Wednesday, 25 Aug 2004

The Glass Is Half Full -- Just Don't Drink From It

Most U.S. Lakes and Waterways Contaminated with Mercury, EPA Says

U.S. EPA head honcho Mike Leavitt struggled yesterday to put a positive spin on the agency's annual report on fish advisories, despite the grim news that virtually every body of freshwater in the country may be contaminated with mercury, which poses health risks to fetuses and children. Every state except Alaska and Wyoming issued warnings about mercury-contaminated fish last year. More than a third of America's lakes and almost a quarter of its miles of rivers are officially covered by fish advisories, but as Leavitt acknowledged, "Mercury is everywhere." The EPA attributes the increase in advisories to better monitoring, not worse pollution, noting that mercury pollution actually declined between 1990 and 1999 (the last year for which figures were available). The report is already adding fuel to the debate over the EPA's forthcoming mercury regulations, expected to be based on a cap-and-trade system that enviros say would be weak and too slow to produce results.

The Leaser of Two Evils

New Report Belies Need for New Oil and Gas Leases

President Bush has made increased domestic energy production, i.e., more oil and gas extraction from federal lands in the West, a centerpiece of his campaign, claiming it is the road to energy independence. His administration frequently proclaims the need to remove restrictive barriers to resource extraction. But a new report, based on Interior Department records, shows that since 1982 the federal government has leased some 229 million acres of land in 12 Western states for energy development, with no discernable effect on energy dependence. "Far from being blocked from access to the West," said Dusty Horwitt, an analyst with the Environmental Working Group, which compiled the report, "these numbers show that this industry controls the West." Despite the fact that less than half of this leased land is being actively used to produce energy, the Bush administration has pushed relentlessly for more leases, going so far as to create a federal task force that acts exclusively on behalf of oil and gas companies to speed leasing and development projects.

Powder Puffery

New Report Blasts Ski Industry's Voluntary Environmental Program

The National Ski Areas Association unveiled its voluntary Sustainable Slopes Program in 2000 with great fanfare. "Regulations only help you avoid the worst," said NSAA's Geraldine Link, "and a voluntary program like this can only bring out the best in terms of environmental compliance." Uh ... not so much. A new study concludes that not only is the program ineffective, due to its lack of outside oversight and mandatory policies, but those ski resorts that have signed on to the program actually have poorer environmental records than those that haven't. Program participants "appear to be displaying free-riding behavior expecting to improve their 'green' reputation without actually implementing it," say the study's authors, professors Jorge Rivera and Peter de Leon. They also blast the U.S. Forest Service and EPA for supporting the program, saying their imprimatur lends credibility to a program that doesn't seem to deserve it.

Let It LEED

Green Skyscraper Underway in NYC

Since the United States Green Building Council, a nonprofit industry group, published its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building standards in 2000, the field of environmentally friendly construction has become broader and more ambitious. Now the Durst Organization and the Bank of America have broken ground on one of the boldest projects yet: the first high-rise office building in the world expected to receive "platinum" LEED status, the highest in the four-tiered rating system. The council estimates that a 6 to 7 percent additional investment is required to achieve platinum status, which on a $1 billion project like this one isn't beans. However, council members cite a study the state of California commissioned last year concluding that while LEED-certified buildings cost an average of $4 more per square foot, they generate savings of between $48.87 and $67.31 per square foot over a 20-year period, primarily thanks to "human factors": increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and lower turnover.

Circuit Boards Roasting on an Open Fire

Dumped Electronics Poisoning Poor in Asia

Computers and other electronics discarded in the West frequently end up in poor villages in China and India, where they are stripped for residues of valuable metals in primitive procedures that poison local communities. Enviro activists report that Chinese villagers cook circuit boards over open charcoal burners to strip chips, capacitors, and condensers, burn off PVC casing from wires, and dip the components in vats of warm acid to recover traces of precious metals. Needless to say, breathing molten lead and PVC fumes and working with acid have no salutary effect on the health of the women, children, and elderly involved. These practices, documented by Greenpeace China and the Basel Action Network, are a result of the huge market in e-waste shipping and recycling, much of it illegal. Though some companies and countries are slowly making efforts to tackle the e-waste problem, the millions of computers discarded each year are simply swamping current efforts at responsible recycling.