species, such as those who enforce the Endangered Species Act, as well as for biologists attempting to assess diversity in a particular region. Plus, it raises questions about the preservation of biodiversity.

"In biology, we have been too conservative about recognizing new species," said botanist Bruce Baldwin, curator of the Jepson Herbarium at UC Berkeley and a professor of integrative biology. "The general practice has been, if you can't tell members of different lineages apart by eye, then you shouldn't treat them as different species. But if we lump them all together, that under-represents biodiversity, and evolutionarily distinctive populations will not receive the protection afforded to other groups."

Wake, a recognized expert on amphibians, especially salamanders and frogs, is turning up new species seemingly under every log. Even in areas that supposedly have been combed thoroughly - Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks in California - Wake and his colleagues are finding new species as part of a survey commissioned by the National Park Service.

Wake and his students also have found amazing variation within what once was considered a single species. The California slender salamander, Batrachoseps attenuatus, the most common salamander in the state, turns out to be 20 separate species spread out along the coast from Oregon to Mexico. In 1997, he found one new species in the San Gabriel Mountains outside Los Angeles, and last year found another in San Simeon.

Similarly, a biologist at the University of Maryland discovered after DNA analysis that the common slimy salamander of the eastern U.S., Plethodon glutinosus, is really 16 distinct species.

"Evolutionarily, these are distinct species, without question," Wake said. "They don't mate with one another, and they live in totally different geologic and ecologic areas."

Wake said that the number of known salamanders is increasing by two percent - nearly 100 new species - every year.

Ornithologists have found similar cryptic biodiversity in crossbills, herpetologists in reptiles, marine biologists in whales, and botanists in plants, such as the tiny yellow goldfields that used to blanket the hills of California every spring.

"In case after case, when we look at evolution at shallower levels than we possibly could before, we are finding groups that have undergone extensive divergent evolution while remaining morphologically indistinguishable," said Baldwin. One of his graduate students is doing the work on goldfields.

The current PNAS paper deals with a particular genus of salamander, Lineatriton, that is unique among salamanders in how it has adapted to living in the soil of the forest floor. To facilitate burrowing, all other soil-dwelling salamanders became long and slender by developing more vertebrae in the neck and back, and by shrinking their legs. Rapid burrowing makes it easier to escape predators, Wake said, enabling salamanders to move into lowland habitat.

Lineatriton is the only salamander to become long and slender by taking a tip from the giraffe - it grew longer vertebrae. Only one species, Lineatriton lineolus, had been recognized in the genus, and it lives in the foothills of mountains inland of the Veracruz coast, between 2,000 and 4,000 feet.

When Parra-Olea collected identical salamanders from a known population in an isolated series of hills known as Los Tuxtlas farther down the coast, she naturally assumed they were of the same species.

Analysis of their mitochondrial DNA revealed, however, that they were two separate species that just happened to find the same solution - slim down and stretch out - to the problem of burrowing. Apparently, they evolved from similar ancestors with a more general salamander body plan characterized by a tail about the same length as the body.

"We were so surprised we did the DNA analysis again," Wake said. "These salamanders developed in parallel the same mechanism for burrowing in the soil, by lengthening their vertebrae - a strategy we thought had evolved only once in salamanders."

Interestingly, the Lineatriton genus and a more widespread soil-dwelling salamander of the tropical lowlands, Oedipina, evolved different ways to invade the soil, what biologists call convergence. While Oedipina developed more vertebrae - expanding from 14 to 18-22 vertebrae between the head and tail -Lineatriton kept the same number, 14, but grew them longer. Both have tails that stretch nearly twice the length of the rest of the body.

Wake and Parra-Olea found from their DNA analysis, which included many of Mexico's tropical lowland salamanders, that Lineatriton and Oedipina are not closely related either. "These findings give us insight into the patterns of convergent and parallel evolution and how lineages diversify," Wake said. "Without new molecular techniques, this would have been impossible."

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Technología (CONACyT).

