Earth Island Journal articles from March 2003

Earth Island Journal archives from March 2003

From the editor.
March 22, 2003... In this kind of work, you get some interesting letters. People find an issue of the Journal online, or in the library, and pen thoughtful, evocative missives to express their points of view. One such came in by way of our website this autumn,...

Kudos. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2003... The new Journal is absolutely stunning: vastly easier to read, pleasing layouts, fine writing. Kudos and bouquets to all responsible. Tom Turner Berkeley, California

No-dos. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2003... I liked your old look 100 percent better. Never listen to the "experts." Dave Palmer Reno, Nevada Toss those reader surveys! I urge you to reconsider: bring back the older format. This issue (Winter 2003) is about the worst...

Environmental terror. (Letters).
March 22, 2003... Chris Clarke's article in the Voices section about attacks on environmentalists is excellent. Thank you for an informative piece of writing. Don't be so tough on ELF and ALF. The targets of ELF and ALF deserve what they get. I support and...

The last word on testing. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2003... Environmental Defense simply rewrites history and denies the actual role it played in the EPA's massive animal slaughter known as the high production volume (HPV) chemical testing program (Letters, Winter 03). In truth ED, the chief architect...

Development in Africa. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2003... Nicola Swinburne ("Africa wants to develop," Winter '03) makes a valid point about the arrogance of the attitude of the environmental movement from the affluent North that "developing countries" should cut back on their resource use. She asks...

Grow food! (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
March 22, 2003... The Greenpeace True Food Shopping List in the EIJ Winter '03 is useful but misleading. It misses all-encompassing solutions like growing your own food and buying farmer direct. If you were to buy food only from the True Food list, you would...

GM skeeters. (Africa).
March 22, 2003... Malaria claims nearly a million lives a year on the African continent, and as pesticides such as DDT become increasingly ineffective against the disease's mosquito vector, Anopheles gambiae, scientists are looking at genetic engineering as a...

Youth for Conservation. (Africa).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... The bushmeat trade, in which wild animals are caught for sale as meat, is one of Africa's most pressing environmental problems, but activists on the ground are doing something about it. Since August, the Kenyan group Youth for Conservation has...

Here comes the sun. (Africa).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Sun power has come to a village in Lesotho. In March, the 25,000 residents of Mohaleshoek celebrated the opening of Solarsoft Centre, built by students of the nearby Bethel Business and Community Development Centre. Since its opening, Solarsoft...

Dow hacked. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Online pranksters put a figurative pie in the face of a major chemical corporation in December. Press agencies and activists around the world received an email--with headers forged to appear as if it originated from Dow Chemical's main...

Science for the people. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... 95 activists from 13 countries met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in September to--as participants put it--"ensure that science and technology serves the interests and needs of the people." The First International Peasant-Scientist Conference...

Give us the land of Diego Garcia. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Indian Ocean islanders sued the British Foreign Office in London's High Court in late October, saying they were "tricked" into giving up their land. Thirty years ago, the islanders were forced to leave the Chagos Islands by the British...

Free Jumbo. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... London's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) made a charge in October that could devastate the zoo industry, saying that close captivity significantly shortens the lives of elephants. Elephants kept in zoos or safari...

Bologna cell phone study. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Though scientists have largely concluded that radiation from cell phones poses no direct threat to human health, a new Italian study suggests that 900-megahertz radio waves may encourage existing tumors to grow. Biologist Fiorenzo...

Heritage sites threatened. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Air pollution, illegal development and sewage-laden water are endangering a third of Italy's UNESCO World Heritage sites, including such treasures as Pompeii's ancient ruins, according to Legambiente, an environmental group. Three dozen sites...

Brown plate special. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Polish miller Jerzy Wysocki has come up with organic bran dinner plates which are functional, eco-friendly, and good for your digestion to boot. Wysocky says that mill owners have been wondering what to do with their bran for centuries....

Sun power rising? (North America).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... A discovery at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that a single system of alloys incorporating indium, gallium, and nitrogen can convert virtually the full spectrum of sunlight--from the near infrared to the far ultraviolet--to...

Fish whistleblower. (North America).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... A federal biologist who worked on a review of Klamath Basin water policy is seeking protection as a whistleblower. Michael Kelly, of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), says his team's recommendations to maintain higher water levels...

