Wednesday, 23 Aug 2006

A Breyer Power

Federal judge rejects Forest Service plan to log in national monument

A federal judge put the smackdown yesterday on a U.S. Forest Service plan to allow increased logging in California's Giant Sequoia National Monument, home to about two-thirds of the world's largest trees. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the USFS forest management plan lacked "coherent or clear guidance" and "trampled the applicable environmental laws"; he called for the USFS to write a new plan and conduct further environmental review. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who brought the suit, called Breyer's ruling "a resounding victory for the giant sequoias" and "a resounding defeat for the Bush administration, which aggressively sought to unravel the protections." In a separate ruling, Breyer halted further logging in four areas in and around the monument, pending further study of the effects on the rare Pacific fisher, a member of the weasel family. A USFS spokesflack said the agency was "very disappointed" with the rulings and may appeal.


Sometimes environmental comings and goings make our heads spin. Like there's this: Whole Foods and Wal-Mart are putting their heft behind organics. Yay! Right? But then there's this: if the market shifts to having two big buyers setting low, low prices instead of a whole boatload of buyers paying through the nose, organic farmers could actually lose out. And with the current immigration scuffles, they're already facing hard times. Cripes, it's never simple. Tom Philpott explains what's new under the sun.

Is It Frogs Next, or Locusts?

Warmer climate could lead to increased bubonic plague

Ever feel like we live in End Times? Well, you may be right. Apparently, in coming years we can expect more bubonic plague -- yes, plague, as in "bring out your dead!" Researchers publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a rise of just 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the springtime temperature led to a 59 percent increase in plague prevalence (currently, up to 3,000 cases are reported each year around the world). The researchers focused their study in Kazakhstan, where the primary host of the plague is the great gerbil (no, really). The gerbils carry fleas, which carry the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, which gets transmitted to humans by the fleas. Yersinia likely triggered both the Black Death, which killed more than 20 million people in the Middle Ages, and a 19th century pandemic in Asia that killed tens of millions. Depressingly, both outbreaks occurred during warm, wet climatic periods. Hmm, warm, wet climate ... sounds familiar. If you need us, we'll be in the bunker, hiding from the gerbils.


Fans of the electric car make much of its promise. Nice silent ride! Easy to charge! And most important, no nasty emissions! But a reader wonders whether those nasty emissions might just be coming from a different place: the power plants that charge these radical rides. Is it six of one, half a polluting dozen of another? Advice maven Umbra Fisk plugs in to a modern-day dilemma.

Be Careful What You Don't Wish For

FBI investigates Illinois environmental activist

Add Jim Bensman of Alton, Ill., to your ever-growing list of People the Feds Think You Should Fear. Mild-mannered Bensman is a coordinator with an environmental group (terror level yellow!). In late July, he attended an Army Corps of Engineers public meeting on the proposed construction of a fish-bypass channel for a Mississippi River dam. At the meeting, Bensman proposed that the Corps destroy the dam (terror level orange!!) -- an idea the Corps had already considered. A newspaper reported that Bensman "would like to see the dam blown up" (terror level red!!!). A week later, Bensman received a call from an FBI agent, who wanted to visit him at home, accused him of not cooperating, and told him that someone from the Corps had asked that he be investigated -- a claim disputed by the Corps official who moderated the meeting, who said Bensman is a familiar, if irritating, face at many Corps public meetings. Bensman has since been informed that he is not suspected of anything. Yet.