Source: University Of California Berkeley http://www.berkeley.edu

For more information about amphibian biology and conservation, check the new AmphibiaWeb at

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/aw

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/07/010704092634.htm

7/9/01
7:11:15 PM

Researchers Determine Global Warming During The 20th Century May Be Slightly Larger Than Earlier Estimates

LIVERMORE, Calif. -— Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who examined effects of gaps in temperature measurements during the 20th century have concluded that global warming during that time period may have been slightly larger than the previously estimated value of roughly 0.6 degrees Celsius. These findings contrast with claims by greenhouse skeptics who contend that the warming seen in the observational record is an error introduced by incomplete and changing geographical coverage of temperature measurements.

The measured increase in the Earth’s surface temperature during the 20th century is based upon thermometer measurements, which become increasingly incomplete further back in time. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, thermometer measurements covered only 20 percent of the Earth’s surface, compared to more than 87 percent in 1987. Some greenhouse-warming dissenters have claimed that the gradual increase in coverage during the 20th century introduced an artificial warming trend into the temperature record, which accounts for most or all of the 20th century’s measured warming.

In an article titled "Effect of Mission Data on Estimates of Near-Surface Temperature Change Since 1900," in the July 1 edition of the Journal of Climate, LLNL researchers Philip B. Duffy, Charles Doutriaux, Imola Fodor and Benjamin Santer studied effects of the incompleteness of surface thermometer records on the estimated 20th century warming by examining 16 climate model simulations of the surface temperature changes from 1899 to 1998.

The scientists compared temperature trends obtained from globally complete model output with temperature trends derived by sampling the model output at only those locations where temperature observations are actually available. The comparison enabled the researchers to assess the effect of missing observational data on the apparent temperature trend during the 20th century.

"We found no evidence to support the hypothesis that incomplete observational data has caused us to overestimate the true warming trend," said Duffy, lead author of the paper. "On the contrary, our results suggest that the actual warming during the 20th century may have been slightly larger than the warming estimated from the incomplete observational data of -about 0.7 degrees Celsius instead of 0.6 degrees Celsius."

Livermore scientists examined climate models that incorporated estimated historical changes in both greenhouse gases and anthropogenic sulfate aerosols. Scientists concluded that in 10 of the 16 climate change simulations, missing data led to significant underestimates of the true global warming trend. In the remaining six simulations, missing data had no significant impact on the 20th century’s warming trend.

If the climate simulations are credible estimates of human effects on historical climate and of natural climate variations, it is extremely unlikely that missing observational data caused the 20th century’s warming to be overestimated.

"I hope that we’ve laid to rest the theory that warming that occurred during the 20th century is an artifact of missing data," Duffy said. "Knowing the accurate amount of the 20th century’s warming is important because if it were much less than we’ve thought all along, we would have to fundamentally rethink our ideas about global warming."

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory http://www.llnl.gov

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/07/010704092014.htm

7/9/01
7:10:47 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Bush admin moves ahead with review of roadless areas - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11471

Myrtle Beach mops up from tornado - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11465

Pristine Congo rain forest spared from logging - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11468

EPA finalizes ethanol rule to cut Midwest fuel cost - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11469

Wise Foods to test chips for StarLink corn traces - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11470

German rape prices boosted by biodiesel, weak euro - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11474

Carbon sinks won't solve global warming - report - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11481

UK Green Party plans Esso forecourt picket - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11472

UPDATE - World guideline for pre-market GM testing agreed - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11473

Warmer Sweden linked with tick-born encephalitis - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11478

Japan environment minister to visit US on Kyoto - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11477

Belgian minister says Kyoto pact changes possible - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11479

Japan PM resists pressures, sees time for Kyoto - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11480

Dozens hurt as tornado rips through north Italy - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11466

India road plan would cost 28,000 trees - minister - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11467

French minister says "tornado" deaths unavoidable - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11464

NIB lends $13 mln for Kaliningrad clean-up - FINLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11476

UPDATE - EU fears for climate deal after Australia talks - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11475

