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Bush Asks Global Action to Halt Weapons of Mass Destruction WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - President George W. Bush Tuesday urged new international efforts to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), saying the most dangerous threat before the world is the potential for terrorists or rogue nations to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons in a surprise attack."The greatest threat before humanity today is the possibility of secret and sudden attack" with such weapons, Bush said in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington. "Every civilized nation has a stake" in preventing this from happening, he said. "These materials and technologies, and the people who traffic in them, cross many borders," Bush said. "To stop this trade, the nations of the world must be strong and determined. We must work together, we must act effectively." He announced seven proposals that would modernize nonproliferation laws, restrict the sale and transport of nuclear technologies and equipment, and stop the sale of nuclear technology to countries that do not agree to vigorous international inspections to ensure their nuclear programs are for peaceful purposes. Bush also urged the United Nations Security Council to quickly approve a U.S. proposed resolution that would require all states to criminalize proliferation, enact strict export controls, and secure all sensitive materials within their borders. He also proposed to expand efforts to do away with weapons left over from the Cold War. In his remarks, Bush focused on two sources of the spread of weapons of mass destruction - rogue nations, and black market operatives motivated by "greed, or fanaticism or both." He described how U.S. and British agents were able to uncover a nuclear black market network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. "For decades, Mr. Khan remained on the Pakistani government payroll, earning a modest salary. Yet, he and his associates financed lavish lifestyles through the sale of nuclear technologies and equipment to outlaw regimes stretching from North Africa to the Korean Peninsula," Bush said. Khan has confessed his crimes, and his top associates are out of business, Bush said. "The government of Pakistan is interrogating the network's members, learning critical details that will help them prevent it from ever operating again," and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has promised to share all the information he learns about the Khan network and has assured the United States that his country will never again be a source of proliferation, he said. Bush noted that a former customer of the Khan network, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Ghadafi, had recently "voluntarily agreed to end his nuclear and chemical weapons programs, not to pursue biological weapons, and to permit thorough inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons." Ghadafi "made the right decision, and the world will be safer once his commitment is fulfilled. We expect other regimes to follow his example," Bush said.
Congress Invited to Consider Renewable Energy WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - In a letter delivered today by the Sustainable Energy Coalition, 78 business, environmental, consumer, religious, and energy policy organizations are urging members of Congress to join the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RE/EE) Caucus. A similar letter is set to be delivered shortly to the members of the U.S. Senate who have not yet joined that body's RE/EE Caucus.The House and Senate RE/EE Caucuses are non-legislative, bipartisan organizations created to promote greater awareness among members of Congress of the status and potential of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Originally formed in 1996, the House RE/EE Caucus has grown to now include 223 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The newest member to join is Congressman Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican. The Senate RE/EE Caucus presently numbers 32 members. The caucuses provide their members with announcements of related events of interest and a weekly compilation of news stories reporting on energy efficiency and renewable energy developments around the country. They co-host an ongoing series of congressional briefings on energy policy issues with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and the Sustainable Energy Coalition. Renewable energy presently provides about eight percent of the nation's domestic energy production while technologies such as wind, biofuels, and photovoltaics are among the nation's fastest growing sources of energy supply, the Coalition says in its letter of invitation. In addition, over the past three decades, improvements in energy efficiency have contributed more value to the U.S. economy and the environment than any energy source, because they have saved more energy than production has increased in oil, natural gas, coal, or nuclear. The biggest caucus event is the annual RE/EE EXPO which typically draws about 3,000 people. The next EXPO, which will exhibit advanced technologies that are already protecting the environment, enhancing national security, and creating new jobs, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 8. The 78 organizations requesting Congressional attention include the national solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower associations and the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, the Alliance to Save Energy, the City and County of San Francisco, and Republicans for Environmental Protection.
