Earth Island Journal articles from December 2001

Earth Island Journal archives from December 2001

Dear Journal.
December 22, 2001... Take the Train You've a great magazine and I really enjoy it, but, sorry to say, I'm not willing to agree that there's such a thing as a green plane (or car for that matter). In the instance of the ["StarPort," an energy-saving airport...

Clarification.(investigation of software company N2H2 Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... N2H2, Inc. denies the report that it "secretly conspired to sell client data [from kids using its BESS Internet filtering software] to the Department of Defense" [EcoMole Autumn EIJ]. N2H2 suggests that it was its franchisee, Roper Starch, that...

Ebb & Flow.
December 22, 2001... By Jove, They've Got It UK -- The Times of London reports with pride that London is now the world's most multilingual city. London schoolkids speak 307 different languages (and that doesn't include hundreds of dialects). At one school...

Eco-Mole.
December 22, 2001... Calling Jimmy Carter Mother's Alert [www. mothersalert.org] is circulating the following notarized statement by Jane Rickover, daughter-in-law of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the "father" of the US nuclear navy. "In May 1983, my...

Positive Notes.
December 22, 2001... Rodeos Ridden Out of Town Pasadena Councilmember Paul Little stated: "Causing pain, injury, and death to animals is not entertaining. We won't profit from it and we won't allow it on city property" The Professional Rodeo Cowboys...

The Borneo Project.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... The Borneo Project was instrumental in a High Court victory in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The court ruled that the Iban villagers of Rumah Nor had customary rights to the rivers, streams and communal forest around their...

The Circle of Life Foundation.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... The Circle of Life Foundation's Julia Butterfly Hill helped launch a new 2002 California state ballot initiative to save California's last remaining ancient and old-growth trees. "These trees are part of our heritage, not only as a state, but...

Global Service Corps.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Global Service Corps (GSC) is completing its first season in Tanzania with a new HIV/AIDS training program. More than 80 teachers from six Tanzanian secondary schools and 30 student peer counselors were taught counseling skills and attended...

The West Africa Rainforest Network-US.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... The West Africa Rainforest Network-US [WARN-US, warn@earthisland.org], one of Earth Island's newest projects, is dedicated to protecting the 10 percent remaining West African rainforests from the actions of unscrupulous individuals and...

Earth Island Institute.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Earth Island Institute commemorated Saturday June 30, 2001, by staging the first annual Brower Day in downtown Berkeley, California, Dave's home town. A crowd of around 3,000 visited stalls from around 45 local non-profit groups, 15 green...

Climate Solution.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Climate Solution's new special 12-page report, "Rising to the Challenge: The Northwest's Clean Energy Leadership," salutes a number of clean-energy success stories including: Seattle City Light, the first US utility that aims to eliminate all...

Restore Hetch Hetchy.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Restore Hetch Hetchy, an organization of which David Brower was a founding director, has been lobbying the San Francisco Board of. Supervisors to remove O'Shaughnessy Dam and restore the valley The water system is in urgent need of repair and...

International Marine Mammal Project.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... International Marine Mammal Project's Mark Berman, in the company of Paul McCartney, Jane Goodall and Anita Roddick, is part of a new book called Speaking out for Animals [Lantern Books, One Union Square West, Suite 201, New York, NY 10003]....

The Brower Center.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... The Brower Center. Just two weeks before he died last November, EII founder David Brower learned of plans for a David Brower Center, a world-class facility to house environmental groups that also relates the story of environmental activism to...

The Brower Legacy Site.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... The Brower Legacy Site ("BrowerWeb") has been revamped with new photos, quotes and updates. Coming soon: streaming video and audio of the Archdruid in action, courtesy of our friends at Ecostream. If you have films or videos of Dave please...

Green Goods.
December 22, 2001... Green Goods. Check out EII'S online store featuring 100 percent organic cotton t-shirts, a wide array of classic and new environmental books, planet-friendly apparel, home and garden items, music, computer software, health and beauty goods,...

To Free a Dolphin.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... GUATEMALA -- It was bizarre, trying to convince people of the importance of freeing dolphins when, at the same time, 78 of the country's most dangerous prisoners had just fled the state's highest security prison. But that's what our group...

