6/23/01
6:05:17 PM
Choosing Death
by William Saletan
On June 15, a group of activists led by a Catholic bishop staged a news conference in Austin, Texas, to promote legislation outlawing a procedure they described as the indiscriminate taking of human life. The bishop, joined by a state senator, argued that the victims of this procedure were morally equivalent to children. Vetoing the legislation two days later, the governor disagreed. "This legislation is not about whether" to end human life, he explained. "It's about who makes the determination."
Another abortion fight? Nope. This time the issue was the death penalty, and the question at hand was whether to ban the execution of retarded killers. Like the abortion debate, the death penalty debate has a pro-life side and a pro-choice side. The positions, however, are reversed. Cynics have often observed that people who want to ban the destruction of unborn life tolerate the executions of convicted murderers, while people who want to ban executions tolerate the destruction of unborn life. But increasingly, the irony extends to the concept of choice. Politicians who reject the right to choose abortion—including the governor of Texas and the president of the United States—now sidestep the unpleasant facts and dubious ethics of the most difficult death penalty cases by arguing that judges and politicians should leave decisions about capital punishment in the hands of individual jurors. The death penalty debate has become the abortion debate upside-down.
Abortion and execution differ in obvious ways. Fetuses lack the mental development and physical independence of born humans; convicted murderers lack the innocence of fetuses. An abortion ban would override the decision of the woman in whose body the life at stake resides; an execution ban would override the decision of a juror whose connection to the life at stake is, by virtue of distance, less proprietary and less self-interested. Politically, however, the dynamics of the two issues have become almost identical. Activists who want to outlaw all abortions or all executions know, from polls and legislative defeats, that most people don't share that objective. At the same time, they know that they can get majority support for outlawing some abortions or some executions. The trick is to focus the debate on the most troubling subset of cases. In the abortion debate, the subset is late-term fetuses. In the death penalty debate, the subset is mentally retarded convicts.
Like the campaign against "partial-birth" abortions, the campaign against executing retarded murderers draws its logic from polls. Death penalty opponents routinely point out that although surveys show overwhelming support for the death penalty in general, the same surveys show overwhelming opposition to executing convicts who are retarded. The implication, often spelled out, is that legislators and governors should heed these numbers. So far, the strategy is paying off. Of the 38 states that permit capital punishment, 15 have banned its application to retarded killers.
Most experts equate retardation with an IQ of 70 or below. Others dispute that number, and some prefer subtler measures of a person's ability to adapt and function in society. Scientifically, it's hard to define. But politically, that's the point. Pro-lifers on execution, like pro-lifers on abortion, have no intention of settling for such a small part of their agenda. They just want to make the first step look easy. Once you've agreed that it's wrong to kill an inmate with an IQ of 70, they'll ask why it's OK to kill an inmate with an IQ of 71. Or how about the Texas inmate—subsequently executed—who scored 64 on one IQ test and 76 on another? Two years ago, Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis proposed a bill to outlaw the execution of anyone with an IQ of 65 or lower. Ellis claimed to support capital punishment and assured everyone that he was drawing a bright line. "If you score above 65 and you're on death row, be prepared to meet your maker," he vowed. But this year, Ellis campaigned for a bill that would have removed that threshold, allowing the magic number to rise by default to 70.
Once the standard of retardation has been stretched to encompass as many inmates as possible, the next step is to broaden the rationale for this exemption so that it applies to murderers who aren't retarded. Initially, killing retarded prisoners was said to be wrong because they couldn't understand what was being done to them and why. Then it was said to be wrong because these prisoners resembled children and shared their innocence. Now it's wrong, according to the Chicago Tribune, because retarded people are "more willing to confess to crimes they did not commit," "may not fully understand their Miranda rights," and "are less capable of participating effectively in their own defense." More broadly, according to Ellis, killing people who are afflicted with retardation isn't "compassionate." These concerns may be valid, but the point is that they aren't confined to retarded people. Once you accept them as reasons to forgo the death penalty, you're left wondering why it's OK to execute anyone who is stupid, naive, or unfortunate.
Confronted with this slippery slope, the opposition's natural impulse is to concede whatever territory can't be defended, draw a line, and dig in. For abortion rights advocates, the conceded territory is "partial births," and the line is fetal viability. For death penalty supporters, the conceded territory is retardation, and the line is comprehension of right and wrong. But politically, this strategy never works. Parsing the relative awfulness of various abortions or executions just makes the public queasy about the whole business, which is exactly what abolitionists want. Moreover, the logic of the concession always overwhelms the line of defense. Last week, President Bush and his successor in Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry, conceded that "we should never execute someone who is retarded." At the same time, Bush and Perry refused to extend that exemption to killers who "understand right from wrong" and "understand the nature of the crime they committed." In response, the press corps, which reviles the death penalty, pointed out that many retarded criminals possess such understanding. The White House's subsequent arguments about the true meaning of "retarded" were no more politically helpful than the Reagan White House's arguments about the true meaning of "needy."
The better strategy—the one that has stymied pro-lifers in the abortion fight—is to refuse to debate the morality of specific categories and cases. Instead, the trick is to change the question from substance to process, from ethics to jurisdiction, from what's decided to "who decides." That's the message the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League has used against Bush, Perry, and other anti-abortion candidates: They want to take away your right to choose and give it to politicians and judges. They don't trust you.
And that's precisely the argument Bush and Perry are now deploying against opponents of the death penalty. Two years ago, when the Texas Legislature debated whether to ban the execution of retarded killers, then-Gov. Bush opposed the bill. "That's up to the juries to make those decisions," he reasoned. Last week, Perry announced that he was vetoing a similar bill because it gave "judges the power to overturn a jury's determination of whether a murderer is mentally retarded." Noting that Texas law already authorized jurors to consider mental incapacity as a mitigating factor, Perry insisted that "a jury is the proper and final decision-maker about the facts." The bill "basically tells the citizens of this state, 'We don't trust you to get it right,' " he charged. "This legislation is not about whether to execute mentally retarded murderers. … It is about who determines whether a defendant is mentally retarded."
Once the debate rotates from the "what" dimension to the "who" dimension, the burden of explanation shifts to pro-lifers. Why don't they trust you to make these decisions? What makes them think they know better than you do? The moral difficulty of sorting out each case—Is it OK to execute a child-killer with an IQ of 55? A killer with an IQ of 75 who was brutally beaten by his father?—becomes a rationale for jury discretion rather than for ever-broader restrictions on capital punishment. Pro-lifers have to explain not why it's tragic to kill retarded people, but why that tragedy should categorically override the other facts of each case. "Mental retardation should not be a mitigating factor, it should be the defining issue," Ellis argued in reply to Perry's veto message. "We don't want the jury or the judge to have the option to execute the mentally retarded."
Maybe Ellis can win that argument. But it's going to be a lot harder than winning an argument about the moral discomfort of killing retarded people.
Source: http://www.Slate.com
6/23/01
4:47:35 PM
Hemp Is Not Marijuana
by Gina Greenlee - The Hartford Courant
Hartford, Conn. - I'm in the Body Shop at Westfarms mall buying my annual supply of the only hand cream that alleviates my dry skin. Discovered three years ago in an airport when I'd left my lotion at home, this heavy-duty stuff soothes and restores suppleness to my skin while passing the handshake test. One tube lasts me four months, but I'm loathe to share even a dab with friends, who roll their eyes as I mete it out.
While at the mall, I learn that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is attempting to ban my cream and other personal-care products. Why? They contain hempseed oil. "Hemp Hand Protector" is the cream I use, and its package sports a hemp leaf.
The DEA claims that hemp is marijuana, a narcotic. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, retired, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has called the effort to legalize industrial hemp "a thinly disguised attempt...to legalize the production of pot."
Poppycock! Hemp and marijuana, different varieties of the Cannabis sativa plant (hemp towers spindly overhead; marijuana squats bushy below the knees) have different tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. THC, derived from the flowering tops, is the active ingredient responsible for marijuana's medicinal and psychoactive qualities, with levels ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent. The hemp plant, harvested solely for its seed and stalk, not its low-THC flowers, contains less than 1 percent. Applying hemp oil to your skin won't get you high. Research studies show that if you soaked in a bathtub full of hemp oil, you couldn't fail a drug test. And smoking marijuana's clear-headed cousin will only give you a headache.
Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is labeled a Schedule I drug (most dangerous category), while products derived from hemp - sterilized hempseed, hempseed oil and hempseed cake - are explicitly excluded from the definition of marijuana and from regulation. Under federal law, these products are legal despite the DEA's arbitrary interpretation of the CSA as "any substance containing any amount of THC [as] a Schedule I controlled substance even if [it] is made from hemp."
The Body Shop, Dr. Bronner's and Kiss My Face, among other companies, recognize hemp's high essential-fatty-acid content as ideal for lip balms, soaps and creams. In 2000, hemp products that included apparel, home furnishings and automobile interiors contributed to worldwide hemp retail sales of $150 million, $80 million to $90 million in the United States. Hemp's eco-friendliness and versatility as a raw material allow its products to compete with those made from petroleum, coal, natural gas and timber. Grown in more than 30 countries around the world, most of the hemp used for U.S. products is imported, since the DEA will try to discourage any American farmer attempting to cultivate it.
But hemp is not marijuana and the federal government knows it.
>From 1776 to 1937, hemp was a major American crop commonly used for textiles before it threatened influential petroleum and timber business interests. The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act made hemp cultivation impractical for farmers by imposing stiff regulations. At the same time, hemp was discredited by its association with the demonized marijuana - "Reefer Madness" hysteria fueled by yellow journalism.
Then the government did an about-face during World War II in response to Japanese control of U.S. hemp supply in the Philippines. Now, claimed the military film "Hemp for Victory," the crop was desperately needed to make rope, canvas, oil and parachute harnesses to win the war. During the war, farmers grew about a million government-subsidized acres of hemp across the Midwest. After the war, the program was quietly dismantled.
But the War on Drugs rages on. Marijuana growers oppose hemp production because it cross-pollinates and destroys marijuana's potency and street value. Law enforcement opposes it because Congress gives the DEA $500 million annually to eradicate marijuana, even though the DEA's own figures show that more than half of the "marijuana" its agents destroy is industrial hemp - the harmless wild variety that escaped during the "Hemp for Victory" days.
If the public's health and safety were a DEA priority, it would support hemp cultivation. But since the agency has a different agenda, I respectfully request that it leave my hand cream alone.
NOTE: If you want to sign the Body Shop's petition to stop the DEA from banning hemp products, go to
http://www.bodyshop.com/usa/hemp-action/index.html
and voice yourself.
Learn move about the DEA's hemp products ban at:
http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/pnn/pac20010618.html#5
then click on Hemp Based Products; Fending off the DEA.
6/23/01
3:48:13 PM
The World of Free Energy
By Peter Lindemann, D.Sc.
In the late 1880's, trade journals in the electrical sciences were predicting "free electricity" in the near future. Incredible discoveries about the nature of electricity were becoming common place. Nikola Tesla was demonstrating "wireless lighting" and other wonders associated with high frequency currents. There was an excitement about the future like never before.
Within 20 years, there would be automobiles, airplanes, movies, recorded music, telephones, radio, and practical cameras. The Victorian Age was giving way to something totally new. For the first time in history, common people were encouraged to envision a utopian future, filled with abundant modern transportation and communication, as well as jobs, housing and food for everyone. Disease would be conquered, and so would poverty. Life was getting better, and this time, everyone was going to get "a piece of the pie." So, what happened? In the midst of this technological explosion, where did the energy breakthroughs go? Was all of this excitement about "free electricity", which happened just before the beginning of the last century, all just wishful thinking that "real science" eventually disproved?
Current State of Technology
Actually, the answer to that question is NO. In fact, the opposite is true. Spectacular energy technologies were developed right along with the other breakthroughs. Since that time, multiple methods for producing vast amounts of energy at extremely low cost have been developed. None of these technologies have made it to the "open" consumer market as an article of commerce, however. Exactly why this is true will be discussed shortly. But first, I would like to describe to you a short list of "free energy" technologies that I am currently aware of, and that are proven beyond all reasonable doubt. The common feature connecting all of these discoveries, is that they use a small amount of one form of energy to control or release a large amount of a different kind of energy. Many of them tap the underlying aether in some way; a source of energy conveniently ignored by "modern" science.
1) Radiant Energy.
Nikola Tesla's Magnifying Transmitter, T. Henry Moray's Radiant Energy Device, Edwin Gray's EMA Motor, and Paul Baumann's Testatika Machine all run on Radiant Energy. This natural energy form can be gathered directly from the environment (mistakenly called "static" electricity) or extracted from ordinary electricity by the method called "fractionation." Radiant Energy can perform the same wonders as ordinary electricity, at less than 1% of the cost. It does not behave exactly like electricity, however, which has contributed to the scientific community's misunderstanding of it. The Methernitha Community in Switzerland currently has 5 or 6 working models of fuelless, self-running devices that tap this energy.
2) Permanent Magnets.
Dr. Robert Adams (NZ) has developed astounding designs of electric motors, generators and heaters that run on permanent magnets. One such device draws 100 watts of electricity from the source, generates 100 watts to recharge the source, and produces over 140 BTU's of heat in two minutes! Dr. Tom Bearden (USA) has two working models of a permanent magnet powered electrical transformer. It uses a 6-watt electrical input to control the path of a magnetic field coming out of a permanent magnet. By channeling the magnetic field, first to one output coil and then a second output coil, and by doing this repeatedly and rapidly in a "Ping-Pong" fashion, the device can produce a 96-watt electrical output with no moving parts. Bearden calls his device a Motionless Electromagnetic Generator, or MEG. Jean-Louis Naudin has duplicated Bearden's device in France. The principles for this type of device were first disclosed by Frank Richardson (USA) in 1978. Troy Reed (USA) has working models of a special magnetized fan that heats up as it spins. It takes exactly the same amount of energy to spin the fan whether it is generating heat or not. Beyond these developments, multiple inventors have identified working mechanisms that produce motor torque from permanent magnets alone.
3) Mechanical Heaters.
There are two classes of machines that transform a small amount of mechanical energy into a large amount of heat. The best of these purely mechanical designs are the rotating cylinder systems designed by Frenette (USA) and Perkins (USA). In these machines, one cylinder is rotated within another cylinder with about an eighth of an inch of clearance between them. The space between the cylinders is filled with a liquid such as water or oil, and it is this "working fluid" that heats up as the inner cylinder spins. Another method uses magnets mounted on a wheel to produce large eddy currents in a plate of aluminium, causing the aluminium to heat up rapidly. These magnetic heaters have been demonstrated by Muller (Canada), Adams (NZ) and Reed (USA). All of these systems can produce ten times more heat than standard methods using the same energy input.
4) Super-Efficient Electrolysis.
Water can be broken into Hydrogen and Oxygen using electricity. Standard chemistry books claim that this process requires more energy than can be recovered when the gases are recombined. This is true only under the worst case scenario. When water is hit with its own molecular resonant frequency, using a system developed by Stan Meyers (USA) and again recently by Xogen Power, Inc., it collapses into Hydrogen and Oxygen gas with very little electrical input. Also, using different electrolytes (additives that make the water conduct electricity better) changes the efficiency of the process dramatically. It is also known that certain geometric structures and surface textures work better than others do. The implication is that unlimited amounts of Hydrogen fuel can be made to drive engines (like in your car) for the cost of water. Even more amazing is the fact that a special metal alloy was patented by Freedman (USA) in 1957 that spontaneously breaks water into Hydrogen and Oxygen with no outside electrical input and without causing any chemical changes in the metal itself. This means that this special metal alloy can make Hydrogen from water for free, forever.
5) Implosion/Vortex.
All major industrial engines use the release of heat to cause expansion and pressure to produce work, like in your car engine. Nature uses the opposite process of cooling to cause suction and vacuum to produce work, like in a tornado. Viktor Schauberger (Austria) was the first to build working models of Implosion Engines in the 1930's and 1940's. Since that time, Callum Coats has published extensively on Schauberger's work in his book Living Energies and subsequently, a number of researchers have built working models of Implosion Turbine Engines. These are fuelless engines that produce mechanical work from energy accessed from a vacuum. There are also much simpler designs that use vortex motions to tap a combination of gravity and centrifugal force to produce a continuous motion in fluids.
6) Cold Fusion.
In March 1989, two Chemists from Brigham Young University in Utah (USA) announced that they had produced atomic fusion reactions in a simple tabletop device. The claims were "debunked" within 6 months and the public lost interest. Nevertheless, Cold Fusion is very real. Not only has excess heat production been repeatedly documented, but also low energy atomic element transmutation has been catalogued, involving dozens of different reactions! This technology definitely can produce low cost energy and scores of other important industrial processes.
7) Solar Assisted Heat Pumps.
The refrigerator in your kitchen is the only "free energy machine" you currently own. It's an electrically operated heat pump. It uses one amount of energy (electricity) to move three amounts of energy (heat). This gives it a "co-efficient of performance" (COP) of about 3. Your refrigerator uses one amount of electricity to pump three amounts of heat from the inside of the refrigerator to the outside of the refrigerator. This is its typical use, but it is the worst possible way to use the technology. Here's why. A heat pump pumps heat from the "source" of heat to the "sink" or place that absorbs the heat. The "source" of heat should obviously be HOT and the "sink" for heat should obviously be COLD for this process to work the best. In your refrigerator, it's exactly the opposite. The "source" of heat is inside the box, which is COLD, and the "sink" for heat is the room temperature air of your kitchen, which is warmer than the source. This is why the COP remains low for your kitchen refrigerator. But this is not true for all heat pumps. COP's of 8 to 10 are easily attained with solar assisted heat pumps. In such a device, a heat pump draws heat from a solar collector and dumps the heat into a large underground absorber, which remains at 55° F, and mechanical energy is extracted in the transfer. This process is equivalent to a steam engine that extracts mechanical energy between the boiler and the condenser, except that it uses a fluid that "boils" at a much lower temperature than water. One such system that was tested in the 1970's produced 350 hp, measured on a Dynamometer, in a specially designed engine from just 100-sq. ft. of solar collector. (This is NOT the system promoted by Dennis Lee.) The amount of energy it took to run the compressor (input) was less than 20 hp, so this system produced more than 17 times more energy than it took to keep it going! It could power a small neighborhood from the roof of a hot tub gazebo, using exactly the same technology that keeps the food cold in your kitchen. Currently, there is an industrial scale heat pump system just north of Kona, Hawaii that generates electricity from temperature differences in ocean water.
There are dozens of other systems that I have not mentioned, many of them are as viable and well tested as the ones I have just recounted. But this short list is sufficient to make my point: free energy technology is here, now. It offers the world pollution-free, energy abundance for everyone, everywhere. It is now possible to stop the production of "greenhouse gases" and shut down all of the nuclear power plants. We can now desalinate unlimited amounts of seawater at an affordable price, and bring adequate fresh water to even the most remote habitats. Transportation costs and the production costs for just about everything can drop dramatically. Food can even be grown in heated greenhouses in the winter, anywhere. All of these wonderful benefits that can make life on this planet so much easier and better for everyone have been postponed for decades. Why? Whose purposes are served by this postponement?
The Opportunity
What is starting to happen is that inventors are publishing their work, instead of patenting it and keeping it secret. More and more, people are "giving away" information on these technologies in books, videos and websites. While there is still a great deal of useless information about free energy on the Internet, the availability of good information is rising rapidly. Check out the list of websites and other resources at the end of this article.
It is imperative that you begin to gather all of the information you can on real free energy systems. The reason for this is simple. Focus on what you can do now, not on how much there still is to be done. Small, private research groups are working out the details as you read this. Many are committed to publishing their results on the Internet.
If we stand up and refuse to remain ignorant and action-less, we can change the course of history. It is the aggregate of our combined action that can make a difference. Only the mass action that represents our consensus can create the world we want. Nevertheless, free energy technology is here. It is real, and it will change everything about the way we live, work and relate to each other. In the last analysis, free energy technology obsoletes greed and the fear for survival. But like all exercises of Spiritual Faith, we must first manifest the generosity and trust in our own lives
The Source of Free Energy is INSIDE of us. It is that excitement of expressing ourselves freely. It is our Spiritually guided intuition expressing itself without distraction, intimidation or manipulation. It is our open-heartedness. Ideally, the free energy technologies underpin a just society where everyone has enough food, clothing, shelter, self-worth, and the leisure time to contemplate the higher Spiritual meanings of Life. Do we not owe it to each other, to face our fears, and take action to create this future for our children's children?
The following is an excerpt. The full version is available at:
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/m10192.html
LIST OF RESOURCES:
Books:
Living Energies by Callum Coats
The Free Energy Secrets of Cold Electricity by Peter Lindemann, D.Sc.
Applied Modern 20th Century Aether Science by Dr. Robert Adams
Physics Without Einstein by Dr. Harold Aspden
Secrets of Cold War Technology by Gerry Vassilatos
The Coming Energy Revolution by Jeanne Manning
Websites:
http://www2.murray.net.au/users/egel/content1.htm
developed by Geoff Egel in Australia. Best free-energy site on the net!
developed by Clear Tech, Inc. and Dr. Peter Lindemann
developed by JLN Labs in France
http://www.1dove.com/fe/index.html
Jim's Free Energy Page in the USA
developed by Jerry Decker in the USA
site for super electrolysis technology
excellent site for all kinds of alternative news, with many links
Patents: most can be viewed at http://www.delphion.com
This list is nothing more than a sample of inventions that produce free energy.
6/23/01
11:55:31 AM
Environmental Heroes Win Goldman Prize
Eight people from six countries awarded this most prestigious prize for environmental activism.
A Bolivian labor leader who won the world’s first major victory in the struggle over privatizing public water; two US journalists who risked their careers to expose the dangers of genetically-altered milk; a Rwandan who fought to save mountain gorillas amidst his country’s genocidal wars; a New Caledonian activist working to protect his island’s coral reefs threatened by nickel mining; an indigenous leader from Indonesia fighting to preserve tropical rainforests from destruction by a huge gold-mining operation; two Greek biologists working to save vast wetlands in the Balkans. These eight environmental activists from around the globe were awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for 2001.
Victory Over Water Privatisation
Oscar Olivera, a Bolivian labor leader, has become an advocate for universal rights to affordable clean water. In 1999, the Bolivian Government reacted to pressure from international financial institutions by selling the public water system of Cochabamba, its third-largest city, to a US corporation. The corporation immediately raised water rates to the point where many families were paying up to one-third of their income for water. Finding this intolerable, Olivera led a coalition that took citizens to the streets in their 10s of thousands to bring the city to a halt for days. After a brutal government crackdown forced him into hiding, he emerged and continued protests and negotiations that forced the government to cancel the sale. Water was deprivatized and returned to local control, and the rules were changed to incorporate and respect the demands of rural populations. Olivera’s coalition continues working to develop a water system that relies neither on corrupt government management nor on transnational corporations.
Says Olivera: “After 15 years of structural adjustment, when we thought that the most important human values had been wrested from us, when we thought we were incapable of overcoming fear, of having the ability to organize and unite, when we no longer believed we could make our voices heard, then our humble, simple, and hard-working people — men, women, children and the elderly — demonstrated to the country and to the world that all this is still possible.”
