Earth Island Journal articles from January 2006

Earth Island Journal archives from January 2006

From the editor.(Editorial)
January 1, 2006... The most recent attempt by Representative Richard Pombo to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act has been largely ignored by the public, despite relatively aggressive media coverage. As the Associated Press put it: "Pombo's bill is a...

Recycling nuclear waste.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... Your Summer 2005 Earth Island Journal had a piece by Natale Servino about "reusing" nuclear waste in the United Kingdom. It's true, but hey! The US has been and continues to push putting nuclear waste in with regular trash for dumping,...

On the wrong track.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... NASCAR ("NASCAR Goes Green?" Autumn 2005 EIJ) is like WalMart. They want to put a racetrack in every town, hamlet, and city in the US. At a time when we should be discouraging this type of "growth," for pollution, energy, and habitat...

Hotter, drier, poorer.(global warming may increase poverty in Africa)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... In its June report to the annual G8 Summit entitled "Africa: Up in Smoke," the Working Group on Climate Change and Development warned that global warming will increase poverty in Africa. The report said that because Africa "lives on the...

Burn on, big lake.(Lake Victoria, pollutants could cause fire)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... East Africa's Lake Victoria might catch fire, says a Ugandan official. "Unless something is done to control the pollutants into Lake Victoria," says National Executive Secretary for Lake Victoria Environment Management Programme, Dr. Faustino...

Kids at the top.(United Nations Environment Programme, Children's World Summit for the Environment, Japan)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) first Children's World Summit for the Environment brought 600 children from 65 countries to Japan in July. "The Children's World Summit is an important event, and it comes as a follow-up to...

China loves miniminivans.(ASIA)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... A $5,000 minivan has driven General Motors to the head of the Chinese automobile market, now its largest market outside the US. Averaging 43 miles to the gallon, the vans are slower, smaller, and less comfortable than GM's American vans,...

Iran's forests--famed and forgotten.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Environmentalists have impelled the reduction of annual timber harvest quotas in Iran's forests from two million cubic meters just two years ago to one million this year. Unfortunately, the lack of responsible land-use regulations along with...

Powering Pakistan.(Comprehensive Energy Conservation Plan)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Pakistan's Comprehensive Energy Conservation Plan, yet to be officially announced, will employ varied and somewhat vague initiatives to meet the nation's energy needs. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, citing Pakistan's commitment to comply with the...

Leave the uranium down under.(AUSTRALIA)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... After years of widespread opposition, shifting attitudes towards nuclear power in Australia may lead to increased uranium mining and exporting. Australia has an estimated 40 percent of the world's uranium deposits, but low prices,...

From sewer to socket.(energy from human waste, Australia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... An Australian inventor claims he can turn human waste into a viable energy source. To address concerns about increasing greenhouse gases and climate change, Cy d'Oliveira's creation, the d'Oliveira Natural Gas Refinery, converts sewage...

Hot British birds.(climate change)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Climate change is altering the bird population in the United Kingdom. Mild winters have pushed British bird populations eastward. Birds nest earlier and migrating birds arrive earlier than in the past. Researchers for "The State of the UK...

It's a burr, it's a plantain, it's Superweed!(charlock, United Kingdom)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... British scientists have found a new pesticide-resistant weed in a field previously used to grow genetically modified crops. The superweed appears to be a hybrid of a wild local plant, charlock (Sinapsis arvensis) with GM oilseed rape. Crossing...

Toxic Pentagon.(Department of Defense, toxic waste disposal)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The General Accounting Office (GAO) reports that the Pentagon has refused some state and federal requests to test sites for toxic perchlorate contamination. The Pentagon called the report "factually incorrect and fundamentally flawed." The...

Fluoride, bones, & boys.(Report on Carcinogens, Environmental Working Group )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit research organization, petitioned the National Institutes of Health to include fluoride in tap water in "The Report on Carcinogens," which lists substances known or reasonably suspected to...

Biofuels: too little for too much.(enrgy used to produce exceed enrgy produced)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Fuel from farm crops takes more energy to produce than it generates, says a new study from Cornell University and the University of California, Berkeley. "The US desperately needs a liquid fuel replacement for oil in the near future, but...

