Ten List What
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The Fight for Clean Air
- A major victory for the Clean Air
Act! The Supreme Court REJECTED all industry-led challenges and UPHELD
the way the U.S. EPA sets clean air standards by affirming that air quality
requirements should be based on public health. As part of updating
the Clean Air Act to reflect current scientific knowledge, President Clinton
in 1997 announced new health-based air standards for soot and smog.
Soon after the new health-based air quality standards were finalized in 1997,
industry, led by the American Trucking Association, filed a lawsuit
to halt these efforts to clean the air. On May 14, 1999, the U.S. Court of
Appeals ruled against the EPA, leaving the fate of the new standards in limbo.
- Clinton Diesel Rules Stand!
The Bush administration has graciously let stand regulations imposed by
President Bill Clinton that are intended to reduce substantially the pollution
caused by diesel fuel and engines. The rules were drafted by Clinton officials
in a last-minute flurry of new rules and then put on hold when President Bush
took office. The new standards would eventually cut pollution from heavy-duty
trucks and buses by 95 percent and reduce the sulfur content of highway diesel
fuel by 97 percent. It is reported that the rules would prevent an estimated
8,300 premature deaths and tens of thousands of cases of bronchitis each
year. Under the new regulations, diesel producers will be required to
virtually eliminate sulfur from the fuel. Sulfur produces soot and clogs up
a vehicle's catalytic converter, the device that removes other pollutants.
With the removal of sulfur, manufacturers of diesel engines will be required
to incorporate the sophisticated pollution-control devices that are
standard equipment in cars.
Protect our Water
Foods, the world's largest pork producer and processor of "gross
contamination" of rivers and tributaries in Eastern North Carolina,
was hit last week with a wide-ranging environmental lawsuit brought
by The Water Keeper Alliance
and the Sierra Club.
The suit alleges that the Smithfield, Va.-based company as well as its North
Carolina subsidiaries allowed feces and urine from its thousands of hogs to
seep through the ground, eventually ending up in the river system. Smithfield
Foods raised 12 million of its own hogs in 2000 and, together with purchases
from other sources, slaughtered 19 million hogs. It sells fresh and
processed pork including bacon, sausage, ham, hot dogs, and pork and loin
parts to retailers, restaurants and directly to customers under its own brands.
It did $5.2 billion in sales in fiscal 2000. Although there are rules
stipulating that lagoons in this case pits containing the fecal waste must
be lined, many of Smithfield's lagoons have been grandfathered under old
laws, the lawsuit says, allowing Smithfield's hogs to create massive pollution,
the suit says.
- Thirty years after the passage of the
Clean Water Act, ocean pollution from cars, fertilizers
and septic tanks has gone largely unabated, a recent study by the
Pew Oceans Commission notes. Entitled "Marine Pollution in the
United States: Significant Accomplishments, Future Challenges," the report
is the first of many interim papers on various issues affecting the U.S. marine
environment that PEW plans to publish. There have been significant gains in
reducing pollution from conventional point sources, but non-point source
pollution is a major problem. Due to the increased use of chemical
fertilizer, domesticated animals and fossil fuels, more non-point
source pollution is leaking into oceans, the report notes. Since pollution
is far more difficult to control once it reaches the ocean, conservationists
argue that it must be stopped at the source.
- More global warming trends? . . .
.Lake Chad, once the fourth-largest body of water in Africa, has
shrunk by almost 95 per cent over the past 38 years, according to research
sponsored by the US space agency Nasa. Worse, climate change and increasing
demands for water have drained the lake to such an extent that it will shortly
be nothing more than a “puddle”. The lake produces water for more than
20 million people in up to six countries, covers a surface area of 520 square
miles — little more than a twentieth of its size in 1963, when it covered
9,650 square miles. The Lake Chad basin is a closed water system that depends
on monsoon rains to replenish the water that drains from the lake. The
lake is also shallow, meaning that its level responds rapidly to changes in
rainfall and run-off. Since the early 1960s, the region has experienced a
significant decline in rainfall, while the amount of water diverted to irrigate
surrounding fields has risen steeply.
- Rising nitrate levels -- most
likely from farms and homes in the region -- along North Florida's famous
Suwannee River are prompting concerns about the nutrient's effect on the
environment and public health. "The federal safety standard for nitrate-nitrogen
in drinking water is 10 parts per million, but in some areas we're finding
levels in the 20 to 30 ppm range," said David Hornsby, water quality
analyst with the Suwannee River Water Management District in Live Oak. In
addition to making drinking water unsafe, high nitrate concentrations can
lower water quality in rivers and springs, causing algae blooms that
consume oxygen needed by fish and other aquatic animals. A three-year $1.4
million grant from the state environmental protection agency and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency is supporting University of Florida work to
monitor groundwater quality and evaluate the effectiveness of best management
practices, or BMPs -- solutions designed to be fair and workable for everyone
Rescue our Animals
- Orangutans barely hanging on in
the wild. Unless logging and poaching are greatly curbed, the largest
natural population of orangutans may vanish from the planet over the next
decade, a recent study funded by the
Wildlife Conservation Society notes. Found throughout southeastern Asia,
orangutans have seen their habitat shrink 80 percent in the past 50 years.
