Wednesday, 04 Apr 2001

Green and Bear It

In a victory for environmentalists, British Columbia is announcing a deal today to ban logging in parts of the Great Bear Rainforest. The agreement comes after a five-year campaign led by Greenpeace to preserve the habitat of the spirit bear, a rare snow-white subspecies of black bear living in the coastal rainforest. Details of the plan were not released yesterday, but B.C. Environment Minister Ian Waddell said it would still allow logging in certain parts of the rainforest. Enviros had convinced companies like Home Depot and Lowes to stop selling Great Bear wood, but the boycotts are expected to end after today's announcement.

Sweet Providence

A Rhode Island superior court judge ruled on Monday that the state can proceed with its lawsuit against manufacturers that marketed lead-based paints. Rhode Island is the first state to sue the paint industry over lead poisoning; taking a hint from the successful legal tactics used against tobacco companies, the state is accusing the industry of knowing that lead paint was dangerous before it was banned in the U.S in 1978 and covering up the risk. State Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse (D), who is pressing the case, cheered Monday's decision, and advocates for lead-poisoned children said in a statement that the ruling "feels like a home run for the families devastated by lead poisoning." But former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, representing the manufacturers, claimed that the judge actually dismissed the state's most damaging claims against the industry, and that the ruling was a "significant victory for the defendants." Similar suits initiated by individuals and communities across the U.S. have failed.

Going to Kjell in a Handbasket

The Bush administration rejected pleas yesterday from a European Union delegation visiting Washington, D.C., to try to get President Bush to reconsider his decision to abandon the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The top-level delegation met with U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman and White House and State Department officials. Kjell Larsson, Sweden's environment minister, said the E.U. had hoped to find "a small opening" or sign that talks on the treaty could be revived, but "we didn't get that." The U.S. emits about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, but Whitman yesterday described the treaty as "unfair to the United States." Meanwhile, moderate Republicans in Congress are beginning to feel the heat from constituents, as Bush rolls back one environmental protection after another. Charlie Cook, a veteran handicapper of political races, said that Republicans "need to do a couple green things really soon" to keep control of Congress in the 2002 elections.

Hook, Line, and Stinker

Despite the brouhaha over the potential health and environmental risks of genetically engineered crops, several biotech companies are moving forward with plans to bring genetically modified fish and meat to your nearest supermarket. Aqua Bounty Farms has already applied to the feds for approval to market salmon eggs laced with DNA from ocean pout that allows the salmon to grow to full size in half the time. Enviros fear that these dreamy salmon could turn into an ecological nightmare if they escape from their pens and breed with wild Atlantic salmon. Perhaps even scarier, the power to regulate the genetically engineered fish currently rests with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, rather than with the government's environmental agencies like the U.S EPA or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist at Environmental Defense, says, "Having the FDA assess environmental risks would be like having the Fish and Wildlife Service assessing food safety."

Give a Hoot -- You Can't Commute

Frustrated commuters in Delhi burned buses yesterday to protest an order by India's Supreme Court to ban diesel-burning vehicles from the city's roads. In 1998, the court ruled that vehicles used for public transport must be converted from diesel to cleaner-burning natural gas by the end of March 2001. Very few attempts were made to convert the vehicles, and as a result some 15,000 buses, 20,000 rickshaws, and 50,000 taxicabs have been forced off the roads. Commuters have had to wait at bus stops for hours and then cling to the sides of the few converted buses. The order was meant to address Delhi's notorious air pollution problems, but S. Sundar, former secretary of transportation for New Delhi, worries that the existing "social disorder" could actually worsen pollution by encouraging people to give up on public transportation and drive more personal cars.

Surprise and Demand

Someday, maybe in two years, maybe in 2020, the demand for oil will outstrip the supply of it. How long after we reach that point will we go on denying it? Petroleum is at the base of much of what we modern-day folks take for granted -- gasoline, jet fuel, plastics, pesticides, fertilizers. What to do? In an upbeat series of articles, Utne Reader explores life after the inevitable demise of the oil economy. From car-sharing programs in Portland to the spread of light rail across the U.S., some Americans are embracing alternatives to black gold.