About Environment and Conservation

This page contains an archive of the last 100 entries posted to ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest in the Environment and Conservation category. They are listed from newest to oldest. You can find older entries using the search box below.

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February 29, 2008

Congressional panel calls for release of CDC report about the Great Lakes -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-lakesstudyfeb29,1,512065.stor...
A congressional committee said Thursday that it was investigating why the Centers for Disease Control has declined to release a report about health problems near contaminated sites around the Great Lakes. A spokesman for the CDC said the report was held over questions about the data it used because it was presented in a way that may be misinterpreted. Though the report lists contaminant sites and illnesses reported nearby, it does not say the illnesses were caused by toxins at the sites. Nevertheless, the group that commissioned the report has called for its release, as have two congressional committees, three of the report's peer reviewers and its author.
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Outspoken scientist dismissed from panel on chemical safety - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-epa29feb29,1,5889335.story...
Under pressure from the chemical industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed an outspoken scientist who chaired a federal panel responsible for helping the agency determine the dangers of a flame retardant widely used in electronic equipment. Toxicologist Deborah Rice was appointed chair of an EPA scientific panel reviewing the chemical a year ago. Federal records show she was removed from the panel in August after the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for chemical manufacturers, complained to a top-ranking EPA official that she was biased. The chemical, a brominated compound known as deca, is used in high volumes worldwide, largely in the plastic housings of television sets. Rice, an award-winning former EPA scientist who now works at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, has studied low doses of deca and reported neurological effects in lab animals. Last February, around the time the EPA panel was convened, Rice testified before the Maine Legislature in support of a state ban on the compound because scientific evidence shows it is toxic and accumulating in the environment and people.
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Near Arctic, Seed Vault Is a Fort Knox of Food - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/world/europe/29seeds.html?ref=world...
With plant species disappearing at an alarming rate, scientists and governments are creating a global network of plant banks to store seeds and sprouts, precious genetic resources that may be needed for man to adapt the world’s food supply to climate change. This week, the flagship of that effort, the Global Seed Vault near here, received its first seeds, millions of them. Bored into the middle of a frozen Arctic mountain topped with snow, the vault’s goal is to store and protect samples of every type of seed from every seed collection in the world. As of Thursday, thousands of neatly stacked and labeled gray boxes of seeds — peas from Nigeria, corn from Mexico — reside in this glazed cavelike structure, forming a sort of backup hard drive, in case natural disasters or human errors erase the seeds from the outside world.
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Bacteria, snow mix in forecast - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/02/29/bacteria_snow_m...
Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside - bacteria. Most snow and rain form in chilly conditions high in the sky, and atmospheric scientists have long known that, under most conditions, the moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense. Now, a new study shows a surprisingly large share of those socalled nucleators are bacteria that can affect plants. "Bacteria are by far the most active ice nuclei in nature," said Brent C. Christner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Louisiana State University. Christner and colleagues sampled snow from Antarctica, France, Montana, and the Yukon, and they reported their findings in today's edition of the journal Science. In some samples, as much as 85 percent of the nuclei were bacteria, Christner said in a telephone interview. The bacteria were most common in France, followed by Montana and the Yukon, and were present to a lesser degree in Antarctica. The most common bacterium found was Pseudomonas syringae, which can cause disease in several types of plants, including tomatoes and beans.
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February 28, 2008

Gun Rules May Be Eased in U.S. Parks - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703131....
Visitors to some national parks would be able to start packing heat along with their tents and picnic baskets under a proposal being considered by the Interior Department that would ease restrictions on loaded firearms in the parks. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said last week that officials would review long-standing regulations that require firearms in most national parks to be unloaded and inoperable -- through the use of trigger locks, for example, or storage in a car trunk or a special case. The department intends to propose new rules by April 30. The review pits the National Rifle Association and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers against park rangers and advocates who decry the move as election-year posturing that could make the parks more dangerous. Kempthorne's action comes in response to two recent letters from 51 senators -- 44 Republicans and seven Democrats -- requesting that the National Park Service align its gun rules with state laws. If a state permits citizens to carry concealed weapons, the national parks in that state should, too, they argued.
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Great Lakes Funding Called Inadequate -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-great-lakes-funding,1,6554...
Local governments devote about $15 billion annually on Great Lakes environmental programs and the U.S. and Canadian governments isn't paying their fair share, a new report says. The national governments need to step up and invest more in protecting and restoring the world's largest surface freshwater system from sewage overflows, invasive species, toxic pollution and other problems, the report says. "Our study shows that local governments are pulling their weight and more," Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry said. By contrast, he added, the federal government has "a significant investment deficit."
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February 27, 2008

