Friday, 26 Jan 2001

Stiff As a Board

Withstanding pressure from automakers, air quality officials in California voted 9-0 yesterday to move forward with a mandate requiring that 3 million electric and low-polluting vehicles be sold in the state over the next decade. The vote by the California Air Resources Board automatically triggers similar mandates in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, and affects six of the largest auto manufacturers -- DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, and Toyoto. The mandate is far less progressive than what was originally proposed 10 years ago, requiring more low-polluting vehicles on balance and fewer zero-emissions vehicles. Still, enviros were pretty dang pleased with yesterday's outcome.

El Nino -- and El Other Nino

In its first move on global warming, the Bush administration has asked that the next international summit on climate change be delayed two months. When talks to hammer out the details of the Kyoto treaty collapsed last November at The Hague, Netherlands, the chair of the talks, Jan Pronk, scheduled another session for this May. But U.S. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said this week that the Bush administration needs more time to undertake a "thorough look at the U.S. policy on climate change." As a candidate, President Bush made clear that he didn't support Kyoto, although he wouldn't fully discount the possibility that global warming was occurring. Meanwhile, a study published today in the journal Science suggests that rising greenhouse gas levels might bring about more destructive weather patterns by intensifying the effects of El Nino and La Nina.

Rage Against the Machine

Betty Krawczyk, a 73-year-old great-grandmother, romance writer, and hero to many Canadian environmentalists, was released from jail yesterday, after a judge ruled that she had served enough of her year-long sentence for protesting old-growth logging in the Elaho Valley in British Columbia. Krawczyk began serving her jail term four months ago just as five loggers were given only suspended sentences for assaulting a protest camp in the valley. Krawczyk, who is a member of the group Raging Grannies, said yesterday that when she blockaded logging roads to protect trees, "it affirmed human values over the profit motive and that's considered far more dangerous by corporations and governments." On a related note, check out the diary entries this week on the Grist Magazine website by Susan Tixier of the enviro group Great Old Broads.

Trent Warfare

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has promised Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski (R) that his energy bill, which is backed by oil interests, will be one of the first five bills introduced in the Senate this year. A draft of the bill proposes more drilling for oil and gas on federal lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, as well as millions of dollars to revive nuclear power as a major energy source. Murkowski said, "Consumers want power. New power plants have to be built." The draft also includes some incentives for conservation and renewable energy. In times like these, where won't oil drilling occur? Maybe, Florida? Jeb Bush (R), the state's governor and baby brother to the president, sent a letter this week to the Interior Department opposing oil drilling off Florida's coast.

Big Yak Attack

A ragtag group of about two dozen men fighting to stop poaching of the Tibetan antelope in China was forced to disband this month. Leaders of the China's Wild Yak Brigade were told to take county jobs, and other members were offered jobs with the government's less-experienced anti-poaching program. The antelope, whose fine wool is smuggled out of China to make expensive shahtoosh shawls sold in the West, live in the Kekexili wilderness. With very limited resources, the brigade over eight years uncovered nearly 100 poaching operations and confiscated more than 8,600 antelope pelts, winning an international following in the process. Two of the brigade's leaders were killed for the cause. Poachers seem to be winning the battle, however: Eight years ago, some 200,000 roamed the wilderness, but only 30,000 now remain.