Thursday, 24 Jan 2002

Duck, Duck, Gross

More than a dozen years after an Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil, nearly 10,000 gallons of the oil remain buried under the shoreline. The lingering oil was documented during a three-month field study last summer; the study's results were presented this week during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council's annual workshop. The study found that the oil is still harming wildlife: Sea otters are suffering liver damage, harlequin ducks have hydrocarbons in their guts, and overall numbers of both populations are in decline. Species that forage on the nearby sea floor also show evidence of harm. An ExxonMobil spokesperson, however, denied that the spill is continuing to damage wildlife in the area.

Great Bitten?

Large parts of England and Wales are at risk of becoming breeding grounds for malaria as global warming heats up local temperatures, according to a study by Durham University scientists commissioned by the Brits' Department of Health. Increased temperatures encourage mosquitoes to breed and feed more rapidly, and they speed up the maturation of the malaria parasite. At present, no British mosquitoes are known to carry malaria, but one local species is capable of transmitting the disease. Malaria was once common in much of the U.K., contributing to large numbers of deaths in the 16th through the 19th centuries. Using a mathematical model, the researchers predicted that if global warming continued at its current rate, the disease could become a major threat again within 50 years, and could plague the U.K. for up to four months a year by the end of the century.

Toms of Pain

One chapter in the long saga of the Toms River pollution case came to a close recently when companies accused of polluting the water in the New Jersey town agreed to compensate children who were stricken with cancer and siblings who suffered emotional distress. The details of the financial arrangement, which were released yesterday, show that Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Union Carbide, and the United Water Resources (the local water utility) will pay 69 families a total of at least $13.27 million. While those families settled out of court through a mediation process, another 600 plaintiffs filed suit against the companies and are seeking class-action status and compensation for damages stemming from exposure to Toms River air and water.

Election Day Is Green Day

If the voting record is any measure, most Americans are green at heart when it comes to conservation. Last year, voters approved spending $1.7 billion for parks and open spaces, according to a tally released today by the Trust for Public Land and the Land Trust Alliance. Seventy percent of 196 local ballot measures in 24 states were given the thumbs up. The fine people of Massachusetts had a particularly impressive voting record, passing 68 greenspace measures last year. The numbers were down from 1999, the last off-election year, when voters across the country okayed 90 percent of land protection ballot measures and approved spending $1.8 billion on local conservation initiatives. But last year's figures weren't bad for a recession year.

A Finger in the Dike

In what appears to be the first deal struck under the Kyoto treaty's Clean Development Mechanism, the Netherlands has signed a contract with the World Bank providing $40 million for clean energy projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon dioxide reduction credits. The Kyoto treaty sets target limits on the emission of the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, and the Clean Development Mechanism allows states to buy credits toward their own targets by helping fund clean energy programs elsewhere. The three-year contract between the Dutch government and the World Bank's International Finance Corporation will give the Netherlands 10 megatons of credit towards its emissions limit of 250 megatons; the IFC, meanwhile, will identify which clean energy projects to fund in developing nations.