Deadly Dividends
US -- When the Pentagon handed over decommissioned military bases to local authorities, there was a hidden bonus -- tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) buried in the soil. In California, more than 170 sites covering hundreds of thousands of acres may be boobytrapped with UXOs. In an article in the newsletter Military and the Environment, Lenny Siegel warns that "injury, disease and even death [are] likely to increase as more military facilities close and development moves into formerly remote areas." Siegel notes that "virtually every form of explosive, explosive byproducts, small arms, and often range targets, contain hazardous substances [but] until recently, sampling for soil and groundwater contamination at UXO sites was rare." In 1998, a Pentagon taskforce estimated that removing UXO from former military lands could cost $15 billion and take more than 100 years. [Center for Public Environmental Oversight, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132, www.cpeo.org]

Investigate US War Crimes
US -- The Central America Action Committee is urging the US to form a Truth Commission "to reveal war crimes and atrocities committed against civilian populations by the US and its surrogates throughout the world." New York lawyer/author/activist Malcolm Bell has drafted a resolution calling on Congress to create a "US Truth Commission." Writing in Interconnect magazine [57 South Main St., Pittsford, NY 14534, (716) 381-5606], Bell argues that such a body must be given "the subpoena power and security clearances it needs to dig into the heart of official darkness." Similar Truth Commissions have been convened in Guatemala, El Salvador and South Africa. Human Rights Watch, the Boston Globe and Washington Post have endorsed the call for such a commission. Meanwhile, Amnesty International's Sacramento office [(916) 553-4002] has scheduled a citizen-based "US Commission for Truth and Reconciliation" that will hold its first hearings in Oakland, California from September 10-18.

Sludge Critics Pressured
US -- Congressional investigators have charged that the EPA's Office of Water has actively promoted the use of sewage sludge as farm fertilizer despite a lack of sound science and open debate. EPA Assistant Administrator J. Charles Fox was chastised for permitting Alan Rubin, a senior EPA scientist, to wage a campaign of intimidation against citizens. California dairy farmer Jane Beswick testified that every time she publicly criticized the sludge-for-fertilizer program, Rubin fired off letters threatening to send federal inspectors to her farm. Environment News Service reports that the EPA "suppressed the opinions of both EPA and independent scientists" and even filed "unfounded ethics violations against EPA scientists who spoke out against the sludge rule." When the Cornell Waste Management Institute published a paper on the EPA's risk-assessment process, an Office of Water administrator sent a letter to the President of Cornell and state officials, denouncing the article. US sewage plants generate nearly 12 billion pounds of sludge each year. Because sludge is contaminated with toxic chemicals, heavy metals and pathogens, its use as a fertilizer has been banned in Europe.

Boycott Boise Cascade
Mexico -- When Mexican farmer Rodolfo Montiel won the Goldman Environmental Award (the Environmental Nobel Prize), members of the Goldman Foundation had to fly to Mexico to present the award to Montiel in prison. Montiel was beaten and jailed after protesting the logging of Guerrero State's old-growth forests by US timber giant Boise Cascade. The week after Montiel won the Goldman Award, Boise Cascade's annual shareholder meeting was disrupted by protestors calling for Montiel's release. The good news, reports Matt McGovern-Rowen of the Native Forest Network [PO Box 8251, Missoula, MT 59807], was that a proposed "corporate responsibility shareholder resolution passed. The bad news: Boise Cascade CEO George Harad said they do not have to make the changes shareholders requested and they never heard of Rodolfo Montiel."

Enviros Murdered in Guatemala
Guatemala -- On February 29, two conservationists with the National Protected Areas Council (CONAP) were assassinated in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Julio Armando Vasquez Ramirez was a CONAP regional administrator and Erwin Arnoldo Ochoa Lopez was CONAP's legal advisor. Ochoa was investigating dozens of environmental crimes that had damaged protected areas in the country's Atlantic Zone. Environmentalists around the world are asking for a full investigation and demanding that the safety of Guatemala's nature activists be assured. Please send faxes to President Alfonso Portillo [+011 (502) 221-4419] and Attorney General Adolfo Gonzolez Rodas [+011 (502) 221-2718].

