Tuesday, 13 Jan 2004

Viscous Cycle

In Ironic Twist, Thawing Tundra Causes Trouble for Alaska's Oil Industry

Global warming -- brought about in part by the burning of fossil fuels -- has raised temperatures in Alaska and reduced the length of the "frozen season" during which oil-prospecting convoys are allowed to traverse the landscape. The past three decades have seen the season shrink from 200 days to 100. Currently, to protect the fragile plant life beneath the ice, standards require six inches of snow and 12 inches of frozen ground to support heavy oil-prospecting machinery. Funded by the Department of Energy and oil companies, work is underway to create a more "flexible" standard that would allow a longer exploration season. Environmentalists question the wisdom of increasing oil exploration in a region so buffeted by environmental changes -- and the wisdom of using the word "flexibility" every time environmental standards are further denuded.

Orangutangle

Orangutans Face Possible Extinction in 20 Years, WWF Says

Orangutans may have just two decades left if current trends continue, the World Wildlife Fund warned yesterday. One of the four great ape species, orangutans are rapidly disappearing from their only remaining native habitat on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Populations have dropped some 90 percent in the past 100 years, with declines becoming more rapid in recent decades because of hunting and habitat loss due to deforestation. Almost 80 percent of forests in Indonesia and Malaysia have been heavily logged, says WWF, and the clearing of land for plantations has also decimated habitat. Some wildlife experts in Malaysia disputed predictions that the animals could become extinct in the wild within 20 years, but agreed that orangutans face serious threats and that conservation efforts should be stepped up.

All-wheel Jive

Subaru Outback to Become "Light Truck" to Avoid Fuel Economy Rules

As of next year, Subaru's Outback sedan will be classified as a "light truck," thanks to some technical modifications to its ground clearance and back bumper position. The revised classification will place the car ... er, truck in a category requiring (as of 2005) 21.2 miles per gallon; in contrast, each automaker's fleet of standard passenger cars must average 27.5 mpg. More than semantics are at stake: Since the regulatory categories were put in place in the 1970s, the automotive industry has developed the minivan and the SUV, both wildly popular and both classified as light trucks, meaning that well over half of all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. are held to less stringent fuel economy standards. As a result of this loophole, average fuel economy is lower than it was two decades ago, despite a variety of advances in fuel-saving technology. The move is particularly ironic for Subaru, whose vehicles are popular among SUV-disdaining enviros in college towns across the U.S.

I Am the Toxic Walrus

Arctic Natives, Minding Own Business, Suffer From Our Pollutants

Toxic industrial chemicals, carried north by wind, ocean, and river currents, are polluting the traditional diet of native Arctic peoples in Greenland and Arctic Canada. The pollutants, including PCBs and up to 200 other hazardous compounds, are first consumed by zooplankton, then travel up the food chain to the ocean-dwelling mammals -- whales, seals, and walruses -- hunted by Arctic natives according to centuries-old traditions. At this point, concentrations of chemicals and pesticides in the bodies of Greenland's Inuit are so high that their tissues can be classified as hazardous waste. Their breast milk is contaminated as well, leading to widespread immune-system and neurological problems among their children. Public health officials are torn about what advice to offer, since -- absent our toxic crap -- the native diet is quite healthy, and regardless, there is no infrastructure to support importing large amounts of (less healthy) Western foods. Arctic native culture is built around hunting, so a change in diet would also have substantial implications for their cultural survival.

Sales Pitched

Forest Service Cancels Timber Sales in Tongass

The U.S. Forest Service plans to cancel 20 timber sales in Alaska's Tongass National Forest -- not because it's dedicated to preserving old growth in the vast rainforest, but because the sales were sure to be money-losers for logging companies. Enviros are feeling vindicated by the development; they say it proves that a lack of timber from the Tongass has not been the cause of decline in the region's timber industry. Aurah Landau of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council says the timber sales could have led to damaged salmon streams and expressed hopes that the Forest Service will redesign them to be more ecosystem-friendly. That seems unlikely, though: In working to come up with sales that will be profitable for loggers, the Bush administration is likely to relax rather than beef up environmental protections.