Despite warnings, India bent on pursuing GM crops

Crop failures and dire warnings by food security experts have not deterred India from going ahead with plans to allow farmers to grow genetically modified food crops that are developed indigenously, as well as from seeds supplied by transnational firms.

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, cleared Bt cotton for commercial planting in March this year. These are cotton seeds spliced with genes taken from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is deadly to the bollworm pest.

GEAC cleared Bt cotton, developed by the US seed giant Monsanto, in spite of the legal challenges to its planting pending in the Supreme Court. These challenges alleged irregular testing by farmers’ unions and non-governmental organizations led by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology (RFSTE).

Now, farmers are reaping the bitter fruits of GM crops. There have been spectacular crop failures in the three major cotton growing states of western Maharashtra and Gujarat and adjoining central Madhya Pradesh. A fourth state, southern Karnataka, has banned the sale of Bt cotton seeds.

Monsanto officials asserted that the crop failures have been due to droughts followed by unseasonable rains, and that this resulted in root rot, to which the Bt cotton crops have no resistance. But according to newspaper reports, Bt cotton crop failures in Gujarat state were due to bollworm attacks. This means, they say, that the Bt crop showed no resistance to bollworms, given the failures in the districts of Bhavnagar, Surendranagar and Rajkot. (IPS)

Report questions corps’ cleanup guidelines

The US Army Corps of Engineers does not have a sound basis for determining that 1,468 of 3,840 former defense sites do not need further study of cleanup action, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has determined.

A report by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, says the Corps’ conclusions are questionable because there is no evidence that the Corps reviewed or obtained information that would allow it to identify all the potential hazards at these Department of Defense (DOD) properties, or that it took sufficient steps to assess the presence of potential hazards.

For example, the GAO estimates that for about 74 percent of all the properties that the Corps lists as “no DOD action needed” (NDAI), the files do not indicate that the Corps reviewed or obtained information such as site maps of photos that would show ammunition storage facilities or other permanent structures that could indicate the presence of hazards including unexploded ordnance. In other cases, the files contained no evidence that the Corps took “sufficient steps” to assess the presence of potential hazards.

The GAO report recommends that the Corps develop more specific guidelines for identifying and assessing potential hazards at former DOD sites, and use the revised guidelines and procedures to revise all its NDAI files and determine which properties should be reassessed. (ENS)

Study: Millions of wild acres could be lost

About 319 million acres of wild public lands are at risk of destruction, warns a new report by the Campaign for America’s Wilderness.

The group, formed earlier this year, reports that seven out of eight acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service could be mined, logged, or otherwise developed because they lack permanent protection as wilderness. The Campaign for America’s Wilderness represents a nationwide effort to protect wild lands under the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The report, titled America’s Wilderness Heritage in Crisis: Our Vanishing Wild Landscapes, cites the loss of wilderness qualities in key areas such as California’s High Sierra, Idaho’s Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands, Utah’s San Rafael Swell, Nevada’s McCullough Mountains, and Alaska’s Arctic. Increased oil drilling and mining, encroaching suburban growth, rampant dirt bike and off road vehicle use, and fragmentation caused by roadbuilding all detract from the wild nature of these lands, the group charges.

The Campaign is working to help state coalitions and citizen groups across the country to raise awareness of wilderness issues and to seek adoption of proposals and initiatives that will provide permanent protection for wilderness. (ENS)

All US coral reefs face human threats

Every US coral reef system is suffering from both human and natural disturbances, warns a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The first national assessment of the condition of US coral reefs links development, pollution, and destructive fishing practices with the decline of reefs in US waters and around the globe. The 265 page report, The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the Unites States and Pacific Freely Associated States, identifies the pressures that pose increasing risks to the nation’s estimated 7,607 square miles of coral reefs, particularly in hot spots located near population centers. The report also assesses the health of reef resources, ranks threats in 13 geographic areas, and details ongoing efforts to mitigate damage to coral reefs.

