Earth Island Journal articles from March 2001

Earth Island Journal archives from March 2001

Dear Journal.(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2001... Study, schmuddy... Last week news of the "York Study" came out of Great Britain intended to reassure us that water fluoridation was perfectly safe. I guess the York Study wasn't actually a study as studies go because this study didn't...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 22, 2001... The photo of Keiko on the Winter 2000-2001 table of contents was supplied by Ocean Futures. Our thanks to Charles Vinick of Ocean Futures [www.oceanfutures.org] who supplied the helicopter used for Mark Berman's aerial observation of Keiko's...

Ebb & Flow.(various articles)
March 22, 2001... Sunscreen or Deadly Nightshade? NORWAY -- Scientists with the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) have discovered that octyomethoxycinnamate (OMC), a chemical ingredient in 90 percent of the world's sunscreen lotions, may be so...

Eco-Mole.
March 22, 2001... A Capitol Offense Washington, DC-based TV producer Ed Hotaling got a shock while researching a story on the capitol's historic buildings. Hotaling unearthed Treasury Department pay slips that revealed the US Capitol Building and the White House...

Positive Notes.(various articles)
March 22, 2001... BEER, BREW AND [CO.sub.2] Cars and cows belch [CO.sub.2]. So do breweries. After the folks at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, decided to do something to reduce their brewery's global warming impact, they switched from polluting...

Dear Mister President.
March 22, 2001... An open letter to the President of the United States Over the next four years, your administration will be required to make thousands of decisions, many of which will have lasting effects upon humanity, as well as on the world's fragile...

Don't Waste the Water.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... One-third of US households uses septic systems rather than municipal sewerage systems to dispose of wastewater. The EPA estimates that as many as half of these on-site systems may be in danger of failing -- posing a threat to groundwater, lakes...

Mexico's Dolphin-deadly Tuna Hits US Markets.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Dolphin-deadly tuna from Mexico's largest cannery is being sold in US supermarkets, according to an investigation conducted by Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP). "Dolores" brand tuna is caught off the...

Drive Fishing Persists.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... JAPAN -- It is annual "drive fishing" season again in Japan. Drive fishing is a practice in which fishers use boats and loud noises to herd dolphins into shallow inlets where they are slaughtered with knives and spears by other fishers standing...

ASMS -- Dolphin-safe Monitoring in Switzerland.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... SWITZERLAND -- Since its inception in 1990, the Swiss Working Group for the Protection of Marine Mammals (ASMS) has become a major player among conservation organizations. ASMS has participated as a non-governmental observer in meetings of the...

POPA -- Dolphin-safe Monitoring in Portugal.(Portuguese acronym for Azorean Fishery Monitoring Program)
March 22, 2001... PORTUGAL -- After six years as a voluntary program, the Portuguese government codified the Azorean Fishery Monitoring Program (known by its Portuguese acronym, POPA) into law and extended the ocean area it covers beyond the Azores to the Canary...

Below the Aurora Borealis: Northern Forests at Risk.
March 22, 2001... The boreal forest comprises one-third of the world's forests. Stretching across the top of the globe, the boreal forest is the largest continuous land-based ecosystem on Earth. In his 1999 book of the same name, author Daniel Gawthrop called...

Making Waves.
March 22, 2001... Earth Island in the News EARTH ISLAND FOUNDER DAVID ROSS BROWER died on November 5, 2000, at the age of 88. This issue of Earth Island Journal is dedicated to Dave and his work. DAVE BROWER MEMORIAL On December 2, more than 1,600...

NORTH AMERICA.
March 22, 2001... Lawns and Odor CANADA -- North Americans pour more pesticides on their lawns than on their farms. In addition to causing birth defects and cancers, lawn chemicals also smell bad. Landscapers in Ontario think the solution is Masker-Aid...

ASIA.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Merger in the First Degree MALAYSIA -- The merger of multinational food giants Novartis and AstraZeneca has prompted cries of alarm from the Pesticide Action Network of Asia and the Pacific, a coalition of more than 150 groups in 18...

EUROPE.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Lord Melchett Set Free UK -- Last October, Greenpeace Executive Director Lord Melchett and 27 other activists were found "not guilty" of causing criminal damage to a field of genetically modified corn. The jury accepted the activists'...

OCEANIA.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... The Mount Olympus of Trash AUSTRALIA -- Last summer's "Green Olympics" summer games produced 10,000 tons of solid waste, enough to fill the main stadium 50-feet-deep. The litter included 20 million disposable cups and plates, 45 million...

AFRICA.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Titanic Titanium Tankers KENYA -- Titanium is used in golf clubs, rockets and jet fighters. In the future, if Canada's Resources Inc. gets its way, ten percent of the world's titanium will come from a 6,000-acre mine site south of Mombasa....

SOUTH AMERICA.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... The Film that Saved a Forest PERU -- In 1996, when the Peruvian government gave US-based Mobil Oil the rights to drill for oil in the Candamo Valley, scientists and environmentalists were scandalized. The Candamo Valley is celebrated...

World to US: `Wake Up and Smell the Carbon'.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... US torpedoes global climate summit THE HAGUE -- A draft of a major scientific study to be published in May predicts that atmospheric [CO.sub.2] levels could raise global temperatures by 6 C (11 F) over 1990 averages. The 1,500-member...

The Hidden Fallout of Mad Cow Disease.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... The Hidden Fallout of Mad Cow Disease UK -- After failing to acknowledge the spread of "mad cow disease" until scores of British beef-eaters had died of Creuztfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD, the transmitted human variant of bovine spongiform...