Organic: the same for less.(organic crops production, cost less economically, environmentally)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Organic corn and soybean yields equal conventionally grown yields, but use less energy, less water, and no pesticides, concludes a study of a 22-year farming trial. "Organic farming approaches for these crops not only use an average of 30...

Right whales wronged.(North American right whale, dwindling population)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The North American right whale is in trouble and could face extinction in the next century if current mortality rates continue. Eight have been killed over the past 16 months, including three pregnant females. Scientists studying the...

Big concerns for a tiny country.(Tuvalu, global warming)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Enile Sopoaga, Tuvalu's Ambassador to the UN, asserted at a Middlebury College conference that while global warming and rising sea levels are slowly destroying his country, a typhoon the size of Hurricane Katrina would wipe it out in a matter...

Learning from burning.(Brazil, forest fires study)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts will conduct a controlled burn of two and a half square kilo meters of transition forest between the Amazon and the "Cerrado" savannas of central Brazil, as part of a study assessing the impact of...

Turtles run from "The Gauntlet".(Tobago, reality show location, leatherback turtles' nesting ground intruded)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... On the Caribbean island of Tobago, nesting grounds for the critically endangered leatherback turtle were compromised to accommodate the set of MTV's new reality series, "The Gauntlet." Elements of the set's construction and the disturbances...

Frogs croak.(Ecuador)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Frogs once again herald the coming of habitat destruction, disease, pollution, and climate change. This time the news is from Ecuador, home to 417 species of frogs and toads, of which at least one third are classified as vulnerable or in...

Wildfutures.(Cougar Management Guidelines)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Wildfutures has recently published the first edition of Cougar Management Guidelines, the most authoritative resource on cougar biology. The book explores various cougar management approaches and strategies for dealing with human-cougar...

UniversitArea Protegida Nicaragua.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... UniversitArea Protegida Nicaragua welcomes UC Santa Cruz intern Leo Maxam to the Earth Island community. After spending three months in Nicaragua working with UAP-sponsored students on a socioeconomic study in the fishing community of Padre...

Center for Safe Energy.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Eight young Ukrainian environmental leaders visited the San Francisco Bay Area September 9-16 to examine how American environmental organizations mold public policy, and to learn about non-governmental organization (NGO) development. The...

Mangrove Action Project.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... In response to requests following last year's tsunami, Mangrove Action Project will hold a workshop on mangrove restoration in India from November 7 to 12. Participants from India, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand will be trained in ecological...

Bay Area Wilderness Training.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Bay Area Wilderness Training raised $32,500 on its recent annual Mr. Shasta trip. Funds will help inner-city youth experience wilderness adventures. If you would like to join the Mr. Shasta trip in 2006, contact Roger at (415) 788-3666 or...

Earth Island Institute.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Kevin Connelly is the new development director of Earth Island Institute. Kevin joins us from In Defense of Animals, an international animal protection organization dedicated to ending the exploitation and abuse of animals by raising their...

IslandWire.(Earth Island project reports)(magazine)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Once a month, Earth Island Institute provides updates on its projects, events, and other environmental news through IslandWire, a free e-mail newsletter. You can join the mailing list by visiting our home page at www.earthisland.org.

Staff and projects.(Earth Island Institute)
January 1, 2006... Earth Island Institute Life on Earth is imperiled by human degradation of the biosphere. Earth Island Institute develops and supports projects that counteract threats to the biological and cultural diversity that sustain the environment....

International Marine Mammal Project.(Earth Island in the news)(Ben White)(Obituary)
January 1, 2006... Earth Island Institute loses a good friend Ben White, 1951-2005 Ben White lived his life fighting battles that seemed impossible to win. Whether he was rescuing dolphins from captivity, organizing tree-sitting events, or protesting on...

Global Service Corps.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2006... FOOD SECURITY AND HIV/AIDS Global Service Corps (GSC) Executive Director Rick Lathrop recently returned from an International Food Policy Research Institute conference, "HIV/AIDS, Food and Nutrition Security," in Durban, South Africa. This...

Nature in the city.(Barbara Kobayashi, San Francisco city wilderness areas protection)
January 1, 2006... Urban people need nature, and our urban wildlands need us Barbara Kobayashi volunteered regularly with the Presidio Ecological Restoration and Stewardship Program. A "naturalized" San Franciscan who left her hometown, Los Angeles, over 30...

