From grist@gristmagazine.com Fri Aug 4 20:59:22 2000
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 11:59:41 -0700
From: Grist Magazine
Reply-To: daily-grist-owner@egroups.com
To: daily-grist@egroups.com
Subject: DAILY GRIST, August 1, 2000
DAILY GRIST
August 1, 2000
News summaries from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
1.
CHENEY ON THE BRAINY
The Democratic Party has unveiled new TV commercials that lambaste
the environmental records of George W. Bush and his running mate Dick
Cheney, just in time for the Republican National Convention in
Philadelphia. One ad shows an image of Texas with pollution spewing
from the top of the state as if from a smokestack. The narrator
notes that Bush appointed a chemical company lobbyist to enforce the
state's environmental laws and that Houston is the smoggiest city in
the U.S. Another ad, which criticizes votes Cheney made on a number
of issues during his congressional career, points out that he was
"one of only eight members of Congress to oppose the Clean Water Act."
straight to the source: New York Times, James Dao, 08.01.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/080100wh-dems-bush-ad.1v
.ram.html>
straight to the source: USA Today, Kathy Kiely, 08.01.00
<http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000801/2507013s.htm>
read it only in Grist Magazine: Enviros waste no time in attacking
Bush's veep candidate -- in our Muckraker column
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck072500.stm>
2.
SPACE INVADERS
A number of scientists are warning that the spread of invasive
species could become the next big environmental crisis. Some of the
invasives are brought into non-native areas deliberately, but most
are imported accidentally, particularly as global trade increases.
Once the species get established in places where they have no natural
predators, they can spread like wildfire and wreak havoc on native
ecosystems. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson believes that invasives
will lead to more extinctions than pollution. One recent study
estimated that invasive species, including diseases, cost the U.S.
more than $130 billion a year. A few examples: The Asian longhorn
beetle has lead to the deaths of more than 5,000 maple trees in New
York and Chicago. The sagebrush of the Western U.S. is being wiped
out by cheat grass, an extremely flammable invader from Europe. And
lygodium, or Old World climbing fern, is now smothering 100,000 acres
in south Florida.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Joel Achenbach, 07.30.00
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3529-2000Jul29.html>
read it only in Grist Magazine: More Internet smut -- the fight
against cheatgrass
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/limb/limb041100.stm>
3.
SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT
The cruise ship industry has been hit with bad press lately for some
high-profile pollution cases involving the illegal dumping of
oil-contaminated water and other pollution into the channels and bays
along Alaska's southeast coastal rainforest. These incidents have
raised awareness that current law allows cruise ships to dump
wastewater and treated sewage virtually anywhere. Hoping to burnish
its image and stave off stricter regulation, the cruise industry is
slowly introducing voluntary pilot projects to clean up wastewater on
ships, which is generated at the rate of about 100 gallons per
passenger per day. But a growing number of citizens and activists
say the industry's past record shows that it shouldn't be trusted to
regulate itself and that stronger laws are needed to crack down on
the problem.
straight to the source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Associated Press, 07.31.00
<http://63.147.65.1/S-ASP-Bin/ContentFrmBldr.ASP?puid=1289&Indx=371119
&Article=ON>
read it only in Grist Magazine: A week in the life of Kira Schmidt,
an activist fighting cruise-ship pollution
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/schmidt072400.stm>
4.
A GAB FEST
Gabon's government reached an agreement last month with the country's
major logging companies and an assortment of environmental groups to
permanently protect a 1,900-square-mile tropical rainforest reserve
rich with large mammals and other wildlife. The Lope Reserve has
also been nominated to become the first national park in the West
African nation. The agreement involves a redrawing of the boundaries
of the reserve, opening up some previously protected land to logging
while putting additional areas off-limits to tree cutting. Some
environmental groups object to permitting any logging, but other
groups, including the World Wildlife Fund, say the deal is a good one
because the land to be logged was farmed less than 200 years ago
while the land to be newly protected has been essentially untouched
for 10,000 years.
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 08.01.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/080100sci-animal-gabon.html>
5.
SMELLS FISHY
Even low levels of common pesticides can disturb the ability of
salmon to smell, possibly reducing their chances of survival,
according to research by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Salmon rely heavily on smell to help determine friends, even mates,
from foes, and it may be the primary sense the fish use to navigate
back to their home streams from the sea. In the past, safe pesticide
levels for fish have been determined by lethality tests, but
environmentalists say the new research shows that the levels must be
set much lower. Two enviro groups last week said they would sue the
U.S. EPA unless the agency developed stricter limits. They contend
that other efforts to protect salmon, such as habitat restoration and
perhaps even dam breaching, might all be for naught unless the
pesticide problem is resolved.
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Lisa Stiffler, 08.01.00
<http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/salm013.shtml>
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Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:
Finder, keepers -- this Georgia riverkeeper has a red neck and a
green heart -- in our Out on a Limb column
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/limb/limb072700.stm>
Prize fighters -- enviros worldwide call for release of Mexican
activists -- by Mark Hertsgaard
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/hertsgaard072100.stm>
The address for Al Gore's campaign headquarters is Paper Mill Drive
(no, we're not joking) -- in our Muckracker column
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck072500.stm#streets>
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From grist@gristmagazine.com Fri Aug 4 21:02:06 2000
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 12:04:49 -0700
From: Grist Magazine
Reply-To: daily-grist-owner@egroups.com
To: daily-grist@egroups.com
Subject: DAILY GRIST, August 2, 2000
DAILY GRIST
August 2, 2000
News summaries from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
1.
