Ocean dead zones threaten planet
The spread of oxygen-starved “dead zones” in the oceans, a graveyard for fish and plant life, is emerging as a threat to the health of the planet, experts say. For hundreds of millions of people who depend on seas and oceans for their livelihoods, and for many more who rely on a diet of fish and seafood to survive, the problem is acute. Pollution, particularly the overuse of nitrogen in fertilizers, is responsible for the spread of dead zones, environment ministers and experts from more than 100 countries were told. The number of known oxygen-starved areas has doubled since 1990 to nearly 150, according to the UN Environmental Program (UNEP).

On land, nitrogen boosts plant growth. But when it washes into the sea in rivers and rainwater overrun, it triggers an explosive bloom of algae. When these tiny plants growing on the ocean surface sink to the bottom and decompose, they use up all the oxygen and suffocate other marine life. With oxygen depletion, fish, oysters and other marine life eventually die out along with important habitats such as sea grass beds. UNEP said efforts should focus on cutting back on overuse of nitrogen to bring the seas back to life. (Agence Free Press)

NC forests falling fast
More than a million acres of North Carolina forest disappeared since 1990 as urban areas gobbled up land for suburbs, shopping centers and highways. Foresters expected a loss of forest to urban growth, but the rate of loss was nearly twice as fast as expected, a US Department of Agriculture Forest Service survey indicates. The latest Forest Service inventory surveys forest growth, harvests and ownership between 1990 and 2002.

Wake County and the Piedmont, the state’s 35-county midsection, have seen the most dramatic change. Wake, one of the state’s largest counties, lost 78,964 acres of timberland, the most of any county in the state. Buddy Clayton, owner of Clayton Logging of Durham, said most of the timber cutting he has done in the past year has been to make way for development.

Forests cover more than 18.3 million acres in North Carolina, roughly 59 percent of the state’s land. That is 5 percent less than in 1990. It also is the least forestland since the 1930s, when land was being cleared for agriculture, said Will McDow, a forest economist with Environmental Defense. (Charlotte News & Observer)

Japan to reject GE wheat
Japanese consumer groups warned the US last week that the country would reject US wheat products if Monsanto Co. releases a controversial genetically engineered (GE) wheat variety. Representatives of the Consumers Union of Japan, along with several other Japanese environmental and consumer groups, met Mar. 26 in North Dakota with state and federal agricultural leaders, presenting them with a petition signed by 414 Japanese organizations urging a rejection of GE wheat.

The delegation was in North Dakota because the state is the top US producer of hard red spring wheat, and is the planned US launching pad for Monsanto’s biotech wheat product. Japan is the No. 1 buyer of North Dakota’s wheat, purchasing about 50 million bushels a year.

“The Japanese consumers will... certainly resist GE wheat or GE wheat products,” Keisuke Amagasa, a representative of the No! GMO Campaign of Japan, said through a translator. “We would hope the people of North Dakota would also oppose the cultivation of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat.” Amagasa said flour and milling associations in Japan have said they won’t import genetically modified wheat because of the negative consumer sentiment that has already successfully derailed some other biotech products. (Reuters)

Bush eases restrictions on old-growth
The Bush administration eased restrictions on logging old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest, finalizing a previously announced rules change that says forest managers no longer have to look for rare plants and animals before logging. Environmentalists decried the change, saying it would double logging on federal land in the region and have disastrous consequences for rare species.

The change was prompted by a timber industry lawsuit and is intended to boost logging on 24 million acres of public land in Washington, Oregon and northern California. The timber industry had complained for years that the so-called “survey and manage” rules -- which require study of the potential effects of logging on about 300 plant and animal species -- are overly intrusive and can take years to complete.

Regna Merritt of Oregon Natural Resources Council Action in Portland, OR said, “They are changing the rules and ignoring the science in a way that is simply illegal. They’re going to eliminate protections for threatened salmon and leave 47 species at high risk of extinction. The idea of looking before you log was that way we could prevent hundreds of species from going extinct.” (AP)

Rule change endangers salmon
A panel of biologists has charged that a US agency decision to reject its findings on West Coast wild salmon threatens the fish with extinction. At issue is whether salmon raised at government hatcheries should be counted as wild salmon. Currently, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) includes hatchery fish in its general counts but excludes them when considering salmon runs for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.

In September, Judge Michael Hogan of the US District Court in Eugene, Or., ruled that the federal regulations for counting fish are unworkable. He said hatchery-reared salmon should be included with wild salmon in determining the size of a given salmon run.