Dolphin Swim Centers Under Fire.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... MEXICO -- Commercial swim-with-dolphins parks are proliferating at an alarming rate. Mexico, Venezuela and several Caribbean countries -- including Anguilla, Tortola, Jamaica, Bermuda and Antigua -- are capturing young bottlenose dolphins by...

"No Sanctuary for Whales" as Vote-buying Scandal Rocks Whaling Commission.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... UK -- An attempt to secure new whale-safe sanctuaries in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans foundered during the July 200! meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as Japan and its pro-hunt allies (Norway and Iceland, plus six...

`Dolphin-Safe' Label Victory.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... SAN FRANCISCO -- Last July, a three-judge panel for the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Judge Thelton Henderson's decision in "Brower vs. Daley," Earth Island Institute's landmark tuna-labeling lawsuit. "This is a...

Clean Energy for Crimea.
December 22, 2001... SIMFEROPOL, UKRAINE (April 23, 2001) -- I'm in a sunny cafeteria, where a few young women are chattering in a Slavic tongue over cheery English pop music echoing from the kitchen. I've survived a grueling two-day journey from Seattle to Kiev,...

Bucking the Corporate Future.
December 22, 2001... The accelerating concentration of control over the world's resources poses a growing challenge to nations and communities working toward environmentally sustainable and socially just development. Through their raw economic clout,...

The `Solution' to Pollution is Still `Dilution'.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Nearly 30 years after passage of the Clean Water Act (CWA), toxic industrial and municipal wastes are still being dumped into our rivers, streams, lakes and coastal waters. Congress intended the CWA and federal pollution regulations to end the...

Oil, Gas and Native Rights.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... "As a grand finale to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and President George Bush began to negotiate a continental energy deal. Tragically, this short sighted deal is about expanding oil and gas...

Cellphones or Gorillas?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO -- The 100 to 130 surviving Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla berebgei graueri) in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, are facing extinction because of growing demand for cellphones. The critical cellphone capacitors are made...

Planet of the Apes No More?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... KENYA -- The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced a major global campaign to save the world's great apes from imminent extinction. The Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) hopes to stem the tide of habitat destruction that threatens...

Africa: Sea Turtle Heaven.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... GABON -- A comprehensive study of sea turtles has revealed that the largest concentration of Leatherback turtles is to be found on the southern beaches of Gabon. The Convention on Migratory Species reports that the Atlantic coast of Africa...

Villagers Out on a Limb.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... UGANDA -- The Norwegian forestry company Tree Farms has started planting a 5,000-hectare pine and eucalyptus plantation through a local subsidiary, Busoga Forestry Company Ltd. But the project, in the Bukaleba Reserve on the shores of Lake...

Bujagali Dam Imperils Nile.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... UGANDA -- The International Finance Corp. (IFC) has given the go-ahead for construction of the Bujagali Dam on the White Nile. The US-based AES Corp., the world's largest independent power broker, is in line to build the $530 million...

Mowing Down Forests and People, Too.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... LIBERIA -- The Danish timber company, DLH Group [www.dlh-group.com], has been accused of doing business with two liberian logging companies alleged to be involved in arms trafficking. A UN investigation has charged Oriental Timber Co. (OTC) and...

ExxonMobil Sued For Atrocities.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... INDONESIA -- A June 20 lawsuit filed in Washington D.C. names the oil giant ExxonMobil as responsible for murder, torture and kidnapping in Aceh, a region on the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. [A copy of the filing is available at...

Trade Rep Pushes Deadly Drug.(Robert Zoellick)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... SOUTH KOREA -- US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick [600 17th St., NW, Washington, DC 20508] has pressured the South Korean government to reduce tariffs on US cigarettes from 40 percent to a mere 10 percent. This marks a departure from the...

Odd Allies: Tigers & Guerrillas.(India)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... INDIA -- Officially, there are 4,500 tigers in India, but former Indian Environment Minister Maneka Gandhi fears the actual number of surviving tigers now is less than 800. While the Indian government is loath to admit it, one of the tigers'...

Traveling Circuses Told to Fold.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... SINGAPORE -- The Singapore government has issued a ban on circus performances, effective January 1, 2002. As Singapore's Straits Times put it: "[circuses with] or elephants coming to Singapore with travelling circuses have been told to pack...