WILD THING, I THINK I'LL EAT YOU
Afflicted by poverty and drought, millions of people in East and
Southern Africa are increasingly hunting and eating wild animals and
in the process endangering several hundred species, according to a
report released yesterday by TRAFFIC, an international wildlife
monitoring program. With the decline in numbers of traditional game
species like buffalo, hunters are now going after elephants, zebras,
hippos, and other animals. While conservationists have long been
worried about the effects of killing primates for food in the
tropical forests of West Africa, the concern over the meat trade in
the savannas of the eastern and southern parts of the continent is
relatively recent. TRAFFIC supports sustainable hunting of wild game
to help feed locals and is calling for ownership of wildlife to be
transferred from governments to local communities and landholders so
people will have a stake in keeping wildlife populations healthy.
straight to the source: MSNBC, Miguel Llanos, 08.01.00
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/440260.asp>
2.
WISHFUL SINKING
With international negotiations on the Kyoto climate change treaty
set to continue this fall, the U.S. is proposing that countries get
the same amount of credit for using forests and farmland to absorb
carbon dioxide as they would for reducing CO2 emissions from power
plants and cars. The State Department says the carbon-sink effect in
the U.S. could cut by as much as 50 percent the amount of CO2
reductions the country would have to make to comply with Kyoto. U.S.
officials acknowledged last night that adding farmers and foresters
to the list of Kyoto allies could improve the treaty's chances in the
Senate. Canada, Russia, Japan, and Australia seem likely to back the
U.S. approach. But the European Union will be firmly opposed to the
position, and many environmental groups argue that at best carbon
sinks provide only a temporary solution to the problems of CO2
emissions and that the U.S. proposal would create a major loophole in
the treaty.
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 08.02.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/080200sci-environ-warm.html>
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, John J. Fialka,
08.02.00 (access ain't free)
<http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB965174765136597212.htm>
Read it only in Grist Magazine: Is Kyoto dead? -- a debate in our
Heat Beat section
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/debates011700.stm>
3.
SKINNAMA-MINKE MINKE DINK, SKINNAMA-MINKE DOO, I LOVE YOU
Norway announced yesterday that it is extending its controversial
whaling season for another month because hunters have not yet filled
the year's quota of 655 minke whales. Norway conducts commercial
hunts in defiance of a moratorium by the International Whaling
Commission. Johan Williams of the nation's Fisheries Ministry
dismissed the possibility that failure to reach the quota could
indicate that stocks of minke whales are declining; instead, he
blamed the shortfall on rough sea conditions. Meanwhile, Japan
defended itself against international criticism for the recent
expansion of its so-called scientific whale hunt to include Bryde's
and sperm whales in addition to minkes. Japan warned that if the
U.S. imposes sanctions against the nation, as U.S. officials have
threatened, Japan will take its case to the World Trade Organization.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Alister Doyle, 08.02.00
<http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7672>
straight to the source: Seattle Times, 08.02.00
<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/html98/whal02_2000
0802.html>
4.
GENERAL EXCITEMENT?
General Motors Corp. announced today that within a few years it will
begin producing fuel-efficient, hybrid gas-electric versions of its
full-size pickup trucks and city buses, just days after Ford
announced its intention to boost the fuel economy of its SUVs by 25
percent over the next five years. GM Vice Chair Harry Pearce said he
was "seriously annoyed" by Ford's announcement because GM's light
trucks, which include SUVs, currently have better fuel economy than
Ford's light trucks -- and Pearce pledged that GM models will still
be leading the competition in fuel economy 20 years from now.
Pearce: "We have spent years achieving this leadership position.
And I think it's extremely important that when we talk about fuel
economy, we talk about deeds, not words."
straight to the source: Fox Market Wire, 08.02.00
<http://www.foxmarketwire.com/wires/0801/f_ap_0801_54.sml>
read it in Grist Magazine: How far can clean cars take us? -- by Jim
Motavalli in Books Unbound
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books051900.stm>
5.
POP GOES THE DIESEL
In the latest step in its crackdown on dirty diesel vehicles, the
U.S. EPA yesterday issued a final rule that will require new diesel
truck and bus engines to emit 40 percent less pollution by 2004.
Later this year, the EPA intends to issue a rule that will mandate
even cleaner engines by 2007 and require diesel fuel to be almost
free of sulfur, a contaminant that hampers pollution-control
equipment such as catalytic converters. When both rules take effect,
diesel trucks and buses should run almost as cleanly as those powered
by compressed natural gas. Diesel engines are currently a major
source of smog and soot in the air, which cause 15,000 premature
deaths, 400,000 asthma attacks, and 1 million respiratory problems
each year in the U.S., according to the EPA.
straight to the source: Detroit News, Dina Elboghdady, 08.02.00
<http://www.detnews.com/2000/autos/0008/02/b03-99490.htm>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 08.02.00
<http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7666>
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Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:
The no-paper chase -- trying to fundraise without using junk mail --
by Donella Meadows
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/citizen/citizen062600.stm>
How's the weather? -- taking the Earth's temperature -- in our Heat
Beat section
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/weather080100.stm>
The hot political races in the Midwest -- in our Muckraker column
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck072500.stm#midwest>
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To unsubscribe, click here <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/signup/ungrist.asp> or send a blank email message to .
Gloom and doom with a sense of humor. Impossible, you say? Nah. Visit GRIST MAGAZINE, a beacon in the smog, at <http://www.gristmagazine.com>. GRIST MAGAZINE is a project of Earth Day Network, <http://www.earthday.net>.