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 Archive
of Environmental News - September 99
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the Environmental News Archives)
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out how YOUR power consumption impacts the environment
Environmental
Reports for OKALOOSA COUNTY 
Earth
View - A fascinating, real-time look at our
home from above...
Storm
Warnings: Climate Change Hits the Insurance Industry -
"Staggered by an unprecedented series of hurricanes, floods,
and fires, insurers are weighing the possibility that these
catastrophes are the first real effects of human-induced climate
change--and that the worst is yet to come. Their response could
pit them squarely against the giant fossil fuel industry in the
battle over reducing carbon emissions..."
Ocie's
'Land of the free...' By Henry Lamb © 1999
WorldNetDaily.com - Nineteen loads of building sand were brought
in to level an area for the foundation. Then the feds arrived.
"Cease and desist," was the order. Ocie was caught in
the act: "polluting the navigable waters of the United
States..."
Way
Out of Nuke Vote Sought - With both sides agreeing
the votes aren't there to ratify a global ban on nuclear
testing, the Clinton administration and Republican Senate
leaders were searching for a graceful exit strategy from a
scheduled vote next week. Neither side appeared to want to
proceed with the vote. But neither side wanted the blame for
calling it off either...
Votes
Scarce for Nuke Test Ban - A landmark treaty pushed
by President Clinton to ban nuclear testing worldwide appeared
doomed Tuesday as Republican opposition hardened and a senior
Democrat conceded there were not enough votes to ratify it. Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., offered to postpone a
scheduled vote on the treaty next Tuesday - but only if the
administration asserted it was seeking the delay. Lott also said
he would not agree to any plan under which the treaty could be
called up again before 2001...
Clinton
on Verge of Losing Treaty - History shows that
presidents often expend huge amounts of energy on winning Senate
ratification of treaties, and can sometimes pull off unexpected
victories. This appears not to be one of those times. Even
strong advocates of the international ban on nuclear testing now
before the Senate concede they are seriously short of Republican
support in advance of next week's planned vote. For now,
President Clinton is vowing to fight on. But other Democrats are
suggesting it's only a matter of time until a face-saving way
can be found to back away from the brink. U.S. rejection of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which 154 nations have signed,
would be a humiliating defeat for the Clinton administration...
Worries
about Baltic chemical soup - MORE THAN 50 years ago,
the Allied forces dumped almost 300,000 tons of chemical weapons
in and near the Baltic Sea. Now environmentalists are worried the
weapons, mostly filled with highly toxic mustard gas, are on the
verge of rupturing. They warn that this could spell disaster for
the region’s fishing industry and environment. “It could
destroy all life,” claimed Ivan Blokov, director of Greenpeace
Russia...
Killer
Skeeters Carry 'Alien' Virus! - "New York's
encephalitis outbreak may originate with a virus from Africa and
Asia. Are climate changes globalizing disease?"
Environmental
Group Backs Bradley - The political arm of the
environmental group Friends of the Earth today endorsed Bill
Bradley for president, saying his record was ``far superior'' than
the one compiled by Vice President Al Gore. ``On a wide range of
water, toxics and public lands issues, Bradley has been a forceful
champion,'' said Brent Blackwelder, president of the environmental
group's PAC...
Radioactive
Waste Rising in Tank - A vast waste tank at the
Hanford nuclear reservation that used to ``burp'' gas has a new
problem: The radioactive goop inside has risen like bread dough.
While the development within the million-gallon tank has provoked
concerns about a possible explosion or contamination, managers at
the Department of Energy site in south-central Washington say both
scenarios are unlikely...
Clinton
Releasing Antarctica Images - President Clinton,
warning that global warming could bring cataclysmic consequences,
announced the release of classified satellite images of part of
Antarctica to help scientists chart world climate changes. He said
the two sets of images - taken 10 years apart - were ``one small
contribution'' to the understanding of climate change studies...
Japan
Nuclear Reaction Contained - "As hundreds of
thousands of worried residents awaited word that it was safe to
venture outside again, company officials admitted clear violations
of in-house safety rules resulted in Japan's worst accident at a
nuclear plant. Officials said the accident at the uranium
processing plant had been contained, but only after sending three
workers to the hospital -- two in critical condition -- and
prompting the government to urge more than 310,000 people to stay
indoors and keep their windows closed..."