Who'll Stop the Rain?(Indian drought)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... INDIA -- With drought raging across India, a group of resourceful villagers in Rajasthan State banded together to create a community-owned rainwater harvesting system. After much preparation and volunteer labor the Lava Ka Baas Recharge...

Reva Set to Rev.(Indian electric car the Reva)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... INDIA -- A September deadline required New Delhi's commercial vehicle owners to exchange their polluting gas and diesel buses and cars for compressed natural gas vehicles. Electric vehicles are also showing up on India's roads. The country now...

Sweetening the Pot.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... INDIA -- For years, Indian activists have been trying without success to convince the government to remove the cancer-causing oxygenate MTBE from gasoline and diesel fuel. MTBE, which was introduced into India's gasoline 10 years ago, threatens...

China Outperforms US in [CO.sub.2] Cuts.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... CHINA - Within the next five years, reports a joint World Energy Council/UN Environment Programme [www.unep.org] study, renewable, clean energy systems can "save the equivalent of I billion tons of [CO.sub.2] annually." A survey of 91 countries...

Frankenfood Battles Abroad.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... THAILAND -- In May, Thailand became the first country in Asia to ban the release of genetically engineered (GE) crops into the environment. Within days, the government of Sri Lanka banned the sale of all genetically modified foods. The US...

Waste into Power.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... UK -- The town of Holsworthy (infamously in the news as the site of the mass-incineration of cattle exposed to foot-and-mouth disease) now has a new claim to fame, reports Green Futures [Unit 55, 50-56 Wharf Road, London N1 7SF,...

Flavored, Fizzy Milk with BGH?
December 22, 2001... UK -- Not satisfied with attempts to market bottled water, the Coca-Cola Company now wants to muscle its way into the milk market. According to The Ecologist, the Atlanta-based multinational "wants to develop a new line of milk drinks aimed at...

Taxing Tourists.(Mediterranean islands)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... SPAIN -- The Belearic Islands -- Mallorca, Ibiza, Minorca and Formentera -- are a Mediterranean Mecca for the rave-age tourist crowd. But with the tourist trade now bringing 9 million visitors a year to these sun-washed islands, Spain's...

Britain Says `No' to GM Java.(genetically modified coffee)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... UK -- Integrated Coffee Technologies, Inc. (ICTI), a US-based company, is hard at work on a scheme to genetically re-jigger coffee beans so that they all ripen at the same time when sprayed with a chemical "activator." This would mean that...

Having Your Cake and Kyoto Too.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... BELGIUM -- According to a report from the European Climate Change Program (ECCP), the European Union could cut annual emissions of [CO.sub.2] by 715 metric tons -- twice the 8 percent cut needed to comply with the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse...

No Money for a Security `Milestone'.(Russia-U.S. nuclear security)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... RUSSIA -- When Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton were leaders of their respective countries, they agreed that it would be a good idea to build a shared nuclear "early warning center" to guard against the accidental launch of a nuclear weapon. In...

Olive Oil on Troubled Waters.(agricultural subsidies)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... SPAIN -- European Union subsidies that prop up olive farms are responsible for the loss of 80 million tons of topsoil in the Andalucia region every year. The expansion of olive farms has destroyed natural habitat in Spain, Italy, Portugal and...

Putin Puttin' Russia on Road to Ruin.(Vladimir Putin, nuclear wate management)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... RUSSIA -- Despite massive popular opposition, Russian President Vladimir Putin, has dictated that his country will become the world's nuclear wastebasket. In exchange for $21 billion, Putin would open the doors to 20,000 tons of spent nuclear...

Unfiltered Benefits.(tobacco industry, Czech Republic)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... CZECH REPUBLIC -- On July 26, Philip Morris officials apologized for hiring Arthur D. Little International to compile a study to convince the Czech Republic that encouraging cigarette smoking would have "positive effects" on the Czech economy....

Tithe to Fly.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... UK -- Air travelers leaving London's Luton Airport are being asked to cough up as much as 3 [pounds sterling] ($4.24) to a "carbon offset fund" to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of their flights. Luton's Environment Director Mark...