Revealing The Risks Of Genetically Altered Milks
Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, two television journalists from Florida, USA, researched the potential health risks of rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), the genetically modified hormone injected into US dairy cows to stimulate milk production. Although the hormone was banned in Europe, Japan and most other industrialized nations, millions of Americans are unknowingly drinking milk from rBGH-treated cows. Akre and Wilson uncovered studies raising the possibility of the hormone’s link to breast, prostate and colon cancer in humans. Their television station refused to air the story after Monsanto, the hormone manufacturer, threatened the station’s owner, Fox News, with “dire consequences” if the story was broadcast. The couple were eventually fired from their jobs. They filed, and won, a lawsuit against Fox News, run by Rupert Murdoch, for violating Florida’s Whistleblower Law, which makes it illegal to take any retaliatory action against a worker who threatens to expose employer misconduct. Fox News is appealing the decision in court.
According to Akre: “As a mother and a journalist, I know we all have the right to information to help us make important decisions about what we pour on our children’s cereal each morning. All journalists have a duty to shed light on important issues in the public interest, even when that information runs counter to governments and industry, who would rather operate in their own self-interest.”
Adds Wilson: “No issue is ever addressed and nothing ever changes for the better until the facts are known. Jane and I merely did our best to do what good journalists have always tried to do: uncover the facts and report them without fear or favor to special interests. But, sadly, the truth is that in more and more newsrooms these days, reporters are getting the message that putting the public interest first is not always the fastest way to career advancement.”
Saving Rwanda’s Mountain Gorillas
Eugene Rutagarama is a conservationist who risked his life to save Rwanda’s dwindling population of mountain gorillas. Only 650 mountain gorillas, the world’s rarest primate, survive worldwide. Some 355 of them live in the tropical forests in the Volcano National Park in the Virunga Mountains that span three countries: Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. Rutagarama was forced to flee Rwanda during the massacres of the 1990s, when most of his family were killed. As soon as possible, he returned to rebuild the national park system and protect the gorilla habitat from human encroachment as the government resettled millions of refugees. Now working with the nonprofit group International Gorilla Conservation Program, Rutagarama oversees gorilla conservation activities in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. He has successfully lobbied governmental officials in the three nations to make sure that environmental issues are not forgotten as leaders struggle to rebuild the region.
Says Rutagarama: “After a humanitarian disaster as horrific as genocide, the common struggle to preserve something of shared value, like the natural environment, can form an ideal for people to believe in. The opportunity and obligation to protect something precious can assist the reconstruction of a devastated society.”
Saving Island Coral Reefs
Bruno Van Peteghem, a resident of New Caledonia (in the South Pacific, east of Australia), is working against time and mining interests to protect one of the world’s largest coral reefs from destruction. International mining companies are ready to dig up and pollute huge portions of the reefs as they introduce new, highly toxic practices. Van Peteghem is leading a campaign to place the reef on the World’s Heritage List — the reef’s best hope for permanent protection. A successful island environmental activist since the early 1990s, he has confronted severe intimidation and abuse including the suspicious burning of his family’s home.
According to Van Peteghem: “Man and nature are inseparable. If we ignore this, we perish. Survival of the coral hinges on human activities everywhere — on land, in the sea and in the atmosphere. We still have time.”
“Man and nature are inseparable. If we ignore this we perish.”
Protecting Tropical Rainforests
Yosepha Alomang, an indigenous woman of West Papua (Irian Jaya, Indonesia), has organized resistance to the destruction caused by the world’s largest gold mining operation, set amidst at-risk virgin tropical rainforests. She has been detained, placed in inhumane confinement, and tortured for her efforts. Her ethnic group has declared independence to gain control over their resources, and their actions have been met with repressive and violent government action. Regardless of these dangers, she continues to shepherd projects promoting traditional cultures, collective action and the well-being of indigenous people in West Papua.
Says Alomang: “The land is like a mother, from the sea to the mountain. We live with our land. We can’t sell the mountain to outsiders. I have said I will die for my people and my land.”
Preserving Wetlands In The Balkans
Giorgos Catsadorakis and Myrsini Malakou, two Greek biologists, led the charge to create a crucial wetlands conservation area located in remote northwestern Greece, adjacent to the borders of Albania and Macedonia (former Yugoslavia). Few areas in Europe of comparable size are as biologically rich and diverse. Post-World War II development degraded the wetlands, and transformed the traditional way of life of the region’s people. Catsadorakis and Malakou worked for years researching, organizing and advocating sustainable farming and economic activities to restore this precious area. Their hard work paid off in 2000 when Albania, Macedonia and Greece jointly created the first trans-boundary protected area in the Balkans, an area better known for conflict than co-operation.
Says Catsadorakis: “There is a huge single challenge to the modern world: humans must define what prosperity means on a healthy planet capable of sustaining all equally. The effort to find this optimal modus vivendi has no borders, and natural entities must be used to inspire, enrich, empower and unite peoples.”
Source: http://www.GoldmanPrize.org
6/22/01
6:44:52 PM
WILD ALERT
The U.S. House of Representative yesterday voted to protect National Monuments from oil and gas drilling, and other energy development! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! *Your* calls and faxes made the difference.
BI-PARTISAN SUPPORT
The vote was 242-173, with 47 Republicans joining the stampede to protect our country's Monuments. In other words -- the House made clear that National Monuments are special places that should be protected from oil and gas drilling and other energy development. Moreover, the boundaries should remain exactly as they have been drawn. (See "How They Voted" below.)
The vote came on an amendment sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-3/WV) to the Interior Appropriations bill. The amendment protects National Monuments from fossil fuel development by prohibiting the Interior Department from spending money on new pre-leasing or leasing activities under the Mineral Leasing Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
This vote is a big victory for public lands, and a major step toward insuring protection of our national monuments from the Bush Administration's ill-founded energy policies. It sends a strong message to the Administration that there is strong, bi-partisan support for maintaining the integrity of our nation's special places.
OTHER VOTES
In other good news, the House also voted to:
- Block a controversial oil and gas lease off the Florida coast.
- Prevent the Administration from changing or reversing the "3809" hard rock mining cleanup regulations.
- Ensure that pilot projects under the Department of Interior's royalty-in-kind program do not give special deals to oil producers, collecting less value for the taxpayer than would have been collected under the regular royalty program.
For a full list of Action Items, visit
http://www.wilderness.org/whatcan/takeaction.htm
6/22/01
6:41:43 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
ENEMY MINE
Hundreds of local residents of a fishing village blocked Peru's main north-south highway with boulders this week to protest a major new copper and zinc mine. Juan Pacifico, the mayor of Huarmey, which is about 90 miles north of Lima, says the villagers aren't convinced that adequate environmental protections are in place for the Antamina mine. Not surprisingly, the company running the mine says everything is in order and the environment will be protected just fine. The mine, which is owned by four multinationals, is expected to become the world's seventh-largest copper producer and third-largest zinc producer.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Eduardo Orozco, 22 Jun 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11292>
DON'T BE POKEY, MAN
With the U.S. out of the picture, thanks to President Bush, the future of the Kyoto treaty on climate change may depend on Japan. For Kyoto to come into force, it must be ratified by developed countries responsible for at least 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. European leaders have reaffirmed their support of the protocol, Canada is onboard, and Russia might be swayed to ratify, too -- but Japan's vote will still be needed. Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi (yes, the guy with the great hair), has criticized Bush's renunciation of Kyoto as "truly deplorable," but his foreign minister recently suggested that the country won't go ahead with Kyoto without the participation of the U.S. What to expect? Read more on the Grist Magazine website.
read it only in Grist Magazine: Heat Beat -- everything you ever wanted to know about climate change but were afraid to ask <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/thisjustin062201.stm>
ROCK THE HOUSE
In a series of votes that weren't even close, the Republican-controlled House took steps yesterday to block the Bush administration's plans for oil and gas drilling on natural monuments, delay the sale of oil-drilling leases off the coast of Florida, and prevent the rollback of tougher regulations for hard-rock mining on federal land. The House also chose not to go ahead with an administration plan to allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ignore citizen lawsuits filed under the Endangered Species Act. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) said, "This clearly demonstrates that the majority of Congress, by a sizable margin, is environmentally sensitive and wants [the administration's] policy to recognize that." The House votes were on amendments to a natural-resources spending bill, which now heads to the Senate.
straight to the source:: Denver Post, Theo Stein, 22 Jun 2001 <http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E50083,00.html>
straight to the source: Washington Post, Eric Pianin, 22 Jun 2001 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30529-2001Jun21.html>
EGGS ON THEIR FACES (LOTS OF LITTLE TINY ONES)
The U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species yesterday rejected a ban on Caspian Sea caviar proposed by a scientific advisory committee. Instead, the countries around the Caspian agreed to suspend exports for six months, while an agreement is negotiated to improve long-term management of sturgeon, whose unfertilized eggs are caviar. Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan approved the deal, and Turkmenistan is expected to sign on. Lisa Speer of the Natural Resources Defense Council dismissed the voluntary action because the sturgeon fishing season is mostly over. About 80 percent of caviar served in Western Europe and the U.S. comes from the Caspian, but populations of sturgeon have dropped by 90 percent in the last 20 years.
straight to the source: New York Times, John Tagliabue, 22 Jun 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/22/business/22CAVI.html>
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 21 Jun 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/590613.asp>
PARKS-IMONIOUS
U.S. President Bush touched down in Alabama yesterday to visit his third park in less than a month and draw attention to what he said were record spending requests for conservation. In particular, Bush has asked that Congress allocate $900 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund -- a figure that his administration says would fully fund the program for the first time since it was created in 1965. But the increases proposed by Bush would come at the expense of other conservation programs, causing them to be greatly cut back or eliminated. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer found reporters skeptical yesterday when he tried to spin Bush's approach, saying it would lead to more money for conservation at the state level.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Mike Allen, 22 Jun 2001 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30926-2001Jun21.html>
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 21 Jun 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/590417.asp>
Rolling blackout at sea -- Roger Payne, Ocean Alliance <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/payne062101.stm?source=daily>
U sexy Mother Nature -- 10 ways to phatten up environmentalism -- satire in our opinions section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho050401.stm?source=daily>
6/22/01
6:34:34 PM
The Nation
On the eve of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, The Nation has released an explosive cover-story arguing that the glacial pace of the global response to AIDS reflects an entrenched double standard closely resembling a system of apartheid.
As Salih Booker and William Minter explain: "To date, access to life-saving medicines and care for people living with HIV and AIDS have been largely determined by race, class, gender and geography. AIDS thus points to more fundamental global inequalities than those involving a single disease, illuminating centuries-old patterns of injustice. Indeed, today's international political economy...should be described as 'global apartheid.'"
Read this powerful essay in its entirety at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=booker
TEST YOUR MORALITY QUOTIENT:
Take The Nation's AMDS Self-Test to see if you've been afflicted by a newly discovered but well-established chronic disease, most prevalent among those with extreme wealth and membership in racial or ethnic groups with greater privileges. Available at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/amds.pdf
SEXUAL MORALISM: AN EXCHANGE
Richard Kim's June 5 web-only feature "Andrew Sullivan, Overexposed" prompted a barrage of letters, both lauding and excoriating Kim's analysis, as the debut series of Nation web letters shows. Read this illumintaing exchange at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/20010621kimexchange.mhtml
And to see what all the fuss is about, check out Kim's original article at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=kim20010605
There are also many other editorials, columns and articles of interest newly available at http://www.thenation.com on subjects as varied as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's AIDS crusade; ACT UP's evolving politics; the U.S. Navy's continued bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques; the state of the marriage movement; Bono and U2; new Bush appointees and an outline for how progressives can effectively counter the Right.
PRANAY GUPTE: Annan's AIDS Crusade
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=gupte
RICHARD KIM: ACT UP Goes Global
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=kim
ANGELO FALCON: Liberating Vieques
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=falcon
JUDITH STACEY: Family Values Forever
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=stacey
SALMAN RUSHDIE: The Ground Beneath My Feet
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=rushdie
KATHA POLLITT: Forward To The Past
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=pollitt
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: Building To Win
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010709&s=kvh
RECENT NATION ARTICLES:
Don't miss the host of recent articles of interest still available, including Christopher Hitchens on Henry Kissinger; David Corn on Elliott Abrams; Molly Ivins on George W. Bush and Scott Sherman on Al Sharpton. All accessible at:
6/22/01
4:45:18 PM
Preppin' For Prison
by Adamma Ince
Three years into a four-year pilot program giving the New York Police Department control of safety in the public schools, sexual assaults have increased so dramatically that the City Council is now arguing for the addition of 200 more cops plus surveillance cameras in stairwells.
Many in the community -- parents, kids, teachers, and some elected officials -- say the council is ignoring what's really going on. New York's black and Hispanic families worry that the NYPD's historic use of discriminatory and aggressive tactics against minorities has resulted not in protection for their kids, but in criminalization. They say we've turned our schools into training grounds for prisons, complete with metal detectors, frisking, and holding cells.
It cannot be denied that when the cops first took control in 1998, the public school system and its students were out of control. Innocent teachers and students were beaten up, slashed, and even killed. Rightly, Mayor Giuliani, who has suggested the Board of Education be "blown up," argued that not only were students uneducated, but they were also allowed to commit violent crimes without schools reporting them to the police.
His answer to the "crisis"? The NYPD. In a speech on education, the mayor claimed the city's finest could provide the screening, training, and supervision to "remake the Division of School Safety into a professional, disciplined force, sensitive to the needs of students, teachers, and staff." He dismissed the idea of police misconduct and declared the NYPD "the most restrained" officers in the country. With that, the cops took over school safety for the first time in the city's history.
Board of Education member Irving Hamer now regrets his role in the decision, which in the last two years has led to the citywide doubling of court summonses for kids 16 and up, all while sexual assault has grown --by nearly 13 percent this year -- and slashings and robberies continue. "I just hate that I was even in on it," says Hamer, who joined the unanimous vote but now believes the arrangement has "criminalized school buildings." The increasing police presence "has an undertone that is not good, and is not something we should do to children, who are so vulnerable to images" --especially, he says, "in light of the history of the police department in communities of color."
As the kids see it, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m., they are eyeballed, stopped, and often bullied by officers who are trained to track and punish criminals.
Take the scene outside Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Manhattan, where each morning a couple thousand kids, still half asleep, line up around the building. On a freezing Tuesday this year, the line is backed up because one of the two metal detectors is broken; the wait could be another hour or two. The teens seem accustomed to the line, killing time and cold by nestling together and talking about everything from the latest clothes to J.Lo and Puffy, and even the cops staked out across the street in paddy wagons "clockin'" them.
Aside from a few sighs and rolling eyes, they ignore the suspicious glares from Five-O, opting instead to focus on the tight security check ahead.
In white suburban America, where the most brutal acts of student violence have taken place, parents and community leaders resist metal detectors and police, arguing that criminalizing schools is too high a price. But in New York City, where 85 percent of the students are kids of color, these procedures have silently become daily routine. As of June 2000, there were 191 baggage X-ray machines and 305 walk-through metal detectors in use in 72 schools, with more to come.
At Martin Luther King Jr., each child swipes a photo ID card through a computer, knowing that a forgotten card means having to manually enter an ID number, and a forgotten number means access could be denied for the day. These cards are linked to a database that includes the student's class schedule as well as records of lateness, absence, cutting, truancy, fighting, and other offenses.
Any card branded with an infraction will trigger a buzz and a red bulb alerting officers to remove the student from the line for questioning and possible disciplinary action. If all is well with the card, a green bulb clears the student for the next checkpoint. Here, they send their bags through an X-ray machine, then shuffle through a metal detector, where a harmless belt buckle, ruler, or piece of jewelry could set off the alarm, subjecting any student to a body scan and pat down. The kids are more preoccupied with the ringing of the first-period bell than with civil rights violations, since anyone who hasn't cleared security by then will be marked for cutting and have to wait on line until second period.
This prison-like system sometimes causes more problems than it prevents.
Last October, Raymone, a 14-year-old who's being raised by his mother, ran into trouble when he tried to enter Prospect Heights High School without his ID. An unarmed safety agent told him that without a card, he'd have to leave.
What happened next isn't clear. An assistant principal says the safety agent reported that Raymone started pushing him. Raymone claims an officer shoved him toward the door. "He just kept pushing me and saying, 'You gotta leave,' even though he knew I belonged there. I walked through those doors every day, but he didn't care. So I got mad and I pulled away from him.
"Next thing I know we're stumbling, and nine other guards are all over me, and glass from a window nearby is crashing everywhere. I was scared and mad, but I couldn't do anything. The guard said I punched him, so they cuffed me and took me to the precinct."
When his mother arrived at her job in the U.S. Treasury Department, a coworker handed her a message saying that her son was being held at the 71st Precinct. "My heart dropped when I got to the precinct," she says. "My child's neck, wrists, and back were bruised. Buttons were torn off his shirt. I wasn't able to protect him, and it was the worst pain I've ever felt. And for what? Just because he didn't have an ID?"
If anyone from the school had called to tell her about Raymone's lack of an ID, his mother says, she would have picked him up. Instead, she ended up spending four hours in the police station, waiting for an officer to file a complaint. She was left to deal with Raymone's bruises, his subsequent expulsion, his legal fees, conviction for assault, and punishment of six months' probation and court-mandated counseling.
His mother is convinced the scars will remain, even after the sentence is over. "There is no ending to this," she says. "Once a child gets caught up in the system, it follows them for life. He's branded now, and nothing I can do will erase that."
Police presence has changed the coming-of-age experience for this generation of students. Last December, Martin Luther King Jr. High held its first school dance of the year. As the students partied and celebrated their freshman year, six safety agents and 10 armed police stood guard in the main entrance, overshadowing photos of Reverend King and a copy of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
These kids go to schools with metal grates on the windows, steel doors, and surveillance cameras. When suspected of breaking a rule, they're held by officers, detained, and interrogated in rooms the students call "the cells."
For all this, the schools don't feel much safer. In November, the Joint Committee on School Safety, staffed equally by representatives from the mayor's and the chancellor's offices, produced the first official report since the takeover. The committee wrote that 67 percent of all principals polled said "there has been no change in their school's climate of safety" since the transfer.
But parents, and many principals, say there's been a big change -- though not one they want. "You cannot have children this exposed to cops and not expect the kids to get the short end of the stick," says Carrie Monroe, the mother of a 15-year-old at Prospect Heights. "Cops in the train station when they arrive for school, more cops parked outside the school, and then toy cops inside the school patting them down. How can they learn in that environment? My son is always coming home with some horror story about kids being unnecessarily stopped by police. It's not right."
The numbers tell a complicated story. The joint committee report indicates the total number of criminal incidents has dropped 17 percent. Burglary is way down. And arrests -- when a student is taken to the precinct and ordered to appear in court -- have dropped by 23 percent. But the total number of students having encounters with law enforcement has jumped --by 17 percent. The number of kids between seven and 16 getting "juvenile reports," which go on file at the precinct, is up 12 percent. The number of kids 16 and up getting summonses -- which can be issued either at school or at the precinct, and which also require an appearance in court -- has gone up more than 100 percent.
Giuliani's "quality of life" tactics have infiltrated the city schools. Cops have stepped up surveillance and enforcement in a way that is perceived as harassment. They're writing hundreds of summonses -- 457 in one recent year alone -- for what would otherwise be normal, adolescent acting out. In the first year of the pilot program, trespassing shot up 325 percent, loitering 230 percent -- kids hanging out, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Everything that's wrong [with Giuliani's police tactics] on the streets is multiplied tenfold when you apply it to the schools," says Nancy Ginsburg, a Legal Aid attorney who deals with juvenile offenders.
"How do you evaluate what's disorderly conduct for a 15-year-old?" Ginsburg continues. "Kids by their nature are disorderly. They do wacky things! They run around the hallways and pick off people's hats -- that's grand larceny!" If a beef between two kids ends in a fight, she says, "It could be because they don't want to look like a wuss -- that's criminal intent for 15-year-olds!" With adolescents, she says, "There's no end to what you can say is criminal behavior."
The ordinary attitude of a high school kid can be the very thing that sets cops off. In a report on city policing released last July, mayoral candidate and public advocate Mark Green uncovered what black and Hispanic people have always known about police brutality. In "43 percent of the cases where officers were actually disciplined," Green wrote, "acts of misconduct occurred when officers believed that victims were being disrespectful."
The same complaints of racial profiling and excessive force on the streets are now being voiced by students and parents. "Every time the city claims that crime is down, black people start getting violated and there is always some excuse to brush it off," says Carl Monroe, father of a Prospect Heights student. "I don't want to be one of those fathers whose kid gets shot by mistake. It's obvious that no one is watching how the cops treat our kids."
Much of the daily enforcement is actually done by a largely black and Hispanic force of safety agents equipped with handcuffs. Since the pilot program began, the agents have been getting 120 additional hours of training from police academy instructors who teach them to think like cops. The law section, for example, has jumped from 28 to 51 hours, with additional emphasis on crime classification, probable cause and reasonable suspicion, and search and seizure.
"We were trained to keep track of repeat offenders for truancy, cutting, lateness, fighting, and any other negative behavior patterns," says a former high school safety agent in Queens who didn't want her name used, because she now works for another part of the department. "The job became more hardcore and criminal-oriented."
She dismisses the idea that kids are harassed or coerced by safety agents and other officers. "It's not that simple," she says. Most problems, she believes, stem from inadequate training for a job that deals with adolescents in turmoil. When the NYPD first took over, agents underwent a onetime training period of nine weeks.
"What little child psychology and sensitivity training we got could never prepare anyone to deal with the range of emotions that 2000 kids come to school with every day," she says. "Sometimes you really have to back off and realize what these kids go through when they are not in school. At the end of the day, they are still kids."
Uncomfortable with arresting and fingerprinting students, the woman transferred out of the schools.
Some of her peers have taken a different route. School-safety agents can now be promoted into better-paying jobs as New York City cops, which may mean they have more incentive to act tough. Every time there is an incident involving a student, they are required to phone it in to a 24-hour school-safety operations center. The offense is classified under the penal code, then entered into a central computer, so the police can keep track of crime patterns. The system is modeled on COMPSTAT, the police database used to target trouble spots.
Since the takeover, police have been working more closely with principals to develop safety plans that consider not just the school, but the entire neighborhood. Safety agents aren't the only cops focused on kids. Mornings and afternoons, under the Safe Corridor program, uniformed police patrol 158 routes between bus and train stations and schools. Under Safe Passage, 98 transit police were assigned to cover the stations near schools.
Students have their own take on the police presence. "The po-po are like recruiters around here, only they don't want us for the NBA or the NFL. They want us for jail," says 16-year-old Tarell, who was recently kicked out of Prospect Heights High School for fighting and spent two days in jail.
"People don't understand what we go through," Tarell says. "You could be standing up chillin' with your friends, and they will roll up on you and start questioning you for no reason. They don't even do it in a nice way. It's like, 'Didn't I see you here before? Get your ass up on the wall and spread 'em.' Your first instinct is to run, but you know that will make it 10 times as bad."
