Earth Island Journal articles from June 2004

Earth Island Journal archives from June 2004

Extra!(From the editor)(Editorial)
June 22, 2004... The production schedule of a quarterly magazine works against including late-breaking news. Earth Island Journal hits the newsstands about three weeks after the document is sent to our printers. Do you remember what the top news story was three...

Thanks, Leonie.(From the editor)
June 22, 2004... This issue was produced with the capable and enthusiastic help of intern Leonie Sherman, who now departs to attend the UC Berkeley School of Journalism. Perhaps "depart" is the wrong word: Leonie is already hard at work on articles for upcoming...

A view from Mozambique.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... Just a quick note of thanks for your Spring 2004 edition of Earth Island Journal, which I enjoyed very much. I particularly liked your "From the Editor" article on how the debate on GM crops is confused, twisted, and obscured by both those who...

Politically correct left-wing cultural Marxists like us.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... On page 32 of your Spring 2004 issue, the statement above the photo [accompanying an article by Seth Zuckerman] is "In the desert Southwest of the US, even a footstep can cause damage that may take centuries to repair itself." Wow! If that is...

CO2 and bugs.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... David Seaborg's article on the Greenhouse diet is a stunning example of how crucial the fight to slow global warming really is. Thanks for printing such an eye-opening story. I suspect this will touch off some amazing fellow-ups soon. Far too...

Save Cornwall's beaches!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... I thought your readers might like to know about our campaign to stop the destruction of a Cornish beach and the surrounding environment. Hayle Beach lies at the southernmost part of St. Ives Bay. Three years ago the owners of Hayle Harbour...

Corrections.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
June 22, 2004... Norman Holy's article "Tangled in the web of life" (Spring 2004 EIJ) included an error introduced during the editing process. We inadvertently added a zero to a figure describing typical depth of gillnets. That figure should have read 300 feet...

Is it getting hot in here?(Global)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... A new report indicates that the number of species wiped out by global climate change will soon exceed extinctions expected from habitat destruction. The report, written by a team of scientists led by Dr. Chris D. Thomas of England's...

Nasty climate.(Global)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... The US military and a prestigious insurance company each released chilling reports this spring detailing potential worst-case scenarios from climate change. One of the reports, prepared for the US Defense Department by California firm Global...

The logs of war.(Africa)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... What do civil conflicts in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia have in common? These wars, among the most brutal in the world, are funded in part by sales of illegal timber. At stake is "conflict...

Turn down the heat on bushmeat.(Africa)
June 22, 2004... Some British zoologists say trade in African bushmeat should be regulated rather than banned. The total trade in bushmeat involves millions of tons each year. Scientists at the Zoological Society of London say that a total ban is not realistic....

Don't eat crow.(Asia)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Avian bird flu hit Japan in late January, adding another country to a list that already includes China, Thailand, and Vietnam. In Thailand and Vietnam the flu has passed to humans and resulted in 22 deaths, while In China and Japan the disease...

Civet responsibility.(Asia)
June 22, 2004... The southern province that provided China's first known case of SARS in 2002 plans to reopen markets for the export of wild meat, despite the concerns of some health experts. Sales of the 54 species of wild meat once traded by Guangdong...

Russian towards extinction.(Asia)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... During International Whale Week, February 14-21, environmental activists from 93 different countries sent letters, faxes, and e-mails on behalf of endangered Western Pacific gray whales. There are about a hundred of these whales left, and their...

Penguins: patents pending.(Antarctica)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Researchers at the United Nations University in Tokyo claim that Antarctica is in danger of being exploited by biotechnology companies. Resource extraction activities are banned or regulated in Antarctica, but bio-prospecting activities...

Southern breezes.(Australia)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Australia is set to radically increase its production of the world's fastest-growing energy source--wind. Pacific Hydro plans to build a 195-megawatt wind farm in the southern state of Victoria, which will be the largest wind farm in the...

Dying for fresh air.(Australia)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... More Australians die from breathing polluted air than from automobile accidents. Australian air quality has gotten so bad than an average of 2,400 people each year die from related health issues, compared with 1,700 from auto and road...

For whom the truck tolls.(Europe)
June 22, 2004... Truck drivers in the European Union may be offered an economic incentive to cut vehicle emissions. In March, the EU Parliament's Transport committee adopted a proposal to enact sliding-scale tolls for trucks based on emission levels. The...

Not a carbon copy.(Europe)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... The EU will require factories to reduce their pollution levels by 20 percent within seven years, compared to 1990 levels. Member states adopted the Kyoto treaty two years ago but only recently passed legislation forcing governments of the...

Going, going, gone.(North America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Scientists agree that Greenland's ice sheet is melting. The question is, how fast? And will it ever recover? The ice cap is a vast reservoir of fresh water, and were it to melt completely, ocean levels could rise by over 20 feet. ...

