Monday, 08 Sep 2003

Conan the Eco-friendly Barbarian

Schwarzenegger Tries to Green His Image

Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to paint himself with a green brush as he revs up his campaign for the California governorship. Though he's running as a Republican, he's carving out positions at odds with the Bush administration on a number of issues, from logging in the Sierra Nevada to regulating carbon-dioxide emissions from vehicles to pushing energy conservation and solar power. Schwarzenegger is even talking about converting his gas-guzzling Hummer to run on clean-burning hydrogen. His campaign released an eight-page position paper on environmental issues last week, put together with help from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a prominent environmentalist and a cousin of the candidate's wife, Maria Shriver. But enviros aren't jumping on the Schwarzenegger bandwagon; most oppose efforts to recall current Gov. Gray Davis (D).

Grand Shift Auto

Car Ownership Surging in Beijing

The number of registered cars in Beijing jumped to 2 million last month, doubling in just six years. Now one in five households in the Chinese capital owns a car, a huge shift from the situation a decade ago, when most cars were owned by the government and the city's residents were more likely to have a run-in with a horse-drawn cart than a motorized vehicle. Along with the surge in car ownership has come traffic congestion and increased pollution -- this in a city already notorious for having some of the worst air quality in the world. The government has pledged to spend $12 billion to clean up Beijing's air and water before the city hosts the 2008 Olympics, but in the coming years it also plans to build 900 miles of new roads to accommodate the 3.5 million cars that Beijing residents are expected to own by then.

The Crime of the Ancient Mariner

Albatrosses Pushed Toward Peril by Fishing Fleets

Albatrosses are in trouble. All 21 species of the seabird are at some risk of extinction, and six of the species have suffered notable declines in the last few years, according to a report from the conservation group BirdLife International. The blame goes primarily to longline fishing boats, which use baited hooks on fishing lines that can stretch for 80 miles. Longliners kill an estimated 300,000 seabirds annually, a third of them albatrosses; the birds swallow the baited hooks and either die of resulting injuries or drown. "Longline fishing, especially by pirate vessels, is the single greatest threat to these seabirds," said BirdLife Director Michael Rands. BirdLife and other green groups are trying to work with fleets to help them adopt more bird-friendly fishing methods.

License to Drill

GOP Energy Bill Would Do a Big Favor for Halliburton

A measure in a big Republican-backed energy bill would exempt from federal regulation a natural-gas-drilling procedure refined by Halliburton Co., the oil and gas services company previously headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. The process, called hydraulic fracturing, is used widely in Western states and involves the injection of diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid, or other substances into the ground to help increase natural gas production. Enviros argue that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated drinking water in Alabama and could put water in other areas at risk. The massive energy bill, being written and pushed through Congress by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), is expected to contain plenty of other provisions that will make environmentalists cringe.

Poor Power to You

African Leaders Call for Conservation That Benefits the Poor

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, current President Thabo Mbeki, Queen Noor of Jordan, and a host of other luminaries today called on conservationists to ensure that their efforts benefit the world's poor. Speaking at the opening of the 10-day World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, Mbeki said, "It is critically important that alternative means of livelihood be found for the poor in the world, so that they are not forced to act in a manner that undermines the global effort to protect these ecosystems, driven by hunger and underdevelopment." Some 2,500 delegates from more than 170 nations are assembled at the conference, which aims to take stock of the world's 44,000 protected areas and establish priorities to preserve them. The agenda includes discussions on how conservation can be used to boost tourism and help the economies of developing nations.