Nowhere is police scrutiny tighter than around the "zone" schools, for which the minimum requirement is to live in the neighborhood. The student bodies consist of those who either didn't apply to or didn't get accepted by a specialized high school. Some have been kicked out of other schools.
Most "zoners," as the kids call them, are located in or close to ghettos. Children of immigrants, the poor, unemployed, crackheads, alcoholics, and ol' school gangbangers are educated (or not) at schools like Wingate and Erasmus in Brooklyn, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy in the Bronx, and Franklin K. Lane on the Brooklyn-Queens border. These schools, the melting pots of education, have been easy prey for Giuliani's quality of life crackdown.
"Lord knows these schools and the kids live up to their reputations," says Brooklyn high school teacher Yvonne Milford. "It's easy for police to bait these kids. Many of them have turbulent lives. They are often abused, confused, and angry. They fight, curse, steal, and threaten, because they are not matured enough to deal with the hardships of life.
"Despite all of that, there hasn't been one mass murder committed in any of these schools," she adds. "It's a double-edged sword. As teachers we try to encourage them to come to school, and when they get here, they are forced to share their space with cops who use their problems against them."
Ten or 20 safety agents roaming the halls of a zone school is standard. They scatter, sweeping the stairwells looking for kids cutting class. In some schools, like Harry S. Truman in the Bronx, they're backed by armed cops who also patrol the premises. During one tour of Truman High, all was quiet until seven kids -- four boys and three girls -- were picked up by regular police for loitering outside the school. One boy protested that he'd left school because he was sick and asked a police officer to call his mother. "I'm your mother right now," the officer said.
In that incident, police called parents and wrote up summonses from inside Truman's school-safety command center. But often kids who get arrested are automatically taken to the precinct, advocates say. Many kids who get summonses for lesser offenses wind up at the police station -- with all the other alleged criminals.
"Students aren't getting written up in schools," says Elisa Hyman, deputy director of Advocates for Children. "They're getting handcuffed and then taken to the station."
Police don't have a firm breakdown of kids who receive summonses at school and those who are taken to the precinct on the spot, and in any case, statistics don't paint the whole picture. Police and school safety agents are adults dealing with kids and teens, and they may do things that never show up on the books. Kids say they are often frisked, handcuffed, and questioned, then sent on their way.
Ginsburg, the juvenile attorney, says students who are handcuffed and therefore "not free to go" often feel as if they've been under arrest, even if the police never record a bust. These kids are getting lessons in how it feels to be a criminal, even if they haven't been charged.
"It's really sad," Milford says. "We can't seem to teach them how to read and write, but we allow the police to educate them about fingerprints, holding cells, and plea bargaining. We seem to be choosing handcuffs over textbooks."
Each generation has raised its share of rebellious teenagers, from the rollers of the '50s to the stoners of the '60s. In the suburbs, white parents resist bringing in high security to deal with their rebellious teens. In this city, public school adolescents risk paying an exceptionally high price for what could be ordinary acting out. Black and Hispanic parents have long been stripped of the right to have their children properly educated in this city; now they are forced to watch as schools -- supported by their tax dollars and administered by people they elect -- become a vessel for introducing their children to the criminal justice system.
Given current rates of incarceration, three out of every 10 black males can expect to do time. Some 64 percent of the people behind bars in the U.S. are African American or Hispanic, a proportion nearly equal to that of the city's 1.1 million public school students. The question becomes: Which classrooms are those future inmates sitting in now?
6/22/01
3:42:29 PM
U.S. Lags In Economic Human Rights
by Mark Weisbrot
OAKLAND, CA -- When Americans think of human rights violations, they don't normally think of people like Freman Davis, a 71-year old retired African- American machinist living here in the Oakland Homeless Project. Mr. Davis' troubles began seven years ago when he was evicted from his apartment. With rising real estate prices here, he was never able to find another one that would fit within the means of his $570 monthly Social Security check.
Mr. Davis, who is also a disabled veteran of the Korean War, is one of the witnesses testifying as part of the Economic Human Rights Bus Tour. They told their stories this week to network TV crews, and audiences that included US Representatives Barbara Lee of Oakland, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and John Conyers of Detroit. They were articulate, persuasive, and often eloquent. A sixteen-year-old homeless high school girl noted that while "other girls my age were worrying about who to date and what to wear, I was thinking about where I was going to sleep and where my next meal would come from."
The Bus Tour, sponsored by the Oakland-based policy group Food First, visited homeless centers and single room occupancy hotels in downtown Oakland this week to shine a spotlight on homelessness and poverty in California. More ambitiously, the affiliated groups are demanding that such basic needs as food, shelter, and health care be recognized by the United States government as fundamental human rights. They are backed not only by hundreds of activist and advocacy groups throughout the country, but also by the 56-member Progressive Caucus in the US Congress.
Are they ahead of their time? Or is America behind the times? The United States is alone among the wealthy nations of the world in its failure to provide universal health insurance. The resulting patchwork of public and private insurers is so wasteful and inefficient that we end up spending twice as much per person on health care as do countries like Sweden, and still leave 43 million people uninsured. With insurance premiums now rising again at double-digit rates, it is possible that the switch to a more efficient, universal, single insurer system would actually save money over the long run. But even if it cost more, it is well within our means to insure the millions of people whose first and only visits to the doctor are in the emergency room.
Estimates of the homeless vary widely, but we could easily provide for them with a lot less than the $500 billion that the Bush Administration's tax cut is giving to the richest one percent of taxpayers (average income: $1.1 million). And we already have a food stamp program, which would need to be expanded as well as extended to the millions of families who are currently eligible, but do not participate.
Although some may think these battles have been lost with the passage of President Bush's tax cut, this is not necessarily true. That tax cut represents only about a quarter of the projected budget surpluses over the next decade. Right now, both parties are committed to using more than half of these surpluses -- that is, twice the amount that went to the tax cut -- for paying down the national debt. This commitment -- which would provide very little, if any, benefit to the economy -- is a recently developed bit of ideological nonsense that will surely fade if the economy continues to slow.
But we should not have to wait for a recession before we do something to provide for people's most basic needs. On the contrary, the recent economic expansion -- the longest in American history -- has provided opportunities far beyond those that existed in the 1960s, the last time this country officially committed itself to a "War on Poverty." Regardless of what happens to the economy in the next year or so, the government's future finances look better than they ever have in the past half-century.
Less than five years ago we lost our most important federal entitlement for poor children -- Aid to Families with Dependent Children -- despite the fact that we have the highest child poverty rate in the developed world (currently one in six). And our largest and most successful anti-poverty program --Social Security -- is being set up by the Bush Administration for partial privatization and cuts.
All the more reason to establish the principle that basic needs such as food, shelter, and health care are fundamental economic human rights -- so they cannot be swept aside with shifts in the political winds.
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. He is co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: the Phony Crisis (2000, University of Chicago Press).
6/22/01
3:28:12 PM
Will Eco-terrorists Kill?
by Knute Berger
Timothy McVeigh is dead, but I don't feel any better.
Morally, I think he deserved to die -- and I think death is what he wanted. It will, I believe, make him a martyr to some; it will also hide forever the truth of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Legally, I think his execution was a travesty: the withholding of 4,000 documents from McVeigh's defense team by the FBI was outrageous. Despite his conviction and his confessions, I think he should have been granted a new opportunity to defend himself. As it is, the FBI has little incentive to do things right the next time: hobble an accused's defense, wait until he confesses, then release important evidence after the fact is hardly a recipe for justice. Allowing McVeigh to be executed without a new trial let the FBI off the hook. It will also solidify antigovernment sentiment in some quarters -- and frankly, it ought to.
But the more lasting unease I have is this: that while organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center monitor militias and so-called hate groups on the far right -- groups which, for the most part, are in decline -- left-leaning political violence is on the rise.
Anarchists have delighted in trashing Starbucks and McDonalds during anti-globalization protests; saboteurs have attacked, blown-up or disabled logging trucks and equipment; animal rights activists have demolished research labs; and eco-arsonists like the Earth Liberation Front have claimed credit for torching facilities at the University of Washington, a ski resort in Vail, and suburban homes in Phoneix and on Long Island.
It disturbs me that some on the left deny that these acts are violent, or simply choose to look the other way. After the WTO protests in Seattle, many local activists angrily disputed such press characterizations of the anarchists acts. They rationalized that private property is violence, so vandalizing Niketown isn't. I guess the two things are supposed to cancel each other out. But if you were standing between that Niketown and the rocks aimed at its windows, as I did, you would have no doubt that such an act is a violent one. Just as I have no doubt that the police were being violent went they fired rubber bullets and pepper pellets into the crowd.
Being in denial about violence can lead to an escalation of the type Tim McVeigh represents. Most members of the far right are not babykillers, and don't condone it. But the far right's love of playing soldier and the escalation of its rhetoric moved it to the point where people like Tim McVeigh could see killing innocents as simply "collateral damage."
Eco-activists run that risk also: it is only a matter of time before someone, somewhere in the movement steps over the line -- intentionally or accidentally -- and makes a similar, McVeigh-like mistake. Will killing a student, a professor, a logger, a construction worker, or a suburban housewife be acceptable collateral damage for "saving the planet?"
I am not opposed, in principle, to violence to meet politcal ends. I certainly believe in self-defense. But any political movement that goes down that road needs to face up to the fact that violence is inherently unpredictable and destructive. Target it, limit it, rationalize it all you want, but it can have terrible consequences.
The environmental movement has the moral high ground -- especially with Bush in the White House. It does not need an "Oklahoma City" -- but it's heading toward one.
Source: http://www.Alternet.org
6/22/01
3:17:09 PM
Bush, Steel and "Free Trade" Lies
By Cedric Muhammad
President Bush's first steps last week to impose broad restrictions on imported steel provided another self-righteous and hypocritical moment, not just for the Republican Party but also for those in America's business establishment that claim that this country wants free trade around the world.
For years, politician, after economist, after business reporter repeats the refrain that free trade is the path to prosperity and the basis of America's economic development, and is an example that the rest of the world should follow. But history does not agree with this assertion.
America was not established on the basis of free trade. Of course we know that much of the basis of this country's wealth was derived from free labor in the form of Black human beings transported against their will from Africa. But in addition to that frequently ignored economic factor, there is the blatant truth that protectionist policies provided the basis of America's economic development. Government subsidies, tariffs, customs duties and a litany of indirect taxes have been attached to and associated with imports and exports since the inception of this country, and they have never been discontinued.
This country even went into a depression because of the excessive nature of its violations of "free trade." The Smoot-Hawley tariff bill, passed between October 1929 and June 1930, specified duties on around 21,000 trade items. Some, like economist Jude Wanniski, credit it as the cause of the stock market crash of 1929. And this was well after 1776 and 1787, when much of the first phases of American protectionism and non "free trade" were taking root at the hands and design of Alexander Hamilton.
There simply exists no such thing as "free trade." It has never existed in the entire history of the United States. Yet the entire political, economic, and media establishment -- full of a combination of sincere, intelligent, ignorant, and wickedly wise individuals -- continue to project an image of America's economic development and growth that simply is not rooted in reality.
It is the height of imperialism for the United States to tell the economically developing world that it must open its markets entirely in order to grow and do business with the U.S., when the U.S., itself, did not grow because it opened all of its sectors to foreign competition. Neither the U.S., Germany, Japan, Korea, England or any country in the West grew to economic prosperity by the means that they recommend -- and at times impose --upon the economically developing world.
The U.S. only wants these markets opened because it is in the best position to benefit from the access. Because these countries are underdeveloped and have not established themselves, if they let the U.S. into their markets at this early stage, it would be decades before they could ever compete, if at all, with the U.S. The only free markets the U.S. wants these countries to excel in are those areas which require cheap manual labor and natural resources that the U.S. does not have or does not wish to tap into.
Black Caucus member Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana has repeatedly told us of how the U.S., under the African Trade Bill, denies Africa access to U.S. textile markets that it granted to Korea and numerous other countries that are today credited with moving down the path of free trade. The head start, preferential treatment and subsidies they receive(d) are rarely if ever mentioned.
America knows that the path to economic development and growth for developing countries is not through free trade and instantaneous open access to all of its markets. That approach has never worked. What works is a mixture of open markets and international trade, with the proper amount of protection in a few sectors, as well as government funding of infrastructure.
The latter two factors are the secondary aspects of the big lie. Revisionist historians seem to forget that Alexander Hamilton's economic program for America included tariffs, government subsidies and a total disrespect of British intellectual property rights. Hamilton even supported a program of intellectual piracy that stole the latest technologies from Britain and used them or reproduced them in America. He campaigned for the open violation of British patents. We have no question that Alexander Hamilton, if he were alive today, would be siding with South Africa, India, Brazil and even Cuba on intellectual property right issues and the generic reproduction of medicines like AIDS drugs.
And then there is the second factor -- the assertion made ad nauseam that the U.S. private sector's entrepreneurial spirit and free markets generated this country's economic boom. In fact, the American government poured trillions of dollars into railroads, canals, highways, bridges, dams and power utilities -- not to mention new technologies like the Internet -- to enable that boom. Today, economically developing countries are told that they must not direct taxpayer's dollars to such wasteful endeavors.
President Bush's move to protect the U.S. steel industry is just the latest example of America not walking what it talks. Steel, along with textiles and agriculture, represent the three primary areas where the U.S. practices everything but free trade.
It is startling to watch American politicians, economists and business leaders boldly demand that Africa, Chile and many countries in the economic developing world grant them concessions on intellectual property rights, while they simultaneously deny these same countries access to their agricultural and textile markets. Both sides are attempting to protect nascent domestic markets, but only the economically developing world is branded as protectionist, or anti-free trade.
Hopefully, a bright spotlight cast upon Bush's steel decision, as well as WTO negotiating rounds on agriculture, will expose one of the biggest economic lies that the West has exported freely to the entire world.
http://www.BlackElectorate.com
6/22/01
1:16:02 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
THE TV'S EYE IS SET ON YOU
by Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times.
-- "Americans have been watching television commercials for more than 50 years. Pretty soon, commercials will be watching them." Will new advances in target advertising spare you from unwanted ads or give "Big Brother" an unwanted window into your life?
AWAKE AT THE WHEEL: CAR-FREE IN BOGOTA
by Oscar Edmundo Díaz, Encompass
-- "What is probably the most important urban transportation undertaking in the world in the last half century is taking place in Bogotá." Oscar Edmundo Díaz examines the Colombian capital's response to rapidly increasing traffic and pollution problems.
HIGHWAYS TO HELL
by Dimity McDowell, SportsJones
-- On June 17th, fifteen men and two women mounted their bikes to compete in a 2,983-mile race across the U.S. that stops for nothing--the average competitor sleeps about an hour and a half per day. Dimity McDowell recalls her stint on the crew for last year's eighth-place finisher, Mark Patten.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/22/01
1:13:37 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
UPDATE - Bush pushes environment spending as polls slump - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11277
US Interior Dept looks to Western energy resources - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11278
US fuel rules may cause more pollution - report USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11296
Energy Dept worries about getting ethanol to Calif - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11280
Interior drops plan for grizzly bears in Montana, Idaho - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11281
Tangled whale faces death off Cape Cod - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11282
Campaign urges Americans to impose power blackout - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11283
UPDATE - Lawmakers vote to block drilling in Fla. waters - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11276
Natives fail to sway Norton from ANWR oil stance - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11291
Green group says wins UK concession on nuke plant - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11286
Greens tell UK to halt GM crops or face new crisis - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11293
UPDATE - Protesters jeer tankers in Bosphorus straits - TURKEY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11287
UPDATE - UN pays $243 mln for Gulf War environment studies - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11285
EU and Canada agree to promote climate protocol - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11294
Peru protesters block road over Antamina mine worry - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11292
Greenpeace blocks trawler in Norway port - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11288
UPDATE - Italy to shut down all access to Genoa for G8 meet - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11279
UPDATE - UN body defers caviar trade cut, spares gourmets - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11284
China squeezes water-guzzlers to ease drought - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11290
What's killing the killer whales off Canada's coast? - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11295
Australian GM vaccine seen exciting, long way to go - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11297
Australia to get tough on gene crop tests - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11289
6/22/01
1:02:01 PM
Final Court Statement of Lori Berenson, June 20, 2001
I am innocent of all charges against me. Neither of my trials, in the civilian or military court, has proven me guilty of any crime. The charges against me are still based upon the hearsay of a fellow detainee who is trying to be freed at my expense.
Since the very day of my arrest I have been called a terrorist, a term that has been used and abused in Peruvian society for far too many years, mostly because of the psychological impact of a concept that brings to mind indiscriminant violence designed to terrorize; irrational destructive violence; deadly, senseless terror. I am not a terrorist; I condemn terrorism; I always have.
I feel very sad for all direct and indirect victims of violence. The damage to a society goes beyond the physical and psychological impact of violence on its victims and their families. It leaves deep wounds, painful wounds, and it is very sad to watch a people endure it. Political violence harms a society because it is interconnected with the institutionalized violence criticized by important church authorities in the second half of the twentieth century. El Salvador's martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero gave his life in 1980 because of his criticism of what he called institutionalized violence, as did Bishop Juan Gerardi martyred in Guatemala. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of clergy and lay workers were assassinated for defending the poor and speaking the truth against social injustice and the institutionalized violence of hunger and poverty that is the horrendous daily peril of millions.
When on March 20 I said my case has been used as a smoke screen, that it is a political trial, it is because of the particular elements regarding my case and also, in general, the cases of all those detained and tried in the context of political violence. There is a very simple reason: the existence of insurgent or rebel movements in Latin America and many other places in the world has a lot to do with social and economic conditions. The government responds through state policy, albeit solely militarily or with other components, to draw attention from these conditions.
Thousands of Peruvians have suffered persecution, detention, torture, death as part of a state policy violating the human and fundamental rights of its population. After ex-President Fujimori's self-coup in 1992, constitutional law was violated by executive decrees made during a state of emergency. The congress and universities were closed, all forms of social organization and opposition were prohibited. The unconstitutional legislation included the antiterrorist laws that destroyed due process in civilian and military courts. But today in Peru and throughout the world it is common knowledge that the Peruvian state did more than violate human rights by closing democratic institutions and stomping on labor and social rights and leaving its people hungry. It is now common knowledge that behind the unconstitutional legislation and the manipulation of public opinion around certain issues like political violence was an extremely corrupt government that profited from the blood and sweat of its citizens, condemning them to live in hunger and misery. The dictatorship manipulated the judiciary to ensure the cover up of human rights violations and corruption. It wasn't an issue of particular judicial authorities, but the system itself and the legislation. In the cases of those tried for "terrorism" or treason, they were often condemned on the basis of hearsay and fabricated evidence. People were sentenced for refusing to admit guilt regardless of whether or not they were guilty. They were condemned for not fingering others and for rejecting the psychological and social stigma of being called a "terrorist." Hearsay, supposed intentions, finger pointing or lack thereof, personal and political opinions none of these constitute proof of any crimes.
I am aware that much of the Peruvian public has a very negative image of me, which in part is because of the anger I expressed, how aggressive I came across, when I was illegally presented to the press in January 1996. And I am aware how that image and those statements were manipulated to create a monster larger than life, so that later I personified twenty years of insurgent and state violence. This was part of the propaganda designed to make people forget how government policy and corruption impoverished the Peruvian people.
As I have stated in this trial, I regret having come across as such an angry or aggressive person, especially if it confused or offended the Peruvian people whom I really respect and love. The anger I showed was the result of my indignation upon seeing not only the violation of human rights and fundamental rights of the Peruvian people, but also the suffering I witnessed in DINCOTE and the farce of a trial I was undergoing. The mistreatment and outright torture of my fellow detainees form only a short chapter of the history of torture in DINCOTE or army bases that was a state policy. Even so, I think it was wrong of me to have expressed myself in that way, so angry. I should have said the same or similar things, but in a calmer way. However, I believe I was punished more for what I said. Not only was I given a life sentence, but also for over five years my name and image were used as a symbol of so-called "terrorism." The punishment was for not cowering to the system of injustice and for expressing my beliefs.
I am innocent of the charges against me. Even with the limitations of ex-President Fujimori's antiterrorism legislation that will sentence me today, this court has not proven the contrary.
Yes, I jointly rented a house with another person, but I did not do so with the idea or intent of doing so for the MRTA and there is no evidence to the contrary.
Yes, I did rent an apartment later that year, once the house had been sublet. I rented it and lived in it as witnesses from the apartment building have confirmed. I did not rent it to hide anyone or for any reason related to the MRTA, and there is no evidence to the contrary.
Yes, I did know on a social, human basis, several people who wound up being part of, or somehow related to the MRTA. I knew them with other identities and I had absolutely no reason to doubt the truth of who they said they were. They did not act in any way to make me think otherwise. Perhaps there is a cultural difference here, but it goes against my upbringing to snoop around in someone else's belongings or covertly visit their rooms, to interrogate them or pry into their private lives. I had already lived in several communal environments, both in the United States and abroad, and there is an issue of mutual respect, respect for other's space and privacy. One must mind one's own business. For these reasons, after subletting, I never went to the fourth level of the house nor did I go into any other room that was sublet. I never cooked for the MRTA nor brought food upstairs. I never led nor participated in indoctrination courses not with or without a hood. No one has testified to the contrary. In fact the young people who had lived there all said as do I that they first saw me in DINCOTE or in prison.
Among my personal belongings the police found my computer, beeper, and the cell phone I rented. I used these things for work and recreational purposes. Unfortunately the books, the tapes, and my writings "strangely" disappeared. They would have provided concrete evidence of studies I was conducting and the articles I was writing. I did not obtain any "communications equipment," beepers, or computers for the MRTA and there is no evidence to the contrary.
I did not come to Peru to cause any harm. I was and am interested in Peru's history and Peru's future. The reason I wanted to write articles about Peru was precisely because I thought it was very important that people in the United States and elsewhere know more about Peru. Peru's cultural richness should be more greatly appreciated by all. I believe that cultural history should be considered useful in the present and looking toward the future. I was seriously writing those articles. The editors of the magazines have confirmed it. My notes, my interviews with various people prove it. I knew nothing about any supposed plan the MRTA may have had to seize the congress. To this day I know nothing about such a plan or even if it existed and if it existed, I certainly had nothing to do with it.
After hearing Miguel Rincon's testimony in this courtroom and the reading of Pacifico Castrell & oacute;n's statements at different phases of this process, I am absolutely certain that Castrell & oacute;n has told lies to save his own skin, not simply to hide any real participation he may have had in all of this, but especially to seek his own release by condemning others. His statements were the only basis of my sentence in the military court and were the basis of the prosecutor's accusations here. It is very common to shift responsibilities to others when trying to secure your release. Castrellón admitted to knowing many people who he described in detail and pointed a finger at. I don't know if he really knew these people or if they even existed because the only evidence of their existence is in Castrellón's statement. But certainly I have never, ever met any of the people he claims he met through me. Such claims are absolutely false. Some of the contradictions between Castrellón's statements and those of the other detainees support what Miguel Rincon said about Castrellón in this courtroom. When Castrellón was asked why Rincon called him an international collaborator, Castrellón said "Oh, that's part of their jargon, the same way he would have considered me to be a traitor." The concept of betrayal denoted having belonged to or shared something with a group of people or cause.
