Thursday, 17 May 2007

Naval Gazing

Five environmental groups sue Navy over sonar use off Hawaii

Tensions over the U.S. Navy's use of sonar in anti-submarine exercises off Hawaii have resurfaced, and five green groups are suing to change the practice. Citing concerns that sonar can kill and injure whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals, the lawsuit names both the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which issues permits for the activities. It asks the court to stop the exercises -- 12 of which are planned through 2008 -- until an environmental impact study is completed and protective measures are enacted. The Navy maintains that it has gone "to great lengths" to be wicked careful, keeping an eye out for whales from on deck and from airplanes, and turning off sonar when the creatures get too close. But activists say some such practices have been abandoned, and claim the Navy is violating environmental laws. "The Navy is not above the law," says Marti Townsend of KAHEA, a Hawaiian environmental coalition. "Protecting the country includes following its laws, not skirting them."

In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-Two, Ulysses Made the Greenies Blue

Legislation introduced to overhaul ancient mining law

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a mining-regulation law -- and while resource extraction has changed significantly since then, the rules haven't. Now Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) is seeking to revamp what he calls "the Jurassic Park of all federal laws," introducing a proposal that would require land-reclamation plans, make some public lands off-limits to mining, and impose an 8 percent royalty on minerals. The revenue from the tax -- similar to what oil, natural gas, and coal companies already pay -- would go to clean up highly toxic abandoned mines in the West, but the expected annual $100 million intake might barely make a dent; the Interior Department estimates cleanup may be a $32 billion job. The 1872 law, which does nothing to protect groundwater or force post-extraction cleanup, has led to a "staggering legacy of poisoned streams, abandoned waste dumps, and maimed landscapes," says Rahall, whose toughest opponent might be Senate Majority Leader (and miner's son) Harry Reid of gold-happy Nevada.


Where would we be without frozen pizzas and mass-produced burgers? Probably a lot better off, says Sandor Katz, author of the new book The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. Katz has spent years touting the benefits of producing food at home, by reintroducing people to the process of fermentation and reconnecting them with the things they eat. Tom Philpott sat down with Katz over a cup of kefir to talk about cultural issues both micro and macro, and to find out how consumers can rise up.

Now There's Room for a Live Earth Concert

Scientists find snowmelt, new species in Antarctica

It's been a bad news-good news kind of week for Antarctica. Scientists from NASA and the University of Colorado revealed that a California-sized expanse of snow melted there during a warm spell in 2005, farther inland and at higher elevations than expected. The team was cautious about drawing climate-y conclusions, but said the find was a big deal because melted snow can act as a lubricant, helping nearby ice slide into the sea. "Increases in snowmelt, such as this ... definitely could have an impact on larger scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time," said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado. "Large regions are showing the first signs of warming." Another research team reported in Nature that they'd found more than 700 new marine species around the continent during three expeditions between 2002 and 2005. The finds included 81 worm species and 17 sponge species in an area that, said one scientist, "was once thought to be a featureless abyss."

Not On My Botch -- Uh, Watch

Katrina refugees say FEMA trailers making them sick

As states in the Southeastern U.S. brace for this year's hurricane season, new Federal Emergency Management Agency head David Paulison has a promise: "You won't see what happened with Katrina happen again in this country.'' Paulison assured a crowd of emergency responders in Florida that the "new FEMA" is on its toes. Which is good news, because the old FEMA is still housing 86,000 families in temporary trailers throughout the gulf region. And those trailers, say residents and observers, are giving off toxic fumes that are making people sick. According to the Sierra Club, CBS News, and other sources, levels of formaldehyde -- released from particleboard in floors and cabinets -- are well above the federal limit in some trailers. One pediatrician says he's seen dozens of trailer-dwelling residents with coughs, nosebleeds, burning eyes, and sinus infections. Poppycock, say the feds, whose response is summed up by the touchy-feely Paulison: "We've told people they can air those trailers out."