Climate Change Puts Bighorn Sheep at Risk of Extinction BERKELEY, California, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - Thirty of the 80 groups of desert bighorn sheep that once roamed California's mountains over the past century are now extinct, and new research has linked their disappearance with the effects of climate change.The study led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley found that the state's remaining bighorn populations could face extinction if certain global warming forecasts for the next 60 years come true. "Climate was consistently correlated with extinction in a way the other factors weren't," said Clinton Epps, a doctoral student in environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and lead author of the paper, published in the current issue of the journal "Conservation Biology." From 1901 to 1987, the mean annual temperature in the deserts of the southwestern United States increased by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, which is considered significant by climatologists. In addition, annual precipitation dropped about 20 percent in southeastern California over the last century. According to the study, groups of bighorn sheep were more likely to be lost in lower elevation mountains where there were higher average temperatures and less precipitation. "The harsh environment inhabited by desert bighorn sheep already has them walking on a knife's edge. It doesn't take too much to push them off. The bottom line is that more than one-third of the populations that were once known are now gone," said Epps. Desert bighorn sheep live in small, isolated groups throughout the mountain ranges of the Sonoran, Mojave and Great Basin deserts of the southwestern United States. In southwestern California, they are found in the Transverse and Peninsular mountain ranges. Bighorn has been a species of concern among conservationists since they were first protected by California legislation in 1873. Statewide, the population of desert bighorn is estimated at 3,500. Bighorn in the Peninsular and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges are listed as state and federal endangered species. In this latest study, researchers evaluated impacts on the sheep ranging from contact with domestic livestock, which can lead to the spread of disease and competition for food, to poaching, mining, and human disturbance. The authors examined population data on the state's desert bighorn sheep, or Ovis canadensis nelsoni, collected since 1940 by biologists and California Department of Fish and Game researchers. They also used historical records from local areas where the sheep were known to have lived, but had since disappeared. They analyzed climatic variables such as temperature and precipitation that affect the availability of vegetation and dependable sources of spring water for the sheep. The authors looked at predictions of how climate may change in the next 60 years. For scenarios that predict a minimum temperature increase of 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit, there is no significant increase in the average probability of extinction. But in scenarios that predict a more serious temperature increase of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and a 12 percent decrease in precipitation, the probability of extinction increases significantly from a baseline of 20 percent to 30 percent in the next 60 years. "When you start losing bighorn sheep from some mountain ranges, it affects the collective population," said Dale McCullough, professor of ecosystem sciences at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and co-author of the paper. John Wehausen of the White Mountain Research Station, Vernon Bleich of the California Department of Fish and Game, and Jennifer Rechel of the U.S. Forest Service also participated in the research. "Any decline in vegetation makes it more difficult for sheep to move among the different habitat clusters, which have become fewer and more spread out," McCullough said. "Where they used to be able to move more readily to other mountain ranges to help repopulate or recolonize a habitat area, they must now cross an intervening desert." "Our study illustrates how sensitive certain populations can be to changes in climate, whether man-made or not," said Epps. "Cases like this give conservationists some ammunition when talking about the importance of controlling global warming." WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - Oxfam America and Earthworks/Mineral Policy Center have chosen the Valentine's Day holiday coming up on Saturday to warn shoppers away from giving gold to their sweethearts. Calling gold mining "the dirtiest industry," the two organizations have targeted the U.S. gold jewelry market as an industry ripe for reform through consumer pressure because of the "extensively documented" human and environmental costs of gold mining. The production of a single 18 karat gold ring weighing less than an ounce generates at least 20 tons of mine waste, the two groups claim. Metals mining employs less than one-tenth of one percent of the global workforce but consumes seven to 10 percent of the world's energy. "Right now, purchasers of gold jewelry and high-tech products have no alternative but to buy products that contain dirty gold," said Keith Slack, senior policy advisor with Oxfam America. In developing countries gold mining is associated with protests, human rights abuses, and even imprisonment, along with environmental devastation, the organizations said. "Our people have suffered beatings, imprisonment, and murder for standing up for our community rights against multinational mining companies," said Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a mining activist from the Tarkwa district of Ghana where 30,000 people were displaced by gold mining operations between 1990 and 1998. "We want buyers of gold to support our rights and demand that mining companies