Ithaca Environment

The Gulf of Fubar

2010-06-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

(Name suggested by Karen Snow Drake)

Insect threatens area's ash trees

2010-05-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

From The Ithaca Journal.

The Emerald Ash Borer is a beetle from Asia that has been devastating the ash trees of the US, especially in the east. The problem is so serious that the trees may be completely wiped out within 10 to 20 years.

See Invasive Species of Eastern US Blog and Wikipedia: Emerald Ash Borer

The Ash Tree

Ash Leaves

Emerald Ash Borer, magnified (actual size is less than 1/2 inch long

The damage caused by an ash borer

To Work thru Sapsucker Woods

2010-05-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

Cayuga Nature Center seeks Ideas

2006-01-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

From the Ithaca Journal

The Cayuga Nature Center is accepting proposals from groups or individuals who would like to use its 40-acre farm facility.

The use of the farm must be consistent with CNC's overall mission to increase awareness, appreciation and responsibility for the natural world.

Examples of possible uses include a horse and riding stable, sustainable or green energy facility, organic farm, field station or outdoor education facility.
The CNC farm is located at the intersection of Garrett and Houghton roads. Maps and photographs are available at www.cayuganaturecenter.org/farm.

Use agreements may be single- or multiple-year. Letters of interest must be submitted by Friday, Feb. 3, and full proposals must be submitted by Friday, March 3. For details, call Doug Weeks at 273-6260 or e-mail him at director@cayuganaturecenter.org.

Swedish Scientists Get Clues on the Evolution of the Ear

2006-01-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Scientists in Sweden have come up with a new theory for how evolution produced the ear. The answer, they report in the journal Nature, is that before the middle ear was used for hearing, in its ancient form, it might have been used for breathing.

The researchers, Martin D. Brazeau and Per E. Ahlberg from Uppsala University, base their claim on a study of a fossil of Panderichthys, a 370-million-year-old fish that is an immediate ancestor of the most primitive tetrapods [creatures with four limbs, such as most reptiles and mammals].

The fossil has an enlarged spiracle, a passageway between the jaw and the top of the head, as well as other changes that represent a middle ground between the relatively simple structures of more ancient fish and the complex morphology of tetrapods.

"It's got this combination of fish- and tetrapod-like features," said Mr. Brazeau, who undertook the research as part of his work on a doctorate in evolutionary biology.

Scientists have known since the 19th century that in tetrapods, including humans, the middle ear develops from an embryonic structure called the first gill arch. In fish, the first gill arch forms the support for the jaws including the spiracle.

In fish that are ancestral to Panderichthys, the spiracle is small. In Panderichthys, Mr. Brazeau said, "the first thing that happens is that the spiracle becomes very large." Further alterations follow, he said, including changes to a bone that is the forerunner of the stapes, or stirrup bone, that is part of the middle ear structure.

So the Panderichthys fossil, which was found in Latvia, is a useful snapshot of a moment in evolution. But why do the researchers suspect that the spiracle was part of the fish's breathing system?

Part of the answer can be found in modern bottom-dwelling marine creatures like rays. When they are on the sea floor, rays use spiracles on the top of the head for breathing instead of their mouths, to avoid sucking up sand. Panderichthys, Mr. Brazeau said, may have been a bottom dweller and have had the same need for an alternate respiration route. "It may very well have had its face in the mud," he said.

From the New York Times

Troubled Times in Kenya

2006-01-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

There is trouble beneath the surface of this majestic lake in Kenya's Rift Valley.

For one thing, huge carp, introduced years back, are stirring up the bottom where tilapia, which had been the dominant fish, reproduce. Also, unlicensed fishermen are dragging finely sewn nets through the murky water, trapping species before they come of age. Then there is the pesticide problem, the sewage and the steady decline in the water level, additional signs of an ailing ecosystem.

But it is on the shoreline that Lake Naivasha's real problems lie, and this month it all led to homicide not far from the water's edge.

Joan Root, a noted conservationist, lived for decades on a prime piece of Naivasha's lakefront before gunmen stole her life...

Joan Root

Read the rest in the New York Times:

Hamster and Snake are Buddies?

2006-01-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

According to the USA Today:

Zookeepers at the Mutsugoro Okoku zoo near Tokyo presented the hamster Gohan ("meal") to the snake Aochan as a tasty treat in October after the snake refused frozen mice...But instead of indulging, Aochan made friends with the rodent, keeper Kazuya Yamamoto told the Associated Press.

However, Gary Bogue of the ContraCosta Times warns, though:

...you should be aware that captive snakes sometimes will ignore mice, rats (or hamsters) that have been dropped into their cages as food -- for days, weeks and on rare occasions even months. Why? Who knows, call it a snake thing. Reptiles have slow metabolisms, and it can take a while for them to work up an appetite.

21 Baby Pandas

2006-01-03T07:19:00.000-08:00

From the Chicago Tribune

BEIJING, CHINA -- A record 21 surviving baby pandas were born in China's zoos and breeding centers in 2005, state media reported Monday.

Sixteen were born at Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the rare animal's biggest natural habitat, the China Daily newspaper said. The others were born in research centers in the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu, in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi and at the Beijing Zoo.

China has 183 pandas in captivity, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It said 24 others live in nine zoos in five other countries.

(Photo from AFP via InkyCircus)

Tsunami Love Story

2005-12-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

From inkycircus, a woman-run science blog:

It's a year since the tsunami, and there've been lots of stories in the media about regeneration and hope in the areas devastated by the wave. But this one story caught my eye. A 2 year old baby hippo known as Owen was living with his family near the Sabaki River on the East African coast when the wave swept him out and stranded him on a reef. He was rescued by local fishermen and taken to the Haller Park sanctuary, where, all alone and clearly lonely, he formed a strong attachment to another resident and started following him around and trying to sleep next to him. This other resident is Mzee - a male tortoise who is over 130 years old.

Mzee was apparently initially unimpressed and tried to ignore Owen's attentions. But he has since been won over and the two are inseparable friends a year on. Staff at the Haller sanctuary think that Owen may have been attracted by Mzee's round shape and gray color because they are somewhat similar to that of an adult hippopotamus. They plan to introduce Owen to another hippo called Cleo at the sanctuary to give him some companionship of his own kind, but intend to keep the tortoise on hand during the introductions to smooth the process. (More info from MSNBC here, photo - which is just too much - from Associated Press)

Sobering Information About Energy Consumption

2005-12-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

Jeff Dukes, professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts, works in the areas of the impact of human activity on the environment. In Burning Buried Sunshine, a research article on the rate at which humans are consuming energy, he concludes:

The fossil fuels burned in 1997...is >400 times the net primary productivity (NPP) of the planet's current biota.

In other words, the fossil fuel we burn each year took 400 years to produce through biological processes. This fact argues that even if we ended our dependence on fossil fuels and exclusively turned to renewable fuel sources (burning wood, ethanol, biodiesel), the world's plants are nowhere close to being able to meet our demands.

Jeff Dukes

Visit his homepage.

Environmental Case Against Biodiesel

2005-12-30T07:20:00.000-08:00

From George Monbiot in the Guardian

Over the past two years I have made an uncomfortable discovery. Like most environmentalists, I have been as blind to the constraints affecting our energy supply as my opponents have been to climate change. I now realise that I have entertained a belief in magic.

In 2003, the biologist Jeffrey Dukes calculated that the fossil fuels we burn in one year were made from organic matter "containing 44 x 1018 grams of carbon, which is more than 400 times the net primary productivity of the planet's current biota". In plain English, this means that every year we use four centuries' worth of plants and animals...

In promoting biodiesel - as the EU, the British and US governments and thousands of environmental campaigners do - you might imagine that you are creating a market for old chip fat, or rapeseed oil, or oil from algae grown in desert ponds. In reality you are creating a market for the most destructive crop on earth.

Last week, the chairman of Malaysia's federal land development authority announced that he was about to build a new biodiesel plant. His was the ninth such decision in four months. Four new refineries are being built in Peninsula Malaysia, one in Sarawak and two in Rotterdam. Two foreign consortiums - one German, one American - are setting up rival plants in Singapore. All of them will be making biodiesel from the same source: oil from palm trees.

"The demand for biodiesel," the Malaysian Star reports, "will come from the European Community ... This fresh demand ... would, at the very least, take up most of Malaysia's crude palm oil inventories." Why? Because it is cheaper than biodiesel made from any other crop.

In September, Friends of the Earth published a report about the impact of palm oil production. "Between 1985 and 2000," it found, "the development of oil-palm plantations was responsible for an estimated 87 per cent of deforestation in Malaysia". In Sumatra and Borneo, some 4 million hectares of forest have been converted to palm farms. Now a further 6 million hectares are scheduled for clearance in Malaysia, and 16.5 million in Indonesia.

Almost all the remaining forest is at risk.

Willie Nelson's Biodiesel

2005-12-30T07:09:00.000-08:00

Via Biodiesel Blog
, Wired Magazine profiles Willie Nelson:

"Nelson told The Associated Press in an interview last week that he began learning about the product a few years ago after his wife purchased a biodiesel-burning car in Hawaii, where the star has a home."

"'I got on the computer and punched in biodiesel and found out this could be the future,' said Nelson, who now uses the fuel for his cars and tour buses."

"Peter Bell, a Texas biodiesel supplier, struck up a friendship with Nelson after filling up one of the tour buses, and the business partnership came together just before Christmas..."

"'What Willie brings to this is the ability to communicate directly with a truck driver. That kind of community is hard for people to get to,' Bell said. 'When he starts talking, these folks really listen to him.... It's like having Tiger Woods talk about golf clubs.'"

The Price of Gold

2005-12-30T06:36:00.000-08:00

In the New York Times

ELKO, Nev. - Just outside the chasm of North America's biggest open-pit gold mine there is an immense oasis in the middle of the Nevada desert. It is an idyllic and isolated spot where migratory birds often alight for a stopover. But hardly anything is natural about it.

This is water pumped from the ground by Barrick Gold of Toronto to keep its vast Goldstrike mine from flooding, as the gold company, the world's third largest, carves a canyon 1,600 feet below the level of northern Nevada's aquifer...

Barrick says the effects of its pumping will last at most a few decades. But government scientists estimate it could take 200 years or more to replenish the groundwater that it and neighboring mine companies have removed, with little public attention or debate, as they meet soaring consumer demand for jewelry and gold's price tops $500 an ounce.

