Friday, 08 Feb 2002

War and Peas

War is hell -- and not just for human beings. A team of researchers from the U.N. Environment Programme is headed to Afghanistan to measure the ecological damage of decades of war, drought, famine, and more war. The study, which is part of a relatively new trend of analyzing the effects of human conflict on the natural world, will be the first environmental assessment of any sort to take place in Afghanistan in 25 years. The UNEP team will tally the damage done to everything from forests to water supplies to endangered species. However, its work will be complicated by the remoteness of the landscape, the country's varying topography (from towering mountains to arid sand dunes), and ongoing safety threats. Environmental scientists anticipate depressing findings: "The groundwork has been laid for an environmental disaster," said wildlife biologist Peter Zahler.

Rhode Island Lead

A Superior Court judge in Rhode Island paved the way for a landmark lawsuit earlier this week when he gave state Attorney Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D) permission to sue manufacturers of lead-based paint. The paint industry had attempted to derail the trial by calling for every one of an estimated 300,000 owners of lead-painted homes to be codefendants. In a triumph that was hailed by anti-lead activists around the country, the judge disagreed, and Whitehouse is expected to go to court within six months. Paint companies maintain that they will win the case by showing that childhood lead poisoning is caused not by paint itself but by poor maintenance. Whitehouse responds that if the companies knew that deteriorating pain was a problem, consumers should have been warned. Rhode Island was the first state to sue paint companies for their role in lead poisoning, which causes neurological problems and learning disorders in children.

Big. Yellow. Different. Worse.

The wheels on the bus go round and round, and the diesel fumes from the bus go far and wide. That's the bad news from a study released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzing emissions from the nation's 454,000 school buses. Nine out of 10 of those buses are powered by diesel fuel, which can increase risk of cancer and exacerbate or cause asthma. The study also ranked every state by school bus emissions; California and Washington tied for worst, each receiving a "D." On average, every bus in the Golden State emits the same amount of particulates in a year as 170 cars. The report recommended converting buses to run on natural gas in order to reduce emissions and related health threats.

Kenya Opener

Even though Kenya is a major food exporter, it hasn't reaped much benefit from the $20 billion-per-year global market in organic foods. Now some farmers and nonprofits in the African nation are trying to change that. Many Kenyans already grow their crops without chemical inputs, but up till now, not a single one has been certified as an organic farmer -- and without such certification, farmers can't benefit from the lucrative natural foods market. Advocates of organic farming say that although the practice can be labor intensive, it is more sustainable, yields more healthful food, and reduces reliance on expensive imported chemicals. The biotechnology industry, however, dismisses organic food as spoils for the spoiled, and says the future of agriculture in Africa lies with genetically modified crops.

Bitter Sweet

Two years of wrangling and two days of intensive, closed-door negotiations ended in compromise yesterday when the U.S. Forest Service and environmentalists agreed to allow limited logging of burned timber in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest. Under the terms of the agreement, the USFS will begin logging about 14,770 burned acres; in exchange, it will not immediately pursue logging on another 29,000 acres and will drop its appeal of a federal court ruling preventing the agency from any logging in the Bitterroot. (That ruling came down after environmentalists sued Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey for bypassing Forest Service procedure and unilaterally approving a logging plan.) In all, the USFS will be able to harvest about 60 million board-feet, or roughly one-third of what it had hoped for. "It's kind of a mixed bag," said Larry Campbell, executive director of the Friends of Bitterroot, "but overall I do feel pretty good."