6/1/02
3:33:28 PM
The Way To A Peaceful Future
In Jerusalem And All Over The World
by John McConnell - Founder of Earth Day, Speaks for Earth
For many years the major trouble spot on our planet has been Jerusalem -- hallowed by Christian, Jewish and Muslim history.
At the moment this is written, there is violence in the Holy Land. Again, there is an attempt to settle differences by the power of bombs.
The Way to a Peaceful, Prosperous Future -- in Jerusalem AND all over the world:
The reason for poverty, pollution and war is the lack of a well defined agenda for peaceful progress. As a result adversaries lack a basis for peaceful resolution of differences.
Discussions too often neglect areas of honest accord. Peace efforts then stall in spite of international laws and United Nations agreements and resolutions. We need to stress where we agree and what we have in common.
EARTH TRUSTEE SOLUTION
The Earth Trustee solution is for every individual and institution to think and act as a Trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will eliminate pollution, poverty and violence on our planet."
THIS WILL BRING THE REJUVENATION OF OUR PLANET AND FAIR BENEFITS FOR EVERYONE.
We will see a change of attitude and conduct world-wide from fear and despair to hope and faith. People will act, each in their own way, as responsible trustees of Earth. They will sincerely act as trustees of Earth because they know it will be best for them as well as for others.
This will provide a moral equivalent of war-- a Peace Blitz for a Better World. Instead of wealth being spent for war, it will be devoted to projects that heal, build and unite. (1)
To succeed, leaders and laymen are asked to avoid the historic mistakes of humanity's past. Instead of emphasis on our differences, let us call attention to the important matters in which we agree. We all want a world without war and the end of poverty. We would like a stake in Earth's natural bounty -- for ourselves and everyone, including the disinherited poor.
Now is the time for the realization of human potential -- physical, mental, spiritual in a world of freedom and order.
To achieve this we should look below the surface at the root causes of civilization's sickness. In the past individuals identified with and were most loyal to their clan, nation, religion or business. The narrow view of competing groups often led to conflict and sometimes war.
Today, the astronauts and cosmonauts have provided a global view of our planet. "We set out to explore Space - and discovered Earth!"
We are now aware that one fragile planet is our home, the home of one human family. Now we have a chance to see in our diversity a unity which will enable us to fairly adjust our differences with new solutions -- unseen in the past.
In all decisions we must now consider how they affect the nurture and protection of Earth and the rights of individuals to the use of our planet. Seeing the whole picture will help us make the right choices.
Part of the problem is faulty economic policies and institutions. A basic mistake in history is the development and establishment of unfair, inefficient systems of money and credit. We have a planet with assets in the trillions of dollars -- much of it in developing countries. Once we see that money is not wealth -- wealth is land, raw materials, technology, factories, people with skills, etc. -- we might avoid the folly of war prosperity, followed by peace depression -- with more money for money manipulators than producers and workers.
By a change in monetary policies to fair, free credit -- based on adequate assets, and by making money an honest medium of exchange backed by assets and available in the measure needed for stable exchange of goods and services, we could soon bring prosperity to our whole planet.
To take advantage of the amazing new technology that covers the Globe, a vital necessity is to tap the spiritual and emotional resources of our religious faith ... in ways that will not compromise our separate creeds and beliefs.
Love of God, love of people, love of Earth, honesty, fairness and truth are to be found in every major religion. I may totally reject the creeds of other religions where they relate to a future life and at the same time approve their actions that heal and help people and planet. A deeply held shared goal aids communication and promotes more openness to each others point of view -- often resulting in a basic unity that helps resolve many differences, with accommodation or separation where needed. True love of God will result in love of neighbor and nature.
Once the primary universal goal of Earth Trusteeship is established and affirmed by leaders and world public opinion, controversy will more constructively sort out differences and find areas of agreement.
This will increase understanding and bring better definitions of issues -- how they relate, provide direction, or help achieve global goals. Then, with the aid of an enlightened, responsible mass media, world public opinion, a powerful force, will promote good will, peace, justice and Earth's rejuvenation.
Now is the time to mobilize our faith and our institutions in an Earth Trustee Campaign for Earth. Now is the time, especially, for a new sense of purpose and responsibility by public media. Let them sponsor a Media Blitz for Earth's rejuvenation, with features and headlines for the many solutions that are working and need attention. Call attention to places where Earth Trustee words are being followed by Earth Trustee actions.
EARTH MINUTES
To aid inner commitment we are urging all radio and TV stations worldwide to program daily Earth Minutes at 0300, 1100, and 1900 GMT (Convert to local time in each time zone). These minutes without words will have locally produced music, views of Earth from Space, nature, children.
When you hear Earth Minute announced you can link your thought, your prayer, with others all over the world.
At other times during the day, there can be reports and features about Earth care solutions, planned or in progress. This can provide a new sense of Earth Trustee identity that will tap the best of our personal religious convictions, diminish fear, hate, greed and lust and assure an era of peaceful progress.
We ask radio, TV stations and newspapers to start an Earth Trustee Media Blitz. We have the raw materials, the technology, instant global communications -- and there are people ready and willing around the world.
All that is needed is to get their attention. The picture here presented can then bring the needed Earth Trustee choices in words and actions -- and peaceful progress will prevail.
What a great thing it would be to see Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders in Jerusalem thinking and acting as Earth Trustees. By focus on our common humanity and the right of everyone to an Earth Claim, they could provide homesteads for homeless constituents. Their actions would result in friendly communities throughout the Mid-East. Soon the whole world would see the Earth Trustee solution and we would be on our way to a Global Peaceful Future.
(1) Examples of projects that "heal, build and unite."
American Friends Service Committee FOR - Fellowship Of Reconciliation Franciscans
P. S. Individuals and groups who are working for a better future should provide examples of what their programs have done to help people and planet. We need more than words.
You will find a partial record of what Earth Day and its Earth Trustee agenda has accomplished at:
http://www.wowzone.com/mc-lee.htm
Earth Day/Earth Trustees: http://www.EarthSite.org
6/1/02
3:21:27 PM
Marijuana Prohibition Insane Public Policy
by Bob Newland, Rapid City (SD) Journal; May 4, 2002
Public school teachers are permitted only to speak of the evils of cannabis, forbidden to teach its 5,000-plus years of history of service to man. Politicians spout absurdity after slander when they speak of it at all. Misinformed people are moved to anger, threaten violence, or wax childish ("Oh, wow!") when the subject confronts them.
Within this melee of babble, a large and growing number of credible people are expressing doubt about the efficacy of marijuana prohibition. The politicians and their sycophants accuse us of advocating "giving drugs to babies." They say we're "supporting terrorism." They even make absurd statements like State Rep. Stan Adelstein made at a speech to the United Campus Ministries luncheon at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology on Nov. 22, 2001:
"I know the marijuana laws work, because only one of my three sons smoked marijuana. The other two didn't smoke it, because it's illegal. They told me so."
Adelstein refused to answer when asked if he thought his son who smoked marijuana should have gone to prison for it, as millions of others have.
Fact is, Adelstein's family is squarely in the mainstream. The National Institute on Drug Abuse's annual national household survey continually says that about one-third of adults in the U.S. have smoked marijuana. Yet, we continue:
Arresting people at the rate of one every 45 seconds for possession or sale of marijuana.
Confiscating folks' cars, houses, cash and children for mere suspicion of trafficking in marijuana. If they're convicted, we throw them in prison, also.
Paying snitches to create marijuana crimes so that law enforcement can confiscate even more property and children.
Allowing law enforcement agencies to keep most of the plunder they steal, thus perpetuating the vicious and counterproductive cycle.
Preventing legal access to marijuana for sick, disabled and dying people who currently benefit from it, albeit illegally.
Caught up in this insanity is industrial hemp, which has a potential worldwide market of $500 billion or more, but which is banned from production in the United States (but allowed in Canada and 30 other nations). Even more insanely and cruelly, the politicians maintain that there is no medical use for cannabis, in spite of disagreement from thousands of doctors and tens of thousands of patients.
How arrogant and stupid to make the statement that an herb has "no medical use." A fifth-grader wouldn't even make such a blanket statement about tomatoes or horseradish.
Here is the simple truth. Cannabis was first taxed out of the market, then made illegal in the United States in order to benefit the stockholders in a large consortium of industries which now do not have to face competition from industrial hemp. For that purpose, the politicians are willing to imprison millions and cruelly deny medical relief to tens of thousands of sick people.
When one understands that industrial hemp can be used for any purpose served by trees, cotton or flax, and petroleum, and that hemp seed is the most nutritious single food item in the world, one begins to understand the scope of the industries served by keeping it illegal. One begins to grasp whose ox will be gored by re-establishment of industrial hemp at the forefront of American farm products.
These are some of the reasons I've staked my life, my possessions, and my honor on exposing the truth about cannabis, knowing that, like countless others, I could be stopped, "found" in possession of something illegal, and imprisoned at the whim of the politicians.
It's just one more of the cruel truths of the so-called "war on drugs": that innocent people are sometimes silenced by police who frame them by "finding" drugs on them. Cops have unlimited access to drugs to use for such purposes. It's also sad that we must paint all policemen and women with the same brush, because the bad cops' and the good cops' uniforms look the same.
And it is for these reasons that SoDakNORML organized the Rapid City segment of the Million Marijuana March, an educational event being held in over 160 cities worldwide today. We're appealing to governments everywhere to stop all cannabis arrests, to stop lying about cannabis, to release cannabis as medicine to sick people, and to stop imprisoning people for simply trying to feel better.
There's more good information about cannabis on the Internet than just about any other subject. Simply inquire "hemp," "cannabis," or "marijuana" on any search engine. For a tragic laugh, see what the major disseminators of misinformation, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Parents for a Drug-Free America (whose largest funder is Anheuser-Busch) have to say on the subject.
It's time for all good people to help end this horrible cycle. Civilian and soldier, cop and just-folks alike, we must hold our local politicians and our federal delegations accountable for the carnage and economic damage created by marijuana prohibition.