Binding Emissions Treaty Still a Possibility, U.S. Says - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/europe/27climate.html?ref=washington...
A senior White House official on Tuesday outlined a new tactic aimed at convincing a skeptical Europe that the Bush administration would support a meaningful agreement to limit global warming. The official, James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the United States could accept a binding treaty if it included mandatory steps by China and other big developing countries as well. An acceptable pact, he said, would have all the world’s economic powerhouses, established or emerging, agree to a long-term goal for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at some point, and commit to take measurable, verifiable steps domestically in the short term.
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EPA staff sought influence of former chief on California warming law - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-waiver27feb27,1,4953433.sto...
Documents show agency officials thought the pending decision was wrong. One memo warned of damage to its credibility.
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E.P.A. Staff Lobbied Boss on Decision on Emissions - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27epa.html?ref=washington...
Senior nonpolitical staff members at the Environmental Protection Agency wrote an impassioned plea for a former agency chief to deliver to the current E.P.A. administrator about an important decision on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, according to documents released Tuesday by a Senate committee. The “talking points” for use by William K. Reilly, the administrator from 1989 to 1993, in a conversation with the current E.P.A. leader, Stephen L. Johnson, ask of Mr. Johnson: “You have to find a way to get this done. If you cannot, you will face a pretty big personal decision about whether you are able to stay in the job under those circumstances.” The decision facing Mr. Johnson involved California’s request to set rules for the emissions, which were to be adopted by 16 other states as well. He rejected the request in December, saying that federal authority pre-empted state action. His decision on the standards, which were vigorously opposed by the auto industry, created a furor among state officials and environmental groups.
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Study finds contaminants in Western national parks - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-contaminants27feb27,1,20457...
Pesticides, heavy metals and other airborne contaminants are raining down on national parks across the West and Alaska, turning up at sometimes dangerously high levels in lakes, plants and fish. A sweeping six-year federal study released Tuesday found evidence of 70 contaminants at 20 national parks and monuments -- from Denali in Alaska and Glacier in Montana to Big Bend in Texas and Yosemite in California. The findings revealed that some of the Earth's most pristine wilderness is still within reach of the toxic byproducts of the Industrial Age. "Contaminants are everywhere. You can't get more remote than these northern parts of Alaska and the high Rockies," said Michael Kent, a fish researcher with Oregon State University who co-wrote the study.
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Flooded Village Files Suit, Citing Corporate Link to Climate Change - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27alaska.html?ref=us...
Lawyers for the Alaska Native coastal village of Kivalina, which is being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by the changing Arctic climate, filed suit in federal court here Tuesday arguing that 5 oil companies, 14 electric utilities and the country’s largest coal company were responsible for the village’s woes. The suit is the latest effort to hold companies like BP America, Chevron, Peabody Energy, Duke Energy and the Southern Company responsible for the impact of global warming because they emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases, or, in the case of Peabody, mine and market carbon-laden coal that is burned by others. It accused the companies of creating a public nuisance. In an unusual move, those five companies and three other defendants — the Exxon Mobil Corporation, American Electric Power and the Conoco Phillips Company — are also accused of conspiracy. “There has been a long campaign by power, coal and oil companies to mislead the public about the science of global warming,” the suit says. The campaign, it says, contributed “to the public nuisance of global warming by convincing the public at large and the victims of global warming that the process is not man-made when in fact it is.”
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Great Lakes Officials Seek Aid From U.S. and Canada - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27lakes.html?ref=washington...
Regional government agencies around the Great Lakes spend some $15 billion a year to protect the lakes from invasive species, contaminated sediment and sewage overflows, a new study shows. But local officials say that still more protection is needed and that the United States and Canadian governments should pay for it. “They’re saying it’s not a federal problem, but it is,” Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago said of the five lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Mr. Daley and other regional leaders say they intend to press for more federal money in light of the study, to be released Wednesday, which for the first time estimates what local governments are devoting to the lakes.
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February 26, 2008

