Ecology & Environment In The News

Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms

The idea that the less developed and less able nations of the world are being forced, by the mere fact that other nations (the US included) exercises their power in unjust manners, to deal with global warming fallout isn't a surprise to anyone that has been paying attention to our problems with global warming, pollution, acid rain or any of the other problems of ecology. In fact, if we examine history, we find the "super powers" have a long history of dumping its trash in the backyard of poorer nations, including nuclear wastes from bomb testing, greenhouse gases, acid rain, and shipping medical and household wastes to lesser capable nations.

The world’s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas.

But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most vulnerable regions — most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor.

Next Friday, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that since 1990 has been assessing global warming, will underline this growing climate divide, according to scientists involved in writing it — with wealthy nations far from the equator not only experiencing fewer effects but also better able to withstand them.

Two-thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries, has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and Western European countries. Those and other wealthy nations are investing in windmill-powered plants that turn seawater to drinking water, in flood barriers and floatable homes, and in grains and soybeans genetically altered to flourish even in a drought.

In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments. As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with small island nations, that are most at risk.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Forest Management Rules

In a blow to the Bush campaign against our wildlife, wildlife habitat, and other aspects of allowing our environment to be raped by big corporate interests, a federal judge saw the wisdom of the law and held to it.

A federal judge in California on Friday overturned the Bush administration’s revised rules for management of the country’s 155 national forests, saying that the federal Forest Service violated the basic laws ensuring that forest ecosystems have environmental safeguards.

The rules, issued in early 2005, cut back on requirements for environmental reviews and safeguards for wildlife, and limited public participation in the development of management plans for individual forests.

Instead, they broadened the power of forest managers to decide whether mines, logging operations, cellphone towers or other development would be appropriate uses of forest land.

In the ruling Friday, Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of Federal District Court in San Francisco said the Forest Service had violated several laws when it changed the rules forest managers must follow when making decisions, and did so without consulting the public or considering environmental impact.

The judge issued an injunction forbidding the service from using the rules to make decisions about the national forests and grasslands, which cover 8 percent of the country.

Judge Hamilton said she could not determine if the rules were environmentally benign, as the Forest Service argued, or if endangered species would be unaffected, because no studies had been done.

“The agency was required to undertake some type of consultation, informal or otherwise, prior to making a conclusive determination that there would be no effect,” she wrote.

She sent the management plans back to the Agriculture Department, the parent agency of the Forest Service, to be redone, this time in consultation with the public and with the federal agencies that protect wildlife.

Bush Administration Official Manipulated Leaked Environmental Information: Report

In a clear effort to undermine all of the hard-won environmental and wildlife protections, as well as to continue the Bush administration policy of giving Big Business a greater advantage over ordinary citizens, a Bush administration official leaked reports that would give those corporate entities (oil companies, mining companies, forestry companies) desiring to circumvent environmental and wildlife restrictions a significant lot of business intelligence. The whole matter illustrates the overall view, ideology and agenda of the Bush administration and the GOP. It's not that the Dems have a better approach, it's that they are not the ones screwing up, screwing the public or screwing the environment at this moment in time.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks violated federal rules against sharing non-public endangered species information with private industry groups, according to an investigative report released Thursday. Julie MacDonald, who joined the Bush administration in 2002, admitted that she gave internal US Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) information to private groups including the Pacific Legal Foundation and the California Farm Bureau Federation. The investigation into MacDonald's activities also uncovered two emails that she sent to individuals with e-mail addresses ending in "chevrontexaco.com."

US Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney conducted the investigation into MacDonald's activities and documented comments by other US Interior Department officials who characterized MacDonald as favoring developers by "manipulating science" in an effort to meet her policy goals as a political appointee. US Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), chairman of the US House Natural Resources Committee, officially released Devaney's report and said he plans to conduct a hearing in May to address concerns "on whether politics is infiltrating decisions" by governmental officials on environmental issues.

U.S. Churches Go ‘Green’ for Palm Sunday

Let us applaud principled believers that are willing to put their money where their mouth is... and are concerned, as stewards of the earth should be, with not only taking steps to reduce environmental problems, but also lend a helping hand to those who are working to make a living in a green way.

Clutching a tiny knife in his big calloused hands, Laizon Corzo wound his way through the thick foliage in one of southern Mexico’s forested areas in search of living treasures.

When he found them — big, leafy palm fronds — he did not cut right away. Instead, he inspected the leaves, back and front, for stains and other imperfections. “This one, no,” he said, pushing aside one and grabbing another. “This one — see how perfect it is?”

Mr. Corzo is one of the indigenous farmers who puts palms in the hands of North American churchgoers on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. He is also on the cutting edge of a new movement to harvest what are being called “eco-palms.”

Slightly more expensive than the average palm, eco-palms are the rage in churches across the United States because of the social and environmental benefits they represent. They are collected in a way that helps preserve the forest, and more of the sale price ends up in the pockets of the people who cut them.

“We want to be a green congregation,” said the Rev. David C. Parsons, pastor of St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, which purchased eco-palms for the second straight year. “We are conscious of our footprint on the earth. There is a biblical mandate to do that.”

Now operating in a handful of palm-producing areas in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala, the eco-palm project is similar to programs for certified coffee, chocolate or diamonds. But the consumers in this case are churches, and many say that the religious significance of the plant compels them to buy the most wholesome palm possible.