John Muir was from where?(North America)
June 22, 2004... The Sierra Club is once again wracked by differing opinions on immigration. At the center of the battle is Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson, current member of the Board of Directors and a vocal backer of three controversial nominees for Board...

Cruisin' for a bruisin'.(North America)
June 22, 2004... Google recently pulled ads for the ocean advocacy group Oceana from its search pages, citing "language advocating against the cruise line industry and cruisers" as the cause. In February, Oceana placed two ads with the popular Web search site,...

Eat farmed salmon, buy the farm.(North America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... A recent study found that farmed fish typically contain seven times the amount of PCBs that wild fish do. PCBs are listed as a "probable carcinogen" by the EPA. The study revealed farmed fish to have a concentration of 36.63 parts per...

Staking out the ocean.(North America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... The Bush administration plans to submit an offshore aquaculture bill to Congress this year that could put an end to public stewardship of the Exclusive Economic Zone, three miles to two hundred miles offshore. A new report released by the...

Keep them pearly whitetips.(North America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... At one time the whitetip shark was the most common large animal in the world and the dominant species in the world's oceans. Two researchers in the Gulf of Mexico have found that whitetip shark numbers there have declined by 99 percent in the...

Arsenic and old plants.(North America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Though the EPA recently agreed to ban the use of pressure-treated wood, such wood already in use will continue to release arsenic into surrounding soil for years to come. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and has been linked to the development of...

Never fly wolf.(North America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... As many as 100 wolves in Alaska's Nelchina Basin near McGrath have been killed in a resumed aerial hunt. Republican governor Frank Murkowski signed a bill in June 2003 overturning a ban on shooting wolves from aircraft. Friends of Animals asked...

Filet of slimehead.(Oceania)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Orange roughy, a deep-sea fish popular with US consumers, is in rapid decline worldwide. A study by the World Wildlife Federation and TRAFFIC warns that the orange roughy could become "commercially extinct" if immediate measures are not taken...

Forests fight back.(Oceania)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Timber thieves have struck with a vengeance across Indonesia since President Suharto was forced to step down in 1998. Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim estimates that 75 percent of all Indonesian legging is illegal. Loggers have helped turn...

Running out of ramin?(Oceania)
June 22, 2004... A report released by the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency and Telepak, an Indonesian environment group, calls Malaysia the center of a multi-million-dollar web of illegal trading in ramin, a rare blond tropical hardwood...

Futile fumigation.(South America)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... Since 2000, nearly $3 billion of US tax money has been funneled into a Colombian herbicide spraying program intended to reduce cocaine availability in the US. The US Congress recently announced that for the first time, these funds may be used...

Darwin flinches.(South America)
June 22, 2004... Scientists at the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galapagos Islands woke to a surprise when militant fishermen seized their offices in mid-February. During the 14-day protest, the fishermen also took control of the offices of Ecuador's...

Earth Island is pleased to welcome three new projects.(Earth Island project reports)
June 22, 2004... Earth Island is pleased to welcome three new projects. The Alliance for a Clean Waterfront (ACW) will lead efforts to transform the way San Francisco manages its stormwater and sewage. Much of San Francisco's municipal water is wasted due to...

Working Assets, the telecommunications company dedicated to building a world that is more just, humane, and environmentally sustainable, recently awarded EII a portion of their 2003 donation pool.(Earth Island project reports)
June 22, 2004... Working Assets, the telecommunications company dedicated to building a world that is more just, humane, and environmentally sustainable, recently awarded EII a portion of their 2003 donation pool. The contribution is determined by the votes of...

Earth Island and 30 other environmental organizations including Oceana, Bluewater Network, and Surfrider Foundation, have released a letter criticizing the International Council of Cruise Lines and Conservation International for lack of commitment to ending cruise ship pollution.(Earth Island project reports)
June 22, 2004... Earth Island and 30 other environmental organizations including Oceana, Bluewater Network, and Surfrider Foundation, have released a letter criticizing the international Council of Cruise Lines and Conservation International for lack of...

Maat Youth Academy founder-director Sharon Fuller was named Woman of the Year in California's 14th Assembly District.(Earth Island project reports)
June 22, 2004... Maat Youth Academy founder-director Sharon Fuller was named Woman of the Year in California's 14th Assembly District for her community service and youth advocacy, and was honored at a reception in March by Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante...

Mangrove Action Project.(Earth Island project reports)
June 22, 2004... This summer, Mangrove Action Project (MAP) will lead a volunteer team to Akumal, Mexico to help with mangrove rehabilitation, sea turtle rescue, and other conservation work. MAP will team up with a Mexican NGO and local communities to help...