7/9/01
7:10:24 PM

Lehigh Scientist Turns Paper-Mill Waste Product Into Million-Dollar Savings

A catalytic process that could help paper mills save millions of dollars a year by converting a polluting by-product into formaldehyde, a useful product, has been discovered and patented by an engineering professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

Israel E. Wachs, professor of chemical engineering, says his method, which was tested by Georgia-Pacific Corp. (G-P) in mobile pilot plants for two years, succeeded in converting a methanol-water waste stream contaminated by sulfur compounds and small amounts of hydrocarbons known as terpenes into formaldehyde. The process also significantly minimizes most of the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), two potentially harmful by-products of traditional pollution-control methods, Wachs says.

Andrew G. Gibson, an industrial consultant and former process- improvement manager at G-P, says the company found that a mill producing 2,000 tons a day of pulp would save between $500,000 and $1 million a year using the new method to get rid of the contaminated methanol waste stream. There are approximately 150 such mills in the U.S. and Canada, says Gibson, and 300 more worldwide.

Methanol and sulfur compounds, called mercaptans, are produced at paper mills when logs are digested under intense heat and pressure with a caustic solution in sulfite. The process separates lignin, a polymeric resin that holds together the cell walls of plants, from cellulose, the material used to make paper. Methanol and mercaptans, foul-smelling compounds, were once released by paper mills into streams. The conventional method now of disposing of methanol and mercaptans is incineration at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, an expensive process often requiring additional fuel--usually natural gas--that emits CO2, a greenhouse gas, and SO2, an ingredient in acid rain.

"Using conventional pollution-control methods," Wachs says, "paper mills at best can only convert an extremely bad pollutant, contaminated methanol waste streams, into moderately bad pollutants, CO2 and SO2 - and at a major cost. Consequently, the paper mills are not completely solving the pollution emissions, but just taking a band-aid approach."

Wachs's process also produces formaldehyde, a reactive compound important to the paper mill industry used to make the resins in particle board, and also to make molding compounds, brake linings and other products.

Gibson says G-P asked Wachs in the mid-1990s to develop a new catalytic process capable of converting the contaminated methanol waste stream into CO2 and SO2 at mild temperatures in contrast to the energy-intensive incineration method at 1,500 degrees F. Existing methanol-oxidation catalysts made of bulk metal oxides or metallic silver, Gibson says, were useless in paper mills because they were deactivated by the sulfur compounds and by the high steam concentration present in the stripper overhead gas containing the methanol.

Wachs conducted experiments in the microreactors at Lehigh's Zettlemoyer Center for Surface Studies using tiny amounts - about 100 mg - of a catalyst of vanadium pentoxide on a titania support. Not only did his catalyst incinerate the waste streams to CO2 and SO2 at about 600 degrees F., much lower than the 1,500 degrees F. using conventional non-catalytic methods, but the catalyst was not poisoned by the sulfur compounds and high concentrations of water (~50%).

But two things - the rapid catalytic reaction rate and the total conversion to CO2 and SO2 - made Wachs suspect that he was failing to notice intermediate reaction steps and products. "It seemed to me that the reaction was being pushed so quickly from step A to step C that it was not possible to detect the intermediate reaction step B. So the reaction was slowed down and it was discovered that in that step formaldehyde was being made in very high concentrations. This was the discovery of a new catalytic reaction that was previously unknown and was a new way of making formaldehyde that was economically and ecologically favorable."

To further improve the efficiency of the catalyst, Wachs deposited the active vanadia-titania catalytic material on an inert ceramic, which minimized over-oxidation of the desired formaldehyde and minimized the negative influences of excessive exothermic heat of this reaction.

Wachs, who holds 23 patents, believes the new catalytic reaction, selective oxidation of mercaptans to formaldehyde, can also be applied to the chemical, natural gas and petroleum industries. He has filed a dozen more patents describing those possible applications. "The approach used in this project may be beneficial in treating other emission mixtures containing reactive mercaptans," he wrote in a paper titled "Converting Waste Gases to Value-Added Chemicals." The paper, which was co-authored with Gibson, and also with Tom Burgess and Saul Furstein of G-P, was delivered by Gibson at the 2001 Spring Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in April in Houston.

