Thursday, 13 Sep 2001

Dust, Asbestos From Trade Center Put Some at Risk

The enormous cloud of smoke and grit that spread from the collapsing World Trade Center towers on Tuesday could lead to attacks of asthma, emphysema, and other lung diseases, even a day or two after people were exposed, doctors said yesterday. Aside from the smoke, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said the biggest environmental concern right now was asbestos that was launched into the air from the buildings. One out of the four air samples taken by the agency found significant levels of the cancer-causing material. Lucky weather patterns have reduced the threat of airborne pollution to the public, but rescue workers are still at risk.

Nuclear Plants Might Not Withstand Terrorist Attacks

Nuclear power plants are vulnerable to terrorists, and attacks on them could cause much more damage than Tuesday's disasters, says Tom Clements, head of the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington, D.C. He says the reactors' containment systems were not built to withstand attacks from the air. But that's not all. Clements says, "It's quite apparent that the facilities are very difficult to defend. I mean, [terrorists] can just go right in, over the fence, take out the guards, and get in." In some simulated attacks, security systems failed at about half the U.S. reactors tested.

Enviros Say Power Company Buys Off Locals in Uganda

AES Corp. has struck a $500 million dollar deal with Uganda to build a dam near Bujagali Falls on the Nile River, but construction on the site is still on hold. The Virginia-based company said it didn't expect to encounter so much opposition from locals, whose lives and customs revolve around the river. AES has since promised to work with the people who live along the river to relocate the dwelling places of ancestors and traditional spirits, and conduct the appropriate ceremonies. Environmentalists, rafting companies, and other opponents of the massive dam accuse AES of foisting its plans on the locals. "This company is exploiting people's poverty by buying them off," says Martin Musumba, founder of Save the Bujagali Crusade. Fewer than 5 percent of the country's 22 million residents have electricity, but the dam won't do much to change that, because little infrastructure exists in the country to deliver power to remote areas.

Kuwait Suffers From Month of Fish Kills

About 2,000 tons of dead fish have washed ashore in Kuwait in the past month -- a number equivalent to the amount of fish eaten over four years in the country (and Kuwaitis like a good piece of fish on the dinner table). No dead fish have been found elsewhere in the Gulf, leading experts to believe that the cause of the deaths originates in Kuwait and isn't natural. Under public pressure, the government has banned fishing. Some experts are blaming raw sewage being pumped into the Gulf for the deaths, while others are pointing to runoff from the oil industry.

Solar Helps Bridge Digital Divide in Developed World

Solar energy has become the energy of choice in some of the world's rural markets, helping to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. Daniel Kammen of the University of California at Berkeley said 2 billion people across the world don't have access to electricity and 1 billion of them could afford to pay for power. "There's a lot of money to be made in converting those people to solar," said Allen M. Barnett, chief executive of AstroPower, based in Newark, N.J. With no moving parts, off-the-grid solar energy is easier to maintain than hydropower and wind power. The upfront cost of solar panels and batteries is a challenge for solar, but prorated over 10 years, the cost of solar is competitive with any off-grid power source, at about 18 cents a kilowatt-hour.