The Ecologist articles from July 2000

The Ecologist archives from July 2000

MODIFYING THE ARGUMENT.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The biotechnology debate is a lesson in the art of intellectual acrobatics. GM critics are being characterised as Goliath, while the little old industry is portraying itself as David. It is the industry, apparently, which stands on the...

Letters.
July 1, 2000... MAY DAY WAYS It seems that Zac Goldsmith took his information (Own Goal, Vol 30 No 4) -- and his line -- about the May Day protests from those mainstream media which he normally regards with suspicion. Trashing a McDonald's and putting a...

LOGGING FOCUS: CORRUPTION IN THE FORESTS?(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been accused of helping to cover up a report on the damage done by illegal logging. The peer-reviewed report, prepared by well-respected researchers from WWF and the World Resources Institute, found...

AMAZON VICTORY.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The Brazilian Congress has shelved proposed legislation to increase the area and rate of Amazon rain forest destruction. Ranchers and landowners in Congress had pushed a draft law through a House/Senate Committee that would have loosened...

LA BURNING.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Fire set by the US National Parks Service to control vegetation ran out of control near the Los Alamos nuclear base. The flames took a devastating toll on over 47,000 acres of land, burning homes and threatening the Los Alamos Nuclear...

RONALD ROLLS ON.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... McDonald's has outlined its global expansion plans. Averaging around five per day, the company intends to open 650 outlets in Asia, 550 in Europe, 350 in Latin America, 200 in the US and 250 in the rest of the world this year alone. It...

INTENSIVE FARMING ATTACKED.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The UK environment select committee has attacked the Ministry of Agriculture for its 'outmoded' and 'misplaced' attachment to intensive farming. The ministry, says the committee, has already lost control over food and safety because it...

JAPAN LIMITS MOBILES.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Japan, the world's second largest market for mobile phones, plans to enforce strict new standards. The move comes in response to growing concerns about the impact of electromagnetic radiation on the brain. About 45 per cent of its population...

EMISSIONS ADMISSIONS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A long-awaited draft report by the US Environmental Protection Agency has for the first time admitted that dioxin is a 'human carcinogen'; a substance that produces cancer. Dioxins are released by incinerators burning waste and in industrial...

DYING TURTLES.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Pacific leatherback turtles are nearing extinction. According to Nature, the number of females dropped from 1,367 in 1988 to 117 just ten years later. Researchers predict that there will be fewer than 50 by 2004.

OU GM.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... An Open University-led survey often EU member states shows that some governments were never convinced that all the potential adverse effects of genetically modified (GM) crops had been satisfactorily considered. The research found that this...

SHORT OF ANSWERS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... According to The Pesticides Trust, Clare Short's Department for International Development is supporting the development of GM technologies in 'developing' countries to the tune of around [pounds]600,000.

MONSANTO STRIKES AGAIN.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Despite objections, the US government recently appointed a former Monsanto lobbyist, Carol Foreman, as the US 'consumer advocate' to the Global Biotech Consultative Forum. 'The PR assault against biotech activists has just scored its most...

WHALE OF A TIME.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Japan wants to extend its programme of so-called 'scientific' whaling. For the first time since the global moratorium on whaling was imposed in 1986, it plans to hunt sperm and Bryde's whales. It will put proposals to do so to the AGM of the...

UPDATE: INDIAN PORT VICTORY.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... US multinational Unocal has announced that it is pulling out of the US$300 million port project planned for the Indian state of Gujarat (see Campaigns, Vol 30 No 4) following pressure from campaigners around the world.

UPDATE: U'WA SETBACK.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Last month, the Colombian high court revoked the recent injunction that suspended Occidental Petroleum's drilling project on the ancestral lands of the beleaguered U'wa tribe -- dismaying campaigners and the U'wa themselves.

UPDATE: UN DUMPS BIG BUSINESS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The UN Development Programme is to abandon its controversial 'Global Sustainable Development Facility', which would have allied it with some of the world's biggest and most destructive corporations (see The Ecologist, Vol 29, no 5). The...

BANK BACKS DESTRUCTIVE PIPELINE.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The World Bank agreed in June to fund an oil pipeline which could open Chad and Cameroon's rain forests to industrial development. The 670-mile pipeline, which will transport oil from the Chad oilfields to a new port being built on the...