Borneo Project.(Earth Island in the news)(Borneo Pulp and Paper Sdn. Bhd.)
January 1, 2006... Indigenous victory overturned On July 8, the Sarawak Court of Appeals overturned an historic indigenous land rights victory from 2001. The land claim of Iban Dayak community Rumah Nor to 672 hectares of communal forest was invalidated in...

Brower Youth Awards.(Earth Island in the news)
January 1, 2006... On September 30, seven incredible young activists received a 2005 Brower Youth Award, the most prestigious award in the US for leaders of tomorrow's environmental and social justice movements. Each recipient was presented a $3,000 prize by...

Everyone's got a story.(EcoVillage Farm Learning Center, California)
January 1, 2006... Most people look at a vacant lot and see an eyesore; Shyaam Shabaka, Project Director of Earth Island Institute's EcoVillage Farm Center, sees a place to change a life. He has been transforming empty spaces and troubled lives since the early...

The year we lost the deserts.(Mojave Desert)
January 1, 2006... It is a bright July day in the Mojave Desert, and the temperature hovers around 105[degrees]F. I have driven this stretch of dirt road more times than I can count, but today the Park Service has closed it to traffic, and so my companion and I...

The beating heart of the estuary: demand for fish oil puts the Chesapeake under increasing pressure.
January 1, 2006... During the early 1900s, Reedville, Virginia, boasted the highest per capita income of any community in America. Today, it remains the nation's third-largest fishing port in terms of pounds landed--375.3 million pounds in 2003, almost...

Fire and ice: methane hydrates energy solution, or worst idea ever?
January 1, 2006... What new source of energy being pursued as a replacement for current fossil fuels is colorless and odorless, supports a newly discovered species of worm, and could cause a cataclysmic change in climate? Methane hydrates: single molecules of...

Six reasons we lost New Orleans: environmental degradation made Katrina much worse.(Hurricane Katrina)
January 1, 2006... Surging seas and vicious winds whipping through coastal Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama weren't the only causes of the enormous damage left behind after Hurricane Katrina. Human-made changes to the area's natural environment amplified the...

The K Chronicles: "Gee Dubya in: escape from New Orleans!!".(Cartoon)
January 1, 2006... I HAD A DREAM THAT AIR FORCE ONE CRASH-LANDED IN NEW ORLEANS WHILST FLYING OVER THE FLOODED CITY!! .. & IT WAS UP TO ONE OF THE STRANDED LOCALS, TO GET THE PLANE'S SOLE SURVIVOR, THE PRESIDENT, TO THE SUPERDOME.. & ONTO A BUS, SO HE COULD...

The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears.(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears Nick Jans Dutton Publishing, 2005 Unless you've been in hibernation, you probably know that in October of 2003, self-proclaimed bear expert Timothy Treadwell and his...

The Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide (2005-2006).(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... The Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide (2005-2006) David Helvarg, editor Island Press, 2005 This is the ocean decade. Hundreds of groups have sprung up across the United States to work on marine issues, from local watershed- and...

Halliburton, Iran, and nukes: Cheney's company is secretly doing business with key member of Iran's nuclear team.(Dick Cheney)
January 1, 2006... Scandal-plagued Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has been working secretly with one of Iran's top nuclear scientists on natural gas related projects and, allegedly, selling the scientists' oil...

Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness.(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness Piers Moore Ede Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005 After a hit-and-run driver left him near death in San Francisco, Piers Moore Ede had to rebuild his life on several levels. Ede's recovery involved...

Too much of nothing: the US continues to push an insane climate policy.(global warming)
January 1, 2006... It's getting harder to hide the climate crisis. February saw a landmark conference in Exeter, UK, in which leading scientists drew a clear, unambiguous line. No more "uncertainty" for these guys. As John Schellnhuber, director of Cambridge's...

Voices.(Hurricane Katrina, global warming, future course)
January 1, 2006... "What are the lessons of New Orleans?" We're told the 9/11 attacks ushered us in to a new, more dangerous world, where we can no longer afford old illusions. If we take its full lessons, Hurricane Katrina challenges us more profoundly. ...