Earth Island Journal articles from January 2005

Earth Island Journal archives from January 2005

From the editor.(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... Peter D Ward is one of maybe a dozen leading scholars of the Permian extinction. Despite being an able popularizer, always anathema to scientists who cannot write, he is a sober-sided and careful researcher, not to mention a meticulous...

Biodiesel.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... Your story, "Make Fries, Not War!" may have left readers with the impression that biodiesel is illegal in California, which simply isn't the case. Biodiesel is legal as both a fuel and fuel additive. The existing biodiesel specification is...

Sonoran parks.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... Thanks for the article in the Autumn 2004 EIJ describing a proposal to create a fantastic international park along the US-Mexico border by combining and upgrading five existing reserves into a group of Sonoran Desert Sister Parks. It is a...

Errata.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2005... Last issue's IMMP report stated that dolphins offered for sale to aquaria command prices of 3,000,000 to 9,000,000 yen. The actual figure should be 300,000 to 900,000 yen.

Toyotarization in North Africa.(Africa)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... At the International Gee graphical Congress 2004 in Glasgow, Scotland on August 19, desert expert Andrew Goudie presented new research that shows an alarming increase in dust production from the use of four wheel drive vehicles. Dubbed...

South Africa must limit coal use.(Africa)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In September, speaking at the opening of a sustainable development conference in Johannesburg, South Africa's Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk declared that his country must address its apparent addiction to...

Even the weariest glacier.(Antarctica)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Some glaciers in Antarctica are flowing more quickly to the sea, with ominous potential implications for worldwide sea levels A paper in the online edition of the journal Science said glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea were thinning twice...

Mining Asia's water.(Asia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Farmers' wells are threatening to suck Asia's aquifers dry "This little-heralded crisis is repeating itself across Asia and could cause widespread famine in the decades to come," says the British science magazine New Scientist, in a report on a...

Three die of bird flu in Vietnam.(Asia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Another outbreak of bird flu in Vietnam in early August killed three people. Two of the three, both children, lived in Ha Tay province, about 30 miles west of Hanoi; the third victim lived in Southern Hau Giang province in the Mekong Delta....

Climate change "greater threat than terrorism".(Australia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Mike Rann, premier of the state of South Australia, has stated that climate change poses a greater threat to Australia than does terrorism and is exhorting his counterparts in other states and territories, and within the federal government, to...

Russia and Kyoto.(Europe)(Protocol to the Convention on Climate Change, 1997)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Russia's President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to put the Kyoto Protocol to a vote in his country's parliament. The protocol, in which signatories agree to reduce greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, will not take...

Bush's Blair-weather friend.(Europe)(George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Protocol to the Convention on Climate Change, 1997)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Often considered George W. Bush's best friend on the international stage, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been taking positrons on climate change that are 180 degrees opposed to those of his transatlantic pal--going so far as to urge the...

Europe's climate changing faster ...(Europe)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The European Environmental Agency (EEA) warned on August 18 that climate change is going to hit Europe hard, and soon. In a 107-page report, the EEA said that climate change "will considerably affect our societies and environments for decades...

... And faster still if the air is cleaner.(Europe)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... According to Professor Meinrat Andreae of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, air pollution may hide the magnitude of the threat posed by global warming. Andreae, speaking at a London conference on pollution, said that global warming may...

Polar bears on borrowed time.(Europe)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, there are equal numbers of people and polar bears. However, experts foal that balance is about to shift as the bears slide steadily toward extinction. Theoretically a protected species, the polar...

Bush blinks on climate change.(North America)(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Bush administration is almost admitting that warmer temperatures in North America may indeed be caused by human activity. The administration backed a government sponsored report sent to Congress in late August asserting that warmer weather...

Kicking the herbicide habit.(North America)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... A $541,050 federal grant will enable researchers at The Rodale Institute (TRI) to demonstrate how a new spin on old technology could reduce the need for toxic herbicides in American agriculture. "Our new 'no-till' technology could eliminate...

Rocky Mountain low.(North America)(Rocky Mountain Institute's emissions reduction policy)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a 22-year-old energy-efficiency NGO in Colorado, will quantify its greenhouse gas emissions each year, then buy an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide credits through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) market...

Mexican gas.(North America)(Mexican Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources' Mexico GHG Pilot Program to quantify greenhouse gas emissions)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Mexican Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) has launched the Mexico GHG Pilot Program, a voluntary national program to measure and report business green house gas (GHG) emissions. The project is the first...

Canadian vapor.(North America)(release of sulphur trioxide into the environment by a refinery raised concerns)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... A refinery in Canada failed to inform the proper officials after it released five tons of sulphur trioxide (S[O.sub.3]) that passed over downtown Montreal. The federal agency Environment Canada said it wasn't expeditiously notified when the...

Hot pursuit.(North America)(eight states sued public utilities for environmental damage)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In July, eight states filed a complaint in federal district court in New York claiming that global warming is damaging crops, tourism, beaches, citizens' health, forests, and fish, and threatening coastal communities as sea levels rise. The...

Chilean indigenes face trial.(South America)(crimes against property)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Eighteen Mapuche Indian leaders are scheduled to go on trial in Chile soon. Accused under a statute that prohibits "generating fear among sectors of the population," leaders of Chile's indigenous people currently face charges for a series of...

Global Service Corps.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... At the recent XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Global Service Corps (GSC) Executive Director Rick Lathrop presented the Seeds of Survival Partnership Program. Through this program, GSC supports people living with HIV/AIDS with...