Different versions of the paper will be published by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) Journal, AIChE Environmental Progress and Applied Catalysis: Environmental in the coming year.

Source: Lehigh University http://www.lehigh.edu

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010620074147.htm

7/9/01
7:10:04 PM

Refrigerator Disposal Releases Ozone-Depleting Chemicals

Shredded foam insulation from junked refrigerators is releasing substantial amounts of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, into the earth's atmosphere — and the more finely shredded the foam, the faster the release, a Danish researcher reports.

The first study looking at how and how fast CFC gas releases from foam insulation used in older refrigerators is reported in the July 15 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

More than eight million refrigerators and freezers in the United States reach the end of their useful lives and are thrown away annually, generally ending up at a landfill where they are shredded to recover scrap metal. Shredding one discarded refrigerator can quickly release more than 100 grams of CFC-11 into the environment, reports Peter Kjeldsen, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark. All 500 grams of CFC gas in the insulation of each refrigerator — a total of nearly 4,000 tons of CFC emissions — can eventually seep from the appliances over the next 300 years, he said.

"The future atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11, and their effect on the ozone layer, will mainly depend on the continued release from insulation foams," Kjeldsen said.

Comparing their laboratory CFC-release rates to computer models, the researchers found that all CFC gas embedded in the energy-saving insulation is slowly, but surely, released after the foam is ripped apart. The smaller the size of the shredded foam, the faster the release, he noted. Some other countries, including Denmark, dispose of the foam before scrapping the refrigerator, which eliminates most CFC emissions, Kjeldsen said.

Although CFCs were developed in the 1930s, the majority of the CFC emissions are coming from refrigerators made during the 1980s, when a new type of insulating foam featuring the material was used. The appliances normally last for around 20 years, Kjeldsen said.

"Use of these results may help evaluate changes in the atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 in the future," he said. "They add to the understanding of a very important source of CFCs."

Chlorine contained in CFCs damages the earth's ozone layer, a thin shield of oxygen that protects the planet from ultraviolet radiation. A single chlorine atom contained in CFCs and also found naturally — can destroy more than 100,000 ozone molecules, although ozone can be reformed over time by a chemical reaction stimulated by sunlight. The upper part of the atmosphere known as the stratosphere contains approximately 3 billion kilograms of ozone - enough to create a layer about an eighth of an inch thick that circles the globe.

Depletion of the ozone layer leads to higher levels of a certain type of ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the earth's surface. Previous testing has shown that higher UV-B levels increase the risk of skin cancer, harm plant life, reduce the population of sea life and contribute to the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases believed to be responsible for atmospheric warming, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Because of the dangers of exhausting the ozone layer, more than 120 countries signed the 1987 "Montreal Protocol" to control CFC emissions. After 1995, when production of most CFCs stopped, they ceased being used in aerosol cans and in the coolant known as Freon™. New products, including refrigerators, use substitutes with similar properties. Additional amounts of CFC-11 can be found in air conditioners, insulation and some industrial appliances. A different type of CFC is used in the product marketed as Styrofoam™.

The research cited above was partially funded by the Danish Technical Research Council.

Peter Kjeldsen, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the department of environment and resources unit at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby, Denmark.

Source: American Chemical Society http://www.acs.org

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010619074209.htm

7/9/01
6:22:22 PM

Study Says Bleaching Could Be A Hidden Strength For Corals

The global phenomenon of bleaching, in which reef-building corals lose their colorful algae and become white during times of stress, may actually allow some corals to adapt to global warming and other environmental change. The study, conducted by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), will be published in the June 14th issue of the journal Nature.

The study counters conventional wisdom that bleaching is universally detrimental, instead suggesting that it represents a high-risk ecological strategy that allows corals to rid themselves of sub-optimal algae. By doing so, corals can become hosts to more suitable algal types that increase their chances of survival during times of stress.

