Thursday, 14 Feb 2002

White Trash Turns Green

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood is Janisse Ray's paean to the filth, rot, and rust of her childhood in a Georgia junkyard. Half memoir, half polemic, the book is both a recollection of how Ray came to understand the natural world's value and beauty, and an impassioned explanation of why the longleaf pine ecosystems of southeastern Georgia, Alabama, and Florida must be defended against any further assault by humanity. Gregory Gipson reviews the results, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Going Whole Log

Saying environmentalists and others should have been given a forum to protest new logging rules, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified some 100 logging permits yesterday, most of them for southeastern Alaska's Tongass National Forest. The permits allowed companies to run so-called "logging transfer facilities," aka timber dumps in estuaries or other coastal areas where harvesters bundle logs into rafts and float them to their shipping destinations. Enviros say the resulting wood debris can pollute water in coastal inlets, kill marine life, and ruin coastlines. Two years ago, during the Clinton administration, the U.S. EPA issued new rules that increased the permissible amount of waste, but did not give environmentalists a chance to protest the change. The EPA is reviewing the court's decision and declined to comment on it.

Going Whole Hog for Conservation

In welcome news for environmentalists, the U.S. Senate approved a farm bill yesterday that would double spending for conservation programs to $22 billion over the next decade. If it becomes law, the farm bill -- which also includes provisions to clean up urban drinking water, protect forests from urban sprawl, and conserve wildlife habitat -- would be the most sweeping environmental legislation since the Clean Air Act of 1990. The five-year, $44.9 billion bill also strictly limits subsidies to individual farmers and doubles the administration's request for food stamps, which would make the Agriculture Department's nutrition program the second-largest anti-poverty effort in the nation. The bill is far more eco-friendly and socially oriented than the version passed by the House last fall; lucky lawmakers are now faced with the task of reconciling the two versions.

Who Ya Gonna Bhopal?

Citing such past tragedies as the poisonous gas leak in Bhopal, India, that killed at least 7,000 people, the United Nations called yesterday for stronger safeguards on the production and storage of hazardous chemicals in developing countries. The call to action came during a U.N. Environment Programme conference held in Cartagena, Colombia, and attended by delegates from 120 countries. In recent decades, chemical manufacturing has increasingly shifted from developed to developing nations, heightening concerns about the potential for industrial and environmental accidents. The U.N. hopes to attract international funders for programs to increase poor countries' knowledge of hazardous chemicals management, crack down on illegal trade in banned chemicals, prevent dumping of substances, and conduct regular health and environmental checkups.

Hot to Rot?

The U.S. EPA announced this week a two-year phase out of an arsenic-based preservative used to pressure-treat lumber against rot and insect damage. The treated wood is popular for use in fences, decks, and playground equipment, and its manufacturers and vendors -- including Home Depot and other building-supply stores -- currently face a class-action suit for an alleged failure to adequately warn consumers of its potential danger. Arsenic is a known human carcinogen, and some environmental and consumer groups claim that children exposed to the treated wood face a higher risk of developing cancer. Under pressure from such groups, the vendors voluntarily negotiated the current phase-out with the EPA; environmentalists generally praised the action, but some said it failed to address the continued presence of arsenic-treated wood products in homes and public recreation areas.