Friday, 07 Mar 2003

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

The U.S. Coast Guard has stationed members of its Strike Force in the Persian Gulf to respond to possible intentional oil spills by Iraq in retaliation for U.S. military action. The Strike Force, which responds to chemical and environmental crises, has been called upon in the recent past to manage hazardous debris from the space shuttle Columbia and to monitor anthrax threats following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- but this is the first time the unit has been deployed to prepare for environmental disasters provoked by war. During the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq released some 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sea; the Coast Guard says it will be prepared if the same thing happens again. "We know we're not going to be able to contain it all, no one could," said Chief Petty Officer Mike Jolly -- but, he said, the environmental impact would be minimized.

Sierras Clubbed

Logging would more than double, more cattle would be allowed to graze, and forests could be aggressively thinned under proposed revisions to a management plan for the Sierra Nevada unveiled yesterday by the U.S. Forest Service. The sweeping changes to the Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework would allow timber companies to cut trees up to 30 inches in diameter in old-growth forests, well over the usual limit of 12 inches. Environmentalists are unhappy about the proposed revisions, which, they say, would do little if anything to redress decades of environmental degradation in the area. Regional Forester Jack Blackwell is expected to approve the plan, but Sierra Nevada Protection Campaign Director Craig Thomas said he anticipated that a standoff between the Forest Service and enviros would result in a legal "train wreck."

Suburban Crawl

U.S. workers are playing musical chairs with their jobs at the price of less productivity and more congestion and pollution, according to new census data released this week. For example, take Arlington County, Va., where 70 percent of resident workers leave the county every day for jobs elsewhere -- and an even greater number of people stream into the county to work. Unfortunately, Arlington County isn't an exception: Around the country, 17 counties export and import at least half their workforce every weekday. And many more are following a similar pattern, with 23 percent of Americans working outside their county of residence in 2000. Jobs and workers are increasingly ending up far apart from each other, which is one reason for the nation's "huge increase in travel time," according to Phillip Salopek of the population division of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Plastic, Man

In an effort to reduce its plastic waste by 30 percent, Taiwan has passed a law banning the free distribution of plastic bags and disposable tableware in some 75,000 establishments, including restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and fast-food franchises. Taiwan currently uses 20 billion plastic bags per year (or 2.5 bags per person per day), and more than 16 million people in the country grab at least one meal a day outside their homes. Most of the resulting plastic waste winds up being burned in incinerators on the small, highly populated island. The plastics industry says the law could slash its business in half and lead to extensive layoffs, but its request for a five-year delay in implementing the ban was rejected by the government. Taiwan is one of several countries that has considered or implemented policies restricting plastic use, including Ireland, South Africa, Australia, England, Singapore, and Thailand.