And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
BIOTECH LABELLING COST OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS FOOD INDUSTRY DOWN UNDER
MONEY TALKS IN CAMPAIGN TO SAVE GRAY WHALE BREEDING LAGOON
AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 22, 1999
WORLDSCAN WEEKLY NOTEBOOK
E-WIRE
* Stakes Raised by $4.1m in Battle to Save Endangered North Atlantic Right
Whale
For Full Text and Graphics Visit: http://ens.lycos.com
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Send News Tips and Story Leads to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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BIOTECH LABELLING COST OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS FOOD INDUSTRY DOWN UNDER
By Bob Burton
CANBERRA, Australia, October 22, 1999 - The food industry in Australia and
New Zealand relied on a still secret report showing skyrocketing costs to
head off compulsory labelling of genetically modified foods. The strategy
failed.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct99/1999L-10-22-01.html
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MONEY TALKS IN CAMPAIGN TO SAVE GRAY WHALE BREEDING LAGOON
YARMOUTH PORT, Massachusetts, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - Fifteen of the world’
s top mutual funds and asset managers announced today that they oppose plans
by Mitsubishi Corporation to build the world’s largest salt factory on the
shores of the last pristine breeding ground for the endangered Pacific gray
whale. The announcement is the latest volley in a war aimed at striking the
company where it hurts - in the pocketbook.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct99/1999L-10-22-06.html
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 22, 1999
U.S. Climate Change Action Could Take Years
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - It could be 2003 or 2004 before the U.S.
takes any real action to combat climate change, environmental groups warned today. At
a press briefing in Washington DC heralding the beginning of the fifth round of
negotiations on the UN Climate Change Convention, global warming activists said the
upcoming presidential elections make it unlikely that any legislation on greenhouse
gas emissions could be passed before the end of the year 2000. The high-level talks in
Bonn, Germany opening Monday will focus on the Kyoto Protocol to the climate treaty in
an effort to trigger enough ratifications for its entry into force. The Protocol
limits greenhouse gas emissions by 39 industrialized countries including the United
States.
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Interior Budget Bill Headed for Presidential Veto
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - Congress passed a $14.5 billion Interior
Department spending bill Thursday that carries more than two dozen anti-environmental
riders. The bill, which passed the House by a 225-200 vote, also offers almost $1
billion less than the $15 billion requested by President Bill Clinton. "This shameful
bill fails to protect the beautiful places our families treasure, while giving special
breaks to the logging companies and polluters that destroy our public lands," said
Melanie Griffin, director of Sierra Club’s Public Land Protection Program. "Special
interests have tacked dozens of riders onto this bill to overturn court decisions, tie
land managers’ hands, and undermine environmental protection laws. Rather than
protecting America’s public forests, canyons and streams, Congress passed a bill chock
full of giveaways to the mining, timber, livestock and oil companies."
The bill includes just over a quarter of the $1 billion Clinton requested for the
Lands Legacy Program to protect open space. Anti-environmental provisions include
riders to allow unrestricted dumping of mining wastes, prevent the collection of full
market value oil royalties from public lands, extend existing grazing permits on
public lands without new environmental impact studies, and override a federal court
ruling that prohibits logging in national forests that could harm wildlife. Clinton is
expected to veto the bill.
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Colorado Gets Nation’s 55th National Park
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - President Bill Clinton signed a bill Thursday
to create a new national park in Colorado, the 55th national park in the U.S. Black
Canyon of the Gunnison River National Park is the first national park created in five
years. Clinton described the new, 30,000 acre park as "a true national treasure," and
quoted geologist Wallace Hansen as saying, "No other canyon in North America combines
the depth, narrowness, sheerness, and somber countenance of the Black Canyon of the
Gunnison."
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New Guidelines Prioritize Endangered Species Listings
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
finalized new guidelines today for assigning priorities for listing endangered and
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The guidelines aim to allow the
agency to allocate funds and resources for fiscal years 1999 and 2000 to the species
in the greatest need of protection. "This new guidance will help us continue to set
priorities so that we are addressing the needs of those species that are most
imperiled first," notes USFWS director Jamie Rappaport Clark. The new guidance
establishes the following priorities:
Priority One: Emergency listings for species facing a significant
risk to
their well-being
Priority Two: Final decisions on pending proposed listings
Priority Three: Determining whether candidate species should be
listed
Priority Four: Findings on petitions to add species to the list
and petitions
to delist or reclassify species
Critical habitat actions will no longer fall under this guidance. The
USFWS says it expects to complete a number of critical habitat actions during FY 2000
which will be funded separately from other listing actions. The separation of critical
habitat decisions may create controversy. Environmental groups have filed hundreds of
lawsuits against the USFWS in recent years over concerns that the agency does
designate critical habitat quickly enough to protect species.
