by Renee Kjartan and Environment News Service

WHY ARE ORCA POPULATIONS DECLINING?

(ENS) - The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) plans to study why the number of killer whales in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca are declining. The review is the first in a series of steps that could lead to Endangered Species Act protection by mid-2003. "We take very seriously the recent declines in killer whale populations and are determined to find out what's causing it," said Donna Darm, in NMFS's Seattle office.

The Northwest's familiar black and white killer whales, also called orcas, are known as the "eastern North Pacific southern resident stock of killer whales," to distinguish them from other killer whale groups. They spend their summers in Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia. The population of these whales has always been small, but it has now gone from a peak of about 97 in 1996 to about 78 animals at present. "We know so little about these animals outside their summer foraging areas," said Brent Norberg, NMFS biologist. "We don't even know where they spend the winter or the extent of their range. That makes determining the reason for the decline quite a challenge."

More information and a copy of a petition to save the whales are at: www.nwr.noaa.gov.

SAVING KING COUNTY FORESTLAND

Washington lost 2.3 million acres of forestland between 1972 and 1992, nearly half of it to urban sprawl, according to the group 1000 Friends of Washington. Now, the Evergreen Forest Trust is trying to permanently protect 104,000 acres of forestland from development. This land, Weyerhaeuser's Snoqualmie Tree Farm, is just outside King County's Urban Growth Boundary. The trust is pioneering a new forest management strategy and growth management tool. Created by regional business, political and environmental leaders, the Trust will harvest timber from the land while preserving sensitive areas near rivers and steep banks. The main goal is to keep forestland near growing, urbanizing areas from being converted to other uses. To get active on this plan, 1000 Friends urges people to contact Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn at dunnwa08@mail.house.gov or at the Mercer Island District Office; (206) 275-3438 and encourage support for H.R. 1711, which would make this project eligible for funding through tax-exempt bonds, which is necessary for the deal to succeed.

FLUORIDE ON OLYMPIA AGENDA

Important bills on mercury and fluoride in Washington state drinking water were introduced in Olympia. Senate Bill 6672 called for the Department of Ecology to assess risks to aquatic life associated with the discharging of inorganic fluoride. The bill was endorsed by WashPIRG, Washington Toxics Coalition, Columbia Riverkeeper, and People for Environmental Action and Childrens' Health (PEACH). Although the bill did not pass out of committee, it did receive a lot of interest from both senators and house members this session. According to testimony given last year in Oregon, salmon and trout are particularly vulnerable to fluoride toxicity in fresh water. The fluoridation of municipal drinking water is a significant source of inorganic fluoride entering the open waters of the state. These same studies indicate that fluoride toxicity causes delayed salmonid migration, deformed embryos and an accelerated mortality rate. In one Columbia River field study, a concentration of just 0.5 milligrams per liter of water resulted in a loss of 55% of the migrating salmon within a six-day period (the typical concentration in Seattle drinking water is double that amount, or 1 milligram per liter). The US EPA has not established any national water quality standard for fluoride. Although Canada has established a "maximum permissible level" of 1.5 milligrams per liter of water, British Columbia has established a more restrictive recommended guideline of 0.2 to 0.3 milligrams per liter (dependent on the hardness of the water). For more information contact Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, (800) 728-3833.

HOG FARMING INHUMANE

(ENS) - The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is calling for an end to the suffering of millions of hogs raised every year in factory farms in the US. The Halt Hog Factories campaign tells about the inhumane treatment of animals that is inherent in factory hog farming. The goal is to end the intensive confinement of these intelligent and social animals. "People know about environmental pollution from hog factories, or the effect on family farmers," said a HSUS spokesperson. "But we want to raise awareness of the inhumane treatment that hogs endure on factory farms. It's one more good reason to reject the hog factory system." A recent poll shows that 67 percent of Americans think that pigs should be treated humanely. The Halt Hog Factories campaign asks that people not buy products made from hogs raised on factory farms, which constitute the majority of pork products on the market.

