Thursday, 22 Apr 2004

Happy Earth Day! Anybody Got a Life Vest?

U.K. Report Warns of Rising Flood Dangers and Costs

The U.K. government marked Earth Day with characteristic British cheer, releasing a report warning that much of the country is going to experience flooding in coming decades. According to an expert government panel, the cost of physical and psychological damage from floods in the U.K. is likely to rise from $1.8 billion a year now to some $35.5 billion a year over the next century, thanks to climate change. Lest optimistic enviros be allowed some hope, the report points out that even if substantial international efforts are made to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions, the costs will still double. The report recommends a range of immediate bad-TV-movie-sounding precautions, from relocating oil refineries inland to abandoning parts of some urban areas to create flood channels. Potential flood-related problems include waterborne pollution, destroyed sewer mains, psychological stress, and, uh, lots of things that used to be above water being under water.

Earth to Public: Come In, Public ...

Earth Day Prompts Flurry of Electoral Rhetoric; Public Yawns

Earth Day during a big election year inevitably prompts a flurry of earnest talk about the environment and which candidate is better for it, and today is no exception. President Bush touted his love of wetlands in Maine; John Kerry blasted Bush's environmental record in Houston, Texas. A coalition of three national enviro groups -- the League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, and Friends of the Earth Action -- unveiled a new Environmental Victory Project, which will try to use environmental issues to sway voters in swing states against Bush. Bush campaign spokesfolks denounced the groups as "special interests." And much of the public, it seems, doesn't care: A recent Gallup poll found concern for the environment at a record low, coming in eighth place -- behind terrorism, the economy, unemployment, illegal immigration, and the kitchen sink -- among issues the public cares a "great deal" about.

Action Heroes

How You Can Make a Difference for the Planet

With today's environmental problems so large, abstract, and intractable -- see warming, global -- you're probably wondering what you, one individual, can do on Earth Day to help. (If you're one of the people surveyed by Gallup -- see above -- perhaps you don't care, but humor us.) It's easy to feel powerless in the face of climate change, but individual actions are making a difference. Michael Charney, for example, created the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, a group of 15 towns in his region that purchase clean energy and use it efficiently. His activism tools were simple: "I had a room with a phone and phone book," he says. "If you have a list of people to call, and time to do it, you can change the world." Seth Riney started Planetran, a "limo" company that uses hybrid Toyota Priuses to ferry people to and from Boston's Logan Airport. He's changing an industry, he says, "just by doing it -- not by arguing policy with lawmakers." You, too, can take action today, by doing everything from switching to compact fluorescent lightbulbs to reducing herbicide and pesticide use to purchasing Energy Star-certified products. After all, you don't want the U.K. to drown, do you?

Roll On, Colombia

Libia Grueso Advocates for Afro-Colombians and Their Land

Speaking of taking action in the face of daunting challenges, let us tell you about Libia Grueso. A social worker and activist who lives in Colombia's Pacific Coast region, she fights tirelessly to protect the rich habitat in her area, which boasts some 10 percent of the world's bird species, and to protect the civil rights of her people, Colombia's 10.6 million Afro-Colombians, descendants of black slaves emancipated in the mid-1800s. Though she has seen wide swaths of the coast destroyed by development and scores of fellow activists assassinated, Grueso says, "our territory is filled with life, happiness, and liberty, and we make every effort in every instance to be happy, despite the things that occur." Her determined activism won her a 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize. Michelle Nijhuis chats with Grueso about the prize and her ongoing work -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

The Write Stuff

Write a Letter for Earth Day and You Might Just Win a Swell Prize

Still looking for that Earth Day action step that's right up your alley? We've got just the thing: Write a pollutocrat-bashing letter to your local newspaper or favorite magazine (other than Grist, of course). If it gets published, you've got a shot at winning the latest contest launched by Umbra Fisk, our advice columnist extraordinaire. Get all the details -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Join the Club

Sierra Club Members Reject Immigration-Focused Candidates

A record number of Sierra Club members voted in the group's just-concluded board election and decisively rejected a controversial slate of candidates who had called for curbs on immigration as part of a population-control strategy. With nearly 23 percent of the club's 757,000 members voting, candidates backed by the club's old-guard leadership received more than 100,000 votes apiece, while the top insurgent candidate received just under 16,000. The contentious election was marred by personal attacks and back-and-forth lawsuits, with the candidates concerned about immigration accused of being backed by outside racist groups, and the club's leadership accused of rigging the election in favor of their chosen candidates. Disagreement over how to interpret the election results may be resolved when members vote on an initiative directly addressing immigration next year. While the losing candidates continued to insist that it is "cowardly for any environmental organization to avoid talking about the issue of human overpopulation," as board member Paul Watson put it, folks on both sides of the dispute agreed that it was important to put the controversy aside and focus on defeating President Bush in the upcoming election.