Monday, 15 Apr 2002

True Grit

For the third year in a row, massive dust storms from China have blown into South Korea, closing schools, canceling flights, and creating a run on facemasks and respiratory medication. The storms are the result of severe desertification in China, where the Gobi Desert grew by 20,000 square miles from 1994 to 1999; the desertification stems from overfarming, overgrazing, and deforestation, among other causes. In Seoul, 750 miles away, dust levels usually measure 70 micrograms per cubic meter of air; during last week's dust storm, the reading was 2,070 micrograms, over twice the level deemed hazardous. And folks in South Korea aren't inhaling mere dirt or sand: Dust from the expanding desert in China binds with airborne pollutants from the rapidly industrializing country, increasing the health hazards. Chinese dust has also traveled on the jet stream to San Francisco and Portland, Ore., heightening the beauty of sunsets but having little impact on health so far.

Parking Is Expensive

Today is tax day in the U.S. (need we remind you?), but not many of your tax dollars will go to support the national park system -- and certainly not enough, conservationists say. The system is suffering from a $4.9 billion backlog in maintenance and improvement projects, a 40 percent shortfall for interpretive and educational services, and a 33 percent shortfall for security and safety. The result? Dilapidated buildings, woefully inadequate research funding, and increasing thievery and poaching of park treasures because fewer rangers are available to patrol vast areas. During his campaign, President Bush promised to eliminate the maintenance backlog within five years, but so far has only chipped away at the problem. Conservationists and a broad bipartisan coalition are urging Congress to increase the National Park Service's overall operating budget by $280 million next year, $173 million more than the increase sought by the White House.

Eight Bawl

Environment ministers from the Group of Eight -- the world's industrialized powers -- met over the weekend for a round of talks in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held later this year in Johannesburg, South Africa. Although the issue of climate change was not on the agenda (much to the dismay of some environmental organizations), yesterday's session was dominated by discussions of the Kyoto Protocol, and especially of the U.S. failure to support it. The other G-8 nations -- Canada, Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan -- have all tentatively agreed to approve the treaty, and have, with varying degrees of tact, criticized President Bush's isolationist stance and his claim that the agreement would harm the U.S. economy. The talks also focused on how to encourage the private sector to invest more in sustainable development.

Science Fry Day

A $10 million annual fellowship program that provides money to graduate students in environmental science, policy, and engineering has been eliminated by the Bush administration, officials announced late last week. The fellowships, which were part of the U.S. EPA's Science to Achieve Results program, were the only federal monies specifically earmarked to fund environmental studies students. Prior to being axed, the program was supporting 311 students, each of whom received between $30,000 and $34,000 for one to three years, and some 1,350 people had already applied for the 2003 fellowships. The program appears to have gotten lost in the shuffle of the administration's attempts to transfer environmental education programming from the EPA to the National Science Foundation. Critics of the cut say President Bush should support the program, because he has consistently highlighted the importance of solid science in environmental decision-making.

Al Gore Rhythm

Speaking at the Florida Democratic Party Convention -- widely regarded as the first stop on the 2004 campaign trail -- former Vice President Al Gore attacked the Bush administration on Saturday for favoring corporate America and trashing environmental protections. In his most outspoken speech since the 2000 presidential campaign, Gore decried the return to "the days of deficits and debt, the days of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, the days of loosening environmental safeguards to satisfy the polluters." Gore did not say whether he would run for president in 2004, but observers said that if that is his intention, he got off to a good start in Florida. "Had Gore spoken like this in 2000, we would have all been celebrating at the White House," said Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez (D).