adhere to higher ethical standards." International Campaign Director with Earthworks Payal Sampat said, "We're asking consumers to consider the real cost of gold and we're enlisting their help to put an end to mining practices that endanger people and ecosystems." Earthworks and Oxfam today released a report which details the massive pollution and, in many cases, human rights abuses that have become hallmarks of gold and metals mining in countries such as Peru, Indonesia, Ghana and in parts of the United States. The report, "Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment," and a fact sheet on gold mining can be downloaded from http://www.nodirtygold.org. ST. PAUL, Minnesota, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - The U.S. ornamental plant industry, which includes deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, cut flowers, and foliage and flowering potted plants, grew in value to $14.3 billion in 2002. But an increase in the spread of rust diseases could have devastating results on ornamental crops industry, warn pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS). According to Dr. James Buck, assistant plant pathology professor at the University of Georgia, a fungal infection called rust has the ability to negatively affect production of many ornamental crops such as the crops of geranium, chrysanthemum, gladiolus, and daylily produced in the United States. "Because live plants are shipped all over the country, the risk for rapid disease spread is substantial," said Buck. While rust fungi do not usually kill infected plants, infection by rusts will reduce plant health and flower production. Currently, more than 125 species of fungi that cause rust have been reported on 56 different ornamental crops. "Rust pathogens cannot be adequately detected on contaminated but symptomless plant material entering the U.S. or moving state-to-state," said Buck. "As such, rust pathogens have the potential to dramatically affect ornamental crop production." Rust spores can lodge in the crown of plants that have had foliage removed for shipping purposes, the APS cautions. Symptomless plants are then moved long distances through international or interstate trade, dispersing the pathogen and introducing it into areas that were previously free of rust. While quarantine restrictions and eradication efforts are used to manage rust outbreaks and minimize potential disease loss, such efforts are not perfect and can have a significant economic impact on crop production. International trade of ornamental crops has made the exclusion of rust pathogens difficult because contaminated plant parts may be symptomless and inadvertently allowed to enter quarantined areas. With repeated introductions, pathogens may become widespread and cause the quarantine to fail. According to Buck, plant pathologists are currently working on improved detection methods and developing new diagnostic methods to quickly and accurately identify quarantined pathogens.
Eating to Conserve Fish Easy with New Pocket Guide MONTEREY, California, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - A national pocket guide to sustainable seafood created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium is now available to consumers across the country. The tool can help people protect ocean wildlife every time they order seafood at restaurants and seafood markets.The national guide features 60 of the most popular seafood species found on menus and in markets across the United States, ranked in “Best Choices,” “Caution” and “Avoid” categories by the aquarium’s Seafood Watch research team. Topping the “Best Choices” list are items including farmed catfish and farmed caviar, stone crab, wild caught Alaska salmon, tilapia and Pacific halibut. The “Avoid” list includes Atlantic and Icelandic cod, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, swordfish, imported shrimp, red snapper and shark. The guide, modeled on the aquarium’s West Coast pocket guide first issued in 1999, will reach two million people by Earth Day 2004, including 770,000 cards distributed in the January issue of Sierra magazine, and another 600,000 in the March/April issue of National Wildlife magazine. "Fish are the only wildlife on Earth still actively hunted as a major food source,” said Jennifer Dianto, who heads the aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. Increased consumer demand for seafood and the growth of destructive fishing practices have had a profound effect on the health of the oceans. Today, 11 of the world’s 15 most important fishing areas – and nearly 70 percent of the world’s fisheries – are either fully fished or overfished. Each year an estimated 30 million tons of fish, sharks and seabirds are caught accidentally and discarded, dead or dying. Fish farming, or aquaculture, has its own set of problems, including pollution, spread of disease to wild populations and the destructive conversion of coastal wetlands into commercial fish farms. “Fisheries conservation is among today’s most important marine conservation issues,” said aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard. “It’s an environmental problem whose solution is in people’s hands every time they buy seafood. Through Seafood Watch, we want people to have the information they need to make wise choices when they shop.” The cards are also available on the aquarium’s website at: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org. More than 8,000 national pocket guides were downloaded in December – the first month they were available. That month, the Seafood Watch pocket guide was singled out by the New York Times Magazine in its “Year in Ideas” issue as one of the notable innovations of 2003. With support from aquarium donors and the aid of a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, regional guides for Hawaii, the Southeast/Gulf Coast, the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes will be released in 2004.
