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earthsystems.org news Volume 2 Issue 38
Please, visit our site:
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FROM EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG:
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PATCH OR FALL THROUGH THE HOLE
Though ozone-depleting chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons are beginning to
fade from the atmosphere, there's no telling when the ozone layer will begin
to recover, NOAA scientists say. "We should expect to be able to detect
recovery in most regions of the world within the next 15 to 45 years," said
Weatherhead. "That's based on full compliance with the Montreal Protocol and
its amendments and no other complicating factors such as major volcanic
eruptions or enhanced stratospheric cooling." Most developed countries have
adopted the treaty, but many developing countries have not complied for
economic reasons. Most scientists agree that the ozone layer will fully
recover only if all countries adopt the protocol and stop producing
ozone-depleting substances.
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/09/09262000/ozonerecovery_31808.asp?site=wwwearthsystemsorg
PARK IT HERE QUIZ
Environmental News Network is our news provider on our site. Visit them from
our home page at www.earthsystems.org/headlines.html. This week they have a
TUF quiz at:
http://www.enn.com/quizes/x-display-quiz.asp?quizid=64
If you score less than 50% you must spend a weekend in a national park! Enjoy :)
IF YOU COULD BE JIM LEHRER
The Presidential Debates are about to start. Wouldn't it be great if YOUR
question got asked? Well, it can!
HOW CAN I SUGGEST MY QUESTION TO THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE MODERATORS YOU SAY?
It's easy - you just need to fill out the 5-minute online survey
provided by the Commission on Presidential Debates and Harris Poll.
It's quick and easy, and you're not required to buy anything or to
give any personal information other than an email address.
Please take the survey now, at the Commission on Presidential
Debates website:
http://www.debates.org
(The link to the survey is on the left side of the home page - you
can't miss it!)
YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT!
After you fill out the survey, please let us know what you thought of
the survey, and what question you suggested to the Commission on
Presidential Debates. Simply hit 'reply' to this message or send a
new message to www@earthsystems.org
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FROM GRIST:
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/daily/
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SWAMP THING
The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favor of a $7.8
billion plan to restore the Florida Everglades over the next 30 to 40
years, the largest environmental restoration undertaking in history.
The bill calls for a massive construction project by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to restore the water flow through the
300-mile-long ecosystem -- which, ironically, has been devastated by
decades of flood control efforts by none other than the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. The measure has backing from the White House,
enviros, agricultural interests, the sugar industry, and Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush (R). The bill now heads to the House, where supporters hope
they can get it through before this year's legislative session winds
up on Oct. 6.
straight to the source: Miami Herald, Frank Davies, 09.26.00
http://www.herald.com/content/today/docs/089811.htm
straight to the source: Salt Lake Deseret News, Associated Press, H. Josef Hebert, 09.26.00
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,195016938,00.html
TACO HELL
Kraft Foods announced a nationwide recall on Friday of Taco
Bell-brand taco shells found to contain small amounts of a
genetically modified corn variety not approved for human consumption
because it may cause allergies. The corn, known as StarLink, has
been approved as animal feed, but in an effort to reassure the
public, the manufacturer of the corn, Aventis Corp., announced today
that it will suspend sales of the variety unless the U.S. EPA
approves its use in human food. The recall is likely to put pressure
on the biotech industry and the government to more tightly regulate
genetically modified crops. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) is
sponsoring a bill that would require stricter safety testing and
mandatory labeling. But some experts are saying that accurate
labeling would be difficult, since it is hard to keep genetically
modified crops from contaminating and being mixed with other crops.
Meanwhile, enviros are criticizing a new preliminary report released
by the U.S. EPA that claims genetically modified corn is unlikely to
pose a serious threat to monarch butterflies, despite recent
high-profile studies that have found pollen from the corn plants can
kill monarch caterpillars.
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew Pollack, 09.23.00
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/23/business/23FOOD.html
straight to the source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Associated Press,
Philip Brasher, 09.26.00
http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/news/wires.nsf/National/DF96D6B02210F46886256966004CDD1F?OpenDocument
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew Pollack, 09.26.00
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/26/business/26FOOD.html
straight to the source: New York Times, Carol Kaesuk Yoon, 09.26.00
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/26/science/26CORN.html
THE WEAK IN REVIEW
Senate leaders yesterday blocked a proposal to reform the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers by requiring independent reviews of its projects,
and instead got behind a plan to have the National Academy of
Sciences assess whether or not the Corps's own review process is
actually flawed. A recent series in the Washington Post examined a
number of cases in which Corps officials tampered with internal
reviews and gave short shrift to environmental concerns in order to
justify water projects supported by powerful politicians. After
yesterday's deal making, Scott Faber of American Rivers said,
"Despite overwhelming evidence of abuse in Corps studies, senators
would rather protect their cozy relationships with the Corps than
protect taxpayers or the environment." This spring, the White House
issued a draft order that would have forced the Corps to adopt higher
environmental standards, but withdrew it a week later under fire from
Senate Republicans. The administration says it is now considering
reviving the order.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Michael Grunwald, 09.22.00
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55595-2000Sep21.html
straight to the source: Washington Post, Michael Grunwald, 09.10.00
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/A36661-2000Sep8.html
ON FRAUDWAY
Federal officials announced yesterday that thousands of environmental
safety tests performed at Superfund locations and other hazardous
waste sites around the U.S. between 1994 and 1997 will have to be
repeated because a testing company falsified results. Federal
prosecutors are planning criminal indictments against 13 former
employees of Intertek Testing Services, formerly the second-largest
tester in the U.S. of toxic materials. An Intertek unit in Texas is
suspected of falsifying data on some 59,000 projects involving more
than 100,000 different tests conducted on samples of soil,
groundwater, and other materials taken from potentially toxic sites.
