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environment and social justice news stories and special environment action alerts June 2004

Arctic Wildlife Refuge is in danger Sign Petition to Save Arctic Wildlife Refuge click here World Rice Crops Threatened Global warming could mean bad news for one of the world's most important crops, rice. Increased night-time temperatures were associated with significant declines in crop yield at the International Rice Research Institute Farm in the Philippines, according to a report this week in Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences. Indeed, an average daily temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius resulted in a 10 per cent reduction in the rice crop, according to the researchers.  full story Bush Would Trade Biological Heart Of Western Arctic For Oil The Bush administration's proposed revisions to the 1998 management plan for the northeast portion of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve are unjustified and threaten "the biological heart of the Western Arctic," according to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The proposal aims to open protected areas of the region to oil and gas leasing, leaving only four percent of the 4.6 million acre planning area protected from drilling.  full story Supreme Court Deals Blow To War On Terror The U.S. Supreme Court severely limited the Bush administration's war on terrorism on Monday and allowed cases brought by terror suspects challenging their confinement to proceed in the American legal system. The surprising moves by the high court came in a series of term-ending decisions that pitted civil liberties concerns against national security arguments and marked a blow to President Bush's assertion of sweeping presidential powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. full story Greenpeace Reveals Bribery At Danzer Group "We knew they were dodgy, and now we have proof of just HOW dodgy" Today Greenpeace published an investigation into Swiss/German logging company The Danzer Group, which shows hard evidence of illegal logging, bribery and the defrauding of developing countries. "Illegal logging is not only destroying Africa's rainforest and wiping out precious wildlife habitat, but companies involved in this activity also appear to be defrauding developing nations and local communities out of millions of dollars through the systematic bribery of public officials," said Gavin Edwards of Greenpeace International. full story Environmental Factors The Major Cause of Cancer Most cases of cancer are linked to environmental causes, U.S. government scientists report, and simultaneously, a second group of government researchers says the number of cancer survivors is growing in the United States. Cancer is the second leading cause of death for Americans after heart disease.  full story Air Pollution Veils U.S. National Parks Visitors to America's national parks this summer may expect to find clean air and clear skies, but that is not what they will find. Air quality in national parks has improved little since Congress strengthened the Clean Air Act in 1990, according to a new study by three conservation groups. Failure to enforce clean air laws is the prime reason.  full story Early Snowmelt Ignites Global Warming Worries Yosemite National Park - There was no shortage of snow here last winter. But under a withering sun, the snowmelt started in mid-March, in what appears to be one of the earliest onsets in almost 90 years. Some scientists suspect it is another sign that climate change is eroding the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the state's main source of water.  full story EPA Inspector Says Agency Failing To Monitor Refinery Emissions Federal regulators are bungling the job of making sure that the nation's oil refineries — among the country's biggest polluters — reduce their emissions as promised, according to a report released by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general. The report, released yesterday, says the EPA's pollution cops aren't adequately monitoring the air and water at the 42 refineries that are under court order to reduce emissions.  full story Reef Crisis As Coral Cover Shrinks By Half In 40 Years Coral cover has declined by half across the world in just four decades, according to new research that highlights a crisis in international reef management. The study reveals "disturbing evidence" of a piecemeal approach to management of reef ecosystems worldwide and calls for a proactive global response to turn the tide. In essence, the ability of reefs worldwide to survive despite major threats such as global warming, over-fishing, chemical pollution, disease and sedimentation from urban run-off is at risk.  full story Supreme Court Ruling Favors Cheney in Energy Case The Supreme Court set aside a lower court ruling on Thursday that ordered Vice President Dick Cheney to hand over secret documents related to a White House energy task force. The ruling is only a partial victory for Cheney, as it sends the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reconsider the merits of the dispute.  full story Recovery For Africa's Threatened Rhinos? Africa's critically endangered black rhinoceros could be on its way to recovery if present trends continue. That's according to new estimates announced by the African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and WWF, the global conservation organization. Africa's white rhinoceros also appears stable at much higher numbers than the black rhino.  full story Greenpeace Protesters Take Anti-Bush Sign High Atop Coal-fired Hatfield's Ferry Station By the light of a crescent moon early yesterday morning, six Greenpeace activists snuck through a Greene County power plant's gate and scaled a 700-foot-high smokestack. In the dimness, the six protesters, equipped with climbing safety gear, food, water and a 2,500-square-foot sign, climbed up ladders connected to the red, white and brown stack at the Hatfield's Ferry power station in Monongahela Township, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh.  full story Thawing Polar Ice Cap Threatens Ancient Arctic Basins A multinational partnership of polar scientists is poised to take an historic census of marine life in the Arctic Ocean, including the planet’s oldest seawater – a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia, walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice. Experts in biology, geology and physics from the circumpolar and other nations will use submersibles, modern sonar detection and traditional techniques to record and inventory biodiversity in the Arctic Ocean in anticipation of additional climatic warming that, if realized, could remove the ice cap and dramatically alter aquatic life in the region.  