Friday, 08 Oct 2004

Nobel of the Ball

Eco-Activist Wangari Maathai wins Nobel Peace Prize

Environmentalists across the world are celebrating today at the news that Wangari Maathai, Kenyan activist and founder of the Green Belt Movement, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Green Belt Movement organized poor Kenyan women to plant and maintain some 30 million trees, at once battling the deforestation to which they are disproportionately vulnerable, providing thousands of jobs, and inspiring similar movements in other East African countries. Maathai's story is inspiring in its own right, but it is doubly significant that the Nobel committee is acknowledging, for the first time, the crucial link between environmental health and peace. Geoff Dabelko discusses the prize and its significance in Main Dish -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

What "Hard Work" Really Looks Like

Iraqi environment minister faces armed attack, underfunding

Mishkat Al Moumin, head of Iraq's Ministry of Environment since June, has an unenviable job. In August, an attack on her convoy left four of her bodyguards dead. Security concerns lead her to avoid having her picture taken or discussing her family. In a land ravaged by wars and repression, she's confronted with refinery spills, potentially radioactive leftover ordnance, uncontrolled landfills, species loss, and arid land where Saddam Hussein drained wetlands in an area thought by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden. Her agency has 650 employees and a $17 million budget; the U.N. estimates that the agency needs $38.5 million simply to operate, much less undertake any projects. Bush asked Congress for $100 million to revive the Mesopotamian marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but House Republicans turned him down. Nonetheless, in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, Moumin is resolutely optimistic: "I will be there for my people, without help or with it. So if I get the money, it is great. If I don't get it, I will think in another direction."

Just Put Your Lips Together ...

Bush administration tries to muzzle potential whistle-blowers

The Bush administration -- which last week threw a little tizzy over new whistle-blower-protection legislation being considered in the House -- has earned itself quite a reputation for trying to prevent employees at the U.S. EPA and National Park Service from spilling politically inconvenient information to the press. So it should surprise no one that memos were recently issued in at least two EPA regions instructing employees to, as Bill O'Reilly would put it, shut up. Read about what can't be said in Muckraker -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

Extreme Makower

Joel Makower dispenses wisdom on making businesses greener

Readers hit green-business guru Joel Makower with questions on a wide array of topics. Seems you folks really want to do the right thing -- in your careers, in your businesses, at home -- but are overwhelmed by the challenges. Lucky for you, Makower earns his reputation for guru-hood by offering clear, concise, actionable answers about persuading your boss to recycle, supporting the Fair Trade movement, injecting environmental consciousness into your career, and more -- in InterActivist, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Like a Camel Through the Eye of the Tax Code

Congress moves to close SUV-friendly tax loophole

It looks like Congress may soon close one of the U.S. tax code's most egregious provisions (and that's quite a distinction!). In 2003, lawmakers raised the business-equipment tax deduction to $100,000, clearing the way for a massive luxury SUV to be written off as a business expense -- if it was used "primarily" for business purposes, of course, wink, wink. The American International Automobile Dealers, an industry group, claimed the tax break stimulated the economy, citing, uh, a 6 percent rise in SUV sales. Automakers, deeply aware of the injustice of it all, advocated that all vehicles be given the tax break. But consumer, tax-fairness, and enviro groups suggested that perhaps the federal government shouldn't be subsidizing the purchase of polluting vehicles at all. In a large tax bill likely to be approved by the House and Senate by the end of the week, lawmakers reduced the deduction to $25,000. And rejected a provision that would have given tax breaks to buyers of hybrid and other clean cars. But hey: baby steps.

We're More Partial to Vasco da Gama

Daily Grist takes break to lament Columbus Day

Monday is Columbus Day, on which we celebrate the man who precipitated what may have been one of history's most egregious and far-reaching periods of ecological destruction (not to mention genocide). Here at Grist, we'll be too busy crying in our coffee to put out Daily Grist. Thus, we shall return Tuesday. We'll miss you.