Reef-building corals use different types of symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae for nutrients, which in turn live in the tissue of the coral polyps. Baker transplanted corals found off the coast of Panama from shallow water to deep water, and visa versa. He discovered that corals transplanted upwards generally bleached but ultimately survived by recovering with new algae.

In contrast, corals transplanted downwards did not bleach, and did not change their type of algae, though it was poorly adapted to the deeper environment. As a result, a significant number of these corals died.

"These findings indicate that bleaching can sometimes help corals respond quickly to environmental change," said the study's author, Dr. Andrew Baker of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Osborn Laboratories of Marine Sciences. "The same bleaching that makes corals so fragile may also, during times of extreme environmental stress, help some of them survive."

Baker was quick to point out that bleaching, particularly as a result of warmer sea temperatures in recent years, is still a major cause for concern, and will continue to cause high mortality among reef ecosystems in the foreseeable future.

"These findings do provide a glimmer of hope for the ability of coral reefs to survive the severe warming and environmental change projected over the next half century." Baker said. "However, Coral reefs are still under assault from global warming, poor water quality, and overfishing. Much more needs to be done to protect and understand these fragile ecosystems before we lose the ones we have left."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010614064239.htm

7/9/01
6:21:32 PM

Norwegian Sea Proposed As Storage Site For Carbon Dioxide

WASHINGTON - Researchers in Bergen, Norway, have proposed a large scale demonstration project, in which carbon dioxide (CO2) would be pumped directly from offshore oil and gas fields to the deep waters of the Norwegian Sea. The project would test the conclusions of a theoretical study, using computer models, that suggests the Norwegian Sea, through transport to the Atlantic Ocean, would provide safe, long term storage of this greenhouse gas, which would otherwise enter the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

Drs. Helge Drange and Guttorm Alendal and Prof. Ola M. Johannessen at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen will publish their study in the 1 July issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union. They note that the oceans already absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but the process of mixing the gas at deep levels can take up to 1,000 years. Purposeful storage could, they say, be viewed as an acceleration of a natural process. This option would be successful only if certain environmental and economic considerations can be satisfied, they note.

The Norwegian Sea is a deep basin off Norway's northwestern coast, beyond Haltenbanken, a region on the continental shelf where oil and gas fields produce carbon dioxide as a by-product. The modeling study assumes the annual carbon dioxide emissions from various size gas power plants over a ten year period. Drange and his colleagues considered the effect of releasing carbon dioxide, collected at the source, at various depths from 350 to 950 meters [1,150-3,120 feet]. They conclude that if the initial size of the carbon dioxide particles is four millimeters [0.2 inches] or less, the plume would rise no more than 100 meters [330 feet] from the point it enters the ocean.

Once the injected carbon dioxide has dissolved in the seawater, it tends to sink lower and eventually transport to the Atlantic Ocean through passages between Iceland and Scotland. Its acidity, higher than that of the ambient seawater, could affect deep sea organisms, which are used to a relatively constant chemical environment. This is an area the researchers say needs further study. They say the level of acidity can be reduced by not pumping all of the carbon dioxide to one point, but using rather an array of ports located 5-10 meters [16-33 feet] apart in the cross-stream of the prevailing current.

The model predicts how much carbon dioxide would rapidly reach the surface and enter the atmosphere, based on the depth at which it was originally released. The researchers say that 600 meters [2,000 feet] is the minimal safe depth, and 800 meters [2,600 feet] still safer. At the depth of 950 meters [3,100 feet], virtually no "outgassing" occurs, and the carbon dioxide-enriched water stays well below the level at which it might mix with upper ocean water. Following normal flows from the Norwegian Sea, this water will enter the northern Atlantic Ocean as bottom water and remain isolated from the atmosphere for centuries.

Aside from the question of possible effects on deep ocean organisms, the process of sequestering carbon dioxide in the Norwegian Sea would have to be economically viable, the researchers say. They find that the technology is presently available, and the cost of implementing the project might actually be lower than the tax the Norwegian government now imposes on emissions of carbon dioxide from offshore oil and gas fields.

