Wednesday, 30 Mar 2005

Doom and Gloom With a Sense of, Uh ... Doom

Comprehensive assessment of world's ecosystems released; be very afraid

The largest and most comprehensive assessment of the world's ecosystems ever undertaken was released today, and the results constitute a "stark warning" that "the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," according to the 45-member board of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The study was written by 1,360 experts from 95 countries, including government officials, scientists, members of civil-society groups and indigenous tribes, and industry representatives, under the rubric of the U.N. Environment Program, using widely agreed-upon scientific evidence. It warns of rapid decline in biodiversity and freshwater availability, and says the likelihood of disease outbreaks (a la SARS), "dead zones" in coastal waters, and destructive climate shifts will rise sharply in the coming 50 years. It recommends means of slowing some of the damage -- developing markets for freshwater, improving forestry practices, removing some agricultural subsidies -- but stresses that none of those means are yet being applied.

Cap and Tirade

States file suit against EPA over mercury rule

A coalition of nine states has sued the U.S. EPA, claiming the mercury emissions rule it issued earlier this month will do less to protect public health than the Clean Air Act requires. The suit charges the EPA with breaking the law by exempting power-plant mercury emissions from the Clean Air Act's requirement that "maximum available control technology" be used to remove pollutants. The agency claims the exemption was necessary to implement the rule's cap-and-trade program, which allows cleaner plants to sell credits (read: the "right" to pollute) to dirtier plants. Attorneys general representing the nine states -- California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont -- say cap and trade will produce toxic "hotspots" around polluting plants, often in low-income and minority communities.

Lice Age

Farmed salmon infect wild stocks with sea lice, study finds

A new study of wild and farmed salmon in the Pacific Northwest reveals that farmed salmon breed parasitic sea lice that infect juvenile wild salmon swimming nearby and could affect stocks of other important commercial species. A Canadian research trio looked at some 5,500 young salmon as they swam through a narrow channel past a salmon farm, and they recorded unnaturally high rates of lice infestation as the small fish migrated through a cloud of lice stretching nearly 19 miles around the farm, which itself is only about one-eighth of a mile. "Conservatively, this means that the parasite footprint of the farm is 150 times larger than the farm itself," said study coauthor John Volpe. But the troublesome parasites aren't the only nasties to come out of fish farms; a study in the journal Science last year found more cancer-causing PCBs in farmed fish than in their wild-caught counterparts, and in Europe, chemicals used to control the parasites and dye the salmon pink have led enviros to encourage boycotts of farm-raised salmon.

All Your Base Are Befouled By Us

Military base closures leave behind toxic, uninhabitable land

Military bases frequently serve as economic engines for the communities they inhabit, and with what could be the biggest round of base closures ever on its way from the Department of Defense, those communities hope that developing the land freed up by the closed bases will replace some of the lost revenue. But they may be out of luck: The bases frequently leave behind contaminated water, asbestos-ridden soil, unexploded munitions, the presence of endangered species, and a variety of other environmental concerns that can make development more expensive than it's worth. Since the late '80s, the DoD has spent some $12 billion on environmental cleanup at closed bases, but one-third of that land remains uninhabitable thanks primarily to toxic contamination. Developers have sued the military over contamination on some bases, but even for residents on adjoining land -- suffering from cancer, miscarriages, and other ailments -- "every bit of cleanup they get is a struggle," said Tara Thornton of the Military Toxics Project.

Route Scootin' Boogie

Shell alters pipeline route to spare whale feeding grounds

It's one small step for environmentalists, one giant leap for endangered gray whales: Energy giant Royal Dutch/Shell has agreed to alter the planned route of a massive oil and gas pipeline off of Russia's Sakhalin island by 12 miles to preserve the charismatic mammal's feeding grounds. Shell and its partners bowed to pressure from enviros concerned that the project could harm the roughly 100 gray whales remaining off the island with noise, ship traffic, and possible oil spillage. The project has been delayed since last April after Shell's own research revealed that work in the area could harm the whales. Though the new route "does avoid the whale feeding areas quite significantly," said John Kidd of the World Conservation Union, "there are still concerns" because a longer pipeline "obviously increases the risk of spillage once the pipeline is in operation."