Enviro destruction charged. (North America).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says that Citigroup Inc., the United States' largest financial services company, is banking on environmental destruction. RAN links Citigroup to Ecuadoran oil pipeline company Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados, Papua...

Happy chimps. (North America).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... For perhaps the first time in history, an animal protection group has forced an animal research lab out of existence. The Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care, a state-of-the-art Florida sanctuary, said that it was permanently retiring the 266...

Earth island project reports. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... Friends celebrated the 20th anniversary of Earth Island Institute on October 25, 2002 at the Party for the Planet. This year's event included a retrospective video on the importance of EII's work, a great speech from founder David Brower's...

Staff and projects. (Earth Island Institute).
March 22, 2003... 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 sustains the environment....

C-Saw battles mixing zone pollution. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... October marked the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Even with the Great Lakes dying and the Cuyahoga River on fire, it took a Congressional override of a Nixon veto to make the Clean Water Act law in 1972. Progress has since been...

Mangrove action project. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... Coastal Communities Resource Centers take root The coastal area of North Sulawesi in Indonesia is famous for its world-class diving among the coral reefs off Bunaken National Park. Less famous but equally important are the area's...

KIDS for the BAY. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... In November, KIDS for the BAY (KftB) celebrated 10 years of providing meaningful and effective environmental education to East San Francisco Bay children. Based in Berkeley, California, KftB collaborates with teachers to stimulate children to...

Circle of Life Foundation. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... Circle of Life to become independent On November 1, 2002, Circle of Life became independent of Earth Island Institute after two years as a project of the parent organization. "Earth Island Institute is an innovative organizational home...

Yggdrasil Institute. (Around Earth Island).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... In 1994, Mary Byrd Davis founded Yggdrasil Institute to consolidate, continue, and expand her work centering on nuclear issues. Yggdrasil is currently working extensively with the French organization The Centre de Documentation et de Recherche...

Local group sues Nagoya Port Authority. (International Marine Mammal Project).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Ombudsman Aichi, a citizens' group in Aichi prefecture, Japan, has sued the Nagoya Port Authority (NPA), seeking suspension of the purchase of two orcas from Russia. The group claims that keeping orcas in a small tank is a form of animal...

Fisherman of conscience. (International Marine Mammal Project).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... For 30 years, Japanese fisherman Izumi Ishii hunted dolphins, following in the footsteps of four generations of his family. Three years ago, however, the sound of dolphins crying as 70 of them were being slaughtered on the town dock caused him...

Keiko continues. (International Marine Mammal Project).
March 22, 2003... The summer of 2002 held many surprises and accomplishments for the Keiko Project. In June, after a long winter, Keiko began regular ocean voyages from Westman Islands, his Icelandic home. These ventures brought him closer to wild whales than he...

Secret dolphin report released. (International Marine Mammal Project).
March 22, 2003... IMMP has obtained a secret research report on dolphins and posted a copy on EII's website. Prepared by scientists in the Bush administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the report reveals that thousands of dolphins are still...

Return to the sea. (International Marine Mammal Project).
March 22, 2003... With a boatload of staff from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Nicaraguan soldiers cheering them on, two rescued dolphins (nicknamed Bluefield and Nica) swam into the wide open sea on August 23, after a mere 16 days in...

Court restricts killer sonar. (International Marine Mammal Project).
March 22, 2003... A US federal court in San Francisco has sharply restricted the use of Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar, a system that emits one of the loudest sounds ever produced by humans under water. Designed to detect silent submarines at long distances,...

World Sustainability Hearing special report. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... World Summit to the movement: "Do you have a pulse?" The UN's World Summit on Sustainable Development was held at the end of August 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The outcome was bad news for anyone who might still think that our...

World Sustainability Hearing special report: Grassroots Globalization Network. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... Real results from Jo'burg At the recent World Sustainability Hearing in Johannesburg, South Africa, regular civilians and civic leaders from around the globe warned of stalled progress toward the sustainable society envisioned at the first...

SAVE International. (Around Earth Island).
March 22, 2003... Happy birthday, SAVE On August 26, Berkeley-based SAVE International celebrated its fifth anniversary on the UC Berkeley campus. The event provided an opportunity for SAVE to review progress to date and plan for the ongoing campaign to...