Bob Newland is the founder and president of SoDakNORML, an affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Source: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
6/1/02
3:15:43 PM
Enron: A Tailor-Made Republican Logo
GOP's Golden Boy May Lose His Connecticut Shirt Because of It
By Alan Bisbort
May 30, 2002 - HARTFORD (APJP) -- Don't let the twang, the cowboy hat and line-dancing boots fool you.
The Bush family hails from Connecticut, not Texas. Their roots run much deeper in the rocky soil of the mannerly Nutmeg State than in the hot sands of the gun-totin', cow-pokin' Lone Star State. Indeed, most of the extended Bush clan never left Connecticut, and George Sr. and George Jr. always have a port in the storm here.
One of those ports is Gov. John G. Rowland. Rowland is the golden boy of the Republican Party, a smooth-talking, young (45), faux moderate who has often been spoken of as a possible Vice Presidential replacement should Bush seek reelection or Cheney be led away in handcuffs. Last fall, Rowland was named chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and he is currently running for his third term as governor of Connecticut. He is-or was, until a month ago-the odds-on favorite to lead a pack of 27 Republican governors up for reelection with a landslide victory over an inexplicably timid state Democratic Party's candidate.
Gov. Rowland is such a close friend of the Bush family that when the president visits the Nutmeg State, he refers to the governor as "Johnny" and the two of them hug affectionately, like long lost friends. That photogenic hug, however, may haunt Rowland the way Sammy Davis Jr. was never allowed to forget his kiss of Richard Nixon.
First, Rowland's bear hug speaks of an intimacy with a president who is not popular in Connecticut -- John McCain beat him soundly here in the Republican primary and Al Gore whipped him here in the presidential election. Second, and most importantly in an election year, Rowland's bear hug has all the staying power of a bear trap. That is, it comes with a heavy price tag that may drag the once popular two-term governor right out of office.
The reason is as simple as one word: Enron.
Enron is a tailor-made designer logo for Republican financial chicanery, greed, deceit and hypocrisy. Just saying the word instantly conjures an image that once easily catapulted Democrats into office: fat cats sticking it to the little guy. Whether the Democrats will capitalize on this elsewhere is another matter. But they finally have someone in Connecticut who is willing to do the job. And because of this, that someone has leapt from a faceless pack of candidates to take a commanding lead for the Democratic nomination.
That someone is Bill Curry, a one-time golden boy of the Democratic Party who, after losing to Rowland in the 1994 governor's race, went to work as an advisor to President Bill Clinton. Written off as a bitter has-been by the state's fawning pro-Rowland press, Curry has nonetheless found his footing in the past month, and his campaign is gaining traction. Whether or not his surge convinces the status quo-loving pundits is unimportant, because it's resonating with the famously independent Connecticut voters.
The reason: "Johnny" Rowland is almost as deep into the Enron scandal as "Kenny Boy" Lay. The Bush bear hug gives it away.
That is, during his watch -- in December 2000, to be precise -- Rowland met with three Enron executives to discuss, according to him, a fuel cell project in Danbury. Not only did the fuel cell project never come to fruition, but the timing of Enron's further dealings with the state could not be more suspicious.
Four days after Rowland met with Enron officials, the board of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA), an "autonomous" agency whose directors are appointed by the governor and legislature, unanimously approved a contract in which the CRRA advanced $220 million to Enron. For this wad of the taxpayer's dough, Enron agreed to buy energy from the CRRA's trash-to-energy facility for $2 million a month over the next 11 years. When Enron collapsed, the $220 million in public funds was lost, and the CRRA was forced to raise the rates it charges towns for trash disposal to make up the loss.
In the ensuing investigation, it was learned that Rowland's co-chiefs of staff were both intimately involved with CRRA and that one of his largest contributors was an Enron consultant. Also, Enron made an $80,000 soft-money commitment to the Republican Governors Association (which Rowland heads) and another, separate contribution to Rowland's campaign "war chest."
While the whole sordid affair has been made to appear like a complicated transaction that baffles even the disingenuous Gov. Rowland, it sounds pretty simple to most people. How much more simple could it be? Sleazy Texas oilmen come in, sweet talk one of Texas oilman Bush's best buddies, who happens to be the governor of Connecticut, and four days later they walk off with over 200 million dollars that belong to the people of Connecticut.
And yet, showing the arrogance of power that seems to be genetically encoded in Republican office holders, Rowland blithely dismissed the scandal in a recent interview with David Broder of the Washington Post. Perhaps because Broder is (inexplicably) dubbed the "dean of Washington press corps," Rowland was feeling his oats and let his guard down, telling Broder that the scandal is nothing but "a lot of connect the dots. . . . It's kind of a fun little web they can put together, but it's pretty hard to explain to people. The good news is I don't think anybody in the state cares who my chief of staff is."
He also said that, "If the Enron thing weren't a national story, it probably wouldn't have much juice."
Rowland's smug dismissal notwithstanding, Bill Curry isn't having any trouble explaining it to Connecticut voters.
"The flip, cynical tone of the Governor's remarks is astonishing to me," said Curry. "State taxpayers lost $220 million dollars because of an illegal loan engineered by the Governor's top staff and here's the Governor taking refuge in the public's supposed inability to 'connect the dots'. Gov. Rowland actually believes that no one would really care about the greatest financial loss in state history if it weren't connected to a national news story."
Curry continues: "What is astonishing is to hear the Governor talk about the issue only in terms of political tactics, never in terms of ethics --the deal is rife with campaign cash and influence-peddling at the highest levels of state government. Criminal and civil investigations are underway, and nearly everyone who was in charge is out of a job. But the Governor thinks we can't 'connect the dots?' And here I thought I was the only person the Governor underestimated. It turns out he underestimates us all. It's comforting, in a way."
Ed Ericsson, Jr., an investigative reporter for Hartford Advocate, has been far ahead of the field on this story. He put it this way to me in an email:
Rowland says it's too complicated to explain to people, and Broder obliges by not explaining it. The real story here is ENRON LIVED ITS LAST 6 MONTHS ON CT'S MONEY. THE STORY TO TELL IS, HOW WOULD THE NATION -- AND THE WORLD--BE DIFFERENT IF ENRON RESTATED ITS FOURTH QUARTER 2000 PROFITS IN MARCH OR APRIL OF 2001 -- WHICH IT WOULD HAVE HAD TO IF ANYONE AT CRRA DID SOME DUE DILIGENCE AND THE $220M DIDN'T COME THROUGH IN MARCH? AND THEN ENRON DECLARES BANKRUPTCY CIRCA JULY. THE FUROR AROUND BUSH, ARMY SECTY WHITE, A PILE OF OTHERS IS HITTING FULL STRIDE THEN JUST ABOUT THE TIME THE RECOUNTS IN FLA ARE COMPLETED. BUSH'S POPULARITY IS IN THE SH*TTER. THEN SEPT 11 . . . AND INSTEAD OF OBSCURING THE ENRON STORY THE TERRORIST ACT PILES ON. WE'D BE IN A DIFFERENT WORLD TODAY, MAN, AND A LOT OF INSIDERS AT ENRON WOULD BE MILLIONS -- 10S OF MILLIONS -- POORER BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT HAVE HAD SUCH A LONG GRACE PERIOD IN WHICH TO CASH OUT.
Instead we get a lunch money story.
Well, maybe not. A federal grand jury issued subpoenas to the CRRA as part of an investigation "into the possible commission of a felony."
When they connect the dots, perhaps Rowland's face will magically appear.
Source: http://www.americanpolitics.com/20020530Bisbort.html
6/1/02
3:07:39 PM
Wall Street Journal: FBI Director Mueller Should Resign
NewsMax.com Wires - Friday, May 31, 2002
In a lead editorial today in the Wall Street Journal, the nation's most respected financial paper called on FBI Director Rober Mueller to resign.
The Journal asked that in the wake of 9-11, "The issue now is whether, and how, the CIA and FBI can regain public confidence and deter future attacks."
The Journal said Mueller had clearly lost the confidence of the American people.
Though Mueller only took the helm the of the FBI weeks before Sept. 11, the Journal said that Mueller's reforms proposed this week were only rearranging "bureaucratic furniture."
In the aftermath of Sept, 11. when accountability of the FBI was demanded, the Journal said that Mueller had made clear "the lesson is that mistakes will go unpunished or be covered up, especially if they're committed close to the top. Specifically, this goes to the heart of the credibility of Mr. Mueller."
"The highly publicized letter from veteran agent Coleen Rowley is devastating on this score. Mr. Mueller can't be blamed for September 11--he took office only on September 4. Yet his statements since that date have been, to say the least, embarrassing. First he proclaimed that the FBI had no information on possible terrorist attacks prior to September 11. This was the line he kept up for months-'circling the wagons,' as Agent Rowley put it.
"Then, as information dribbled out--the Phoenix agent's memo on Arabs enrolling at flight schools, the Minneapolis agents who had identified Zacarias Moussaoui as a terrorist threat--he amended it to say that despite the information nothing the FBI might have done would have changed anything. Agent Rowley puts it succinctly: 'I think your statements demonstrate a rush to judgment to protect the FBI at all costs.' Specifically, she accuses Mr. Mueller and senior FBI officials as having 'omitted, downplayed, glossed over and or mischaracterized' her office's probe of Moussaoui."
The Journal notes that only after Rowley's memo was released, which demonstrated the director was indeed engaging in a cover-up, did Mueller act.
"So now that his job is on the line, Mr. Mueller has apologized more or less. He concedes that the 9/11 attacks might have been detectable, even going so far as to thank Agent Rowley for her memo. This is a step forward, but the question for his future leadership is whether everyone in the FBI will see this for the self-protection it is."
The Journal pointed out that "If Mr. Mueller had wanted to send a message to change the FBI mindset, he would have fired the supervisory special agent who ignored the Minneapolis warnings on Moussaoui. Instead, Ms. Rowley says, that agent was promoted."
The Journal's editorial comes in the wake of new revelations. Veteran FBI Agent, Robert Wright, who had been assigned to the FBI's Counter-terrorism office, went public Thursday saying the FBI leadership could have prevented 9-11, but field agents were deliberately thwarted in doing their jobs.
