Monday, 05 Aug 2002

Everyone's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Task Force

The Bush administration has 30 days to turn over more documents related to Vice President Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group, a federal judge ordered late last week. A number of other federal agencies involved in the secretive energy task force have already turned over thousands of pages of related documents, but the Bush administration balked, claiming that executive privilege and the Administrative Procedures Act protected such information from public review. Last week's ruling should put an end to the foot-dragging; it also requires the government to hand in written responses to questions from two interest groups, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, which have sued to find out the names and positions of everyone involved in the task force. The interest groups claim that the White House gave energy industry executives an improper degree of control in shaping the nation's energy policies. David Bookbinder, senior attorney for the Sierra Club, marveled at the "administration's arrogance" and said the ruling was a clear victory for environmentalists.

Amazon Quivers

Deep in the southeastern jungles of Peru, a stand-off has begun between illegal loggers and some of the world's last wholly isolated indigenous groups. Around 400 native Amazonians, who traditionally have little to no contact with the outside world, have emerged to try to run the illegal loggers off the land. After four of the loggers were reportedly injured with arrows, others called for reinforcements and weapons, prompting the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and Tributaries to express fear of a "genocide" if the national government did not intervene soon. Around 8,000 Amazonians live in voluntary isolation in small groups in a national reserve in the Madre de Dios region, where they support themselves by hunting, gathering, and fishing. The reserve, which includes the largest remaining mahogany stand in Peru, is off limits to logging, but that hasn't deterred illegal loggers, who work on commission for big timber companies.

Summer Buggin'

Think of it as good news in bad packaging: The swarms of mayflies that are coating Midwestern towns this summer are a sign that the region's waterways -- most notably the Mississippi River -- are healthier than they've been in decades. The flies don't bite or sting; they just mate and die, all in the course of one day, and they do so in such large volumes that they have to be removed with power washers, shovels, and snowplows. Still, their presence is welcome: "They are an indication of the general health of the river," said John Lindell, district manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Marquette, Iowa. As efforts to clean Midwestern waterways of pollution from sewage and farm runoff have paid off, mayfly populations have boomed. This year's swarms are bigger than they've been in a half-century, with some even visible on weather-radar screens.

Fine, China

California is one of the most environmentally minded states in the U.S.; China is one of the most polluted countries in the world. Now, the two have teamed up to clean up: California scientists and entrepreneurs are working with the Chinese government to combat environmental degradation in its myriad forms. The effort is being led by the Energy Foundation of San Francisco, which has spent $5 million per year for the past three years on environmental causes in China. California isn't acting out of pure altruism; "It's in our interest to give the Chinese the benefit of our experience," said Alan Lloyd, chair of the state's Air Resources Board, which is using U.S. federal funds to help China set up an emissions-monitoring system. Wind-blown pollutants such as ozone, pesticides, and dust blow from China to California and the Pacific Northwest, and China's greenhouse gases are expected to rival those of the U.S. by 2020, significantly worsening the global climate problem.

Lambs to the Slaughter

The wildfires that are raging across the western U.S. this summer aren't just threatening the trophy homes of billionaires; they are also posing a danger to wildlife. Take bighorn sheep, which were reintroduced to the shores of Washington state's Lake Chelan after a century's absence. The sheep were finally gaining a foothold in the area; about 17 lambs were born in the spring, bringing the population to an estimated 70. Now the 36,000-acre Deer Point fire has scorched the animal's entire range, and less than half the animals have been accounted for. The same fire also threatens other species, including the struggling mule deer population as well as the western gray squirrel and the lynx, both of them endangered. The mule deer, which were already suffering from food shortages before the fire, are expected to battle starvation this winter; and the squirrel population, one of just three remaining in the state, was dealt a severe blow when its favored big-leaf maple habitat was destroyed by the blaze as well.