Thursday, 06 Oct 2005

Vicious circle #580,124: Urban schools decline; those who can afford it head for ever-expanding, land-consuming 'burbs; the flight of the affluent drains urban schools of funding; and so on. We can break the cycle, says Dan Akst. If parents were given a choice about where to send their kids, competition might improve all schools and draw money and people back into urban areas. Utopian dream, or common sense? Make up your own mind after reading today's Soapbox.

Hall and Votes

Choice to head FWS has iffy record on endangered species

Dale Hall, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will probably be confirmed today as the agency's director by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. A full Senate vote on the confirmation is expected soon. Hall's tenure at FWS seems notable mainly for his unwillingness to strongly support protections for endangered and threatened species in the Southwestern U.S., including Mexican gray wolves. He also has a reputation for trying to get staff to "change the science" in ways that might weaken the case for species protections, says a longtime colleague. The Bush administration, various wildlife agency associations, and at least one tribal fish association support Hall, and Senate Democrats haven't actively opposed him. But the Center for Biological Diversity's Kieran Suckling says, "Hall was picked because he has proven himself to be the Darth Vader of endangered species."


Every day, at thousands of schools across the U.S., kids eat crap -- over-processed, nutrient-poor, canned, just-add-water, microwaved mystery-meat crap. Not that we have any bitter memories. But a champion of healthy, eco-friendly, locally produced school food for American children has arisen -- in the form of a naked Brit. More specifically, it's "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver, who's starting a reality show that will take viewers inside school kitchens in the U.S. Tom Philpott, the new foodie blogger gracing the pages of Gristmill, previews coming attractions.

We Mar the World

World Bank study says pollution, climate change hurt millions

The World Bank is not the first institution that comes to mind when you're looking for hard-hitting environmental analysis. But a new report from the powerful development agency asserts that while alcohol, tobacco, and unsafe sex are still the most common threats to human health in developing nations, millions of deaths and a full fifth of illnesses in these countries can be traced to environmental factors. Unsafe water, poor sanitation, air and soil pollution, pesticides, and hazardous wastes are big contributors to Third World woes. The bank also connects cancer to environmental conditions and acknowledges that global warming is already having major human-health impacts, especially in poor nations. "Without a healthy, productive labor force, we will not have the economic growth that is necessary to ensure a pathway out of poverty," says World Bank environment director Warren Evans. "Poor people are the first to suffer from a polluted environment." True dat.

So a Priest Walks Into an Environmental Protest ...

Brazilian priest on hunger strike to stop water-diversion scheme

Roman Catholic bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio has been fasting for 10 days in a modest chapel 600 feet from Brazil's Sao Francisco River, aiming to halt a massive water-diversion project. The $1.8 billion government plan involves building hundreds of miles of canals and other infrastructure to send water from the 1,700-mile river to drought-afflicted regions in Brazil's northeast. Cappio and his supporters say most of the water will benefit wealthy farmers growing export crops like grapes and flowers, with only a tiny percentage allocated to millions of rural poor. They fear the waterworks will be the final blow to the Sao Francisco -- already extensively damaged by riverside deforestation, pollution, sewage, and hydroelectric dams -- and want the government to clean up the river. Brazil's Lula da Silva administration has offered to delay the project, but Cappio says only scrapping it entirely will stop his fast. "We will only sit down at the negotiating table once the specter of the current project is gone," he said Wednesday.