Earth Island Journal articles from March 2009

Earth Island Journal archives from March 2009

Down in the depths.(FROM THE EDITOR)
March 22, 2009... I have a confession to make: I don't really like the ocean. It probably has something to do with growing up in Arizona, far away from any water. I enjoy the coastline well enough--strolling down the beach, hiking up sea cliffs, or exploring...

EPA enables addiction.(LETTERS & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... Is the Environmental Protection Agency promoting dirty industries? The EPA is busy conducting educational workshops on how fly ash from coal-fired power plants can be used in concrete and other building materials. Fly ash is the stuff that...

Butterfly battle.(LETTERS & E-MAILS)(Letter to the editor)
March 22, 2009... Thank you for another fine issue of the Journal (Autumn 2008). But the article I read on the butterfly industry ('All Aflutter," by Adam Federman) did far too title justice to the whole issue of biodiversity and human exploitation. I'm...

Congo no-go.(AFRICA)(on logging contracts)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... After a six-month review of 156 logging deals, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has determined that only 65 of the contracts are viable, and has canceled the remaining agreements, bringing some companies' operations to a halt...

Snorkeling for stumps.(AFRICA)(underwater logging)
March 22, 2009... With global forests becoming increasingly valuable as a carbon dioxide absorber, some countries are looking to extract the dead trees from man-made lakebeds as a more sustainable form of logging. At least, that's the idea in the West...

Race to the top.(ASIA)(investments in clean energy and mass transit infrastructure)
March 22, 2009... The idea of using government investment to jump-start a more ecologically sustainable "green economy" is gaining worldwide momentum; in January, Japanese and South Korean officials announced plans to launch programs that will spur job creation...

Free-flowing drugs.(ASIA)(water contamination by prescription drugs)
March 22, 2009... If you take prescription drugs, chances are very good they're made in India. The country is the world's leading exporter of pharmaceuticals, and the US is its number one customer, spending more than $1.4 billion for pills in 2007. Chances...

Have one for the planet.(EUROPE)(wine industry planning to build biomass-fueled heat and power plant)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... Scotch drinkers who are concerned about climate change can now enjoy their evening tipple comfortable in the knowledge that some of their favorite labels are generating renewable energy in the home of whisky. A consortium of...

Hard of hearing.(EUROPE)(on noise pollution)
March 22, 2009... Marine biologists have warned for years that the increasing level of man-made noise in the oceans is making it difficult for marine mammals to communicate. Rumbling ship engines, seismic surveys by oil and gas companies, and powerful military...

Finger in the dyke.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... As increasing global temperatures contribute to a rise in sea levels, the Netherlands already dependent on a sophisticated system of dykes and seawalls for its survival--is finding it more difficult to defend its coastline and maintain...

Kill them with kindness.(NORTH AMERICA)(ban on seal hunting)
March 22, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As early as March, Canada will once again begin the horrid practice of hunting seals, undertaking the world's largest annual marine mammal hunt. More than 6,000 sealers, hakapiks in hand, will take to the ice to...

Bashed on trash.(NORTH AMERICA)(waste management)
March 22, 2009... Pollution controversies are nothing new in Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people that has long been plagued by horrendous air quality. Now another problem looms: garbage. Mexico City alone--without taking into account the...

Missing fugitives.(NORTH AMERICA)(Environmental Protection Agency's website unveiled to find fugitives)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... Last year, the EPA unveiled a portion of its Web site dedicated to the capture of the agency's most wanted fugitives. At press time, 22 men have their photographs on the site, wanted for such crimes against the environment as smuggling...

Spin the bottle.(NORTH AMERICA)(Nestle's advertisement about water bottles being recycled and avoiding landfill sites)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... A group of Canadian environmental organizations has filed a complaint against Nestle, claiming an ad campaign run by the multinational just doesn't hold water. In October, Nestle spouted off in a full-page newspaper ad that "most water...

Reef grief.(OCEANIA)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... Australia's Great Barrier Reef--a network of corals the size of Germany that is often described as the planet's largest living organism--has fallen to its lowest growth rate in 400 years in what scientists say is a frightening sign of...

Putting their bodies on the line.(SOUTH AMERICA)(environmental protection and Indigenous rights)
March 22, 2009... Since its founding in 200l, the World Social Forum--designed as a grassroots response to the more elite World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland--has been an important incubator of progressive ideas. Promoting environmental sustainability and...

From friend to foe.(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... Canada's massive forests are typically thought of as an ally in halting global climate change, since the trees absorb and store billions of tons of carbon dioxide. But this ecological asset may have become a liability. According to a Canadian...

Security risk.(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(climate change and economic stability)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... Of course, one has to be careful not to miss the forest for the trees. Climate change threatens not only to stress ecosystems, but also the many nation-states that already are maxing out their environmental resources. A US intelligence...

Forecast: lawsuits.(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... The United Nations has systems set up for countries to compensate each other for damages due to nuclear power accidents, oil spills, and even debris from objects falling from outer space. But what about the victims of global climate change? A...

Global warming is over (If You Want It).(TEMPERATURE GAUGE: Notes from a warming world)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... A cold snap in Southeast Asia. A severe blizzard in China. Record-low temperatures in International Falls, Minnesota. According to David Deming--a prominent climate change denier whose think tank has received money from ExxonMobil this is all...