One If by Land, Two If by Orbit
US -- Plans are underway for a nonviolent ground invasion of California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, the US Space Command's strategic citadel. Activists with Abolition 2000 and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space are planning a "mass national back-country resistance action" at the base to coincide with the International Day of Resistance to the Militarization of Space on October 7. "Global military power is increasingly run and coordinated through the Space Command's matrix of planetary surveillance and control," says the Vandenberg Action Coalition [(831)423-1626]. "Vandenburg's spectacular hills, valleys, mesas, sand dunes and woodlands also make it extremely vulnerable to massive disruption by nonviolent guerrilla actions."

Earth Day Awards
US - On Earth Day, April 22, the Global Environment Facility awarded its Global Environment Leadership Award to Anil Agarwal, Director of India's Center for Science and Environment, and US Earth Day promoter Denis Hayes. GEF Chair Mohamed T. El-Ashry announced that Agarwal was honored for his "career as an environmental journalist, environment advocate and analyst, prolific author on the environment [and] chair of the world's largest network of environmental organizations." Hayes was recognized for promoting a global celebration that has grown to include "hundreds of millions of people in more than 180 countries."

Population Funds Revived?
US -- Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) has introduced a bill to restore US support for the UN Population Fund and US Agency for International Development. "Rapid population growth exacerbates many environmental problems," Maloney explained. "The health of the planet is connected to the health of women," Meanwhile, notes the World Population News Service, "the US still has one of the highest adolescence pregnancy rates in the industrialized world."

Enron Spills Oil in Lake Poopo
Bolivia -- On February 3, 39,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled into Lake Poopo by Trans-redes, an oil company jointly owned by Dutch Shell and US-based Enron. The spill devastated the Uru Morato native community, which has lived on the lake's shore for 5,000 years. Since the spill, reports EcoNet [www.igc.org], the Uru Morato "have not seen a single fish or bird on their lake and are in danger of starvation. For the first time in thousands of years, the flamingos did not return to lay their eggs alongside Lake Poopo." The natives walked 135 kilometers to meet with Transredes representatives in the city of Oruro but the oil company refused to pay for damages. "The Uru Morato survived the invasion of the Aymara, Inca and Spanish colonists, but globalization is what will kill them," observes journalist Tamara Stenn de Choque [School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT, (802) 258-3421].

Poor Nations to Rich: "Conserve"
Kenya -- The UN Environment Program (UNEP) has appealed to developed counties to reduce their consumption of natural resources by 90 percent to help the rest of the world escape from poverty. UNEP's massive Global Environment Outlook 2000 (GEO-2000), assembled by experts from more than 100 countries, concluded: "The continued poverty of the majority of the planet's inhabitants and excessive consumption by the minority are the two major causes of environmental degradation." GEO-2000 found that "a ten-fold reduction in resource consumption in the industrialized countries is a necessary long-term target if adequate resources are to be released for the needs of developing countries."

"These are not visionary ideas," insists UNEP Director Klaus Toepfer. "These are a must for a world with a year-by-year population increase of up to 80 million people." GEO-2000 identified global warming and water shortages as "inevitable" and the two worst problems facing life on Earth. "Time for a rational, well-planned transition to a sustainable system is running out fast. In some areas, it has already run out," Toepfer warned.

Shocking Discovery
US -- The International Rivers Network is urging Discover Card holders to cut the plastic credit cards into pieces and mail the remains back to the card's owners, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The reason: Morgan Stanley is helping to finance China's controversial Three Gorges Dam. "This is the first time an environmental and social issue has hit the Wall Street investment banks," notes IRN's Doris Shen. The Bank of America has already pledged not to invest directly in the dam. Merrill Lynch and Citigroup have agreed to discuss their position on the dam.

Army Admits Nerve Gas Leak
US -- The US Army admitted that a May 8 malfunction at the US Army's controversial Tooele incinerator blasted live GB (Sarin) nerve gas into the Utah skies. The Chemical Weapons Working Group [CWWG, Box 467, Berea, KY 40403, (859) 986-7565] subsequently confirmed that a second Sarin release occurred on May 9. CWWG charged that documents released by the facility's Chief Safety Officer suggest "the Army knew of the problems that led to [the] leak and did nothing about it in order to stay on schedule and keep costs down." The Army plans to dispose of 25,000 tons of nerve gas by incineration. The problem with incineration, CWWG notes, is that "incinerators emit hundreds of toxic chemicals (including low levels of nerve agent) out of their smokestacks even under normal operating conditions." Instead of using the atmosphere as a dumpsite, CWWG wants toxic agents isolated by chemical neutralization.