Wright's allegations deal with warning he made before 9-11, but at his press conference yesterday, his attorney, Judicial Watch chairman Larry Klayman, said that that Mueller and the FBI has sought to censor Agent Wright, and have threatened him with criminal prosecution if he reveals embarrassing information about the Bureau.
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=27811
FBI Whistleblower: Agent Robert Wright
CSPAN2 Video Clip of Judicial Watch Press Conference -Concerning FBI Agent Robert Wright (requires Real Media Player) (May 30, 2002)
http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/idrive/ter053002_judicial.rm
Warnings Ignored Agent: FBI Could Have Prevented 9-11
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/30/161204.shtml
The Disintegration of the FBI - How FBI Fell Apart?
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/30/183028.shtml
FBI & WACO!
http://www.newsmax.com/hottopics/Waco.shtml
Records: FBI Had No Plan to Fight Fire (This makes me sick!)
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/3/2/115533
Editor's Note:
Get the exclusive audiotape in which an FBI whistle-blower details the wholesale breakdown of America's national security apparatus. Few know the truth like Gary Aldrich.
http://www.newsmaxstore.com/nms/showdetl.cfm?&Product_ID=741&DID=6
WHISTLEBLOWER PAGE:
Former Naval Intelligence Officer Delmart Edward "Mike" Vreeland warned of impending terrorist attacks a month before 9-11. WHO IS LEO EMIL WANTA? - Scottsboro, Al Status: Arrested 7/7/93 in Geneva, Switzerland, which resulted in conviction for money laundering and sentenced to 4 months - then extradited to Wisconsin to stand trial for tax evasion, which resulted in his being sentenced to 22 years, then on 2/1/97 released on $90,000 bail....hummm! WHERE'S THE FBI WHEN YOU NEED THEM?
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_whistleblower.htm
OPERATION HOME RUN
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/home_run.htm
Ripping Apart a Nation - In the Back Room - Tom DeWeese
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=27805
Ending Immortality in Government
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=27803
Missiles smuggled into U.S. - Bill Gertz (Warning)
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=27797
ALERT: Dynamite Cache Stolen; ATF Offers $5,000 Reward
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,54158,00.html
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=27816
No American Left Alone - Charlotte Iserbyt
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=27794
The truth is out there ... right?
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/911_truth.htm
"WE ARE APT TO SHUT OUR EYES AGAINST A PAINFUL TRUTH... FOR MY PART, I AM WILLING TO KNOW THE WHOLE TRUTH; TO KNOW THE WORST; AND TO PROVIDE FOR IT."
---- Patrick Henry
http://www.apfn.org/old/apfncont.htm
6/1/02
3:03:13 PM
A Road Map To Peace
by L. Ramdas and Arjun Makhijani
India and Pakistan stand at the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Many people from all over the world including businessmen, politicians, strategic analysts, diplomats, scientists, peace activists and common people above all have all voiced their concern regarding the rapidly deteriorating situation in South Asia. Infiltration of terrorists from across the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, the massing of troops at the border by both countries, and the increasing exchanges of artillery fire matched only by the verbal volleys exchanged between the leadership of both countries, could escalate quickly into a full-scale war.
This, in turn poses the threat of a nuclear exchange, which would be catastrophic for both the countries, South Asia in particular, and affect the world at large.
India and Pakistan signed the Shimla Agreement in 1972 and the Lahore Agreement in 1999.
In both these accords, they agreed to renounce the use of force and to resolve all outstanding issues between them by peaceful means.
There has never been a time more urgent and more important to respect the letter and spirit of those agreements than now.
We urge the governments of both Pakistan and India to immediately step back from the brink of war and nuclear holocaust by committing themselves to the following seven-point peace plan. We urge all those Governments that endorsed the U. N. resolutions against terrorism in the wake of September 11, 2001, to use their good offices with the Governments of India and Pakistan to accept this peace plan and to help put it into effect with the greatest urgency. The proposed plan:
1) There should be an immediate ceasefire by Indian and Pakistani forces along the LoC.
2) Pervez Musharraf should take immediate, firm, and demonstrable steps to stop cross-border infiltration from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir into the Indian-controlled side. To ensure that these steps are being taken, an International Anti-terrorist Monitoring Group should be formed and deployed. Pakistan and India should agree to full cooperation with this group.
This would provide a neutral means of ensuring that Pakistan's commitments about stopping cross-border infiltration are being carried out.
3) If these measures are agreed to, India in turn should make a commitment not to cross the LoC.
4) Pakistan should also adopt the no-first-use policy of nuclear weapons, which has already been adopted by India. These measures should be urgently instituted within a time-frame of a few weeks. Thereafter, three further steps can be taken to ensure long-term peace and towards resolution of a crisis that has now lasted well over half a century. These three steps are:
1) India and Pakistan should thin down their military deployments along their common border and return to pre-December 13, 2001, levels.
2) India and Pakistan should resume their dialogue on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, in the spirit of the Shimla and Lahore agreements, and pick up the threads where they left off at Agra barely ten months ago.
3) As a part of the dialogue process, India and Pakistan should form a joint technical commission to explore and recommend how the mutual commitment to no-first-use of nuclear weapons can be verified and maintained.
4) Why not a Shimla-II? It would be truly fitting if this could take place on July 12, 2002, the thirtieth anniversary of the historic Shimla agreement.
(The writers are, respectively, former Chief of the Naval Staff and president, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Maryland, U.S.)
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/05/31/stories/2002053102501100.htm
6/1/02
2:57:18 PM
Participate in this National Day of Action to Get Genetically Engineered Ingredients Out of Our Food
When: Saturday, June 8, 2002
What: People across the country will be going to their supermarkets to demand that food chains like Safeway and Shaw's/Star Market remove genetically engineered ingredients from their store brand products. Supermarkets will only change their practices if they hear from customers like you. So take action on June 8th!!
Where: Events will be happening throughout the country. To find out if there is an event near you, check out:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/communitycenter/
(Events are added daily, so check back regularly)
If there isn't an event listed for your community and you would like to organize one, please send an e-mail to
Include your name and postal address and we'll send you information on how to organize your own Day Of Action!
Be sure to send us an e-mail by Monday, June 3rd so we can get materials to you in time.
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member online!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join
6/1/02
2:55:09 PM
Greenpeace's Positive Energy Newsletter -- May 27- June 2, 2002
Time for the Greenpeace CLEAN ENERGY NOW! campaign's weekly good news update!!!
Inside this edition:
- The Will for Wind
- ExxonMobil Shareholders Push Drive for Renewables
The Will for Wind
Greenpeace and the wind energy industry released a global blueprint to provide 12 percent of the world's future electricity through wind power by 2020. This report is a call to governments at the final pre-World Summit on Sustainable Development(WSSD) meeting in Bali to stop standing in the way of a renewable energy revolution.
For more information about WSSD and renewable energy, please visit:
http://www.greenpeace.org/earthsummit/index.html
ExxonMobil Shareholders Push Drive for Renewable Energy
A coalition of ExxonMobil investors is leading the way to push the corporation to adopt a renewable energy resources plan. Although the resolution was not passed, it was approved by more than 20 percent of current shareholders compared to 9 percent in 2001.
This is a direct challenge to ExxonMobil's denial of the effects of global warming as linked to emissions from the use of the fossil fuels. And it's fossil fuels that form the core of ExxonMobil's product line.
Peter Altman, national coordinator of Campaign ExxonMobil stated, "mainstream investors are questioning whether ExxonMobil is really protecting shareholder value with its isolated position on renewable energy and global warming. For the first time, mainstream investors are saying that they need to see the rationale behind the company's strategy of saying 'just trust us and don't ask questions' isn't going to work anymore."
An article on this issue can be read on:
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-29-05.asp
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our website, will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
http://www.cleanenergynow.org,
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join2/cen.htm
6/1/02
2:52:27 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BALI
Most people go to Bali to play, but right now, the Indonesian island is the site of some very hard work. This week and next, Bali is hosting the Fourth Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held later this summer in Johannesburg, South Africa. There is no Fifth Preparatory Committee, so any work that needs to get done before the World Summit has to happen in Bali. But what exactly is getting done -- and is it getting us anywhere, environmentally speaking? Those are the questions weighing on Thomas Brendler and William Faries, Grist correspondents in Bali. Read their dispatches from PrepCom IV, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: A week in the life of Thomas Brendler, executive director of the National Network of Forest Practitioners at the Bali PrepCom <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/brendler052802.asp?source=daily>
only in Grist: A week in the William Faries, environmental journalist at the Bali PrepCom <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/faries052802.asp?source=daily>
SWISS BLISS
Organic farming results in a smaller yield than conventional agriculture, but is far more energy efficient and better for the land. That might sound intuitive to many organic advocates, but it took a 21-year study by Swiss scientists to prove it. Research published in the most recent issue of Science showed that organic farming is a viable alternative to conventional methods -- i.e., those that are heavily reliant on pesticides and other chemical treatments. The findings are based on a study begun in 1978, in which scientists compared potatoes, barley, winter wheat, beets, and grass clover grown using different methods. The organic fields averaged 20 percent less yield, but used between 34 and 53 percent less fertilizer and energy, and 97 percent fewer pesticides. Per unit of energy, the organic systems produced more food, and the organic soils housed a larger and more diverse community of organisms. The scientists said they hoped their findings would encourage farmers to consider switching to organic agriculture.
