Thursday, 21 Feb 2002

Joltin' Joe

In the most scathing attack on George W. Bush since the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) blasted the president's environmental record in a speech made yesterday in California. Lieberman, a possible presidential candidate in 2004 and one of 15 senators to be recognized by the League of Conservation Voters for a perfect environmental voting record, was particularly critical of Bush's energy and global warming plans. The senator also took Bush to task for pushing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a proposal Lieberman said he would filibuster "until the caribou come home ... or Vice President [Dick] Cheney releases the energy task force records, whichever comes later." Lieberman announced that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs, will begin hearings next month on the administration's environmental record.

Green-chip Investment

One of the world's largest financial organizations, HSBC, has earmarked nearly $50 million to create a five-year environmental program called Investing in Nature. The program will funnel money to three environmental nonprofits organizations -- WWF, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and Earthwatch -- to support projects that enhance access to safe drinking water and help preserve endangered plants. WWF will use its share of the money to restore almost 5 million acres of river basin habitats along the Amazon, Yangtze, and Rio Grande. BGCI will use the money to help protect 20,000 endangered plants by creating gene banks in botanic gardens around the world. And Earthwatch will train conservation scientists in developing nations. HSBC Chair Sir John Bond explained the motivation behind Investing in Nature by saying, "Companies as well as individuals have a responsibility for the stewardship of this planet."

Pax With the Devil

Enron is seldom called "socially conscious" these days -- but that's how some investment companies routinely described the company in the not-too-distant past. The Pax World Balanced Fund, which promotes investing in good corporate citizens, and the Domini 400 Social Index and Calvert Social Index, which screen stocks based on social and environmental criteria, all once championed Enron, as did other socially responsible investment funds. The much-maligned company was one of the few energy firms that passed environmental muster for do-good investors, thanks to its emphasis on natural gas and wind energy. (Not that Enron's image was entirely untarnished; socially conscious investors worried about the company's treatment of protestors at an energy plant in India, for example.) Happily, Pax World Fund pulled out of Enron before it imploded, so not all green investors lost the farm.

There's No Business Like Snow Business

Former President Clinton's eleventh-hour ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks just received yet another blow from the Bush administration, when the Interior Department, acting on the request of the snowmobile industry, offered three alternatives to an outright ban. Option one: Delay the phase-out by one year. Option two: Limit the number of snowmobiles at Yellowstone's popular West Entrance (where air quality is so bad that rangers were provided with respirators last week) while increasing the number permitted to enter elsewhere and requiring all snowmobiles to be cleaner and quieter. Option three: Allow snowmobiles (the cleaner and quieter kind) only on major roads and reduce their overall numbers. Critics say the administration is just buying time before reversing the ban entirely, and note that support for the ban has remained unwavering through four public comment periods. But hey, a fifth (now in progress) never hurt.

Send Me the Ivory Bill

Call it a wild goose chase: A 30-day search through a southern Louisiana swamp was called off yesterday after some of the world's top ornithologists failed to find the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker. The bird, once the largest North American woodpecker with a wingspan of up to 33 inches, has not been seen for certain since shortly after WWII. But three years ago, a forestry student said he saw a mating pair, and the claim was credible enough to launch a major search. Traveling by foot and canoe through mosquito- and alligator-infested swamps, and using state-of-the-art technology, six scientists combed 35,000 acres of land northeast of New Orleans. The team turned up some evidence that the birds might not yet be extinct -- but not the definitive sighting they'd hoped for.