I am innocent of the prosecutor's charges of being a member of and a collaborator with the MRTA. In fact, by definition one cannot be both a member and a collaborator. I am neither and there is no evidence to the contrary.
I did not come to Peru to cause harm or damage to anyone or anything. I have always been deeply concerned with issues of poverty and social justice, and if I was interested in Peru' history and its people, it was with my best intentions. When I spoke about poverty five years ago during my press presentation, it was because the human suffering caused by social injustice is unfair, inhumane, and downright immoral. Poverty in Peru has gotten worse since my detention. Now people talk about more sectors of poor and higher percentages of extreme poverty. And no one can deny this. Not only that, politicians, the church -- everyone speaks of it. I have been very open and honest about this because it has been part of my way of life for many years -- I believe that when things are wrong, one should say they are wrong. One should speak out when faced with injustice. I am grateful I was raised that way, as I am also grateful that my family continues to support and promote those social and moral values, for all people. I am grateful for the help of my family and friends and especially for the presence of my parents in this courtroom throughout this trial.
I haven't hidden my opinions or my beliefs. I have been honest and transparent when expressing who I am and what I think. It has been a tremendous honor for me to be involved in social issues for many years. It has also been a great honor for me to work in a country like El Salvador, work with refugees, with students, and, particularly, on the peace process. I have nothing to be ashamed of. If I describe my work in El Salvador or say I like the music of Victor Jara who was cruelly assassinated by a dictatorship because of his beliefs, that does not make me guilty of a crime. On the contrary, I think that it makes it clearer who I am and what I believe. I have nothing but love for the Latin American and Peruvian people. I've been in jail many years now, but I still have great hopes and I'm still convinced that there will be a future of justice for the people of Peru and all humanity.
Lori Berenson
For the 20 June 2001 AP story: Lori delivers her closing statement to the court ahead of announcement of the verdict, see
http://www.freelori.org/news/01jun20_ap_b.html
If you can, please join supporters of Lori Berenson at the following demonstrations:
Mon. June 25 at 5:30 - 7 PM Peruvian Consulate, 241 E 49th St New York City Speakers, music, rally-- welcome Mark and Rhoda Berenson back to the United States after 3 months in Peru; call for Lori Berenson's freedom.
Thursday June 28 at 5:30 PM Peruvian Embassy, 1700 Mass Ave NW Washington, DC Speakers, music, rally, puppets-- Mark and Rhoda Berenson come to Washington to lobby US Congress to support Lori's release, ask Peruvian government to release Lori.
For more information visit:
6/22/01
12:56:15 PM
Lori Berenson Wrongfully Convicted Twice by Flawed Peruvian Justice System
Lori Berenson was convicted and given a 20-year sentence this afternoon in Lima, Perú, of terrorist collaboration despite a lack of evidence and multiple due process violations in her trial. Although Berenson has consistently maintained her innocence, a panel of three judges ruled today that she is guilty.
None of the witnesses in the case confirmed the prosecution's accusations that Berenson was involved with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), including the prosecution's star witness Pacifico Castrellón. However, the prosecution is relying on much of Castrellón's testimony as a basis for keeping Ms. Berenson in jail, because he is the only witness that points out links between Berenson and the MRTA. Berenson denies any such connections. I am innocent of all charges against me. Neither of my trials, in the civilian or military court, has proven me guilty of any crime, she stated this morning in her closing address before the court.
Berenson maintained that she did not assist the MRTA and only became aware that some of her acquaintances in Lima were involved with the group after her arrest. All witnesses in Ms. Berenson's case have confirmed this statement, saying that they did not receive any support from her for their plans to attack the Peruvian Congress.
Berenson's parents, who have been in the courtroom for the past three months, addressed reporters outside the prison today after the verdict stating, Even before this trial began we knew that, as responsible and experienced observers worldwide uniformly recognized, a fair trial in Perú on terrorism charges in its special civilian courts under the present laws that were instituted by former President Fujimori and staffed by Fujimori appointees would not be possible. This was simply a retrial of the corrupt military proceedings of five and a half years ago.
Interestingly, Perú's judicial system is more on trial these past few months than Berenson herself, since the open hearings which began on March 20 have been broadcast on national and international television. It is apparent that Perú's judicial system remains flawed, and that due process guarantees are not automatically guaranteed, even though some basic international standards of due process are inherent in the Peruvian legislation.
Berenson was prejudged by the 3-judge panel before and during her open hearing in the courtroom and the media. She was not presumed innocent as Peruvian and international law require, but was considered guilty throughout the entire proceedings. Corrupt and incompetent court personnel also continues to be a problem in Perú; a state prosecutor who was responsible for drafting the charges against Ms. Berenson has since been fired for this reason. Still, Perú has a long way to go in improving its judicial system, and Berenson's case has only reaffirmed that to the world.
It's amazing that even though the entire world is watching, the Peruvian government gave Lori a sentence despite the fact that they were unable to produce evidence to prove she is guilty, stated Gail Taylor, National Organizer of the Committee to Free Lori Berenson in Washington, DC. Many in Perú are talking about what a crook [former President] Fujimori is, and yet there is not sufficient pressure to reform the judicial system and take out all of the illegal anti-terrorist legislation that he passed by executive decree after he overthrew his own government in 1992.
Lori taught us not to stand for that. She said that to be silent is to be an accomplice to the injustice. So we re not going to be silent, because someone has to be the voice for thousands of people who, like Lori, are being unjustly held in a system that doesn't treat people accused of crimes fairly.
Lori Berenson was convicted of terrorism under the Fujimori-Montesinos government and given a life sentence in 1996. After serving almost five years in extremely harsh conditions, her conviction was overturned. In the short time since Fujimori and Montesinos fled Perú in disgrace no structural changes have been made to the corrupt justice system Fujimori installed. The terrorist court that retried Berenson has been criticized internationally, as well as the anti-terrorist laws under which she has been convicted. The US State Department's report on human rights found that Perú's court system does not provide a fair trial for people charged with terrorism according to international standards.
Berenson's previous conviction in the Peruvian military courts was overturned last August because of new evidence that was presented, but instead of being released she was held with no charges as the civilian terrorist court case was being developed. Berenson's lawyer and independent legal observers documented at least twenty due process violations in the second trial.
For more information, contact: Gail Taylor 202-548-8480 or Bob Schwartz 212-475-3232
6/21/01
6:15:26 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
HERE SQUIRTY, SQUIRTY, SQUIRTY ...
The population of killer whales between Canada and the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. continues to decline, and researchers aren't sure why. They are particularly concerned about six of the orca whales (Oskar, Squirty, Orcan, Cetus, Luna, and an unnamed juvenile) that have not returned to their summer range in the San Juan Islands. Kelley Balcomb-Bartok of the Center for Whale Research said, "We've never lost so many in such a short time." He added, "We don't expect them back." For news of other whales, join Roger Payne aboard a whale research ship this week via the Grist Magazine website.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Reuters, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/590321.asp>
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hector Castro and Robert McClure, 16 Jun 2001 <http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/27804_orca16.shtml>
PATTON DOWN THE HATCHES
Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton (D) this week declared a six-month moratorium on additional applications for building power plants. He questioned whether the environment and power grid could cope with new plants already under way. Environmentalists, who have been asking since April for a moratorium, were disappointed that Patton's order did not also apply to 24 plants that beat the deadline and have permits pending. Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, said, "This is like closing Pandora's box after everything inside is already out."
straight to the source: Louisville Courier-Journal, Tom Loftus, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2001/06/20/ke062001s40276.htm>
BUSH GETS POLLED OVER
More than 70 percent of respondents to a New York Times/CBS News poll thought that producing energy was more important to President Bush than protecting the environment, while 55 percent of the respondents themselves thought it was more important to protect the environment. Only 12 percent (what were they smoking?) thought the environment was more important to Bush. More than 60 percent said Americans were being told there was an energy problem to give oil companies an excuse to charge more money. Seventy-two percent said it was necessary to take immediate steps to counter global warming, and more than half said the U.S. should abide by the Kyoto treaty on climate change, even though it wouldn't impose mandatory emissions caps on China and India.
straight to the source: New York Times, Richard L. Berke and Janet Elder, 21 Jun 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/21/politics/21POLL.html>
STANDARDS AND POOR SPORTS
Republicans are privately warning the auto industry that tougher fuel-economy standards may be inevitable this year unless it puts the pedal to the metal and significantly ramps up lobbying efforts. Democrats and environmentalists think an increase of three miles per gallon or more for light trucks and SUVs would force automakers to stop producing some less-efficient models. General Motors officials told Vice President Cheney this week that the company might have to cut production by 1 million vehicles a year if the White House boosted standards for light trucks from 20.7 miles per gallon to 23.7 mpg. A new nationwide Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll found that Americans would favor higher fuel-economy standards by almost a 5-to-1 margin.
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, Jim VandeHei, 21 Jun 2001 (access ain't free) <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB993072594165686233.htm>
straight to the source: Christian Science Monitor, John Dillin, 21 Jun 2001 <http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/21/p2s1.htm>
do good: Take action to help SUVs guzzle less gas <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/autos.stm?source=daily#suv>
DORK KEMPTHORNE
Ceding to the concerns of the state of Idaho, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton moved yesterday to abandon plans to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and Idaho. Grizzlies have been removed from 98 percent of their historic range and only 1,000 or so remain south of Canada. The Clinton administration's reintroduction plan was built on the work of a local partnership of environmentalists, timber officials, and mill workers -- just the sort of model that Norton and her ilk claim to love. But Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R) has said he doesn't want "massive, flesh-eating carnivores" reintroduced into his state (note: grizzlies are omnivores). Norton said she remained "fully committed" to the recovery of the bears.
straight to the source: USA Today, Tom Kenworthy, 21 Jun 2001 <http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010621/3419980s.htm>
catch it only in Grist Magazine: The simple bear necessities -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha090800.stm?source=daily>
ETHANOL FOR NAUGHT
The Bush administration has prepared a report for Congress that recommends continuing federal incentives for ethanol-fuel vehicles -- even though the report also found that the program has failed to meet either of its goals of reducing gasoline consumption and increasing the use of alternative fuels. Under the program, automakers that produce vehicles that can run on either ethanol or gasoline receive credits that allow them to lower the average fuel economy of the rest of their vehicles. But the report says that almost none of the duel-fuel vehicles are actually using ethanol, and that the program actually led to an increase in gasoline consumption of 473 million gallons last year and a rise in carbon dioxide emissions of 1.46 million metric tons.
straight to the source: New York Times, Keith Bradsher and David Barboza, 21 Jun 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/21/business/21FUEL.html>
Rolling blackouts aren't just in California -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha061901.stm?source=daily>
Free-range at last, free-range at last -- is cheap meat worth the karmic cost of industrial animal production? -- by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho112000.stm?source=daily>
6/21/01
3:06:18 PM
The Whizzinator Liberates Your Pee!
by Jim Washburn
Forget streaming digital-information hookups. Forget streaming video. If you're looking for a wildfire growth technology, look no further than hot, streaming pee.
You might think there's quite enough pee in the world, what with drunken clubgoers peeing in yards and municipalities dumping our ocean full of pee and crap and wondering why those tourist dollars are getting scarce.
Ick! Enough! Stop!
Who the hell would be so sick and perverted as to crave more pee --specifically your pee?
Your employer and your government, of course.
And for entrepreneurs Jerry Wills and Dennis Catalano, that has created a veritable golden shower of success. For less start-up money than it would take to buy a cheap car, the pair developed the Whizzinator and brought it to market a year and a half ago. Their company, Puck Technology, has since sold more than 4,000 devices at $150 a pop to folks who would prefer to keep their pee to themselves.
The Whizzinator is an undergarment incorporating a bladder, heat pad and prosthetic penis that is worn in front of your standard-issue penis. If you are so inclined, it will produce for those desirous of your urine 80 cc of substitute synthetic urine.
The joke's on them!
Instead of getting your genuine urine to play with, it's as fake as plastic dog poo, though, according to Wills and Catalano, tests will show it to be real, unadulterated pee, freeing up your own pee for you to use on yards and oceans willy-nilly. Isn't the free market grand?
Back when the drug-testing mania started, I made a vow never to submit to one. Along with trampling on my little 81/2 shoe-size worth of sovereignty, I think it is equally dehumanizing to employers when their personal assessment of your character and abilities literally doesn't amount to a jar of piss. Granted, they did that to themselves -- and to you -- but they can hardly help it, the fear-gorged corporate ticks.
It has been an easy vow for me to keep since I don't have a family to support; live a carefree, grasshopper life; and no one of consequence wants to hire me anyway. But what about most people, those with greater commitments and fewer opportunities? Conservative editorial writers will tell you that employers should be free to require tests because you are equally free to choose where you work, and in their lofty-if-utterly uninhabited-by-real-persons world of absolutes, that is true. But those scrambling to find a living wage -- as employers move jobs overseas, where workers have even fewer rights -- may not see the beauty in the purity of this reasoning.
If an employer is paying you $7.75 per hour or even $375,000 per year, should he be able to determine what you do off the clock? In profiting from your talents and time, did he also acquire your rights to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness we've read about? I can see some point to keeping airline pilots from having crack as their co-pilot (though their industry might better test for liquor and sleep deprivation). But sharing a joint before an Angels game on Saturday isn't going to affect your ability to make doughnuts on Tuesday, and in any just society, it is none of your boss's goddamn business.
This certainly isn't a new topic, but that's all the more reason to talk about it because it is the insidious, incremental abrogation of our personal freedoms -- collateral damage in the endless "war on drugs" -- that is strangling this country. Were a spaceship to land, I would love to see our leaders try to explain to a disinterested alien how a nation that watches its citizens pee into cups is any less wacko than the Taliban.
At least for now, the free market that allows corporations to get away with drug testing also allows entrepreneurs like Catalano and Wills to devise ways to mess with the tests.
"I'm a little cynical on the subject of rights," says Wills. "The only rights you have now are what you can get away with. You can't look to the government to protect them."
Both he and Catalano are in their mid-50s and consider themselves products of the 1960s. "They're still the Establishment and the Pigs to me," Catalano says. "We put this product together with the intent of making money, but there is another serious aspect to it, and it is that we really feel that we're helping out a lot of people."
Along with customers whose recreational activities have put their jobs in jeopardy, Catalano says, "There's a whole spectrum of people who have cause to not want to give their DNA-filled urine to others. An employer can tell if you take any psychotropic drugs and maybe will decide they won't hire anyone who is on Prozac. They can tell if a woman is pregnant or not. They can tell if you smoke. They can tell if you have legal drugs in your system or a medical condition that might make you a less desirable employee to them simply because they don't want the liability.
"Our intent with the Whizzinator," Catalano concludes, "is to protect your Fourth Amendment right -- to keep yourself and your bodily fluids private to yourself."
It is indeed a weakened republic when the only thing standing between the Fourth Amendment and totalitarianism is a 31/2-inch prosthetic penis. You may be pleased to learn that the Whizzinator is an equal-opportunity appendage, available in white, tan, latino, brown or black. (You, of course, will want to check this out at www.thewhizzinator.com.)
They aren't just off-the-shelf schlongs, either.
"We have them made by a large sex-toy manufacturer," Catalano says. "When we met with their head guy, we told him we needed something that realistically looked like a flaccid penis. He chuckled and said, 'Well, we deal in fantasy here.' But we got their designer to come up with something that looked very average. It had to be believable, comfortable to wear and easy to use, to pull out and put away." For women, they make the Whizzinator available "with the wiener on the side," detached so they can use the rest of the apparatus without the bulge.
He says they have a competitor whose "delivery system" is a yellow tube and whose "urine" is merely water, yellow food coloring and creatine. Meanwhile, the Whizzinator's powdered synthetic, at $12 per serving, was formulated by a chemist and extensively tested to fool the prevalent testing methods, he claims.
Since many testers check the temperature of your urine -- your external body temperature of 92 degrees is low enough to flag you for a retest -- the Whizzinator comes with a simple heat pack to bring your synthetic pee up to a piping 98 degrees.
Even so, the pair emphasizes that it takes practice to make a convincing use of it. Catalano says, "We spend a lot of time on the phone with customers. One fellow, a New York travel agent, was so nervous heading to his drug test that he had Jerry on his cell phone, walking him down the sidewalk and leading him through the door of the place."
What a lot of needless fear and bother.
"I'd hate to lose the income, but it would tickle me pink if this hysteria changed and we went out of business," Catalano says.
I won't hold my breath -- or bladder -- waiting for that saner day. But, should it arrive, can we allow such a bold product to perish? I say nay. Let the Whizzinator become a godsend to women who've envied the pleasures of peeing like a man, proudly misspelling his name in the snow. With the Whizzinator, those who have to pee real bad can now pee twice at once. Let the Whizzinator rescue the pee-shy: "Hadley, let's terminate Pixley. I think he may be pee-shy." "No, sir. I personally saw him pee 80 cc just yesterday. And damn if it wasn't warm."
6/21/01
1:40:08 PM
America's Troubled Waters
Can They be Saved?
by Dick Russell
Peter Lourie, a chronicler of river life, says that rivers are living mysteries, linking the past to the future. Today, that link has been largely broken. Through damming, dredging and channelization, we have changed the way rivers flow -- diverting water to generate hydropower, support navigation and irrigate crops. Half of our drinking water still comes from rivers, yet non-point source pollution poses an ongoing threat.
"A lot of things were done before it was understood how important rivers are to our environment," says Rebecca Wodder, president of the conservation organization American Rivers. "The United States leads the world in diversity of freshwater creatures. Yet these same species are equally as endangered as those in tropical rainforests." (So far, 17 species of freshwater fish have gone extinct.)
At the same time, restoration of healthy rivers has climbed high on many local agendas, resulting in some 4,000 river-oriented grassroots groups around the country. Riverkeepers and Waterkeepers patrol in search of pollution violators, and even government entities such as the Army Corps of Engineers have begun to think twice about altering nature's course.
Robert Kennedy, Jr., president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, warns of hard struggles ahead: "The Supreme Court recently dealt the biggest blow to the Clean Water Act in its 30-year history, lifting the protection of hundreds of millions of acres of wetlands and opening them up to developers with the stroke of a pen." President Bush's new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, "saw environmental regulation as an impediment to business," notes Kennedy. He calls her "a disaster for the Hudson River and New Jersey waterways." He also points out that Bush's Interior Secretary, Gale Norton, has argued that the Surface Mining Act, which protects Western streams from pollution, is unconstitutional. "Those are bad omens," Kennedy said in an interview, "for people who care about America's waterways."
Each year, Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers profiles the nation's 13 most endangered rivers to call attention to imminent threats as well as opportunities for change. Spotlighting these rivers with policy-makers and the public has brought results. The Yellowstone's Clark Fork, for example, topped the endangered list from 1994 to 1996; President Clinton, in August 1997, had the government buy out the gold mine threatening it. The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, No. 1 in 1998, was declared a national monument by Clinton in July 2000.
A central theme of this year's listing is energy. "Large segments of both the development and production side of energy have a significant impact on rivers and wildlife," says the group's energy policy director, Andrew Fahlund.
The lineup of America's Most Endangered Rivers, 2001, in descending order of threat, looks like this:
1. The Missouri
When first traversed by Lewis and Clark during their 1804 expedition, this was surely America's most dynamic waterway. It came to be called the "Big Muddy," an ever-shifting combination of multiple side channels, sandbars and islands. Beginning in Montana and running for 2,500 miles before joining the Mississippi just north of St. Louis, the Missouri drains about one-sixth of the surface area in the contiguous U.S., covering some 530,000 square miles.
Today, however, the river might more aptly be called the "Big Boondoggle." Shortly after World War II, most of the river's natural character was altered by dams and channels to create a deep, rock-lined barge canal and a series of slack water reservoirs. The average width of the "wide Missouri," sung about in the song "Shenandoah," has been reduced by two-thirds, and below Sioux City, Iowa, it's been shortened by 127 miles. In the Dakotas and eastern Montana, most of the original Missouri has been buried under America's largest reservoirs.
It was predicted that the Missouri would carry 20 million tons of cargo a year, but the economic benefits anticipated from increased navigation never materialized. Barge traffic peaked at 3.3 million tons in 1977 and now has fallen to less than 1.5 million tons. Farmers simply have easier access to trains and trucks for transporting their grain. The Army Corps of Engineers spends more money maintaining the navigation channels (more than $7 million annually) than the cargo revenues bring in.
By altering flows, the Missouri's dam operations have also gotten rid of sandbar nesting areas for least terns and piping plovers, and spawning areas for the pallid sturgeon—all three on the Endangered Species List. Riverbank cottonwoods once provided roosting for bald eagles, but because of a lack of flood-renewed soil and uncontrolled livestock, they've declined.
Still, as the renowned author and American Rivers board member Stephen Ambrose puts it: "Though few rivers have been subjected to human influence as much as the Missouri, no river possesses more potential for revitalization." In one of his final acts as President, Clinton designated the Missouri Breaks portion in Montana as a National Monument, helping preserve the river's least-altered portion -- provided that the incoming Bush Administration gives the Bureau of Land Management enough funding to properly manage riverside grazing and recreation.
And dam reforms are finally under consideration. In early February, the Army Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concluded that opening dams in the spring might avert species extinction. Reducing summer releases, also proposed, would temporarily suspend commercial navigation on the lower river but benefit reservoir recreation -- an $87 million-a-year business. "This opinion," says Chad Smith of the American Rivers field office in Nebraska, "clearly lays out what needs to be changed on the Missouri." The Corps subsequently decided to delay these reforms until 2003.
CONTACTS
American Rivers (national) Tel: (202) 347-7550
American Rivers (Missouri office) Tel: (402) 477-7910 E-mail: smith@amrivers.org
2. The Canning
From its emerald-green headwaters, the swift-flowing Canning River eventually crosses four northeastern Alaskan mountain ranges on its way to the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest north-flowing of the 18 major rivers within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) -- America's largest such designated area. Passing by raft or canoe beneath numerous cliffs, visitors might glimpse peregrine falcons, rough-legged hawks or four species of loons, or they might pause to fish for the tasty Arctic grayling and Dolly Varden (arctic char). One section of the river was named after the numerous musk ox grazing along its banks. The Canning and its Marsh Fork form the western border of a coastal plain that is a calving ground for nearly 130,000 Porcupine Caribou, the second-largest such herd in Alaska.
However, that same yet-untouched coastal plain is believed to contain the best prospects for the ANWR oil that the new Bush Administration is eagerly looking to exploit. It stretches across 1.5 million acres, a 20- to 40-mile band between the foothills of the Brooks Range and the Beaufort Sea, and it contains the only stretch of U.S. Arctic coastline currently not open for drilling. Should this change, the Canning would be the first river impacted.
And those impacts could be monumental. Consider the massive water withdrawals needed for injection into pumps: as much as 15 million gallons of water to pump a single exploratory well. About nine million gallons are available in the entire coastal plain during winter, so the drilling will eliminate critical supplies, killing overwintering fish like the Arctic grayling that survive under the ice. Oil companies would likely end up excavating water reservoirs.