Yellowstone ready to kill about 180 more bison - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bison26feb26,1,5286832.stor...
It's part of an accord designed to protect domestic cattle from brucellosis. Opponents say it's not necessary.
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Farms May Be Exempted From Emission Rules - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022502472....
Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat. The EPA acknowledges that the emissions can pose a threat to people living and working nearby, but it says local emergency responders don't use the reports, making them unnecessary. But local air-quality agencies, environmental groups and lawmakers who oppose the rule change say the reports are one of the few tools rural communities have for holding large livestock operations accountable for the pollution they produce. Opponents of the rule change say agriculture lobbyists orchestrated a campaign to convince the EPA that the reports are not useful and misrepresented the effort as reflecting the views of local officials. They say the plan to drop the reporting requirement is emblematic of a broader effort by the Bush-era EPA to roll back federal pollution rules.
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3rd artificial flood set for Colo. River - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-02-25-grandcanyon_N.htm...
For 60 hours early next month, the Colorado River will reclaim some of its former glory, swelling with floodwaters that will scour and reshape miles of sandy banks on the floor of the Grand Canyon, all in the service of a 3.5-million-year-old fish. What scientists and environmentalists want to see is what will happen to the fish — and the canyon — when the gates close at Glen Canyon Dam and the staged flood by federal officials recedes. This is the third such test on the river since 1996, and it could end as the most controversial amid questions about whether the government has shirked its obligations to protect the canyon's natural resources. At issue is how to manage a structure that stores water and provides electrical power for millions across the West, yet has also damaged a complex ecosystem. Federal officials insist they have progressed with long-term plans to offset the effects of the dam on the river and the Grand Canyon. The endangered humpback chub, the fish at the center of the dispute, has recovered some of its lost numbers since the last man-made flood in 2004.
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February 25, 2008

Local beekeepers could boost bee population -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-bees_slider_nat_2.25feb25,1,4...
About 15 months ago, beekeepers around the country started to notice something strange. Bees were abandoning their hives, buzzing off to die somewhere, and no one could figure out where they went and why they were leaving. The problem, dubbed colony collapse disorder, claimed at least a quarter of the country's honeybees last year, ravaging honey supplies and threatening the $15 billion in crops that rely on bees for pollination. "We ran close to 1,000 colonies of bees, and we lost about 40 percent," said Sharon Gibbons, a commercial beekeeper from Ballwin. "We have yet to find out what's going on. It's having a huge impact financially." The cause of the disorder, which primarily affects commercial beekeepers, has stumped scientists. But one part of the solution may be pretty simple: get more hobbyists to keep bees in their backyards.
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February 22, 2008

Gray wolves to lose endangered status - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wolves22feb22,1,356719.stor...
Gray wolves will be fair game for hunters in parts of the northern Rocky Mountains after federal officials announced Thursday that they would be taken off the endangered species list. The decision, which is expected to face lengthy litigation, comes after a 20-year effort to reestablish gray wolf populations in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. "The wolves took the opportunity that Fish and Wildlife Service, the states and the tribes gave them and ran with it," Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett said. "Wolves are back." The three states have started planning for the fall hunting season. Montana submitted its wolf plan the day before delisting, and Idaho and Wyoming will finalize their plans in the coming months.
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U.S. Ends Protections for Wolves in 3 States - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/us/22wolves.html?ref=washington...
The Bush administration on Thursday announced an end to federal protection for gray wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, concluding that the wolves were reproductively robust enough to survive. “Wolves are back,” said Lynn Scarlett, the deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior, in a telephone conference call with reporters. “Gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains are thriving and no longer need protection.” A coalition of wildlife and environmental groups dismissed the government’s claims and announced plans for a lawsuit to reverse the decision, which is to take effect next month. Advocates for the animals said there were too few wolves to make a genetically sound population, and that state plans to manage wolf populations were underfinanced and fueled by a long-simmering animosity against wolves that could drive them back to threatened status.
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February 21, 2008

