Thursday, 19 May 2005

The 25 largest environmental organizations in the U.S. get a whopping 70 percent of the $3.5 billion doled out to green groups each year, prizewinning investigative journalist Mark Dowie points out. That leaves the 15,000 or so smaller environmental nonprofits in the country scrounging around for leftovers. In a short, filmed discussion, Dowie argues that what the green movement really needs is a shift in, well, green.

Soy Triste

Brazil's rainforest keeps getting gobbled up

More than 10,000 square miles of Amazon rainforest disappeared from Brazil in 2004, the second-highest level of deforestation ever recorded, thanks mainly to the expansion of soy farming. As U.S.-state comparisons are de rigueur in these stories: that's an area the size of Massachusetts. Though Brazil's government implemented a $140 million program to slow deforestation last year, and logging did slow in some states, the gains were swamped by the expansion of farming land in the state of Mato Grosso. That state's governor, Blairo Maggi, is the world's largest soy producer, called the "king of deforestation" by Greenpeace. Soy is the country's biggest farm export -- it brought in about $10 billion last year. Brazil's enormous rainforest covers about 60 percent of its land, but experts estimate that around a fifth of it has already been destroyed by logging, development, and farming, causing some to worry that it will become a net producer of carbon dioxide in the near future.


Once upon a time, Deron Beal was a starry-eyed optimist: He founded Freecycle.org to help people give away unwanted items at no cost. (This made members happy!) Now, some say, he has become a steely-eyed pragmatist: He accepted funding from mega-corporation Waste Management, Inc., and is trying to exert control over local group moderators. (This makes members unhappy!) Are Beal's decisions necessary practical moves, or the first sign that the magic of Freecycle has worn off? Matt Weiser investigates.

That's Hot

States sue EPA over new mercury rules and the "hot spots" they'll create

A coalition of 11 states filed suit against the U.S. EPA in federal court yesterday, charging that the agency's recently issued mercury emissions rules, which establish a "cap and trade" system whereby coal-fired power plants can trade pollution credits, pose an unacceptable threat to public health. Led by New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey, the states charge that allowing plants to trade credits rather than mandating that they reduce emissions will lead to mercury "hot spots" around polluting plants. The lawsuit follows on the heels of a similar suit from nine states over the Bush administration's exemption of coal-fired plants from parts of the Clean Air Act, a move that set the stage for the creation of the cap-and-trade system. As everyone reading this surely already knows, mercury is a toxin that causes brain damage and other maladies, particularly in fetuses and young children.

We All Go Down Together

FBI calls "eco-terrorists" top domestic threat; Inhofe licks his chops

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee convened a hearing on "eco-terrorism" yesterday, anxious to warn the nation of a rising danger that has already killed ... well, nobody. Despite the unimpressive body count, a growing number of property crimes make fringe ecological and animal-rights groups the single greatest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., according to the FBI's John Lewis, who testified before the committee. He acknowledged that groups like the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front have not caused bodily harm, per se, but cited "troubling signs that this is changing," like "violent rhetoric." After the testimony, committee chair James Inhofe (R-Okla.) got to the real agenda: Smearing the larger environmental movement. "Just like al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, ELF and ALF cannot accomplish their goals without money, membership, and the media," he said darkly, vowing to look more closely for ways that radical groups get assistance from "mainstream activists." That's you, folks.