GULF WAR SYNDROME: NEW EVIDENCE.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A new report reveals that veterans who became ill after fighting in the Gulf War now show evidence of significant brain cell loss. Dr. Robert Haley from the university of Texas, lead author of the study, found that veterans suffering from...

MAASAI PROTEST.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Tanzania's Maasai say their lands are being destroyed by government-sanctioned hunting. The Government of Tanzania is investigating the activities of Ortello, a United Arab Emirates-based hunting company licensed in 1993 by the then...

ROADS TO RUIN - AGAIN.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The Blair government, says Stephen Joseph of the research and campaign group Transport 2000, is about to break all its promises and embark on a major road-building programme. Following the massive road protests of the 1990s, and the...

DON'T BOTTLE IT UP.(harm caused by bottled drinking water)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Clever marketing aside, the health benefits of the bottled water which is becoming more and more popular in the wealthy West are increasingly uncertain. A recent survey by the US National Resources Defense Council found that 22 out of 100...

REDEFINING CONTENTMENT.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The British people are not, after all, a materialistic, technocratic nation, but 'a people searching for fun, spirituality and better relationships'. So says Resurgence magazine, which draws these conclusions from an opinion poll on 'British...

CONSUMERISM: THE CURE.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... 'Millions of compulsive shoppers', reported the Sunday Telegraph on 11th June, 'might soon be cured of their addiction simply by popping a pill'. An as-yet-unnamed pharmaceutical giant has developed a 'cure' for what is becoming a rampant...

RA RA RAS-PUTIN.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Russia's environment is in trouble, and the new regime of President Putin is making things worse. In May, Putin, fresh from election victory, decided to abolish Russia's environment agency. With one presidential stroke, all environmental...

ZIMBABWE: WHO ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS?(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... There's no doubt, writes Jeremy Seabrook, that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is shamelessly exploiting the fate of landless blacks in Zimbabwe for political gain. There's no doubt either that there is a serious land problem in Zimbabwe,...

The UK Home Office.(report on xenotransplants)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The UK Home Office has disclosed that 270 monkeys and 10,000 pigs have been killed to date in development work on xenotransplantation -- the use of animal body parts in humans.

Thailand's industrial areas.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... In Thailand's industrial areas, rain collectors wait an hour before collecting, since the rain is generally as acidic as tomato juice.

Financial Times.(air travel)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The annual number of passenger journeys by air on scheduled flights is forecast to exceed 2.3 billion by 2010, as against 1.6 billion last year, according to the Financial Times.

A study, analysing more than 100 medical trials.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A study, analysing more than 100 medical trials which covered at least 200,000 patients concluded that the regular, long term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like Aspirin, Nurofen, Advil and IbuLeve) is killing about 2,000...

Pee Outside Day.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... 50 per cent of the water used in toilet flushing is saved during the annual 'Pee Outside Day' in Sigmota, Sweden.

University of California.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Every year, California spends as much money on prisons as it does on education. Professor Manuel Castells, University of California at Berkeley.

We feel hurt and we feel angry.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... We feel hurt and we feel angry.. We had... faith in this science when others were dubious, and it all seemed to be working. So we painted a big bullseye on our chest, and we went over the top of the hill. Robert Shapiro, former CEO of...

Ismail Sergageldin.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Small farmers are uninteresting customers Ismail Sergageldin, Vice-President of the World Bank.

UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... It is false to pretend that there is any distance which is going to prevent some contamination UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher, belatedly accepting that environmentalists were right all along about the ineffectiveness of 'buffer...

BIG DAMS SPECIAL.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A series of big dams planned for north-east India threatens people and biodiversity in a massive way. The Subansiri and Dehang dam projects in the Brahmapurta valley will require nearly 28,000 hectares of forest alone. Two Biosphere Reserves...

LAND AND FREEDOM.(landlessness in Brazil)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... While 54 per cent of Brazil's farmland lies idle, millions of landless peasants struggle to survive. Those who can't survive flee into city slums. The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), the largest social movement in Latin America, is a...

FOREST CASCADES.(Boise Cascade's logging operations in Mexico)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... In 1995, US timber giant Boise Cascade began purchasing logs from local villagers in the Mexican State of Guerrero; one of the last so-called 'frontier forest' areas. Boise Cascade's goal was to extract 20 million board feet of softwood over...