Ashley Gilbertson for the New York Times

A pond in the Nevada desert holds water contaminated by mining operations. Major mine companies have pumped out billions of gallons from an aquifer.

The Flying Mobulas of the Sea of Cortez

2005-12-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a spectacular picture of a flying mobula. That's a creature that's a kind of manta rey. Read about them in Michael Albert's website.

Via Saheli's Blog.

Danby Residents Preserve Wetlands

2005-12-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

Danby residents are working to preserve wetlands that are the homes to beavers, herons, and many other birds.

DANBY - Searching for help in preserving and restoring a total of 115 acres of wetlands located right in the backyards of four Danby landowners wasn't hard to find.

Upon realizing the desire and need to keep his portion of the wetlands intact, Danby resident Alan Wagner contacted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. From there, a partnership among the Upper Susquehanna Coalition (USC), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Partners program and the landowners was formed to restore between 15 and 25 acres of the wetland complex.

Read the article in the Ithaca Journal.

First Live Giant Squid Photographed

2005-12-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

From National Geographic

Like something straight out of a Jules Verne novel, an enormous tentacled creature looms out of the inky blackness of the deep Pacific waters.

But this isn't science fiction. A set of extraordinary images captured by Japanese scientists marks the first-ever record of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in the wild.

More pictures

Polar Bears Endangered by Big Melt

2005-12-27T10:57:00.000-08:00

From Nature.

Reports this week claimed that polar bears were being forced by climate change into cannibalism and attempting suicidal swims. Experts say it is too early to be sure, but that these are the kind of impacts expected as melting sea ice leaves the bears with longer distances to travel.

Images of the Wild

2005-12-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

See the website of photographer Florian Schulz.

Greenpeace calls for better handling of waste from electronics manufacturing

2005-08-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

From AP via YahooNews

SAN FRANCISCO - Toxic waste from computers, TVs and other electronic devices discarded in the United States and dismantled in China and India is an even more severe problem than previously feared, according to environmental groups that seek better recycling programs.

Researchers from Greenpeace International said in a report Wednesday that they detected high levels of toxic metals in more than 70 samples collected in March from industrial waste, river sediment, soil and ground water around the southern Chinese city of Guiyu and the suburbs of New Delhi. Dust from electronics-dismantling workshops contained the highest levels of contaminants.

US Senators find evidence of global warming in far north

2005-08-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Fresh from visits to Canada's Yukon Territory and Alaska's northernmost city, four U.S. senators said on Wednesday that signs of rising temperatures on Earth are obvious and they called on Congress to act.

"If you can go to the Native people and walk away with any doubt about what's going on, I just think you're not listening," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record) of South Carolina.

Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona and Democrat
Hillary Clinton of New York told reporters in Anchorage that Inupiat Eskimo residents in Barrow, Alaska, have found their ancestral land and traditional lifestyle disrupted by disappearing sea ice, thawing permafrost, increased coastal erosion and changes to wildlife habitat.

Heat-stimulated beetle infestation has also killed vast amounts of the spruce forest in the Yukon Territory, they said.

Read the rest from Reuters.

Wildlife Park in Midwest for Endangered Species

2005-08-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

PARIS (AFP) - The best way to save the planet's large wild mammals facing extinction this century, including lions, cheetahs, elephants and camels, is the creation of a huge nature preserve in the US midwest, a group of leading biologists reportedly argue.

Using the end of the Pleistocene period some 13,000 years ago -- when the prehistoric cousins of these and other "megafauna" roamed North America by the millions -- as a benchmark, the scientists call for the "re-wilding" of great swathes of sparsely populated land, Nature magazine reported.

"It would take many, many hundreds of square miles (kilometers)," said Harry Greene, one of the authors and a professor at Cornell University in New York. "We are talking about an American Serengeti," he added, referring to the 15,000 square kilometer (5,800 square mile) wildlife preserve in northern Tanzania.

Read the rest in AFP

Ithaca Area in Second-Worst Drought in 126 Years

2005-08-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

From the Ithaca Journal.

BILL WARREN/Journal Staff

Kevin Donovan walks up to the pool below Taughannock Falls Friday. The waterfall is barely flowing and the creek bed is nearly dry. The Northeast Regional Climate Center has declared a drought.

Experimental Hybrid Cars Get Up to 250 Mpg

2005-08-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer

CORTE MADERA, Calif. - Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.

It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret — a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.

Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.

Like all hybrids, his Prius increases fuel efficiency by harnessing small amounts of electricity generated during braking and coasting. The extra batteries let him store extra power by plugging the car into a wall outlet at his home in this San Francisco suburb — all for about a quarter...

Monrovia-based Energy CS has converted two Priuses to get up to 230 mpg by using powerful lithium ion batteries. It is forming a new company, EDrive Systems, that will convert hybrids to plug-ins for about $12,000 starting next year, company vice president Greg Hanssen said.

Read the rest in YahooNews.

Peat Bogs in Siberia Melt for first time in 11,000 years

2005-08-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

August 11, 2005.
By Fred Pearce, NewScientist.com news service

THE world's largest frozen peat bog is melting. An area stretching for a million square kilometres across the permafrost of western Siberia is turning into a mass of shallow lakes as the ground melts, according to Russian researchers just back from the region.

The sudden melting of a bog the size of France and Germany combined could unleash billions of tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

The news of the dramatic transformation of one of the world's least visited landscapes comes from Sergei Kirpotin, a botanist at Tomsk State University, Russia, and Judith Marquand at the University of Oxford.

Kirpotin describes an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming". He says that the entire western Siberian sub-Arctic region has begun to melt, and this "has all happened in the last three or four years".

Read the rest in the New Scientist

Arctic Ice Cover Headed for All-time Record Low

2005-08-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

June marks the beginning of the melt season for Arctic sea ice, which reaches its minimum extent at the end of the season in September. In the past few Septembers, Arctic sea ice concentration (the amount of ice in a given area) has been markedly reduced. September 2002 set a new record low at 15 percent below average. It was followed closely by September 2003 and September 2004. So far, 2005 is shaping up to be another record-low sea ice year in the Arctic...

Different explanations have been proposed for Arctic sea ice decline, including the strong positive mode of the Arctic Oscillation (AO). This oscillation is an alternating pattern of atmospheric pressure at polar latitudes and mid-latitudes. In the early 1990s, the AO was in positive mode. In that mode, the AO produces a strong polar vortex, and resulting winds tended to flush older, thicker ice out of the Arctic. Since the late 1990s, however, the AO has been much more neutral, yet Arctic sea ice decline continues. Another explanation for declining sea ice is climate change. Global temperatures have risen, and climate models generally agree that one of the strongest signals of greenhouse warming is a loss of Arctic sea ice.

Read the rest fromNasa's Earth Observatory website

Ithaca Resident Moves because of TCE Contamination

2005-07-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ithaca resident Janet Snoyer is moving from her South Hill home after the failure of efforts by Emerson Power Transmission to rid her home of the toxic chemical tricholorethene (TCE).

For more information about TCE, see here, here, and this recent Ithaca Journal article.

Redbud Woods Update

2005-07-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Interim Cornell President Rawlings announced that Cornell would go ahead with plans to bulldoze Redbud Woods and build a new parking lot, in spite of continuing protests by Cornell students and faculty, and in spite of a request from Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton to reconsider.

Cornell Professor Jane Marie Law rallies Redbud protestors

Global Warming Makes Oceans Less Salty

2005-06-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Since 1960, the oceans have been getting less salty, due to the influx of fresh water from melting glaciers and from increased rainfall. Both of these factors are attributed to global warming.

Because water with lower salinity is less dense, adding fresh water may affect ocean flows like the "conveyor belt" – a system of Atlantic currents that exchanges cold water in the Arctic region for warm water from the tropics.

The top part of this conveyor is made of warm ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream, flowing northward along the surface. At high latitudes, this water cools and sinks – releasing its heat to the atmosphere and making for moderate winter climates in places like England.

Deep, cold currents return some of the water to the south.

Slight changes in the currents -- both seasonal and longer-term variations -- affect everything from hurricane formation to droughts and heat waves.

See the full article on YahooNews.

Bush administration altered report on grazing

2005-06-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

(Editorial comment: I hate being so predictable that every article about the Bush administration and the environment is negative. Maybe I will look around for good news about the administration, but it's a little hard to find.)

Via Orcinus

The LA Times reports that

The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study.... The original draft of the environmental analysis warned that the new rules would have a "significant adverse impact" on wildlife, but that phrase was removed. The bureau now concludes that the grazing regulations are "beneficial to animals."

Read the whole article in The LA Times.

Full Plate Farm Collective: Connecting Local Farmers and Consumers

2005-06-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Full Plate Farm Collective is a collective of three farms working to provide a quality CSA experience to shareholders and to strengthen a community of growers and eaters. The three farm are Stick and Stone Farm (10th year in operation!), Ann and Jeff's Farm, and Remembrance Farm. The CSA aspect of operation is managed by Melissa Brill. This collective feeds 100 families in the Trumansburg, Ithaca, and Danby Communities.

Check out the Full Plate Farm Collective website, LocalHarvest.

An article about the collective is in The Ithaca Journal.

MATTHEW HINTON / Ithaca Journal Staff

Brandon Cruz removes weeds from a field of herbs while Nathaniel Thompson cultivates an onion field on a tractor, background, last Tuesday at Remembrance Farm in Danby. Cruz is an apprentice at the farm, owned and farmed by Thompson. The farm is part of the Full Plate Farm Collective. Cruz recently graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh and hopes to become a mushroom farmer.

Introducing Citizens Campaign for the Environment

2005-06-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Mission Statement

CCE works to build widespread citizen understanding and advocacy for policies and actions designed to manage and protect interdependent land and water resources, wildlife and public health. CCE carries out this mission through public education, research, lobbying, organizing and public outreach.

Check out the website of The Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

Red Tide Endangers New England Shellfish

2005-06-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

New England waters are being plagued by what may be the worst outbreak of red tide in the region, a Massachusetts official said Friday.

"Everything is just really on hold until this algae bloom clears up," said Barbara Austin, who farms oysters and littleneck clams in Wellfleet, Mass.
The New York Times

The toxic algae bloom has led state officials to close shellfish beds between Maine and Cape Cod so that people do not eat infected clams, mussels, oysters and scallops.

Read the full article by Jodi Hilton for The New York Times.