straight to the source: BBC News, Alex Kirby, 30 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=158>
NAPA TIME
How do you put a price tag on nature -- on its worth, on the cost of protecting it, and on the expenses incurred by destroying it? In an effort to marry wise environmental policy with sound economics, more and more conservationists are seeking to answer that question. In "The New Economy of Nature," Katherine Ellison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and Gretchen C. Daily, one of the world's leading ecologists, track the efforts to create an economy that recognizes the value of natural systems. Sometimes, creating that new economy requires looking at cost and benefit in a whole new way, as happened in Napa, Calif., when residents and government agencies set out to solve the problem of regular river flooding. Read about the Napa solution, in an excerpt from "The New Economy of Nature," only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: How a town can live with a river and not get soaked -- an excerpt from "The New Economy of Nature" by Gretchen C. Daily and Katherine Ellison, in our Books Unbound section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/books/books053102.asp?source=daily>
CALIFORNIA SCHEMING
This week's announcement by President Bush that his administration would spend $235 million to protect Florida's pristine areas from oil and gas drilling has aroused both the ire and the envy of California environmentalists, who saw the deal as a family favor designed to aid the reelection bid of First Brother and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R). California greenies, who have been fighting to stop 36 offshore drilling leases, continue to hope that the president might seek to boost his own reelection prospects by currying favor in their state as well. They say that an oil spill from one of the leases could devastate fragile coastal areas. But prospects for a Florida-esque deal in the Golden State are far from certain. Such an arrangement would be far costlier than its Florida counterpart, because oil and gas companies originally paid over $1 billion for drilling leases in California.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, John Koopman and Jane Kay, 31 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=159>
straight to the source: New York Times, James Sterngold, 31 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=160>
G-RATIFY-ING NEWS
It's official: All 15 nations of the European Union have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, solidifying their commitment to combat climate change and highlighting the difference between European and U.S. environmental politics. The ratification was formalized during a ceremony held this morning at United Nations headquarters in New York City. E.U. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom called the mass ratification "an historic moment" and in virtually the same breath chastised the U.S. for failing to participate. "The United States is the only nation to have spoken out against and rejected the global framework for addressing climate change. The European Union urges the United States to reconsider its position," Wallstrom said. With the E.U. ratification, the Kyoto Protocol came significantly closer to taking effect; for that to happen, 55 countries representing 55 percent of developed nations' carbon dioxide emissions must ratify. Altogether, 70 nations representing 26.6 percent of First World emissions have ratified so far. Japan's parliament gave its approval to ratification today and the Japanese cabinet is expected to give its final okay next week. Russia and New Zealand are expected to follow suit soon.
straight to the source: ABCNews.com, Reuters, 31 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=162>
straight to the source: Japan Times, 01 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=161>
only in Grist: This just in -- the latest climate change news -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/heatbeat/thisjustin052302.asp?source=daily>
ENVIRONMENTAL PROCRASTINATION AGENCY?
Health and environmental organizations in eight Southeastern states announced yesterday that they would sue the U.S. EPA for "dragging its feet" in implementing a strict air-quality standard established five years ago. The new standard limits ozone, the primary component of smog, to 0.08 parts per million instead of 0.12 ppm. The EPA claims it has delayed implementing the tougher standard because of industry lawsuits, but the last such challenge was struck down in March. Environmental organizations say that 59 cities or counties in the Southeast aren't meeting the strict standard, and that as a result, more than 23 million people from North Carolina to Mississippi are exposed to harmful levels of ozone pollution. Pam Lewis, executive director of the American Lung Association's Alabama chapter, said federal action was crucial to ensure compliance: "The sooner the EPA does its work, then the sooner the state does its work and the residents breathe healthier air."
straight to the source: Louisville Courier-Journal, Associated Press, Colin Fly, 31 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=163>
only in Grist: A week in the life of Ulla-Britt Reeves, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy <http://www.gristmagazine.com/week/reeves111300.stm?source=daily>
do good: Take action to clean up the Southern Company utility <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/air.asp?source=daily#southern>
6/1/02
2:35:20 PM
Nothing Urgent
by George Szamuely
Let’s revisit the curious lack of military action on the morning of Sept. 11. That morning, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, was having a routine meeting on Capitol Hill with Sen. Max Cleland. While the two men chatted away, a hijacked jet plowed into the World Trade Center’s north tower, another one plowed into the south tower and a third one into the Pentagon. And still they went on with their meeting. "[W]hen we came out," Myers recounted to American Forces Radio and Television Service, "somebody said the Pentagon had been hit." Myers claims no one had bothered to inform him about the attacks on the World Trade Center. Meanwhile, in Florida, just as President Bush was about to leave his hotel he was told about the attack on the first WTC tower. He was asked by a reporter if he knew what was going on in New York. He said he did, and then went to an elementary school in Sarasota to read to children.
No urgency. Why should there be? Who could possibly have realized then the calamitous nature of the events of that day? Besides, the hijackers had switched the transponders off. So how could anyone know what was going on?
Passenger jet hijackings are not uncommon and the U.S. government has prepared detailed plans to handle them. On Sept. 11 these plans were ignored in their entirety. According to The New York Times, air traffic controllers knew at 8:20 a.m. "that American Airlines Flight 11, bound from Boston to Los Angeles, had probably been hijacked. When the first news report was made at 8:48 a.m. that a plane might have hit the World Trade Center, they knew it was Flight 11." There was little ambiguity on the matter. The pilot had pushed a button on the aircraft yoke that allowed controllers to hear the hijacker giving orders. Here are the FAA regulations concerning hijackings: "The FAA hijack coordinator…on duty at Washington headquarters will request the military to provide an escort aircraft for a confirmed hijacked aircraft… The escort service will be requested by the FAA hijack coordinator by direct contact with the National Military Command Center (NMCC)." Here are the instructions issued by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on June 1, 2001: "In the event of a hijacking, the NMCC will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA. The NMCC will…forward requests for DOD assistance to the Secretary of Defense for approval."
In addition, as Vice President Cheney explained on Meet the Press on Sept. 16, only the president has the authority to order the shooting down of a civilian airliner.
The U.S. is supposed to scramble military aircraft the moment a hijacking is confirmed. Myers’ revelation to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 13 that no fighter planes had been launched until after the Pentagon was hit was therefore surprising. Senators and even some tv commentators were a little incredulous. Dan Rather asked: "These hijacked aircraft were in the air for quite a while… Why doesn’t the Pentagon have the kind of protection that they can get a fighter-interceptor aircraft up, and if someone is going to plow an aircraft into the Pentagon, that we have at least some…line of defense?"
Good question. Clearly another, more comforting, story was needed, and on the evening of Sept. 14 CBS launched it by revealing that the FAA had indeed alerted U.S. air defense units of a possible hijacking at 8:38 a.m. on Tuesday, that six minutes later two F-15s received a scramble order at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod and that by 8:56 the F-15s were racing toward New York. Unfortunately, the fighters were still 70 miles away when the second jet hit the south tower. Meanwhile, at 9:30 a.m., three F-16s were launched from Langley Air Force base, 150 miles south of Washington. But just seven minutes later, at 9:37 a.m., Flight 77 smashed into the Pentagon. The F-16s arrived in Washington just before 10 a.m.
This story, which has now become the "official" version, raises more questions than it answers. F-15s can travel at speeds of 1875 mph while F-16s can travel at 1500 mph. If it took the F-16s half an hour to cover 150 miles, they could not have been traveling at more than 300 mph–at 20 percent capability. Boeing 767s and 757s have cruising speeds of 530 mph. Talk about a lack of urgency! Assuming Otis Air National Guard Base is about 180 miles away from Manhattan it should have taken the F-15s less than six minutes to get here. Moreover, since Washington, DC, is little more than 200 miles from New York, the two F-15 fighters would have had time to get to DC, intercept Flight 77 and grab breakfast on the way.
Ah, but of course the transponders were turned off. So no one could keep track of the planes. If it were true that the moment a transponder is turned off a plane becomes invisible there would be no defense against enemy aircraft. Normal radar echo return from the metal surface of an aircraft would still identify it on the radar scope.
Luckily, we still have first-rate establishment media to make sure that we retain confidence in our government.
Source: http://www.nypress.com/15/2/taki/bunker.cfm
5/31/02
3:41:08 PM
t r u t h o u t
William Rivers Pitt | The Politics of Treason
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01A.wrp.treason.htm
Wright Video | A Tearful FBI Agent Accuses Superiors of 911 Cover-up
Ashcroft Permits F.B.I. to Monitor Internet and Public Activities
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01B.fbi.internet.htm
F.B.I. Faces No Legal Obstacles to Domestic Spying
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01C.fbi.ok.2.spy.htm
Trust in Government Declines
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01D.no.trust.htm
Paul Krugman | Heart of Cheapness
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01E.krugman.cheap.htm
Arianna Huffington | Why Is Washington Ignoring The Warning Signs Of Economic Devastation?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01F.arianna.ignoring.htm
Judge Halts Grazing Near Yellowstone
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01G.yellowstone.htm
Tribe Sues in Land Management Row
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.01H.tribe.sues.htm
5/31/02
3:11:03 PM
The Nation
Since September 11, conspiracy theories have spread fast, purporting to explain the attacks and the continued war on terrorism. But their advocates imply far more than they prove, and, in one case, a key player in the alternative-9/11 world may be peddling theories to conceal a criminal past.
One key factor propelling these alternative scenarios is that when a government is as reluctanct to probe its own errors as the Bush Administration, it opens the door wide for those who would turn anomalies and coincidences into outlandish explanations.
For a thorough examination of the 9/11 X-Files, check out the latest installment of David Corn's Capital Games.
Available exclusively at:
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=66
And see these recent Nation articles for background on what Bush and the FBI knew and when they knew it:
NATION EDITORS: September 11 Questions (June 10, 2002)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020610&s=editors
DAVID CORN: The 9/11 Warning Game (WEB ONLY)
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=63
JOHN NICHOLS: McKinney Redux (June 10, 2002)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020610&s=nichols
You can also find these new web-only features currently:
ARTICLE | Singing to Power
by HILLARY FREY - Billy Bragg has to be the only popular musician who could score airtime with a song about the global justice movement.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=frey2002029
BEAT | Dems on the Fast Track
by JOHN NICHOLS - Grassroots Democrats should remember how their party's potential presidential candidates voted when the Senate had the chance to derail Bush's Fast Track initiative.
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=65
EDITORIAL | Pass ENDA Now!
by DOUG IRELAND - Twenty-seven years after its introduction, the first
comprehensive gay civil rights bill in the history of Congress is likely to come before the Senate this summer.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=ireland20020524
5/31/02
3:07:46 PM
AlterNet Headlines
BEWARE OF BOLTON
Ian Williams, AlterNet
Meet Jesse Helms' political heir: John Bolton, Undersecretary of State and right-wing warrior extraordinaire.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13256
ARE GIRLS MEAN?
Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly
A new wave of books about so-called 'mean girls' is generating a media frenzy and playing into ongoing debates about gender and kids.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13250
AFRICA NEEDS AID THAT WORKS
Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet
Rockstar Bono and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill are teaming up to help sub-Saharan nations. Is their tour going to produce concrete results or just great PR?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13234
CORPORATE ARMIES VS. GALACTIC GOVERNMENTS
Ed Janzen, AlterNet
Fans flock to Star Wars to see a high-stakes galactic drama with dazzling special effects. But does it also have a political agenda, foisted onto passive consumers?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13249
WE'RE LOSING OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES FOR NOTHING
David Morris, AlterNet
Director Robert Mueller has acknowledged the FBI's flaws. But the Bush Administration's post-9/11 strategy is to expand the invasive powers of government, not remedy the weakness.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13255
HERE COME THE BUNS
Janelle Brown, Salon
Just a few years ago, it was considered in bad taste to reveal your butt crack. Now butt cleavage isn't just for the plumber anymore; it's in your face and it's de rigeur.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13238
SHARK JUMPING IN AMERICA
John Powers, LA Weekly
If there's anything more depressing than Bush calling Fidel Castro a "tyrant," it's lefties who cling to the Cuban leader as the last flickering flame of some enduring torch of freedom.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13240
GAGGED BY GOOGLE
Laura Flanders, WorkingForChange.com
The activist founder of the Body Shop has been censored by the Web's most popular search engine. So much for the equal-access glories of the Internet.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13254
MEDIA MASH: FROM MOORE TO MALKOVICH
The Masher, AlterNet
This week from the Masher: Rumpled, hyper-unstylish author and filmmaker Michael Moore takes Cannes by storm; actor John Malkovich threatens journalist Robert Fisk.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13260
A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE
Is the battle to defend a women's right to choose moving from Washington, DC to state capitals across the country? How California is safeguarding reproductive rights on Monday's Working Assets Radio with Laura Flanders.
Listen online from 10-11amPT/1-2pmET, or call in: 866-798-TALK.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com
US GETS FAILING GRADE ON AMNESTY REPORT CARD
Gabrielle Banks, AlterNet
Amnesty International's annual report alleges that the US government overlooked international human rights violations for the sake of increased national security.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13248
THE FAKE PERSUADERS
George Monbiot, The Guardian
Biotech companies are creating false citizens to try to change the way we think. They call it Internet lobbying.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13236
EXTREMELY MUNDANE?
Andrew John Ignatius Vontz, AlterNet
Now that extreme sports are being re-packaged as mainstream entertainment Scooby Snacks, the soul of skateboarding could be in jeopardy.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13237
5/31/02
2:55:00 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
CONFRONTING RACISM THROUGH ART
by Wayne Dunkley, ShareMyWorld.net
-- For the last three years, African-American photographer Wayne Dunkley has posted 260 photocopied images of himself in downtown Toronto and Montreal which have subsequently been torn down, covered up and defaced -- actions, Dunkley says, that advance the dialogue about race and perception.
U.S. MEDIA COWED BY PATRIOTIC FEVER
by Matthew Engel, Guardian
-- Feeling pressured by the patriotic sentiment following the September 11 attacks, CBS news anchor Dan Rather admits he softened his reporting about the war on terrorism.
FROM FAST FOOD TO FAST TRUCKS: 'BIODIESEL' IS ON ITS WAY
Dave Williamson, TomPaine.com
-- Virtually edible and less toxic than table salt, biodiesel could be coming to a filling station near you.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
5/31/02
2:53:37 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
BUYOUT COULD BLOCK DRILLING IN EVERGLADES, GULF
WASHINGTON, DC, May 30, 2002 (ENS) - About 765,000 acres of Florida park and preserve land would be protected from future oil and natural gas drilling under an agreement announced Wednesday by the Bush administration. The Department of Interior has agreed in principle to spend $235 million to buy back drilling rights beneath the Florida Everglades and in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida panhandle.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-30-06.asp
EUROPE WILL RATIFY KYOTO CLIMATE PROTOCOL FRIDAY
BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 30, 2002 (ENS) - Representatives from all European Union governments and the European Commission will formally ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change at a ceremony Friday at UN Headquarters in New York. The move marks a key step towards entry into force of binding greenhouse gas emission limits for industrialized countries.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-30-01.asp
AFGHANISTAN RACES AGAINST TIME TO DESTROY LOCUSTS
By Mohammad Shafiq Haqpal
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, May 30, 2002 (ENS) - A plague of locusts is threatening to devastate Afghanistan's farmland, just as tens of thousands of refugees return. Farmers, aid organizations and even the militia are working around the clock to kill off the last of the spring locust nymphs before they can take to the air and ravage more of Afghanistan's much needed harvest.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-30-02.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: May 30, 2002
Wilderness Bill Targets Washington's Lowlands
Glacial Retreat Seen Worldwide
New EPA Facility Supports Environmental Research
Virginia University to Aid Developing Nations
Heavy Rains Reduce Eastern Drought
Critical Habitat Proposed for Hawaiian Plants
Rio Grande's Artificial Surge Prompts Spawning
Habitat Restoration Headed for Dakota Battlefield
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-30-09.asp
5/31/02
2:51:53 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
FEATURE - Water crisis hurts US - Mexico farmers - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16208/story.htm
UK's Beckett urges England to boost recycling - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16210/story.htm
Britain's high court delays mahogany verdict - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16212/story.htm
INTERVIEW - UK green power firm EPRL aims for 2003 listing - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16216/story.htm
Animal activists protest against Korean dog cruelty - SOUTH KOREA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16206/story.htm
FACTBOX - Major automakers' eco-friendly efforts - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16205/story.htm
FEATURE - Hydrogen puts Iceland on road to oil-free future - ICELAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16207/story.htm
FEATURE - Diesel's European future safe as drivers go green - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16204/story.htm
French rapper fined for TV assault on pet monkey - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16209/story.htm
Asian elephant experts want ivory ban to stay - CAMBODIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16213/story.htm
FEATURE - Brazilian Indian chief leads tribe back to life - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16215/story.htm
EU wants multinationals to publish ethical reports - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16211/story.htm
EU tells Spain stop calling non-organic food "bio" - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16214/story.htm
5/31/02
2:49:19 PM
GM Crops Threat To Organic Farming
by Geoffrey Lean, May 27, 2002
Organic farming will be forced out of production in Britain and across Europe if GM crops are grown commercially, a startling new EU report concludes.
The report - which is so controversial that top EC officials tried to stop it being made public - shows that organic farms will become so contaminated by genes from the new crops that they can no longer be licensed or will have to spend so much money trying to protect themselves that they will become uneconomic. Conventional non-GM farms will also be seriously affected.
Drawn up as a result of two years of studies in Britain, France, Italy and Germany, it provides the most damning confirmation to date of the arguments, long advanced by environmentalists, that it is not possible for GM and organic farming to coexist and that, as a result, shoppers will be denied a choice of what to buy.
The conclusion is politically explosive because the demand for organic produce is increasing rapidly across Europe, while consumer resistance to GM food has forced supermarkets not to stock it.
The Director General of the EC's Joint Research Center, which produced the report, submitted it with a letter saying: "In view of the sensitivity of the issue, I would suggest that the report be kept for internal use within the Commission only."
Publication of the findings is embarrassing for the Government. On Friday the Prime Minister denounced GM opponents as using "emotion to drive out reason".
The report - which follows a study by the European Environment Agency warning that genes from GM crops will travel long distances, creating superweeds - studies the effects of growing modified maize, potatoes and oilseed rape commercially on several types of farms.
It found that even if only a tenth of a country or region was planted with them - far less that the 54 per cent of Canada now under GM crops - keeping contamination at a level that would allow organic farming to continue would be "extremely difficult for any farm-crop combination in the scenarios considered".
It adds that when contamination occurred every year through "the wide-ranging cultivation of GM crops" in an area "organic farms will lose their organic status and face severe problems to grow their crops according to the regulations given by the EU".
GM farmers would also be at risk, it added, because organic farmers might well be entitled to compensation.
Yesterday, Adrian Bebb, food campaigner of Friends of the Earth, said: "This report shows that if GM crops are grown in Britain farming will be plunged into even greater crisis and consumers will be denied their fundamental right to choose what they and their children will eat."
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk
5/31/02
2:41:41 PM
U.S. Ignored Warnings From French
by James Ridgeway, Villagevoice.com, Tuesday, 20 May, 2002
A key point in unraveling why the FBI failed to follow up leads on Al Qaeda terrorism now centers on the Bureau's contemptuously brushing aside warnings from French intelligence a few days before 9-11. In a footnote to her May 21, 2002, letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, Coleen Rowley, the director of the FBI's Minneapolis office, cryptically alluded to the FBI supervising agent in Washington being given info on the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, by the French last summer, but choosing not to act on it.
French officials were long known to have been frustrated with Washington's neglect. Shortly after the attack, Le Monde reported on a meeting between French and U.S. intelligence: "The first lapse has to do with the processing of intelligence items that come out of Europe. According to our information, French and American officials did in fact hold important meetings in Paris from the 5th to the 6th of September, that is, a few days prior to the attacks. Those sessions brought representatives of the American Special Services together with officers of the DST (Directorate of Territorial Security) and military personnel from the DGSE (General Overseas Security Administration).
"Their discussion turned to some of the serious threats made against American interests in Europe, specifically one targeting the U.S. Embassy in Paris," Le Monde continued. "During these talks, the DST directed the American visitors' attention to a Moroccan-born Frenchman who had been detained in the United States since August 17 and who was considered to be a key high-level Islamic fundamentalist. But the American delegation, preoccupied above all with questions of administrative procedure, paid no attention to this 'first alarm,' basically concluding that they were going to take no one's advice, and that an attack on American soil was inconceivable. It took September 11 for the FBI to show any real interest in this man, who we now know attended two aviation training schools, as did at least seven of the kamikaze terrorists."