Considerable gravel would be removed for construction. The river would become a major transportation route, bringing in equipment and transferring the oil, pipelines, bridges and roads that will be constructed across it. Noise from seismic activity will afflict the riparian wildlife, whose "high species diversity" is considered unique. Not to mention the most obvious risk -- a catastrophic oil spill. All this in an area the U.S. Geological Survey estimates probably holds only a six-month supply of oil.
CONTACTS
Alaska Wilderness League Tel: (202) 544-5205
Northern Alaska Environmental Center Tel: (907) 452-5021
3. The Eel
Spilling out of the cauldron of an ancient volcano in the southernmost reaches of the Mendocino National Forest, the Eel River flows mostly north for about 150 miles through some of California's most beautiful redwood groves before emptying into the Pacific. Its watershed is the third largest in the state, covering 3,684 square miles. Its year-round fishing was about as good as it gets -- ntil three prime species ended up listed under the Endangered Species Act (coho salmon, chinook salmon and steelhead).
That's when the Potter Valley Hydropower Project came to the headwaters of the Eel. While the project generates a small amount of electricity, its main purpose is to transfer water from the Eel into the Potter Valley and then to the adjacent headwaters of the south-flowing Russian River. There, two dams capture and store Eel River water and deliver it to the Russian's East Fork, where it rapidly diverts into irrigation ditches to serve agricultural interests (primarily grape growers), or it is used for industrial and municipal water supply demands of the Potter Valley.
Currently, as much as 98 percent of the Upper Eel River's summer flows are "lost" to the Russian River system. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's flow schedules were identified by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as having significant impacts on steelhead migration, spawning and rearing habitats. Additionally, the uppermost Scott Dam isn't equipped with a fish ladder, forming a barrier blocking more upstream habitat.
Meanwhile, California's deregulation of its utility industry threatens to further impact the Eel -- depending on which new owners acquire the Potter Valley Project. A recent environmental report by the California Public Utilities Commission indicates that if that facility is operated to maximize power generation or water supply, there will be even greater impacts on the river's endangered fisheries.
CONTACT
American Rivers (Andrew Fahlund) Tel: (202) 347-7550
4. The Hudson
Rip Van Winkle's river, a setting for landscape painters for more than two centuries, flows through 315 miles of mountains, dense forests, wetlands, occasional low islands and extensive tidal flats. Ten million residents of New York live within a half-mile of the Hudson, and tourism generates $3 billion in annual revenues. Among the river's more than 200 varieties of fish are such species as the striped bass, Atlantic sturgeon and American shad, all of which utilize it as a spawning ground.
Largely unfishable and unswimmable due to years of neglect until the 1970s, the Hudson then became a focus of activism and has since been partially restored to its former grandeur. The biggest continuing threat dates back to the late 1940s, when General Electric began 30 years of discharging an estimated 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the river from its capacitor plants. Outlawed in 1977, PCBs migrate downriver to settle in the sediment of slow-moving pools, or wash downstream with the current. The toxics concentrate in fish, posing health risks to consumers who eat them. Also at risk from PCB exposure are the great blue herons, river otters, mink and other animals that eat contaminated fish or plants.
In December 2000, after a 10-year battle between G.E. and the federal government, the EPA ordered the company to spend $500 million over five years to dredge PCBs embedded in the river bottom north of Albany. The plan calls for removing 2.6 million cubic yards of sediment that hold about 100,000 pounds of PCBs, dredging this from 33 "hot spots" along a 40-mile stretch of the river.
For its part, G.E. asserts that it's better to leave the PCBs undisturbed where they lie. The company has also maintained that the old Allen Mill, whose gate failed in 1991 and released a reservoir of PCBs and other materials into the Hudson, is more to blame for the ongoing pollution problems than the poisoned sediments. After a period of public comment, a final order on the cleanup plan is anticipated by June.
CONTACT
WaterKeeper Alliance Tel: (914) 422-4410
5. The Powder
This river basin is northeast Wyoming's corner of the Great Plains, a healthy remnant of the vast ecosystem that once spanned them. The Powder and its four tributaries host a remarkable variety of wildlife: eagles, falcons, pronghorn antelope, white-tailed deer, mountain lions and one of the last herds of plains elk. It's also essential habitat for the imperiled sage grouse, mountain plover and black-tailed prairie dog. And it's the last stronghold for 25 native fish species, including the rare shovelnose sturgeon, the sturgeon chub and the western silvery minnow.
On these same arid high plains, the Powder River Basin produces one-fifth of all the coal in the U.S. The Powder River Coal Company, America's second largest, owns and operates four surface mines controlling 2.5 billion tons of recoverable coal. Because of its relatively low sulfur content, which leads to less acid rain, Powder River coal is in demand by electric power companies.
What has really turned the little hamlet of Gillette, Wyoming, into a boomtown, though, is coalbed methane gas. Locked in the coal seams just below the surface, the gas is less expensive to mine than natural gas found in other geological formations. In order to release the methane, however, enormous volumes of water -- nearly 15,000 gallons per day per well -- are discharged into arroyos or reservoirs, causing soil erosion, stream sedimentation, death of vegetation and generally degraded water quality.
Since coalbed methane production started in 1987, 21 billion gallons of water have been extracted by only 2,670 wells -- an average of nearly eight million gallons per well. The Bureau of Land Management has predicted that the number of wells could grow to as many as 35,000 within the next decade. This means the Powder River Basin's soils, arroyos and streams will receive an astounding one billion gallons of water per day. Wyoming has yet to conduct studies on the impact to aquatic organisms and the stream ecosystems on which they depend.
CONTACT
Wyoming Outdoor Council Tel: (307) 755-1376
6. The Mississippi and Tributaries
The mighty Mississippi of Mark Twain, more than 2,350 miles long, encompasses 30 states and two Canadian provinces. More than 18 million people rely upon the river for their daily water supply. Forty percent of America's migratory waterfowl use the Mississippi's corridor for their flyway, and the river sustains more than five million acres of forested wetlands.
It also provides the Gulf of Mexico with 90 percent of its fresh water --discharging, on average, 612,000 cubic feet per second. The polluted runoff of excess nutrients emptying into the river basin is the cause of a 5,000-mile "dead zone" of low oxygen that no longer supports marine life.
A long-term remedy implemented by the Clinton Administration calls for increased aid to farmers along the river and for conservation measures such as buffer strips. But this only begins to address the problems facing the Mississippi, the most polluted waterway in the country (more than 57 million pounds of toxic chemicals were discharged in 1997, the last year for which data are available). The Army Corps of Engineers not only altered a feasibility study in order to justify additional barge traffic on the Upper Mississippi, but also is pushing an agricultural drainage project, known as Yazoo Pumps/Big Sunflower, which threatens to drain more acres of wetlands in a single sweep than are usually drained annually across the entire country (see In Briefs, this issue).
The Corps' White River Navigation project threatens one of North America's largest, most productive tracts of waterfowl habitat. And a proposed New Madrid Floodway would cut the Mississippi off from one of its last connections to its floodplain.
CONTACT
American Rivers Iowa (Jeff Stein) Tel: (319) 884-4481 E-mail: jstein@amrivers.org
6/21/01
1:39:16 PM
7. The Big Sandy
The Tug Fork of the Big Sandy forms the border between Kentucky and West Virginia. The surrounding central Appalachian mountains support a wide array of wildlife in undisturbed forests -- and are also the center of the eastern coal fields. The Big Sandy's watershed is riddled with coal slurry impoundments. Nobody has a complete catalog of location or risk of collapse. The land also has numerous aging mines and dams -- 600-plus in the region --with many of the underground caverns unmapped, unnoticed or unknown.
On October 11, 2000, a coal slurry impoundment breached when a mineshaft beneath it collapsed, sending 250 million gallons of molasses -- like black muck into Coldwater and Wolf Creeks, tributaries of the Tug Fork. The spill smothered fish, salamanders, large snapping turtles and frogs. As water supplies in four counties dropped below sustenance levels, Kentucky declared an emergency. An EPA official called the spill one of the largest environmental disasters ever in the southeastern U.S.
By late November, cleanup costs had reached $16.5 million. But these efforts, hastily dug ditches and indiscriminate removal of rocks, sediments and riparian vegetation, created a nightmare of their own. The mineral and chemical-laden sludge from this spill will likely rise off the riverbed in the next hard rain, and more than 45 dams are considered at risk of failing. Yet permitting continues, with new dam impoundments still being built.
CONTACTS
Kentucky Waterways Alliance Tel: (270) 524-1774
West Virginia Rivers Coalition Tel: (304) 637-4084
8. The Snoqualmie
It starts in Washington's Cascade Mountains as three separate forks and, at the city limits of Snoqualmie, the river's Snoqualmie Falls cascade in a spectacular, 268-foot drop. Below the falls, the Snoqualmie River moves northwest for about 36 miles to its confluence with the Skykomish River, eventually flowing into Puget Sound. The Snoqualmie watershed plays a large role in the survival of the Sound's fish stocks, supporting wild runs of coho, chinook, pink and chum salmon along with steelhead and cutthroat trout. The river's tributaries produce more adult cohos than the entire state of Oregon.
But an unprecedented period of development is taking its toll. Levees and roads cut off access to side channels and tributaries that provide critical rearing and spawning habitat. About 60 percent of the Snoqualmie's banks have no riparian vegetation left except grass or a buffer that's only a single tree wide.
Housing has now invaded the Cascade foothills on the eastern side of King County. Some of the large timber companies, such as Weyerhaeuser, have found it more profitable to sell their forest land for large-lot residential developments rather than manage it for harvest. The result has been a series of massive, permanent clearcuts for houses and roads -- contributing to flooding and water quality violations as well as fish kills in nearby Snoqualmie tributaries.
A voluntary assembly of local governments, Native American tribes, environmental and business coalitions -- known as the Tri-County Response Effort -- has joined together to develop a recovery plan for endangered salmon. But while the National Marine Fisheries Service has found that group's current effort inadequate, so far it's been unwilling to take steps to strengthen it.
CONTACT
American Rivers Seattle Tel: (206) 213-0330 E-mail: arnw@amrivers.org
9. The Animas
From its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, this is one of the West's few remaining free-flowing rivers. As the Animas moves through the town of Durango, it drops an average of 24 feet per mile, offering adrenaline-pumping rides for a rafting industry that attracts thousands of tourists each year. The river's Gold Medal trout fishery is the only one existing in the area. Currently unfettered by any major dams or diversions (although it's used to supply both valley agriculture and some municipal water), the Animas' water quality is considered generally good.
This could all change rapidly should the Animas-La Plata Project be allowed to go forward. First proposed in 1968 as a large irrigation project, then shelved due to high costs and environmental impacts, a scaled-back version was introduced in Congress last year. At an initial cost of $290 million, it would pump water 500 feet up a mountainside for storage in a reservoir. While slated to provide increased water supply to the Ute peoples, the site is in fact more than 10 miles from the nearest tribal land, and the water is primarily destined for irrigation purposes of non-Indian farmers.
Biological assessments by the state's Bureau of Recreation indicate that 2,000 acres of the 7,000-acre Bodo Wildlife Refuge -- home of the state's second-largest elk herd -- would be inundated by the shallow reservoir. Stream flows and key fish habitat for endangered species such as the Colorado pike minnow and razorback sucker will be significantly impacted. The project will likely devastate the trout fishery, severely impact the whitewater industry, degrade air and water quality due to massive expenditures of electrical power needed to pump the water uphill, and exacerbate uncontrolled growth in the region.
CONTACT
San Juan Citizens Alliance Tel: (970) 259-8156
10. The East Fork Lewis
The "Jewel of Southwest Washington," as The East Fork Lewis is known, is one of the few remaining rivers in the Columbia River Basin that's unimpeded by dams. It flows out of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest along a 212-square-mile watershed, and it serves as a groundwater recharge area for key aquifers. It is also a spawning and rearing habitat for three threatened salmon species, steelhead and cutthroat trout.
Much of the river passes through private property, where owners have erected unauthorized dikes. Urbanization has removed stream bank protection, creating substantial erosion and sedimentation. During a high water event in 1996, a section of the East Fork was swallowed by gravel pits, the result of extensive mining in the river channel over the past generation. This subsequently altered the river's course, destroyed 5,000 feet of prime salmon spawning habitat, and formed a maze of warm-water ponds and wide shallow channels where salmon predators flourish.
Yet the owner of these gravel pits has proposed a 4,000-ton-a-day extraction operation only a foot above the 100-year floodplain line. Excavations and ponds 30 feet deep would be forged adjacent to the East Fork, drastically altering ground water and surface water features while releasing more sediments. A water rights transfer application is now before the Washington Department of Ecology, while a habitat Conservation Plan is under review by federal fisheries agencies.
CONTACTS
Friends of the East Fork Tel: (360) 887-0866 E-mail: toppacif@teleport.com
Fish First Tel: (360) 225-5651 E-mail: jkaeding@teleport.com
11. The Paine Run
Streams like this one inside Virginia's Shenandoah National Park are widely known as one of the few places in America with healthy populations of wild brook trout. During the springtime, early summer and fall, the park's streams are crowded with anglers. The watershed of Paine Run, located on the western flank of the Blue Ridge Mountains, has remained undisturbed by human activity -- with one exception, which originates far from its confines.
Acid rain, caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, plagues mountain streams in the mid-Atlantic region. They are immediately downwind of coal-burning electric plants in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, and their high elevation makes them extremely susceptible to sulfates and nitrates moving through the atmosphere.
Paine Run is one of the most intensely studied streams of its kind, monitored weekly to evaluate the effects of acid rain on its chemistry. Years of heavy acid precipitation have eroded Paine Run's buffering capacity to the point where it's almost gone. In its pristine state, Paine Run held between five and eight species of fish; currently, there are only three (fantail darter, blacknose dace and brook trout).
The latter are fairly acid tolerant, but six percent of Virginia's brook trout streams now have an average acid neutralizing capacity of zero or less, which means they're incapable of hosting reproductive populations of the species. Even with a 40 percent reduction in sulfate deposition levels that might be expected from the current Clean Air Act, 48 of the state's streams, including Paine Run, are anticipated to meet that same fate by 2041.
CONTACT
Shenandoah National Park Tel: (540) 999-3500
12. The Hackensack
In one of the most densely populated areas in the U.S., the Hackensack River continues to hold the single-largest concentration of estuarine wetland in northern New Jersey. Its 7,000 wetland acres and 1,500 acres of open water are about one-third of what they once were, but are still a vital stopover for more than 260 species of migrating waterfowl, shore birds and raptors, and they support 54 species of fish.
In the years since the 1972 Clean Water Act ended unregulated dumping, all but one of the Hackensack Meadowlands' 21 commercial landfills have been shut down. Tidal waters have been restored to several dried-out marshes. Recreational boating and fishing have returned to what was formerly a mosquito-breeding wasteland.
Now a Virginia-based developer has proposed building Meadowlands Mills there. This would be the region's largest shopping complex -- $1 billion worth of stores, movie theaters and a hotel, surrounded by parking lots for an estimated 100,000 new cars and trucks. To accommodate this, 465 acres of valuable wetlands would be filled in, the largest fill since the Clean Water Act was passed. Marsh habitat for fish and wildlife would be destroyed, and the metropolitan area's largest remaining open space would be irreparably fragmented.
An environmental study by the Army Corps finds little threat to the area's ecology, in sharp contrast to the EPA and USFWS, both of which have urged the Corps to deny a fill permit. Although the EPA can veto such decisions, it has overruled the Corps fewer than a dozen times on the 200,000 permit decisions that have been made in the last two decades. And new EPA Administrator Whitman refused to take a stand on the issue while serving as New Jersey's governor.
CONTACT
Hackensack Riverkeeper Captain Bill Sheehan Tel: (201) 692-8440
13. The Catawba
Beginning in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the Catawba River flows for 225 miles into Lake Wateree, east of Columbia, South Carolina. The Catawba offers habitat for 50 fish species, 160 bird species and 120 river species. It also supports the world's largest colony of rare rocky shoals spider lilies. Impounded 11 times during its movement through 14 counties, the river is the drinking water source for major cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina.
Unprecedented growth along the Catawba's banks is escalating demand for both fresh water and waste disposal. Twelve of 28 communities in North Carolina's portion of the Catawba basin are expected to be near or beyond their ability to supply enough water within 20 years. Pumps and pipelines simply can't keep pace with the burgeoning development; the Catawba supports more people than any other state river basin.
The Catawba already has more than 600 sewage and industrial discharges along its length. In the summer of 2000, at least five substantial raw sewage outflows occurred in the Charlotte area -- one lasting several days and totaling 2.7 million gallons caused health officials to close reservoirs to swimming. State regulatory agencies calculated more than nine million gallons of raw sewage illegally discharged over a year-long period.
A proposed new regional wastewater treatment plant near Charlotte would discharge between 80 and 100 million gallons per day into one of the few remaining free-flowing stretches of the river. A massive excavation project would wipe out valuable stands of riparian hardwood forest over a 20-mile stretch, destroying archaeological sites in the floodplain including clay pits from the oldest Native American pottery tradition north of the Rio Grande.
CONTACT
American Rivers Chattanooga (David Sligh) Tel: (423) 265-7505 E-mail: dsligh@amrivers.org
Dick Russell is author of Eye of the Whale (Simon and Schuster), which will be published in August.
Source: http://www.EMagazine.com
6/21/01
1:24:55 PM
Physicists Solve 30 Year Old Case
By Matt Crenson -- AP National Writer
Solving a 30-year-old scientific mystery, physicists have found the most convincing evidence yet that neutrinos - elusive subatomic particles that were thought to have no mass whatsoever - have a tiny wisp of heft after all.
The finding means scientists will have to adjust their theories of the universe.
"We're quite pleased with this result," said Kevin Lesko, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who helped design and operate the experiment. "I think there are probably a lot of bets being paid off today."
Ever since their existence was first hypothesized by Wolfgang Pauli 60 years ago, neutrinos have been thought of as massless.
But on Monday, representatives of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada announced that neutrinos made by nuclear reactions in the sun's core change from one type to another during their 93-million-mile journey to Earth. And only particles with mass can change form.
The neutrino's mass cannot be much, around a mere billionth of a proton's. But its mere existence has profound implications:
- The standard model, the reigning theory in particle physics, does not allow particles that change their flavor to have mass. So that theory will have to be patched up - though not discarded - to accommodate the new observations.
- Because they originate deep inside the sun, neutrinos may provide an unprecedented view of what goes on there.
- They may not weigh much individually, but adding up all the neutrinos in existence changes the total estimated mass of the universe - a figure of great interest to physicists. Neutrinos seems to account for a small but significant fraction - possibly up to 18 percent - of the mysterious "dark matter" in the universe that cannot be observed by telescopes or other ordinary means.
About 100 physicists from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom collaborated on the Sudbury experiment. They presented their results at a meeting of the Canadian Association of Physicists and in a paper submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters.
Physicists have wrestled with the "solar neutrino problem" since the early 1970s, when experiments detected a shortfall of the particles coming from the sun. The neutrino shortage meant either that theories describing the nuclear furnace at the sun's core were wrong, or that something was happening to the particles on their way to Earth.
Monday's announcement demonstrates with 99 percent confidence that it is the latter.
The sun produces only one type of neutrino. But there are two other kinds that the earliest neutrino detectors could not see, and some of the ones made by the sun turn into those other types on their way to Earth.
Three years ago, a Japanese experiment called Super-Kamiokande came up with indirect evidence that some of the neutrinos produced by the sun were changing into those different types. But that experiment could not distinguish among those types.
Now the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has directly observed those changed neutrinos.
Measurements taken between November 1999 and January 2001 indicate that about 60 percent of the sun's neutrinos change.
The Sudbury observatory is a 10-story-tall cavity a mile underground in a Canadian nickel mine. Neutrino experiments have to be performed deep underground because at the Earth's surface a heavy rain of cosmic rays and other high-energy particles drowns out the meek particles.
Inside the rock-hewn cavity is an acrylic tank filled with heavy water. Most neutrinos pass through the heavy water, just as they do the rock surrounding it. But every hour or two a neutrino collides with a heavy water molecule, giving off a spark of light. By measuring that light, the detector can tell that a collision occurred and determine what kind of neutrino made it.
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010618/16/solar-mystery
6/21/01
11:57:22 AM
AlterNet Headlines
** TURN OUT YOUR LIGHTS! **
On Thursday, June 21, citizens worldwide will be turning off ALL their electricity from 7 to 10 pm, in a symbolic protest against Bush's energy policies. Join the worldwide rolling blackout!
DID IT HAPPEN OR NOT? INVESTIGATING CHILD ABUSE
Laura Fraser, AlterNet
A 7-year-old tells her mother that her "privates" hurt, and that she's afraid to visit Grandpa. Is she being sexually abused? Laura Fraser observes four such cases, and finds out that truth can be a slippery concept.
GEORGE W. BUSH: THE UN-SCIENCE GUY
David Corn, AlterNet
George W. claims that global warming theory isn't based on "sound science." How long can pull off this act -- until Coppertone stock splits and New Orleans is underwater?
PORN, GUNS, CURSES AND KIDS
Do kids really need to be protected from obscenity and violence? Or is the urge to shelter kids based on a completely false premise? A special AlterNet/Salon package.
THE UNEXPECTED ROMANTIC: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHUCK PALAHNIUK
Tamara Straus, AlterNet
Cult novelist Chuck Palahniuk is not what he seems. The author of the apocalyptic hit Fight Club and Choke, his recent novel on sexaholism, is neither angry nor nihilistic. He's a dreamer who likes to talk about romance.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11049
HIP HOP'S HISTORIC SUMMIT
Jeff Chang, AlterNet
Put rap stars like Puff Daddy and LL Cool J in the same room with leaders like Louis Farrakhan and Kweisi Mfume, and what do you get? An agenda for political clout and conscious hip-hop.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11074
A STRANGE SEXUAL ALLIANCE
Lara Riscol, AlterNet
Once again, we have something in common with our former enemy. Russia is also held hostage by right-wing extremists when it comes to sexual policies.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11075
PINK POLOS AND KHAKIS: THE PREPPY CONSPIRACY
Mike Vargo, Pittsburgh City Paper
To put it bluntly, dressing preppy is a facet of the right-wing conspiracy. Viewed from this angle, the whole nonsensical world of prep fashion begins to make sense.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11058
POVERTY, MARKET FUNDAMENTALISM AND THE MEDIA
Palagummi Sainath, AlterNet
An award-winning Indian journalist argues we are now living in a political era of market fundamentalism. It effects the way we view poverty and the way the media covers it.
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=21
PREPPIN' FOR PRISON
Adamma Ince, Village Voice
A four-year pilot program giving the New York Police Department control of safety in the public schools has doubled court summonses for kids 16 and up. Are cops prepping students for jail?
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=22
SNOOPING FOR INDOOR POT FARMS?
Richard Boire, AlterNet
In a pro-civil liberties decision, the Supreme Court recently set limits on police using infrared "thermal imagers" to peer into a person's home in search of pot gardens.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11067
FEAR AND LOATHING IN SUBURBIA
Tim Wise, AlterNet
Whites from suburban Chicago are the latest example of a culture that goes to amazing lengths to convince others that steering clear of urban blacks isn't the least bit racist.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11078
LOSING DOROTHY
Sara Cantania, LA Weekly
If you're poor, black and have AIDS, silence still equals death. An incredible report from the frontlines of the epidemic.
