Wednesday, 12 Jun 2002

Can-do-ada

After a decade of debate, the Canadian House of Commons approved yesterday what could become Canada's first nationwide endangered species bill. The bill would prohibit the harming or killing of endangered species on federal land and the destruction of the species' critical habitat. A scientific advisory board would nominate critters to be added to an endangered species list. Environmentalists offered measured praise for the bill, saying they welcomed any efforts to save endangered species but expressing concern that the legislation would protect species on federal land only. Kate Smallwood of the Sierra Legal Defense Fund in British Columbia said the bill would do little to help the two-thirds of species that live elsewhere. The bill now goes to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.

Justice First!

Two Earth First! activists were awarded $4.4 million yesterday after a jury found that three FBI agents and three Oakland police officers violated the civil rights of the duo. Darryl Cherney, who remains an Earth First! leader, and Judi Bari, who died of cancer in 1997, were injured in a 1990 car bombing on their way to help organize a protest against logging ancient redwood trees in Northern California. Within hours of the explosion, the FBI and Oakland police arrested the pair, claiming they had planned to use the bomb in an act of eco-terrorism. Cherney and Bari said they had been framed. Six weeks later, the charges against them were dropped for lack of evidence; no one has since been charged in the bombing in the subsequent 12 years. The FBI and Oakland police may appeal the verdict.

Chemical Bothers

Led by a prominent pediatrician, the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine is waging war against industrial chemicals, saying they present significant health risks to children. At a press conference yesterday, Phillip Landrigan, the center's director, said that the country doesn't even have minimal toxicity data on more than half of the 3,000 chemicals produced in high volume in the U.S., and that under 10 percent of the chemicals have been tested to determine whether they damage reproductive organs and the developing brain of fetuses. He said the chemicals may also be causing sharp increases in the rates of leukemia and brain cancer in children. The center is running a series of ads in the New York Times about the risks of the chemicals. In response, industry reps have said that rigorous chemical testing procedures are already in place.

Logging Out

A key Malaysian minister said this week that he hoped the government would move to ban imports of illegally logged Indonesian trees into his country within two weeks. Indonesia has banned the export of uncut logs from its rainforests, but its government has acknowledged that illegal logging continues and has asked other nations to step up to the plate by banning imports of the illegal timber. About 70 percent of Indonesian timber is estimated to have been illegally cut. Much of the timber is imported into Malaysia, where it is fashioned into wood products and then exported to Europe and the U.S.

IBM: I Buy Megawatts

The World Resources Institute has corralled several prominent companies (think General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and Kinkos) into expanding their use of renewable energy. The group hopes that a coalition of companies will commit to using 1,000 megawatts of renewable electricity by 2010; so far, companies in a dozen states have signed on to use 15 MW of power. IBM said yesterday that its use of renewable power and energy efficiency measures had helped the company cut carbon dioxide emissions by 28 percent in the last decade. Kinkos said it now buys a total of 4.2 million kWh of renewable power per year at 80 of its stores nationwide.