In her report, Rowley presents a picture of an agency asleep at the wheel. "For example, at one point, the Supervisory Special Agent at FBI HQ posited that the French information could be worthless because it only identified Zacarias Moussaoui by name and he, the SSA, didn't know how many people by that name existed in France. A Minneapolis agent attempted to surmount that problem by quickly phoning the FBI's legal attache in Paris, France, so that a check could be made of the French telephone directories. Although the attache did not have access to all of the French telephone directories, he was able to quickly ascertain that there was only one listed in the Paris directory. It is not known if this sufficiently answered the question, for the SSA continued to find new reasons to stall."
Source: http://villagevoice.com/issues/0222/ridgeway2.php
5/31/02
2:39:07 PM
t r u t h o u t | 05.31
FBI Director Contridicts Bush; Attacks Might Have Been Prevented
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31A.Muller.Bush.htm
U.S. Ignored Warnings From French
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31B.french.warn.htm
Conyers Blasts Ashcroft's Further Expansion Of Fbi Surveillance Authority
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31C.conyers.survail.htm
FBI to Be Given More Room for U.S. Surveillance
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31D.fbi.more.survail.htm
Democrats Press Ashcroft on Failure to Pursue Voting Rights Violations in Florida
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31E.dems.fla.htm
Ceremony Without Words Ends Recovery Effort at Twin Towers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31F.wtc.end.htm
Dozens Injured in India Bomb Blasts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31G.india.bombs.htm
Salman Rushdie | The Most Dangerous Place in the World
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.31H.rushdie.ind-pak.htm
5/31/02
2:33:33 PM
Forest Service to Recommend Opening Alaska Forest Area
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
WASHINGTON, May 16 -- In its first major decision on wilderness protection, the Bush administration plans to recommend that nine million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska be opened for logging, mining and road building, while 1.4 million acres of the state's Chugach National Forest receive the highest designation of protection.
The Forest Service is to announce the recommendations on Friday. In documents, it said it was acting "to ensure that the many wild and beautiful areas along with the abundant fish and wildlife resources of the Tongass were protected while maintaining the availability of some of the Tongass for more intensive resource management in support of the economies of southeast Alaska and its scattered small communities."
Congress must approve all declarations of wilderness, which is the highest protection except for a national park or monument.
Alaska lawmakers and the timber industry were relieved that the administration had refrained from designating more of the Tongass forest as wilderness. Already, 6.6 million acres of the Tongass, an old-growth rain forest, are protected as wilderness. The forest is 16.8 million acres, about the size of West Virginia.
Senator Frank H. Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said enough of the Tongass forest was already protected.
"Nearly 97 percent of the forest is fully protected," Mr. Murkowski said. "It is only reasonable that 3 percent be left for multiple use so that Alaskans can have jobs that allow them to live in the region."
Tom Puchlerz, the Tongass forest supervisor, said that only about 10 percent of the nine million acres would be open for development.
"The economic development in our communities in southeast Alaska is important, as are the materials for the nation in terms of timber and minerals," Mr. Puchlerz said.
Environmentalists said the decisions bode poorly for the protection of other wilderness and roadless areas across the country. They said that the recommendation for the 5.5 million-acre Chugach forest protected too little of the forest's accessible land and that the Tongass recommendation was a gift to the timber industry.
The Chugach forest, the nation's second-largest national forest after the Tongass, is southeast of Anchorage and has just 100 miles of roads on the 4.1 million acres that the administration is not seeking to designate as wilderness. The part that would be protected includes forested islands, rugged mountains, extensive ice fields and tidewater glaciers.
Sue Libenson, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Coalition, said the Chugach areas recommended for wilderness designation were remote rocky and glacial parts, mostly unsuitable for economic development anyway.
"We are concerned they will not support wilderness for the areas that are biologically important or accessible to the general public," Ms. Libenson said of the Forest Service.
Administration officials said they were doing better than the Clinton administration on the Chugach forest by recommending any wilderness designation. As for the Tongass forest, they said, they were simply affirming the position of the Clinton administration.
Environmentalists, however, said the Bush administration was playing a shell game with these terms, noting that the Clinton administration had not reviewed the areas for wilderness designation and had designated parts of the Tongass forest as roadless areas.
Jeremy Anderson, a spokesman for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, said: "Clinton said, You can't log or road in these areas, and now the Bush administration is saying, Have at it. They're pushing more than 30 timber sales in these areas."
Mark Rey, under secretary for natural resources and environment in the Agriculture Department, said the Chugach forest recommendation, which is final, was the largest wilderness designation that any administration had sent to Congress since 1984.
The Tongass recommendation is a draft statement from the Forest Service. It will be subject to public comment for 90 days before being proposed as a final rule. Both sides predicted that the matter would be settled in court.
Since the middle of the last century, the timber industry has clear-cut hundreds of thousands of acres of the Tongass's old-growth forest and built more than 4,600 miles of roads.
Ms. Libenson of the Alaska Coalition said the announcement on both the Tongass and Chugach forests was an effort by the Forest Service "to cover a very bad, embarrassing decision on the Tongass with a second-rate decision on the Chugach."
Mr. Rey said the Chugach decision was not meant to distract from or counterbalance the Tongass one, but that since both forests were in Alaska, the recommendations might as well be announced simultaneously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/politics/17FORE.html?todaysheadlines
We do not know of any prepared action letters for this issue. In lieu of something more specific, we suggest going to the following website:
There you can enter your zip code and be able to send a message telling how you feel about this issue (or about any issue) to 4 government officials with just one click of your mouse: to your two US Senators, your US Congressperson, and to pResident Bush.
If you know of a more targeted action, please let us know and we will send that info out to this group.
5/31/02
2:31:37 PM
Participate In This National Day Of Action To Stop Genetically Engineered Food
When: Saturday, June 8th
What: People across the country will be going to their supermarkets to demand that food chains like Safeway and Shaw's/Star Market remove genetically engineered food from their store brand products. Supermarkets will only change their practices if they hear from customers like you. So take action on June 8th!!
Where: Events will be happening throughout the country. To find out if there is an event near you, check out: (Events are added daily, so check back regularly)
http://www.truefoodnow.org/communitycenter
If there isn't an event listed for your community and you would like to organize one, please send an email to: geteam@truefoodnow.org with your name and address and we can mail you materials. Be sure to send us an email by Monday, June 3rd so we can get materials to you in time.
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace Member today!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join/tfn.htm
5/31/02
2:28:50 PM
New Tire Pressure Monitoring Rule: A Fraud On Consumers
Statement of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, May 30, 2002
The federal rule issued today giving auto manufacturers the choice of installing one of two types of tire pressure monitoring systems is inadequate and perpetuates a fraud on consumers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) earlier had proposed a stronger rule that would better protect consumers. We are deeply disappointed that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) unwisely overruled NHTSA.
Proper tire pressure is critical. When tire pressure is low, tires experience more wear and tear, which can lead tires to fail. Congress required NHTSA to issue a tire pressure rule requiring manufacturers to equip vehicles with systems that enable consumers to know when their tires are underinflated.
After receiving nearly 200 comments and holding at least 20 meetings, NHTSA recommended the installation of a "direct" system, which monitors the pressure of all four tires even when the car is stopped and provides drivers with comprehensive and accurate information. "Indirect" systems, which can be installed only in vehicles with anti-lock brakes, measure differences in the rotational speed of tires. They do not work if all four tires are equally underinflated or if the vehicle is not moving.
The new regulation gives manufacturers a choice of installing either a direct or indirect system. This will provide consumers with fewer safety benefits. Companies likely will install the indirect system as standard equipment because it is cheaper, allowing them to charge a high mark-up for the superior direct systems.
Because this standard is wholly inadequate, Public Citizen intends to sue NHTSA to force it to adopt a rule that better protects the public.
*Joan Claybrook was NHTSA administrator from 1977 to 1981.
Note: To view a March 11, 2002, letter sent to the OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs about the tire pressure monitoring rule, go to
http://www.citizen.org/congress/regulations/bush_admin/articles.cfm?ID=7270
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org
5/31/02
2:25:47 PM
Heavy Metal Harm
The Fight Against Highly Toxic Mercury in the Environment Has Just Begun
by Jim Motavalli
The late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro loved to eat tuna fish. An avid environmentalist, she was shocked to hear that her favorite food was contaminated with the toxic heavy metal mercury, and she expressed her anger in a song. "I'm young enough, I'm old enough in the city machine/Where industries fill the fish full of mercury (it's tax free)."
Nyro was right to worry about eating fish, and right about industrial mercury use. Forty states have issued advisories about eating fish that may have high levels of mercury in their tissues. As recently as last July, Massachusetts public health officials warned young women and children under 12 to stop eating "most" fish caught in state rivers and lakes, and to avoid certain seafood. Tuna was on the list, as was swordfish.
Mercury is a persistent heavy metal, processed into a liquid from mined cinnabar, that accumulates in water and in the tissues of humans, fish and animals. It was declared a hazardous air pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1971. According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, long-term human exposure to mercury in either organic or inorganic form "can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetuses." A potent neurotoxin, mercury is slowly being phased out of many commercial uses, including consumer thermometers, but it is still used in many industrial processes and is in such products as fluorescent lights, home and appliance thermostats, and even toys.
Ask most people about mercury in the environment and they're apt to think of broken thermometers. But the truth is that industry, in the form of coal-fired power plants, electric arc furnaces (which melt and recycle the steel from old cars) and municipal waste incinerators are the major sources. In landfills and in water, bacterial contamination turns mercury into its most toxic form, methyl mercury. Mercury also gets into the environment in pharmaceutical products, and through ritual religious uses, especially in Latin American Santeria (see sidebar). Mercury sells for less than $2 a pound on the wholesale market, and even when it is "recycled," it may still end up in the environment.
Progress is being made to end some of mercury's more visible uses, but the campaign is far from over. Five states have laws that either put some restrictions on mercury use, sale or disposal or require labeling of products containing it. Similar bills are pending in 15 state legislatures. "Despite state and local bans, thousands of retailers still sell mercury thermometers to consumers who aren't aware of the risks," says Felice Stadler, policy coordinator of the National Wildlife Federation's Clean the Rain campaign.
