Featured

Green Hopes Pale as Energy Appetites Grow

By |

As humanity’s energy needs only grow, world powers are plumbing the depths of the Arctic Ocean for fossil fuels and making plans to give countless acres of land over to “green” power production — even as the citizens of energy-rich developing nations rely on firewood and struggle with the labor abuses of emerging biofuel markets. Russia sent a submarine carrying two legislators 14,000 feet below the Arctic ice to plant a flag on an underwater ridge they say connects the mainland to vast fossil fuel reserves there. The move, which according to the BBC anticipates greater future access to the Arctic seascape thanks to global warming and melting ice, is opposed by the United States and others. Concern for climate change caused by fossil fuels is driving a boom in renewable and “green” energy projects around the world. This includes wind farms and biomass, which are touted as free of carbon emissions blamed for rising temperatures.

Featured

Bottled Water Revolt Gathers Steam

By |

Green-minded cities are working to encourage residents to trade in their bottled water for tap water, which is often the same thing (most bottled water is purified tap water). The City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, passed a resolution banning the use of bottled water at any city-affiliated event, noting that local tap water has received awards for quality. Ann Arbor officials say that in general, few plastic bottles are ever recycled, and they take 450 years to break down in a landfill. Michigan House Democrats, worried that water bottlers are staging a run on already-depleted Great Lakes aquifers, also recently passed a series of new environmental regulations. In Britain, the Green Party wants people to think twice before ordering bottled water at a restaurant, even if it makes them look cheap.

Featured

Biotech Plants, and Controversy, Take Root

By |

The United States, Canada and Europe are grappling with standards for genetically modified plants, which promise economic and health benefits along with irreversible ecological damage. In San Francisco, a federal judge issued the first-ever ban on growing Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa after tests showed it was contaminating non-genetically engineered crops — something FDA officials did not consider when approving the product. In Canada, the government has supported the nascent “biopharming” industry, which engineers plants to produce pharmaceutical ingredients, CanWest News Service reports. But that support has been limited to research, and officials have prohibited the outdoor cultivation or import of modified plants and seeds, to the frustration of the industry there. Taxpayer-funded research produced safflowers with seeds that can be used to make insulin and heart-disease medications.

Economy

Cost-Cutting Hits Fund for Nuclear and Chemical Workers

By |

Two federal programs for nuclear workers with cancer and other diseases are under fire for cutting costs without regard for patient needs. In Colorado, Harold Hinton is dying of lung disease contracted while producing weapons-grade uranium 308, and under a Labor Department cost-cutting measure will lose the live-in nurse his doctor recommended. A government spokesman said Hinton’s medical provider pressured the doctor into calling for 24/7 home care. Officials have paid $1.8 billion to 20,000 claimants, and thousands of other cases are still pending. Advocacy groups are pressuring Congress to speed up the process.

Environment

THE ELECTRIC CAR: GM, Ford Pay the Price for Hype

By |

GM is trying to lower expectations that their much-anticipated plug-in electric car, the Volt, will reach consumers soon. A prototype was unveiled at an automotive show in January, but the real deal depends on a breakthrough in battery technology that may take years to achieve, despite the infusion of millions of dollars in federal research funding. Critics say that GM overhyped the Volt, creating more skepticism about electric cars. Ford also took a PR drubbing when it recently backed out of a promise to build 250,000 plug-in hybrids by 2010, according to the Detroit News. Environmentalists hope a commercially viable battery-powered car, capable of traveling 40 miles before recharging, will take the edge off rising corn prices as demand for ethanol spikes across the country.

Featured

FARMING FUTURES: Food Crops Struggle With Climate Change, "Green" Cred

By |

Climate change over the past 20 years has already impacted production of staple grain crops, a new report finds. Wheat, barley and corn yields around the world have declined about 40 million metric tons per year due to changes in temperature and rainfall patterns. In Australia and New Zealand, farmers are being warned that their future success may depend on their “green” credentials, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports. Analysts say that farmers there need to prove that their exported crops are just as environmentally friendly as locally produced crops increasingly favored in Europe. Sources:
“Cereal crops feeling the heat”
Environment News Service, March 16, 2007
“Farmers warned to emphasise green credentials”
Australian Broadcast Corporation, March 19, 2007

Featured

A Brownfield Grows in Queens

By |

Neighbors of an old lot targeted for a $50 million low-income housing and commercial complex were never told of the site’s 70-year history of “excessive” contamination by a dry-cleaning business, the Queens Chronicle in New York reports. Studies show that pollution could have spread as much as a quarter-mile underground, within reach of a municipal well. The developer, an influential local church, downplays the risk of toxic vapor leaks and runoff, but has applied for “brownfield” status that would both cover cleanup expenses and limit liability. Source:
“Toxic site eyed for housing”
Queens Chronicle (NY), February 15, 2007

Featured

Pollution, Race Linked in SF Bay Area

By |

A new report finds that most people living within a mile of power plants, refineries and other pollution sources in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area are ethnic minorities with higher rates of asthma and cancer, and less access to health care. Neighborhood activists say children need to use inhalers, and told KCBS that they’re perpetually washing “black gook” and “black soot” off their windows and houses. Sources:
“Low-income, minority areas bear brunt of Bay Area pollution”
ANG Newspapers, February 18, 2007
“Study claims environmental racism in Bay Area”
CBS5/KCBS (San Francisco), February 20, 2007

Featured

U.K. Plant Fined For Radiation Leaks

By |

A Scottish nuclear plant operator was fined $273,000 last week for dumping solid nuclear waste in a public landfill, and for discharging contaminated water into effluent pipes that washed up on local beaches for more than 20 years. Less than five hours after the fine was handed down, another suspected radioactive particle was found on a nearby beach, the BBC reports. Source:
“Nuclear site operator fined 140k”
BBC (U.K.), February 15, 2007

Culture

A Flood of Trouble for a Thirsty World

By |

Analysis by David Agrell, Newsdesk.org

Unsafe water from New York to New Delhi, toxic rivers in China, drought in England and privatization riots in South Africa … water woes are playing out on every continent, where population growth, climate changes and pollution have turned “blue gold” into a commodity and a source of conflict. Dwindling water and droughts
According to the latest United Nations World Water Development Report, one-fifth of the world population lacks clean drinking water, and pollution, mismanagement and climate change will only worsen the situation. Attendees of the tenth Stockholm Water Symposium said that figure could swell to two-thirds by 2025 (PDF). Land affected by drought has doubled over the last 30 years, says the National Center for Atmospheric Research, adding that climate changes are responsible for “widespread drying” in Europe, Asia, Canada, Africa, eastern Australia and North America:

— East Africa is experiencing its worst drought in years, killing livestock and threatening starvation, the humanitarian aid group Project Concern International reported.