Friday, 23 Sep 2005

Chip's Ahoy

Grist head honcho moderates panel on the state of environmentalism

If you're in or around Seattle this weekend, head down to the Paramount Theater for a lively roundtable discussion on the state of the environmental movement: "Whose Planet Is It, Anyway?" Part of Foolproof's American Voices series, the conversation will include respected leaders from inside and outside the green movement and will be moderated by Grist's brave, intelligent, handsome (can we have that raise now?) leader, Chip Giller. And, lucky Daily Grist readers, check it out: The first 20 of you to contact Foolproof (preferably at , but also 206.325.3554) get a complimentary ticket! That's how much we love you.

Wastes Great, Less Filing

EPA proposes fewer toxics reporting requirements for industrial facilities

Industrial plants would report their chemical releases every other year instead of annually under a policy change proposed by the U.S. EPA. The agency also indicated it wants to raise the threshold for reporting the release of certain chemicals from 500 to 5,000 pounds. Both are major changes to the Toxics Release Inventory, an almost two-decades-old data-gathering and reporting program created under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. EPA claims the weakened rules will help the agency improve the "quality, clarity, usefulness, and accessibility" of the information it supplies to the public. But Sean Moulton of non-profit watchdog OMB Watch says the changes would "gut the program." An environmental manager at a Louisville, Ky., chemical plant estimates that reduced reporting will save him just 16 hours of work a year.


Do environmental lawsuits help with the enforcement of regulations? Of course they do, says Jay Tutchton, director of the University of Denver's environmental law clinic. He compares legal threats to a cop sitting on a freeway shoulder -- the fear of prosecution gets most people to obey the law. It's the rest of 'em who keep Tutchton busy. But he takes time out this week to answer reader questions about government resistance to his clinic's work, his thoughts on rebuilding New Orleans, and more.

Vestal Sturgeons

Sturgeon stocks on extreme worldwide decline

People have been consuming black caviar since about 500 B.C., but it may be time to curb the habit: Global stocks of sturgeon, the fish that supplies the salty treat, are in trouble. In a new study published this week in the journal Fish and Fisheries, marine researchers report that nearly every sturgeon population worldwide is either severely depleted or on the brink of extinction. Lawful catches have plummeted to about 15 percent of their peak 30 years ago. Sturgeon stocks have a relatively slow reproductive cycle -- spawning only every three or four years and taking about 15 years to reach reproductive maturity -- so they're especially vulnerable to overfishing. And they're particularly difficult to fish-farm, so preserving wild stocks is probably the only way to keep the world's foodies supplied with the ne plus ultra of fish eggs. Says Ellen Pikitch, the study's lead researcher, "I could not recommend that people eat caviar from any wild population of sturgeon."

London Brawling

Leading U.K. scientist excoriates U.S. on climate-disruption obstruction

As superstorm Hurricane Rita bears down on Texas and Louisiana, Sir John Lawton, chairman of the U.K.'s Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, told the Independent that neoconservatives in the U.S. ought to reconsider their obstructionist stance on climate change. "If this makes the climate loonies in the States realize we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation," said Lawton. Rita and Katrina before it are likely signs that human activities are changing the climate, said the leading British ecologist, whose commission advises the queen, the U.K. government, and the public on environmental issues. Asked about describing the leaders of the world's only superpower as loonies, Lawton elaborated, "I'd liken them to the people who denied that smoking causes lung cancer." He is the third prominent British scientist to attack the Bush administration for continuing to profess uncertainty about the global warming phenomenon.