To Save Its Canal, Panama Fights for Its Forests

2005-06-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

The Panama Canal depends on the water from Gatún Lake, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, created during construction of the canal. This water in turn depends on the health of the surrounding watershed forest. But in the last few decades, half of it has been lost to logging and slash-and-burn agriculture.

The Panama Canal Authority and an array of scientists are working together to study Gatún Lake's hydrology, to restore its watershed and to teach the people who live there the importance of preserving it.

Read the rest of the story, by Cornelia Dean in The New York Times.

Gov. Schwarzeneggar's Plan on Greenhouse Gases

2005-06-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

From The New York Times, Carolyn Marshall writes:

Speaking to hundreds of international leaders gathered here for the United Nations World Environment Day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a plan to reduce California's contribution to gases that many scientists believe cause global warming.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, outlined his ambitious goals on Wednesday in a three-tiered Environmental Action Plan intended to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions in less than five years to less than the levels in 2000.

The plan calls for the further reduction of emissions by 2020 to less than the levels produced in 1990, and for the reduction, by 2050, of emissions to 80 percent less than the levels in 1990.

Read the rest of the story.

Editor of Climate Reports Resigns

2005-06-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Philip A. Cooney, the chief of staff to President Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality, resigned yesterday, White House officials said.

Mr. Cooney’s resignation came two days after documents revealed that he had repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that cast doubt on the link between building greenhouse-gas emissions and rising temperatures.

Read the rest of the article, by ANDREW C. REVKIN in The New York Times.

Corporate Influence over National Environmental, Health Policy

2005-06-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

In four different instances last week, the Bush administration allowed corporate influence to affect national environmental, scientific, health and land use policy:

The Carpetbagger Report

The Bush White House let a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute re-write a government report on global warming, editing out scientific conclusions he didn't like.
Bush's Interior Department offered to overpay a wealthy Republican donor for oil and gas rights on Everglades land that the government apparently already owns, overruling the advice of career officials.
Documents from the U.S. State Department published this week show that the president backed away from the Kyoto global warming treaty after being pressured by ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries.
Bush officials at the Justice Department inexplicably decided to reduce its settle request with the tobacco industry from $130 billion to $10 billion, and urged government witnesses to soften their recommendations about sanctions.

Snot Sustains Undersea Life

2005-06-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

From Majikthise

Marine biologists have figured out one of the secrets of life in the deep sea beds of Monterey Bay. Until now, it was unclear how anything could live down there. No sunlight, no photosynthesis, no photosynthesis no plants, no plants, no food for animals.

It turns out we can thank tadpole-like creatures called "giant larvaceans" for secreting huge balls of mucus. The lavaceans live inside these mucus balls until they get too clogged up and gross. At this point, the larvaceans discard their old homes and make new ones. The old dirty mucus balls sink like bombs of carbon and provide food for deep sea animals.

Undersea Mucus Ball

Read the rest of the story in Yahoo News.

Breakfast at Redbud Woods

2005-06-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

From Jane Marie Law:

Come to Redbud Woods tomorrow morning (Friday, June 9) at 7 a.m. The tides are turning to preserve this green space for future generations. We need community support.

Bring your breakfast, your kids, your signs and your good will.

Dedication of Redbud Woods this Sunday

2005-06-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

From Jae Sullivan:

Hi Friends of Dorothy,

The Redbud Group will have an informal dedication of a
portion of Redbud Woods, some portion of the woods
that remain standing, or a tree, to Dorothy
Reddington, this coming Sunday, June 12, 2005, at 6PM.
(Meet in the backyard of 660 Stewart Ave. and park
on University or in the 660 Stewart Ave. lot.)

I want to reach all friends of Dodo who would like me
to read your rememberances of Dodo in this dedication.

Please feel free to send this message to people you
know from Dodo's life...in/at Denmark, France,
Germany, Keystone, Syracuse, PA, Scranton, Johnson
Museum, Plantations, BTI, from her travels, etc.

Please email me at blueheron555@yahoo.com. I need
your rememberances by email, Sunday 10 AM.

This is imminent...the woods may not be there much
longer.

THANK YOU.

Jae Sullivan
blueheron555@yahoo.com
607-272-6723

Fight to Save Redbud Woods Continues

2005-06-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

via the Ithaca Journal

Chainsaw crews felled the first handful of trees Monday morning at the Cornell University site known as Redbud Woods, but work on a proposed parking lot there was soon stalled by protesters.

Between 8 and 9 a.m., a man who identified himself only as "Psyrx"(pronounced "sigh-rex") climbed about 25 feet into the branches of one of the trees near University Avenue and remained there through the afternoon, despite a violent thunderstorm.

Other protesters took shifts camping on a platform installed in another tree behind a housing cooperative at 660 Stewart Avenue and locked themselves to reinforced concrete blocks buried in the ground nearby. Dozens of supporters milled around the woods or watched from a distance.

Ithaca Company Makes Fuel from Vegetable Oil

2005-06-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Meghan Murphy of LiquidSOLAR, an Ithaca-based conversion company, has learned the ins and outs of biodiesel and vegetable-oil powered engines, leading her to eschew conventional gasoline.

"I was originally concerned about the petroleum situation as a political issue. Once I learned the environmental aspects of it, I was totally taken," said Murphy, who also researches and edits for the publication "Biodiesel America."

Biodiesel is the chemically advanced cousin of vegetable oil, both of which are non-fossil-fuel-based alternatives to gasoline. The oft-cited environmental advantages of the two include fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reduced reliance on petroleum-based fuels, which is considered a nonrenewable resource.

Lye, methanol and vegetable oil are the three necessary components in homemade biodiesel. The procedure, in simplified terms, requires combining lye and methanol to create sodium methoxide, a dangerous product that can burn skin while killing nerves so you don't feel yourself getting burned. Methanol is also highly flammable "so you don't want to set off any fireworks while you're doing it," joked Murphy.

"It's really not that daunting once you get a handle on it," Murphy added. "It's not as scary as it sounds."

Read the full article in The Ithaca Journal

Open Letter to Friends of Dorothy Reddington

2005-05-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

"Cornell is a great institution that would be even greater if it realized that it does not need another parking lot." –Dorothy Reddington

Dear Friends of Dorothy,

As you know, Dodo was a person of great accomplishments, unbounded enthusiasm, and total devotion to the people and places she loved. One of these places was Redbud Woods.

Today, the future of this beloved native woodland is extremely precarious; the bulldozers may start rolling within the next few weeks....Click permalink for the full letter...

As many of you know, Cornell University plans to raze Redbud Woods to construct a student parking lot. This lot will provide 176 parking spaces, covering an area about the size of two football fields.

The woods are in the historic backyard of famed Ithaca conservationist Robert Treman, who donated the land that is now Treman Park. Redbud Woods is home to diverse species of plants and animals, including locally rare yellow oak and hackberry trees, which provide winter hibernation habitat for butterflies that feed exclusively on hackberries. The area also provides a buffer between the University Hill neighborhood and the Cornell campus, and has been designated a Historic District by the City of Ithaca.

Last spring, the City of Ithaca Planning Board denied Cornell permission to build the lot, and offered six months to reach a mutual agreement with the city. Instead, Cornell opted to sue the Planning Board. The State Supreme Court judge ruled in Cornell's favor, undermining the board's ability to make local planning decisions and highlighting the problems with Cornell's lack of sustainable transportation policies. Proposed alternatives to razing Redbud Woods include providing underground parking, expanding or making better use of pre-existing lots, and implementing frequent, accessible public transportation and shuttles to satellite parking lots.

Nearly 40 Cornell faculty and scientists, including Dr. Thomas Eisner and Carl Leopold, stated in a letter to Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman: “…we feel that it would be ill-conceived to remedy this [parking] problem by destroying a strategically-placed patch of greenery, whose combined environmental, aesthetic, and historical value well exceeds any benefit that could accrue from its transformation.” More recently, 90 faculty requested a six-month moratorium on constructing the parking lot so that the community dialog could be continued, and a more elegant and sustainable solution to the parking dilemma found. Several days ago, that request was denied.

A number of Cornell students, including Dodo’s friend Danny Pearlstein, are members of the Redbud Woods Working Group, affectionately known as the “Redbuddies.” They have been putting themselves on the line to preserve the woods, and now face delayed graduation, fines, and court dates for their actions. But this hasn’t stopped them. They would like to dedicate Redbud Woods to Dodo. (Hey, Reddington Redbuds has a nice ring to it!) They are trying to outreach to the community, alumni, and to the media, and they can use all the help they can get.

What You Can Do

Please contact every Cornell alumni you know, particularly those in other states, and ask them to send e-mails and letters to Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman (president@cornell.edu) at 300 Day Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Please e-mail or send a letter (250 words or less) to the editor of the Ithaca Journal (ith-letters@ithaca.gannett.com) at 123 W. State St., Ithaca, NY 14850. Your address and phone numbers must be included for verification.

Join the Redbuddies at their upcoming activities: a “counter-convocation” between Cornell’s Uris and Statler Halls at 11am on Saturday, May 28th; a work, play, and planning session in Redbud Woods at 3PM on Monday, May 30th; and at the Ithaca Festival parade, marching together with the Catholic Worker group at 7pm on Thursday, June 2nd. Contact Danny Pearlstein (dp89@cornell.edu) for more information.

To find out more about the history of this issue, visit the website: http://www.rso.cornell.edu/snrc/redbud

Visit Redbud Woods soon, while it is still in bloom, and think of Dodo as you stand quietly amid a sea of purple blossoms and bird song. Redbud Woods is located at University Avenue, west of Stewart Ave.

If Dodo were still with us, she would insist that President Lehman’s “institutional commitment to sustainability” be more that just lip service. She would want Cornell to preserve its ecological treasures, rather than to precipitate their destruction. And she’d be passionately debating all of the above over a glass of good wine. Let’s do it for her!

New Rule on Endangered Species Act: New science cannot be applied to old case

2005-05-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, May 23 - The southwestern regional director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has instructed members of his staff to limit their use of the latest scientific studies on the genetics of endangered plants and animals when deciding how best to preserve and recover them.

Dale Hall, the director of the southwestern region, in a memorandum dated Jan. 27, said that all decisions about how to return a species to robust viability must use only the genetic science in place at the time it was put on the endangered species list - in some cases the 1970's or earlier - even if there have been scientific advances in understanding the genetic makeup of a species and its subgroups in the ensuing years.

Read the rest of the article, by Felicity Barringer, in The New York Times.

