CARS EAT LAND

According to WorldWatch, each car in the US requires an average of 7,841 square feet of paved land for roads and parking. For every five cars, an area the size of a football field is covered with asphalt.

FERTILIZERS CAUSE GULF ‘DEAD ZONE’

A dead area about the size of New Jersey extends from the mouth of the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. The Environmental Defense (ED) newsletter [www.environmentaldefense.org] says the area is nearly void of marine life. Fish, worms, clams, crabs, are gone. The fish can escape, but other life forms die. The cause is nutrients, primarily nitrogen, flowing down the Mississippi from fertilizer from nearby farms. The nitrogen causes algae blooms and red and brown tides, which “block sunlight and devastate the marine ecosystem. When the algae dies, decomposition uses up available oxygen. Sea-grass communities are destroyed.” ED is working to reduce the agricultural and urban runoff and air-borne nitrogen pollution that settles on land and water.

ROADS: 21ST CENTURY ISSUE

“Roads are eliminating forests, meadows and wetlands where animals live,” says an article in Forest magazine, published by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE). “From double tracks in woods to multilane interstates, roads… fragment habitat, forcing wildlife into smaller and smaller spaces and isolating them from one anther…. By compromising the basic integrity of our wildlife and wildland ecosystems, they may be the conservation issue of the 21st Century,” according to a Forest Service ecologist quoted in the article. The Forest Service has 386,000 miles of roads in 192 million acres of land. Nearly 2 million vehicles travel on forest roads each year, killing millions of animals, many of which are endangered. Forest magazine, POB 11615, Eugene, OR 97440-3815.

POISON PC/TOXIC TV

A report by several groups concerned about the toxic effects of e-waste warns about the growing piles of electronic waste in the US. These items contain many toxics and are not being disposed of properly, the groups say.

The report, “Poison PCs and Toxic TVs: The Biggest Environmental Crisis You Never Heard Of,” says Californians pay almost $1 billion for handling e-wastes that consumers and businesses throw away.

“We’re sitting on top of a gigantic e-wasteberg, and in order to find solutions, the manufacturers of computers must take life-cycle responsibility for their products,” says Ted Smith, executive director of Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, and one of the lead authors of the report. “They need to redesign their products to phase out the toxic materials and make computers and monitors recyclable.” Other groups authoring the report are Californians Against Waste and Materials for the Future.

The report spurred a San Jose City Council member to state: “Local taxpayers are not in a position to shoulder the staggering costs of cleaning up hazardous wastes found in personal computers and monitors. We need a collaborative effort involving local and state government, high-tech, and other stakeholders.”

A recent announcement by the California Department of Toxics and Substance Control clarified that it is illegal to dispose of televisions and computer monitors in municipal landfills. That announcement has sent cities throughout the state scrambling to find alternative methods of collecting and recycling computer and electronic waste. The report is available at: http://www.svtc.org/

RELIGIOUS GROUPS FOR FORESTS