[GRRN] [earthsystems.org News] July 5, 2000

From: Shay Mitchell (shay@earthsystems.org)
Date: Wed Jul 05 2000 - 13:57:07 EDT

  • Next message: Gary Liss: "[GRRN] Fwd: RE: Card-based products - More"

    ****************************************
    earthsystems.org news Volume 2 Issue 27

    Please, visit our site:

    http://earthsystems.org
    ****************************************

    FROM EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG:

    SOMETHING NEW: We've added an easy way to sign up for the weekly newsletter
    on our home page. Check it out and invite your friends and colleagues to
    sign up for the news.

    http://earthsystems.org/indexx.html

    NEW MEMBERS: In the past two weeks, we have received a few new members
    and about $50 in pledges. We're appreciative but to keep services like
    earthsystems.org afloat and moving will take more help. Please consider
    helping us by referring us to your friends, becoming a member, or visit our
    affiliate page and choosing a shopping or surfing partner. Do you belong to
    a mailing list whose members might be interested? Recommend us! Thanks, we
    appreciate any help you can offer.

    http://earthsystems.org/donatenow.html

    http://earthsystems.org/help.html

    SEARCH EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG: We have just completed an upgrade of our
    site's search engines. We apologize for any difficulties you may have encountered
    last week. You can search the WWW Virtual Library - Environment, our environmental
    mailing list archives, or information about earthsystems.org, its educational,
    informational, and communication programs.

    http://earthsystems.org/search.html

    ISSUE AND POLL OF THE WEEK:
    Given the brevity of this week due to the 4th of July holiday, we are extending last
    week's issue and poll until next week. The issue: The World's Water Supply, is it
    in danger of drying up?

    http://earthsystems.org/issues.html

    ************************************************
    FROM GRIST:
    http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/gist
    ************************************************

    THE DRY WALL OF CHINA
    Desertification is spreading across northern China, caused by rampant
    logging, overgrazing, and the cultivation of marginal lands for
    farming, and exacerbated by drought. About a dozen severe sandstorms
    hit Beijing this spring. The village of Longbaoshan outside Beijing
    is threatened by a mountain of sand that's advancing at a rate of
    about 30 feet a year, a phenomenon that's become known as the "Flying
    Desert" and is beginning to attract tourists. To help address the
    problem, the government has banned logging in many areas and offered
    to give farmers free grain if they begin planting trees instead of
    crops. To aid the drought-stricken north, the government is also
    considering whether to revive a controversial decades-old plan to
    divert water northward from the flood-prone Yangtze River basin,
    despite concerns about the plan's feasibility, high cost, and
    potential to cause pollution.

    straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Paul Eckert, 06.22.00
    http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7216

    straight to the source: MSNBC, Associated Press, Elaine Kurtenbach, 06.15.00
    http://www.msnbc.com/news/421058.asp

    GET ON THE BUS
    The Los Angeles metro area made a national first on Friday by
    adopting sweeping rules that will require new transit buses and
    garbage trucks to be powered by electricity, fuel cells, or
    relatively low-polluting fuels such as natural gas. The new rules,
    intended to cut down on diesel emissions that foul the air and are
    believed to cause cancer, could spur similar action in other U.S.
    cities plagued by air pollution. The rules are a victory for
    enviros, public health advocates, and community leaders who have been
    fighting to curb diesel pollution in L.A.

    straight to the source: Sacramento Bee, Chris Bowman, 06.17.00

    http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local03_20000617.html

    straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Jeffrey L. Rabin, 06.18.00

    http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20000618/t000057720.html

    BRAIN DE PALMA
    Even as new roads are built into the Amazon and ranching, farming,
    and logging continue to pose huge threats to the rainforest, some
    business and political leaders in the region are increasingly
    advocating environmentally friendly development. For example, the
    government of Joao Capiberibe, the governor of Amapa, one of nine
    states in the Brazilian Amazon, has prohibited wood cutting and
    soybean farming and is encouraging the production of organic
    hearts-of-palm. In the neighboring state of Para, the company
    AgroPalma hopes to make Brazil a leading producer of palm oil, which
    comes from trees that take well to land already degraded by farming
    and ranching, removing an incentive to clear yet more rainforest for
    cultivation. The World Wildlife Fund is helping to shepherd
    small-scale environmentally friendly projects throughout the region.

    straight to the source: New York Times, Simon Romero, 06.17.00

    http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/061700brazil-drink.html

    DON'T TAKE ME TO THE RIVER, DON'T DROP ME IN THE WATER
    More than a dozen former members of an elite Israeli naval unit are
    filing suit against the government for endangering their health by
    requiring them to swim and dive in the horrendously polluted Kishon
    River, and occasionally even drink the river's putrid water as
    punishment. More than 30 of the naval commandos have been struck
    with cancer and about 10 have died. Some of the living refuse to
    come forward for fear of retribution from the government. Though
    contaminants from the river sometimes took more than 40 minutes to
    scrub off in the shower and some men lost consciousness under the
    water, the military continued to require training dives in the
    polluted river until the nation's largest newspaper drew attention to
    the issue.

    straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Danielle Haas, 06.22.00

    http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7215

    BORDERING ON INSANE
    Dozens of illegal immigrants each night enter the New River in
    Mexicali, Mexico, and float north, hoping to elude U.S. Border Patrol
    agents who usually avoid the river for fear of pollution. Mexicali
    dumps 20 to 25 million gallons of raw sewage into the river daily,
    according to the California Water Resources Control Board, and the
    river also picks up agricultural and industrial wastes as it flows
    north. By the time it reaches the border town of Calexico, Calif.,
    it violates U.S. water quality standards by several hundred-fold and
    contains nearly 30 viruses ranging from hepatitis A to polio, as well
    as chemicals and heavy metals. Border agents who have dived in to
    rescue drowning immigrants have contracted skin rashes and infections.

    straight to the source: MSNBC, Eric Niiler, 06.22.00

    http://www.msnbc.com/news/413973.asp

    ************************************************
    To subscribe to DAILY GRIST, click here

    http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/daily/
    or send a blank email message
    to daily-grist-subscribe@egroups.com.
    ************************************************

    ******************************************************
    Listowners: Please feel free to re-distribute this
    update to your lists.
    ******************************************************

    ******************************************************
    earthsystems.org News is distributed weekly to our
    members and others who have expressed interest in our
    work. It is archived at:

             http://earthsystems.org/list/members
    ******************************************************

    ******************************************************
    If you do not wish to receive further mailings, please
    write to members-request@earthsystems.org and make the
    subject unsubscribe. If you have any problems or
    questions, please write to www@earthsystems.org
    ******************************************************



    Other Archives - Generated on : Wed Jul 05 2000 - 14:01:38 EDT