Tuesday, 10 Aug 2004

Brower Power

Meet the Recipients of the Brower Youth Awards

The Brower Youth Awards -- granted in memory of legendary conservationist David Brower -- go each year to promising young eco-crusaders, each of whom get $3,000 and ongoing mentoring from top environmental activists. This year's six winners are an inspiring bunch: students who have started school conservation clubs, lobbied lawmakers and administrators, and pushed for renewable energy on campuses. Meet each of them and get inspired yourself -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

Demerit Badge

Bush Admin. Facilitates Drilling Next to Boy Scout Camp

It sounds like a modern adaptation of Dickens, but it's all too true: A White House energy task force is clearing the way for El Paso Corp., a Houston-based energy company, to drill for natural gas near the nation's largest Boy Scout camp. The Valle Vidal -- "Valley of Life" -- in New Mexico's Carson National Forest is the long-time home of the Boy Scouts' wilderness training program, not to mention hundreds of birds and mammals and one of the state's largest elk herds. The drilling plan -- opposed by many Boy Scouts, New Mexico state officials, conservationists, hunters, farmers, and ranchers -- was rebuffed by the Forest Service three times. Then an official from the company, which has given $2.3 million to Republican candidates and political action committees in the last five years, appealed to the head of the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining, and voila, the project was streamlined.

Nucular Mismanagery

Nuclear Industry Not Having a Great Week

Yesterday -- on the 59th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, marked by the city mayor's plea to the U.S. to abolish nuclear weapons -- Japan experienced its most deadly nuclear accident to date, with four workers killed by scalding steam (ouch) spewing from a ruptured pipe at a nuclear power plant. Officials from Kansai Electric Power Co. sheepishly admitted that the problem might have something to do with the fact that the pipe had not been properly inspected for some 28 years (!). It turns out several other of Japan's 52 nuclear power plants -- from which the nation gets a third of its electricity -- are equally old and poorly inspected. Russian enviros popped up to say that, hey, their nuclear plants are also aged and poorly maintained. However, a reassuring note was struck by the head of the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy, who said this week that two stolen nuclear measuring devices probably don't contain enough radioactive material to make a dirty bomb. So, put your mind at ease!

Pollution on the Orient Express

Asian Air Pollution Wafts Over Eastern U.S.

Air pollution from Asia has been found hovering over the northeast U.S., calling into question the efficacy of domestic efforts to improve air quality. "At some point, it may be cheaper to sell pollution-control equipment to China," said researcher Daniel J. Jacob. Researchers from six countries are involved in what's billed as the largest and most comprehensive effort ever to measure the global flow of air pollution, dubbed the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation. Flying in planes and sending up air balloons, scientists are measuring pollution across the globe and making some surprising findings. Armond Cohen of the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force sums them up this way: "I think the most profound thing that you draw from this is that the globe is one air shed."

Park 'n' Chide

Kerry Promises to Renew National Parks

At a campaign stop in Arizona's Grand Canyon -- wait, isn't Arizona a swing state? -- John Kerry pledged to renew America's national park system, which he said the Bush administration has left "under stress." Noting that Bush's budget for next fiscal year contains less money for national parks than this year's, he promised to immediately seek an extra $110 million to make up the difference. He also pledged to cover what he called the parks' $600 million overall budget shortfall. Part of the money would come from his repeal of Bush's tax cuts for folks making over $200,000 and part from revisions to an 1872 mining law that allows private companies to buy public land for $5 an acre. He said he would also consider pay-as-you-go options like higher admission prices or fees, but only as a last resort. A Bush campaign spokesperson accused Kerry of "playing politics" with the parks -- and really, where does Kerry get off dragging politics into a presidential campaign?