Lawmakers draft ideas to counter warming - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2008/02/21/lawmakers_draf...
Encouraged that all major US presidential candidates vow to protect the environment, lawmakers from industrialized nations and big emerging economies met yesterday to draft policies to address global warming and rising deforestation. Scores of legislators and officials from China to Cameroon are considering a document demanding "ambitious absolute emission reductions for developed countries" to counter climate change. Proposals under consideration included a global carbon market in which nations would be able to trade and sell credits and sharp increases in funding for developing countries to reduce emissions. The draft document did not explicitly name the United States - the only major industrial nation to reject the relatively modest cuts of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. But most delegates hope Washington will agree to deep and mandatory reductions in greenhouse emissions to be proposed by a 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
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Global warming inspires enterprising solutions - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2008-02-20-carbon-offsets_N...
The phone-booth-size machine humming away in a Tucson lab may look like a science-fair project on steroids. Its inventors, however, say it's a potent new weapon in the battle against global warming. Its task is elegantly direct. The 9-foot-tall device, encased in see-through plastic, scrapes the chief global warming gas — carbon dioxide — right out of the atmosphere. As air wafts through, CO2 sticks to large chemically coated panels while oxygen and other innocuous gases breeze by. The carbon inhaler's developer, Global Research Technologies, is among hundreds of U.S. companies scouring for ways to reduce the world's greenhouse gas emissions and cash in on federal requirements anticipated by 2010 to combat global warming. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republican front-runner John McCain all favor curbs. Many analysts expect a law to be passed by 2010 and caps to start as early as 2012. o Digg o del.icio.us o Newsvine o Reddit o Facebook o What's this? By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY The phone-booth-size machine humming away in a Tucson lab may look like a science-fair project on steroids. Its inventors, however, say it's a potent new weapon in the battle against global warming. Its task is elegantly direct. The 9-foot-tall device, encased in see-through plastic, scrapes the chief global warming gas — carbon dioxide — right out of the atmosphere. As air wafts through, CO2 sticks to large chemically coated panels while oxygen and other innocuous gases breeze by. The carbon inhaler's developer, Global Research Technologies, is among hundreds of U.S. companies scouring for ways to reduce the world's greenhouse gas emissions and cash in on federal requirements anticipated by 2010 to combat global warming. "It's a gold rush," says Peter Fusaro, head of consulting firm Global Change Associates. The CO2-busting industry is exploding as federal legislation to cap the emissions of utilities and other industries grows more likely, offering the prospect of huge profits. Nearly 400 start-ups are operating 600 carbon-mitigation projects in the USA, with the number of companies set to triple the next two years, says consulting firm Point Carbon.
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Mercury Taint Divides a Japanese Whaling Town - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/world/asia/21dolphin.html?ref=world...
For years, Western activists have traveled to this remote port to protest the annual dolphin drive. And for years, local fishermen have ignored them, herding the animals into a small cove and slashing them until the tide flows red. But now, a new menace may succeed where the activists have failed: mercury.
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February 20, 2008

Justices let Montana pursue water suit against Wyoming - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-montana20feb20,1,4165848.st...
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said Montana can pursue its lawsuit that charges Wyoming with using too much water from a pair of rivers that flow between the states. Montana argues Wyoming's agricultural and energy industries are depleting the Tongue and Powder rivers at the expense of downstream residents in Montana. In a complaint filed last year, Montana asked the court to order Wyoming to leave more water in the rivers and award damages and other relief. It did not specify amounts. Wyoming officials dispute the charge, saying both states are suffering because of a prolonged drought. Reed Benson, a water law specialist at the University of Wyoming, said the Supreme Court's acceptance of the case marked a victory for Montana -- but only a small one. "This is an important step in favor of Montana, but it is really very preliminary," Benson said. "Montana still has a pretty high hill to climb as the complaining state."
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February 19, 2008

It's waste not, want not at super green Subaru plant - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2008-02-18-green-factories_...
Subaru's giant assembly plant here is on track to produce 180,000 cars this year. Yet the automaker pledges that virtually none of the waste generated from its eye-popping output will wind up in a dump. Copper-laden slag left over from welding is collected and shipped to Spain for recycling. Styrofoam forms encasing delicate engine parts are returned to Japan for the next round of deliveries. Even small protective plastic caps are collected in bins to be melted down to make something else. All told, Subaru says 99.8% of the plant's refuse is recycled or reused so it doesn't go to a landfill. That includes a small portion, about 5%, that goes to a waste-to-energy plant that burns waste to make steam to heat Indianapolis' downtown. Subaru is one of a growing number of companies claiming or working toward "zero landfill" status. While success earns environmental bragging rights — Subaru has TV ads about this plant's efforts — reuse and recycling also cuts costs to the tune of millions of dollars a year. Other companies, from brewer Anheuser-Busch (BUD) to imaging-equipment maker Xerox (XRX), say they are going zero-landfill as well.
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February 18, 2008