full story Habitat For Recovery Of Species Seen As Shortchanged The Bush administration is approving only about one of every two acres that federal biologists propose setting aside to help vanishing species recover. Between 2001 and 2003, the government cut 42 million acres from plans to create nearly 83 million acres of critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, a National Wildlife Federation study found.  full story Degrade Environment Today, Pay Dearly Tomorrow Last week humanity commemorated this year's World Environment Day, which focused on the wisdom of protecting oceans and seas for man's survival, going by its theme: 'Wanted! seas and oceans - Dead or Alive?' This theme asks humanity to make a choice on how to treat the earth's seas and oceans. Do we want to keep seas and oceans healthy and alive or polluted and dead? It also calls for action from everybody, action that would alleviate poverty and enthrone peace. full story Australia's Koalas Face Extinction, Foundation Says Koalas, an iconic symbol of Australia, face extinction as rapid urbanization along the eastern seaboard destroys their fragile habitat, environmental activists have warned. The Australian Koala Foundation has written to the government urging it to declare the koala a vulnerable species after a survey of 1,000 koala habitats found 30 percent no longer had a koala in them and 60 percent had suffered widespread destruction.  full story West's Drought May Be Worst In 500 Years The drought gripping the West could be the biggest in 500 years, with effects in the Colorado River basin considerably worse than during the Dust Bowl years, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday. "That we can now say with confidence," said Robert Webb, lead author of the new fact sheet. "Now I'm completely convinced." The Colorado River has been in a drought all of this decade, cutting an important source of water for millions of people across the West, including Southern California.  full story Environment Blamed For One In Three European Child Deaths One in three child deaths in Europe is due to environmental factors, according to the first assessment of the overall impact of the environment on child health in the World Health Organization's European Region. Air pollution, unsafe water, lead and injuries are responsible for 100,000 deaths and six million years of healthy life lost every year in young people from birth to 19 years of age, researchers found. full story House Protects Yellowstone Snowmobiling, Continues Bison Slaughter The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to protect snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and turned down a one-year moratorium on the killing of Yellowstone bison. The votes represent a dual blow to environmentalists, who have lobbied long and hard for the ban on snowmobiles and for a halt to the bison killing policy.  full story Oil Chief: My Fears for Planet Shell Boss's 'Confession' Shocks Industry The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet". In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.  full story World Crumbling To Dust, Warns UN Desertification is picking up speed, doubling pace since the 1970s. THE world is turning into swaths of sterile land, with increasingly vast areas becoming desert every year and threatening to cause millions of people to shift to greener countries, the United Nations (UN) says. One-third of the Earth's surface is now at risk, driving people into cities and destroying agriculture in Africa. Thirty-one percent of Spain is at risk of becoming a desert, while China has lost 92100km˛ since the 1950s.  full story Flood Risk to 2 Billion By 2050, Says Study Floods already affect more than 520-million people worldwide every year. Torrential rains and rising rivers damage crops, sweep away roads and bridges, flood homes and claim around 25 000 lives. Far more live in the path of once-a-century type floods. But experts calculate the numbers at risk will more than double because of more frequent extreme weather events linked to global warming, because sea levels will continue to rise as glaciers melt, and because the clearing of forests means rainfall runs off faster.  full story Greenpeace Blocks Timber Road In Southern Oregon The environmentalist group Greenpeace opened its summer campaign to protect old growth forests in southern Oregon with a mixture of low-tech tactics and a high-tech way to tell the world what it was doing. Three protesters were arrested Tuesday after being dislodged from a 20-foot shipping container that had been plopped down in the middle of a logging road to block workers from getting to 236 acres of forest designated for a timber sale.  full story Ice Cream Dollars Could Purchase Ocean Protection For less than half of what Americans and Europeans together spend on ice cream each year, the world could establish a global network of marine parks, essential for restoring the health of the oceans and sustaining fishing industries, a study by WWF and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has found. The marine parks would cost up to $14 billion, while Americans and Europeans spend about $31 billion on ice cream per year.  full story Greenpeace Activists Deliver Message that "Ancient Forest Protection Starts Here" In a peaceful protest to challenge the assault on U.S. public lands by the Bush administration, Greenpeace activists put their bodies on the line today in the ancient forests of Southern Oregon. A three-ton cargo container with two people locked to the inside and one attached to the outside, was placed between chainsaws and some 236 acres of old-growth forest designated for a timber sale.  full story Europe Cultivates Organic Foods And Organic Farmers The EU circle of stars logo is about to blossom on packages of organic fruits, vegetables, breads, meat, dairy products, and possibly, even on wine bottles. On Thursday, the European Commission adopted the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming - 21 concrete policy measures aimed at getting more people to produce and eat organic foods.  