Redbud Woods Activities

2005-05-27T03:37:00.000-07:00

From Jae Sullivan:

TODAY Friday May 27 at 1 PM: Press Conference at the Front Entrance to Day Hall on East Avenue. Show support for members of the Redbud 8 with local elected officials and candidates. Public announcements of Cornell's denial of the six-month moratorium on the proposed University Avenue parking lot, the third Student Assembly resolution asking Cornell to preserve Redbud Woods and grant amnesty to student protesters, and Cornell's decision not to allow Danny Pearlstein and Daisy Torres to graduate pending disciplinary proceedings next fall.

SATURDAY May 28 at 11 PM: Counter Convocation at the Naked Man Statue on East Avenue between Uris Hall and the Statler Hotel. Speakers will offer critical perspectives on Convocation Speaker General Wesley Clark and present awards relevant to recent activism at Cornell and in Ithaca. See Redbud Woods win the Jeffrey Sean Lehman Campus Sustainability Prize.

MONDAY May 30 at 3 PM: Celebrate Memorial Day in Redbud Woods. Meet, play, plan, and work in the Woods. Park on University Avenue uphill from the City Cemetery or at 660 Stewart Avenue.

This Saturday! Redbud Woods Dedication

2005-05-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

In a ceremony this Saturday (May 28, 2005), the Redbud Woods Working Group will dedicate Redbud Woods to Dorothy Reddington (known to many as "Dodo"), a long-time Ithaca activist and Cornell employee who died last year.

From Jae Sullivan:

The activist group, with the efforts of Dodo's friend,
Danny Pearlstein, attempting to stop the destruction
of Redbud Woods, will be dedicating the woods to Dodo
at 11 AM on Saturday, May 28, as part of their
"Counter Convocation." (Location: between Uris Hall
and Statler at the "Hercules" statue.)

There will be lots of activity in the next few weeks
(actions, letters to the editors of Ithaca Journal and
The New York Times, etc.) since the scheduled
bulldozing of the woods may take place as early as
mid- June - AFTER Cornell Commencement, Ithaca
Festival and Reunion weekends. Figures!

Danny Pearlstein and his friends will be sending out
an email tomorrow which I will pass on.

!!!Everyone is asked to send that email on to list
serves of environmentalists, alumni, Cornell faculty,
Sierra Clubs, local politicians, national politicians,
news organizations and journalists, etc!!!!

As Cinda, Dodo's sister, said to me on email, "Dodo
loved a good fight" so let's do our part to preserve
the woods. As Dodo herself wrote in her obit, "She
was proud to work for Cornell which she described as
'a great institution that would be even greater if it
would realize that it does not need another parking
lot.' "

Winning Watershed Essays

2005-05-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Cayuga Watershed Network has published the winners of the 2005 Watershed Essay contest.

Adult: Carrie Laben

High School: Violet Goncarovs

Intermediate:

1st place Teal Arcadi

2nd place Kate Perkins and Emmett Neno

3rd place Chris Corning, Bryan DiDona, Morgan Kuryla

Congratulations to all winners and participants.

*Teal Arcadi*

*Kate Perkins*

*Emmett Neno*

*Chris Corning*

*Morgan Kuryla*

(Pictures of Carrie Laben, Violet Goncarovs, Bryan DiDona not available)

Cayuga Lake threatened by Mud?

2005-05-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Photo by BILL HECHT/Provided

An aerial photo of Cayuga Lake, taken on April 5 by Bill Hecht of Union Springs, shows the flow of sediment into the lake. A new study recommends restricting development in floodplains, preserving and rebuilding wetlands and protecting riparian buffers, the land adjacent to streams and creeks. Flooding of streams sends silt into Cayuga Lake, which has the largest watershed of all the Finger Lakes.

Read the rest of the story in The Ithaca Journal.

Nature Deficit Disorder

2005-05-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

In the New York Times

(via Chris Walton's weblog Philocrites)

Doctors, teachers, therapists and even coaches have been saying for years that children spend too much time staring at video screens, booked up for sports or lessons or sequestered by their parents against the remote threat of abduction.

But a new front is opening in the campaign against children's indolence. Experts are speculating, without empirical evidence, that a variety of cultural pressures have pushed children too far from the natural world. The disconnection bodes ill, they say, both for children and for nature.

The author Richard Louv calls the problem "nature-deficit disorder." He came up with the term, he said, to describe an environmental ennui flowing from children's fixation on artificial entertainment rather than natural wonders. Those who are obsessed with computer games or are driven from sport to sport, he maintains, miss the restorative effects that come with the nimbler bodies, broader minds and sharper senses that are developed during random running-around at the relative edges of civilization.

(Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times)

Richard Louv's new book has a message for parents: don't be afraid to let children roam in the woods.

Open Letter from Finger Lakes Environmental Network

2005-05-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

My name is Katy Dunlap, and I am writing on behalf of a new
environmental organization called the Finger Lakes
Environmental Network (FLEN). FLEN seeks to promote
increased public involvement in local environmental issues
and coordination of environmental information.

I applaud your efforts in becoming a clearinghouse of
environmental information for the Ithaca area. FLEN seeks
to do similar work, but for the entire Finger Lakes
watershed basin. I hope we can work in collaboration to
better inform the public and effectuate positive
environmental change.

Currently, FLEN is seeking funding to establish an
environmental resource center that will house information
about the different environmental organizations within the
Finger Lakes watershed basin, making this information more
accessible to the public. I am surveying the environmental
community to assess the need for such a resource center.
Would you be willing to answer a few questions? I thank you
in advance for your time.

1. Does your organization feel that the environmental
organizations in the Finger Lakes region have effective
communication and openly share information? On a scale of
one to five (one being the best), please rate the
effectiveness of communication and the sharing of
information among these orgs. Please elaborate if necessary.

2. Do you see improved communication as an important need
right now? On a scale of one to five (one being extremely
important), please rate the importance of improved
communication. Please elaborate if necessary.

3. Do you feel that organizations are taking a holistic
watershed approach in addressing their environmental
concerns? On a scale of one to five (one meaning all
organizations do use a watershed approach), please rate the
number of orgs using a holistic watershed approach. Please
elaborate if necessary.

4. Would your organization be interested in becoming a
member of the Finger Lakes Environmental Network? This
entails being part of an environmental directory, being a
link on our webpage, and having your organization's
materials (pamphlets, newsletter, etc. at the resource
center)?

Thanks again for your assistance.
Please add this email address to your mailing directory.

Katy L. Dunlap, Executive Director
Finger Lakes Environmental Network, Inc.
P.O. Box 417, Trumansburg, NY 14886-0417
info@fingerlakesenvnet.org
(607)742-3331

Genetically Modified Corn and Health Problems

2005-05-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

Rats fed on genetically modified corn created by Monsanto Corporation developed serious abnormalities, with kidney malformations and changes to blood indicating damage to the immune system, an internal scientific report at the US-based company found, according to Sunday's edition of English newspaper The Independent.

Monsanto is being accused of knowing about these health problems and not disclosing their research. These accusations are discussed in this article in the South African Newspaper, the Cape Times.

For a general discussion of genetically modified foods, see this Independent article.

Brazil Losing Fight to Save Amazon Rainforests

2005-05-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

From Yahoo News.

ALTA FLORESTA, Brazil (Reuters) - In the heart of what is known in Brazil's Amazon as the "arc of deforestation" it is clear that the fight to save the jungle is being lost.

Where Rainforest Meets Farmland

The above picture shows the arc that separates jungle from farmland, which is the front line in the battle over the Amazon. In 2004 the Brazilian government decided to make a stand in this half-moon shaped area stretching along the southern and eastern edges of the Amazon. A year later, environmentalists and government officials have little to show for the effort.

The government said on Wednesday that deforestation jumped to its second highest level on record in 2003-2004, to 10,088 square miles -- an area nearly the size of Belgium and slightly bigger than the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Just under 20 percent of the world's largest tropical forest, which is home to an estimated 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species, has now been destroyed.

Deforestation in Brazil is being fought by environmental organizations such as Friends of the Earth, but Brazilian FOE directory Roberto Smeraldi worries about government commitment: "It looks like they no longer believe in the possibility of calling on society to react to this and they are trying to diminish the importance of the deforestation".

(Friends of the Earth is based in Great Britain.)

Website Devoted to Monitoring TCE

2005-05-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

Previous blog entries here and here discuss local TCE contamination. The TCE Blog: Trichloroethylene is everywhere is a website that keeps track of TCE contamination issues around the country.

Thanks to Neil Fischbein.

UN Study Shows Biodiversity Decline

2005-05-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate and human activity is to blame, according to an international report: "Ecosystems and Human Well-being: the Biodiversity Synthesis Report," prepared by the U.N. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment with the cooperation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

"The loss of biodiversity is a major barrier to development already and poses increasing risks for future generations," said Walter Reid, the director of the Millennium Assessment, "However, the report shows that the management tools, policies, and technologies do exist to dramatically slow this loss."

According to the report changes in biodiversity due to human activities were more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in human history, and over the last 100 years species extinction caused by humans has multiplied as much as 1,000 times.

Some 12 percent of birds; 23 percent of mammals; 25 percent of conifers and 32 percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction, and the world's fish stocks have been reduced by an astonishing 90 percent since the start of industrial fishing.

Read the full article on Yahoo News.

Coyote Agression Worries Local Scientists

2005-05-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Coyote sightings are now on the increase across New York, meaning greater potential for attacks, say Cornell University researchers, who are launching a five-year study of why the once-wary creatures are becoming more aggressive toward humans.

There have been no human attacks in New York. But while the state is only now beginning to track aggressive coyote sightings, there have been several reported attacks on small pets, said Gordon Batcheller, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is assisting in the study.

Read the complete article in The Ithaca Journal.

Find out more about coyotes from NatureWorks.

Redbud Woods Working Group

2005-05-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

For more information about Redbud Woods, check out the web page of the Redbud Woods Working Group.

Emerson Admits to Contamination Problems in Ithaca

2005-05-19T02:09:00.000-07:00

Via The Ithaca Journal

Emerson Power Transmission, the current owners of the Morse Chain building on Aurora Street in Ithaca discovered in 1987 that the site was a source of trichloroethene, a carcinogen also known as TCE. In spite of continuing cleanup efforts, EPT admits that the situation has not improved much.

"The treatment system has not removed the mass of contamination as expected," Emerson spokeswoman Emily Tzinger said Friday (May 13, 2005).

