Wednesday, 12 Sep 2001

Arsenic Study Supports Tougher Limits in H2O

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has found that the standard for arsenic levels in drinking water should be at least as tough as the one set by the Clinton administration and then suspended by the Bush administration. Former President Clinton ordered the level to be no higher than 10 parts per billion (ppb) by 2006, the same standard set by the World Health Organization and many European countries. President Bush cast aside the standard in March. The academy report concludes, however, that even at 3 ppb, the risk of bladder and lung cancer from arsenic is between four and 10 deaths per 10,000 people; the U.S. EPA's maximum acceptable level of risk for the past two decades for drinking water contaminants has been one death in 10,000. Officials said that EPA head Christie Todd Whitman would now go with a standard at least as stringent as Clinton's.

World Scientists Are Aghast at Canada's Species Bill

More than 1,300 of the world's top biologists sent a scathing letter to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Monday, criticizing the country's proposed endangered species legislation. They are upset that the bill would protect no species habitat on provincial land, but only on federal land -- and then only at the federal cabinet's discretion. The federal lands that could be protected make up only 5 percent of all the land required to protect the species, according to the scientists. Stephen Carpenter, the president of the Ecological Society of America, called Canada the "weak link" in species protection in North America. The bill may be passed before the year is out.

Songbird Populations Drop in the U.S.

For each species of songbird whose population is on the rise in the U.S., two species are in decline, says Jeff Wells of the National Audubon Society. Of the 116 species whose populations have fluctuated since 1966, 76 have decreased significantly. Urban sprawl, and all that comes along with it (farmland and forest loss, more roads, etc.), is one of the big contributors to the loss in numbers. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that cats also kill hundreds of millions of songbirds a year.

Acreage Protected By Local Land Trusts Increases Threefold

Local land trusts across the U.S. had protected almost 6.4 million acres by the end of 2000, according to the Land Trust Alliance. That's more than a threefold increase since 1990. And for the first time, the group said, land trusts had conserved land in all 50 states. California had the most land under protection at 1.2 million acres; New York, 552,000 acres; and Montana, 505,000 acres. The land was either purchased outright by the trusts -- and then sometimes turned over to local, state, or federal agencies -- or put under conservation easement, where landowners gave up their rights to develop their land in exchange for money and tax breaks. The Land Trust Alliance survey did not include the millions of acres of land protected by national groups like the Nature Conservancy.

Coral Reefs Are Dying Faster Than Thought

The world's coral reefs are dying faster and cover an area smaller than researchers previously thought, according to a study released yesterday by the U.N. Environment Programme. The UNEP report estimates that almost 60 percent of the reefs are under threat from human activities. For example, some Asian fishers use dynamite or cyanide to catch fish that live in the reefs; nutrient-rich runoff breeds algae, which smothers coral; and rising ocean temperatures from global warming cause bleaching, which can kill coral. In the first worldwide mapping of the reefs, UNEP found that the reefs cover between one-tenth and half of the area previously thought. The agency said 97 percent of reefs were threatened in Thailand and the Philippines, while in Indonesia, 82 percent were at risk.