Bite The Bullet, Get Clean Energy

(ENS) The United Nations is urging governments to recognize the economic and competitive benefits of switching to climate-friendly economies.

The head of the UN Climate Change Convention, Michael Cutajar, told governments to “bite the bullet and commit to reducing and limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.”

“There is now no question that human-induced climate change is happening and poses serious risks,” he said. “I am convinced that the turn-around in global emissions can be achieved through cost effective policies and 21st century technologies that will benefit economic growth and sustainable development.”

Scientists warn that the Earth’s average surface temperature could increase by 5°C (10.4°F) over the next century.

Tourism Killing Mediterranean

(ENS) The Mediterranean’s soaring popularity could be its downfall unless a new form of tourism is introduced, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

More than 220 million people visit the Mediterranean every year. In 20 years that figure is expected to rise to 350 million.

WWFN wants tour operators and local governments to commit to adequate protection for key biologically diverse areas, no development in the most critical places, and beneficial development to local communities.

“The tourism industry has to reduce its impact on nature, if we want to save the Mediterranean’s unique heritage,” said one spokesman.

Corps’ Mississippi Study Questioned

(ENS) The National Academy of Sciences has questioned the scandal-plagued $1.2 billion Upper Mississippi River Navigation expansion. Along with other critics, the NAS questions further erode the [Army] Corps’ credibility as a provider of impartial analyses of its water resources development projects.

The NAS concluded that the Corps overestimated demand for waterway transportation; failed to assess non-structural alternatives to relieve traffic congestion; and failed to consider impacts of the existing navigation system on the environment.

NAS was commissioned to review the Corps’ study after a federal employee filed a whistleblower complaint, declaring that officials at the Corps ordered economists on the project to change key terms in the economic analysis to support construction of longer locks.

The Office of Special Counsel found a systemic bias within the Corps favoring large, expensive construction projects. The NAS review is at: http://www.nas.edu/

Nature Will Not Wait

Mikhail Gorbachev, former head of the Soviet Union and founder of Green Cross International [www.globalgreen.org] warned in an editorial in the March-April WorldWatch magazine that “nature will not wait. Many environmental experts...believe we have 30 to 40 years in which to act. Time is short and we are already lagging behind.” He recommended a program that would include increased powers for the United Nations; ratification and implementation of all international agreements on disarmament, climate change, biodiversity, desertification, and international water courses; and integration of environmental objectives “from the beginning” in all forms of development and economic activity. “Nature is giving us all the signs we need to develop a common vision for the future; we must grasp this message and act now,” Gorbachev wrote. WorldWatch magazine, 1776 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036; www.worldwatch.org

Organic in Russia; Intercropping in China

The Russian people are eating mostly organic produce, says the Jan/Feb issue of Organic Gardening. “Russia’s more than 30 million gardeners are literally feeding the country...produc[ing]more than 90 percent of Russia’s potatoes and 75 percent of all fruits and vegetables, according to government statistics.” OG says its Russian version, Novii Sadovod i Fermer, has helped tens of thousands of gardeners and farmers throughout Russia for a decade.

Meanwhile, OG says, tens of thousands of rice farmers in China have doubled their yields and practically wiped out the disease rice blast “simply by planting a mixture of two varieties in their fields...The findings validate the long-held organic practice of avoiding monoculture and instead interplanting a diversity of plants, which increases productivity and suppresses disease and pest problems.” The farmers “were able to discontinue the use of costly and hazardous chemical fungicides,” OG noted, quoting a New York Times story of Aug. 22, 2000. [www.organicgardening.com]

Global Warming Causing Water, Power Shortages

(ENS) California and other western states will face serious water problems because of an increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, say scientists with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

As atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide continue to rise, global average temperatures are expected to rise as well.

Warmer overall temperatures may lead to more rain and less snow in the winter. This in turn will mean more flooding in the spring and a reduced water supply for summers that will grow increasingly dry, the researchers said.

Snake River Dams Violate Clean Water Act

(ENS) The federal government’s operation of four hydropower dams on the lower Snake River violates the Clean Water Act, a federal district court in Portland has ruled. The Snake River is the Columbia River’s largest tributary.

The Court ordered the Army Corps to protect the water quality of the Snake River when planning its operation of the dams and their reservoirs.

“The dams make the river too hot and create high levels of dissolved nitrogen, both problems that can be lethal to fish,” said a spokesman. The reservoirs behind the dams slow water velocity and increase the river’s cross section, exposing more water to heating by the sun, thus increasing water temperatures and keeping those temperatures higher for longer periods of time.

Salmon Sex Change

(ENS) Four-fifths of fall chinook salmon females spawning in the Columbia River’s Hanford Reach began life as males, according to samples taken in 1999. Researchers ruled out radiation as a cause of the apparent sex reversal but suggested environmental contaminants that mimic hormones or water temperature changes could be the culprits.

Said one scientist, “We have found that a majority of the female chinook salmon sampled carry a genetic marker that is found only in male salmon. The best explanation for these results is that these females have been ‘sex reversed’ and are in fact male.... This is not unheard of as salmon can be sex reversed experimentally under laboratory conditions. What is surprising is that this is the first report of this from a wild population of fish.” The research was published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Suit to Protect Salmon from Pesticides

(ENS) Commercial fishermen and two environmental groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency for failuring to protect salmon from the harmful effects of pesticides.

The US Geological Survey has detected 73 pesticides in northwest waterways. Thirteen were above criteria set to protect aquatic life.

“The ever-increasing amounts of hazardous pesticides found in our rivers and streams are a clear sign of EPA failure to protect threatened and endangered salmon,” said a spokesperson for the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides.

EPA makes only limited efforts to determine the effects of pesticides on fish, and even when serious detrimental effects are found, EPA rarely takes action, the groups charge.