Wednesday, 30 May 2007

I'll Be Back, Eh

Schwarzenegger visits Canada to talk tough on emissions

It's hard to believe any country could be worse on climate than the U.S., but Canada seems to be making a run for it. Yesterday, Friends of the Earth Canada and Sierra Legal filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that their government is shirking its Kyoto Protocol pledge. "This government is not free to cut and run from its international obligations," says FOE spokesperson Christine Elwell. "You can't just do what you want." Conservative leaders, faced with the ugly fact that greenhouse-gas emissions in 2005 were about 33 percent above where they should be under Kyoto, blame their Liberal predecessors and maintain that they are pushing "one of the world's toughest sets of regulated targets for greenhouse gases." Know who could teach them a thing or two about tough targets? California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh look! He's on a three-day trade mission to Canada right now! Spreading the emissions-cutting gospel to leaders including Prime Minister Stephen Harper! Who's a total girly-man.


If you live in one of the 11 U.S. states with bottle bills, you can get shiny nickels and dimes for your returnables. But what's the deal with the rest of the country? Why have efforts to pass a national bottle bill failed, and why isn't bottle reuse a green priority? Advice maven Umbra Fisk sticks her neck out for an answer.

Testing, Testing ... Is This Thing On?

Federal chemical testing program inadequate, scientists say

In 1996, Congress mandated that the U.S. EPA launch a chemical testing program within three years. My, how time flies. The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program is now set to begin in 2008 -- and shockingly, critics say it panders to Big Chemical. They point to the EPA's plans to only do high-dosage tests, despite evidence that low-dosage exposure to some chemicals can be harmful. The agency also plans to either use a rat breed known to be insensitive to some chemicals, or to let companies pick which kind of rat they want tested. Also, the program may not test for effects of prenatal exposure. Speaking of that, a panel of 200 leading scientists recently declared that fetuses are more susceptible to many common chemicals than previously thought, leading to babies born vulnerable to everything from diabetes to attention deficit disorders to prostate cancer. The panel urged world leaders to stop dilly-dallying and toughen up regulations. Wonder if they ran that by the chemical industry first?


Can a bag of potato chips point the way to saving the planet? Some stores in the U.K. are gearing up to "carbon label" their products, aiming to show how much the production, packaging, and transport of consumer goods contribute to climate change. But it's not a straightforward process: Does the equation stop when the product hits the shelves? What products are most important to label? How do you explain to prospective buyers the meaning of a gram of greenhouse gas? Peter Madden gives the lay of the land, and declares optimism in the face of all the confusion.

So Long, San Pellegrino

Restaurants, schools tap into local water supplies

You've heard of eating locally, but the latest fad may be drinking locally. Some restaurants and schools are starting to serve filtered tap water instead of bottled water, citing the eco-impacts of packaging and shipping a product that's already available right thar in the kitchen. But it seems that pushing pints of Perrier is such a moneymaker that only some restaurants, mostly snooty ones, can afford to quit; cutting-edgers include Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and Mario Batali's Del Posto in New York. "Serving tap water is a great idea that we'd all love to be able to do, but it's not going to happen all at once," says one Manhattan restaurateur. Rockin' lunch lady Ann Cooper led Berkeley's schools to make the switch, and experts say it just makes sense. "The rationale for buying bottled water is a fantasy that has a destructive downside," says Gina Solomon of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "These companies are marketing an illusion of environmental purity."