Recent tests show groundwater monitoring wells have levels of TCE, as high as 43,000 micrograms per liter. The Environmental Protection Agency's limit for TCE in drinking water is 5,000 micrograms per liter.

Cornell Students Face Trial over Redbud Protests

2005-05-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

Via The Ithaca Journal

Eight Cornell University students could be headed for trials in Ithaca city court stemming from charges connected with the April 28 sit-in at Day Hall on the university campus.

The eight students are members of the Redbud Woods Work Group, who have been fighting to prevent the university from paving the wooded lot on University Avenue known as Redbud Woods.

Audubon Society Lists Crucial Bird Habitats

2005-05-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

From The Ithaca Journal

The New York state Audubon Society Monday released a list of 136 "important bird areas" that the group hopes will encourage the state and private landowners to protect the habitat of the 460 bird species who make New York their home.

The areas range from large (305,000 acres in the Moose River Plains area of the Adirondacks and 310,000 acres in the Catskill Peaks) to small (the 15-acre Huckleberry Island off New Rochelle in Long Island Sound and the 43-acre Little Galloo Island off Henderson Harbor, Jefferson County, in Lake Ontario.)

Why no reporting on Alaska Oil Spills?

2005-05-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

(via Avedon Carol's The Sideshow)

The operations of British Petroleum oil company in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay resulted in three oils spills during March and April of this year. BP runs the operation on behalf of Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobile, and other oil companies. For some strange reason, this major environmental story got no press coverage in the US.

Full story at Charles Norman Todd's web site.

Caribou Near the BP Oil Facility, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

Talk on Sustainable Development

2005-04-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, April 28, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland will give a talk on sustainable development.

Norway's first woman prime minister. Dr. Brundtland, a physician, was Prime Minister of Norway 1981, 1986-1989, and 1990-1996. She has worked on health and environment issues internationally, and since 1998 has been the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Information

David L. Call Alumni Auditorium
Kennedy Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland addresses links between human rights, global health and worldwide sustainable development

Times: 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Contact Info 1: 255-7535

Eco-Lumber Good for Business and the Earth

2005-04-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

From a story in the Christian Science Monitor by Danna Harman:

A new approach to saving Central American rain forests is "Eco-lumber": Certified "fair trade" lumber. It's modeled after fair-trade coffee, where growers are paid above market price for following sustainable farming practices.

National Forest Service Auctions Off Forest Land

2005-04-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

The National Forest Service officials hope to make $175 million over the next 10 years by selling off hundreds of recreation sites and offices throughout the midwest and west. The service is hoping to make up for lost revenue due to the decline of the timber industry.

From The Houston Chronicle (Associated Press story):

Scott Silver of the Oregon group Wild Wilderness said starving the Forest Service of cash forces it to keep only the most lucrative sites and run public lands like a business.

"It's the complete perversion of the meaning of public lands," Silver said.

Earth Day Activities

2005-04-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 24: An Earth Day celebration for Ithaca and Tompkins County will take place noon to 5 p.m. at the Ithaca Farmers Market Pavilion. Activities include music, wall climbing, a demonstration of a hybrid-electric bus, and a proclamation by Mayor Carolyn Peterson. Information and exhibits about recycling, conserving energy and composting will be on display.

Sunday, April 24: The Annual Fall Creek clean-up day is planned to begin 11:30 am. Volunteers should meet at the Fall Creek Elementary School (King Street sid) and bring work gloves.

Monday, April 25: Volunteers monitoring water quality in Six Mile Creek will meet from 6-8 pm, at Cooperative Extension, 615 Willow Ave. For more information, call Tania Schusler at 272-2292 or email her at tms23@cornell.edu.

Wednesday, April 27: GreenStar Cooperative Market will host a class teaching about solar and wind power at a talk and slide show by Steve and Cindy Nicholson. The class is 7:00 pm to 8:15 pm at GreenStar, 701 W. Buffalo St. Sign up at GreenStar's Customer Service, or call 273-9392.

Court Rules Against Oil Companies On Contamination

2005-04-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times:

A federal judge ruled yesterday that major oil companies must defend dozens of lawsuits accusing them of fouling groundwater by using a gasoline additive that has become a political liability in the proposed energy bill.

Ithaca Scenes by Rob Joyce

2005-04-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

These photos can be found on the website of Rob Joyce, redglow.org

Cascadilla bridge with no wine

Cascadilla Falls

Robert Treman State Park

Flat Rock

NY Assembly Discusses Ithaca Pollution

2005-04-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

From a story in the Ithaca Journal:
Members of the state Assembly's Environmental Conservation Committee hosted a hearing Thursday morning on vapor intrusion from chemicals such as trichloroethene, which has been found in parts of Ithaca. I will post a followup as soon as I can find more information.

Broadening the Environmentalist Coalition

2005-04-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

In Grist magazine is a discussion of the problems environmentalism has in winning allies and battles. ("Don't Fear the Reapers")

Adrienne Maree Brown has an essay on getting urban African Americans involved in environmentalism. Here's an excerpt

...The people you aren't reaching are not blind, we aren't unmoved. More and more young people are realizing every day that the whole world is paying the price for the way we live, and we are waking up to that reality with shame and with a desire to change it. But we often don't connect that desire, or the work we do in our own lives, with the environmental movement...

Overall, too many young people see the struggles of humans as separate from the struggles for a healthy environment. It isn't because we have bad intentions -- it's because a generation that does not care about the impact of its lifestyle on the environment can be easily manipulated for corporate greed. We are getting played out. And unfortunately, the environmental movement has actually helped enforce that disconnect by seeming to draw divisions between the natural world and its human inhabitants -- and by seeming to worry more about the former than the latter.

That is the context for the next stage of environmentalism. You have an oppressed, depressed, furious mass waiting to be mobilized. And sure, some of us eat at McDonald's and wear leather shoes -- but we feel it is possible to demand better from our government and from ourselves for our environment. We feel it is imperative to connect the different survival struggles we are engaged in if we truly hope to sustain a viable movement for change. You will not die if you try to link hands with us in this struggle, if you try to meet us halfway.

Adrienne Maree Brown

Photo: Sophia Wallace

Introducing the Cornell Greens

2005-04-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

The Cornell Greens is a Cornell-based environmental advocacy group.

Earth Day - April 23, 2005

The Cornell Greens hope to plan a great Earth Day celebration with the other environmental groups on campus! The Greens specifically are helping organize a 5k Run to benefit the Finger Lakes Land Trust.

Ongoing Events

Weekly tabling for the Simply Live campaign in Willard Straight Hall, Mondays from 10:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Weekly meetings on Monday afternoons at 4:30 in Rockefeller B15 (for now).

For more information on any of these events, e-mail Shannon.

From their Links page:

Other environmental groups on campus

Kyoto Now!

Cornell Sustainable Campus

Cornell Renewable Energy Society

Cornell Solar Decatholon

Earth Day Footprint Quiz

This web page calculates the resources that you consume, based on your lifestyle, who you are and where you live.

Paper or Plastic?

2005-04-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

I have always had the vague idea that paper bags were more environmentally friendly than plastic ones, but I never really had any facts to back up my intuition. Well, a great resource for such questions is the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment (ILEA), which is dedicated to finding out the lifetime environmental costs of consumer goods. The lifetime costs include

The energy required to produce the product.

The pollution created by the manufacturing process.

The pollution produced by use of the product.

The costs of disposing of the product.

The ILEA analysis of paper vs plastic:

Franklin and Associates completed a life-cycle energy analysis comparing the two common grocery bags. There were two critical measures. The first is the total energy used by a bag, which includes both the energy used to manufacture a bag, called process energy, and the energy embodied within physical materials, called feedstock energy. The second measure is the amount of pollutants produced. Using energy and pollutants from all stages of a bag's life, both measures result in favor of plastic bags.

The ILEA website has articles discussing electric vs. gasoline cars, manufacturing vs use costs for automobiles, cloth versus disposable diapers, reusable versus disposable cups.

That last item is a real eye-opener. Reusable cups made of ceramic, plastic, or glass require vastly more energy to produce than a disposable cup made of paper or styrofoam. In addition, every time you wash a reusable cup, it requires resources (energy, soap, and clean water). The ILEA calculates a "break-even" point for various types of cups, which is the number of times the cup must be reused before it is more efficient than using disposable cups. For ceramic mugs, the break-even point is 1006 uses. For glass cups, it is only 393 uses.

So roughly speaking, if you are so clumsy that a glass cup lasts less than a year before it is broken, you would be better off using disposable cups (styrofoam).

Scenes from Iceland

2005-04-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some scenes from the Karahnjukar area of Iceland, which is the future site of a hydroelectric power plant.

Toefrafoss or Magic Waterfall, which will be destroyed by the Karahnjukar power plant

The powerful glacial river in the Karahnjukar area

These photographs are from an interview with Arni Finnsson, an Icelandic environmentalist, in Grist magazine.

Fish Farms Threaten Wild Salmon

2005-04-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

Fish farming is becoming a more important business as the supply of fish in the wild dwindles due to overfishing. However, fish farming is not completely environmentally benign. Canadian researchers have discovered that parasites called "sea lice" can spread from fish farms into the wild fish population, especially threatening the salmon in the waters off British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

A Salmon Cage on the Atlantic

From Issues in Aquaculture, a website about the current state of fish farming.

Almost Spring

2005-04-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

Ducks on Beebe Lake

From Ithaca photographs by Selina Li.

NRDC Environmental Blog

2005-04-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an advocacy group whose focus is lobbying Congress on behalf of environmental causes and educating the public about legislation that affects the environment. Their most recent campaign is to prevent drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The NRDC has a blog you should check out.

Environmental Groups Fear Lack Of Funding For State Projects

2005-04-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

From WNBC:

When Gov. George Pataki announced in his State of the State speech earlier this year that he agreed to preserve 104,000 acres of forestland in the Adirondacks, environmental advocates applauded.

But now, those advocates say that deal and other state environmental projects may be in jeopardy. They fear the state's $150 million Environmental Protection Fund, dropped by the Legislature from its budget proposal, will go unfunded as the state leaders try to reach a budget deal by the April 1 deadline for the first time in 20 years.

Fight Against Drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge Continues

2005-04-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

From Jane Marie Law
Although the senate has included projected drilling revenues from the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the Budget, the fight to protect
the Refuge is not over! There are still actions we can take.

TrueMajority has a site where you can tell oil company CEO's that you
will boycott any companies that drill in ANWR.