Drange and colleagues emphasize that their theoretical conclusions must be tested in real world conditions, including the cumulative effects of instituting many such sequestration projects, rather than just one. Among the issues to be addressed are the impact on marine organisms and the independent effect of increasing acidification of ocean surface waters, due to higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

The study was funded by Saga Petroleum AS, the Norwegian Research Council, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and the EC Environmental and Climate Programme.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010619073338.htm

7/9/01
6:21:13 PM

Muddy Waters: Letting The Gulf Of Mexico Breathe Again

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Saving the Gulf of Mexico from polluted runoff is possible, but it means creating or restoring at least 5 to 13 million acres of wetlands in the Midwest and the lower Mississippi River basin, according to a new report by environmental researchers.

Led by William Mitsch, a professor of natural resources and environmental science at Ohio State University, the scientists also recommend creating or restoring 19 to 48 million acres of streamside forest areas.

Together, that's at least enough created and restored wetland and forested area to fill all of West Virginia. The report appears in the May issue of the journal Bioscience.

It's estimated that the American Midwest has lost about 80 percent of its wetlands in the last two centuries, compared to a 50 percent loss in the contiguous United States. Wetlands create buffers between agricultural lands and streams and rivers. They also reduce the level of chemicals - agricultural and otherwise - that wash into waterways.

Under current conservation programs, about 577,000 acres of wetlands have already been created or restored. About 10 to 25 times more wetlands are needed to cause a significant reduction of nitrogen levels in the Gulf, said Mitsch.

"There are countless federal programs to help support wetland restoration and creation," he said. "And that may help solve half of the problem. It could cost anywhere between $300 to $2,000 per acre to restore and create wetland areas in the Midwest; it's less expensive to create a wetland in an area that used to be a wetland."

In comparison, Mitsch said efforts to restore the 1.4 million acre Everglades National Park is costing taxpayers about $8 billion.

The Mississippi River feeds the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi River basin includes 40 percent of the lower 48 states. Runoff from watersheds in the basin eventually makes its way to the Gulf.

That runoff is full of nitrogen and other chemicals that algae thrive on, experts say. Resulting algal blooms deplete the water of nearly all dissolved oxygen, turning the Gulf each spring into what's been termed a "dead zone." Dissolved oxygen levels dip below 2 parts per million, and most aquatic species can't live in waters containing less than 2 ppm of oxygen. Dissolved oxygen levels in the Gulf are normally about 5 to 10 ppm.

The "dead zone" typically begins in the spring, when planting and fertilizing fields peaks. The accumulation of nitrogen and other chemicals usually reaches a maximum in midsummer and disappears in the fall, Mitsch said. While the size of the zone varies from year to year, it has encompassed more than 7,000 square miles of the Gulf.

Mitsch co-authored the report with John Day, of Louisiana State University; J. Wendell Gilliam, of North Carolina State University; Peter Groffman, of The Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.; Donald Hey, of the Wetland Initiative in Chicago; Gyles Randall, of the University of Minnesota; and Naiming Wang, of the South Florida Water Management District.

Source: Ohio State University http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu

Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at

http://www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/moreacre.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010619072410.htm

7/9/01
6:20:27 PM

Scientists Monitor Global Air Pollution From Space

BOULDER -- A new Earth-orbiting monitor is providing the most complete view assembled to date of the world's air pollution as it churns through the atmosphere, crossing continents and oceans. Policy makers and scientists now have, for the first time, a way to identify the major sources of air pollution and to closely track where pollution travels year round and anywhere on Earth. The first observations are being released Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union's spring meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Launched in December 1999, MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) tracks the air pollutant carbon monoxide from aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft as it circles the Earth from pole to pole 16 times daily. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, are blending the new data with output from a computer model of Earth's atmosphere to develop the world's first global maps of long-term lower-atmosphere pollution.

MOPITT demonstrates a new capability to make global observations of carbon monoxide, which is both a toxin and a representative tracer of other types of pollution, says NCAR's John Gille, lead U.S. investigator. "With these new observations, we clearly see that air pollution is much more than a local problem. It's a global issue." Much human-generated air pollution is produced from large fires and then travels great distances, affecting areas far from the source, according to Gille.