Delay Of Report Is Blamed On Politics - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021702186....
The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report. Chris De Rosa, former director of the division of toxicology and environmental medicine at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), charges that the report he wrote was a significant factor in his reassignment to a non-supervisory "special assistant" position last year. The House Committee on Science and Technology is investigating De Rosa's reassignment, in light of allegations that it was related to the Great Lakes report and his push to publicize the possibility of a cancer risk from formaldehyde fumes in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers housing victims of Hurricane Katrina. De Rosa said his agency cited the Great Lakes report being below expectations as one of the reasons for his removal from the post he had held since 1992. The ATSDR is housed within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC spokesman Glen Nowak said he could not discuss personnel issues.
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Feds nipped state efforts to slash mercury - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-02-16-epa-pressure_N.htm...
While arguing in court that states are free to enact tougher mercury controls from power plants, the Bush administration pressured dozens of states to accept a scheme that would let some plants evade cleaning up their pollution, government documents show. A week ago, a federal appeals court struck down that industry-friendly approach for mercury reduction. It allowed plants with excessive smokestack emissions to buy pollution rights from other plants that foul the air less. Internal Environmental Protection Agency documents and e-mails, obtained by the advocacy group Environmental Defense, show attempts over the past two years to blunt state efforts to make their plants drastically reduce mercury pollution instead of trading for credits that would let them continue it. An EPA official said the agency's job "is not to pressure states." The federal plan capped overall mercury releases from power plants nationwide. But it allowed plants to avoid reductions by purchasing emission credits. Critics have said that creates "hot spots" of mercury releases harmful to communities.
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Climate change spurs local action - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-02-17-local-action_N....
A growing number of communities and states concerned about climate change are planning ways to cope with rising tides, severe weather, less snow and even "climate refugees" from coastal areas. "We can't ask, 'Is there global warming?' We have to ask, 'How can we adapt?' even though it's scarier than heck," says county executive Ron Sims, who has incorporated climate-change preparedness into all planning in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle. At least five coastal states — Alaska, California, Maryland, Oregon and Washington — are working on preparedness plans, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change says.
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Corals May Get Help Adapting to Warmer Waters - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021701687....
No one doubts that human-induced climate change has been killing corals across the globe. The question is whether humans can help save them before the devastation is complete. For decades, rising sea surface temperatures have been driving out and killing the algae, called zooxanthellae, that give reefs their often-spectacular color. That has left behind the lifeless, bleached skeletons built by clustered colonies of thousands of corals. Meanwhile, the oceans' growing acidity, caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the water, impedes the biological processes that allow corals to create their limestone structures. Those changes have devastating effects on the intricate collaboration necessary to build a coral head or reef or fan. That process is the product of a symbiotic marriage between the tiny marine creatures that are corals and even tinier single-cell algae that take up residence in corals and provide them with nutrients as the algae take in energy from the sun and photosynthesize.
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February 15, 2008

Study Finds Humans' Effect on Oceans Comprehensive - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/14/AR2008021401992....
Human activities are affecting every square mile of the world's oceans, according to a study by a team of American, British and Canadian researchers who mapped the severity of the effects from pole to pole. The analysis of 17 global data sets, led by Benjamin S. Halpern of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, Calif., details how humans are reshaping the seas through overfishing, air and water pollution, commercial shipping and other activities. The study, published online yesterday by the journal Science, examines those effects on nearly two dozen marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and continental shelves. "For the first time we can see where some of the most threatened marine ecosystems are and what might be degrading them," Elizabeth Selig, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a co-author, said in a statement. "This information enables us to tailor strategies and set priorities for ecosystem management. And it shows that while local efforts are important, we also need to be thinking about global solutions."
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Central USA sees mountain lion migrations - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-14-mountainlions_N.htm...
States in the Midwest and South that have not been home to mountain lions in the past century are starting to see some migrating big cats within their borders. Wildlife officials say their numbers may increase if the trend of more females roaming into their regions continues. On Feb. 5, wildlife officials using DNA confirmed that a cat seen about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee on Jan. 18 was a lion — Wisconsin's first confirmation since 1905. Two days later, a 100-pound male lion was killed by a conservation officer in Scottsbluff, Neb. There's new evidence lions are not just wandering through the state, but making it their home.
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February 14, 2008