Hawai'ians say ferry too fast to pass.(SPYHOPPING: A whale's act of coming out of the water to examine its surroundings.)
March 22, 2009... The Hawai'ian Superferry Alakai was originally promoted as an "ecofriendly" transit option between the state's islands. Today, the twin-hulled catamaran is seen as a towering affront to Hawai'i's Environmental Policy Act. The Alakai (Hawai'ian...

Francis Macy.(EARTH ISLAND PROJECT NEWS)(Obituary)
March 22, 2009... It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Francis Macy. The dedicated environmentalist, energy activist, and citizen diplomat, whose groundbreaking work inspired fresh collaborative ventures with the former Soviet Union, died...

The Brower Center.(EARTH ISLAND PROJECT NEWS)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... The Brower Center, new home of Earth Island Institute, will have its grand opening on May 10, 2009. The new office space will utilize the latest in energy-saving technologies and recycled building materials, allowing us to more deeply reflect...

The Brower Youth Awards.(EARTH ISLAND PROJECT NEWS)
March 22, 2009... The Brower Youth Awards has launched its search for outstanding grassroots environmental leaders. Since 2000, the annual Brower Youth Awards have honored six young people for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of...

Eco-equity: climate change's public secrets.(EARTH ISLAND PROJECTS NEWS)
March 22, 2009... When it comes to the climate crisis, the level of public sophistication is rising quickly. Not that everyone can explain the difference between, say, C[O.sub.2] and C[O.sub.2] equivalent, but lots of people can, and even more understand that...

For peak's sake: honoring David Brower.(EARTH ISLAND PROJECT NEWS)
March 22, 2009... The founder of Earth Island Institute, David Brower, died in November 2000 of complications from cancer at the age of 88, a champion of environmental causes until the very end. A week before his passing, my friend--farmer, author, and...

International marine mammal project: award-winning film uncovers dolphin slaughter.(EARTH ISLAND PROJECT NEWS)(The Cove)
March 22, 2009... In the intensely competitive film industry, even getting your foot in the door can seem impossible. Take, for instance, the Sundance Film Festival, the Robert Redford-founded annual gathering for independent filmmakers. More than 800...

Net benefits: a cap and trade on their catch turns fishermen into conservationists.
March 22, 2009... The crunch of shovels into ice, which had been stockpiled for days at port in Kodiak, Alaska, once signaled the start and finish of the fishing season --thousands of heaped-up halibut, the whole year's catch all at once. Removed from fishing...

Living fossils: climate change threatens to dissolve the ocean's deep-water corals.
March 22, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Black corals are one of the oldest continuously living organisms on earth," J. Murray Roberts, a marine biologist with the Scottish Association for Marine Science, tells me eagerly. "Some are 4,000 years old." They...

Lost & found.(artist John Dahlsen uses garbage in his art)
March 22, 2009... Sometimes accident gets tricked into art. That's what happened when Australian painter and sculptor John Dahlsen--walking along a remote Victoria beach on a search for driftwood to be made into furniture--came upon a more interesting, if less...

Beautiful, but deadly: jellyfish blooms appear to be on the rise. Is global warming causing an ocean swarming?(Cover story)
March 22, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On the morning of November 21, 2007, John Russell awoke to his worst nightmare. Billions of small jellyfish, covering a patch of water 10 miles wide, had...

Captain Charles Moore.(CONVERSATION)(Interview)
March 22, 2009... In 1997, Charles Moore surfer,--scientific searcher, and sea captain--was the first to cross upon an enormous stretch of floating plastic debris now called the "Pacific garbage patch." The patch, also described as the "Pacific trash vortex," is...

Stormy seas: ocean power promoters struggle to overcome a stiff current of challenges.
March 22, 2009... At the eastern edge of the continent, on a blustery December afternoon, water slaps against the side of Energy Tide I; a small barge moored in the cold waters of Maine's Passamaquoddy Bay. Churning swells dwarf the 20- by 48-foot barge, an...

Watch what you eat: the US Government continues to lag when it comes to warning people about the risks of mercury-laden fish.
March 22, 2009... The Paris Parker Aveda Salon and pa in New Orleans caters to the city's wealthiest clientele. The tony boutique, known for its extensive range of spa and salon treatments that pamper from head to toe from manicures to mudpacks, facials to foot...

Burning the Future: Coal in America.(Movie review)
March 22, 2009... Burning the Future: Coal in America Directed by David Novack 89 minutes Coal generates more than half of all the electricity in the US. And, as the coal industry's dirtiest secrets are exposed, coal also generates increased public...

The Great Delusion.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Great Delusion by Steven Stoll 224 pages, Hill and Wang, 2008 "How does it happen that serious people continue to believe in progress, in the face of massive evidence that might have been expected to refute the idea of...

Coming Clean.(Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Coal and Oil)(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Coming Clean by Michael Brune 256 pages, Sierra Club Books, 2008 In Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Coal and Oil, veteran environmental campaigner Mike Brune provides a welcome addition to the growing library of...

Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine By Gary Paul Nabhan 266 pages, Shearwater Books, 2008 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Before I moved to California, I'd seen only two types of potatoes, and...

Punk runner punked.(VOICES)(fund-raising through running)
March 22, 2009... Last fall, in the midst of a seriously nutty presidential campaign ("Drill, baby, drill" anyone?), I started feeling a little nutty myself. So I quit my job in Boston and drove 2,700 miles to Arizona in a minivan filled with clothes, English...