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/01/28/cover-catania.shtml
BERGER: WILL ECO-TERRORISTS KILL?
Knute Berger, AlterNet
Left-leaning political violence is on the rise. Could it escalate beyond trashing Starbucks and McDonalds?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11045
STEEL AND "FREE TRADE" LIES
Cedric Muhammad, BlackElectorate.com
New restrictions on imported steel prove, once again, that our economy is based on a fundamental lie -- that "free trade" exists. Actually, it never has, and never will.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11069
BUSH, EUROPE AND GETTING HIGH
G. PASCAL ZACHARY, AlterNet
As an American who lives in Europe, I find Bush an embarrassment and my only consolation is that Bush is such an embarrassment that Europeans now take pity on me.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11078
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
Melinda Welsh, Sacramento News and Review
Charlie Liteky has made the strange sojourn from priest to war hero to human rights activist. He is a man who will do anything, including risk his life, for what he perceives to be a just cause.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11062
FCC VS. MEDIA MONOPOLIES, OR VS. EMINEM?
The FCC reaches a new low by censoring an already censored Eminem hit -- even as it gives its blessing to greater media concentration.
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
COLOR OF JUSTICE
Nate Blakeslee, The Texas Observer
A drug sting in a small Texas town nailed 10 percent of the town's black residents. But the sketchy background of the undercover agents have residents wondering whether the convictions were just.
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17
AMERICA'S TROUBLED WATERS
Dick Russell, E Magazine
Through damming, dredging and channelization, we have changed the way rivers flow. Here are the nation's 13 most endangered rivers.
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18
6/21/01
11:45:03 AM
Trade Above All
Export Credit Agencies Fund Immoral and Environmentally Damaging Projects
Bruce Rich is director of the international programme at Environmental Defense, a U.S. environmental organization.
Recent anti-globalization protests have sparked greater debate on trade, but the spotlight on the roles of the World Trade Organization, the IMF and World Bank is incomplete. Much more attention needs to be focused on export credit agencies.
Export credit agencies (ECAs) -- like the U.S. and Japanese Export-Import Banks, Germany's Hermes Guarantee, France's COFACE and Italy's SACE --use government funds to subsidize development projects around the world. ECAs dwarf international institutions like the World Bank in aggregate financial clout and real-world impact.
ECAs subsidize almost 8 percent of annual world trade. Government-supported loans, guarantees and insurance schemes back up more than $400 billion worth of annual exports. And more than $50 billion a year is devoted to big infrastructure projects in developing countries. This exceeds the combined financial assistance of all multilateral and bilateral aid agencies.
Much like the WTO, ECAs have a single-issue agenda: trade above all. Advocates of economic globalization promise benefits for all involved, including the poor and the environment. With ECAs, the opposite is true. These agencies promote projects that in many cases development agencies won't support because they are economically unsound and environmentally unsustainable, projects that have the primary goal of benefiting corporations in rich countries, not the residents of the country receiving assistance. It's a classic mercantilist strategy.
According to Transparency International, a corruption-monitoring agency, export credit agencies have supported many projects associated with large-scale corruption and mismanagement. Unlike international institutions like the World Bank, with a public disclosure policy, ECAs conduct their business in secrecy.
Arms exports are a top priority for many European ECAs. In the decade of the 1990s, about a third of the exports guaranteed by the British Export Credits and Guarantee Department (ECGD) and France's COFACE were weapons sales. Germany's Hermes scored a coup several years ago when it managed to help sell off a fleet of obsolete East German naval vessels to Suharto's Indonesia.
ECA-backed projects account for a quarter of all developing-country debt, public and private, and for 56 percent of the public, official debt owed to governments and international agencies. Much of this debt stems from dubious investments that aid agencies have refused to support. A well-known example is the Three Gorges Dam in China. In 1996, the German, Swiss, Swedish, Canadian and French ECAs all competed for the chance to finance this project, which the World Bank and U.S. Export Import Bank had refused to support on environmental grounds.
Meanwhile, in Turkey, eight ECAs are considering handing out more than $850 million for the proposed Ilisu Dam, a project widely criticized for its environmental and human rights impacts. It will affect the Tigris River, near the Syrian and Iraqi border, and will displace as many as 75,000 Kurdish refugees.
Some governments are now showing a growing sense of responsibility for these agencies. Gordon Brown, the British finance minister, announced last year that the British Export Credits and Guarantee Department would halt guarantees for arms sales to some of the world's poorest countries. Several ECAs have begun to put in place rudimentary environmental reviews.
But reform has been slow. Over the last five years, at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, ECA representatives from the 26 rich industrialized countries have been unsuccessfully attempting to agree on a set of common environmental approaches and guidelines for export finance.
At the 1999 meeting of the eight leading industrialized countries (G8) in Cologne, the G8 heads of state committed to working towards common environmental guidelines for export finance within the OECD and to completing the task within two years. The ECA representatives will be meeting once again in Paris on June 7 and 8, but they are more deadlocked than ever on basic issues of granting public access to environmental information and common international environmental standards. Over the past 20 years, the agencies have managed to set detailed standards for interest rates and fees. Therefore, there is no reason why they could not also agree to put an end to their reckless competition in financing social-ecological debacles.
The G8 is scheduled to meet in Genoa, Italy, this year on July 20. More pressure is needed from the U.S. and other major countries at the summit to break the OECD deadlock.
This is one international environmental issue on which the United States has exercised and can continue to exercise notable international leadership. Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has had environmental procedures in place that ensure some degree of transparency and high international environmental standards for its projects. By supporting common environmental standards for export finance, President Bush could gain much needed credibility in the wake of his decision to renege on the Kyoto protocol.
One of the results of the anti-globalization protests in Seattle, Prague and Quebec is that governments and international organizations have realized the need for more transparency and collaboration with environmental groups and trade unions. But many ECAs are still far from such an understanding.
Around the world, a growing number of environmental, development, church and human rights groups want their message to be heard: The lack of common environmental and social standards for export credit agencies has led to a misuse of public resources, and has undermined the long-term interests of everyone on this planet.
6/21/01
11:40:15 AM
TomPaine.com
WHAT CAUSES BREAST CANCER?
A Review of LIFE'S DELICATE BALANCE, by Janette D. Sherman Reviewed by Peter Montague
The medical establishment pretends that the breast cancer epidemic will one day be reversed by some miracle cure. Meanwhile, the normal public health approach -- primary prevention -- languishes without mention and without funding.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/06/index.html
MEASURING FAILURE
Is Testing The President's Low Road To School Privatization? by Benjamin L. Hubbard
President Bush makes a strong case for standardized testing for public school students. But will testing close the achievement gap between rich and poor schools, or divert money from other investments that could?
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/20/index.html
POLITICAL TRUTH IS AN OXYMORON
by Lloyd Schwartz
"Political truth" is virtually an oxymoron. And since we tend to believe what we want to hear, too partisan or lazy to separate truth from fiction, aren't we bedfellows in the conspiracy?
A TomPaine.commentary -- AUDIO and TEXT -- produced by Sharon Basco.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/19/1.html
PROFILES IN CONFUSION
by M. W. Guzy
Because Hoover saw the threat to the nation coming solely from the Left, he failed to notice that organized crime was in the process of purchasing Nevada. A similar misconception is being promoted in the debate over racial profiling.
A TomPaine.commentary -- AUDIO and TEXT -- produced by Sharon Basco.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/12/1.html
TRADE ABOVE ALL
Export Credit Agencies Fund Immoral and Environmentally Damaging Projects
by Bruce Rich
Operating in secrecy, ECAs use government funds for projects in developing nations that benefit corporations in rich ones. They support many projects associated with corruption and mismanagement. It's time for ECA transparency.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/05/1.html
6/21/01
11:33:22 AM
WILD ALERT
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on the FY 2002 Interior Appropriations bill on *Thursday, June 21.* In particular, an amendment will be offered to protect National Monuments from destructive energy development. Please ask your Representative to support the amendment: Send a message from
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=491
or call (202) 224-3121.
NATIONAL MONUMENTS AT RISK
Sorry for the short notice, but this vote was moved up by a week. During Thursday's House floor consideration of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, H.R. 2217, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) will offer an amendment to protect from mineral leasing National Monuments created under the auspices of the Antiquities Act. 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.
National Monuments created under the Antiquities Act have played a vital role in protecting our nation's special places, archeological sites, and cultural, historical, scenic, and ecological resources since President Theodore Roosevelt's designation of Devil's Tower National Monument in 1906. Fourteen Presidents, Republican and Democratic, have used the Antiquities Act dozens of times to set aside special places on the public lands threatened by potential incompatible uses or commercial exploitation.
TARGETS FOR INDUSTRY
Today, 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 -- places like the Grand-Staircase Escalante, Upper Missouri River Breaks, Carrizo Plain, and Hanford Reach National Monuments -- have been targeted by advocates of energy development for drilling, mining, or reduction in size to accommodate such activities, despite the fact that there is very little potential oil and gas in these National Monuments.
Rep. Rahall's amendment would protect these and other amendments from ill-considered energy development schemes, thereby protecting these areas for present and future generations of Americans to enjoy, take inspiration from, and study.
TAKE ACTION Please contact your Representative today and ask him/her to:
- SUPPORT the Rahall amendment to protect our National Monuments from mining and oil and gas drilling. Also ask them to vote in SUPPORT of these other amendments to the Interior Appropriations bill:
- SUPPORT the Sanders-Quinn-Kind amendment to increase energy efficiency funding at the Department of Energy, helping consumers save money while reducing greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution; and
- SUPPORT the Maloney amendment to ensure that pilot projects under the Department of Interior's royalty-in-kind program do not give special deals to oil producers, collecting less value for the taxpayer than would have been collected under the regular royalty program.
Send a fax from http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=491 or call the U.S. House of Representatives at (202) 224-3121.
6/21/01
11:30:54 AM
Planet Ark World Environment News
LA to turn smoggier, stormier as earth warms - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11267
Wisconsin utilities to power homes with cow manure - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11259
World Bank approves $100 million China loan - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11262
UPDATE - Democrats glum on trade bill after Bush comment - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11258
Produce growers ask for US conservation plan access - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11269
UK says it will push ahead on Kyoto treaty - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11274
UPDATE - Incinerators pose little risk-UK Clean Air group - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11264
Amazon chief says big firms threaten forests - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11270
Russia fights locust attack in south - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11272
Norway helps Norilsk to fight pollution - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11275
Vegetable oils spread far beyond the food market - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11265
Moroccan Redal to devote $485-mln to environment - MOROCCO http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11271
Japan's Calbee recalls some snacks over GM traces - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11261
INTERVIEW - Belgian EU presidency will push for energy tax - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11273
INTERVIEW - Belgian climate chief calls for clarity on Kyoto - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11260
China pulls plug on baths and saunas to save water - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11266
Sierra Club hits Canada's stand on Bush energy plan - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11268
Austria wants energy importers to disclose source - AUSTRIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11263
6/21/01
11:25:29 AM
ExxonMobil Fights Back
The world's biggest oil firm is unleasing a PR offensive to win the environmental war of words
By Terry Macalister The Guardian
ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil group, is planning a public relations offensive to win back consumers and investors, confidential documents suggest - amid fears the company is losing the war of words over climate change which has triggered a petrol boycott.
The public relations drive comes as the Stop Esso Campaign has widened its action against the oil major, drawing in Germany, Norway, and New Zealand as well as Britain, where it started.
A briefing paper drawn up for Exxon in Britain by Insight Research and passed on to the Guardian calls for an opinion survey to try to gauge the depth of anger against the company.
The oil group hopes to win back public support by asking survey respondents to be aware "the slight warming that has occurred in the last 50 years is likely the result of natural climate variations rather than energy use."
It also hopes to convince them "the (Kyoto) treaty would have little effect on global warming because it excludes many countries which are among the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases."
Arguments against those of the environmentalists have been posted on Esso UK's and ExxonMobil's corporate website. Similar information in hard copy has been mailed to financiers in investment areas, such as Frankfurt.
Stop Esso campaign managers say the Insight survey suggests the company is panicking about the effect of the boycott which has seen support from celebrities such as Bianca Jagger and 350,000 hits on its website.
Cindy Baxter, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said: "The questions in the survey are loaded to give Exxon the replies they want. I think its a poll designed to be published and they will then claim the public is unaware of the campaign against it or that there is little support for Kyoto."
Last night the company admitted it was worried about the forecourt action but would not comment on whether it was having any marked effect on petrol sales. A spokesman for Esso UK said: "We are concerned about the boycott and are trying to make our position clearer. The main thing for us is to put over the facts."
He would not comment on whether the arguments over global warming and fossil fuels were being won or lost, but confirmed that public opinion surveys were being used. "We undertake market surveys from time to time and always include topical issues," he said.
Exxon, which trades in Britain as Esso, has been targeted by green activists because it is seen as the biggest corporate opponent of the Kyoto treaty on climate change.
Anger has intensified over the last few days a US president George Bush reiterated his determination not to support Kyoto.
Exxon is considered a big influence on Mr Bush because, environmentalists say, it bankrolled the Bush presidential race to the White House, though Exxon denies this.
Other oil majors, such as BP and Shell, have tried to avoid confrontation over their continued commitment to fossil fuels by also investing in renewable energy sources. The European companies support Kyoto and have made public commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions.
Exxon's position on global warming will gain some support today when Professor Philip Stott of London University argues at a meeting organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs that Kyoto is scientifically unjustified and politically unfeasible.
6/21/01
11:21:06 AM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
FROM THE FOLKS WHO SOLD YOU THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE
ExxonMobil is planning a public-relations offensive to counter an international boycott campaign that is calling attention to the company's opposition to the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The campaign, which began in the U.K. and has spread to Germany, Norway, and New Zealand, has gained momentum as U.S. President Bush, a former oilman himself, has continued to speak out against Kyoto. A spokesman for ExxonMobil in the U.K. said, "The main thing for us is to put over the facts." The company has begun testing a survey that asks respondents whether they are aware that "the slight warming that has occurred in the last 50 years is likely the result of natural climate variations rather than energy use." And that the Kyoto treaty "would have little effect on global warming because it excludes many countries which are among the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases."
straight to the source: London Guardian, Terry Macalister, 18 Jun 2001 <http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,508444,00.html>
WET 'N' WILD
The Ocean Conservancy, a group with a (not-insignificant) budget of $15 million a year, announced a campaign yesterday to get wilderness protection for 5 percent of the U.S.'s marine territory. Fishing would be prohibited in the wilderness areas, and access would be limited to kayaking, scuba diving, and other "low-impact" activities. Its wish list of wilderness spots includes Prince William Sound and Glacier Bay in Alaska; the Channel Islands in California; the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; and the Dry Tortugas in Florida. For other ocean adventures, join Roger Payne aboard a whale research ship this week via the Grist Magazine website.
straight to the source: Anchorage Daily News, Liz Ruskin, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.adn.com/nation/story/0,2360,275951,00.html>
read it only in Grist Magazine: A week in the life of Roger Payne, Ocean Alliance <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/payne061801.stm?source=daily>
THE ANCIENT MARINER STARTED IT
Seven countries signed a plan yesterday meant to save the albatross, those big seabirds with wingspans of up to 11-and-a-half feet. Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill said all 20 albatross species in the Southern Hemisphere would become extinct if steps weren't taken to protect them. Australia, Brazil, Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand, and Peru have pledged to find ways to reduce the threats posed to the birds by pollution and fishing. The birds often get tangled up in long fishing lines, which are commonly used by poachers fishing for sea bass.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11255>
THE LIGHTS ARE OFF, BUT EVERYBODY'S HOME
The word has spread on the Internet that those who oppose the energy plan developed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney should turn off all their lights and electrical devices for the summer solstice tomorrow from 7 to 10 p.m., regardless of the time zone. Fans of the "Roll Your Own Blackout" campaign say they hope to make a point that policy-makers should be doing more to encourage conservation and alternative energy use, instead of boosting the prospects of fossil-fuel companies. Others, however, have expressed concern that the protest will be used by critics to paint enviros as extremists who advocate sitting alone in the dark to conserve energy.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Steve Rubenstein, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/20/MN126593.DTL>
straight to the source: Salt Lake Tribune, Judy Fahys, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.sltrib.com/06202001/utah/107198.htm>
catch it only in Grist Magazine: Rolling blackouts aren't just in California -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha061901.stm?source=daily>
COLD COMFORT
California, New York, and Connecticut sued the Bush administration yesterday for weakening the energy-efficiency standard for central air conditioners. The states say the difference between the standard set by the Clinton administration and the one adopted by the Bush administration could eventually be more than 1 percent of peak energy demand in the U.S, and require as many as 60 new power plants to be built nationwide. In California, residential air-conditioning now accounts for 15 percent of peak energy demand. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Consumer Federation of America have also sued the feds.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Jennifer Warren, 20 Jun 2001 <http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20010620/t000051238.html>
straight to the source: New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, 19 Jun 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/19/national/19COOL.html>
catch it only in Grist Magazine: Other breakthroughs in energy-efficient appliances -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha012201.stm?source=daily>
Mississippi delta blues -- pollution is flushing marine life down the drain -- by David Helvarg <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books052401.stm?source=daily>
6/21/01
11:13:57 AM
The Nation
After thirty-eight years without a federal execution, June has seen two of them only eight days apart: Timothy McVeigh's much-publicized execution on June 11, and, after President Bush's denial of clemency, Juan Raul Garza's on June 19. That the latter case proceeded without further postponement has drawn a fair amount of attention, since the Justice Department has yet to conclude its extensive review of racial and geographic disparities in the administration of the federal death penalty. As even the The New York Times felt compelled to note in a June 19 editorial, President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft "appear content to execute a defendant under a system whose fairness they are still reviewing."
In an attempt to highlight the U.S.'s continued reliance on what most of the rest of the world considers cruel and unusual punishment, we began compiling a death-row calendar last year in our monthly online feature Death Row Roll Call. The idea is to remind people of how often this macabre form of retribution is still practiced in our name, and to encourage folks to blast off informed letters of protest -- using the links and tools we provide -- to the appropriate governors and other officials presiding over these monthly executions. You can always access the current month's calender and related information at:
http://www.thenation.com/deathrow/
And check out these recent related Nation articles for further information:
PATRICIA WILLIAMS: No Vengence, No Justice
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010702&s=williams
DAVID COLE: Death and Disparity (Web-Only)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=cole20010615
BRUCE SHAPIRO: "Moral" Execution (Web-Only)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=shapiro20010606
BRUCE SHAPIRO: McVeigh's Last Message
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010604&s=shapiro
BRUCE SHAPIRO: McVeigh: Done To Death
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010702&s=shapiro
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Covenant With Death
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010514&s=hitchens
Also, don't miss Robert Sherrill's explosive investigative essay from the January 8, 2001 issue of The Nation making the case against capital punishment generally. Available at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010108&s=sherrill
THE NEW NUCLEAR DANGER:
"Stop The New Arms Race" is the call being put out by Project Abolition in response to George W. Bush's renewed interest (and investment) in the preposterous "Star Wars" missile defense scheme.
Despite being a major military boondoggle that will likely lead to the U.S.'s pulling out of the ABM Treaty, "Star Wars" is being pushed largely because it's a terrific corporate-welfare device. "Star Wars" spending was greased by the more than forty million dollars spent in campaign contributions and lobbying over the previous two years by weapons contractors, who are set to profit handsomely by government investment in strategic missile defense.
Currently, you can read related recent articles by Jonathan Schell, arguing that a second nuclear age has dawned, and Stephen Cohen, enumerating the grave nuclear threat posed by warheads in Russia today. Available at:
We've also dug into our archives and made available relevant articles by Albert Einstein from 1931, Freda Kirchway from 1945, and E.L. Doctorow from 1995. All this and much more at our No Nukes Archive, which can be found at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/nukearchive.mhtml
THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICA:
The debacle of Election 2000 underscored for many people the urgency of fundamental electoral reform in the United States.
One of the most powerful voices making the case against the Supreme Court decision that put George W. Bush in the White House was a legendary prosecutor, previously known more for putting people behind bars than for progressive activism. But Vincent Bugliosi's explosive article "None Dare Call It Treason," published in the February 5, 2001 issue of The Nation, drew the largest outpouring of letters and e-mail in the magazine's 136-year history, tapping a deep reservoir of outrage.
The original essay has now been turned into a best-selling paperback book, with updates, amplifications and introductory essays by famed attorney Gerry Spence and columnist Molly Ivins. Published by Nation Books, "The Betrayal of America" is very reasonably priced at $9.95. So buy a copy (or two or ten) today. They make great gifts. Order online and read reviews via The Nation Books site at:
COUNTDOWN TO THE PRO-DEMOCRACY CONVENTION
Shaping the Future of Democracy in America: From Voter Disenfranchisement to a Voters' Bill of Rights: A National Pro-Democracy Convention June 29 - July 1, 2001 Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia
From June 29 to July 1st, 2001, the Center for Constitutional Rights and a coalition of more than fifty organizations are sponsoring a National Pro-Democracy Convention in Philadelphia. With the Voter's Bill of Rights as a primary focus, the National Pro-Democracy Convention will be a vehicle to galvanize the disparate and disaffected constituencies and movements that were outraged by last year's flawed election. With this event, the organizing groups hope to build a permanent force for true democracy.
The Convention kicks off with a National Town Hall Meeting featuring John Anderson, Rep. John Conyers, Granny D, Ron Daniels, Cheri Honkala, Arianna Huffington, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, Reverend Al Sharpton and June Zeitlin, to name a few. The Town Hall Meeting is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:00 pm sharp.
On Saturday and Sunday of the Convention, there will be workshops and plenaries devoted to strengthening the pro-democracy movement.
NOTE: IMPORTANT LOCATION CHANGE! All sessions will take place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Address: 1101 Arch Street. Phone: 215.418.4700.
To register or for more information, write jlstern@ccr-ny.org, contact the Center for Constitutional Rights at 212.614.6452 or go to:
RECENT NATION ARTICLES:
Don't miss the host of recent articles of interest still available, including Christopher Hitchens on Henry Kissinger; David Corn on Elliott Abrams; Molly Ivins on George W. Bush and Richard Kim on Andrew Sullivan. All accessible at:
6/21/01
11:03:14 AM
The NRC Is Trying To Strip The Public Of Meaningful Participation In All Reactor Licensing - Help Stop Them.
Your Comment Are Needed By September 14, 2001
McLicensing for Nuclear Power Companies
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is attempting to change its rules in manner that would drastically reduce public participation rights in nuclear licensing hearings. In commenting on the NRC's proposed "streamlining" of the public hearing process, Corbin McNeill, chief executive for nuclear giant Exelon, told the Wall Street Journal "It's maybe 1% to 10% what it used to be." As McNeill points out, stripping the democratic process from public hearings on nuclear safety has become the new selling point to investors considering building more atomic reactors.
