A roundup of Environmental stories you might have missed. Speaking of something you shouldn't miss, though. Music from YoYo Ma's "The Silk Road Ensemble."
Draft of new international climate report warns of droughts, starvation, disease. Hundreds of millions of people will not have enough water within a couple of decades as the harmful effects of global warming already start to appear. International Herald Tribune
and have you read LAST CHANCE the terrific series in the Times-Picayune yet?
U.S. struggles with bioterror defenses. More than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government cannot show how the $5 billion given to public health departments has better prepared the country for a bioterrorism attack or flu pandemic. Associated Press. and Boston.com
Tories reveal plans for green tax hike on air travel. Millions of people who fly abroad every year are to be taxed on the number of miles they travel, under audacious Conservative plans to seize the initiative over climate change. London Observer
Toxic secrets. Local plans for coping with chemical spills aren't always accessible. This makes sense if you're working against terrorism. But what if you are building a new home and want to know whether any dangerous chemicals are stored nearby? Columbus Dispatch
Electricity from the sea. In a world addicted to fossil fuel, turning waves into watts might seem far-fetched. But ocean power gradually is joining the ranks of wind and solar power as a source of renewable energy. Los Angeles Times
Sweet-smelling lavender has some surprising effects. Burn balm, sleep aid, a soothing salve for bug bites -- Dayle Harris has heard a hundred uses for the lavender oil distilled from his fields of purple blooms. But making boys' breasts grow? St. Paul Pioneer Press
Rice industry troubled by genetic contamination. Tremors going through the U.S. long-grain rice industry -- amplified by the decision of many biotech-wary nations to restrict imports of U.S. rice -- reveal how vulnerable a $1 billion agricultural sector can be to the escape of something as small as a molecule of DNA. Washington Post.
Fast-food industry's vulnerable underbelly. Without improvements in food handling, especially of produce, new outbreaks of E. coli and other food-borne diseases will shake the public's confidence in the fare served at restaurants, industry executives say. Los Angeles Times
Evangelical body stays course on warming. Rebuffing Christian radio commentator James C. Dobson, the board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals reaffirmed its position that environmental protection, which it calls "creation care," is an important moral issue. Washington Post.
Big oil's ad campaign based on collaboration with university. After seeing an Exxon Mobil commercial and several similar ads in the New York Times, movie producer Steve Bing, who had already donated $22.5 million to the school, called Stanford University President John Hennessy and said he would give no more. San Jose Mercury News
Trek to focus on warming in Arctic. Now, Minnesota dog sledder Will Steger is set to embark on a three-month expedition with Inuit hunters to drive home the consequences of global warming. Anchorage Daily News
How Liz put her (carbon) foot in it. Liz Hurley's wedding has produced a carbon footprint so large that it would take the average British couple more than 10 years to contribute as much as the couple have done in little over a week. It would take a typical Indian couple 123 years. London Independent
Vt.'s maple industry feels the heat of global warming. Sugar maple sap that used to flow after Vermont town meetings the first Tuesday in March has begun dripping as early as Valentine's Day. Rutland Herald
One Vt. sugar maker takes fight to U.S. court. How can a Vermont sugar maker fight global warming? Arthur Berndt is starting in U.S. District Court. Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
Grassroots greens: Area citizens work locally to try to solve global problems. Spurred by "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore’s documentary film on global warming, Taylor and a dozen or so others from Galesville, Ettrick and Trempealeau formed G-E-T Sustainable, an informal group that aims address global climate change at a local level. Winona Daily News
Kerry’s new book hails everyday people saving the environment. In his new book, John Kerry was deeply moved by the energy and enthusiasm he discovered among everyday citizens who were fighting to save the environment. Boston Herald
Legislation could derail Houston efforts to clean up pollution. Houston Mayor Bill White's efforts to clean up the city's air could be set back by two state lawmakers. Houston Chronicle
Hollywood steps up campaign against BHP. Hollywood celebrities, including Pierce Brosnan and Martin Sheen, have stepped up their campaign to sink BHP Billiton's controversial $US5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Australian Associated Press.
EPAs don’t see dross in landfill as hazardous. Aluminum dross is suspected of causing landfill fires, and it contaminated a wetland with ammonia gas, so why don't the Ohio and U.S. EPAs list it as a hazardous waste? Canton Repository
Pollution decreases rainfall. Air pollution is severely diminishing rainfall in Chinese mountains, researchers have found. The same effect is probably causing water shortages in many other highly polluted areas that depend on the nearby hills for their water. Nature.
Asian air pollution affecting weather. Asia's growing air pollution -- billowing plumes of soot, smog and wood smoke -- is making the Pacific region cloudier and stormier, disrupting winter weather patterns along the West Coast and into the Arctic. Los Angeles Times
Desolation row: the betrayal of New Orleans. Less than three miles from the bustling bars of the French Quarter and the casinos of Canal Street, lie block after block of ruined homes, shattered lives and broken promises. Eighteen months after Katrina struck, New Orleans has barely begun to recover. London Independent
Chicken feed may present arsenic danger. New environmental and health concerns have hatched about an arsenic compound that's been added to chicken feed since the 1960s to produce healthier, happier, bigger-breasted birds. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Honeybees vanish, leaving keepers in peril. Bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only the livelihoods of beekeepers but also the production of numerous crops. New York Times.
Health fears heightened for 3M chemicals in water. Chemicals formerly manufactured by the 3M Co. and found in groundwater in the metro area are potentially more dangerous than previously believed, according to state health officials. Minneapolis Star Tribune
Household antibacterial products generate chloroform. New research shows that under normal household conditions, products containing the antibacterial agent triclosan react with chlorinated water to produce chloroform, a probable carcinogen. Environmental Science & Technology.
Pesticides float from distant farms to protected forests, study says. High levels of pesticides are wafting into protected rain forests in Costa Rica, even though the lowland farms being sprayed with the chemicals are miles away, and may be contributing to frog extinctions in 'pristine' montane forests. National Geographic News.
Don't water down state's new, tighter ballast rules. Despite the clear direction in the federal law, the U.S. EPA had to be sued by citizen groups to apply the Clean Water Act to the most dangerous form of contamination that our Great Lakes face: "biological pollution." Detroit Free Press
Dirty air: It's clear that cars are the culprit. This winter, northern Utah counties experienced 28 days of unhealthy air pollution, the worst winter since Utah began measuring. Salt Lake Tribune
Ooopsss...forgot to add these first time around.
Eighteen or more states are letting polluters off the hook by collecting $53 million less than is called for in the minimum standard for emission fees under the federal Clean Air Act. The polluters in question include power plants, refineries, cement kilns, incinerators, chemical plants that contribute disproportionately to the air pollution that threatens the public health and environment. Shortchanging the Clean Air Act. Published by Environmental Integrity Project.
Twenty-eight Montana legislators, the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality and the Governor all tested positive for mercury exposure Six out of the 34 people tested had levels over 1 ppm. Seven of the 34 were women of child-bearing age; none of this subset exceeded the EPA reference dose of 1ppm. Bad hair day Published by Women's Voices for the Earth.
And some links for your perusal...
Treehugger
The Invisible Gardener
EcoTalk
and the ongoing battle here in the land of $50+mil dollar "homes", the battle to Save Naples.