Friday, 13 Jun 2003

Pearl Jam

Mary Pearl never has a "typical" week, so being a Grist diarist has been a challenge for her: How to describe a job that constantly changes? As president of Wildlife Trust, Pearl's duties range from attending board meetings to leading trips to Tanzania to speaking to the press about monkeypox, the latest foreign health threat to arrive in the U.S. -- all in service of her organization's mission of promoting innovative conservation science, linking ecology and health, and empowering lasting local conservation. Read about Pearl's adventures in conservation science, only on the Gris Magazine website.

Blair Switch Project

As part of a broad cabinet reshuffle that has British politicians and citizens alike shaking their heads, U.K. Environment Minister Michael Meacher was asked yesterday by Prime Minister Tony Blair to step down. Meacher, who has held his post since 1997, was increasingly at odds with Blair over the issue of genetically modified crops; Meacher opposes them while Blair is pushing for their acceptance. First elected to office in 1970, Meacher is one of the Labor Party's longest-serving members of parliament. He has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the more radical members of government, although he has gradually become more centrist over the years. Last year, he attracted a brief firestorm of controversy for attacking his government's record on the environment.

Deep Blue See

Over the objections of lawmakers from coastal states, the U.S. Senate yesterday approved a plan to survey oil and natural gas deposits beneath the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Supporters say the country has the right to know the extent and nature of its energy reserves in case of a crisis. Critics say the plan could open the door to overturning a long-standing ban on new offshore drilling; they were defeated, 54 to 44, in their effort to strip the proposed survey from the Senate version of the energy bill. The legislation would require the Interior Department to report on potential energy reserves beneath the oceans as well as "impediments" to extraction of those reserves. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who opposed the plan, said, "An impediment is something to be removed; that is a hint as to the intention of these studies." The House defeated a similar measure in its version of the energy bill.

Silvery Lining

If fish could celebrate, there would have been a major party going on among silvery minnows yesterday, when a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must take the species into account when managing New Mexico's water system. State officials, who have long been fighting environmentalists over the endangered silvery minnow, claim the decision jeopardizes urban and agricultural water supplies and pledged to appeal it. In its decision, the appeals court upheld a lower court's ruling that the bureau must abide by the federal Endangered Species Act when releasing water from federal reservoirs or diverting water from the Rio Grande, even though the water is owned by cities, irrigators, and other non-federal entities.

Adding Fuel Cells to the Fire

The Bush administration has been busily touting fuel-cell cars as a critical component of its energy plan and the solution to many an environmental woe. But what if the solution turns out to cause its own problems? According to new research published in this week's issue of Science, the technology used in hydrogen fuel cells could contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer, which protects the Earth from excessive doses of ultraviolet light. If fuel cells were used to power everything from cars to utilities, the researchers found, large amounts of hydrogen would drift into the stratosphere and increase the depletion of the ozone layer. The technology could be refined to mitigate the problem, but the scientists emphasized that the likely impact on the ozone layer must be taken into account when planning the shift to a hydrogen-based economy.