Friday, 14 Feb 2003

Lewis This Is Clark, Clark This Is Lewis

Say goodbye to the bar scene. Rip up those personal ads. If you live in California and are looking for a sweetheart this Valentine's Day, look no further than -- the Sierra Club. Sierra Singles, a branch of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the national organization, is not just an environmental group; it's also the largest activities-oriented singles club in Northern California. The group's 1,200 members can choose from some 50 outdoor- and nature-oriented events per month, ranging from hiking, kayaking, and skiing expeditions to trash cleanups and trail maintenance, and from among sub-groups for older singles and gay and lesbian singles. Says club chair Roger Mills, "The events tend to center around outdoor activities and foster more of an appreciation of nature for the people who tend to participate."

When Nature Emails

Ah, wilderness -- the chirping of birds, the burbling of creeks, the melodic chime announcing that new mail has just arrived in your inbox. Yep, that's right -- or it will be if the Colorado Department of Natural Resources has its way. In an effort to boost revenue in the middle of a massive budget shortfall, the DNR plans to make electrical outlets and Internet access available at parks around the state. (The state would make money by charging more for wired campgrounds or cabins.) The plan met with reactions ranging from amusement to disbelief when it was unveiled by DNR Director Greg Walcher earlier this week. Pete Kolbenschlag of Colorado Environmental Coalition said, "I have no idea if they've done polling that shows people want the Internet while they're camping. I certainly don't run across those people when I'm camping. It seems kind of strange to me."

Above the Bar

Great Britain may soon use DNA bar codes to make it easy to spot genetically modified (GM) foods. The technology, developed by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge, would help regulators quickly spot foods or crops contaminated with GM organisms. The British government is weighing the possibility of requiring biotech companies to use the technology, which involves adding a harmless DNA sequence to all bioengineered crops. The U.K., like most of the rest of Europe, is wary of genetic modification, and some believe DNA bar-coding could help put these fears to rest by making it fast and easy to differentiate between GM and conventional foods.

Terror Alert Level: Green

New York City is on high terrorist alert. The entire nation is on tenterhooks. And at California State University at Fresno, security was heavy -- for an academic environmental conference. The reason? The conference addressed "revolutionary environmentalism" and participants included former members of militant environmental and animal-rights organizations that have been linked to fire-bombings, vandalism, and other acts of so-called eco-terrorism. The conference attracted some 850 people and considerable controversy; some felt that it condoned violence and criminality, while others depicted it as a "sober academic discussion" and still others hailed the university for hosting it. Steve Best, who chairs the University of Texas philosophy department and spoke at the conference, said, "Fresno State is the most courageous university in the country for holding this conference. Throughout history, property destruction and civil protest has been part of our heritage. If you have a problem with that, you have a problem with the Boston Tea Party."

The Fire Down Below

Forget about car emissions for a moment; coal fires, hundreds of which are raging out of control around the world, pump so much carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere that researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science yesterday called them a "global catastrophe." Coal fires burn both above and below ground, usually in abandoned mines or waste piles or in coal seams ignited by fires set to clear trees for farming. They are most severe in China, India, and Indonesia, but are also a problem in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere; some have been burning for more than two decades. Together, scientists estimate that coal fires could account for as much as 2 to 3 percent of total global carbon dioxide emissions.