Today they are restricted to the shrinking forests of Sumatra and Borneo
in Indonesia. Despite the area's protected status, rampant logging is
backed by the Indonesian military and police. The rampant illegal logging
that often follows selective cutting in Leuser and other areas has caused
densities to drop as much as 90 percent. Because orangutans play an important
part in a forest's regeneration through the fruits and seeds they eat,
they are considered to be a "keystone" species. Their disappearance
could mean the loss of hundreds of species of plants, animals and insects
within the forest ecosystem.
- Need another reason to not eat Great
Lakes Salmon? High levels of
a common flame retardant found in plastics, foams and textiles has
been detected in Lake Michigan salmon. All 21 salmon examined in a recent
University of Wisconsin study contained chemical compounds called polybrominated
diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, which are widely used for fire safety in computers,
television sets, upholstery and cars. The average level of PBDE contamination
in the salmon was 80 parts per billion — about six times higher than
levels found in a 1999 salmon study in the Baltic Sea, where the most intensive
research has been conducted for PBDEs. The concentrations are reported to
be the highest in the world for salmon in open waters. The EPA ranks
PCBs among the most toxic 10 percent of chemicals for human exposure - they
do not biodegrade in the envoronment. While PCB production has been banned,
PBDE output has been steady. Studies indicate that, if ingested, PBDEs
may increase the risk of cancer, liver damage and immune system dysfunction.
Recent research on young mice showed that the chemical could create an adverse
affect on neurodevelopment, learning, memory and reproduction. Although restrictions
exist in Europe, there are no proposals to limit PBDE use in the United
States or Canada.
- Sea Census! An ambitious billion-dollar
plan to count the creatures that live in the world's oceans is taking
shape at a meeting in Hobart, Australia. Scientists there are taking part
in the 10-year-long International Census of Marine Life, which aims
to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of what lies beneath the waves. Our motive
is discovery," says Jesse Ausubel of the US-based Alfred P Sloan Foundation,
which is helping to finance the project. "Very large areas of the oceans are
unexplored." The census will use acoustic and optical techniques
to carry out its headcount, but it will not employ the other techniques which
would be needed to count microbiological lifeforms, he added. The worldwide
census will not only provide valuable information for conservationists,
it will also help provide maps of unknown regions of the oceans
- Foot and mouth disease. Does
it kill? No, but we do. Read
Foot and Mouth disease facts and information from the UK's Guardian.
A medieval method says the UK's The Sunday
Times. Their editorial states that scientists say they could produce better
vaccines if they had the funding. Several European rugby matches, outdoor
events, footpaths, hiking trails, zoos, national and local parks, and festivals
have been canceled or closed to prevent the spread of the disease.
UK news is full of reports that this is overeaction and a scam.
Save our Land
- Alaska's Sen. Frank Murkowski,
chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has presented a bill
that would allow oil drilling in the Alaskan refuge. Central to the
energy bill is a provision to permit oil drilling inside the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, one of America's last wild places. Sen. Murkowski
and other drilling proponents claim that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
concluded that the Arctic Refuge contains as much as 16 billion barrels
of oil. In fact, the USGS predicted there is only a 5 percent chance there
is that much recoverable oil, and that it is more likely the area holds only
about 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil --
less than what the nation uses in six months. Moreover, according
to Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), production of the 3.2 billion
barrels would be spread out over the 50 years of the field’s lifetime
and would likely peak at 150 million barrels per year in 2027 -- amounting
to only 1.5 percent of projected U.S. consumption that year. Given that current
U.S. demand for oil, which is more than 7.1 billion barrels per year, is increasing
about 2 percent annually, the coastal plain would contribute less than 1 percent
of the oil we are projected to consume over the next 50 years. Little known,
the bill also rolls back the Clean Air Act
for certain power plants and gives a host of new subsidies to the oil,
coal and nuclear industries. "It directly contravenes what presidents
have maintained as a position since Dwight Eisenhower," former President
Carter said. "What we can do is dampen U.S. consumption, which amounts
to about 25 percent of world petroleum demand," Dr. Lashof continued. For
example, increasing average fuel efficiency for new cars, SUVs and light trucks
to 39 miles per gallon over the next decade would save 51 billion barrels
of oil over the next 50 years -- more than 15 times the likely yield
from the Arctic Refuge.
- Chilean forest rescued from logging!
Cascade Corporation revealed last month that the company will cancel
a project to build a wood-chip processing plant near Puerto Montt.
The company cited “unfavorable supply/demand outlook” for the construction
lumber that it would produce at the mill. The $160 million project, hatched
in 1997 between Boise Cascade and Maderas Condor, a Chilean company, faced
stiff opposition from a coalition of environmental groups, tourism
promoters and salmon farmers. Environmentalists argued that the project
would increase logging of the region’s native forests by 27 percent. Salmon
farmers said pollution from the project would devastate their business. Tourism
officials said that the region’s natural beauty supplied many more jobs than
the 200 that the mill would generate.
- Clinton's Monument Designations Stay!
The Whitehouse will not fight his proposals. Interior Secretary Gail Norton
signaled that while there is nothing the Bush administration can do to reverse
Clinton's actions, the Interior Department and Congress could work with local
officials, property owners and business executives to address their concerns
-- such as by allowing existing mining operations to continue. Clinton established
19 national monuments covering more than 5 million acres and
expanded three others. Except for the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, which Clinton created in southern Utah in 1996, all the
monuments were designated within the final year of Clinton's presidency.
Scissors 2003 exposes $$58 Billion In Wasteful, Environmentally Harmful Programs!
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