by Renee Kjartan and Environment News Service

US Owes ‘Ecological Debt’

The latest issue of Earth Focus, published by Friends of theEarth, blasts President Bush’s energy policy and calls for investmentin conservation and renewable sources of energy. “As the nationemitting the largest quantities of greenhouse gases, the US has astrong moral obligation not to inflict climate disaster on the rest ofthe Earth, especially not the poor nations that are increasinglydevastated by violent storms,” writes FoE president Brent Blackwelder.He quotes a Dutch environmentalist who states: “The US, as the world’sbiggest polluter, owes an enormous ecological debt to the people ofthe planet Earth to restore the damage it has already done.” FoE, 1025Vermont Ave NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20005-6303; foe@foe.org; www.foe.org

Poisoned Schools

‘Poisoned Schools: Invisible Threats, Visible Actions,’ is a newreport from Child Proof Our Communities, a national campaign toprotect children from exposure to environmental health hazards inschools. The report says building schools on or near toxic land, andusing pesticides in schools are the main threats. For a copy of thereport, call Center for Health, Environment and Justice, 703-237-2249;or childproofing@chej.org

Billion More People Every 11 Years

International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region[120 Wall St., 9th fl, NYC NY 10005-3902] notes the world populationis now growing at the rate of a billion more people every elevenyears; and the global population will double by 2040, straining theenvironment. IPPF says its goals are to “control population growth,reduce hunger and improve the standard of living of millions ofpeople….[W]hen women have the choice of delaying motherhood and havingsmaller families, they do....[Some] 120 million men and women in theworld want to limit the size of their families....But they have noaccess to family planning.”

Yellowstone to Yukon Bioregion

An article in The Home Range, published by the PredatorConservation Alliance, discusses the growing move to declare aYellowstone-to-Yukon Bioregion (Y2Y). The area would connectnow-isolated habitats so animals could roam freely. The proposed Y2Yarea lies between Yellowstone and the Yukon’s Pearl River, straddlingthe Rocky Mountains, and covering 2108 miles. In many sections of theregion predators and other animals are plentiful, but in others theyare threatened, the article says. In Canada, a Y2Y ConservationInitiative is being debated, and the Canadian government recentlysaved thousands of acres toward the Y2Y region. To find out more go towww.rockies.ca/y2y orwrite 710 9th St, Studio B, Canmore, Alberta, T1W2V7; 403-609-2666;hub@y2y.net. PredatorConservation Alliance is at POB 6733, Bozeman, MT 59771.

Gardens and Global Warming

Several articles in the May/June issue of Sierra, published bythe Sierra Club, discuss community gardens in poor neighborhoods, androof gardens. In Berkeley, California, a landscape architect, workswith local residents to transform weed-and-debris-strewn areas intoflourishing gardens. Another article tells how roof gardens [becareful of too much weight on the roof] can help apartment buildingssave energy and cool the air if enough buildings participate. Germanyis building 20 million square feet of “green roofs” every year, andthe practice is spreading across Europe, the article notes.

Animals Aren’t Actors

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is campaigning foran end to the use of animals in entertainment. “…animals used incircus entertainment…are hauled from town to town, forced to performdistressing and even painful acts, and in the 'off season' are kept intiny barren enclosures, often being denied shelter from rain andsnow,” and many times are beaten or abused in other ways, theorganization explains. Recently the US Dept. of Agriculture citedRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus after two tigersinjured themselves after trying to escape their hot cages. PETA, 501Front St, Norfolk, VA 23510; PETA@PETA-online.org. People canwrite to tell Shriners to use only human performers c/o ImperialPotentate, Mystic Shrine for North America, POB 31356, Tampa, FL33631-3356.

Energy Crisis Can Be Opportunity: WashPIRG

The threats of electricity blackouts and price spikes have spawned twoopposing views of the future, says WashPIRG (Washington PublicInterest Research Group; www.washpirg.org). On one hand theoil, gas and coal industries are pushing to develop more pollutingfuels and to weaken pollution standards. But the crisis can be seen asan opportunity to move to a cleaner future, says WashPIRG. We need “asmarter, cleaner energy future, one that relies more on solar power,wind power and energy efficiency.” By improving conservation,Washington could save enough energy to power two cities the size ofSeattle, says the Northwest Power Planning Council, quoted by WashPIRGin a news release. But forces are moving in the opposite direction.Already, Tacoma Power and Georgia Pacific have permission to fire upsome 80 diesel generators, despite the fact that diesel fuel leads tocancer and heart disease. And the utilities are pushing for approvalof 13 natural gas-fired power plants. One of these, the proposed SumasEnergy 2 plant near Bellingham, “would emit as much globalwarming-causing carbon dioxide as 400,000 cars.” WashPIRG appeals topeople to support its agenda in the fight for clean energy.

Tree Farms: No Cure for Global Warming?

(ENS)-Two recent studies raise questions about how much the plantingof trees could reduce the effects of global warming.

Policy makers are searching for ways to reduce atmospheric levels ofcarbon dioxide (CO2). One suggested way is to lock up some of theextra gas in growing wood, or in the soil created by microbes fromfallen vegetation.

Results from experiments near Duke University, where forest plots growin the higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide expected by themid- 21st century, suggest that trees and soil may not sop up much ofthe extra gas over the long term under real world conditions.

Two articles, published in recent issues of the journal Nature,show that while 20-year-old loblolly pine trees began growing up toabout 25 percent more wood after becoming exposed to 1.5 times currentlevels of CO2, that initial growth spurt dropped back to only marginalgains after the first three years.

Researchers found they were able to enhance wood production as much as74 percent at a nearby experimental site by providing extra nitrogenfertilizer as well as CO2 to trees growing in nutrient-poor soils. Butgrowth did not increase at all without the supplemental nitrogen.

Said co-principal investigator David Ellsworth, assistant professor ofplant physiological ecology in the School of Natural Resources andEnvironment at the University of Michigan, “While CO2 initially actsas a stimulus to the tree’s physiology, our experiments suggest thatshort-term increases in growth are not sustainable over the long termin low nutrient environments.”

The studies suggest “that CO2 effects on tree growth in pine forestswill be highly variable and depend greatly on site fertility, perhapsto the point of not responding at all on the nutritionally poorestsites,” concluded the article’s authors.