UniversitArea Protegida Nicaragua.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... UniversitArea Protegida Nicaragua celebrated its first anniversary August 7 with a Nicaraguan fiesta in Occidental, California More than 50 UAP members gathered to hear from project director Olin Cohan about the program's advances and eat gallo...

Center for Safe Energy.(Earth Island project reports)(Open World Program)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Center for Safe Energy hosted eight Russian environmental leaders in Berkeley in September through the Open World Program at the Library of Congress. The delegates came from environmental NGOs across Russia to examine tire role of American...

Founder's Circle.(Earth Island project reports)
January 1, 2005... This fall Earth Island will host two special events for our Founder's Circle members: one in Mill Valley, California and the second at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Mill Valley program will bring together a panel of...

2004 International Whaling Commission.(International Marine Mammal Project)
January 1, 2005... This year's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Sorrento, Italy, brought the long simmering issue of vote-buying to a boil. Japan in particular has provided millions of dollars in overseas fisheries aid to many small...

Federal court slams Bush on dolphin protection.(International Marine Mammal Project)
January 1, 2005... International Marine Mammal Project is celebrating a major legal victory for dolphins. Federal Judge Thelton Henderson, in the case Earth Island Institute Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans, ruled on August 9, 2004 that the US Commerce...

Tuna campaign in Japan.(International Marine Mammal Project)
January 1, 2005... Although many countries around the world consume marine products, Japan, with its long history of fishing and marine harvesting, consumes more per capita than others. It is hard to find a traditional Japanese recipe that does not call for a...

Polly Strand's activist life.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2005... EII member Polly Strand was one of the earliest and most passionate activists for animal rights and human health. More than a decade ago she testified before the California legislature about the University of California's misuse of tobacco tax...

Reef Protection International.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2005... Ocean conservation has become a hot topic. With the release of two major reports on the status of ocean health from the Pew Commission and the US Commission on Ocean Policy, there is growing consensus that the oceans are in trouble....

Bay Area International Development Organizations.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2005... Working with Chinese environmentalists NGOs in the Bay Area International Development Organizations (BAIDO) network are working with grassroots organizations in China, using innovative means to help alleviate some of the country's problems...

Safe Food and Fertilizer.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2005... For five years, one small-town housewife-turned-mayor and four farmers--each suffering health problems caused by industrial wastes--worked diligently and cooperatively to unravel one of the fertilizer industries' best kept secrets. The...

UniversitArea Protegida.(Earth Island in the news)(student conference)
January 1, 2005... After several months of living and working in various campo sites (rural communities) in Nicaragua, UAP students reunited in a conference in late August. They shared experiences of relationships made with local families, of schools without road...

Hydro Nova.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2005... Hydro Nova brings innovative methods for dealing with wastewater to areas that lack sewer systems. In California about 1.2 million households use onsite systems, which may pollute groundwater if not properly installed or maintained. Hydro Nova...

Brower Youth Awards.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2005... If there is a bright spot in four years of darkness under the Bush administration's destructive environmental policies, it is the young activists who have stepped forward to challenge them. The federal government's recent rollbacks of...

Everyone's got a story.
January 1, 2005... Olin Cohan loves his job. "I love that my occupation doesn't feel like an occupation," he says. "I love the time that I get to spend in some of the most beautiful and remote areas that Nicaragua has to offer. And I love working with people who...

Bush: the environmental record: there's no longer even the pretense of even-handedness in the White House.(George W Bush)
January 1, 2005... Many of America's great wilderness places can be credited to Republican president Teddy Roosevelt, who protected vast tracts of America's landscape, establishing national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges from California to the Florida Keys....

WMDs in our backyards.
January 1, 2005... Fifteen years ago, Spring Valley was a peaceful community in Washington, DC with large brick colonial homes and beautifully landscaped lawns, surrounded by woods. Since then large excavations, mounds of dirt, construction equipment, and workers...

Farming under fire: Palestinian farmers contend with war, enforced drought, and the Separation Wall.
January 1, 2005... In the autumn of 2003, my son Joe and his wife, Liv, were working on the West Bank, and I spent 10 days with them at Thanksgiving. As a gardener in Oregon, I was eager to visit Palestinian farms and gardens. I also wanted to see the everyday...

Salt in an island's wound: squatters Guddy and Kai Birkigt fight to deflect a trend of human and natural resource exploitation.(Robinson Island)
January 1, 2005... Robinson Island is either a setup of land along the Kenyan coastline or a 5-mile by 500-meter portrait of deforestation and corrupt politics. It's the setting for once-abundant mangrove stands, clashing egos, and land grabs. It remains, after...

The Seaweed Rebellion: our oceans are in deep trouble and we must immediately take a fresh approach to ensure their survival.
January 1, 2005... In June more than 200 activists, lobbyists, educators and other citizens representing 170 organizations from more than 25 states and territories met to discuss the results of two historic reports, by the Pew Oceans Commission and US Commission...

Camisea in the Amazon: the indigenous Machiguenga of Peru's Amazon Basin face off against the fossil fuel industry.
January 1, 2005... As a rule, Kirigueti doesn't get a whole lot of visitors. This pueblito of 207 families lies a full day's journey from Ivochote, the last town accessible by dirt road in Peru's southeastern Amazon Reaching Kirigueti entails hitching a motor...

"Why wolves in Colorado?".(Voices)(Yellowstone National Park)
January 1, 2005... When I was a girl, I loved all things wild. I loved roaming the forest behind our house and the meadows that surrounded our farm And when I was a girl, my mother taught me to love wolves. In the late '60s and early '70s, new scientific ground...