BP 'DEVELOPS' TIBET.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... CNPC/PetroChina is planning to develop the gas fields of the Tsaidam Basin in northeastern Tibet. This area is indigenous to Tibetan and Mongolian nomads. Gas reserves are estimated to be 250 million cubic metres, and the environmental...

World-Wise Web: The five best online campaigns.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... www.oxybusters.com Join this group's efforts to ban the use of MTBE, the most commonly used gasoline oxygenate. www.congresswatchdog.org US citizens can send an online fax to their senators, urging them to oppose corporate legal...

WORLDS APART.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... In May this year, Baroness Hayman of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food launched a consultation on the future of the food chain. As a result, the Food Chain and Crops for Industry Panel produced a report outlining various...

WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... North America once supported more than sixty million bison. By 1900 just a few hundred buffalo remained, nearly all in captivity. In the remote backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, 23 wild bison survived; the ancestors of today's herd....

World-Wise Web: The five best bookmarks.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... www.x21.org/s26 or www.imf2000.webjump.org All you need to get ready for the September 26-28 IMF/ World Bank meeting. www.rprogress.org In order to live, people consume what nature offers. Already humanity's 'footprint' may be...

LABOURING UNDER ILLUSIONS.
July 1, 2000... Western NGOs say that both of these children are being equally exploited. Beatrice Newbery finds that the reality behind child labour is far more complex -- and disturbing. Fifteen-year-old Khalid Hussein is one of hundreds of children in...

IS PARLIAMENT THE BEST WAY TO ACHIEVE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE?
July 1, 2000... EFFECTIVE CHANGE: DOES IT COME FROM THE GRASS ROOTS UP, OR THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT DOWN? CHARLES KENNEDY MP AND CAMPAIGNER ANDREW WOOD MOUNT THEIR OPPOSING SOAPBOXES. Dear Andrew Wood The environment is regarded by the market as an...

THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.
July 1, 2000... It is exactly 30 years since The Ecologist first waved its campaigning fist at the self-destructive tendencies of mankind. Much has been achieved since then; but much remains to he done. To open our anniversary special on the events and...

JULY 2030: GOING BACK TO THE FUTURE.(Short Story)
July 1, 2000... Today's way of life is tomorrow's inheritance. In this ecological fable of the future, Rob Edwards introduces us to Leo, a man of his time. It was when he looked up, halfway across the slope, that it first hit him. An icy blast of wind...

THE FIGHT MUST GO ON.
July 1, 2000... ECOLOGIST FOUNDER EDWARD GOLDSMITH PREDICTS HARD TIMES OVER THE NEXT THREE DECADES UNLESS RADICAL ACTION IS TAKEN SOON. WHEN I FOUNDED The Ecologist, I didn't believe that by the year 2000 we would still be leading the 'advanced'...

NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK.
July 1, 2000... The world is running out of water. Ed Metcalfe finds out why. The scholars were perplexed. Reading and re-reading the accounts the early Christian ascetics living in the desert around Antioch, they kept coming across the repeated use of...

EAU DEAR.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Caspar Henderson explains how multinational corporations are taking over the world's water supplies - with corruption and ecological destruction the result. In the majority of urban areas, where more and more of the world's population...

WHY RADICALS NEED A HISTORY LESSON.
July 1, 2000... ANTHONY BARNETT SEES WORRYING PARALLELS BETWEEN THE SELF-ABSORBED VIOLENCE OF THE MAYDAY PROTESTS AND THE COLLAPSE OF 1960s RADICALISM. THE NOW-NOTORIOUS demonstration which took place on May Day 2000 in central London harmed the...

THE FIGHT TO ROAM.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... ROMANI WRITER JAKE BOWERS BELIEVES THAT A LAND WITHOUT GYPSIES IS A LAND WITHOUT FREEDOM. FEW PEOPLE WOULD recognise the Romani flag if they saw it. Let me describe it for you, so that you'll recognise it should you ever see it flapping...

DROWNING IN A WIDE GREEN SEA.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... PAUL KINGSNORTH THINKS THAT THE GREEN MOVEMENT SHOULD BEWARE OF ITS OWN SUCCESS. HANDS UP ANYONE who isn't green. There can't be many of you around any more. The number of people professing their commitment to 'sustainability' seems to...

