Wednesday, 21 Apr 2004

The Young and the Relentless

East Timorese Activist Pushes for a Healthy Environment

East Timor, the world's youngest country, has a troubled history of repression and environmental destruction at the hands of its neighbors. Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho, who fought much of his life for East Timorese independence, now heads the country's first and only environmental group, the Haburas Foundation. His work ensuring that the institutions and infrastructure of his fledgling nation would be structured around principles of sustainable development earned him a 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize. He talks with Michelle Nijhuis about the challenges he's faced and the road ahead -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

The Hydrogenator

California Governor Gives a Boost to Hydrogen Infrastructure

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is trying to kick-start the so-called hydrogen revolution. Yesterday, he signed an executive order establishing a public-private partnership aimed at building a network of some 200 hydrogen fueling stations in the state by 2010, at an estimated cost of $100 million. (California is in dire financial straits, so the money is expected to come from private investment and federal funds.) If successful, the plan could mark a metamorphosis in transportation, but there's no shortage of skeptics. A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences predicted it would be 2015 before the first hydrogen cars hit the market, and many enviros worry about the need for "a lot of fossil fuels at the front end to get to hydrogen at the back end," as energy expert Joseph Romm put it. Some enviros say the focus should be on accelerating the spread of already-existing hybrid cars. Current demand for hybrids in California is so great that many would-be buyers are waiting three to four months to get their hands on the popular Toyota Prius.

Involuntarism

Study Finds Fault With Voluntary Anti-Pollution Programs

A new report that analyzes the environmental records of the 100 largest electricity companies in the U.S. concludes that -- are you sitting down? -- mandatory emission caps work better than voluntary programs to limit pollution. We know: It's almost too shocking to believe. This might give pause to some folks who support the philosophy of "voluntary compliance" that's at the heart of the Bush administration's environmental policy -- or it might not. Read about this statement of the seemingly obvious in Muckraker -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

The Sound of Science

"Sound Science" Movement Threatens Endangered Species Act

Long-time opponents of the Endangered Species Act -- perhaps the most efficacious, far-reaching environmental legislation in U.S. history -- are back under a new guise. A movement to add "sound science" provisions to the act, while it sounds innocuous, actually threatens to paralyze enforcement. Inspired by a preliminary National Research Council report on the decision to shut off Klamath River Basin flows during a 2001 drought to protect endangered fish (the report concluded that there was not "sufficient scientific evidence" to support the decision), ESA opponents, led by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), have introduced amendments to the act that emphasize "field research" and "empirical data." The real motivation, say enviros and scientists, is to exclude population modeling, upon which most species science is based, and thus cripple ESA decision-making. The authors of the NRC report are among the many scientists decrying the proposed changes to the act; they claim their preliminary report was wildly misinterpreted by folks with a political axe to grind.

King Mekong

Mekong Dams Could Wipe Out Some of Last Healthy Inland Fisheries

Across the world, thirst for cheap electricity from hydroelectric dams has strained inland fisheries, and now one of the world's last relatively wild rivers faces the same fate. The Mekong River flows some 2,800 miles from the Tibetan ice fields, through the mountains of southern China, and over the floodplains of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, where its highly seasonal flows deposit rich sediment and a bounty of wild fish. Poverty-stricken residents of Cambodia are dependent on wild protein, and if they lose that source of sustenance, their alternative is "working all hours in a textiles factory in Phnom Penh," says Chris Barlow of the Mekong River Commission. But two massive dams built on the river in energy-hungry China are already draining the fisheries, two more are under construction, and at least four more are planned. Barlow laments the shortsighted policy, saying "a dam has a short life; 30 years or less. Even when the dam is dismantled, the fishery may never come back."