Public Opposes Drilling in Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

2005-04-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jim Rothenberg

By a slim plurality, 46% to 42%, the American public opposes allowing gas and oil drilling in the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), according to a Pew Research poll conducted in March.

Some other findings in that poll:

In contrast, the public considers developing new energy resources to be a more important priority than protecting the environment, (by another slim plurality, 49% to 42%).

The public disapproves of the way that President Bush has handled the nations energy policy (54% rate his performance as poor).

Scientists warn of Earth's declining environmental health

2005-04-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jane Marie Law

From Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - We are using the Earth to improve our lives, but our children and grandchildren will be forced to live in a worsening environment that endangers their existence, more than 1,300 scientists warn.

In a report to be released Wednesday, a team of international experts concluded that the world is at risk on a variety of fronts, including a skyrocketing runoff of nutrient-rich farm waste that's killing swaths of the world's oceans, a massive wave of animal and plant extinctions and a planet that's growing warmer.

But it's not hopeless, they said.

From the Daily Kos

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is today releasing a 219-page report which says that future generations - our children, their children and their children - face broad-scale environmental crises that could jeopardize their survival. But the 1,360 scientists who put the study together remain, like me, hopeful.

The report from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment can be found here.

Western New York Neighbors Suffer CAFO Woes

2005-04-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jessie Lind

From AltPress online

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York declared yesterday that a 2003 Bush administration rule violates the Clean Water Act. The rule allowed CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to apply manure to land without federal oversight or public input. CAFOs are point sources of water pollution that must be regulated under the Clean Water Act’s permitting program, which in New York State is administered by the Department of Environmental Conservation. The court agreed that CAFO polluters must be held accountable because they pose a threat to public health.

Western New York has many CAFOs that threaten air, water and public health. The town of Perry in Wyoming County is afflicted with more than thirteen CAFO operations. Wyoming County has more than 62 permitted facilities.

CAFO victims in Western NY and all over New York State are complaining that the Department of Environmental Conservation is not enforcing regulations. In Niagara County, neighbors in Wilson are trying to get enforcement action for violations by CAFO owner Flevie Danielewicz. Manure slurry from the Danielewicz farm is running into a nearby creek and from there into Lake Ontario. Slurry residue is visible in roadside culverts. The stench is indescribable. According to a neighborhood group, a representative from Region 9 DEC inspected the Danielewicz operation last August after complaints about air and water violations. It has been 6 months and there is still no report. Neighbor, John Minnick, claims that his phone calls are not returned or he is put on hold and left there.

In Eden, NY, neighbor Gregg Kaczmarzyk describes his life as a CAFO neighbor as pure hell. Gregg says his neighbor has 400 cows packed into a couple of acres. Residential housing including a soon-to-be built new development of 24 houses surrounds this CAFO. The DEC has complaints about overflowing manure lagoons and ground water contamination from the CAFO. Gregg has not received a promise of action from the DEC.

There are seventeen permitted CAFOs in Erie County and seven in Niagara County. Over the years, the Region 9 DEC has received stacks of complaints about excessive manure runoff or toxic hydrogen sulfide emissions. We now have further validation from the courts that CAFOs are point sources of pollution and they must be regulated. In New York, that job is entrusted to the DEC. We have learned that we cannot trust the DEC to do its job. The citizens who have the misfortune to live near these agri-criminals continue to suffer a great injustice.

Friends of Rural New York

EPA Factory Farm Pollution Rule Illegal

2005-04-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jessie Lind

EPA Factory Farm Pollution Rule Illegal, Says Federal Appeals Court
Rule Violated Clean Water Act, Threatens Public Health, Conservation
Groups Say

NEW YORK -- February 28 -- A 2003 Bush administration farm pollution
rule violates the Clean Water Act by allowing large-scale livestock
farms to apply manure to land without federal or state oversight or
public input, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled today. The
ruling in Waterkeeper Alliance v. EPA was the result of a lawsuit filed
by three conservations groups, which charged that the rule shielded
factory farms from liability for damage caused by animal waste
pollution.

The groups, Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club, and NRDC (Natural
Resources Defense Council), filed the suit in March 2003. The
Environmental Protection Agency had issued the rule in February 2003
under a 1992 consent decree between the agency and NRDC. It went into
effect in April of that year. (For a copy of the court ruling, contact
Elizabeth Heyd at eheyd@nrdc.org.)

“These regulations were the product of a conspiracy between a lawless
industry and compliant public officials in cahoots to steal the public
trust,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of the Waterkeeper
Alliance and an NRDC senior attorney. “I’m grateful that the 2nd
Circuit
Court of Appeals has taken the government and the barons of corporate
agriculture to the woodshed for a well earned rebuke.”

Thirty years ago, Congress identified concentrated animal feeding
operations as point sources of water pollution to be regulated under
the
Clean Water Act’s water pollution permitting program. The scale of
animal production at individual operations has dramatically increased
since then, and factory farms today produce 500 million tons of manure
a
year. In December 2000, EPA proposed a new rule with initiatives that
would have protected the environment, but the Bush administration
stripped them from the final rule after agribusinesses objected.

Under the Bush administration rule, animal factories were able to
continue to dump millions of gallons of liquefied manure into open
pits,
called lagoons, and then spray the liquid over fields. Typically the
manure runs off the fields into nearby streams or seeps into
underground
water supplies, polluting water with viruses, bacteria, pesticides,
antibiotics, hormones and excessive nutrients.

The court found that:

· The rule illegally allowed factory farms to write the part of their
permits that limit spraying manure on fields without state or federal
review or approval—and without notifying the public.

• The EPA had failed to require factory farms to use the necessary
technological controls to reduce bacteria and other pathogens from
their
pollution.
• The rule violated the Clean Water Act by exempting factory farms from
meeting water quality standards.

“The court agreed that polluters can’t be trusted to write their own
permits,” said Melanie Shepherdson, an attorney with NRDC’s water
program. “They have to be accountable, especially because they pose
such
a major threat to public health.”

“The court agreed that we can do better than the Bush administration’s
plan,” said Eric Huber, a Sierra Club attorney. “When technology and
existing law can keep animal waste out of our rivers, why should
Americans have to settle for a plan that allows meat companies to
pollute more?”

Waterkeeper Alliance is an international grassroots organization
connecting and empowering 129 local Waterkeeper programs. Each
Waterkeeper program is the voice for their waterway, serving as the
investigator, advocate, scientist, educator and lawyer for their local
waterbody. More information is available at www.waterkeeper.org.

Inspired by their personal connection to nature, the Sierra Club’s more
than 700,000 members work together to protect the planet. The Sierra
Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots
environmental organization in America. For more information, go to
www.sierraclub.org.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit
organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists
dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in
1970, NRDC has more than 1 million members and e-activists nationwide,
served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San
Francisco. More information on NRDC is available at its Web site,
www.nrdc.org.

Kyoto Climate Treaty Takes Effect, Impact is Unclear

2005-02-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

From MSNBC:

Seven years after it was negotiated, the Kyoto global warming pact went into force Wednesday — imposing limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that many scientists blame for warmer temperatures, melting glaciers and rising oceans...

The United States, the world’s largest emitter of such gases, has refused to ratify the agreement, saying it would harm the economy and is flawed by the lack of restrictions on emissions by emerging economies China and India.

In Bush's Washington, Polluters Write Environmental Laws

2005-02-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

From MSNBC's "Hardblogger", David Shuster writes:

This week, several reporters (including myself) were given previously secret documents that clearly show the "Clear Skies Act," (which is supposed to regulate industries that pollute the air) was written by lobbyists representing those very same polluting industries.

Global Warming Melts Bolivian Glaciers

2005-02-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

On the occasion of the formal start of the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, MSNBC has had a large number of good articles recently about the environment. Here is a good slide show about the warning signs of global warming (in the upper right-hand corner).

This article by Charles J. Hanley discusses the consequences of glaciers melting in Bolivia. Not long ago, Bolivia boasted downhill skiing on the Chacaltaya Glacier, an hours drive from La Paz. But Edson Ramirez, a Bolivian glaciologist said that the glacier has lost two-thirds of its mass in the 1990s alone, and is now probably a mere 2 percent the size it once was. Besides the loss of recreation, the disappearance of glaciers in South America is threatening water supplies: La Paz gets most of its water from the glacier, and in Peru, 70 percent of the power comes from hydroelectric dams catching runoff from glaciers that may be gone within a decade.

The disappearance of glaciers is a worldwide phenomenon:

They’ll disappear far beyond Bolivia. From Alaska in the north, to Montana’s Glacier National Park, to the great ice fields of wild Patagonia at this continent’s southern tip, the “rivers of ice” that have marked landscapes from prehistory are liquefying, shrinking, retreating.

In east Africa, the storied snows of Mount Kilimanjaro are vanishing. In the icebound Alps and Himalayas of Europe and Asia, the change has been stunning. From South America to south Asia, new glacial lakes threaten to overflow and drown villages below.

Although global warming is certainly a factor in the melting of glaciers, the details can be complex:

A warming Pacific Ocean has created disruptive El Nino climate periods more frequently and powerfully, reducing precipitation, including snows to replenish glaciers. Less snow also means glaciers that are less white, more gray, absorbing more heat. Newly exposed rock walls then act like an oven to further speed melting.

Edson Ramirez at Chacaltaya glacier near La Paz, Bolivia, estimates the frozen storehouse of water will be gone in seven to eight years.

Sustainable agriculture leader to speak in Ithaca

2005-02-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jessie Lind

Via Meagan Cocke

The Necessity -- and Now the Possibility -- of an Agriculture
Where Nature is the Measure

Wednesday, February 23rd
12:00 - 1:30
G10 Biotech Building
Cornell University

Free and open to the public

Wes Jackson, President of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, is
widely recognized as a leader in the movement for a more sustainable
agriculture. Recipient of the 2000 Right Livelihood Award (the
"alternative Nobel prize"), Jackson is the author of several books
including "New Roots for Agriculture" and "Becoming Native to This Place."

The Land Institute's focus is on a new paradigm for food production
called Natural Systems Agriculture, where nature is mimicked rather than
subdued and ignored. This fifty-year study investigates ways that monoculture
annual grains, such as corn and wheat, can be replaced by perennial grains,
grown in mixtures. The Land Institute personnel believe that with additional
research, an agriculture that is resilient, economical and ecologically
responsible is well within reach.