US misses 2d deadline for polar bear protection - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/02/14/us_misses_2d_de...
The federal government has missed its own postponed deadline to decide whether polar bears need protection from climate change, and critics link the delay to an oil lease sale in a vast swath of the bear's icy habitat. "When it comes to the survival of the polar bear, the Bush administration is putting the 'dead' back into 'deadline,' " said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads a House panel on climate change. "Now that the Bush administration has taken care of its clear first priority - taking care of their friends in the oil industry - perhaps they can finally give the polar bear, and the global warming that is causing the bear's demise, the attention it is due," Markey said in a statement.
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2 Reports At Odds On Biotech Crops - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303639....
Take your pick: The widening adoption of genetically engineered crops by farmers around the world is reducing global pesticide use, increasing agricultural yields and bringing unprecedented prosperity and food security to millions of the world's poorest citizens. Or, it is fueling greater use of pesticides, putting crop yields at risk, driving small farmers out of business and decreasing global food security by giving a single company control over much of the world's seed supply. Dueling reports released yesterday -- one by a consortium largely funded by the biotech industry and the other by a pair of environmental and consumer groups -- came to those diametrically different conclusions. The assessments highlight the controversy that still envelops agricultural biotechnology 12 years after the first gene-altered crops debuted commercially.
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February 13, 2008

Expert: More Arctic sea ice loss likely - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-12-arctic_N.htm...
Arctic sea ice next summer may shrink below the record low last year, according to a University of Washington climatologist. Ignatius Rigor spoke Monday at the Alaska Forum on the Environment and said global warming combined with natural cyclical changes likely will continue to push ice into the North Atlantic Ocean. The last remnants of thick, old sea ice are dispersing and the unusual weather cycles that contributed to sea ice loss last year are continuing, he said. "The buoys are streaming out," Rigor said, referring to the markers used to monitor the flushing of ice into the North Atlantic. A similar pattern preceded sea ice loss last summer was not expected to continue so strongly.
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Lake Mead Could Be Within a Few Years of Going Dry, Study Finds - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/us/13mead.html?ref=us...
Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
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February 12, 2008

Billionaires step up at UN to target climate shifts -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-unclimate_swanson_12feb12,1,7...
Invoking symbols as varied as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Allied war effort in World War II, two billionaires helped open a United Nations climate change meeting Monday aimed at promoting global efforts by governments and businesses to slow the gradual warming of the atmosphere. Among the ideas proposed was the need for a "war room" to coordinate actions against warming and replacing New York City's use of hardwoods with plastics and other materials. UN officials hope the two-day debate will build on the results of a December conference in Bali, where nearly 190 nations agreed that by the end of 2009 they would come up with a new plan to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists say are trapping heat and changing the Earth's climate.
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After rebound, king penguins face warming threat, study finds - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-penguins12feb12,1,7806025....
The king penguin, a species that rebounded from near-extinction over the last century, could be wiped out in coming decades due to global warming, researchers reported Monday. If the surface temperature of the Southern Ocean rises 0.47 degrees Fahrenheit -- an increase well below current forecasts of 0.72 degrees over the next 20 years -- declining food availability would lead to a population collapse, the scientists estimated. "We don't have to get several degrees of increase to get a big effect," said Yvon Le Maho, a physiologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and lead author of the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research followed 456 adult birds with radio transponders implanted under their skin and correlated their survival rate over an eight-year period with changes in sea surface temperatures.
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February 11, 2008