Amir Nadav.(Earth Island project reports)
June 22, 2004... Congratulations to 2002 Brewer Youth Award winner Amir Nadav, honored by Teen People magazine as one of "20 Teens Who Will Change the World" for his cleaner school bus campaign. If you know people age 13 to 22 who are changing the world,...

Brian Maxwell.(Earth Island project reports)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
June 22, 2004... Brian Maxwell, founder of Berkeley, California-based PowerBar, died unexpectedly of a heart attack March 19. Brian, 51, was a generous friend of Earth Island. He is survived by his wife Jennifer and their six children. We at EII mourn his...

Bush administration conspired with Mexico.(International Marine Mammal Project)
June 22, 2004... The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) recently released a series of memos that show a pattern of deliberate abuse of science by the Bush administration at the expense of protection for dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific tuna...

Navy battens hatches on sonar.(International Marine Mammal Project)
June 22, 2004... IMMP and other environmental organizations fighting noise pollution in the oceans are confronting the Navy's deliberate attempts to misstate the science and promote the use of whale-killing sonar regardless of the environmental damage. ...

Victory for Mexican dolphins.(International Marine Mammal Project)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has won another victory for marine mammals in Mexico. A branch of the federal government announced administrative actions against former officials who authorized the illegal importation of 28...

IMMP goes to Spain.(International Marine Mammal Project)
June 22, 2004... In mid-February, as a representative of Asociacion Para la Defensa de los Derechos del Animal (ADDA), Spain's oldest animal welfare organization, I had the pleasure el accompanying Mark Berman and Paolo Bray, coordinators of IMMP's Dolphin-Safe...

Baikal watch.(Earth Island in the news)
June 22, 2004... Oil and Politics Russia, China, and Japan are competing over major deposits of oil and natural gas recently discovered in the Lake Baikal region. No one knows yet just how large these Siberian deposits are. Like the oil and gas currently...

Kids for the Bay.(Earth Island in the news)
June 22, 2004... Diversity In environmental education To encourage students to become environmentalists, it is important to provide role models that reflect their cultural backgrounds and inspire them to believe that they too can be scientists and...

UniversitArea Protegida.(Earth Island in the news)
June 22, 2004... In early March, hundreds of students from La Universidad Nacional Autonomo de Nicaragua (UNAN Leon) held a student strike. They stood outside the city hall to protest raised bus pass prices and the diminishing education budget, among other...

Everyone's got a story.
June 22, 2004... For Jeff Greenwald's 40th birthday, he treated himself to a 29,172-mile around-the-world overland voyage, and wrote a book called The Size of the World detailing his experiences. This year, for his 50th birthday, he traveled to a country he has...

Saving Chile's "redwoods": a new direction for the Valdivian rainforest.
June 22, 2004... Our group of 13 ecologists and biologists gets off the 1970s 4WD Mercedes school bus. We heave our packs onto our shoulders for the trudge northward through the Valdivian Rainforest along the southern Chilean coast. For the next four days, we...

Hostile takeover: US corporations carve up Iraq.
June 22, 2004... Monday, December 1, 2003: Three Humvees with soldiers in camouflage from head to toe crawl along the highway behind a tank. They have their fingers on the triggers of their guns; we can almost see them scowl as we fly past in our GMC Suburban....

Mad Cow: worse than you think.
June 22, 2004... In December a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarian discovered that a cow imported from Canada into Washington state tested positive for the invariably fatal Mad Cow disease. Two months later, the USDA quietly concluded that it had...

Piercing the heart of the Tongass: nearly ten million acres opened up to road-building and clearcutting.
June 22, 2004... On December 23, at approximately 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, staffers at the US Forest Service in Washington, DC pressed the "send" buttons on their fax machines, then scuttled through their office doors before the telephones started...

The genetic resistance: "Mendocino is the first GMO-free county in the nation, and I am sure it will not be the last.".
June 22, 2004... From Mendocino, California to Montpelier, Vermont, communities are passing measures to say no to the contamination of the food supply with genetically engineered (GE) seeds and crops. Resistance to the spread of GE food crops is mounting around...

Can the lion lie down with the lamb? In the Kitengela area south of Nairobi, an innovative approach to conflicts between wildlife and herders.
June 22, 2004... The flight into Nairobi airport is spectacular. As your plane begins its approach, look out the window at the broad grasslands of Kitengela, home to Maasai pastoralists and their livestock--you can make out the distinctive circular thorn...

Voices.
June 22, 2004... In May 2003, I had the great honor of meeting the legendary Harvard scientist Dr. Edward O. Wilson. When I thanked him for signing our letter calling on the UN to institute a moratorium on longline fishing in the Pacific to prevent the...