Activists jailed for Montana logging protest

An unburned Ponderosa pine in the
Bitterroot National Forest. The tree is
in the Bear Timber sale, one of the first
sales of the Forest Service’s
“Burned Area Recovery Plan.”
Photo courtesy of Wild Rockies Earth First!

Missoula, Montana, June 21 (ENS)— Two environmental activists are being held at the Missoula County Detention Center on $70,000 bail after hanging a banner from a logging truck and rappelling off a bridge in Missoula, Montana.

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NAFTA agrees to study Mexican maize genetic contamination

Mexico City, Mexico, June 20— The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has this week agreed that it will study the genetic contamination of maize varieties in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. This decision followed a request filed in April by indigenous communities from Oaxaca, along with Greenpeace and three other non-governmental organizations, under Article 13 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the NAFTA environmental side agreement.

In deciding to undertake the study, the CEC has now publicly recognized the gravity of the situation in Mexico, where over 300 locally cultivated and wild maize varieties are threatened by genetic contamination that most likely has originated from US imported GE maize. The case also creates a precedent, as this is the first time that an environmental oversight body of an international trade agreement will address environmental damage caused by genetically engineered (GE) crops.

“There is great concern around the world about the genetic contamination of the center of origin and diversity of maize, one of our most important food crops.  We are happy to see that the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation has now acknowledged the seriousness of the issue.  The CEC decision to act on these concerns should commit all three NAFTA countries into taking the necessary measures to halt and remediate the contamination,” said Eric Darier of Greenpeace Canada.

“The Mexican Government has known about this contamination for almost a year and hasn’t done anything to stop it from spreading or solve the problem,” said Hector Magallón, Genetic Engineering Campaigner for Greenpeace Mexico.  “We hope NAFTA’s decision will finally make the Mexican officials take the necessary measures to address the first case of genetic contamination of a center of origin of one of the world’s most important food crops."

Mexico should require segregation of GE and conventional maize, and ban the import of GE maize from the United States, Greenpeace said. Recognition of the seriousness of this issue should also prompt calls for identification of the companies responsible for the transgenic pollution and for compensation by those companies for environmental and economic damages incurred by local communities, the organization added.

On Apr. 24, twenty-two indigenous communities in Oaxaca, concerned about GE contamination in 15 communities, requested that the CEC “carry out an assessment of the possible environmental impacts on maize biodiversity and ecosystems of Oaxacan communities that might arise from contamination by release of genetically engineered maize.” They were joined on the legal petition by Greenpeace, the Mexican Center for Environmental Rights, the Group of Rural Studies and Counseling, and the Union of Mexican Environmental Groups.  Since then, this petition has been endorsed by 92 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academics from Canada, the United States and Mexico, and supported by over 60 NGOs from non-NAFTA countries.

Source: Greenpeace International

ENVIRO BRIEFS

EPA: toxic sludge is good for fish
The Army Corps of Engineers’ dumping of toxic sludge into the Potomac River protects fish by forcing them to flee the polluted area and escape fishermen, according to an internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) document.

The document instructs officials to focus less on the concerns of fishermen who say the sludge dumping is killing fish and more on the ability of the fish to complete their spawn without interference from the discharges.

A spokesman for the EPA was not available to comment on the document. The agency used the information contained in it to allow the dumpings through the C&O Canal National Park and into the Potomac, a designated American Heritage river.

The Corps dumps 200,000 tons of “toxic sludge” into the river every year in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. (Washington Times)

Diseases ‘scarier than bioterrorism’
Warming temperatures around the world are increasing the geographical range and virulence of diseases, a trend that could mean more devastating epidemics in humans, animals, and plants, according to a report published in Science magazine June 20.

Researchers have long accepted that global warming will affect a wide range of organisms, but they are only now beginning to predict what those will be. While climate change scientists have studied a handful of human diseases, this report was the first to study dozens of diseases in both humans and non-humans.

“We are seeing lots of anecdotes and they are beginning to tell a story,’’ said Andrew P. Dobson, professor at Princeton University’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology and one of the authors. “It’s a much more scary threat than bioterrorism.’’

This report adds to the growing evidence that nearly every part of the natural world could suffer in some way from the long-term warming trend. (Boston Globe)

Georgia-Pacific fined $10 million
Georgia-Pacific Corp. will pay $10.1 million and donate 1,000 acres for environmental damage caused by polluting the Fox River, Wisconsin state officials said last Thursday.

Georgia-Pacific is one of seven paper companies accused of dumping polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, into the river from the 1950s through the 1970s. The chemicals have been linked to reproductive and developmental problems in people, fish, and wildlife. (AP)

Smoggy days in Canada now
named for polititians
Greenpeace in Toronto, Canada has announced its plan to begin naming Toronto’s smog-filled days after local members of the federal Liberal government in order to draw attention to Canada’s failure to ratify the Kyoto Accord.

June 20, Toronto’s first smog day of the summer, was christened Smog Day Augustine, after member of Parliament Jean Augustine, the environmental organization said.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s Liberal government signed on to the Kyoto agreement in 1997 but it has yet to ratify it, citing concerns over the financial impact and an ongoing debate over “clean” energy exports to the United States.

The accord seeks to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are blamed for global warming. (Reuters)