"MOPITT information will help us improve our understanding of the linkages between air pollution and global environmental change, and it will likely play a pivotal role in the development of international environmental policy," says atmospheric chemist Daniel Jacob of Harvard University, who used MOPITT data this spring in a major field campaign to study air pollution from Asia.

The first set of MOPITT global observations, from March to December 2000, has captured extensive air pollution generated by forest fires in the western United States last summer. Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for home heating and transportation, a major source of air pollution during the wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere, can be seen wafting across much of the hemisphere.

The most dramatic features, however, are the immense clouds of carbon monoxide from forest and grassland fires in Africa and South America. The plumes travel rapidly across the Southern Hemisphere as far as Australia during the dry season. Gille was surprised to find a strong source of carbon monoxide in Southeast Asia during April and May 2000. The new maps show air- pollution plumes from this region traveling over the Pacific Ocean to North America, often at fairly high concentrations. While fires are the major contributor, Gille suspects that at times industrial sources may also contribute to these events.

Although MOPITT cannot distinguish between individual industrial sources in the same city, it can map different sources that cover a few hundred square miles. The results are accurate enough to differentiate air pollution from a large metropolitan area, for example, from a major fire in a national forest.

NCAR scientist Jean-Francois Lamarque helped create MOPITT's fully global maps of carbon monoxide by blending information from the satellite measurements with output from an atmospheric chemistry model developed at NCAR. "Most of the information contained in the maps comes from the data, not the model," Lamarque explains, "but the model fills in the blanks in a very smart way." The blending technique, called data assimilation, also enables scientists to work backwards from the observations to pinpoint pollution sources, a major goal of the experiment.

In the United States carbon monoxide is regulated at ground level by the Environmental Protection Agency. MOPITT observes carbon monoxide in the atmosphere two miles above the surface, where it interacts with other gases to form ozone, another human health hazard and a greenhouse gas. Carbon monoxide can rise to higher altitudes, where it is blown rapidly for great distances, or it can sink to the surface, where it may become a health hazard.

Carbon monoxide is produced through the incomplete burning of fossil fuels and combustion of natural organic matter, such as wood. By tracking carbon monoxide plumes, scientists are able to follow other pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, that are produced by the same combustion processes but cannot be directly detected from space.

Gille and his team at NCAR developed the software to retrieve and analyze the data. James Drummond and colleagues at the University of Toronto developed the instrument. NCAR is a national facility managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) under primary sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Terra is part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS).

Source: National Center For Atmospheric Research University Corporation For Atmospheric Research

http://www.ucar.edu/ucar

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010605072747.htm

7/9/01
6:19:58 PM

Heavy Consumption Of Tainted Fish Curbs Adult Learning And Memory

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — PCB-laden fish from Lake Michigan affect not only young children but also adults over age 49, researchers say. Many of the former big eaters of sport-caught fish now have high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in their blood and problems with learning and memory.

Since 1992, researchers, led by Susan L. Schantz of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, have studied Lake Michigan fish-eaters, many of whom regularly had eaten more than 24 pounds of sport-caught fish a year. The researchers’ latest findings show that the heavy eaters who are now over age 49 have problems learning and remembering new verbal information.

"This study suggests, for the first time, that PCB body burdens in adulthood may be associated with impairments in certain aspects of memory and learning," Schantz said. "The focus has been almost exclusively on increased health risks of exposure to children and pregnant women. It had been assumed that mature adults are less susceptible than are developing fetuses. This may not be the case." PCBs were widely used – until banned in the late 1970s – as electrical insulators and lubricants and as extenders in paints and varnishes. The chemicals decompose slowly and are virtually non-biodegradable. Large quantities remain in older electrical equipment still in use. In the Great Lakes, PCBs make their way up the food chain and accumulate at increasing levels in fatty tissue. The new study by researchers at four institutions is to go on line June 5 and appear in print in the June issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institutes of Health. They also found elevated levels of DDE (a breakdown product of DDT), lead and mercury in the heavy fish-eaters, but the only negative effects were tied to blood serum levels of PCBs.

