Wednesday, 01 Mar 2000

Pigs May Fly, Part I: Oil Company Embraces Truth (Sort Of)

Texaco yesterday became the first major U.S. oil company to defect from the Global Climate Coalition, a business group that denies the seriousness of climate change and opposes the Kyoto Protocol. Texaco explained that it wants to speak for itself on the issues of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, though it still does not endorse the Kyoto treaty. Texaco's exit from the group follows a few months after Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler dropped out; Royal Dutch/Shell Group and BP Amoco have also left the GCC. Enviros are hailing the stream of defections as good news, even though most of the companies remain opposed to Kyoto. Christopher Ball of Ozone Action: "It seems like lying about global warming has finally fallen out of fashion in corporate America."

Pigs May Fly, Part II: Corporations Go Kyoto Cool

IBM Corp. and Johnson & Johnson are teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund in a new program to help corporations make significant cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Savers program is intended to show that companies can voluntarily achieve emissions cuts that equal or exceed those called for in the Kyoto climate change treaty. WWF will give strategic advice about how to save energy, and emissions cuts will be verified by outside auditors. Harry Kauffman, energy director for Johnson & Johnson, said the company, which aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2010, is working on a list of 150 ways to save energy and hopes to get more ideas from IBM and other companies that may join the program.

Nuke Power Really Sucks. Yes, Indeedy.

Belarus citizens have soaring levels of infertility and other serious health problems 14 years after the Chernobyl disaster, doctors announced yesterday. One quarter of Belarus, a country downwind from the Chernobyl site in the Ukraine, was subjected to severe contamination from the accident. Within seven years of the disaster, mortality rates were outstripping birth rates, said Vladislav Ostapenko, head of Belarus's radiation medicine institute. Girls in contaminated areas had five times the normal rate of deformations in their reproductive systems, boys had three times the normal rate, and some 2,500 babies were born each year with genetic abnormalities. Thousands of cases of thyroid cancer, which is normally rare, have been recorded in areas with high radiation levels. Ostapenko said Belarus needs more outside help to cope with what he calls a "demographic catastrophe."

On the Upside, the Gabonese Are Using Fewer Leaf Blowers

Forests in Canada, Cameroon, and Gabon are being chopped down at a greater rate than previously thought, according to the Global Forest Watch project, which is tracking changes in forest cover with sophisticated digital tools, including satellite imagery and geographic information systems. In its first report, Global Forest Watch, sponsored by the World Resources Institute, found heavy logging levels in the Congo basin and Canada's northern boreal forests, and also found that mining, energy, and road construction projects are threatening Canadian forest land. The project plans to expand over the next five years to cover 21 countries with most of the planet's virgin forests. IKEA, the world's largest home furnishings company, intends to use info from Global Forest Watch to help meet its pledge to stop using hardwoods from natural intact forests by Sept. 1.

Utility Kicks Off 21st Century By Finally Entering 20th

A Florida utility has agreed to cut tens of thousands of tons of pollution annually from two power plants in a settlement with the EPA, which could prompt similar agreements to resolve a government lawsuit against 32 aging coal-fired power plants in 10 states. Tampa Electric Co. will also pay a $3.5 million civil penalty for past pollution and invest $10 million in environmental mitigation and short-term pollution control measures. Over the next decade, the utility will switch one of the plants from coal to natural gas and will install new pollution devices to curtail emissions at the other plant, changes expected to cost about $1 billion The agreement is the first to come since the feds filed suit in November against seven of the country's largest, dirtiest coal-burning utilities. Industry and enviro sources say at least one of the six other utilities named in the suit is showing an active interest in settling the case.