Unplanned
Nuclear Reaction Rare - There has been only one case
in more than three decades in which an unplanned nuclear chain
reaction occurred at an American nuclear fuel fabrication plant,
industry and government officials say. But it killed a worker. It
is extremely rare for nuclear fuel to reach unexpected
``criticality,'' as apparently occurred at a fuel plant Thursday
in Japan where three workers were exposed to high levels of
radiation and hundreds of people were evacuated before the
reaction was controlled...
Alcohol-Run
Cars Return to Brazil - Brazilian car manufacturers,
looking to boost slumping sales, are returning to the
alcohol-fueled cars that used to dominate Brazil's highways. Fiat
and Volkswagen plan to drastically increase production of
alcohol-fueled cars, the daily O Estado de S. Paulo reported. Fiat
is jumping from just 90 alcohol-fueled vehicles in August to 1,300
in September, while Volkswagen will increase production from 800
to 1,200, the newspaper said...
Pay
to Former Bikini Residents OK'd - The House agreed
Monday to a one-time payment of some $3.8 million to former
residents of the Pacific Ocean atoll of Bikini, which was used as
an atomic bomb testing site after World War II. The bill,
approved by a voice vote, was in recognition of the hardships
suffered by the Bikini people, who were moved from their home in
1946 and are still unable to return because of high radiation
levels. The measure requires Senate action...
Encephalitis
virus may spread south - The West Nile encephalitis
virus that has claimed four lives in New York City may be
spreading to other parts of the country as migrating birds head
south for the winter...
Brazil's
Problems = Earth's Problems - "...behind Rio’s
striking beauty lies a cautionary tale of epic proportions. It
began not long after the last Brazilian monarch abandoned his
throne near the turn of the last century, when a growing
population began to cut down the country’s forests to make way
for agriculture. That practice continues virtually unabated today.
The State of Rio de Janeiro used to be 97 percent covered in
natural forest. Today, less than 20 percent remains..."
Egyptian
Family Harvests Lice - The hunter poises over
his prey, his weapons close at hand - a towel, a comb and a pair
of tweezers. After harvesting lice from the head of a homeless
man, Mohammed Abbas al-Sayyad will sell the insects to Cairo
University so that entomology students can study them...
Rebuilt
reef welcomes marine life - LOOE KEY NATIONAL MARINE
SANCTUARY, Fla. (AP) - Over thousands of years, coral species can
build waving forests of sea whips or form boulders the size of an
adult human. But what takes nature centuries to create - coral
grows as little as a centimeter a year - man can destroy in a span
of hours. A research ship ran aground in 1994, crushing a portion
of Looe Key the size of a tennis court and killing or displacing
sea fans, fish, sponges and other marine life. After the accident,
biologists, engineers and construction crews tried to give nature
a head start in its healing process. They replaced the natural
foundation of the reef with boulders, then cemented them in place
to create a new home for live coral. Since the Looe Key
restoration was completed last month, corals and other
reef-dwelling animals have been returning to their reconstructed
habitat.
African
Experts To Measure Peak - Tanzanian experts announced
that they will attempt to resolve a nearly century-old dispute
over the height of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest peak.
Specialists at Lands and Architectural College in this northern
Tanzanian city said in a statement they would determine the
mountain's height by the end of the year...
Fly
Halts Calif. Projects - Southern California
construction projects worth hundreds of millions are being held up
by a fly in the development. The U.S. government has all but
halted development across the sand dunes in the desert east of Los
Angeles to protect the tiny Delhi Sands flower-loving fly - the
only fly ever to make the Endangered Species List...
Gore
Says Protect U.S. Shorelines - Vice President Al Gore
announced new initiatives designed to protect the country's
shorelines and oceans and promised federal help for struggling New
England fishermen. Calling for ``bold steps'' to protect the
oceans, the Democratic presidential front-runner said, ``They're
not just part of the environment, but they're an engine of our
economy.'' Gore announced that President Clinton had signed a
proclamation giving American authorities the right to enforce
environmental, customs and immigration laws at sea within 24
nautical miles from shore, up from 12 miles...