"Just one seventieth of a teaspoon of atmospheric mercury can contaminate a 20-acre lake for a year," says Michael Bender, executive director of the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project. "We have to take mercury permanently out of commerce. It's not that difficult to containerize it and store it indefinitely. An ideal solution would be the kind of 'producer responsibility' laws they have in Europe, which make companies responsible for their waste."
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) has proposed legislation that would create a task force to address the mercury problem on a national scale. Under her bill, the Mercury Reduction and Disposal Act, S.351, the sale of thermometers containing the metal would be banned nationally, and the mercury inside them would be stockpiled and treated similarly to nuclear waste. Stadler says, "Enacting a nationwide ban on sales is essential."
In response to a campaign led by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), five drugstore chains, including CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Eckerd, have agreed to stop selling mercury thermometers. These companies represent 71 percent of chain pharmacies, but mercury thermometers are still on sale at Kroger, Medicine Shoppe, Publix and Fred's stores. "It's appalling that there are retailers that continue to sell potentially dangerous mercury devices to their customers, especially when safe alternatives exist in the marketplace," says Jamie Harvie, mercury coordinator of HCWH. Eight states and a number of cities have banned or restricted the sale of mercury thermometers, and 600 hospitals and clinics have agreed to get mercury out of their waste streams.
But mercury thermometers are only one, very visible part of the problem. Because mercury has many uses and applications, the movement to get it out of the atmosphere must take a multi-pronged approach. Some of the campaigns have made more headway than others, but all have acquired a new urgency as the dangers of mercury become better known.
Fish Filled With Mercury
According to a 2001 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study, one of 10 American women of childbearing age is at risk for having a baby born with neurological problems due to in utero mercury exposure. Statistically, that means 375,000 babies are at risk every year. Nearly six million women who might be considering having a child already have mercury levels above EPA safety guidelines.
As recounted in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC study was based on a national survey of mercury in blood and hair, while previous studies were estimates based on per capita fish consumption. "New studies show that far more women are at risk of exposure to methyl mercury than previously thought," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She urges the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to monitor commercial seafood and to remove unsafe fish from the market.
A federal General Accounting Office (GAO) report, commissioned by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) in 1999, concludes that the FDA has failed in its efforts to protect the public from mercury-tainted seafood. The report faulted the FDA's Hazard Analysis Critical Point regulations for not providing proper guidance to the fishing industry about safeguarding the public. A joint report by the Mercury Policy Project and California Communities Against Toxics in 2000 charged that the FDA had stopped mercury monitoring for tuna, shark and swordfish, despite the fact that the FDA's previous testing found more than one part per million (considered the "action level") of mercury in more than half the swordfish it evaluated. Some 33 percent of shark tissue studied by the FDA was found to exceed the action level for mercury, as was four percent of tuna. In 2001, the FDA finally recommended that women of childbearing age not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish. Tuna was not mentioned.
"The GAO report shows that mercury pollution threatens both sportfish and seafood," says Eric Uram of the Sierra Club's Midwestern office. "Consumers need to watch what fish they eat, no matter where it comes from-- the restaurant, store, lake or seashore."
A 2001 study that looked specifically at the New England states gave them a mixed report card for their efforts to reduce mercury levels in the environment, and warn the public about the risks. The New England Zero Mercury Campaign praised the states for developing health-based advisories about mercury in fish, but it urged them to do more to "effectively communicate these health warnings to women who may become pregnant and families with young children -- .Strategically targeted and culturally sensitive outreach and education is needed to prevent dangerous mercury exposure from fish, especially from commonly eaten seafood."
Prenatal mercury exposure, said the New England report, "can hurt children's ability to remember, pay attention, talk, draw, run and play, and increase the number of children who have trouble keeping up in school or require special education, according to the National Academy of Sciences." According to Dr. Ted Schettler of Physicians for Social Responsibility, "Relatively small amounts of contaminated fish eaten often, or larger amounts eaten occasionally, can harm developing fetal brains during windows of vulnerability. The fetus is extremely sensitive to mercury."
Switching Off Auto Mercury
What do the high-intensity headlights, anti-lock brake systems, global positioning screens and trunk- or hood-mounted light switches on your car have in common? They all may contain highly toxic mercury. The Clean Car Campaign, a coalition of several environmental groups, is trying to persuade the auto industry to not only stop all uses of mercury, but also to take responsibility for the heavy metal already installed in hundreds of millions of on-the-road vehicles. The industry has agreed to phase out most uses of mercury switches by the end of the 2001 model year, but it is not surprisingly balking at the monumental effort needed to remove existing switches, many of which it says would prove difficult to locate. (At presstime, the state of Maine passed landmark legislation requiring carmakers to pay for a mercury auto switch recovery program that will take at least 90 pounds of the metal out of the environment every year.)
According to the Mercury Policy Project's Bender, the auto industry installed 10 tons of mercury in car switches in 1995, although that amount was dramatically reduced by the 2001 model year. Mercury light switches are now used in only a few General Motors vehicles. Most European and Japanese auto manufacturers stopped installing mercury convenience light switches in the mid-1990s. But even as the switches are being phased out, many domestic and foreign companies are equipping their cars with headlights, brake components and navigational systems containing mercury.
The EPA, in a report to Congress in 1997, estimated that 158 tons of the metal are released into the atmosphere annually from manmade sources in the U.S. "The auto industry is not the major source, but it's definitely a significant source," says Bender, who points to coal-fired power plants and waste combustors as the prime culprits nationally for mercury release.
Charles Griffith, the auto project director of Michigan's Ecology Center, a member of the Clean Car Campaign, says that the mercury in auto switches is released into the atmosphere when steel recovered from scrapped automobiles is melted down in electric arc furnaces (EAFs). A study produced jointly by the Ecology Center, the Buffalo-based Great Lakes United and the University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies estimates that 15.6 metric tons of mercury are released annually by EAFs, more than all other manufacturing sources combined.
Bob Kainz, a senior manager for pollution prevention and life cycle programs at DaimlerChrysler, says that only two of the company's 2001 products, the Jeep Cherokee and Wrangler, still had mercury switches in their ABS brake systems, and that both models will be free of the heavy metal when they're redesigned over the next few years. "There are better ways of handling this problem than going after the carmakers," Kainz says. "Eighty-seven percent of the mercury going out into the atmosphere is coming from utility boilers, waste combustors, coal-fired power plants, cement plants and medical incinerators." Kainz adds that DaimlerChrysler's records do not consistently identify which cars or trucks actually have mercury switches.
The auto industry, through such trade groups as the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, has lobbied against the laws, arguing that it is phasing out mercury on its own. Greg Dana, vice president for environmental affairs of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, says that General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler began removing mercury from their products in 1995 under an agreement with the state of Michigan. The mercury switches in existing cars, he says, should be removed when the car is at the end of its life. "The recyclers are already taking out the gasoline, oil, and air-conditioner refrigerant," Dana says. "It's a simple add-on for them to rip out the mercury switches."
The auto trade groups support legislation requiring recyclers to remove the switches as part of the dismantling process, but this has produced a fierce reaction from junkyard operators and scrap steel dealers. Both the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries say they have little financial incentive to take on the task, with each switch containing only a gram of the metal and mercury trading at less than $2 a pound. According to ARA Vice President Bill Steinkuller, "The auto manufacturers engineered the vehicles to include mercury switches, produced the product and profited from it. From our point of view, it defies logic that they now want to deny any responsibility for the mercury and put the onus on the dismantlers."
The auto industry and the recyclers are fighting a war of words over mercury, but there is some chance of reconciliation. "We're not trying to pick a fight with the manufacturers," Steinkuller says. "If we get beyond the rhetoric, we can probably get together and handle this problem." Unfortunately, ARA's proposed solution-- in which the carmakers foot the bill for a nationwide program of mercury collection and storage--is precisely the kind of high-cost program the auto industry is trying to avoid.
Chewing on Mercury
Anita Vasquez Tibau was a young college dance major 20 years ago when she suddenly found herself unable to breathe. "I could hardly walk," she told Dr. L.A. McKeown in an article for WebMD Medical News. "I couldn't do anything. I was using my inhaler every half hour." These problems plagued Tibau for 20 years until, in 2000, a blood test showed she was highly sensitive to mercury. After Tibau had a dentist remove all 13 of her mercury fillings, her health improved dramatically. She no longer uses any asthma medicine, and she reports much higher energy levels and an increased attention span.
The American Dental Association (ADA) reports that 76 percent of dentists use dental amalgam-- a mixture of metals, including silver, dissolved with mercury. The ADA denies that there are any safety problems with dental amalgam. "Studies have failed to find any link between amalgam restorations and any medical disorder," the association says. But it concedes that "a very small number of people" are allergic to the fillings. "Fewer than 100 cases have ever been reported," says the ADA. "Symptoms of amalgam allergy are very similar to a typical skin allergy."
The ADA defended its position in court last year after Consumers for Dental Choice sued the ADA and the California Dental Association, claiming that both groups were misleading the public about the mercury content of what they call "silver fillings." But the ADA says it has never tried to hide the mercury connection.
A paper prepared by Consumers for Dental Choice and DAMS, another anti-amalgam advocacy group, charges that every amalgam filling releases 10 micrograms of mercury into the body daily, which is two-thirds of the excretable mercury level. The report also charges that mercury can cross the placental barrier into the tissue of a developing fetus, and it implicates the metal in kidney impairment, loss of immune function, antibiotic resistance and lowered fertility.
Boyd Haley, chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, has been an expert witness before Congress on the mercury issue. "They place this stuff in people's mouths and it's toxic before it goes in, and it's toxic when it is placed in your tooth, so how does it suddenly become safe?" he asks. Many dentists, under pressure on the mercury issue, have switched to alternatives. According to Richard Epstein, a Connecticut-based dentist, "While I believe that the studies disparaging silver amalgam are seriously flawed, the alternatives are effective enough to warrant switching. I now use gold and composite materials."