At the urging of the nuclear power industry, the NRC is proposing to go beyond its current "one-step" licensing process and push the public entirely out of any kind of meaningful licensing hearings. For the first time in regulatory history, all reactor licensing proceedings-including the initial licensing for new reactors, license extension for aging reactors and license amendments to reactor safety procedures-could be conducted under expedited hearings where the public's due process to legally challenge reactor licensing issues is systematically eliminated. By rulemaking, the NRC is trying to reinterpret the statutory mandates of the Atomic Energy Act for what is traditionally recognized as a community's right to formal trial-type hearings. Under the proposed rule the Commission would have "flexibility" to entirely eliminate the public's basic right to a formal hearing.
How the Proposed Rule Would Change NRC Public Hearings
The rule change proposes to "deformalize" public interventions by replacing trial-type public hearings (Chapter 10 of the Code of Federal Regulation Part 2 Subpart G) with "informal" hearings (Subpart L). These informal hearings would be stripped of key due process procedures, such as mandatory discovery of documents for the disclosure of opposing evidence and cross-examination to confront witnesses on statements of fact. The rule would also make it even more difficult than it is now to get a NRC hearing. Once a contention is admitted, hearings would be expedited and participation rights would be drastically curtailed, so as to make the hearing meaningless.
More specifically, the proposed NRC rule change on the adjudicatory hearing process:
1. Creates a new Subpart C Hearing Selection Process. This new subpart consolidates all previous hearing procedures under one general subpart to apply to all NRC adjudications and leaves to the Commission's discretion placement of petitions into specific hearing "tracks" under Subpart G (formal proceeding), K (irradiated fuel storage expansion), L (informal hearings), M (license transfer) or a new Subpart N (fast track). Virtually all reactor licensing would be channeled into informal hearings except those that, according to the NRC, "involve a large number of complex issues." The NRC hearing process for licensing a nuclear waste repository (10 CFR 2 Subpart J) would remain a formal proceeding due to the agency's astute recognition that a move to informal hearings would likely "engender substantial opposition" and a "very negative reaction." Ironically, NRC has chosen to ignore the same process concerns and eroding public confidence in expediting its approval process to generate more nuclear waste through fast track reactor licensing. Let's make sure the NRC understands the "substantial opposition" and "very negative reaction" its reactor licensing proposals are causing!
2. Alters the submission of contentions. Under current rules, after filing a petition for a hearing, intervenors generally have a period of a month to familiarize themselves with the application and formulate "contentions" that describe and provide documented support for the public safety concerns. As a result of a 1989 rule raising the admissibility standard, it is already difficult to get contentions admitted for hearing. Under the proposed rule, intervenors would have to submit their contentions almost immediately after the publication of a hearing notice-- giving the public virtually no time to review the nuclear industry's application, draft contentions and hire expert witnesses to help them formulate contentions. Thus, the proposed rule would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the public-including state and local governments--to even get a hearing.
3. Eliminates the procedures of discovery and cross-examination. Under the current rules, parties are entitled to request a range of relevant documents otherwise not available through the NRC Public Document Room. At the hearing, the right to confront adverse witnesses through cross-examination is guaranteed. Under the new informal process, the amount and quality of information accessible to the public would be restricted to what NRC staff and company officials deem relevant to be placed in the NRC Public Document Room. Oral cross-examination and the line of questioning by the public intervenor would be eliminated and replaced with written questions submitted as suggestions to the presiding officer to ask at their discretion.
What You Can Do:
1. Submit comments to the NRC by September 14, 2001 by mail to Secretary, NRC, Washington DC 20555. Or use the interactive website at
NIRS will be publishing model comments on our website at
2. Encourage others to comment. The threat by the proposed rule to our democratic process regarding health and safety issues calls for a massive public outcry, from governmental, civic environmental and other groups. Urge them to get involved. Write to your newspaper.
3. Contact your Congressional representatives and state government. The public is entitled to full and meaningful participation in a hearing process that provides for a complete record. The nuclear industry should be required to defend its proposals in formal public hearings, as Congress intended when it passed the Atomic Energy Act in 1954. Ask your Senators and Representative to advocate for an accountable energy policy that protects the public's democratic participation in NRC hearings on the risks and hazards posed by nuclear power.
For more information, contact Paul Gunter at Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 202-328-002; pgunter@nirs.org
6/20/01
4:32:11 PM
Plans for 34 new coal-burning power plants are moving forward. According to Renewable Energy Policy Project, coal is among the dirtiest energy sources because it depletes natural resources and produces high levels of pollution harmful to human health, the environment and quality of life. And it's not just burning coal that harms the environment; acid mine drainage from coal mining may cause serious pollution of ground and surface water.
Please urge Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham to reconsider plans for new coal-burning plants. Our society has surpassed this technology and it is time to replace it with cleaner wind, geothermal, solar, and low-impact hydro, and natural gas.
Go to GreenMatters.com and click on Action Alerts to send a free email to Secretary Abraham. Thank you.
6/20/01
3:01:34 PM
Peace and Blessings...
It is with great pleasure and excitement that we invite the world community to join us in recognition of the Sixth Annual World Peace & Prayer Day Summer Solstice Ceremony on June 21st.
We are asking for people of all colors, cultures,and countries around the world to come together in unity for the healing of our human family so that we may all contribute towards the creation of a better and more peaceful experience here on earth for everyone.
On the behalf of our world's children and all future generations, please join this effort by visiting
and, if you can, help spread the word about this important event by passing this message on to anyone you know who may be interested in making the world a better place for us all.
It is time for each of us to understand our place in the universe by realizing that positive change in our world begins within each and every one of us. Together, let us dissolve the boundaries and unite through the power of Love. Together, there is nothing that we can not accomplish.
With Love and Light,
Pahana
To learn more about this important event, please visit the following: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center June 21st Solar Eclipse Website
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE2001/TSE2001.html
The June 21st World Healing Day Website
Planetary Vision Festival 2001
http://www.planetaryvision.net
In support of Chief Arvol Looking Horse and the Sixth Annual World Peace & Prayer Day Ceremony, I am donating my music to help spread the message of peace and to raise funds for this important effort dedicated to our world's children.
If you wish to receive a copy of "Sacred Earth," which will be due out later on this summer, please make a donation of any amount by following the link at the bottom of this message. You'll receive a copy of this CD as a special thanks for your support.
There are a couple songs that will be included that I'd like to share with you now, I hope that you enjoy these gifts music that I offer...
* Mother Earth Prayer Song - Sung by Chief Arvol Looking Horse
6/20/01
2:36:41 PM
MediaChannel.org
WHY TEACH MEDIA? The Media Literacy Topic Guides explain why the ability to understand, evaluate, access and use media is as fundamental as reading and writing.
http://www.mediachannel.org/classroom
THE TEACHERS' TOOLKIT Want to give kids the skills to navigate our media world? This new searchable database presents Teaching Units, Lesson Plans, Activities, Handouts and other tools from teachers and experts around the world.
http://www.mediachannel.org/classroom/toolkit
NEWS DISSECTOR: LORI BERENSON, STILL A PRISONER Lori Berenson's new trial is about to conclude in Peru. Danny Schechter wrote about her "trial by media" in this column from our archives.
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/lori.shtml
For Daily Dissections, visit Danny's Web log:
http://www.mediachannel.org/weblog
DAILY MEDIA NEWS Breaking news stories about the international media, from mainstream and alternative sources.
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/
**FROM OUR AFFILIATES**
JOURNALISM, GLOBALIZED Because global corporations easily evade regulation and media are often censored or sensationalist, investigative journalists around the world must collaborate to keep an eye on power, urges Charles Lewis
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#lewis
POLITRICKS AT PBS? A new report finds that the U.S. public TV network breaks its own rules to give access to conservatives and the organized political right while liberal voices are held to stricter standards.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#pbs
PLANET HOLLYWOOD The World Paper reviews film's global history in this series of articles covering Indonesia, Mongolia, Nigeria and beyond. PLUS: Watch an online festival of short films on U.S. social issues, then take action.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#film
EMINEM, CORPORATE MEDIA AND THE FCC What's truly indecent: Eminem's misogynistic rap lyrics? Or the way the FCC lets corporate radio abandon local communities?
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#eminem
THE WORLD'S TANGLED WEB Who benefits - and who foots the bill - when developing nations get wired? Some Argentineans feel like their country is being "plundered and colonized all over again."
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#web
MEDIA READER The best media about the media. MediaChannel's international, biweekly, multimedia magazine * Kapuscinski: The Poet-Reporter On Africa * Indy Music's Digital Future * Anna Deavere Smith On The Whiteness Of TV And much, much more... Plus: Streaming audio and video
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/mediareader
6/20/01
2:30:12 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
FEEDING A FEVER
by Emma Young, New Scientist Online News
-- It's common knowledge that good nutrition will keep you healthy, right? Well, recent studies suggest that a well-balanced diet not only keeps you healthier, but keeps viruses from mutating.
VERLAINE AND RIMBAUD
Web site review by Al Paulson
-- A poet must "make himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses." So wrote the young poet Arthur Rimbaud just before he and fellow poet Paul Verlaine undertook a relationship full of mutual admiration, animosity, and debauchery.
RAPTURE READY
Web site review by Al Paulson
-- "The rapture is going to strike without warning. The rapture is going to happen suddenly. The rapture is going to be one of the most astonishing events to ever occur." Yikes, that sounds scary. To find out more about Christ's predicted return, visit this site, or else...!
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/20/01
2:27:48 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
New Treaty Safeguards Disappearing Albatrosses and Petrels
CANBERRA, Australia, June 19, 2001 (ENS) - The first international agreement on the conservation of albatrosses and petrels was signed here today by officials from all southern hemisphere nations surrounding the Southern Ocean who pledged to protect these threatened migratory seabirds.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-19-02.html
PACT AIMS TO KEEP WATER IN THE GREAT LAKES
NIAGARA FALLS, New York, June 19, 2001 (ENS) - The Great Lakes state governors and Canadian premiers have agreed to restrict diversions of fresh water from the Great Lakes to inland areas. A pact signed by the leaders on Sunday creates stringent environmental review requirements that will make it far more difficult for inland cities to gain approval for water withdrawal applications.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-19-06.html
WTO UPHOLDS U.S. RIGHT TO PROTECT SEA TURTLES
WASHINGTON, DC, June 19, 2001 (ENS) - The United States is free to implement its law protecting sea turtles from shrimping nets, a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel ruled Friday. The ruling will allow the U.S. to refuse to import shrimp that are caught with gear that can harm threatened and endangered sea turtles.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-19-07.html
ECUADORIAN COURT BACKS SHARK PROTECTORS
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, June 19, 2001 (ENS) - A judge in Guayaquil last week denied the claim by the owners of an illegal shark finning vessel that their constitutional rights were violated by the seizure of their vessel and destruction of their catch.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-19-01.html
FINNISH COURT BLOCKS HYDROPOWER DAM IN EASTERN LAPLAND
HELSINKI, Finland, June 19, 2001 (ENS) - To the delight of environmental groups, Finland's administrative courts have overturned an earlier court decision permitting power firm Kemijoki Oy to construct a large hydroelectric dam at Vuotos in eastern Lapland.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-19-03.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 19, 2001
Norton Names Oil Lobbyist as Special Assistant for Alaska
Biden Bill to Reauthorize Tropical Forest Conservation Act
Developers Challenge Critical Habitat Designation in California
Refrigerator Disposal Releases Ozone Depleting Chemicals
Six Projects Target Mercury Emissions from Power Plants
Bush Dislikes Product, Not Process, of Kyoto Talks
Florida Reforms Environmental Enforcement Rule
Burning Could Clean Up Oil Spills
Biotechnology Lab Sabotaged in Idaho
Eagles Band Loses Lawsuit Against Eagle Conservationists
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-19-09.html
6/20/01
2:19:39 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
FEATURE - Shrinking Arctic ice threatens Inuit, polar bears - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11248
US coal power technology seen saving $7 bln/year - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11256
Guide to pay $14.1 mln for water pollution violations - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11257
Golden eagles to fly again over Ireland - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11251
FEATURE - EU green funds cleansing East European black spots - POLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11249
German utility buys Lubmin site for gas plant - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11254
Caviar clampdown eyed to help sturgeon burgeon - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11252
FEATURE - World's No. 1 dam can't save Brazil from power crisis - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11250
Australia welcomes talks with EU on Kyoto pact - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11253
Seven fishing nations sign pact to save albatross - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11255
6/19/01
4:55:02 PM
Asia's Environmental Abuse Has To End
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
MANILA - Environmental degradation in Asia and the Pacific is pervasive, accelerating and unabated and policy-makers have to respond to the problem now, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday.
Among 41 cities ranked by particulate pollution in the atmosphere, 13 of the worst 15 are in Asia, the ADB said in its Asian Environment Outlook 2001 report.
One in three Asians has no access to safe drinking water close to home. In Asian rivers, the levels of human waste are three times the world average and 50 times higher than the World Health Organisation's recommended maximum.
The Manila-based multilateral lending institution said there was a worrying nexus between development and harm to the environment.
"Economic changes such as large increases in population, agricultural output, industrial production and capital, and advances in science and technology have transformed the region's natural resource base, both as a source of material inputs and as a sink for pollution," the report said.
"Declining environmental quality and continued dependence on natural resources are constraining the economic growth that is needed to reduce poverty in the region over the next 20 years," it said.
Asia is home to two-thirds of the world's poor. About 900 million people in the region live on less than $1 a day.
ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS
The ADB said the region has already lost up to 90 percent of its original wildlife habitat to agriculture, infrastructure, and deforestation.
More than 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of land in China, India and Pakistan have been degraded. It also said that the Philippines has lost 70 percent of its mangrove forests while Vietnam has lost 50 percent.
Ely Anthony Ouano, senior environment specialist at the bank, said at the launching of the report Asia's rising population and urbanisation will make existing environmental problems worse over the next 15 years.
Asia's population is expected to grow by 700 million over the next 15 years, with more than 50 percent living in cities by 2020, he said.
Ouano said that urban population will triple to over a billion in 2020 from 360 million in 1990.
The ADB said a new approach, including integrating environmental concerns with economic development to reduce poverty, should be pursued.
"Abundant opportunities exist to redirect underlying driving forces to change, create new and effective institutions, establish markets for ecosystem services where none exist today, and integrate environmental policies into mainstream economic planning and management," it said.
"In this context, an abiding political will is essential to translate rhetoric into action," the report said.
"Political will, policy integration and development by design will become meaningless slogans unless all stakeholders act in concert to ensure long-term sustainable development in the region," it added.
6/19/01
4:33:40 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
A PAIN IN THE ASIA
In its first-ever comprehensive report on the state of Asia's environment, the Asian Development Bank found that environmental destruction is pervasive and growing in the region and that Asia's governments must act quickly to stop it. S. Tahir Qadri, a senior environmental specialist at the bank, said, "The situation is as bad as it can be." Asia is home to 12 of the worst 15 cities in the world in terms of air pollution, and only one in three Asians has easy access to safe drinking water, according to the report. The levels of human waste in the Asian rivers are three times the world average and 50 times higher than the World Health Organization's recommended max.
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, Jason Booth, 19 Jun 2001 (access ain't free) <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB992840817805268090.htm>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 19 Jun 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11235>
WHAT'S GOOD FOR G.M. IS TERRIBLE FOR THE COUNTRY
General Motors says it will oppose any efforts to increase fuel-economy standards for cars, SUVs, and light trucks in the U.S. G.M. CEO Rick Wagoner said on Friday that Americans do not want fuel-efficient vehicles as long as gasoline doesn't cost much at the pump, at least compared to prices abroad. Vice President Dick Cheney, touring a G.M. facility in Michigan yesterday, assured company executives that the Bush administration had no plans to pursue higher fuel-economy standards. In the meantime, with gas prices higher in the U.S. than they have been in the recent past, automakers such as Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, and, yes, G.M. are running ads touting the fuel-efficiency of their vehicles. Toyota has promised to produce 300,000 gas-electric hybrid vehicles per year starting in 2005; it produced 19,000 hybrids last year.
straight to the source: New York Times, Keith Bradsher, 18 Jun 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/18/business/18AUTO.html>
straight to the source: Detroit News, Maureen Feighan and Steve Pardo, 19 Jun 2001 <http://detnews.com/2001/autos/0106/19/d01-237861.htm>
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, Karen Lundegaard, 18 Jun 2001 (access ain't free) <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB992819770315651693.htm>
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Miguel Llanos, 15 Jun 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/587802.asp>
TRASH CAN-ADA
Canada has become a trash can for North America's hazardous waste, according to a report by the Texas Center for Policy Studies tracking such waste in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. It found that American companies were sending waste to Canada to avoid the cost of complying with the U.S.'s more rigorous environmental regulations. Mexico bans the import of dangerous substances for disposal, though it does accept the waste for recycling. In other U.S.-Canada import news, it seems rich folks in the U.S., many of them from the high-tech world, are opening their checkbooks at quick a clip to protect forests in British Colombia.
straight to the source: Toronto Globe and Mail, Martin Mittelstaedt, 18 Jun 2001 <http://www.globeandmail.com/gam/National/20010618/UWASTN.html>
GETTING OFF SCOTTS FREE?
Scotts Co., the U.S.'s biggest supplier of lawn and garden products, has damaged the environment and endangered public health near its plant in Marysville, Ohio, reports the Columbus Dispatch in a two-day series. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency documents show that dangerous levels of pesticides and herbicides, including DDT, have seeped from company landfills and waste lagoons into a creek, which joins a tributary of the Sciotio River about 10 miles from a source of drinking water for Columbus. Also, at least five Scotts workers have died and dozens have been made ill by asbestos fibers they inhaled while handling asbestos-contaminated vermiculite, an ore used in potting soil and fertilizers.
straight to the source: Columbus Dispatch, Michael Hawthorne and Paul Souhrada, 17 Jun-18 Jun 2001 <http://www.dispatch.com/news/special/scotts/>
DESERTIFICATION
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last weekend that drought and devastation were threatening the livelihoods of more than a billion people in 110 countries. On Sunday (World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, to those in the know), the U.N. Environment Programme blamed humans as the main cause of desertification. It cited agriculture, grazing, and climate change as big-time contributors to the problem. Half of Africa's arable land has been lost to desertification. China's government promised to step up its efforts to fight desertification, which has claimed more than a quarter of the country's land.
straight to the source: BBC News, 17 Jun 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1392000/1392983.stm>
straight to the source: Plant Ark, Reuters, 19 Jun 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11241>
HITTING IT OUT OF THE PARK
To clean up the air in national parks and wilderness areas, U.S. EPA Administration Christie Todd Whitman this week may release for public comment a plan to require polluters to control emissions affecting parks. The proposal is based on one written by the Clinton administration, covering facilities ranging form power plants to smelters to pulp mills. Electric companies were vigorous opponents of the Clinton plan, saying it would be too expensive to implement. Meanwhile, 25 states have already exceeded clean-air standards at least once this year.
straight to the source: USA Today, Traci Watson, 19 June 2001 <http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/june01/2001-06-19-epa-parks.htm>
straight to the source: Christian Science Monitor, Ron Scherer, 18 Jun 2001 <http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/18/p1s1.htm>
Return to the green lagoon -- a day in the life of Roger Payne, Ocean Alliance <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/payne061801.stm?source=daily>
On the roadless again -- have the Bushies done enviros a favor? -- in our opinions section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho051801.stm?source=daily>
6/19/01
11:09:15 AM
Public Citizen
Rollover Deaths Were Preventable; Government Needs to Require Crashworthy SUVs
WASHINGTON, D.C. - As lawmakers today delve into the Ford-Firestone tragedy, a larger issue needs to be addressed: Rollover crashes are dangerous, but they need not be deadly. Many of those who were killed and injured in Ford-Firestone crashes didn't have to lose their lives and limbs. And once again, the federal regulatory agency that oversees the companies has failed the American public, Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said.
That is because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) - under constant pressure from auto manufacturers - doesn't require companies to design vehicles in a way that will help people survive rollover crashes. As a result, auto companies that for years have opposed the issuance of key safety standards have seen their customers die needlessly. Claybrook submitted written testimony to two House subcommittees investigating the tragedy.
"Ford and Firestone are learning the hard way that even though they may be able to persuade government regulators not to be tough, safety is what the public wants," Claybrook said. "Now they're paying the consequences for not having made safer products."
Ford and Firestone have recently engaged in a very public and bitter spat, with each blaming the other for the nearly 200 deaths and more than 700 injuries that have occurred in Ford-Firestone crashes. Both are right - Firestone produced a faulty tire, as Ford has said. And Ford manufactured and zealously marketed its Explorer despite knowing it was prone to rolling over, like its precursor, the Bronco II, Claybrook said.
However, an overlooked issue is NHTSA's failure to issue key rollover crashworthiness standards. The Explorer (and most other SUVs) was not designed to protect its passengers so they could survive a rollover crash - a fact Ford knew, Claybrook said. When the Explorer rolls over, the roof crushes inward, leading to devastating head and neck injuries. The sides can buckle inward, the windows splinter and the occupants can be tossed about the cabin or ejected. The human damage caused is barbaric and unnecessary, Claybrook said. Race car drivers are frequently in rollover crashes, yet they often walk away unscathed because their cars have roll cages, they wear five-point seat belts and their heads are protected.
Automakers should be made to install similar safety systems in sport utility vehicles (SUVs) as well as other vehicles, Claybrook said. NHTSA should set dynamic standards for roof strength and should require manufacturers to install pre-tension belts that hold people in place during rollover crashes, seat and door structures that don't fail, advanced glazing safety glass in side windows, and side-impact air bags, ceiling air bags or other extra padding. Currently, no such federal requirements exist.
Further, NHTSA has never set a limit on how unstable a vehicle may be. Automakers can make a vehicle as rollover-prone as they want; no federal rule exists to stop them. The agency last year produced a toothless rating system, but it requires nothing of manufacturers. This absence of a rollover standard has fostered an entire class of popular but dangerously unstable vehicles.