Nisqually Tribe, Soldiers Team to Restore Creek FORT LEWIS, Washington, February 12, 2004 (ENS) – Muck Creek may be small, but it supports a huge run of chum salmon. This winter the Nisqually Indian Tribe and troops from nearby Fort Lewis will plant over 15,000 native trees and shrubs to prevent the resurgence of reed canary grass, an invasive weed, along the banks of Muck Creek.Imported to the area as a cattle feed years ago, the non-native grass had choked salmon access to much of Muck Creek until it was removed recently. “Muck Creek is home to about a third of the chum salmon that are produced in the Nisqually River watershed,” said David Troutt, natural resources director of the Nisqually Tribe. “It has historically been one of the most productive chum streams in the Puget Sound.” Muck Creek has been the focus of much restoration work in the past few years. Last fall, the Nisqually Tribe and local groups restored several acres of Muck Lake. In addition to clearing reed canary grass and planting a new buffer of trees, the tribe also restored salmon spawning and rearing habitat in nearby Lacamas Creek. The project is being funded by a Department of Defense grant through Fort Lewis. Two summers ago the Nisqually Tribe and Fort Lewis personnel teamed up on a chum salmon spawning channel on Muck Creek. That year, the Nisqually River and Muck Creek saw a record chum run. “That was a historic year,” said Troutt, adding that it likely had more to do with the tremendous ocean conditions rather than freshwater habitat improvements. “To take full advantage of good ocean conditions now, we need to do as much as we can to restore our streams and rivers,” Troutt said. “A major priority of our management strategy for Muck Creek is restoring the riparian habitat along the creek and controlling reed canary grass infestations,” said David Clouse, habitat biologist for Fort Lewis. “Many sections of the riparian zone along Muck Creek are in good shape, and used as templates as far as species to plant and density of plantings.” “Removing the canary grass is one thing, but to ensure that it doesn’t come back, you have to restore the trees around the creek,” said Florian Leischner, salmon recovery biologist for the Nisqually Tribe. “Reed canary grass can only grow in areas that have plenty of sunlight. If you cut off the sun, you cut off the grass.” “Riparian plantings along Muck Creek have been conducted since the early 1980s involving staff personnel, volunteers, the Nature Conservancy, and the Nisqually Tribe,” said Clouse.” Historically, the Nisqually Tribe had a permanent village on the banks of Muck Creek where it meets the Nisqually River. “This is one of the most important places for the tribe,” said Georgianna Kautz, Nisqually tribal Natural Resources Manager. Cooperation between the Nisqually Tribe and Fort Lewis is essential to the success of this project. “The tribe and the fort have a long and successful history of working together,” said Troutt. “We are happy to have such good environmental stewards as neighbors.”
Doctors Urge Schools to Go Vegetarian WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2004 (ENS) - The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is urging the nation's schools to drop beef from their lunch programs because of the threat posed by mad cow disease.In a letter sent Tuesday to the country's 50 biggest school districts, the organization's Nutrition Projects Coordinator Jennifer Keller, prompted school food service directors to replace beef and other meats with vegetarian foods. "The alarming reality is that because of lax regulations, poor enforcement, and very limited testing, the extent to which mad cow disease has entered the human food supply is unknown," says Keller. An expert panel appointed by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Friday that other infected animals probably have been imported from Canada and possibly also from Europe. "These animals have not been detected and therefore infective material has likely been rendered, fed to cattle, and amplified within the cattle population, so that cattle in the U.S. have also been indigenously infected," they said. What is known, says Keller, is that many U.S. livestock rendering and feeding practices are similar to those in place in Great Britain just before the outbreak of the mad cow epidemic there in the late 1980s. Since then, more than 140 British people have died from the human form of this infection, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) disease, as a result of eating contaminated beef. The physicians recommend that school lunch programs replace beef with soy, textured vegetable protein, and beans in menu items to assure that children in our schools have safe, healthy and tasty menu choices. "Veggie burgers, soy hot dogs, and other meatless menu choices are low in fat, high in fiber, aid children in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, and are free of prions, the infectious agent in mad cow disease and vCJD," says Keller. "A healthy vegetarian menu is a win-win situation for kids and adults," she says. For more about mad cow disease and vCJD, go to: http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/madcow_facts.html. For a copy of the letter and for more information on the Healthy School Lunches Campaign, and PCRM's annual School Lunch Report Card, which grades the nutrient quality of menu items offered in the nation's largest school districts, visit PCRM's Web site at http://www.HealthySchoolLunches.org Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, especially good nutrition. PCRM also conducts clinical research studies, opposes unethical human experimentation, and promotes alternatives to animal research.
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