Monday, 14 Mar 2005

Environmental writer and scientist Riki Ott has a new book about the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It is, shall we say, less than kind to Exxon. She sounds off about her environmental nightmare, her trip to Dallas County jail, her transformation from marine toxicologist to salmon fisherma'am to book author, and more -- in InterActivist, today on the Grist Magazine website. Send Ott a question of your own by noon PST on Wednesday, March 16; we'll publish her responses to selected questions on Friday.

Things to Do in Denver When You're Ill

Newmont Mining fights off lawsuit over mercury pollution in Peru

Continuing its energetic pursuit of the Worst Global Corporate Citizen Award, Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. is headed into legal battle with Peruvian peasants suffering long-term health consequences from mercury contamination around one of the company's gold mines. In June of 2000, a truck carrying canisters of liquid mercury -- a toxic byproduct of gold extraction -- leaked some 330 pounds of the stuff out onto the highway. Next thing you know, peasant children were taking blobs home on spoons and their parents were boiling it, trying to extract gold. Oops! Needless to say, said villagers are now suffering from an array of horrific health problems, from headaches to loss of vision to fainting spells. For three years, Newmont fought to keep the case out of U.S. courts, finally agreeing to mediation talks held in January. But those talks were unsuccessful, and the plaintiffs now plan to press their case in a Denver court. If they win, their lawyers claim it will be the first time a U.S. company is held liable in the U.S. for environmental contamination outside the country.


A Prius-driving reader wonders whether he should invest in an even greener vehicle -- perhaps one that runs on straight vegetable oil. Advice guru Umbra Fisk compares the two eco-cars and announces her verdict -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.

Global Spillage

Pollution from around the globe taints U.S. air and water

Even as battles rage in Washington, D.C., over controlling air pollution from domestic sources, dirty emissions from overseas are complicating the problem. Some 30 percent of the ozone in the U.S. may be drifting in from other countries, says NOAA scientist David Parrish. Dust from as far abroad as the Sahara Desert regularly travels across the Atlantic, increasing particulate levels in some U.S. cities. More worrisome is globe-trotting airborne mercury, chiefly from power plants and factories. It drifts around the world, settling in water bodies where it's absorbed by fish and then passed on up the food chain. Though the U.S. EPA estimates about 40 percent of mercury in the U.S. originates elsewhere, the U.S. last year opposed an international treaty that would have set mandatory mercury limits. Of course, the U.S. does its share of pollution exporting as well. It's a small world after all, and we're all (cough) neighbors now.

Post No Bills

Eco-activists arrested for protesting near bank chief's home

Three activists with the Rainforest Action Network were arrested and fined earlier this month after posting signs on telephone poles and trees near the home of J.P. Morgan Chase CEO William Harrison. Designed to look like Old West "wanted" posters, the fliers read "Wanted -- William 'Billy the Kid' Harrison" and urged his neighbors to "ask him to do the right thing" by ending "investments of mass destruction and adopt[ing] environmental standards today." The fliers were meant to draw attention to the company's alleged financing of environmentally damaging projects like mining and logging. Within half an hour of posting them, the activists were charged with disturbing the peace and the fliers were removed. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut is looking into the arrests to determine if they violated free speech rights. "It definitely raises questions, because it appears to be a content-based arrest and that is constitutionally very problematic," said Annette Lamoreaux, an ACLU attorney.