"We need to move beyond the finger-pointing," Claybrook said. "Lawmakers need to direct NHTSA to issue these standards, so we can avoid another tragedy like this one."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. To view a copy of Joan Claybrook's testimony to Congress, go to
http://www.citizen.org/Press/pr-auto33a.htm
6/19/01
11:02:15 AM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
EUROPE INCORPORATES SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
GOTHENBORG, Sweden, June 18, 2001 (ENS) - European leaders adopted the bloc's first ever sustainable development strategy at their summit meeting in Gothenburg on Saturday.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-18-04.html
WHITE RIVER FISH KILL SETTLED FOR $14 MILLION
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 18, 2001 (ENS) - Two lawsuits over the 1999 release of massive amounts of toxic wastewater into Indiana's White River were settled today with the assessment of more than $14 million in fines for one of the largest fish kills in Indiana history.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-18-03.html
PAKISTAN SELLS FOREIGN TRAWL PERMITS ON VANISHING FISH
By T.T. Khan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 18, 2001 (ENS) - The cash strapped and internationally isolated military government of Pakistan has granted deep-sea fishing rights in Pakistani waters to Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean factory trawlers.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-18-01.html
THAILAND TRADE PUSHES TIGER PENIS PILLS
BANGKOK, Thailand, June 18, 2001 (ENS) - Authorities in Thailand are failing to enforce domestic and international legislation that bans trade in tiger body parts, a new report by undercover investigators from the Environmental Investigation Agency reveals. As a result, tiger parts, tiger penis pills, and tiger bone pills are widely available in Bangkok and across the borders with Cambodia, Burma and China.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-18-02.html
Greenpeace Caps Week of Domstrations Against U.S. Oil Interests
DEN HELDER, The Netherlands, June 28, 2001 (ENS) - To demonstrate its opposition to climate change induced by the burning of oil and gas, Greenpeace activists occupied an oil production platform owned by the U.S. oil company Conoco in the North Sea on Saturday.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-18-05.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 18, 2001
Massive Fire Scorching Forests Near Reno
Engineered Crops Threaten Farmers, Environment
Genetically Contaminated Corn Taken Off Market
Protein Helps Plants Hold Water
Novel Rescue Planned for Entangled Right Whale
New Hazardous Waste Sites Added to Superfund List
Plans Ready for Shipment of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Tundra Swan Hunt Threatens Trumpeters
Manure Could be Big Business
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-18-09.html
6/19/01
10:53:22 AM
Planet Ark World Environment News
SPECIAL REPORT - Gulf oil drilling a Bush dilemma in Florida - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11239
Marubeni sets FuelCell investment - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11243
Alaska drilling supporters get key Interior posts - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11240
UPDATE - Bush asks farmers help pass clean trade bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11232
DOE gives $8 mln to cut coal plant mercury emissions - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11234
Governors, premiers move to save Great Lakes water - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11229
FEATURE - Asia makes big push into clean, alternative fuels - SINGAPORE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11238
Asia's environmental abuse has to end - ADB - PHILIPPINES http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11235
Greenpeace says protest targeted legitimate rig - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11237
Fear of explosion delays Malaysian spill clean-up - MALAYSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11246
Kazakhstan mulls storing foreign nuclear waste - KAZAKHSTAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11231
Japan's Toyota unveils 2 fuel cell hybrid vehicles - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11236
Japan PM to hold summit talks with Britain, France - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11247
TEPCO to close reactor due to cooling water leak - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11245
German power plants meet emissions cut targets - VDEW - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11242
China vows renewed drive to curb desertification - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11241
UPDATE - Brazil's Petrobras says gas leak totaled 150 tons - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11233
FEATURE - Brazil's Tocantins state readies for transformation - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11230
Energy crisis leaves Brazil in perpetual twilight - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11244
6/18/01
2:32:47 PM
Public Citizen
Rollover Deaths Were Preventable; Government Needs to Require Crashworthy SUVs
Statement of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook
For months, the nation has watched Ford and Firestone behave like two children in a schoolyard. We need to move beyond the finger-pointing and address the real reason nearly 200 people died and more than 700 were injured in Ford-Firestone crashes.
Many of these individuals didn't need to lose their lives or be so severely hurt. They suffered, though, because of three key failures. Ford and Firestone have focused on two failures, and we agree with both companies. Firestone produced a faulty tire, as Ford has said. And Ford manufactured and zealously marketed its Explorer despite knowing it was prone to rolling over, like its precursor, the Bronco II.
A third cause exists: the lack of key safety standards by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Explorer was not designed to help its passengers survive a rollover crash, and Ford knew it. When the Explorer rolls over, the roof crushes inward, causing devastating head and neck injuries. The sides can buckle inward, the windows splinter and the occupants can be tossed about the cabin or ejected. The human damage caused is barbaric and unnecessary. Race car drivers are frequently in rollover crashes, yet they often walk away unscathed. Why? Their cars have roll cages. They wear five-point seat belts. Their heads are protected.
Automakers should be made to install similar safety systems in sport utility vehicles (SUVs) as well as other vehicles. NHTSA should set dynamic standards for roof strength. The agency also should require manufacturers to install pre-tension belts that hold people in place during rollover crashes, seat structures that don't fail, advanced glazing safety glass in side windows, and side-impact air bags, ceiling air bags or other extra padding. Currently, no such requirements exist.
Further, NHTSA has never set a limit on how tippy a vehicle may be. Automakers can make a vehicle as rollover-prone as they want; no federal rule exists to stop them. The agency last year produced a toothless information rating system, but it requires nothing of manufacturers. This absence of a rollover standard has fostered the creation of an entire class of popular but dangerously unstable vehicles.
It's time to tackle the real issues in this tragedy. Let's move out of the schoolyard and get to work.
To view a copy of Joan Claybrook's testimony for tomorrow's hearing, go to
http://www.citizen.org/press/pr-auto33a.htm
6/18/01
2:30:34 PM
Political Prisoner Bandazhevsky condemned to 8 years of prison
The Military Court in Gomel has, a few moments ago, condemned Professor Yuri, I. Bandazhevsky, former Dean of the Medical Institute in Gomel to 8 years of prison.
There is no possible appeal against a verdict of the Military Court, only the Presidential Grace an international solidarity campaign will be launched soon.
This verdict was issued, although Bandazhevsky has always denied the corruption charges raised against him, and the accusers have declared to the Court that they had testified against him under constraint (menaces against their families, against them, drugs in their beverage).
Prof. Bandazhevsky showed the organic, anatomic and histological health damages caused by incorporated Cs137 in the Chernobyl victims, especially children living in the contaminated zones.
As the UNSCEAR maintains (May 2000) that the only consequences of Chernobyl are 1800 thyroïd cancers in children and teenagers, Bandazhevsky's findings were not politically correct and he had to be suppressed. Chernobyl happens to revive the Galileo Galilei tragedy
We are very sorry, Please, spread the news and help !
Michel Fernex, PSR/IPPNW Switzerland
Solange Fernex, WILPF France
6/18/01
2:26:15 PM
URBAN REFORESTATION
Cloned trees may hold key to success
Nonprofit group selected Loxley nursery; wants to replicate best of each species
by BRENDAN KIRBY, Mobile Press Register Staff Reporter
LOXLEY, Alabama-Several rows of 6-inch-tall trees in Loxley, cloned last October from originals in three Southern states, may hold the key to reforesting America's cities.
They are part of the Champion Tree Project, a nonprofit organization started in 1996 with the goal of replicating the best of more than 800 different tree species in North America.
David Milarch, who founded the project, said he hopes the clones can survive in harsh, urban settings.
Milarch said he selected three nurseries throughout the country to participate in the cloning effort, including Plant Development Services Inc., a Loxley research-and-development company that spun off from Flowerwood Nursery about four years ago.
Jim Berry, general manager of the firm, said he decided it was a worthy project. "Of course, we are a for-profit business, and on down the line, we hope to make a profit from it," Berry said. "We would expect ... if it were pointed out to the consuming public that this is a special tree, yes, it would command more money."
Humans learned how to clone plants, in various forms, hundreds of years ago. Although newer technologies involve extracting a single cell from an organism, Milarch said the trees made in Loxley were produced by a traditional method called "rooted cuttings."
The tips of branches are cut off and then placed in sand inside a mist chamber and combined with a rooting hormone. Milarch said the project has so far cloned 52 of the continent's 827 tree species. For each species, he picked the "champion tree," a designation given to the largest measured -and often oldest-tree in a species.
That idea came from Milarch's son, Jared, who will be in Loxley today to inspect the cloned trees, including one from a 76-foot-tall American holly in Chambers County in east Alabama, a Southern magnolia from Mississippi and an Eastern red cedar from Georgia.
Jared Milarch, whose great-grandfather started the family nursery business in Michigan, recalled asking his father why he didn't clone a champion tree.
"As I witnessed my father and grandfather continue to grow trees, I noticed that we were losing a lot of trees," he said. "I was puzzled why, because we were doing things the same way we had."
A study by the International Society of Aboriculture found the average tree planted in American cities survives only seven to 10 years, David Milarch said.
Exotic diseases imported from different parts of the world, acid rain and other pollutants have taken their toll on trees in North America, he said. But despite such harsh conditions, certain trees have thrived.
David Milarch, 51, reasons that those trees must have genetic properties that make them stronger, healthier and longer lasting.
"These trees are centuries older than the entire industrial age," he said. "Why not reforest our cities with trees that have proven themselves and endured the entire industrial age?"
Some of the cloned trees will be sent in October to reforest the grounds of George Washington's estate in Mount Vernon. Others will be planted that month at Arlington National Cemetery and at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in February.
One local tree expert, however, expressed skepticism. Harry Larsen, a retired Auburn University forestry professor, said outside conditions play at least as important a role as genes. Some trees last hundreds of years because of their location, the amount of rain they receive and just plain luck at not being chopped down, he said.
"That's pretty iffy, I think. I think a lot of it is just happenstance," said Larsen, who lives in Lillian. "There's probably something to it, but I don't know how much of an impact it will have."
Milarch said all of the trees he has so far cloned are doing well in different locations. But he acknowledged that the real test of time, in tree years, is measured in decades and even centuries.
Tree cloning is an expensive proposition. Terry Mock, executive director of the Champion Tree Project, estimated that it takes about 10 years and costs $250,000 to clone a tree and bring its offspring to market. That is primarily why the private sector has not attempted large-scale tree-cloning in the past, he said.
By sharing costs, Champion Tree Project and for-profit nurseries can be successful, Mock said. He said he and Milarch funded much of the expense out of their own pockets until about a year ago when they received backing from the nonprofit National Tree Trust.
David Yarrow
Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
44 Gilligan Road, East Greenbush, NY 12061
518-477-6100
http://www.DanWinter.com/Yarrow
6/18/01
2:21:03 PM
WILD ALERT
The Bush Administration is rolling back protections that will safeguard our National Parks from the damage caused by jet skis, snowmobiles, and other off-road vehicles. These actions overturn the decisions made by the experts in the National Park Service, decisions based on years of scientific study, public input, and the overriding legal obligation to protect park resources from damage. Take action today:
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=474
PARK SERVICE PROTECTIONS In response to increasing evidence of the damage caused by jet skis, snowmobiles, and other off-road vehicles to our country's national parks, the National Park Service (NPS) has been working to control or stop the problems. Most notably:
- YELLOWSTONE: NPS developed a balanced policy to gradually phase out snowmobiles from Yellowstone National Park while maintaining public access in the winter through safe, quiet, and more environmentally friendly snow coaches.
- BIG CYPRESS: NPS has moved to protect Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, including the critically endangered Florida panther, by reducing dramatically the number of swamp buggy and other off-road vehicle routes, but still giving swamp buggies ample opportunity to recreate there.
- JET SKIS IN OUR PARKS: NPS will completely eliminate jet ski use in parks over the next 18 months unless local park managers conclude that continued use will not damage resources or threaten public safety.
- DENALI: NPS has preserved Denali's two million acre core as pristine Wilderness since 1917. As part of this effort, it has never allowed snowmobile use in this region.
BUSH ADMINISTRATION ROLL BACKS
These common-sense protections are under attack by the Bush Administration. In public, President Bush and Interior Secretary Norton are talking much about the need to protect America's National Parks. But at the same time, the Administration is working behind the scenes with off-road vehicle industries to effectively negate the protections the Park Service has put in place.
In Yellowstone, the Administration is holding closed-door settlement negotiations with the snowmobile industry which could overturn the NPS decision to phase-out snowmobiles from the Park. In Big Cypress, the Administration is again negotiating behind closed doors with the swamp buggy users, which could allow continued widespread swamp buggy use in this Preserve. Elsewhere, the Administration has put a stop to efforts by local park managers to protect aquatic resources and public safety from the threats posed by jet skis. Finally in Denali, following favorable talks with the Bush Administration, the snowmobile industry is about to go to Congress to request policy changes that would allow snowmobile use in hundreds of thousands of acres of the Park's pristine Wilderness core.
TAKE ACTION
Send a clear message to President Bush that he should walk the talk when it comes to protecting National Parks. Contact your Senators from
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=474
or ask them directly to tell President Bush to protect our Parks from the damage caused by off-road vehicles:
- Our National Parks are some of the last remaining places where Americans can enjoy natural quiet and experience wild places.
- But jet skis, snowmobiles, and other off-road vehicles are threatening these resources and values -- for instance, at Yellowstone, Big Cypress, Denali, and across our Park system waterways.
- The National Park Service has taken reasonable and balanced steps to address these problems, but the Bush Administration is clearly undermining those efforts, by quietly negotiating with off-road vehicle industries to weaken or roll back these vital protections.
- Finally, ask your Senators to do all they can in Congress to protect our National Parks from off-road vehicles, in addition to contacting President Bush.
Send your messages to both your Senators:
WRITE: Sen. ____, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510
PHONE: Capitol Hill switchboard: (202) 224-3121
EMAIL: go to http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
For a full list of Action Items, visit
http://www.wilderness.org/whatcan/takeaction.htm
6/18/01
2:18:31 PM
Sarasota County Green Party
My name is Jason Boehk. I'm a Sarasota resident and volunteer for the Organic Consumers Association. I have organized a leaflet and protest to take place at the Sarasota Starbucks, on June 26th, 2001. We will meet at the Sarasota Starbucks at 4:30 p.m.; the leaflet and protest will begin at 5 p.m. The Sarasota Starbucks is located at 1375 S.Tamiami Trail (Rt. 41), near Bahia Vista.
We are demanding that Starbucks:
a) remove genetically engineered (GE) ingredients from their cafes
b) brew fair trade coffee on a regular basis, and
c) improve working conditions on the plantations which grow their coffee.
Please join us in Sarasota, or participate at your local Starbucks Coffee Shop on Tuesday, June 26th,
Starbucks executives and advertising present an image of a "socially and environmentally responsible" company. However, Starbucks' practices, including its continued use of GE ingredients, and failure to follow-thru on its pledge to purchase and sell more certified "Fair-trade coffee", belie these claims of conscience.
For more info on this global campaign, please check the following website:
http://www.purefood.org/Starbucks/starbucks.html
Thanks for reading, please stop by the site at
6/18/01
2:13:12 PM
Ex-Con Nation
We locked 'em up. They're getting out. What do we do now?
by David Plotz
Every year, the United States sets two prison records—one we talk about, and one we don't. Our mania for incarceration is common knowledge: The number of state and federal prisoners has quadrupled to 1.3 million in the past 25 years. But Americans have paid no attention at all to the backdoor of the prison. Inmates are arriving at an unprecedented rate, but they are also leaving at one.
This year, American prisons will release more than 600,000 inmates, up from 170,000 in 1980. (To put it another way, a city with a population larger than Washington, D.C., leaves prison every year. And this does not even count the hundreds of thousands of lesser criminals who finish short jail sentences.) We lock them up, but we don't throw away the key. For all the hoopla that surrounds the death penalty and life sentences, only a teeny fraction of inmates—fewer than 4,000 per year—actually die in prison. Those who study "prisoner re-entry" have a new catch phrase to describe prisoners returning home: "They all come back."
Prisons still admit about 50,000 more offenders than they release, which is why the total census keeps increasing. But the growth rate is slowing, and by 2005, prisons may be springing as many people as they enroll. By 2010, according to University of California, Irvine, criminologist Joan Petersilia, annual releases may reach 1.2 million.
(The United States is becoming an ex-con nation. According to preliminary estimates by researchers Christopher Uggen, Melissa Thompson, and Jeff Manza, 5 million Americans are serving or have served prison sentences. That translates into 5 percent of American men, and 15 percent-20 percent of black men. They also estimate that 13 million people—including one-third of black men—have been convicted of a felony.)
Are the released felons more dangerous than when they went up the river? According to the best studies, the surge in incarceration is responsible for one-quarter of the '90s crime drop. (Economics and demographics are key reasons for the other three-quarters.) Does this mean the crime rate will spike as all these folks return home? "That is the $64,000 question," says Urban Institute senior fellow Jeremy Travis, a leading scholar of prisoner re-entry. "And no one has the answer."
Surprisingly little is known about prisoner re-entry. Ex-cons are extremely difficult to study, because they're transient and suspicious of authority. Almost no one has paid attention to them for 20 years. The fascination with prisoner rehabilitation that flowered a generation ago has withered. Vocational and educational programs didn't cut recidivism. Many parole boards, which had vast discretion to free prisoners early, were stripped of their power after being attacked from both the left (for being too hard on minorities) and the right (for being too soft on everyone). And the political climate chilled for prisoners, as the crime declines of the '90s confirmed the popular belief that we should worry more about putting them away than helping them out.
Still, enough information exists to conclude that ex-cons are dangerous to society and to themselves. In the mid-'80s, a major national recidivism study—the only one that's ever been conducted—found incredibly high rates of re-arrest and reconviction. Nearly two-thirds of ex-inmates were re-arrested on serious charges within three years, and 41 percent were reconvicted and returned to prison. A tracked group of 68,000 ex-offenders committed more than 300,000 felonies and misdemeanors in the three years after release.
There are many reasons to believe that today's army of released prisoners poses even more danger and faces even worse prospects than the smaller cohorts of the past. Ex-cons spend more time in prison than they used to. According to "From Prison to Home," a report published by the Urban Institute this week, prisoners released in 1998 served 27 percent longer than those released in 1990—28 months versus 22 months. Longer sentences, contends the Urban Institute's Travis, weaken the social and economic ties that may shield prisoners when they return to society. The longer you serve, the less contact you have with family, friends, and employers; the more your job skills deteriorate; the more your social network consists of other criminals.
Prisons do less now to prepare inmates for life outside. Vocational and educational programs have been cut and inmate participation in them has dropped. Drug treatment is even scarcer than it used to be. Though the proportion of inmates with drug problems has remained steady, the percentage receiving treatment plunged from 25 percent in 1990 to only 10 percent in 1997. States have also gutted parole. "Truth-in-sentencing" laws—most states now require violent felons to serve 85 percent of their sentences—mean that more and more prisoners are serving most of their sentences in prison then are released without any restrictions. More than 100,000 prisoners were released unsupervised last year. Researchers suspect that unsupervised releasees have harsher re-entries than those on parole. Not that parole is so effective: Budgets have contracted, and the average parole officer monitors 70 felons, up from 45 a few years ago. Other transitional institutions, such as halfway houses, have also weakened.
American society remains hostile toward ex-cons, and new laws and surveillance techniques make it easier to be tough on returning felons. Employers can quickly check criminal records and deny employment to former inmates. Some states have banned ex-prisoners from public employment and public housing. The declining economy will hit ex-cons hard: Since they are the most marginal employees, they are first to lose their jobs in a recession. More and more live in the poorest areas. The Urban Institute says that two-thirds of inmates return to "core" urban counties (where jobs are scarce), up from only half a decade ago. (California found that 70 percent-90 percent of its parolees are unemployed.)
Returning prisoners may be more dangerous than they used to be. An enormous number are violent: 140,000 of the 1998 graduating class are violent criminals, up from 75,000 in 1985. More ex-offenders than ever suffer mental illness. And ex-cons pose a health danger, too: Prisoner rates of HIV infection, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C run five to 10 times the national average. (According to the Urban Institute, in 1997, one-quarter of all Americans with HIV/AIDS were released from prison or jail.) Prisoners return as disease vectors as well as crime vectors.
Not all the data is awful. Releasees average 34 years old, up from 29 years old in the '70s. (They are older because they are serving longer sentences, and because the big baby boom cohort drags the average age up.) Felons commit fewer crimes as they get older, so by locking up crooks longer, we may be naturally aging them out of a life of crime. The stats about violent ex-cons are also ambiguous. Though record numbers of violent offenders are getting out this year, they actually represent a lower percentage of released inmates—only one-quarter of all releasees, down from 32 percent in 1985. (The percentage of violent offenders has dropped because many more releasees are nonviolent drug offenders.)
The best news for ex-cons may be that people are interested in them again. The Urban Institute's Travis speculates that the record crime drop, the strong economy, and perhaps even the success of welfare reform have convinced Americans that ex-prisoners are worth worrying about. The public policy community is seized with passion about this. George Soros' Open Society Institute has been sponsoring re-entry studies, as have at least two other major foundations. The Urban Institute's "From Prison to Home" is the first comprehensive prisoner re-entry report in years; the General Accounting Office is publishing findings on federal re-entry next week, and the Department of Justice will release the first major recidivism study in 15 years this fall. Congress appropriated nearly $100 million this year for pilot re-entry programs, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a new bill to assist federal-prisoner re-entry.
No crystal answers have emerged yet. (Most articles and reports, in fact, conclude that: "We need further study …") How re-entry affects the crime rate remains an open question, as does what kind of programs best help ex-cons. Still, there are a few promising ideas. Researchers had concluded that job training is useless, but recent work by Shawn Bushway of the University of Maryland hints that job training at least helps older prisoners, encouraging them stay away from crime and stick to the legit economy. Other evidence suggests that pre- and post-release drug treatment helps ex-cons live straight. Many researchers insist that more parole and rigorous supervision of ex-cons will dampen recidivism.
There is a very callous reason why the current effort on behalf of ex-cons may succeed where the attempts of the '60s and '70s failed. Today's fascination with ex-cons is rooted not in emotion but in pragmatism. Most researchers and activists don't seem greatly animated by sympathy for prisoners. They fret about the threat the ex-cons pose to public safety, public health, and general social order, and worry little about the threat the ex-cons pose to themselves. This is not a grand lefty crusade. No one is romanticizing what prisoners are like and what reforms can accomplish. Conservatives can embrace this struggle as easily as liberals. If we're stuck with ex-cons—and we've finally realized that we are, by the millions—we had better figure out something to do with them.
6/18/01
2:00:05 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
FEDS DROP INDYMEDIA COURT ORDER
by Leif Utne, Utne Reader Online
-- Last Wednesday, the U.S. government dropped an April 21st court order demanding that Seattle's Independent Media Center hand over its server logs of users who may have viewed Quebec police documents relating to global justice demonstrations. First Amendment advocates hailed the move as a victory for press freedom.
AS AMERICAN AS WOMEN'S SOCCER?
By Scott Stossel, The Atlantic Online
--"Everything about the new professional women's soccer league is unorthodox -- which is why it may succeed." When the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) debuted in April, it marked not only the arrival of professional women's soccer to this country, but also the arrival of world-class soccer.
HOW'S YOUR BEACH?
by Patricia Michaels, about.com Environmental Issues
-- Since summer's only a couple of days off, you may well be thinking about hitting the beach. Before you do, check out Patricia Michaels' article on the water quality of lakes in your state.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/18/01
1:54:36 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Japan predicts century of more floods, downpours - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11220
US may need higher fuel standards to cut oil imports - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11226
Danish minister asks US to support Kyoto treaty - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11228
FEATURE - GM food industry searches for health and happiness - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11219
WTO panel says US can keep shrimp import ban - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11217
UPDATE - EU to crusade for climate change accord - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11214
EU to urge others to ratify Kyoto despite US - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11218
UPDATE - Protesters ready for march on EU summit - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11221
EU provisionally sets 2001 deadline for Kyoto - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11222
Anti-Bush protests draw just 200 in Warsaw - POLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11224
Greenpeace boards "wrong" oil rig in Bush protest - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11215
Japan to expand legal sales of whale meat - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11227
EU plans to force bio-fuels into petrol - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11225
Bulgaria gets aid for nuclear reactors shutdown - BULGARIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11223
UPDATE - Petrobras gas leak has Sao Paulo on alert - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11216