Fish-eaters with high blood PCB levels had difficulties recalling a story told just 30 minutes earlier. They also were less likely than their less-exposed peers to cluster words given orally into categories based on their meaning to boost recall, said Schantz, a professor of toxicology in the department of veterinary biosciences. Researchers used the Weschsler Memory Scale and the California Verbal Learning Test, both standard tools for measuring cognitive abilities.

In the 1990s, Drs. Joseph and Sandra Jacobsen of Michigan’s Wayne State University reported that exposure to low levels of PCBs disrupted fetal brain development, leading to neurological abnormalities and learning disabilities, including memory deficits, in affected children.

Schantz previously reported that high levels of PCBs in adult fish-eaters resulted in barely a hint of problems with fine motor skills such as dexterity and hand steadiness. In the latest work, researchers also did not find statistically significant problems with many other cognitive abilities, such as executive function (planning and attention) and visual-spatial function.

Researchers in the study were from the UI, Michigan State University, the State University of New York at Albany and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Source: University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign http://www.uiuc.edu

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010606073231.htm

7/9/01
6:18:52 PM

Polluted Clouds Might Bring Patchy Cooling In A Warming World

As the Earth's average temperature has risen in the last half-century with the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, many scientists have come to see clouds, because they reflect so much of the sun's heat into space, as the biggest puzzle in interpreting the planet's changing climate picture.

But new evidence suggests that the current stew of airborne chemicals and particles might be giving clouds stronger cooling properties than previously thought, said Robert Charlson, a University of Washington atmospheric chemist.

"Clouds are a devilishly difficult but extremely important aspect of the Earth's climate system," said Charlson, lead author of a paper in the June 15 edition of the journal Science that details the new evidence.

Clouds are formed as water droplets condense around particles in the atmosphere. Previous studies have shown that when the number of particles increases – because of emissions from human activities, for example – there still remains the same amount of water to spread among them. The result is more and smaller droplets, which creates more total surface area within the cloud to reflect sunlight.

The new evidence implies that droplet formation also is influenced by several other factors, including the presence of soluble gases and organic pollutants (for instance, stearic acid from a variety of sources, from forest fires to backyard grills) that are only slightly water-soluble. That means even more droplets, giving the resulting clouds even more cooling capacity.

The Earth's surface in regions where this happens will be cooled even more than would happen with normal cloud cover, a finding that could carry broad ramifications, Charlson said. The phenomenon can affect regions as large as the eastern third of the United States, the European continent or the Szechwan Basin of China.

"Roughly half the Earth is covered with clouds at any one time," he said. "Of that, some percentage is influenced by products of human activity, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, where most people live."

Charlson was joined in the work by John Seinfeld and Athanasios Nenes of the California Institute of Technology; Markku Kulmala at the University of Helsinki; Ari Laaksonen at the University of Kuopio, Finland; and Maria Cristina Facchini at Italy's CNR-Instituto di Scienze dell’ Atmosfera e dell’Oceano.

"This work modifies the original 1920s and '30s theory to include soluble gases, such as nitric acid gas, and surface active organic materials, like smoke from forest fires and garbage incinerators," Charlson said.

The findings come from a computer model developed at Caltech that shows how the reflectivity, or albedo, of clouds is changed when various factors are introduced. The evidence raises questions about how clouds affect global climate change, but it doesn't answer them, Charlson said.

In their formation, "clean" clouds reach a point at which droplets pass a certain size threshold and begin to gather more water and grow spontaneously to ever-larger sizes. But the new study shows the chemical effects of pollution can trigger the formation of clouds or fog with tinier droplets, as small as a micron (one-thousandth of a millimeter) that are limited in their growth because of the substances going into them.

"When you get so much pollution in the air, it influences the formation of clouds," Charlson said.

Source: University Of Washington http://www.washington.edu

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010615071805.htm