Will Ford Have a Better Idea?(Ford Motor Co.)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... THE NETHERLANDS -- Greenpeace International has challenged the CEOs of the Fortune 100 companies to state their position on the Kyoto Treaty to control [CO.sub.2] pollution. Many companies claim to have "no position" but remain active members...

You Deserve a Bed Today.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... IRELAND -- Government cutbacks are bad news for social services but great opportunities for private industry. In Ireland, the public was recently polled to determine their feelings about corporate sponsorship of healthcare facilities. Only...

Amazon Gone in 20 Years?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... BRAZIL -- Pennsylvania State University Professor of Environmental Sciences James Alcock has used a sophisticated mathematical model to project the Amazon forest's future. That future is bleak, indeed. "The destruction of the Amazon rainforest...

World Bank to Cuba: `Great Job'.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... CUBA -- "Cuba has done a great job on education and health," World Bank President James Wolfensohn exclaims, "and it does not embarrass me to admit it." Wolfensohn's burst of praise followed the publication of the bank's annual edition of...

A Park is Born.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... CHILE -- The forests of towering alerce trees have been compared to California's ancient redwoods. In July, Chile created its own Yosemite -- Pumalin Park, a 700,O00-acre tapestry of land that sweeps from coastal fjords to snow-topped Andean...

Rocky Mountain Front Saved.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- A grassroots campaign to save Montana's Rocky Mountain Front (RMF) from mining was successful. All national forest lands along the RMF have been placed off-limits to hardrock mining for 20 years. More good news: On May 7, 2001, the 9th US...

Can't See the Forest for the Bombs.
December 22, 2001... US -- For the past 50 years, the US Navy has been dropping bombs into the 150,000 hectare Ocala National Forest in Florida. The US Forest Service's (USFS) permit gave the Navy the right to bombard the forest's scrub oak, sand pine scrub and...

Free the `Star Wars 17'.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- On July 14, 2001, anti-nuclear protestors gathered at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast to challenge a test of the Pentagon's trouble-plagued anti-missile system. The protests only delayed the test for two minutes' but 17...

The Teddy Bear Prisoner.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... CANADA - During the height of the anti-globalization protests in Quebec City last April, a group of protesters mounted an aerial assault on police lines outside the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas conference perimeter Using a medieval...

Goose Hunt.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- Seattle's Great Canadian Goose Hunt was called off on July 13, when government goose eradicators gave up the chase in the face of massive citizen resistance -- including several noisy "Honk-Ins" outside the Seattle Parks Department. The...

Clean Investing.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- According to "Clean Tech: Profits and Potential," an investment study prepared by Clean Edge, the $7 billion clean energy market for solar and windpower, fuel cells, geothermal and microturbines is expected to expand 28 percent annually....

Vieques, Si! Padre Island, No!(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- The US Navy plans to vacate its bombing range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in 2003 and needs to find a new stretch of coastal land to pummel. The Son Antonio Express News reports that a leading candidate is a remote section of...

The Face the Enemy?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... CANADA -- Student organizer Allison North criticized Prime Minister Jean Chretien for cutting funding for education. Next thing she knew, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were demanding to know if she planned to stage a violent demonstration...

Defending Florida's Panthers.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- Earth Island's Bluewater Network and a coalition of eco-groups are threatening legal action against the National Park Service over the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve. The coalition maintains...

Shahtoosh Seller Censured.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- Maxfield Enterprises, Inc, a high-toned fashion store in Beverly Hills, has been ordered to pay a $175,000 fine for importing and selling shahtoosh shawls. Shahtoosh scarves are made from the fine fur of the Tibetan chiru, whose...

Bluewater Bites McDonald's.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- In August, Bluewater Network (BWN) and 25 other green groups challenged McDonald's to halt its "Monopoly Sweepstakes," which offered snowmobiles, jet skis and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) as prizes. As Bluewater points out, in 2000,...

Greens Go National.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- Green Party leaders from several states have voted unanimously to form the country's newest (and third largest) national poetical party. The Green Party has grown an estimated 35 percent since the historic Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke...

Dams Undone.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- During the 2001 "river restoration season," nearly 40 aging dams were removed in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Washington. "Since the nation declared its independence...