More information

Cornell campus map

Contact: Greg Hostetler, glh25@cornell.edu, 607.255.0477

Articles from the National Wildlife Federation

2005-02-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Maiken Winter

SNEAKY PLANS FOR THE ARCTIC REFUGE

Emboldened by the election outcome and elevated gas prices, drilling proponents are trying to sneak Arctic Refuge drilling measures past a new Congress and the American public by including them in the federal budget bill. This plan, which has been repeatedly defeated by Congressional opposition over the past few years, remains among the Bush administration's top domestic priorities. Get the complete story and find out what you can do to help.

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CHANGING CLIMATE MEANS CHANGES FOR WILDLIFE

A new study warns that many plant and animal communities may change dramatically and that some types of forest may disappear as a result of global warming. According to the report, global warming will likely force plant and animal species to move northward if they are to survive and rising sea levels could force some wildlife to move inland or disappear entirely as low wetlands are inundated and coastal marshes become submerged. For more on the study and what you can do to help, click here.

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ROSES ARE RED BUT YOURS COULD BE GREEN

With Valentine's Day upon us, U.S. florists will supply nearly 110 million roses to consumers lanced by cupid's arrow. Those roses-and the millions more purchased throughout the year-are a boon to the economies of flower-growing nations and, in the short term, for floral workers. But in the long term, the flowers threaten both the health of the workers and the environment. The solution to this problem may lie in the hands of flower buyers. Learn more.

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RESTORATION IN THE BALANCE

The Bush administration recently proposed slashing protections for thousands of miles of streams from southern California to the Canadian border that may provide habitat for federally protected salmon and steelhead. Under the plan, critical habitat currently unoccupied by these fish would be left unprotected, diminishing the chances for future restoration efforts. For the full story on the fishy plan, click here.

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CAPITOL HILL DAYS

The National Wildlife Federation Population & Environment Team invites you to attend its 9th Annual Capitol Hill Days from April 2-5, 2005 in Washington, DC. Learn how to lobby, attend panel discussions on population and environment issues, learn how to build grassroots coalitions and much more! The event is free and limited financial assistance is available to cover lodging or travel expenses. For more information or to register contact Sara Bushey at 202-797-6661 or population@nwf.org. Registrations must be received by February 28 and forms can be downloaded online.

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ACT NOW FOR THE GREAT DIVIDE

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments through March 18 on its proposal to allow oil and gas development and mineral leasing in Wyoming's Great Divide without effective measures in place to conserve wildlife and essential habitats. Send your comments today.

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CHECK OUT THESE OTHER EXCITING ARTICLES

New Rules Weaken National Forest Protections

What's Next For Congress

All Is Not So Quiet On The Western Front

For the complete issue of EnviroAction, go to http://www.nwf.org/action

Spirituality and Environmentalism

2005-02-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

A group of theologians and religious leaders have written a letter on religion and the environment: God’s Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church and Society in the United States.

Also, biologist Fred Van Dyke of Wheaton College (here's his homepage) has spoken on the topic of "The Morality & Spirituality of Environmentalism".

Robert Kennedy, Jr. on Bush's Record

2005-02-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Robert Kennedy, Jr, has a book out on Bush's environmental record:

CRIMES AGAINST NATURE: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy

It's reviewed in the Charlotte Observer.

GO OUT AND COUNT FOR THE BIRDS

2005-02-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up! This year's theme is "North America's Great Backyard," chosen as a way to celebrate the beauty of birds found across the continent.

For more information, go the The Great Backyard Bird Count webpage.

For Ithaca bird information, check out Cornell's Lab of Ornithology.

Followup On the Death of Environmentalism

2005-02-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

In the previous article More on What We're Up Against I mentioned UpstateBlog.Net's take on the "Death of Environmentalism" argument. I now think that they misrepresented the thinking behind the argument put forth by environmentalists Michael Schellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. They were not saying that the environment was no longer an important issue (far from it). Instead, they were arguing the importance of having a coherent overall progression vision, instead of singling out the environment:

"A critique similar to the one we've made on environmentalism could be made of many other movements -- women's rights, abortion rights, anti-war, criminal justice, labor, and so on. Each of those so-called movements has turned itself into a special interest in defining the problem narrowly and offering technical policy solutions instead of an inspiring vision."

On this topic, The Decembrist says

That's where I find the best argument for blowing up the whole "movement," along with the others. We can't possibly find ways to move society forward as long as everything is put neatly into boxes labeled "environment," "health care," "campaign finance reform," "low-income programs," "pro-choice," etc., and the coalitions that exist are made up of representatives from those movements. Trying to force environmentalists to think about health care doesn't solve the problem either. We need a whole new structure, built around a convincing narrative about society and the economy, and a new way to fit these pieces together.

More on What We're Up Against

2005-02-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.upstateblog.net is a pro-business blog serving upstate New York. In a recent entry here the blog gleefully celebrate the announcement (reported in the New York Times---subscription required) of the "death of environmentalism".

Here's their concluding paragraph

Why are environmental issues less popular than they once were? We'd say it's because voters, in New York and elsewhere, are much more skeptical about any benefits, and much more aware of the costs. New York's elected officials like to brag that we're "a national leader" in being green. They seldom mention that, over the 35 years since the original Earth Day, the Empire State has also been a national leader in loss of manufacturing jobs. (In 2004, Upstate's manufacturing employment fell by 2.4 percent, while the nation as a whole gained manufacturing jobs.) If "environmentalism" means government-imposed costs that have little or no real benefit, maybe "the death of environmentalism" isn't a bad thing.

Correction on talk

2005-02-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

The talk by Sandra Steingraber on human rights and the environment is Wednesday, February 16. I mistakenly said Sunday originally. The lecture will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Geneva Room of the Warren Hunting Smith Library, on Pulteney Street, on the Hobart/William Smith campus.

Bush EPA Planning Two-Year Amnesty for Factory Farm Polluters

2005-02-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

From Jessie Lind

The Environmental Integrity Project, formed by disgruntled EPA staffers who quit and set up shop to watchdog the watchdogs, has forced the EPA to call for a 30-day public comment period on its Amnesty for Factory Farms. The comment period has commenced. Links for public comment are included at the end of this article from www.bushgreenwatch.org Click permalink for more...

During the past decade a new form of pollution has grown into a serious problem--one the framers of the Clean Air Act could never have anticipated. It is caused by the consolidation over the past decade of countless small farms into huge, factory farms that raise thousands of hogs, heifers and chickens in impossibly cramped quarters.

Euphemistically called "concentrated animal feeding operations," or CAFOs, the giant facilities also raise an enormous stench, as giant piles of rotting waste produce clouds of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds, and particulates. Their emissions have become so obnoxious that news reports regularly pop up when area residents demand that these corporate farms clean up their mess.

There was little coverage, however, when on the day after last month's presidential inauguration, one of the first acts of the second Bush Administration was to hand these polluters a generous free pass. Judiciously timed for release after the election--and on a day when the story was certain to be lost amidst inaugural euphoria--the EPA offered CAFOs more than two years' immunity from the Clean Air Act--as well as from certain toxic discharge standards--in exchange for participation in a program that would measure their air emissions.

The problem, according to Michele Merkel of the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), is that EPA's two-year pass is superfluous: the Clean Air Act already requires polluting facilities to provide this kind of data. As Merkel pointed out in an interview with Grist Magazine, there is no need to paralyze law enforcement for two years in order to collect it.

A former EPA attorney who brought the first CAFO lawsuit five years ago, Merkel says the enforcement hiatus can mean increased health risks for farm workers and nearby residents from emissions such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. A 2002 study by Iowa State University found widespread bronchitis in workers exposed to these pollutants.

In the same Grist report, Ed Hopkins, environmental quality director at the Sierra Club, described one egg farm in Iowa that was found to have ammonia emissions on a par with a fertilizer plant ranked as the ninth largest producer of hazardous gas in the country.

Under the Clean Air Act, said EIP's Merkel, farms violating the law can be fined $27,500 per day. CAFOs signing up for the new EPA plan need only pay a "membership fee" of $2,500, plus a one-time penalty of from $200 to $100,000 (depending on size) for "presumed" past violations. That, says Merkel, is "chump change."

Indeed, one of the biggest factory farmers, Tyson Foods, had ante'd up $100,000 just the week before to enjoy an inaugural candlelight dinner with President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Environmentalists still have one hope for reversing EPA's amnesty. Thanks to a tip obtained by EIP, an EPA plan to omit the usual 30-day public-comment period was reversed when EIP prepared to reveal it publicly. Knowing this would provoke unwanted headlines, EPA reversed itself. A 30-day public-comment period is now underway.

TAKE ACTION

Sign a petition with Organic Consumers.

This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch and Grist Magazine. For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine

Toxic Effects of Industrial Farming in NY

2005-02-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

From Jessie Lind
This from Eden, NY in Erie County - the latest in a growing list of communities affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Sadly, this man has been told by his state DEC agent that ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions from CAFOs will soon be regulated. Truth is, the EPA and the national lobbying groups for Swine and Egg and Milk producers have just negotiated a Safe Harbor Consent Agreement which will delay any enforcement of Clean Air Act regs for another 3-5 years, if not longer. If a similar situation of an expanding dairy were to occur in Tompkins County or another community in the Cayuga Lake Watershed (not to mention Airshed), we would be powerless to prevent or curtail the effects so long as the CAFO is in compliance with state Nurtient Management Plans devised by the Dept of Ag and Markets.

Please visit the link Friends of Rural New York for futher links and information on the problem in NYS. For the big picture, visit Sierra Club and Natural Resource Defense Council's websites. Click permalink for more...

Eden Neighbor Calls for Help- CAFO Model Fails Again

Add this one to the ever growing lists of citizens who are suffering from the effects of the failed model of agriculture called CAFOs- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

I live in the town of Eden, NY. There is a dairy farm that has added many cows in recent months. He has close to 400 cows on around 5 acres. It is located less than a quarter mile from town center and is surrounded by residential housing. The stench is overwhelming and is actually penetrating the walls of my house and making me feel ill. This despite sub-zero temperatures.

I have filed a complaint with the NY DEC Buffalo office as of today (2-2-05) They say “odors” are not yet regulated but may soon be. He was not aware of EPA Clean Air regulations but said they are looking to regulate ammonia. The NY Farm Bureau web site says they are being enforced. The NY DEC guy said that it just so happened that they had someone coming out to TEST THE WATER at the West Church Street Dairy Farm on 2-3-05! I guess they’ve had several complaints about overflowing “lagoons” and ground water contamination from the heavy rains this summer. The owner has been spreading liquid sewage all over the fields for over a week. Not sure how this will affect the DEC test readings on Thursday but I can tell you one thing; the sewage melted the snow away despite very cold temperatures.