As Goes New Jersey
US -- Under the Kyoto Protocol, the US has less than 12 years left to reduce its greenhouse emissions to a level seven percent below 1990 levels. The US Senate has so far refused to even ratify the treaty. Some 18 states and 14 cities have initiated CO₂-reduction programs and New Jersey has become the first state to set actually reduction goals -- 131 million tons by 2005. Reductions will come from residential, commercial, and industrial energy efficiencies; from improvements in transportation and waste management; and from the expansion of biomass, wind and solar power. New Jersey Transit buses will switch to bio-fuel to cut emissions 20 percent and methane-producing landfills will be capped to confine .68 million tons of CO₂. Ashoka Gupta, an energy economist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says, "New Jersey is at least engaging in action on an issue that is largely being ignored on the national level." As bold as it is, New Jersey's plan would still only lower its CO₂ emissions by half the amount needed to reach its 1990 levels.

SUVs Slow Traffic
US -- Sport Utility Vehicles not only hog the road, squander gas and spew pollution, they also slow traffic. A University of Texas study found that the average SUV takes up the space of 1.4 regular cars and accelerates much slower. A single SUV crossing on a green light will slow traffic through the intersection by one-third. In high-traffic situations, SUVs can increase the average driving time by nearly 50 percent.

Bad Idea, Bad Location
India -- The anti-nuclear Poovulagin Nanbargai (Friends of the Tender Earth) is fighting India's plan to install a Russian-built nuclear reactor at Koodankulam in Tamilnadu. In a region beset by water shortages, the powerplant would have to draw cooling water from the Patchiparai dam, thereby reducing the amount available to local farmers. The plant's builders also plan to dump nuclear waste into the Bay of Bengal (Gulf of Mannar). The project is already in development although India's Atomic Energy Regulation Board has not yet granted a construction permit.

US Opposes War Crimes Court
US -- The US is fighting a behind-the-scenes battle to gut the International Criminal Court. The ICC was established under the 1998 Rome Treaty to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. While 94 countries have signed the treaty and eight nations have ratified it, the US and six other countries -- including Iraq, Libya, and China -- oppose the court. The US does not want the genocide or war crimes laws applied to US "peacekeeping forces" on foreign interventions. The US has asked that cases placed before the ICC should first be approved the United Nations Security Council (where the US enjoys a veto).

A Rising Tide Lifts All Votes
US -- The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Education Fund is spending $7.4 million on a national campaign to encourage citizens and political candidates to "address environmental issues" in the November election. To find out how incumbents voted on green issues and to learn where challengers stand, tap into the LCV website [www.voteenvironment.org]. Another excellent resource is the Project Vote Smart website [www.votesmart.org].

Rainforest Reprieve
Brazil -- The powerful ranchers' and landowners' lobby tried to push through a new law that could have allowed a 25 percent increase in the annual clearing and burning of the Amazon rainforest. Protest letters, faxes and e-mails poured in from around the world. The government briefly tried to block the flood of e-mails reaching the Brazilian Senate until the media cried "censorship." On May 17, the Congress shelved the proposal. The defeat marks "the first time that the Brazilian environmental movement has prevailed over the ranchers' powerful special interest group," reports Environmental Defense's Stephan Schwartzman. A mere one percent of Brazil's population controls 50 percent of the country's best agricultural land. "The fight over this legislation was really between the 19th century and the 21st, over the future of the Amazon," Schwartzman said. "It's important that the 21st century won."

Pombo's Mumbo Jumbo
US -- The Washington Post reported that Rep. Richard Pombo's (R-CA) Regulatory Fairness and Openness Act of 1999 was "almost a word-for-word draft [developed by] a coalition of pesticide manufacturers agricultural interests and food processors." The Post revealed that Jellinek, Schwartz & Connolly Inc., the consulting firm that helped write the Pombo bill, "employs a number of former senior managers of the EPA," including five former officials involved in the regulation of pesticides and toxic substances.