Thursday, 13 Jul 2006

Security experts, enviros, and even the Army surgeon general have warned for years that an attack on a chemical plant could endanger more than a million U.S. citizens, but Congress has yet to do anything about it. A bill that would begin to address the threat was making its way through the Senate until it got held up by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who claimed that its "security" label disguised ... gasp ... environmental content. Muckraker looks into the prospects for making chemical plants safer, and suggests (heresy!) that environmental and security concerns might be one and the same.

It'll Coast Ya

Senate hammers out compromise on offshore drilling

GOP leaders in the Senate unveiled a compromise yesterday that would allow offshore oil and gas drilling in the eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico, but protect waters within 125 miles of the Florida coast until 2022 and keep the drilling ban that's been in place in most of the rest of the country's offshore waters. Hoping to attract more support, bill backers added language that would boost royalty revenue to Gulf Coast states that already allow offshore drilling. Florida's Republican senator, Mel Martinez, who helped negotiate the compromise, was satisfied; the state's Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, called the legislation "very promising" but planned to scrutinize the details before agreeing not to filibuster. Environmentalists worry that the bill will be stripped of protections when negotiators meet to hammer out a compromise between the Senate version and a more drill-happy House bill. And, really, the enviros just don't like offshore drilling. "No matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it's still a pig," said League of Conservation Voters legislative director Tiernan Sittenfeld.

We Hope the Russians Love Their Tube Worms Too

Russians plan to drill into untouched Antarctic lake

The world's seventh-largest freshwater lake is locked under a giant Antarctic ice sheet and has never been exposed to human contact -- but Russian scientists have drilled within 425 feet of it, and, despite pleas from scientists and environmentalists, intend to drill in all the way over the next two summers. Lake Vostok, approximately 5,000 square miles in area and over half a mile deep, likely contains unique aquatic life, perhaps thanks to the presence of geothermal vents. "At these vents you can get tube worms meters high. ... you could probably get some pretty bizarre things," says Antarctic researcher John Priscu. "You could even have fish." Or perhaps you could have dead fish, if the lake becomes contaminated by the kerosene and chemicals that lubricate the over-two-mile-deep drill hole. The Russian Antarctic Expedition considers its drilling legit, having cleared its proposal through the Antarctic Treaty's environmental approval system -- which has no capacity to veto.

Beleaguered of Nations

Britain pledges to involve poor countries in fighting climate change

Climate change ain't gonna be pretty for any of us, but it will have an especially devastating impact on Africa: more extreme weather patterns will cause food insecurity, income loss, higher death rates, and more diseases. Calling the impacts of climate change on poor nations "a global ethical challenge," British Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn pledged today to both increase aid to African countries and involve poorer nations in discussions and policy decisions on fighting global warming, including talks about a post-Kyoto agreement. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped Africa and climate change would be on the agenda at a meeting of the G8 in St. Petersburg, Russia, this weekend, but the gathering is instead likely to be dominated by talk of energy security and nuclear nonproliferation. At a G8 meeting a year ago, countries pledged to, um, help Africa and fight climate change -- but hey, you can never have too many pledges.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- Well, One Out of Three Ain't Bad

The happiest nations are not the high-consuming ones, survey says

A new Happy Planet Index supports the cliché that money can't buy happiness. The New Economics Foundation, a British think tank, looked at 178 countries' consumption levels, life expectancy, and happiness, and concluded that people can live long, happy lives without sucking up large quantities of the planet's resources. In its ranking of happiest nations, the South Pacific island of Vanuatu earned the top slot. Vanuatu, population 209,000, runs its economy mainly on small-scale agriculture and tourism; its GDP has been ranked 207th out of 233. Latin American countries dominate the top 10 happiest nations, with Colombia in second place. Many African and Eastern European nations are near the bottom, with Zimbabwe the official unhappiest nation. The U.S., with the world's second-largest ecological footprint (after oil-rich United Arab Emirates), ranked an unhappy 150th. Report co-author Nic Marks says the report reveals "patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all while living within our environmental means."