I am waiting for contact from the Town of Eden supervisor Glenn Nellis in regards to this issue. The stench has been constant since January 19, 2005. There is also a playground within 300 yards of this massive waste storage lagoon.

Also note: A residential development has been proposed and is expected to be approved . This development is a stone’s throw from this farm and it’s offensive lagoon. 24 lots of 1/2 acre each. I can’t imagine what the new owners will do when they buy these lots and realize that they are next to a toxic waste site.

I need help. My house stinks, my car stinks, my basement stinks, my clothes even stink. I can taste it in my mouth. I can’t imagine what the Mexicans who work on this farm feel like after a day in this Hell hole. Are they provided with respirators per OSHA requirements?

Gregg Kaczmarczk
Eden. NY
Erie County

Cayuga Lake Watershed

2005-02-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

Introducing the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network. From their website:

We are a community-based, not-for-profit organization made up of citizens, businesses, associations, and local governments from throughout the Cayuga Lake Watershed. Located in the Finger Lakes Region of central New York, the watershed is comprised of three counties with lake shoreline (Cayuga, Seneca and Tompkins) and four counties (Cortland, Ontario, Schuyler, and Tioga) in the uplands of the watershed.

The Network strives to:
encourage individual stewardship throughout the watershed by raising awareness of watershed concerns,
provide an interactive, responsive forum that strives for discovery and exchange of information, and
be a functional advocate representing the entire watershed community.

Cayuga Lake Watershed

If you have a way to read PDF then this is a good source of information and pictures about the Cayuga Lake Watershed.

Talk Announcement: Contaminated Without Consent: A Human Rights Approach to the Environment

2005-02-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

As part of the Fisher Center 2005 Lecture Series (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), there will be a lecture Wednesday, February 16 by Sandra Steingraber on human rights and the environment. The lecture will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Geneva Room of the Warren Hunting Smith Library, on Pulteney Street, on the HWS campus. Click permalink for more...From the HWS website:

Ecologist, author and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links between cancer and reproductive health. As a biologist and a writer, Steingraber researches environmental contamination and cancer by following connections between “objects we use and the places they come from.” For Steingraber, the environment includes human bodies, with a focus on women and reproduction. Her research and writing dovetail in her commitment to changing practices of manufacturing and of consumption, from industry through to agriculture. Connecting poetry and biology, research and writing, her collected works have been described as “an intricate weaving of scientific data, personal stories, and an intensely lyrical style.” Currently an interdisciplinary distinguished visiting scholar at Ithaca College, Steingraber has been on faculty at Cornell University, a fellow at the University of Illinois and at Radcliffe, and served on President Clinton’s National Action Plan on Breast Cancer.

Available Readings: Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment; Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood; Post-Diagnosis; co-author of The Spoils of Famine

Co-sponsored with Writers Reading

Sandra Steingraber

British Environmentalist Website

2005-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

Introducing a wonderful British organization, Friends of the Earth. Their campaigns include

Corporates: Exposing bad business and challenging corporate power

Real Food:Working towards greener farming and a five-year ban on genetically modified (GM) food

Climate: Fighting climate change, promoting green energy and opposing nuclear power.

Global Trade: Fighting the damaging effects of the global free trade system.

Biodiversity: Campaigning to protect the world's wildlife habitats.

Waste: Campaigning for increased recycling and against more incinerators and landfill sites.

Safer Chemicals: Chemicals are everywhere but not all of them are safe - reduce your risk and act for better laws.

Transport: Working to reduce the impact on the environment of the movement of people and goods in the UK.

Policy and Research Unit: Providing research and policy development for decision-makers and campaigners.

Local: Campaigning on a local and regional level.

Missouri May Lose Important Source of Conservation Funds

2005-02-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Maiken Winter

The Missouri Prairie Foundation Action Center was recently established to support the responsible stewardship of all of Missouri's natural resources. We wanted to call your attention to a current important issue and to ask for your help now.

The Design for Conservation was begun a generation ago and has provided consistent funding for wildlife and natural resources protection throughout Missouri. Commonly known as the Conservation Sales Tax, the Design for Conservation is actually a comprehensive plan to make Missouri more beautiful and bountiful as the years go by. Since its inception the Design has, almost annually, been challenged by a few, but it has always enjoyed broad support from those who value everything from hunting and fishing to hiking and bird watching.

The Design for Conservation is currently being threatened by a proposal in the state legislature. Please take a moment to read and sign the following Conservation Pledge. Then use your email to help us spread the word.

Thank you. Together, we can keep Missouri beautiful and bountiful for future generations.

Ominous Warnings from Environmental Conference

2005-02-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

(Thanks to Jane Marie Law)

From The Independent

Apocalypse now: how mankind is sleepwalking to the end of the Earth
06 February 2005

Future historians, looking back from a much hotter and less hospitable world, are likely to pay special attention to the first few weeks of 2005. As they puzzle over how a whole generation could have sleepwalked into disaster - destroying the climate that has allowed human civilisation to flourish over the past 11,000 years - they may well identify the past weeks as the time when the last alarms sounded.

Last week, 200 of the world's leading climate scientists - meeting at Tony Blair's request at the Met Office's new headquarters at Exeter - issued the most urgent warning to date that dangerous climate change is taking place, and that time is running out.

[Click Permalink for more...]

A summary of the conference from the Daily Kos (Click the link for more discussion, pictures and additional links)

WATER WARS

What could happen? Wars break out over diminishing water resources as populations grow and rains fail.

How would this come about? Over 25 per cent more people than at present are expected to live in countries where water is scarce in the future, and global warming will make it worse.

How likely is it? Former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali has long said that the next Middle East war will be fought for water, not oil.

FLOODING

What could happen? London, New York, Tokyo, Bombay, many other cities and vast areas of countries from Britain to Bangladesh disappear under tens of feet of water, as the seas rise dramatically.

How would this come about? Ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica melt. The Greenland ice sheet would raise sea levels by more than 20ft, the West Antarctic ice sheet by another 15ft.

How likely is it? Scientists used to think it unlikely, but this year reported that the melting of both ice caps had begun. It will take hundreds of years, however, for the seas to rise that much.

RAINFOREST FIRES

What could happen? Famously wet tropical forests, such as those in the Amazon, go up in flames, destroying the world's richest wildlife habitats and releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide to speed global warming.

How would this come about? Britain's Met Office predicted in 1999 that much of the Amazon will dry out and die within 50 years, making it ready for sparks - from humans or lightning - to set it ablaze.

How likely is it? Very, if the predictions turn out to be right. Already there have been massive forest fires in Borneo and Amazonia, casting palls of highly polluting smoke over vast areas.

THE BIG FREEZE

What could happen? Britain and northern Europe get much colder because the Gulf Stream, which provides as much heat as the sun in winter, fails.

How would this come about? Melting polar ice sends fresh water into the North Atlantic. The less salty water fails to generate the underwater current which the Gulf Stream needs.

How likely is it? About evens for a Gulf Steam failure this century, said scientists last week.

STARVATION

What could happen? Food production collapses in Africa, for example, as rainfall dries up and droughts increase. As farmland turns to desert, people flee in their millions in search of food.

How would this come about? Rainfall is expected to decrease by up to 60 per cent in winter and 30 per cent in summer in southern Africa this century. By some estimates, Zambia could lose almost all its farms.

How likely is it? Pretty likely unless the world tackles both global warming and Africa's decline. Scientists agree that droughts will increase in a warmer world.

ACID OCEANS

What could happen? The seas will gradually turn more and more acid. Coral reefs, shellfish and plankton, on which all life depends, will die off. Much of the life of the oceans will become extinct.

How would this come about? The oceans have absorbed half the carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, so far emitted by humanity. This forms dilute carbonic acid, which attacks corals and shells.

How likely is it? It is already starting. Scientists warn that the chemistry of the oceans is changing in ways unprecedented for 20 million years. Some predict that the world's coral reefs will die within 35 years.

HURRICANES

What could happen? Hurricanes, typhoons and violent storms proliferate, grow even fiercer, and hit new areas. Last September's repeated battering of Florida and the Caribbean may be just a foretaste of what is to come, say scientists.

How would this come about? The storms gather their energy from warm seas, and so, as oceans heat up, fiercer ones occur and threaten areas where at present the seas are too cool for such weather.

How likely is it? Scientists are divided over whether storms will get more frequent and whether the process has already begun.

Sarcastic comment alert: Guess Jeb and George will have a few more photo opportunities.

Solutions

Aside from the obvious (quit driving gas-guzzlers, or if you have to drive, think about driving a hybrid), there have been some interesting suggestions regarding decreasing greenhouse gases. One of these ideas is CO2 sequestration, although I think that the first priority should be to just quit driving gas-guzzlers.

Socially Responsible Investing---Talk at IC

2005-02-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

As part of its Distinguished Alumni/Sustainability speakers series, the School of Business at Ithaca College is pleased to announce a talk by Nikki Daruwala '88.

Daruwala will speak on "Socially Responsible Investing -- the Right Strategy for the Times" on February 17, 7:00-8:15 p.m., in Emerson Suite C.

Daruwala, a graduate of IC in business and psychology, is manager of advocacy and social policy and senior research analyst with the Calvert Group.

All interested are cordially invited.

(Thanks to Jim Rothenberg)

Religion and Environmentalism in the News

2005-02-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

In the Washington Post today:

'God's Mandate': Putting The White House on Notice
Frustration with the Bush administration's environmental polices is bubbling up from mainstream churches and synagogues, as reflected in a statement signed recently by more than 1,000 clergy and congregational leaders in about 35 states.

Called "God's Mandate: Care for Creation," the statement says that "there was no mandate, no majority, or no 'values' message in this past election for the President or the Congress to rollback and oppose programs that care for God's creation."

(Thanks to Max Sawicky)

Forum on Religion and Ecology

2005-02-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

Introducing the Forum on Religion and Ecology, which explores the relationship between ecology and religious faith:

The Forum on Religion and Ecology is the largest international multireligious project of its kind. With its conferences, publications, and website it is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns.

The Forum recognizes that religions need to be in dialogue with other disciplines (e.g., science, ethics, economics, education, public policy, gender) in seeking comprehensive solutions to both global and local environmental problems.

(Thanks to Ann Grodzins Gold)