full story Coal Power Soot Kills 24,000 Americans Annually Air pollution from the nation’s coal-fired power plants causes some 24,000 premature deaths each year, according new research released Wednesday. The study by Abt Associates, one of the largest government and business research and consulting firms in the world, finds some 90 percent of these premature deaths could be prevented by currently available emissions control technology.  full story Government Proposes More Alaskan Land For Oil And Gas Drilling The federal governments wants 387,000 more acres available for oil and gas drilling in Alaska, a proposal criticized by environmentalists. The move announced Wednesday is part of a proposed Bureau of Land Management amendment to a 1998 development plan for the northeastern region of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmentalists said the plan would endanger lands rich in sensitive wetlands and wildlife habitats.  full story China Finds More Wild Pandas The world's most famous endangered species, the Chinese giant panda, appears to be in much better shape than previously thought. The Chinese government has released the results of the most comprehensive survey of giant pandas ever. It found that there were around 1,600 of the creatures left in the wild, 40% more than previously thought. full story Brave Conservationists Perservere As Congo Battles Rage Conservation work being conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society is being interrupted by riots and looting in the eastern university town of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Biologist Terese Hart, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in the country, says some work is continuing, but "a rapid halt" was called to a wildlife inventory in Kahuzi-Biega National Park.  full story Busted! New Zealand Trawlers Caught In The Act Last week Greenpeace activists were "roughed up" by members of the Orange Roughy Management Company (ORMC) at a peaceful protest in Nelson, New Zealand. Their Chief Executive last week even denied that any of its members operated in International waters. Well it seems that someone was throwing us a bit of a red herring, because yesterday the Rainbow Warrior located three bottom trawlers on the high seas. One of them had connections to our old friends at the ORMC ...  full story Pentagon Report Set Framework For Use Of Torture Bush administration lawyers contended last year that the president wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department. The advice was part of a classified report on interrogation methods prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after commanders at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, complained in late 2002 that with conventional methods they weren't getting enough information from prisoners.  full story Riotous Fishermen Prevail In Galapagos National Park The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Captain Paul Watson and his crew have been ordered out of the Galapagos Islands while angry fishermen have been permitted by the Ecuadorian President to occupy Galapagos National Park. Three hundred residents of Santa Cruz Friday marched to the gate of the Galapagos National Park where they were halted by a line of Ecuadorian Police and Marines. full story US Citizens Revolting Against Paperless Voting Carroll County officials in the U.S. state of Ohio opted this week not to buy an electronic voting machine in time for November's presidential election, and Dan Kozminski says his group should get some of the credit for that decision. Kozminski's Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) is one of many campaigns -- local and national -- created specifically to push governments to ensure that if they jump on the electronic voting bandwagon, they must first guarantee that the new mechanism will include a "paper trail" for every vote.  full story Ocean Health In The Spotlight On World Environment Day "The marine environment is facing challenges that, if not addressed immediately and effectively, will have profound implications for sustainable development," warned United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan as the world prepares to mark World Environment Day 2004 on Saturday. "Wanted! Seas and Oceans: Dead or Alive?" is the theme of this year's activities.  full story Estimates Of Wildlife In Rainforest Canopy 'Only Half The Story' Twice as many animals are living in rainforest treetops as had previously been estimated, making that unique aerial habitat one of the world's richest hotspots for wildlife, according to a study by two British scientists. It is estimated that about 90 per cent of all animals and plants that live at the boundary between the land and the air live in the forest canopy, yet next to nothing is known about that endangered habitat, the researchers said.  full story Greenhouse Gas Crisis, 55 Million Years Ago Undersea Volcanoes released stupendous amounts of greenhouse gases 55 million years ago, causing a cataclysmic change in the world's climate. Scientists warn that the dramatic climate change which happened during that period could be a model for a similar disaster in the coming centuries as a result of man-made global warming.  full story Europe's Energy Use Still Rising The countries of Europe are not keeping their promises on the environment, the European Environment Agency believes. The agency, a European Union body, says the latest trends show growing evidence of climate change, on land and at sea. It says there are also worrying levels of urban air pollution and agricultural contamination of water, and increasing amounts of packaging and other waste. full story Court Upholds Snowmobile Pollution Rule, Says It May Have To Be Strengthened Federal appeals court judges upheld tougher pollution controls on snowmobiles Tuesday but asked why the Environmental Protection Agency rule would exempt almost a third of newly built snowmobiles. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected claims by the snowmobile industry that the EPA had no authority to require new snowmobiles to have cleaner burning engines to reduce air pollution.  full story Drought, Floods, War Leave 35 Countries Hungry Natural disasters, drought, civil conflict and disease have left 35 countries with serious shortages of food, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned Monday. The majority of the hungry nations - two dozen - are in Africa. HIV/AIDS compounds the power of hunger to deplete a community as many farmers have either died or are too weak to work the fields.  full story top environment news archives environment news services environment news today