Friday, 23 Apr 2004

Georgia on Her Mind

Georgian Activist Tackles BP Pipeline Project

Manana Kochladze left an academic career in the sciences to found Green Alternative, now one of the most powerful NGOs in the Republic of Georgia. For years, her organization -- with the support of international enviro groups and the Georgian student movement -- has been drawing attention to the planned Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, a $3 billion BP-led, World Bank-backed project that would carry a million barrels of oil per day from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean coast, through some of her country's most pristine (and economically valuable) territory. She has no illusions that she'll be able to stop the project, but she has won economic and environmental concessions and created a political space for dissent, efforts that won her a 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize. She discusses her struggle with Michelle Nijhuis -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

The Fore Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Golf Courses Aren't So Green

Though the golf industry says it's been striving to lighten its ecological impact, golf courses are increasingly flashpoints of environmental controversy. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the U.S. is home to some 18,000 golf courses -- more than half the world's 35,000 -- covering 1.7 million acres and using 4 billion gallons of water every day. Strict grooming requirements lead to heavy pesticide and herbicide use, which can pollute groundwater and pose health hazards to course employees and nearby residents. Particularly in the West, where drought conditions have created severe water shortages, enviro and community groups are increasingly fighting new courses, which can also impinge on threatened wildlife habitats. The golf industry touts eco-friendly strategies such as improved irrigation, varieties of grass that require less water, and pesticides that break down more quickly. However, the growing popularity of the sport has increased its overall ecological footprint considerably.

From Here to Economy

Can Capitalism Help Solve Environmental Problems, Or Is It the Problem?

Proponents of "natural capitalism" -- Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins the most well-known among them -- like to talk up ways that the global economic system could be transformed into an engine of environmental protection: big gains in energy efficiency, clean state-of-the-art technologies, accounting systems that truly value ecosystems and natural resources. That's all fine and dandy, say a small band of contrarians, but it doesn't get at the heart of the problem, which is capitalism itself. These "eco-socialists" argue that the environment doesn't stand a chance if we stick to an economic system that prizes ever-expanding growth in the face of ever-dwindling resources. Stan Cox probes into the eco-socialist ethos -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

Winded

Winona LaDuke Talks About Clean Energy, Politics, and More

Readers peppered Winona LaDuke, this week's InterActivist, with questions on everything from dams to casinos to ... you knew it was coming ... Ralph Nader. She explains why casinos on Indian reservations are a mixed blessing, why solar energy is on her agenda right beside wind, why grassroots organizing is so vital, and why Gore lost (hint: it wasn't because of Nader). Read her suggestions, provocations, and explanations in InterActivist -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

A Hard Act to Follow

Report Finds Endangered Species Act Failing

Over the first two decades the U.S. Endangered Species Act was in effect, from 1973 to 1994, 114 species went extinct or missing, "sacrificed to bureaucratic inertia, political meddling, and lack of leadership," said Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity, which released a report on the ESA yesterday. Suckling said the species could have been saved if the act had been "properly managed, fully funded, and shielded from political pressure." The report documents a history of problems under numerous administrations, but the center reserved its harshest criticism for the current Bush administration, saying it has added an average of only nine species a year to the federal list of threatened and endangered species, considerably fewer than any previous administration. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which implements the ESA, decried the idea that it had knowingly allowed any species to go extinct and claimed that the real source of troubles was constant lawsuits from enviro groups over critical habitat, which drain money away from the listing budget.

All Wet

Bush Wetlands Initiative Less Ambitious Than It Appears

Attempting to neutralize John Kerry's criticisms of his environmental record, President Bush traveled on Earth Day to Maine, a crucial swing state, and announced a wetlands initiative that aims to restore or protect some 3 million acres of wetlands over the next five years. Enviros, though, knocked the plan as nothing more than a bundle of already-existing voluntary programs. Ed Hopkins of the Sierra Club said, "this initiative pales in comparison with the damage the Bush administration is doing to wetlands" by not protecting them more vigilantly under the Clean Water Act. Critics pointed out that in January 2003, the administration issued a directive to the U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to limit the kinds of wetlands and waterways protected under the act, which could result in some 20 million fewer protected acres. The administration has also weakened the environmental standards for permits to fill wetlands, and repealed the requirement that every acre of wetlands filled or destroyed be replaced.