Indicators
Today, many issues – labor rights, environmental protection, food
safety – are tied up in trade deals like the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment. (See YES! #3) Opponents of these trade deals are worried
that President Clinton will try to hammer the MAI through using Fast
Track; Clinton has asked Congress for Fast Track authority for
approving trade agreements.
Under Fast Track, Congress would
have to agree (before seeing any text and before negotiations begin) to
vote on a trade pact with a minimum of debate. Congress must also hold
an up or down vote only, with no amendments. This limits its authority
and ability to shape issues surrounding trade agreements. Fast Track
procedures result in Congress delegating much of its authority to
thoroughly review or amend trade deals to the Executive Branch.
Says
Chantell Taylor of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, “The MAI would
give corporations the legal power to sue governments directly for
monetary compensation. It limits what governments can do to regulate
corporate behavior and accountability. And it binds all member
countries for 20 years. This is not an issue to be forced through
Congress using Fast Track.”
Anti-MAI coalitions did celebrate an
unexpected victory in the House on October 8th. By a vote of 356 to 64,
the House passed an amendment to force the US Trade Representative's
office to notify Congress and local and state governments whenever
national, state, and local laws are challenged by foreign countries
before the World Trade Organization, or “when new trade negotiations
are entered into that could result in the repeals or modification of
pertinent existing laws.” Rep. Robert Ney (R-OH) called the amendment
“the people's right to know.”
–Public Citizen
To let your member of Congress know how you feel, call toll free: 888/723-5246. For further information, check out the Public Citizen web site at www.citizen.org, or call Chantell Taylor at 202/546-4996
Greenpeace Cutbacks
Plagued
by financial problems and declining membership, the environmental group
Greenpeace has made massive cutbacks in its US offices.
The
organization is best known for its gutsy, no-holds-barred tactics that
included high-profile protests against nuclear weapons and whaling from
behind the banner of the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior.
Greenpeace
plans to adopt a more grassroots approach, lobbying for change instead
of launching ships. The US division will reduce its staff from 400 to
65 employees, cut its budget from $29 million to $21 million, and end
its door-to-door canvassing program. The group, which once embraced
many diverse environmental causes – from endangered dolphins and
old-growth forests to genetically altered food and toxic waste – will
narrow its focus to just a handful of issues, primarily global climate
change and logging.
– Tracy Rysavy
Tobacco Wars
In
the wake of lawsuits and debates over smoking's ill effects, several
health organizations have banded together to coordinate an anti-tobacco
ad campaign that uses humorous satire to unmask the harsh realities of
smoking. In New York, the Coalition for a Smoke-Free City posted
advertisements for “Virginia Slimes” on the rooftops of the city's
yellow cabs. Another taxicab sign for “Cancer Country” depicts a
ghastly gray skull smoking a cigarette in the Marlboro Man's trademark
cowboy hat.
In a Taco Bell in Grand Junction, Colorado, an
ailing Joe Chemo (replacing the ubiquitous “Joe Camel” mascot for Camel
cigarettes) greeted customers from the drive-thru windows for two weeks
last April. Joe Chemo has been spotted on posters and t-shirts, and
will soon appear on billboards across the US and Canada.
Said a
teacher in Vancouver who put a Joe Chemo poster on the walls of his
classroom, “This is the first anti-smoking ad that my students have
described as ‘cool.'”–Adbusters
To include Joe Chemo in your public health campaign, call campaign manager Allan MacDonald at 604/736-9401
www.joechemo.org
Going Hog Wild
Using
new confinement techniques, corporate hog operations now have up to
20,000 animals on one farm – causing serious pollution and health
problems as well as running traditional hog farmers out of business.
One operation outside Unionville, Missouri, has 80,000 hogs. The odor
from the farm can be smelled two to five miles away.
These
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) dwarf the typical hog
farm of 500 animals. To get rid of the waste, some of the CAFOs have
built lagoons, one of which holds more than 30 million gallons of
effluent. There have been reports that some lagoons are leaking into
local groundwater and rivers.
– The Progressive Review
Grassroots Indicators
In
Bhutan, herders know they must alternate the grazing of their yak and
cattle between northern and southern pastures when a special local
shrub flowers. All over the world, people use locally developed
“grassroots indicators” to glean better insights into their
environments. Long dismissed as the unscientific stuff of folk tales,
such ancient indicators are gaining recognition because of the special
validity of measures derived and field-tested over generations.
In
the Dutch town of Rijn-mond, environmental monitoring specialists are
experimenting with a more modern form of grassroots indicator. Citizens
are asked to call central hotline number if they see, hear, or smell
any evidence of air pollution. The results are being compared with more
conventional data and could provide the basis for a more public
approach to monitoring the environment.
