Monday, 06 Oct 2003

Pack Your Trunks

California's Timber Appetite Spells Trouble for World's Forests

As California strives to protect its own forests, rising demand for wood in the state is fueling logging far afield, in Oregon, the southeastern U.S., Canada, and even Europe. According to a new report by the state Department of Forestry, California imports about 75 percent of its wood and paper products. The problem is that while Californians are making progress on forest conservation at home, they aren't cutting down their consumption. Dale Bosworth, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, pointed to this as a nationwide problem in a speech last month. "We in the United States consume far more timber than we produce," he said. "Our habits raise questions of both equity and sustainability." The results of this imbalance can be seen most dramatically in Canada, where boreal forests are being clearcut at devastating rates, with much of the wood being shipped south of the border.

Caveat Farmer

Bush Insulates Pesticide Makers from Lawsuits

The Bush administration is doing a big favor for pesticide manufacturers by instituting a new policy that will curb farmers' ability to sue the companies if their products don't work as promised. In a significant policy reversal, the U.S. EPA has reinterpreted a federal law and now claims that it bars suits against chemical manufacturers when their pesticides or herbicides harm a crop they are supposed to protect or fail to eradicate an insect or blight. Tom Buis of the National Farmers Union worries that the shift could leave farmers without legal recourse even if their harvests are destroyed. "[I]f a pesticide not only doesn't do what it says it's supposed to do, but also kills your crop, that could cost you a year's income," said Buis. The policy shift could also make it more difficult to sue pesticide makers when their products cause sickness or environmental damage. It "could really be disastrous for public health," said Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Check Your Fluids

Testing for Pollution in People's Bodies Is on the Rise

A new "biomonitoring" movement is taking off with the aim of measuring pollution levels in people's bodies. Scientists are increasingly testing people's blood, urine, and breast milk for the presence of dangerous chemicals, such as dioxins, PCBs, and DDT. Breast cancer activists in particular are promoting biomonitoring as a possible way to discover what's been causing high rates of the disease in recent decades. The Breast Cancer Fund, a nonprofit group, is pushing legislation that would make California the first state to regularly test breast milk and other bodily fluids for harmful chemicals. "When breast milk talks, people listen," says Jeanne Rizzo, executive director of the fund. More than 85,000 synthetic chemicals have been introduced in the last 50 years, and more than 90 percent of them have not been tested for effects on human health.

Suit to Kill

California and Other States to Sue EPA over Greenhouse Gases

California intends to sue the U.S. EPA over the Bush administration's recent decision that the agency doesn't have the authority to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, Gov. Gray Davis (D) announced on Friday. Nine other states, including Illinois, New York, and Washington, are expected to join the suit, which argues that the EPA should have the power to regulate carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases under the federal Clean Air Act. Last year, California passed the nation's first law aimed at reining in CO2 emissions from cars, and clean-air advocates worry that the administration's decision could undermine that law. "If the United States is ever going to regulate greenhouse gases, it will start with a victory in this lawsuit," said David Bookbinder of the Sierra Club, which is backing the suit.

Detroit Yuck City

Illegal Dumping Pushes Up Toxic Contamination in Great Lakes

Toxic pollution in Great Lakes waterways has jumped 25 percent over the past six years, thanks at least in part to rampant illegal discharges from large industrial facilities and sewer plants. Meanwhile, government enforcement efforts on both the national and state levels are stagnating, meaning that most of the violators don't get punished. In Michigan, for example, the state Department of Environmental Quality now has only five employees working on enforcement of water laws -- not nearly enough to catch all the violators. "You're looking at people violating limits sometimes by 1,000 percent and they're doing it for years and years," said Eric Schaeffer, former head of the EPA's enforcement division and now director of the Rockefeller Family Fund's Environmental Integrity Project. "It threatens the whole Clean Water Act."