US and Mexico in Secret Dolphin Meeting.(United States)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... INTERNATIONAL MARINE MAMMAL PROJECT State Department officials held two days of secret meetings in September with Mexican government officials and the Mexican tuna industry. Among those excluded: environmental groups, US tuna companies,...

Will NAFTA Force US to Drink MTBE?(North American Free Trade Agreement, United States, methyl tertiary butyl ether)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... On October 13, 2000, Earth Island's Bluewater Network (BWN) joined the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Communities for a Better Environment, and the Center for International Environmental Law demanding to participate as amici curiae (friends...

Anti-Nuke Miracle Challenged.(antinuclear movement in Taiwan)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Taiwan's 20-year-long anti-nuke struggle finally bore fruit last October, when -- in the face of mounting political pressure and after months of televised debates and political standoffs -- Taiwan's new President Chen Shui-bian announced the...

Penan Block Timber Roads.(indigenous Bornean people, Malaysia)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... In the late 1980's, pictures of Malaysia's loincloth-wearing nomadic Penan blockading bulldozers in Sarawak appeared in newspapers worldwide. For a brief period, these blockades shut down interior logging operations in Malaysian Borneo....

Brower Blasts Yosemite Plan.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... An October 2000 ribbon-cutting for a road-widening project at Yosemite National Park was disrupted by environmentalists who called the event "illegal, shameless and inappropriate." The widening of El Portal Road, part of a controversial park...

Tibet's Antelopes "Endangered".(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... In the first case to be prosecuted in the US for the illegal trade in "shahtoosh," the wool of the Tibetan antelope, two traders were sentenced November 28 in New Jersey district court for the illegal import and export of more than 400...

Brower Youth Awards.
March 22, 2001... On October 14, 2000, Earth Island Institute awarded the first Brower Youth Awards to six exceptional environmental leaders. The Brower Youth Awards were founded in honor of David Ross Brower, a man who inspired five generations of...

Project LEND Creating Opportunity in Thailand.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... THAILAND -- Like other capital cities around the world, Bangkok serves as an important national center for government, business, education and culture. Each day, millions of people from all over the country pour into Bangkok. With the lingering...

Harvesting the Wind A New Crop for US Farms.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 22, 2001... The windmill, much as the farmhouse or barn, is a signature of the traditional rural landscape. Wind was a prime farm energy source before rural electrification and gasoline-powered water pumps. Now the wheel has come full turn, and wind is...

The Quest to Save Earth's Islands.
March 22, 2001... Although thoughts of islands generally conjure up romantic images of eternally pristine tropical paradises, islands are actually among the world's most threatened ecosystems. The world's more than 100,000 islands are home to a...

Conservation, Preservation and Restoration in Ecuador.
March 22, 2001... CREATING AN ECO-CIUDAD IN ECUADOR Following a series of natural disasters ranging from devastating El Nino floods to an earthquake, the coastal city of Bahia de Caraquez committed itself to become an ecologically sustainable community. ...

Ecuador's Environmental Policies.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Ecuador lies on the northwest shores of South America, facing the Pacific Ocean. Located across the imaginary line that divides the globe into north and south, Ecuador is known as "the country in the middle of the world." Ecuador's four...

The Quiet Campaign for Genetically Engineered Humans.
March 22, 2001... We are fast approaching the most consequential technological threshold in all of human history: the ability to directly manipulate the genes we pass on to our children. Development and use of these technologies would irrevocably change the...

SOLUTIONS: 15 WAYS TO EASE OUR IMPACT ON THE EARTH.
March 22, 2001... Pump`er Up French race-car engineer Guy Negre claims to have invented a non-polluting car. The e.Volution doesn't burn air, it runs on air. Compressed air pumped into the 700-kg (1,542-pound) vehicle's tanks is slowly released to power...

Challenging Corporate Authority.
March 22, 2001... New strategies challenging corporate authority and privilege are sprouting up across the US FOR MOST OF THE 20TH CENTURY, Americans became accustomed to challenging corporate abuses of authority one clearcut at a time, one toxic spill at a...

The Politics of Pollen.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... Allergy problems are far worse today than ever before in our lives. Deaths from asthma continue to climb each year at alarmingly epidemic rates. And although in many cities we have less total vegetation than we used to, there is more pollen in...

A Prisoner of Conscience in the War of the Woods.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2001... In the summer of 1999, 72-year-old great-grandmother Betty Krawczyk committed civil disobedience to protest the Interfor Corporation's logging of British Columbia's old-growth forests. On September 15, 2000, she was convicted of criminal...

David R. Brower.
March 22, 2001... July 1, 1912 - November 5, 2000 UNTIL one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills...

A GIFT FROM THE TREE (and from Friends of the Earth).
March 22, 2001... ONE DAY, about two and a half milleniums ago, when things were just right for it, a small seed began the process of putting together the exact amounts of air, water, soil, and solar energy to form what would be the Wawona Tree. Most of the...

Third Planet Operating Instructions.
March 22, 2001... THIS PLANET has been delivered wholly assembled and in perfect working condition, and is intended for fully automatic and trouble-free operation in orbit around its star, the sun. However, to insure proper functioning, all passengers are...

Credo.(Poem)
March 22, 2001... There is but one ocean though its coves have many names; a single sea of atmosphere with no coves at all; the miracle of soil, alive and giving life, lying thin on the only earth, for which there is no spare We seek...