Dentists have also been under fire for releasing unused amalgam into the waste stream, where it can enter the aquatic food chain. Some have invested in disposable amalgam traps, which catch the metal before it goes down the drain. Recaptured amalgam can be shipped to groups like Dental Recycling North America, which recovers 90 to 95 percent of the mercury in the fillings.
Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-CA) introduced legislation last year that would ban all mercury-based dental amalgam in five years. The New York State Dental Association has fought a proposed bill that would, among other things, require dentists to use mercury containment traps, file an annual amalgam report, and no longer use the fillings for pregnant or under-15-year-old patients. The association claims the legislation is "misguided" and "would detrimentally alter the practice of dentistry."
From the Smokestack
According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), dirty power plants, especially those that burn coal (which contains mercury naturally), are the single largest source of mercury emissions, resulting in an estimated 40 tons a year. Eighty-five percent of all mercury pollution in the U.S. is released either by coal plants or municipal and medical waste incinerators burning mercury-tainted trash. Only the incinerator emissions are regulated. In 2000, a NAS report urged that mercury releases from power plants be drastically curtailed. Before leaving office, the Clinton Administration announced that it would develop new, stricter standards, to be proposed in 2003 and finalized in 2004. Then-EPA Administrator Carol Browner noted, "The greatest source of mercury emissions is power plants, and they have never been required to control these emissions before now."
Upon taking office, the Bush Administration signaled that it might reverse campaign promises about power plant carbon dioxide and mercury emissions. The move came after heavy industry pressure from the Utility Air Regulatory Group, which represents 50 large power plants.
Environmentalists loudly protested the administration's proposed reversal. "Countless studies have documented that mercury emissions from U.S. sources, including coal-fired electric utilities, contaminate lakes and streams, the fish within those water bodies, and the people and wildlife who eat the fish," said National Wildlife Federation Senior Scientist Mike Murray.
In April 2001, the Bush Administration again changed course, attempting to quash an Edison Electric Institute lawsuit aimed at the Clinton-era mercury rules. Environmentalists were cautiously optimistic, but Bush's EPA is likely to phase in smaller mercury reductions over a longer period of time.
In model legislation created by the Mercury Policy Project, coal-burning electric utilities would be required to reduce their mercury releases 95 percent by 2008, but the Bush Administration is likely to impose a much weaker standard. Groundbreaking legislation is instead coming from the states, including Vermont, which passed the Mercury Reduction Act in 1998. That bill requires manufacturers of "mercury-added" products to label them as such when sold to the public. The legislation also banned trash disposal of products containing mercury. Vermont's bill prompted a lawsuit by fluorescent lamp manufacturers, who claimed an undue financial burden and argued that their First Amendment right not to disclose information had been violated. The lawsuit was later thrown out by two federal appeals courts.
Several other states intend to model legislation on Vermont's law. In 2001, Massachusetts unveiled strict new final standards for power plant emissions, becoming the first state in the nation to regulate mercury releases. The state's power plants will be required to phase in 50 to 75 percent nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emission reductions by 2008. "From a national perspective, this mandatory reduction of four major pollutants from the state's oldest and dirtiest power plants is a very important precedent," says Cindy Luppi, organizing director of Clean Water Action.
One final irony is that U.S. campaigners may be very successful in removing mercury from domestic commerce, only to see the deadly neurotoxin "recycled" to ready buyers overseas. That was exactly the case last year, when HoltraChem, a mercury-based chlor-alkali plant in Maine, shut down. Some 130 tons of mercury were sold to a broker, which resold it for use in India. Madhumita Dutta, coordinator of the Indian group Toxics Link, calls this kind of transaction "toxic trade." Vehement protests in both India and the U.S. succeeded in at least temporarily stopping the deal, but there is an estimated 3.5 to five million pounds of mercury on-site at 11 other American chlor-alkali plants.
For environmentalists, the battle against mercury has many fronts. It's not just in thermometers, but also in pharmaceutical products and vaccines (in the form of thimerosal, a preservative), and it is in car parts, too. As soon as legislation is passed to take it out of some consumer products, it pops up in others. A worrisome new use is in high-tech gadgetry, like global positioning screens and high-density auto headlights. Mercury pours out of smokestacks and arc furnaces and, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, tons of it (stored in foliage and ground litter) goes up in smoke during wildfires. It's an elusive enemy, but one well worth fighting.
Source: http://www.emagazine.com/may-june_2002/0502feat1.html
5/31/02
2:15:14 PM
The Lost Art Of Muckraking
by Steve Weinberg May 28, 2002
Until the Sea Shall Free Them: Life, Death, and Survival in the Merchant Marine, by Robert Frump, Doubleday, 341 pages, $24.95
Muckraking!: The Journalism That Changed America, edited by Judith Serrin and William Serrin, published by the New Press in July 2002, 432 pages, $25.
Journalists expose corruption on a regular basis. Often those exposés cause a ripple or even a tidal wave of reaction, but most often those responsible for the corruption return to business or government as usual.
However, quite a few of those exposés actually lead to permanent change -- such as the numerous reported cases of innocent individuals who are freed from prison after the investigations of intrepid reporters. In some cases the corrupt officials who put the individuals behind bars lost their jobs, and authorities implemented changes to avoid similar future injustice.
Investigative journalists are also often the ones who expose corporate fraud -- such as the exposé on Standard Oil Company trust by McClure magazine journalist Ida Tarbell some 100 years ago. Tarbell's articles described the company's agreement with suppliers to fix prices in order to drive competitors out of business. As a result of the ensuing scandal, the chief executive officer was fired, and the board of directors instituted internal controls. The government also issued new guidelines on the relationship between companies in oligopolistic industries and their suppliers.
Unfortunately, journalists too rarely write about the long-term impact of their investigations. As a result, most people have no idea how frequently "the system works," not because those inside the system responded adequately, but because talented, dedicated journalists forced the issue.
Two new books -- one by former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Robert Frump, and one -- an anthology edited by journalists Judith Serrin and William Serrin -- detail important examples of investigative reporters serving as catalysts for reform.
For years Frump, who has left journalism to work for a financial services firm, wanted to tell the world about how he and others at the Inquirer played an important role in making U.S. commercial ships safer after a string of fatal sinkings killed thousands of merchant marines. But despite the Inquirer's long-running exposé in the mid-1980s, Frump and book publishers never reached agreement. Years later, unable to get the story out of his head, Frump re-entered the book contract market, and finally signed with Doubleday.
His just published book, "Until the Sea Shall Free Them," is a first-rate account of the sinking of the Marine Electric in February 1983, just 30 miles off the east coast of the United States. Of the 34 merchant marines on board, only three survived. Most news organizations reported on the tragedy briefly, and then moved on.
But not the Philadelphia Inquirer. Why? According to Frump, the Inquirer stayed on the story because of the top editor at the time, Gene Roberts. In the first of his interspersed chapters on why the Inquirer conducted its investigation, how the staff functioned and the newspaper's role in righting a wrong, Frump starts with Roberts. The date is Feb. 13, 1983:
By 10:30 on the Sunday morning after the sinking of the Marine Electric ... Roberts ... was calling editors and reporters at their homes. There seemed no plausible explanation for why he was doing this. Roberts was not a morning man, for one thing. He preferred working late into the evening as the newspaper drove toward its first edition deadline. Moreover, few Marine Electric crew members were from his circulation area, and Philadelphia was 102 nautical miles up the Delaware River from the sea. So there was no strong local angle to mobilize his news staff...[Yet Roberts] was about to set a team of investigative reporters upon a world that was rarely covered by the American media.
Initially there wasn't tremendous public interest in the event. But Roberts, who had covered the waterfront as a Virginia newspaper reporter, suspected that there was a bigger story behind the sinking of one commercial vessel. He wanted his reporters and editors to go deep, to figure out why so many ships were sinking.
So Frump started digging through government documents, court records and other repositories on the paper trail. Along the way he talked to the ignored seamen, the usually ignored sources at the Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the corporations that owned the ships and the unions that supplied the labor to operate them.
As hardworking journalists often do, Frump had a eureka moment: He and his colleagues discovered that the Marine Electric's class of ship was structurally unsound, and always had been.
"The T-2 tankers, built during World War II, were serial sinkers. Some even sank at dockside. They were built of dirty steel. They contained tired iron. By one count, more than 500 men had died on old ships in accidents that never should have happened. The Marine Electric may finally have sunk on Feb. 12, 1983. But it had begun slipping beneath the waves four decades earlier."
The Inquirer's first investigative stories appeared in May 1983. Congress held hearings, and numerous politicians promised reform. Then, as often happens after investigative reports are forgotten, nothing changed. But the Inquirer team did not give up. They published articles about delays in the Marine Electric investigation and the larger reform measures needed to halt the sinkings.
The stories embarrassed the corporations that owned the ships, the unions staffing the ships, the government agencies inspecting the ships, and even the legislature. Eventually, the Inquirer's unrelenting initiative forced the authorities to pinpoint blame, take responsibility and become involved in altering a fatal system.
Frump's is just one story of the power of journalism at its best. Husband and wife team Judith and William Serrin bring together many more similar tales in their anthology. The anthology compiles some 300 years of reportage, highlighting investigative reports that were successful in bringing about institutional change. Both Serrins have extensive reporting experience. William also edited a previous book about the corporatization of news.
The Serrins said they chose to assemble journalism that "contribute[d] to change…" One of those cases was an exposé on pedophile priests done, not in 2002 during the recent spate of reporting on the issue, but 17 years ago, by Arthur Jones of the National Catholic Reporter newspaper. Jones wrote about a priest who abused boys in Louisiana.
Between 1972 and 1983, Father Gilbert Gauthe committed hundreds of sexual acts with dozens of boys in four south Louisiana Catholic parishes. He also took hundreds of pornographic photographs, which have disappeared. The priest, suspended by the Lafayette diocese in 1983, is now in a Connecticut mental facility. The situation has no real precedent in American case law. The criminal trial expected this fall is thought to be one of the largest single cases of pedophilia on record. A Lafayette diocese defense attorney has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Millions of dollars in damage claims are at stake, and millions have already been paid.
In his article, Jones detailed the cases of additional priests caught molesting young people, and of church officials who tried to cover up the scandals. For about two years, the