– Developing Ideas
Smog & Violence
Pollution
causes people to commit violent crimes – homicide, aggravated assault,
sexual assault, and robbery – according to new research by Roger D.
Masters and co-workers at Dartmouth College.
Some US counties
only have 100 violent crimes per 100,000 people per year, while in
other counties, violent crime rates are 30 times as high. Masters says
that this discrepancy is caused in part by pollution levels.
Masters
has developed what he calls “the neurotoxicity hypothesis of violent
crime,” which states that toxic pollutants – specifically lead and
manganese – cause learning disabilities, an increase in aggressive
behavior, and, most importantly, loss of control over impulsive
behavior. These traits combine with poverty, social stress, alcohol and
drug abuse, and other social factors to exacerbate an individual's
tendency to commit violent crimes.
After controlling for all the
conventional measures of social deterioration (poverty, school
dropouts, alcohol, etc.), Masters found that counties having high
measures of lead and maganese, have rates of violent crime three times
the national average.
In other words, environmental pollution
has a strong effect on violent crimes, completely independent of any of
the standard predictors of such crimes.
Neurotoxicity is only
one of many factors contributing to violence, but Masters believes it
may be especially important in explaining why violent crime rates
differ so widely between geographic areas and by ethnic group. “The
presence of pollution is as big a factor as poverty,” he says. When our
brain chemistry is altered by exposure to toxins, Masters believes we
lose the natural restraint that holds our violent urges in check.
– Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly
Recycle-A-Bicycle
A
program which began in 1994 as part of the industrial arts curriculum
at New York's Intermediate School 218 has now branched out into five
different locations throughout New York City. Recycle-A-Bicycle (RAB)
collects discarded bikes and teaches disadvantaged children how to
refurbish and repair them. The bicycles are then sold or rented to
customers in the RAB shops. Besides the obvious recycling benefits, the
students learn valuable mechanical skills, self-discipline, and an
awareness of the benefits of cycling.
In 1996, RAB workshops
educated 452 young people, collected and processed approximately 800
bicycles, and thereby prevented 14 tons of bicycle parts from entering
the waste stream.
RAB also runs a Saturday Earn-A-Bike
program, in which young people exchange 24 hours of work in the bike
shop for the bike of their choice, which they select with great
ceremony. And if the bicycles break down again, current RAB students
and graduates are encouraged to return to the shop to fix them, again
trading work hours for bike parts.
The bike project has formed a
partnership with the Green Guerrillas, a group dedicated to urban
gardening. The students construct wheelbarrows out of spare bicycle
parts and frames while they learn the joys of gardening in New York
City.
Says RAB co-founder Karen Overton, “These kids are our
future, and we hope we're giving them the means to embrace and respect
that future.”
–Transportation Alternatives Tools for Life, a book on how to start your own Recycle-A-Bicycle program is now available, and the first 2,000 copies are free! Send $3 for shipping to: Transportation Alternatives – Recycle-A-Bicycle, 115 W. 30th, Suite 1207, New York, NY 10001 Tel 212/260-7055 www.recycleabicycle.org/
Ocean Warming
The
normally innocuous conversation opener, “How's the weather?” has taken
on a whole new twist thanks to the El Niño effect. Tropical marlin are
being reeled in by Pacific Northwest fishermen and severe droughts are
plaguing Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Hundreds of
seabirds are dying in Alaska, a phenomenon attributed in part to ocean
temperatures averaging 10°F higher than normal.
Since the 1970s,
El Niño patterns have increased in frequency and severity, and the
1997-98 El Niño is predicted to be the most tempermental yet.
Although
many scientists are balking at the idea, Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research feels that El Niño's
heightened appearances, coupled with an abnormally prolonged event from
the beginning of 1990 to mid- 1995, are indicators of a larger shift in
climate. In fact, Trenberth says that the chances of the severe 1990-95
El Niño being caused by “natural variablilty” alone are 1 in 2000.
Global
warming could be the other part of the equation, exacerbating El Niño's
already bad attitude. Trenberth and other scientists say that climate
models show that changes in El Niño are associated with global warming.
– Tracy Rysavy
Green Freeze
In
the Spring of 1992, Greenpeace International and German refrigerator
manufacturer DKK Scharfenstein began researching the use of propane and
butane natural gases as refrigerants. Their findings resulted in the
birth of a new technology called Greenfreeze – the world's first
ozone- and climate-safe refrigerator technology. Greenfreeze uses the
hydrocarbons propane, isobutane, and cyclopentane as replacements for
ozone-depleting CFCs, HFCs, and HCFCs. According to Greenpeace
spokesperson John Maté, these hydrocarbon gases are completely
ozone-friendly and have minimal global warming impact.