WARM GLOBALLY, FREEZE LOCALLY

(ENS) - Changes in ocean currents due to global warming could plunge much of Europe into a deep freeze, say researchers from Oregon State University (OSU). Robbed of the ocean current patterns that help keep it warm, Europe could end up with a climate similar to Alaska's, the researchers conclude in an analysis published recently in the journal Nature "If the ocean circulation patterns that now warm much of the North Atlantic were to slow or stop, the consequences could be quite severe," said the author of the arrticle. "This might also happen much quicker than many people appreciate. At some point the question becomes how much risk do we want to take?"

The big variable in the equation, Clark said, is whether changes in global temperature and precipitation patterns might affect a gigantic conveyor belt of warm, less salty surface water that moves from the tropical Atlantic Ocean until it becomes so cold and salty in the far north Atlantic that it sinks, moves south and continues the circulation pattern. This process, called thermohaline circulation, happens in just two regions of the Earth's polar areas. It is responsible for much of the oceans' circulation, including the currents that help keep parts of North America and Europe warmer than they would otherwise be, considering their position. Most of Great Britain is at the same latitude as central Canada.

Research suggests that this circulation process may have fluctuated or even stopped many times in Earth's distant past, and that it is sensitive to moderate increases in temperature or influxes of fresh water. The cold, salty water that sinks in the far North Atlantic Ocean will not sink if it becomes a little bit warmer or a little bit less salty, and the change could happen in a matter of decades. "This system does not respond in what we call a linear manner," Clark said. "Once you start putting on the brakes, this circulation pattern could slow down faster and faster and eventually stop altogether." The paradox, the scientists say, is that the same greenhouse effect that might make the Earth warmer overall, could have the opposite effect on much of Europe by slowing or shutting down the warm ocean circulation patterns on which it depends.

"Most, but not all, coupled general circulation model projections of the 21st century climate show a reduction in the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases," the researchers write in their report. "If the warming is strong enough and sustained long enough, a complete collapse cannot be excluded."

EUROPE EXAMINES EFFECTS OF CONSUMPTION AND TOURISM ON ENVIRONMENT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 29 2001 (ENS) - The European Environment Agency (EEA) declared recently that patterns of producing and consuming must become matters of public policy if Europe is to attain a sustainable environment.

The EEA report, titled Environmental Signals 2001, "shows, regrettably, that the environmental problems that are most difficult to solve, including greenhouse gas emissions, pressures on land and water resources, nitrate pollution and waste generation, remain with us," said Domingo Jimenez-Beltran, the EEA's executive director. "These problems are consequences of the overall scale of resources use," Jimenez-Beltran said. "If environmental and sustainability aims and targets...are to be reached, higher efficiencies in the use of materials and energy will be necessary. This in turn requires further actions to influence the character and scale of production and consumption across the various economic sectors. Taxation is a key tool for managing demand but it needs to be applied dynamically since financial stimuli become less effective as incomes rise," he said. The report examines the environmental impacts of household consumption, tourism and the key transport, energynd agriculture sectors. The report also focused on river water quality, hazardous substances in marine waters, soil contamination and grasslands, climate change, air pollution and waste. Waste generation increased and was closely linked to economic growth.

On the positive side, the report found that inputs into the northeast Atlantic Ocean of six important hazardous heavy metals and organic substances fell significantly between 1990 and 1998; and that EU emissions of the six Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases fell by 2 percent between 1990 and 1998 while emissions in the US rose by 11 percent in the same period; electricity from renewable energy sources increased by about 3 percent per year between 1989 and 1998, but the annual growth rate needs to rise to 5.5 percent to meet the EU target for 2010; eco-labeling of tourist accommodations increased since 1990 but remains marginal.

On the negative side, demand for transport fuels grew faster; motorway construction claimed around 10 hectares (25 acres) of land every day between 1990 and 1998; and eco-efficiency, the efficiency with which environmental resources are used to produce a unit of economic activity, improved since 1990 in transport, energy supply and agriculture, which decreased emissions of acidifying gases and ground-level ozone precursors from these sectors. But gains in energy efficiency have been outweighed by the growth of these sectors.

European environmental organizations say they want the European Union to become, "the most resource efficient economy in the world, reaching levels of resource use and environmental impact that are in line with the carrying capacity of the European and global environment. The full text of Environmental Signals 2001 is at the EEA's web site: http://reports.eea.eu.int/signals-2001/index_html.