The last fish: America's fish stocks are crashing faster than Wall Street stocks last July, mostly for the same reason: the sea lions are guarding the salmon pens.
March 22, 2003... After months of conflict between corporate and community-based fishermen, industry processors, recreational fishers, and environmentalists, Congress now appears gridlocked on reauthorizing the Magnuson Act, America's main fishing law, so rife...

Australia's ANWR: the secret plan to drill for oil just outside the Great Barrier Reef National Park.
March 22, 2003... Many people thought a battle had been won when the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) was declared in 1975 and oil drilling was prohibited in the Park. But oil exploration in the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef never ended. Oil industry...

Victories at CITES.
March 22, 2003... Wildlife traffickers suffered stunning setbacks in Santiago Chile in November when the 160-nation Convention on international Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) extended its legal reach to cover commercial timber and...

Deep Cuba: voyage to the bottom of the embargo: Bill Belleville was part of a Discovery Channel-financed expedition to explore Cuba's waters. From the trip came Belleville's recent book, Deep Cuba (University of Georgia Press, 2002). We caught up with Bill at his home in Florida.(Interview)
March 22, 2003... Tell us a little bit about the expedition that's the subject of Deep Cuba. The Discovery Channel chartered an oceanographic ship--complete with deep-diving submersible--from Harbor Branch Oceanographic in Ft. Pierce Florida for six weeks....

Timeless Simplicity--Creative Living in a Consumer Society.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By John Lane, Green Books, 2002 Timeless Simplicity, artist John Lane's thoughtful meditation on the merits of a pared-down existence, stands head and shoulders above most of its rivals to date. In turns absorbing, provocative, and life...

Further reading.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2003... Do Americans Shop Too Much? By Juliet Schor, Beacon Press, 2000; Money Makes the World Go Around By Barbara Garson, Penguin Putnam Inc., 2002 The Overspent American: Why we want what we don't need By Juliet B. Schor, HarperCollins,...

Smelter threatens Chilean landscape: megaproject moves forward despite widespread opposition: dams will drown over 25,000 acres of temperate rainforest and riparian habitat, roads will increase siltation, a million tons of minerals will be trucked in, and 600,000 tons of waste left behind.
March 22, 2003... In late October 2002, NORANDA, the Canadian transnational corporation proposing the Alumysa aluminum smelter and hydroelectric megaproject in Chilean Patagonia, submitted an addendum to the project's stalled Environmental Impact Assessment...

Calendar.(Calendar)
March 22, 2003... 5 February Second Global Summit on Peace through Tourism (ends 02/03) Geneva, Switzerland. Based in Vermont, the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) aim to find strategies...

Voices.
March 22, 2003... Results from the long-awaited Long Island Breast Cancer Study were released this summer, and they dismayed many activists. Most reporters interpreted the results as proof that pollutants did not cause breast cancer. But a closer look at...

Environmental education directory.
March 22, 2003... A special section on environment education opportunities The first half of the 21st century will be a critical era in the evolution of environmental careers. It has been the task of the past thirty years to raise environmental awareness,...

My environmental career journey.
March 22, 2003... When I decided to change my life by entering the environmental field, I didn't have a clue about what I could do, how to do it, or where to go to make my way. At the time, though, I didn't care much about "how," so I stumbled my way through....

Scholarship sampler.
March 22, 2003... www.earthistand.org/bya Brower Youth Awards have been presented since 2000 to honor the late David Brower, founder of Earth Island Institute. Each year, six environmental activists aged 13-22 are awarded $3,000. Successful applicants have...

Book shelf.(Bibliography)
March 22, 2003... Working with the Environment, by Tim Ryder and Elisabeth Roberts, Vacation Work, 2000 This book provides information on paid and volunteer opportunities, both in the US and abroad. The chapters are divided by area of focus, such as...

Sustaining the bluegrass.
March 22, 2003... An initiative launched by a small liberal arts college in Central Kentucky may soon set new standards for environmental sustainability. Located near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Berea College has been committed to serving...

Students in their natural habitat.
March 22, 2003... BRIAN WEST, AGE 27 BA in Environmental Studies, Rollins College, Florida I am a naturalist. I love being outdoors, and always have ever since I was a small child. I want to do something about all the injustice going on in the environment....