The massive fraud case means that some sites believed to be safe
could actually contain carcinogens and other dangerous pollutants,
though the feds said that none of the sites retested so far has been
found to pose health hazards.
straight to the source: New York Times, Richard A. Oppel Jr., 09.22.00
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/22/national/22ENVI.html
(EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG NOTE: How long and how mant taxpayers $$ will this mess take to
clean up?)
CARBON STINK
Old-growth forests are much better at removing carbon dioxide from
the air than plantations of new forests, concludes a new study
published today in the journal Science. In negotiations over an
international treaty on climate change, the U.S., along with Canada
and Russia, is proposing to meet as much as half of its greenhouse
gas reduction requirements by using carbon sinks like forest
plantations to sequester CO2 from the air, instead of putting more
limits on the burning of fossil fuels and thereby preventing CO2 from
being released in the first place. But the study throws to the wind
the assumption that old-growth forests are in a state of decay and
release as much CO2 as they capture. The study authors say that the
treaty needs to establish protections for old-growth forests or else
some countries could be tempted to cut down old-growth forests and
then plant new trees on the deforested land, getting credit for
reducing CO2 when they would actually be making the situation worse.
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 09.22.00
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/22/science/22FORE.html
(EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG NOTE: For years the logging companies have said
they're doing us all a favor as young trees are better than old trees. Science
magazine is the 'real thing' so it's past time to use electronic forms of
communication, declare war on waste and buy recycled paper).
MORE BANGKOK FOR YOUR BUICK
Millions of people in more than 800 cities in 30 countries are
participating in a car-free day today, according to Margot
Wallstroem, environment commissioner for the European Union. The day
-- marked throughout Europe and in other spots from Buenos Aires to
Tel Aviv -- is aimed at raising awareness about pollution and traffic
congestion, particularly as high gasoline prices have people's
attention. Participating in the first car-free day in Bangkok, Thai
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and several of the country's cabinet
ministers walked, biked, or took public transit to work today. Chuan
said that if the car-free day proved popular, it might be extended to
weekends on a trial basis. Still, this latest car-free campaign
hasn't made as much of a splash in Europe as intended.
straight to the source: BBC News, 09.22.00
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_936000/936922.stm
straight to the source: Bangkok Post, 09.22.00
http://www.bangkokpost.com/today/220900_News01.html
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner, Associated Press, Constant Brand, 09.22.00
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/09/22/international1034EDT0540.DTL
(EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG NOTE: Meanwhile, in America, we continue to ask for bigger cars
and more roads. If Americans drove, on average, 5 miles a day less, we could
reduce oil use up to 10%)
WATERSHIP DOWN
As the world population rises, particularly in many poor, developing
countries, water shortages could become a severe problem, writes
Lester Brown. Water tables are already falling on every continent,
thanks in large part to powerful pumping technology developed in the
last 50 years, which allows humans to deplete aquifers faster than
they can be replenished by precipitation. Water shortages could turn
into food shortages, since it takes roughly 1,000 tons of water to
produce one ton of grain, and far more water to produce meat. Brown
argues that governments can work to avert catastrophe by limiting
population growth and raising the price of water to encourage
efficient use.
read it in Grist Magazine: The world is running low on H2O -- by Lester R. Brown
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho091900.stm
(EARTHSYSTEMS.ORG NOTE: Raising price worked great for gas and cigarettes didn't
it? More seriously, as we have predicted previously, Water is the issue that
will push the world to more serious conservation efforts)
STOP, CHILDREN, WHAT'S THAT SOUND?
This fall National Park Service officials are expected to ask all
park superintendents to come up with plans for limiting noise in
national parks and protecting the "soundscape," or the natural sounds
unique to each area. "All of a sudden, places that look the same as
100 to 200 years ago don't sound like they did," said Wes Henry of
the NPS, who is leading a federal effort to restore quiet to parks.
Helicopters, airplanes, off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, and car
alarms can all destroy the peace and tranquility that many park
visitors seek. Over the past year, the NPS has restricted or banned
snowmobiles and personal watercraft like Jetskis in some parks and
national seashores, in part because of the noise they make and in
part because they pollute and disturb wildlife.
straight to the source: USA Today, Traci Watson, 09.21.00
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000920/2662708s.htm
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Other Archives - Generated on : Wed Sep 27 2000 - 22:32:54 EDT