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Señor Ahab

Japan accused of buying pro-whaling votes Last year, Nicaragua became yet another unlikely nation to join the International Whaling Commission, just in time to attend the group’s annual meeting and support the lifting of an 18-year moratorium on commercial whale hunting — a policy change aggressively pushed by Japan, but not yet achieved. Japanese officials […]

Put Up Your Nukes

Judge may override Washington state voters on Hanford initiative An initiative on the Washington state ballot last month, which would prevent more waste from being dumped at the federal Hanford nuclear site in the state, will go before a federal judge today. Were there Diebold machines involved? A flurry of recounts? No. In fact, voters […]

Feel the Heat

Study says human activity raises risk of heat waves; lawsuits possible Human activity is raising the risk of another heat wave like the one that ravaged Europe in the summer of 2003, says a new study in the journal Nature — and the link may open the way for lawsuits against polluters. Using computer models, […]

States continue to lead the way

Washington Rep. Ed Murray (D), chair of the state's House Transportation Committee, is set to introduce a measure that would have Washington impose greenhouse-gas standards mirroring those recently put in place in California. See if this sounds familiar:

The idea of imposing the tougher standards here was endorsed recently by most members of a task force that included government officials, environmentalists and representatives of some of the state's largest businesses.

The bill will likely face a vigorous fight from the auto industry, which claims the California rules are really an illegal, if indirect, attempt to impose tougher fuel-mileage standards.

Supported by everybody but the auto industry. Who coulda guessed it?

In addition to Washington's laudable effort, recent news reports reveal that Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are either passing or considering similar measures.

UPDATE: Hastily written and misleading -- in a blog post no less! First, the proposed Washington measure has to do with auto emissions, obviously. And the "similar" measures in other states are similar only in that they address auto emissions -- they are not the same thing as the global-warming-focused effort in Cali, but rather Cali's more modest (though still controversial and opposed by automakers) "Clean Car Program," which is about hydrocarbons and smog. Mea culpa.

Umbra on cat-pee stains and dry cleaning

Dear Umbra, I am aware of how polluting regular dry cleaners can be and therefore make a point to wash clothes at home. Recently, however, my charming cat peed on my comforter. I was wondering if you knew of any environmentally friendly ways to clean “dry clean only” clothes or, in this case, comforters. HeidiFalls […]

Smokestacks off the hook?

A flurry of stories today -- see, e.g., here -- report the results of a study that claims carbon (read: auto emissions) is at fault for pollution-related heart problems. The study lets sulfates (read: power plants) off the hook.

Reuters calls the Electric Power Research Institute, which conducted the study, an "independent, non-profit center for public interest energy and environmental research." According to Geoffrey Johnson over at The Green Life Blog, a little more skepticism is warranted.

Free-range pig intestines

Who says organic is for sissies? (Wait, is baseball considered sissy ...? I'm really not tapped into the sports world, being a longtime sissy myself. Anyhoo!) San Diego's Petco Park and St. Louis's Busch Stadium are going to start selling organic hotdogs and bratwursts at the games of, uh, whatever teams play in those stadiums. They expect the dogs to cost about a buck more than the pesticide- and hormone-ridden variety. Hot dogs are still, of course, hot dogs, and even if they come from the happiest pigs on the planet, eating pig guts ain't healthy.  But hey, progress is progress!

Bush taps Nebraska gov to head USDA

Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) will replace Ann Veneman as secretary of agriculture, if Bush's nomination slithers through the Senate as expected. For those not intimately familiar with Johanns' record (who, me?), Bush provided this helpful tidbit: "He's a strong proponent of alternative energy sources such as ethanol and bio-diesel." A corn-belt governor who digs ethanol?  Who woulda thunk it?  

More on Johanns to come ...

Calling Africa to action on climate

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and George W. Bush agree on one thing: developing nations need to do more to curb the threat of climate change. (Of course, they don't agree on the much more vexing question of whether overdeveloped nations -- one highly overdeveloped nation in particular -- should do anything to address the ballooning problem ...)

Linking AIDS and conservation

On the occasion of World AIDS day, it is worth taking a harder look at how the pandemic affects natural resource management. The numerous negative links were just under discussion in Bangkok at the IUCN World Conservation Congress that ended late last month. The U.S.-based African Biodiversity Collaborative Group prepared some valuable reference materials for the megaconference. ABCG claims the key impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on natural resource management are:

• overuse of natural resources including medicinal plants, timber for coffins, and wildlife for food;
• changes in land use as agricultural practices change with falling capacity for heavy labor;
• changes in access to resources and land especially when widows and orphans cannot inherit land;
• loss of traditional knowledge of sustainable land and resource management practices;
• loss of human capacity for natural resource management in government, non-government organizations, academic institutions; communities, donor organizations, and private sector;
• increased vulnerability of community-based natural resource management programs as communities lose leadership and capacity, and HIV/AIDS issues take priority; and
• diversion of conservation funds for HIV/AIDS related costs.

Recognizing these conservation impacts is a must. But there is some danger a list like this one comes across as insensitive toward the staggering human toll of the disease. As we seek to understand the costs of AIDS in multiple sectors -- environment, agriculture, the wider economy -- it is imperative that conservationists not lose sight of the catastrophic human toll. Otherwise they risk sounding like they value pandas more than people.