Because the numbers of hatchery fish are large on many rivers that support small populations of wild fish, the ruling could result in the de-listing of many runs currently considered endangered. That move has rankled members of the agency’s Recovery Science Review Panel, a federally authorized, independent board of six fisheries biologists and ecologists. The panel recommended that NMFS respond to the judge’s ruling by excluding hatchery fish from its general fish counts, but the agency rejected the recommendation. In a paper published Mar. 26 in the journal Science, the six panel members warn that several runs of coho and chinook salmon ultimately face extinction if they are removed from protection under the endangered-species law. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Global warming out of control
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have jumped abruptly, raising fears that global warming may be accelerating out of control. Measurements by US government scientists show that concentrations of the gas, the main cause of climate change, rose by a record amount over the past 12 months. It is the third successive year in which they have increased sharply, marking an unprecedented triennial surge.

Scientists are at a loss to explain why the rapid rise has taken place, but fear that it could show the first signs that global warming is feeding on itself, with rising temperatures causing increases in carbon dioxide, which then go on to drive the thermometer even higher. That would be a deeply alarming development, suggesting that this self-reinforcing heating could spiral upwards beyond the reach of any attempts to combat it. (Reuters)

Indians fight water privatization
At a meeting Mar. 22 to mark World Water Day in India’s parched capital New Delhi, experts from government bodies and nongovernmental organizations formed a people’s front to counter growing water privatization by multinational companies (MNCs). Around 500,000 residents are expected to sign a signature campaign now underway to force the government of Delhi to resolve problems of water-shortage and stop MNCs from controlling the precious natural resource in this city, which is gripped by a water crisis.

“If that doesn’t work, we are going to hit the streets,” threatens M.K. Mohanty, the chairman of the Bhagidari Apex Body, an organization underlining the role of citizens’ participation in policy matters such as water and power. Delhi, a city with a population of 13.78 million people, faces a water shortage of 200 million gallons per day. People fear that if MNCs are allowed to take charge of water, prices will shoot up, making the resource more inaccessible for the city’s majority poor population. (One World.net)

Contamination closes mine
Australia’s Ranger uranium mine and processing plant have been shut down after worker complaints of uranium-contaminated drinking water, majority owner Rio Tinto Ltd. said Mar. 25. Operators aimed to resume mining as early as later in the day, but now estimate it will take until at least the weekend to complete investigations with government regulators into the cause of the contamination. The number of staff complaining of mild symptoms after showers that may be related to the contaminated water had risen from two to three, Rio Tinto subsidiary Energy Australia Ltd said in a statement. The mine and plant employ about 200 workers.

It appeared that an erroneous connection was made between the potable water line used for drinking and washing and the water line used in processing the uranium, a spokeswoman said. The center’s researchers said the water was found to contain levels of uranium up to 400 times safe drinking levels, but Rio Tinto said it had been assured by health officials that the contamination posed no health risk to workers and that the water supply of a nearby town was not affected. The plant treats low-grade uranium oxide which is then stored in barrels before being shipped to North America, Japan and Europe, where it is enriched and used in nuclear power generation. (Reuters)

Herbicide sprayed in protected areas

Fumigation with glyphosate herbicide in areas of Colombia that are protected for their biodiversity is part of the joint Colombian-US effort to eradicate illegal drug crops. But it has come under fire for endangering the environment and the health of people who live in those areas. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide, which makes it particularly inappropriate for use in areas set aside to protect species, say critics of the fumigation operations. The US Congress approved funds in December for spraying illicit drug crops in Colombia’s natural parks.

The fumigation effort, said the expert, is part of the government’s strategy to fight drug trafficking through programs supported and financed by the US — and which have not been very successful. In addition to glyphosate’s potential harm to the biodiversity of the protected areas, there are the socioeconomic problems confronting some 800,000 indigenous peoples and peasant farmers living in those areas, said Senator Jorge Robledo, of the leftist Independent Labor Movement.

“They are families that are cornered by the lack of alternatives, who have to grow illegal crops, facing the risks entailed in breaking the law. And the government aims to fumigate as if they were insects,” said the lawmaker, who stressed that the bulk of the profits for drug traffickers comes from sales in the industrialized drug-consuming countries, led by the US.

The decision also violates several international treaties, like the Convention on Biodiversity, ratified by Colombia in 1994, and convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, which protects the integrity of indigenous communities, and violates other instruments related to the protection of forests and wetlands, he said. (Tierramerica)