Friday, 04 Jan 2002

Sigh-onara

Not two months after the conclusion of the climate change negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco, Japan is sending alarming signals that it will bow to industry pressure and break its pledge to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol and cut greenhouse gas emissions. An advisory council to the government is recommending that emissions cuts be voluntary for businesses and that the government not impose any guidelines on how to achieve the reductions. Critics say such a framework would make it very difficult for the country to meet its target of cutting emissions by 6 percent below 1990 levels. Japan has been in the climate change spotlight ever since the Bush administration pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol.

Running a Groundfish

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is breaking the law by failing to sufficiently protect groundfish in New England, a federal judge ruled last Friday. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said she would issue an order with specific directions for how the agency should stop overfishing, because the NMFS can't be trusted to enforce the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act. The region's 1,400 cod and other groundfish trawlers will likely face much tougher limits on where nets can be cast and how many fish can be caught. Environmentalists praised the decision as precedent-setting, while fishers worried that they might be regulated out of business.

The Race Goes to the Swift

The tiny swift fox has got friends in high places: Ted Turner has launched a campaign to save the rare mammal, which is the smallest North American wild dog. Through the Turner Endangered Species Fund, the billionaire media mogul is petitioning South Dakota for permission to trap 180 swift foxes in Wyoming and release them on his ranch in the former state, where they are a threatened species. The fox was once common in much of the United States and Canada, but its numbers have dwindled dramatically due to habitat loss, accidental trapping, shooting, poisoning, and the declining numbers of prairie dogs and ground squirrels, the fox's prey. The feds acknowledge the fox needs protection, but say they don't have the funding to help the animal. Ted Turner doesn't have that problem, but opponents fear his project would lead to future government restrictions on farming and ranching.

The Shipping News

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reiterated yesterday that at-risk salmon populations wouldn't be further endangered by a project to deepen the Columbia River for more shipping. The Corps said environmental improvements that would be undertaken along with the $188 million dredging project would actually upgrade conditions for fish in the lower river. The Corps was forced to reexamine the topic after the National Marine Fisheries Service withdrew its support for the project in the summer of 2000, citing concerns about salmon protections. The NMFS will now issue a new opinion, based on the biological assessment released by the Corps yesterday. Enviros remained skeptical. Peter Huhtala of the Columbia Deepening Opposition Group said, "It's a slight repackaging of a grossly destructive project."

Victor: Victoria

These days, press coverage of the Middle East is all bombs and burkhas, but Victoria Jamali is fighting a very different battle. The Iranian woman cofounded one of her country's most active nonprofits, the Women's Society Against Environmental Pollution. Now, along with colleagues at the University of Tehran, she is launching Iran's first environmental law program. U.S. environmentalists have called Jamali an Iranian John Muir. She is leading Iran's movement against severe water and air pollution (cities like Tehran must close their schools in the fall, when air pollution is most severe); against threats to the country's wildlife (such as the rare Persian cheetah); and against the general lack of environmental regulation in her society.