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Rare Lemur Romeo Gets His Juliet
DURHAM, North Carolina - A Duke University Primate Center expedition to rescue a rare
species of lemurs from a shrinking, 600 acre patch of forest in the depths of
Madagascar has captured two of the animals, a male and a female. The animals are
"diademed sifakas" - the largest living lemur, with lush fur of yellow, orange, gray,
white and black. The captured female has already been dubbed "Juliet," because after a
six to 12 month period of acclimatization in Madagascar, she will likely join another
of her species, Romeo, in residence at the Primate Center in Durham. He is the only
member of his species in captivity and has waited six years for companion members of
his species to arrive at the center.
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Endangered Right Whale Found Dead
BOSTON, Massachusetts, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - An endangered North Atlantic right
whale has died after becoming entangled in fishing gear earlier this year. The adult
female whale, known to researchers as #2030, was spotted in May off the Massachusetts
coast tangled in netting. Rescue efforts could not begin until she was spotted again
this September in the Bay of Fundy. Number 2030 and two other female right whales were
tangled in gillnet gear, used by commercial fishermen to catch cod, mackerel and other
schooling fish. Efforts to disentangle #2030 succeeded in removing two of the three
wraps of gear, but the third embedded wrap proved fatal......... ..Losing a female
right whale of reproducing age is a setback to the remaining population of 290 to 320
whales. Human activities account for 40 percent of all right whale deaths. Since 1976,
collisions with large ships have killed at least 16 North Atlantic right whales, and
fishing gear entanglements have killed three
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Pennsylvania Grant Aims to Reverse Acid Rain Damage
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - The Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) today awarded $394,207 to Stream Restoration Inc. to
improve watersheds in Butler County damaged by acid rain. "Pennsylvania has long been
the leader in identifying and addressing abandoned mine problems affecting public
health and safety," said DEP deputy secretary Robert Dolence.
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Hydro Dam is Removed on Schedule and within Budget
AUGUSTA, Maine, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - The last pieces of Edwards Dam have been
removed from the Kennebec River in Maine, less than four months after the dam was
breached. "This is a milestone for the environment and river communities everywhere,"
says Laura Day of the Kennebec Coalition, a group formed in 1989 with the goal of
removing the dam. The Coalition includes American Rivers, the Atlantic Salmon
Federation, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Trout Unlimited. "The fact that
the Edwards Dam removal project was completed in a timely and cost-effective manner
... is solid proof that dam removal works to restore a river and that such projects
are within reach for communities."
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California Halts Smog Fees for Out of State Cars
SACRAMENTO, California, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - California Governor Gray Davis has
ordered the State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to suspend collection of the
state’s $300 per vehicle smog impact fee, collected from residents who bring cars into
California from another state. The governor acted in response to a decision earlier
this month by the Third District Court of Appeal declaring the fee violated the U.S.
Constitution. The case, Jordan v. State of California, challenged a 1991 state law
requiring payment of the extra fee on vehicles registered or purchased outside
California. Those vehicles still had to obtain a smog check and be repaired by the
owner if they failed to meet state smog standards.
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Animal Crush Videos Crushed
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 1999 (ENS) - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed
legislation aimed at so called "crush videos," in which live animals are crushed and
killed by women in high heeled shoes. The bill, which passed on a 372 to 42 vote,
prohibits entering a "depiction of animal cruelty" into interstate commerce for the
purpose of commercial gain. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Elton Gallegly, a
California Republican, became aware of the videos when prosecutors in his home
district had difficulty charging "crush video" producers under anticruelty laws.
Prosecutors had to prove that the acts in the videos occurred within the statute of
limitations for animal abuse. Without date stamps or other evidence, it was difficult
to establish when the videos were made. ...................... The bill excludes
videos or other depictions with journalistic, religious, political, educational,
historic or artistic value. If passed, individuals prosecuted under the statute c!
!
ould
face up to five years in prison in addition to fines.
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Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct99/1999L-10-22-09.html
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WORLDSCAN WEEKLY NOTEBOOK OCTOBER 22, 1999
* TOURISTS TO SOUTH AFRICA DEPLETE WATER NEEDED BY CRANES
* 50% OF JAPANESE WHALEMEAT LACED WITH POLLUTANTS
* BEECH FOREST FIGURES IN NEW ZEALAND ELECTION
* RIVER ELBE RECOVERS FROM ECO-DEATH
* NAFTA FUNDS FOREST PROJECTS IN MEXICO, CANADA
* CREATING A MESOAMERICAN TRAIL
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct99/1999L-10-22ws.html
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TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND STATE EDITORS:
Stakes Raised by $4.1m in Battle to Save Endangered North Atlantic Right
Whale
YARMOUTHPORT, Mass., Oct. 22 -/E-Wire/-- Efforts to save the
endangered north Atlantic right whale got a big boost from Congress on
Wednesday when legislators approved $4.1 million for right whale research
activities, under the Endangered Species Act.
/CONTACT: Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell of IFAW, 508-744-2076/
/Web site: http://www.ifaw.org/
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Oct99/22Oct9902.html
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*Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1991-1999. All Rights Reserved.
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Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
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