Monday, 19 Apr 2004

Eyes on the Prize

Grassroots Activists Earn Environmentalism's Highest Honor

The annual Goldman Environmental Prizes could be called the "environmental Academy Awards," but we prefer to think of the Oscars as the "Hollywood Goldmans." Each year, the prizes go to activists from six regions of the world, whose grassroots work on behalf of the environment and their communities has been exemplary. The award ceremony takes place tonight in San Francisco. Grist is honored to be running interviews with each of the winners. Look for a new interview each day this week -- and by Friday you'll be inspired to get out there and make a difference, or your money back. Today we kick things off by talking to Rashida Bee of Bhopal, India, who survived the horrific 1984 Union Carbide gas leak, which killed some 20,000 people, and went on to lead a grassroots effort to hold the corporation responsible. Michelle Nijhuis talks with Bee about her motivations and accomplishments -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

Return to Sender

California Bill Aims to Curb Waste from AOL Disks

If a California legislator has her way, companies that send unsolicited CDs and DVDs through the mail to state residents -- we're looking at you, AOL -- will be required to include a postage-paid, pre-addressed envelope that recipients can use to send them back to the company or to a CD-recycling facility. CD mailers offering various and sundry computer-related deals -- say, for instance, 1,000 free minutes of Internet access -- have become a fixture of modern life, cluttering our mailboxes, magazines, and, most troublingly, landfills, where they take hundreds of years to decompose. State assembly member Loni Hancock, from the lefty haven of Berkeley, Calif., hopes her bill can catch the wave of recent anti-aggressive-marketing measures like the federal Do Not Call list and anti-spam bills.

Laduking It Out

Native American Advocate Winona LaDuke InterActivates

Though many people are familiar with her only as the name that appeared under Ralph Nader's on the 2000 presidential ballot, Winona LaDuke has a long and distinguished history of defending the rights and interests of Native Americans and protecting the land on which they live. Her latest focus is on democratizing energy production and returning political power to Native hands by pushing for wind farms on reservations. Read about her wind-powered vision and, yes, her thoughts on running with Nader, in InterActivist. And throw a question her way by noon PDT on Wednesday, April 21 -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Dis and Makeup

Most U.S. Cosmetic Companies Resist Calls to Phase Out Suspect Chemicals

A growing controversy over phthalates -- chemicals frequently used in cosmetics, including nail polish and fragrances -- highlights dramatic differences in the way potential toxins are handled by U.S. and European Union regulators. Phthalates have been shown to cause adverse reproductive effects in laboratory animals, but no harm to humans has been conclusively demonstrated. Acting on the "precautionary principle," the E.U. has voted to ban two common phthalates as of September. Despite a March appeal by the Breast Cancer Fund to U.S. cosmetics companies to do the same, only two -- Procter & Gamble and Estee Lauder -- have announced that they will phase out the chemicals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates cosmetics only after they are already on the market, often based on consultation with the industry-funded Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel. "It's the fox designing and building the henhouse," says Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group.

Where the Deer and the Sarin Gas Play

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Gives Birth to Wildlife Refuge

Nearly 5,000 acres of the former Rocky Mountain Arsenal reopened this weekend as a national wildlife refuge. Located some 10 miles northeast of Denver, Colo., the arsenal, a 27-square-mile chemical-weapons complex that for four decades produced sarin, mustard gas, and napalm, left behind one of the nation's most polluted landscapes. Cleanup began in 1985, and because the site was closed to the public, it became a haven for eagles, deer, coyote, and other wildlife. The area remains a Superfund site and remediation will continue for years; an additional 10,000 acres will be added to the refuge when cleanup finishes around 2011. While some groups hailed the opening, others questioned the wisdom of promoting public access to an area where sarin-gas bomblets were found as recently as 2001 and toxic chemicals remain in the soil. Sandra Horrocks of the Sierra Club drew a colorful analogy to illustrate the incomplete remediation at the arsenal: "Storing your dirty underwear under your bed is not cleaning your bedroom."