Drought Has Georgia Revisiting Border Dispute - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/09/AR2008020902283....
Nearly two centuries after a flawed survey placed Georgia's northern border just short of the Tennessee River, some legislators are thirsting to set the record straight. A historic drought has added urgency to Georgia's generations-old claim that its territory should extend about a mile farther north and reach into the Tennessee -- a river with about 15 times the flow of the one Atlanta depends on for water. "It's never too late to right a wrong," said Georgia state Sen. David Shafer (R), whose bill would create a boundary-line commission that aims to resolve the dispute. The reaction of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D): "This is a joke, right?" Two potential side effects of making the 35th parallel Tennessee's southern border: Not only would Georgia get a chunk of Chattanooga, but Mississippi would get a slice of Memphis.
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Elk Herds Upsetting Ecosystems In Parks - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021002215....
Elk like to eat. Elk like to eat a lot. This is a problem for creatures fond of the same greenery coveted by the weighty elk. It is not so good for the ecosystem, either, according to the stewards of three national parks in Colorado and the Dakotas that are faced with growing herds of the herbivorous mammals. Scientists at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota are preparing to do an elk count, sending an airplane aloft after a fresh snow, when it is easier to spot the quarry in rugged terrain. "Based on last year's survey, we expect to see a thousand or so elk," said Bill Whitworth, the park's chief of resource management. "We'd like to have somewhere between 100 and 400. We're balancing our elk population with bison, feral horses, other deer and animals that use the forage out here." Reducing elk herds is not a gentle business. The National Park Service mostly figures on shooting elk, either on parkland using staff members and designated deputies, or on private land where hunters can load up.
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Court Rejects Emission 'Trades' - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020802269....
A federal appeals court yesterday threw out the Environmental Protection Agency's approach to limiting mercury emitted from power-plant smokestacks, saying the agency ignored laws and twisted logic when it imposed new standards that were favorable to plant owners. The ruling, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was another judicial rejection of the Bush administration's pollution policies. It comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked the administration and the EPA for refusing to regulate greenhouse gases. This court's critique -- which undid a controversial program to "trade" emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin -- was especially sharp. It compared the EPA to the capricious Queen of Hearts in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," saying the agency had followed its own desires and ignored the "plain text" of the law.
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Record-High Price of Gold Brings About a Mini-Rush - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/09/AR2008020902296....
With gold prices reaching an all-time high of $900 an ounce and the economy slumping, Alaska expects to see more and more people trekking to the edge of the continent in search of gold. Telgenhoff and two other miners normally have this narrow valley southeast of Anchorage all to themselves through the winter. But once the spring thaw arrives, they anticipate seeing additional prospectors. Membership in gold prospecting clubs is climbing nationwide, along with sales of pans, dredges, metal detectors and other small-scale mining equipment. A trade show recently hosted by the Gold Prospectors Association of America in Orange County, Calif., typified the trend. "I saw more people walking out with more metal detectors and sluice boxes than I can remember in a long time," said Ken Rucker, general manager of the 45,000-member association. "That $900 is really getting to people." The group has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from interested gold seekers. New memberships are increasing, and the number of membership renewals at the close of 2007 was twice as high as the year before, said Brandon Johnson, the director of operations. As a result, the association is preparing to add to its staff. Investors typically turn to gold during times of political and economic instability. The falling dollar, threat of a recession, political troubles in the Middle East and rising oil costs have raised the metal's appeal as a safe investment.
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February 8, 2008

Australia Shows Graphic Images of Japanese Whaling - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/world/asia/08briefs-whaling.html?ref=world...
Australia’s government stepped up its campaign against Japanese whaling by releasing grisly surveillance pictures of the carcasses of a minke whale and a calf being hauled aboard a harpoon ship. The images were taken by a Customs ship that has been tracking the Japanese fleet in the Antarctic to gather evidence for a diplomatic and legal battle against whaling. It was not immediately clear when the whale and the calf, less than 12 months old, were photographed.
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February 7, 2008

In Many Communities, It’s Not Easy Going Green - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/us/07green.html?ref=us...
For decades, Arlington County’s development has been consciously clustered around its subway line. There is abundant open space to plant thousands of trees. Residents also seem eager to cut back on their own energy use. Jose R. Fernandez, who moved here last year and works at the nearby national headquarters of the National Guard, chose to settle in Arlington because he does not need a car. “I can go anywhere on the bus,” Mr. Fernandez said, “or I can ride my bike anywhere.” But even in Arlington, county officials are reckoning with the fact that though green is the dream, the shade of civic achievement is closer to olive drab. Constraints on budgets, legal restrictions by states, and people’s unwillingness to change sometimes put brakes on ambitious plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions. Emissions are stubborn things. In Arlington, emissions per capita are now 15 tons annually and rising. In Sonoma County, Calif., the figure is close to nine tons. Arlington is not alone in bumping up against obstacles. “We have been doing things like filling potholes and reducing crime since cities began,” said David N. Cicilline, the mayor of Providence, R.I., but energy efficiency requires “a whole new infrastructure to evaluate and measure.”
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February 6, 2008

Japan Resumes Whale Hunt -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-antarctica-whaling,1,69493...
Japan has resumed its annual whale hunt in waters near Antarctica now that anti-whaling activists have stopped pursuing the country's fleet, a Japanese official said Wednesday. Japan temporarily halted its hunt in mid-January after confrontations with both Greenpeace and the militant anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, Japanese Fisheries Agency official Jiro Hyuga said. Late last month, the vessels each group had sent to pursue the whalers returned to port to refuel. The Japanese fleet decided to resume whaling after the threat of any interference faded, Hyuga said.
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