Raising public awareness and stimulating official action on coral reefs is crucial , the report’s authors say, because an estimated 27 percent of the world’s shallow water coral reefs may already be beyond recovery. An estimated 66 percent are now considered to be severely degraded.

Natural environmental pressures such as temperataure, sea level changes, diseases, and storms have shaped coral reefs for thousands of years, but human induced pressures are now forcing rapid changes on reef ecosystems. Coastal pollution, coastal development and runoff, and destructive fishing practices are among the top ranked threats to reefs.

Other risks come from ship groundings, diseases, changing climate, trade in coral and live reef species, alien species, marine debris, harmful tourist activity, and tropical storms. (ENS)

Snowmobile testimony missing; Bush admin. blamed

The views of some government experts were never heard when the Environmental Protection Agency was considering new restrictions on pollution caused by snowmobiles, a US senator said Sept. 25. Sen. Harry Reid, (D-NV) a longtime opponent of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, released documents that he says show the Bush administration disavowed its own scientists’ advice when developing the new standards. Staff members at Reid’s office said a “government whistleblower,” whom they did not name, approached Reid with documents showing that the Department of Interior removed comments urging the EPA to take specific measures to curb snowmobile emissions that contribute to haze and smog.

The comments, apparently part of a draft letter from the Interior Department on the snowmobile rule, were removed before the final version of the letter was sent.

Earlier this month, the EPA released long-awaited rules requiring that snowmobiles have 30 percent less hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 2006. More reductions will be required by 2010 and 2012. The regulations are part of a larger movement within the EPA to rein in pollution from off-road vehicles and large industrial engines. (Billings Gazette)

Against SEC rules, firms hide environmental risks

Publicly traded companies in the automobile manufacturing, insurance, oil and gas, petrochemical, and utility industries are failing to report material environmental issues such as climate change in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to a report released Sept. 30 by Friends of the Earth.

At a Senate briefing, the organization presented its survey of the 2001 annual SEC filings of business sectors likely to be impacted by climate change. It shows that while at least one company in each industry disclosed climate risks to its shareholders, most of them did not, in violation of SEC disclosure rules.

European, Japanese and Canadian firms reported at a rate of 56 percent, the report states, while US firms reported at a rate of only 15 percent. The report’s findings also support recent evidence that environmental disclosure among publicly traded companies in the US is weak and poorly enforced. A 1998 study by the EPA found that 74 percent of companies do not report environmental legal proceedings contemplated and/or initiated by environmental agencies that are likely to result in monetary penalties of over $100,000, despite clear SEC rules requiring this disclosure. (ENS)

Trek called ‘greenwashing’ con

Two groups of trekkers — one northbound, the other heading south — converged on Salt Lake City Sept. 28, ending a two-month, 1,600-mile journey designed to increase awareness and appreciation of the vast federal lands in the West. They were met with entertainment, balloons, prizes, and speeches by Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Dubbed “American Fronteirs: A Public Lands Journey,” the trek began July 31, with two groups of about a dozen trekkers each setting out from the Canadian and Mexican borders. During the past two months, the groups traversed their routes entirely on public lands, which comprise the majority of land in the West, by foot, on horses, motorcycles, canoes, boats, SUV, and all terrain vehicles.

But critics say the event illustrates the Bush administration’s agenda to give corporations more say over public land management. They accuse the trek of being simply a massive PR campaign that paints public land as a playground for motorized recreation. Among the sponsors of the event, whom critics say are “greenwashing” the public into believing that they care about the environment, are American Honda, which manufactures motorcycles, ATVs and personal watercraft; and the American Recreation Coalition, whose members are primarily manufacturers of recreational and off-highway vehicles. Less controversial sponsors include the National Geographic society and the National Wildlife Federation.

While the sponsors characterize the trek as a way to “highlight the beauty, accessibility and benefits of our public lands,” many environmentalists believe it is principally a front for the recreational vehicle industry. Heidi McIntosh, attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said t he event should emphasize protection of public lands rather than promote motorized activities that to date have been unmanaged and extremely destructive. (Salt Lake Tribune)