Wednesday, 11 Jul 2007

Crist Almighty

Florida governor to enact big energy and emission plans

What's the greenest state in the U.S.? By Friday, it could be Florida. Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is hosting a two-day climate summit in Miami, and will wrap up the event by signing three sweeping eco-executive orders. His plans include adopting California's strict vehicle-emissions law, making Florida the first Southeast state to go that route; calling for a 40 percent reduction in statewide greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025; and requiring state agencies to prioritize fuel efficiency when buying or renting vehicles and to hold events in facilities certified as green by the state Department of Environmental Protection. Crist is also asking state utilities to produce 20 percent of their power from renewables, and creating a Florida Governor's Action Team on Energy and Climate Change. Whew! "When you look at the southeast of our country, there hasn't been a whole lot of action," Crist says. "Maybe we can be the point of the spear as it relates to making a difference, striving to lead by example."

Frankly, Madeira, We Don't Want a Dam

Brazil gives go-ahead to controversial dams in Amazon

Brazil has given the preliminary OK for two hydroelectric dams to be built on a major Amazon River tributary. Business leaders, who say the dams will provide much-needed energy, are impressed; greens, who see the project as a disaster waiting to happen, are depressed. Proponents say the Santo Antonio and Jirau dams could produce up to 10 percent of Brazil's current electricity demand when completed. Opponents point out that damming the Madeira River, home to one of the most diverse fish stocks in the world, will flood hundreds of square miles of biodiverse rainforest, stir up mercury deposits in the river, and bring pollution to the pristine area along with workers and construction. Brazil's environmental protection agency has outlined 33 restrictions that will minimize ecological damage, but critics aren't mollified; neither is neighboring Bolivia, which fears floodwaters could reach its border. Bids must be taken and permits obtained before the project gets going. Stay tuned.


There's a lot of talk these days about corn plastics, which sound like they degrade right back into the good green earth from which they sprouted. But are these newfangled materials just a way for consumers to feel good about creating trash? A worried reader asks advice maven Umbra Fisk for her take on biodegradables, and Umbra breaks it down.

It's Not the Sun

Sun is not causing current global warming, researchers confirm

Attention all ye who think the sun might be a primary cause of climate change, and all ye who know someone who thinks that: No. It's not the sun. Researchers have published a study of the last century of solar activity, finding that the sun's output has actually declined over the last 20 years. (And yes, they did brainy adjustments to account for variations and cycles and such.) "The sun did a U-turn around 1985, but the temperatures kept on rising," says English solar physicist Mike Lockwood. "Everything on the sun that could have affected climate has been going in the wrong direction to cause warming, and we've seen continued warming." Lockwood and Claus Froehlich of the World Radiation Center also studied cosmic rays, which had been thought by some to be a significant contributor to climate change. Cosmic rays "might ... have had a significant effect on pre-industrial climate," Lockwood says, "but you cannot apply it to what we're seeing now, because we're in a completely different ball game."

Think They'll A-Peel?

Latin American banana farmers sue U.S. companies over pesticides

A pesticide designed to eradicate worms from Latin American banana trees may have had a detrimental effect on workers' ... oh, how to put it ... bananas. At least 5,000 agricultural laborers from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama have filed five lawsuits in the U.S., claiming that exposure to the pesticide DBCP in the 1970s left them sterile. Jury selection began yesterday for the first lawsuit, which was filed by dozens of Nicaraguan farmers in 2004 against multinational companies Dole, Dow, and Amvac. The trial, held in Los Angeles, will air claims that the companies "actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity," knowing that long-term exposure could cause problems but not issuing any warnings or protection. While not denying the toxicity of DBCP, a Dow spokesperson responded that frequent turnover among banana workers made prolonged exposure to the chemical unlikely. Guess those 5,000 cases of sterility were just a coincidence.