Most
Water Violations Not Reported - Nearly 90 percent of
all violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act are not reported in
the government database that is supposed to alert consumers,
according to a reported federal audit. USA Today reported
that it obtained an Environmental Protection Agency audit that
suggests there are tens of thousands more cases a year than
previously documented in which water systems break safety rules...
The
People Bomb - “It is a good thing that China has a
big population,” Mao Zedong stated with confidence in 1949. “Even
if China’s population multiplies many times, she is fully
capable of finding a solution,” he said. Today, China’s
leaders are still looking for that solution, and as the Chinese
move up the economic ladder, their problems become the problems of
the world...
Clinton
Extends Ocean Monitoring - "President Bill
Clinton doubled the extent of US authority over near shore waters
Wednesday by signing a proclamation claiming jurisdiction over
waters within 24 nautical miles of US shores. The US is allowed to
claim these waters under the international Law of the Sea
Convention -- a treaty that the US Senate has failed to
ratify..."
World
Population Nearing 6 Billion Projected Close to 9 Billion by 2050
- At mid-1998, world population stood at 5.9 billion. It is
expected that the world population will reach the 6 billion mark
in 1999. Between 1995 and 2000 the world population is growing at
1.33 per cent per year, adding an average of 78 million persons
each year. In the mid 21st century world population will be in the
range of 7.3 to 10.7 billion, depending on the assumed future
fertility trends. In the medium variant, the world population
reaches 8.9 billion in 2050...
Mercury's
Scary Migration - Researchers say they have found the
first evidence that mercury can circumvent the blood-brain barrier
that usually prevents toxins from entering the brain. Though the
studies involved fish, the findings have implications for humans,
particularly children, and for other species as well...
Sustaining
Water, Easing Scarcity: A Second Update - The Case of the Nile
River Basin, Perhaps the most vivid example of the
interaction of population growth, water scarcity and international
conflict is the vast basin of the Nile River in northeastern
Africa. The 10 countries with territory in the Nile basin contain
40 percent of Africa's population (not all actually within the
basin) and make up 10 percent of its land mass. More than 85
percent of the Nile's water comes from the Blue Nile, which
originates in Ethiopia. However, the vast majority of
the river's flow, estimated at about 85 billion cubic meters
annually, is used by Egypt, the last nation on the Nile's path to
the Mediterranean Sea...
Communications
towers silence songbirds - Songbirds are smart enough
to migrate thousands of miles each year without maps. Many flap
all the way from the USA to South America every fall. But somehow
these canny fliers are often stopped dead -- literally -- by a
seemingly obvious obstacle: the towers that transmit TV, radio and
cell-phone signals...
Chips
Track Rogue Elephants - Elephants brought illegally
into Bangkok's city limits will get microchip implants so
authorities can track their movements to prevent them re-entering
and further cluttering the capital's already congested streets.
Dozens of elephants wander the streets of Bangkok in violation of
city regulations with their mahouts, or keepers, who make a fast
buck by charging people to feed or take pictures with the
beasts...
Global
Warming Could Hurt Tourism - Heat waves, drought and
disease brought on by global warming could keep tourists away from
some of the world's most popular vacation destinations in the
coming decades, a new report warned. The report, conducted
by a British university for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said
the changing climate could have a serious impact on countries that
depend on tourism...
Scientist:
Planet Hurt by Cold War - On the 50th anniversary of
the first Soviet atomic test, a prominent Russian scientist said
Sunday that the arms race had left behind massive environmental
damage that would take generations to repair. Soviet
researchers carried out their first experimental blast on Aug. 29,
1949, near the Semipalatinsk testing ground in what is now part of
northern Kazakstan...
Radioactive
Ooze Found Outside Plant - Federal officials
confirmed that a radioactive black ooze found seeping outside the
fence of a Kentucky uranium enrichment plant led workers to a
burial ground for radioactive debris. Contract workers
chanced upon the material near an unused sanitary landfill at the
Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., The Washington Post
reported...
National
parks vs. private land - A park preservation group
claimed that some 200,000 acres of privately held land within the
nation’s park system are in “imminent” danger of being
developed or resold. The National Park Trust listed 20 “high
priority” sites covering 110,000 acres and urged Congress to
come up with the estimated $70 million it would take to buy them
for the public good...
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