Monday, 03 Feb 2003

Don't Cry, Wolf

The gray wolf, once nearly wiped out in the Lower 48 states, is flourishing in the northern Rocky Mountains thanks to a federal recovery effort that got underway in 1995 with the reintroduction of 14 Canadian wolves into Yellowstone National Park. Now there are nearly 700 wolves in 41 packs in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, and the feds are on the verge of declaring victory. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans later this month to downlist the species from "endangered" status to "threatened" status, a shift that would let ranchers kill wolves that attack their livestock. And the government may remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list altogether next year. Some environmentalists are likely to sue to maintain federal protections for the wolves.

Refuge-nix

Six GOP senators are throwing a wrench in the Bush administration's plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. The six -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, and Mike DeWine of Ohio -- announced last week that they will oppose plans to attach to a massive budget bill a provision that would open the refuge to oil and gas exploration. The senators seem to be on the same side of the issue as most Americans. A new poll by the Wilderness Society found that 62 percent of respondents opposed drilling in ANWR, while only 30 percent supported it. Even many Republicans and Bush backers want to see the refuge protected, say the pollsters.

Bill Clinton Gathers No Moss

Former President Bill Clinton will take to the stage with the Rolling Stones this Thursday at an L.A. concert aimed at raising awareness about the looming problem of climate change. Clinton won't be playing the sax, but he will be blowing his metaphorical horn in a speech about the need to tackle global warming, says the Natural Resources Defense Council, organizer of the gig. The show will mark the end of the North American stretch of the Rolling Stones' Licks World Tour.

Blood Sugar Sex Toxic

Americans have lower levels of lead in their bodies than they did a decade ago, but there's plenty of contamination from other toxic chemicals to worry about. In the broadest study of its kind, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers tested blood and urine samples from more than 2,000 Americans, searching for traces of 116 chemicals. One of several troubling findings: Almost 8 percent of American women aged 16 to 49 had blood levels of mercury above 5.8 parts per billion, the U.S. EPA's precautionary standard. Also, Mexican-Americans had 300 percent more DDT residue in their bodies than other Americans. A separate study conducted by the Environmental Working Group, the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and Commonweal tested nine people for 210 chemicals commonly found in consumer products and industrial pollution. All study participants were found to have 50 or more chemicals in their bodies that have been linked to cancer, are considered toxic to the brain and nervous system, or are known to interfere with the hormone and reproductive systems.

L.A. Sob Story

Los Angeles gets plenty of sunshine, but the city government has dropped the ball on boosting solar power and other clean-energy sources. Almost four years after the launch of a $40 million initiative meant to shift the city toward renewable power sources, the L.A. Department of Power and Water has increased the amount of clean energy it produces by less than half a percentage point, and the city continues to rely on coal, nuclear power, and natural gas. Tens of thousands of L.A. power customers signed up to pay about $3 extra per month to support the development of clean power sources and the purchase of clean power from other utilities, but they've gotten little for their investment. The Green Power program has resulted in the installation of only a small number of solar panels and the opening of one facility that generates a tiny amount of electricity from landfill gas.