THE APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... TOM WAKEFORD SAYS BRITAIN URGENTLY NEEDS NEW MEASURES TO GUARANTEE THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF ITS SCIENTISTS. FOR BRITAIN'S SCIENTIFIC institutions, the last 12 months have been an annus horribilis. Aided by an increase in media scrutiny, the...

TWENTIETH CENTURY PLAGUE.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... If anything has changed the complexion of our health over the last 30 years, it is the virtual plague of strange new chemicals that surround us, in our homes, our air, our water, our food - indeed, in virtually every product we use in our...

LIE OF THE TIGER.
July 1, 2000... PHILIP CARTER EXPOSES THE WORLD BANK-FUNDED DESTRUCTION OF TRIBAL PEOPLES' LAND AND THE FEW REMAINING TIGER HABITATS IN INDIA THE WORLD BANK is funding a huge coal-mining project across four states of India, which is forcing people from...

'NOT A SINGLE BOMB MORE!'.
July 1, 2000... M[acute{O}]NICA DEL PILAR URIBE MAR[acute{I}]N INVESTIGATES THE PLIGHT OF AN ISLAND USED BY THE US FOR TARGET PRACTICE -- AGAINST THE WILL OF ITS PEOPLE. VIEQUES, A SMALL CARIBBEAN island of some 9,400 inhabitants, situated 40 miles from...

DON'T COUNT YOUR GM CHICKENFEED.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... MARK LYNAS WARNS THAT THE ANTI-GM BATTLE IS FAR FROM WON. THE BATTLE AGAINST GM crops, despite what the mainstream media might imply, is far from won. But, as a new report shows, there are some very clear strategic moves that anti-GM...

COUNTING RUSSIA'S BLACK GOLD.
July 1, 2000... JONATHAN WILLS REPORTS FROM RUSSIA ON ATTEMPTS TO PROTECT A UNIQUE ECOSYSTEM FROM THE LOCAL OIL ECONOMY. ONE OF THE most impoverished regions of the former USSR faces a classic dilemma of poor countries trying to 'develop' whether to...

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND.
July 1, 2000... PETER BUNYARD EXPOSES THE REAL HEALTH THREATS POSED BY INDUSTRIAL WASTE BURNING AND ASKS WHY THE GOVERNMENT IS COVERING THEM UP. TENS OF THOUSANDS of people a year may be dying prematurely in the UK as a direct result of government...

PARADISE FOR SALE -- A PARABLE OF NATURE.(Review)
July 1, 2000... Carl N. McDaniel John M. Gowdy UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, US$17.95 This gripping account of the self-destruction of Nauru -- once the richest island in the South Pacific -- is a cautionary tale for our times. After...

WHY ELEPHANTS HAVE BIG EARS.(Review)
July 1, 2000... Chris Lavers GOLLANCZ/[pounds]18.99 'Rethinking basic assumptions': anyone familiar with The Ecologist will recognise this maxim. And in his book, Why Elephants Have Big Ears, Chris Lavers sets out to do just that. Why are we warm...

THE DAILY GLOBE - ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, THE PUBLIC AND THE MEDIA.(Review)
July 1, 2000... Edited by Joe Smith EARTHSCAN [pounds]14.95 '"Television" Promises Mass Enrichment of Mankind' ran the headline of one of America's most perspicacious newspapers, The Onion, back on Thursday, 20 February 1947. 'Drama and Learning...

VANISHING BORDERS -- PROTECTING THE PLANET IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION.(Review)
July 1, 2000... Hilary French W W NORTON & CO, NEW YORK AND LONDON/[pounds]12.95 Hilary French is vice-president for research at the World watch Institute in Washington, DC. In Vanishing Borders she provides a clear and well-reasoned plan of action...

5 OF THE BEST.(Bibliography)
July 1, 2000... Peter Bunyard, co-founder of The Ecologist, makes his choice of the five seminal ecological texts of the last 30 years. 1 Limits to Growth Club of Rome 1971 Mix in industrialised development, population growth, consumerism,...

THE CROW.(literacy and oral communication)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The Crow is a mouthpiece for thinkers with individual and strong views. This month, the role of The Crow was taken by David Norton. THE CROW family: collectors of fascinating trinkets, portents of doom; symbols of spirituality, emissaries...