Although
the large manufacturers – Electrolux, Whirlpool, Bosch-Siemens, and
Liebherr – now produce hydrocarbon refrigerators for the European
market, this technology has not yet made it to America. Most
refrigerators now being manufactured in the United States use HFCs and
HCFCs which, while safer for the environment than CFCs, are still
ozone-depleting gases. Global manufacturers question whether
Greenfreeze is compatible with the large size and automatic defrost
features of American refrigerators.
In the four years since its
development, Greenfreeze has become the dominant refrigeration
technology in northwestern Europe, comprising 100 percent of the German
market, where it has been illegal to trade in refrigerators containing
CFCs since 1995.
Greenfreeze has also spread to other
continents. One of the largest refrigeration companies in China is set
to convert its production lines to Greenfreeze, as are companies in
Argentina, Turkey, and Russia. There are over 12 million hydrocarbon
refrigerators in the world today, and Greenpeace estimates that by the
year 2000, almost four times that many will be built in Europe alone.
–Greenpeace International
Sustainable San Francisco
The
Health, Family, and Environment Center of the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors has unanimously endorsed a Sustainability Plan to guide
policy-making decisions of all city commissions and departments. Mayor
Willie Brown supports the proposal and the board is likely to pass the
package.
Air quality, solid waste, biodiversity, food, and
agriculture are among the plan's major topics. The transportation
section proposes creating 10 auto-free zones over the next four years,
increasing the city's parking tax, raising gas taxes and bridge tolls,
and introducing higher “road congestion” tolls at rush hour.
While
municipal environmental plans are relatively common in Europe, they are
rare in the US. San Francisco is now one of only a handful of US cities
with such plans, joining Santa Monica and Chattanooga.
– EcoNews
When Corporations Rule the Web
US
corporations have found a new way to combat anti-industry legislation –
company-generated letter-writing campaigns. New computer technologies
now enable companies not only to e-mail sample letters to thousands of
their employees with the push of a button, but also to monitor how the
employees respond.
A crop of new computer programs are allowing
businesses to create databases of former and current employees together
with their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, zip codes, and matching
state and federal districts. With this information, corporations can
identify each worker's state and federal legislators and voter
precinct.
When integrated with “campaign management software,”
CEOs can keep a record of each employee's political lobbying on behalf
of the company. Net Action, a program being marketed by Gnossos
Software, enables businesses to broadcast company-drafted letters to
all employees via e-mail and to route the responses to the workers'
respective legislators. Net Action also generates a full list of
employees who respond to the mailing.
Pharmaceutical giant Merck
and Co. has used the web to mobilize the “Merck Action Network,” a
group of 8,800 employees and retirees. Participants receive quarterly
updates and periodic “Action Alerts.” Merck recently generated 800
individual telephone calls to Congress lobbying for swifter approval of
pharmaceutical drugs and gathered 80,000 names in a petition drive for
the same cause.
-The Ecologist
Sustainable Lattés
Scientists
at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center say that the cup of coffee you
drink in the morning could be causing the gradual disappearance of
North American songbirds.
Orioles, hummingbirds, warblers, and
other familiar avian species have traditionally spent their winters in
trees that shade the coffee plantations of South and Central America.
In
the 1970s, the US Agency for International Development spent $81
million encouraging growers to yank out existing coffee bushes and the
trees above them and replant three to four times as many coffee plants.
The original intent was to stop the spread of a plant disease believed
to thrive in the shade.
Although the disease never turned out to be a threat, many growers are still cutting down the overhanging
trees
and converting their land to more densely planted “sun plantations” to
keep pace with high demand. The scientists see a link between the
falling US populations of migratory birds and the disappearance of the
shade trees that provided their food and shelter. About one-third of
the North American wood-thrush population has vanished since 1966, and
the Baltimore oriole's numbers have been cut by one-fifth in the past
decade.
Studies in the past have found as many as 150 bird
species in traditional, shaded coffee plantations, but that number has
been reduced by half in the sun fields of Guatemala. Sun plantations in
other countries have been reported as being almost devoid of birds.
There
are no labels for shade-grown coffees right now, says Ted Lingle,
executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, but
most Central American gourmet coffees still come from shade-grown
plantations, and organic coffee is almost always shade-grown.
Shade-grown coffees taste better than the sun plantation coffees that
are used in grocery store mass-market brands.
Jeanne McKay, a
spokeswoman for Starbucks, a large specialty coffee chain based in
Seattle, said the company knows of no reliable source for shade-grown
coffee. Although Starbucks has signed a pledge of environmental
responsibility, it declines to sell organic coffee.
“We don't
want to confuse our customers with too many choices,” said McKay. “We
are very concerned about the land in coffee-producing countries, but
our first concern has to be coffee quality.”
–The Seattle Times
–Craig Hymson
For more information, contact American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, 121 Sixth Ave, New York, NY 10013, phone 212/226-9246