Thursday, 12 Apr 2007

Conoco Your Own Way

First major U.S. oil company joins coalition to limit greenhouse gases

You thought the times were a-changin' in the '60s? Meet 2007, baby! This week, ConocoPhillips became the first major U.S. oil company to join the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of green groups and corporations begging Congress to impose federal limits on greenhouse gases forthelovagod. To walk its talk, ConocoPhillips Chair Jim Mulva said the world's fifth-largest oil company will allocate "significantly more resources" to alt-energy R&D, reduce emissions at its U.S. refineries 10 percent in the next five years, and work to minimize environmental damage from accessing Canada's oil sands. "Voluntary programs have worked reasonably well, but voluntary programs are not going to meet the challenge of climate change," says Mulva, who as late as January was expressing disinterest in climate "mandates saying specifically, 'You have to do it this way and that.'" American International Group also pledged allegiance to U.S. CAP yesterday, becoming the first insurer to join the club.

He Covers the Hotter Front

Schwarzenegger says sexy greens are successful -- and he should know

In a speech at Georgetown University yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said environmentalists need to get hip and sexy to counter their image as "prohibitionists at a fraternity party." Brandishing a batch of recent green-themed magazines -- some featuring his mug on the cover -- the Governator said the movement is near a tipping point. "I don't know when the tipping point occurs, but I know where -- in California," he said, adding, "California is big, California is powerful, and what we do in California has an impact. We are sending the world a message." The action star will pretty much deliver that message in person, with upcoming trips to Canada, England, and India and an appearance on the ultimate global forum, MTV's "Pimp My Ride." Sadly, there's rain on Arnie's parade: a new study says his state has the country's highest concentration of non-white residents living near toxic facilities. But we're sure after he solves climate change, entrenched racism will be the next to go.


Over the past decade, the U.S. has essentially outsourced its manufacturing base to China. In response, China has built factories where fields used to flourish, forcing it to look elsewhere for agricultural products. Enter Brazil, which has been only too happy to turn rainforest and savanna into monocrop plantations that supply the world. Tom Philpott explores the tangled relationship between the three powerhouses, and looks at what it means for both land and people.

Heads You Lose, Tails I Win

World Bank has been OKing illegal logging in the Congo, says Greenpeace study

You've probably developed an immunity to scandal and outrage, but we'll keep plying you with it anyway: a two-year study by Greenpeace International has found that in the past three years, Congolese village chiefs have handed over vast expanses of the world's second-largest rainforest to European and U.S. logging companies in what some might call, um, uneven exchanges. African teak can bring in almost $8,000 per tree; in exchange for huge tracts of forest, tribes were offered simple buildings costing perhaps $20,000 -- which sometimes didn't materialize -- while some communities were paid only in sugar, salt, tools, and beer. While the loggers, which have "rights" to the forest for 25 years, aren't in Greenpeace's good graces, the report focuses criticism on the World Bank, which encourages such "social responsibility" agreements -- and is not enforcing its own logging moratorium. "If the trees go, then we will have nothing," says one local. "We will be consigned to poverty forever." Social responsibility ain't what it used to be.

Marian Devil Just Doesn't Have the Same Ring

Legendary Tasmanian devil faces relocation or extinction

Australia is working to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction. Plagued by a contagious cancer, the carnivorous marsupial is dying out on its eponymous island. Scientists have sent nearly 50 of the beasts to zoos and want to move 30 more to nearby Maria Island, a former prison site that's now a wildlife sanctuary. While some worry about how the devils will interact with birds and other critters that call Maria home, others say it's worth the risk: "This is a very unusual situation, and very unusual situations require unusual action," said University of Tasmania researcher Hamish McCallum, noting, "I don't want to get into an argument about whether a devil is worth more than a forty-spotted pardalote." And really, who does? Assuming the project goes forward, here are a couple of tips we found on a reputable site: "Taz does not like being caged. He has a tendency to break free. ... Only the most foolhardy and greedy of treasure seekers, Daffy Duck, would dare to attempt to capture the beast."