From grist@gristmagazine.com Sun Oct 8 11:43:27 2000
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 12:14:42 -0700
From: Grist Magazine
Reply-To: daily-grist-owner@egroups.com
To: daily-grist@egroups.com
Subject: DAILY GRIST, October 2, 2000
DAILY GRIST
October 2, 2000
News summaries from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
1.
FIT TO BE TIDE
Red tides are becoming a severe environmental problem along China's
coast, killing tons of fish and costing the country more than $100
million every year. Red tides, which can be caused or exacerbated by
industrial and sewage waste, are massive and fast-spreading algae
outbreaks that poison the water or deplete its oxygen supply,
suffocating marine life. Outbreaks in China in the last couple years
have threatened the livelihoods of thousands of fishers. Red tides
are also a problem in Japan, Korea, and the U.S., where they
periodically hit the waters of New England, the Pacific Northwest,
and the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly 300 miles of Texas coastline are now
suffering from red tide and have been closed to oyster fishing,
putting the squeeze on folks who make their living in the oyster
industry.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Henry Chu, 10.01.00
<http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20001001/t000093240.html>
straight to the source: New York Times, Ross E. Milloy, 10.02.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/02/national/02REDT.html>
2.
DOUBLE, DOUBLE OIL AND TROUBLE
George W. Bush unveiled an energy plan on Friday that would boost
domestic oil production significantly and open Alaska's Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and other federal lands to drilling.
Speaking at a Michigan auto plant, Bush hammered at some of Al Gore's
environmental beliefs. "The vice president likes electric cars -- he
just doesn't like making electricity. In speeches, he calls
autoworkers his friends. In his book, he declares the engines they
make an enemy," Bush said. (Still, it seems that Bush is having a
hard time convincing autoworkers that Gore's environmental views
threaten Michigan's economy.) Bush said royalties from drilling in
ANWR would support conservation efforts, and he proposed increased
funding for research into "clean coal" technologies and tax credits
for companies that produce energy from alternative fuels. Meanwhile,
Gore ripped into Bush's plan for ANWR, saying it would "bring decades
of environmental damage to reap just a few months of increased oil
supply." He said the U.S. must reduce its dependence on oil and
called for more investments in the "job-creating,
environmental-protecting technologies of the future." Gore's running
mate, Joe Lieberman, traveled to Houston to attack the environmental
record of former oilman Bush in the governor's home state.
straight to the source: New York Times, Frank Bruni, 09.30.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/30/politics/30BUSH.html>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner, Associated
Press, Kathy Barks Hoffman, 10.01.00
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/10/
02/politics0109EDT0446.DTL>
straight to the source: New York Times, Alison Mitchell, 09.30.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/30/politics/30GORE.html>
straight to the source: Washington Post, Mike Allen, 09.30.00
<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47825-2000Sep29.html>
3.
BUSH OIL PLAN: EXHIBIT A
The Supreme Court refused today to hear a case in which the Exxon
Mobil Corp. contended it should not have to pay $5 billion in
punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The
corporation's lawyers had urged the justices to throw out the penalty
on grounds of irregularities during jury deliberations when the case
about the nation's worst oil spill was first heard. Tom Cirigliano,
an Exxon Mobil spokesperson, said the corporation would continue to
dispute the payment through other court appeals. Cirigliano said,
"We're not even close [to the end of the disputes]. This doesn't
have any effect whatsoever on us having to pay the $5 billion."
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner, Associated
Press, Laurie Asseo, 10.02.00
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/10/
02/national1105EDT0561.DTL>
4.
NAFIS ENOUGH
Under the leadership of Nafis Sadik, the U.N. Population Fund has
been transformed from an organization that foisted contraceptives on
women in order to meet fertility-control targets to one that has as
its central mission giving women more power not just over their own
fertility but over health care, education, and many other aspects of
their lives. Sadik, a Pakistani obstetrician who became executive
director of the fund in 1987, will retire at the end of this year.
Her push for women's rights has rankled not only some Islamic and
developing nations, but also the U.S. Congress, which has withheld
funding because of the population fund's position that women should
have access to safe abortions as a last resort. This year, the
Clinton administration has requested a $169 million increase in
international family planning levels, and Congress is expected to
debate the issue soon.
straight to the source: New York Times, Barbara Crossette, 10.02.00
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/02/world/02NATI.html>
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jim Baird, 09.29.00
<http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/opinion/consop3.shtml>
do good: Take action on population issues
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/population.stm>
5.
ROYALTY FLUSH
The White House and congressional leaders reached a compromise late
last week on a landmark bill that would set aside $12 billion over
six years for land conservation. The program, which would be
financed in part by oil royalties, would double funding to acquire
new federal lands, protect sensitive ecosystems, create urban parks,
and preserve historic sites. A number of enviros praised the
agreement, part of a spending bill for the Interior Department, as a
big breakthrough. Still, they were disappointed that Congress hasn't
passed the more sweeping Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA),
which would provide $3 billion a year in conservation funding; CARA
was approved by the House with strong bipartisan backing but has run
into trouble in the Senate from conservative Westerners. The
compromise measure could still face opposition from some Western
senators, but it is expected to pass Congress and be signed by
President Clinton. Enviros were also pleased that Sen. Slade Gorton
(R-Wash.) gave up on a rider he had attached to the Interior bill
that would have prevented the federal government from even studying
the possibility of breaching four dams on the lower Snake River in
Washington to help salmon runs.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Dan Morgan, 09.30.00
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47896-2000Sep29.html>
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Charles Pope, 09.30.00
<http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/gort30.shtml>
6.
SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL -- OH WAIT, THERE IS NO BOTTOM
Radioactive contamination in groundwater may be 400 times higher than
the federal standard at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington
state because high-level nuclear waste was buried 40 years ago in
containers that had no bottoms, the U.S. Energy Department said on
Friday. The department's groundwater manager said the contamination
will likely reach the Columbia River. Meanwhile, newly released
documents show that groundwater has also been contaminated in
Paducah, Ky., where a uranium processing plant spread plutonium
outside the plant's boundaries. Last year, the DOE launched an
investigation into the plant after the Washington Post reported on
problems there, and the investigators concluded that groundwater
contamination wasn't a problem. However, the new documents, which
only just came to light after the Washington Post uncovered them, map
out plutonium in soil and water more than a mile from the plant.
When confronted with this evidence on Saturday, the DOE promised to
investigate (again).
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated
Press, Linda Ashton, 09.30.00
<http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/hanf301.shtml>
straight to the source: Washington Post, Joby Warrick, 10.01.00
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52663-2000Sep30.html>
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Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:
Watership down -- the world is running low on H20 -- by Lester Brown
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho091900.stm>
My final Grist and shout -- a day in the life of Amanda Gibbs,
Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/gibbs092900.stm>
Nader-Nader land -- Grist readers talk more about Nader vs. Gore
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/letters/letters092800.stm>
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