A Global Oil Grab?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- The Bush/Cheney Energy Plan expects to see oil consumption rise to 25.8 million barrels per day by 2020 with US dependence on foreign imports rising 61 percent. Deep in the massive report, Michael Klare (the author of Resource Wars)...

US Enters the Killer-Seed Biz.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- In August, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would be joining forces with its private industry partner, Delta & Pine land (DPL) to produce and promote genetically engineered "Terminator" seeds. Terminator seeds,...

Stage Your Own Armageddon.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- The US has 10,000 nuclear warheads and the Pentagon insists that it would be irresponsible to cut our atomic arsenal to less than 2,500 bombs. But when members of Congress sought to justify this number by reviewing the Pentagon's nuclear...

Boise Cascade's "Dirty Tricks".(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- On Jury 25, Julia Butterfly Hill Bonnie Raitt and 18 others were arrested following a peaceful sit-in at the headquarters of Boise Cascade near Chicago. The Rainforest Action Network [RAN, (415) 398-4404, www.ran.org] has called Boise...

Who's Doing the Talking?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... US -- A Focus on the Corporation study by Justin Elga and George Farah has discovered that one of the least-discussed topics on TV political talk shows is... corporate power. A review of 18 months of broadcast transcripts for Meet the...

San Francisco May Ban Fur Sales.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... The City of St. Francis, patron saint of animals, may become the first US city to ban the sale of fur. The San Francisco Commission on Animal Control and Welfare has asked the city's Board of Supervisors to approve an ordinance banning the sale...

Bluewater Battles Bush's Rollbacks.(Georeg W. Bush's environmental policy, Bluewater Network)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Bush administration attacks have forced Bluewater Network (BWN) and other environmental groups to fight to preserve hard-won gains achieved during the Clinton Administration. Earth Island's Bluewater Network believes the best defense is a...

Up in Smoke.
December 22, 2001... GREAT BRITAIN -- Foot-and-mouth disease is a condition from which most animals recover. The cure for foot-and-mouth, by contrast, is a condition from which Britain may never recover. The treatment, in other words, is far graver than the...

Depleted Uranium's Legacy.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... by the Right livelihood Foundation In the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority produced a report estimating that 50 tons of dust from depleted uranium (DU) shells left behind in the Iraqi soil could cause up to 500,000...

Uranium in War: The US in Kosovo.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Every nation with a nuclear industry has access to depleted uranium (DU). In addition to the US and Britain, some 17 countries are known to have DU weapons, including Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Thailand, Israel and France....

Monsanto and the Mustard Seed.
December 22, 2001... INDIA -- In July 1998, protests erupted across India when the government announced plans to import 1 million tons of US soybeans to be used as oil seeds. Critics complained that there was no guarantee that these shipments would not be...

Monsanto and the `Drug War'.
December 22, 2001... A prominent US Senator and other government officials from both Washington and Bogota stood on a Colombian mountainside above fields of lime-green coca -- the plant sacred to Andean Indians, but also the source of the troublesome drug, cocaine....

Are Genetically Altered Foods The Answer to World Hunger?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2001... Biotechnology is one of tomorrow's tools in our hands today. Slowing its acceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford. -- Monsanto advertisement Genetically engineered crops were created not because they're productive but...

A Biological Apocalypse Averted.
December 22, 2001... These [genetically engineered] products are absolutely safe. For the most part you wouldn't know [if you were eating them] but the point being that you wouldn't need to know. -- Bryan Hurley, Monsanto spokesperson There is a great deal...

Why We `Ransacked' McDonald's.
December 22, 2001... In 1999, Europe refused to open its markets to hormone-laced US beef. In retaliation, the US slapped trade tariffs on a number of European exports, including Roquefort cheese. French dairy farmers were outraged. On August 12, 1999, a group of...

Trade Secrets: The Inside Story.(chemical industry)
December 22, 2001... If you listen to the chemical industry's public relations campaigns, you would think that all of its products are perfectly safe. But the industry's own documents tell a different story. On March 29, 2001, the Public Broadcasting System aired a...

The Globalization of Repression.(new technological advances in weapons and techniques used against political dissidents)
December 22, 2001... A Special Report to the European Parliament The following is an edited version of a 112-page "Special Report to the European Parliament" prepared by the Omega Foundation for the European Parliament's department of Scientific and...