Thursday, 30 May 2002

Brotherhood Has Its Priviliges

Some of Florida's natural wonders will be protected from oil and gas drilling, thanks to two major deals announced yesterday by President Bush. The first, a completed $115 million buy-back of drilling leases off the shores of Pensacola, will protect the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, while the second, which offers companies a total of $120 million in cash or future drilling credits in exchange for retiring their mineral rights in the Everglades, must be approved by Congress. Environmentalists rejoiced over both deals, but it wasn't lost on anyone that the agreements were extraordinarily at odds with the Bush administration's push to expand oil and gas exploration in the rest of the nation. National Environmental Trust President Phil Clapp described the deals as "a $235 million campaign contribution to the Re-Elect [First Brother and Florida Gov.] Jeb Bush Committee, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers." Interior Secretary Gale Norton defended the administration's quixotic approach to energy development policy, saying that, "Each case must be evaluated individually."

A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing

Does access to information protect us, or put us at risk? That question is at the heart of an environmental debate that's taken on a different shape -- and different stakes -- since Sept. 11. At issue is the public's right to know about chemical plants and other factories manufacturing hazardous materials. Environmentalists maintain that people have a right to know about hazards in their communities -- and that access to such knowledge is one of the driving forces behind environmental improvements. The chemical industry and its allies, however, argue that making such information public poses a risk to national security by essentially granting would-be terrorists blueprints to potentially devastating targets. So far, the industry is winning the ideological battle; in the name of national security, the government has limited access to previously public data about chemical accidents, and stripped websites and reading rooms of materials showing the location of potential targets. But environmentalists aren't bowing out; Greenpeace, for one, is planning to post a map on the Internet showing how an attack on a New Jersey bleach plant could unleash a lethal cloud of chlorine vapor over New York City.

Dead Bird Flying

Upon hearing reports of his own demise, Mark Twain famously retorted that rumors of his death had been greatly exaggerated. The same could be said of the golden-crowned manakin, a small Brazilian bird thought to have gone extinct almost a half-century ago but recently rediscovered in the Amazon rainforest. The bird was found by German ornithologist Helmut Sick in 1957. That was also the last year anyone ever saw a golden-crowned manakin, and the bird was eventually given up for dead -- until two Brazilian scientists, Fabio Olmos and Jose Fernando Pacheco, found a single male member of the species last week. (Pacheco has a reputation for bringing back the dead, having previously rediscovered the kinglet cotinga, a bird that hadn't been seen since the 19th century.) Unfortunately, unlike in Twain's case, rumors of the species' demise were only slightly exaggerated; scientists fear that habitat destruction poses a major threat to the long-term survival of the bird.

Dreading Water

Industrial pollution in U.S. and Canadian lakes, rivers, and streams rose 26 percent from 1995 to 1999, according to a report released yesterday by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the environmental watchdog agency of the North American Free Trade Association. The report, entitled "Taking Stock," examined data on 210 chemicals from 21,500 facilities in the U.S. and Canada. (Under NAFTA agreements, Mexico is not yet required to report on pollution releases and transfers, although 117 facilities voluntarily reported.) About 8 percent of the total releases included chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive problems. The biggest regional polluters were Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, and just 15 of the 21,500 facilities accounted for 7 percent of the pollution produced.

Time to Get ExxonMobilized

ExxonMobil, long a target of progressive activists for its appalling environmental and human rights record, is now catching flak from more mainstream critics as well. In an unusual move, shareholder advisor Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc., recommended that ExxonMobil's shareholders vote for two controversial proposals, one to outline plans to promote renewable energy use, and the other to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians. ISS said failure to implement the policies could hurt the company's bottom line. ExxonMobil is subject to a boycott in Europe for its poor renewable energy policies. Shareholders voted down both measures during the company's annual meeting in Dallas yesterday, but both received more than twice as many votes as last year, when they were also on the ballot but not supported by ISS.