Pope to WTO: "Repent"
Italy -- In a May Day address, Pope John Paul II declared "the globalization of finance, of the economy, of commerce and of work, should never be allowed to violate the dignity and centrality of the human person or the democracy of peoples." Confessing that he felt "close in spirit to people who are forced to feed themselves with what falls from the table of the rich," the Pope urged world leaders to "tackle economic and social equality" and warned that globalization "needs to be wisely harnessed. It is necessary to globalize solidarity, too."

Planet of the Apes
India -- New Delhi residents are alarmed following the death of Arvind Kumar Jha, who died after being hit in the head by a flowerpot tossed by a monkey. As many as 7,000 monkeys -- displaced by the loss of forest habitat and the paving of city parks -- are roaming the streets of the Indian capital, breaking into offices and homes to steal food. Monkeys are considered sacred in India and cannot be killed. Meanwhile, in drought-stricken Kenya, monkeys attacked and killed an animal herder in a squabble over a spring. The East African Standard reports that Ali Adam Hussein died from "severe head injuries" after he was stoned by a troop of thirsty primates. Hussein's animals reportedly were "monopolizing [the] watering hole."

Coal Comfort
US -- The Great Lakes aren't so great these days. Over the past two years, as global temperatures have risen the levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron have dropped 2.9 feet. The Lake Carriers' Association (LCA) reports that its 60 vessels must forfeit as much as 270 tons of cargo "for each one-inch reduction in loaded draft." The shrinking of the lakes reduced cargo-vessel shipments by 6.5 percent in 1999. As LCA spokesman Glen Nekvasil noted in all seriousness, "A major utility in the Great Lakes area burns about 22,000 tons of coal a day, so you can see what the loss of nearly half of that amount can mean." (Less global warming, for one thing.)

Slower Traffic Means Cleaner Air
US -- For years, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) has paid to extend and widen freeways on the assumption that easing congestion reduces auto emissions. Not so, says a DOT-funded study by the University of California at Riverside. According to the Sierra Club, the study showed that emissions in most vehicles slowly rise as speed increases until pollution levels "go through the roof above 60 mph." The research also showed that "slow, non-aggressive neighborhood traffic" produces less pollution than traffic on streets controlled by stoplights. "Traffic-calming not only protects your children," the Sierra Club concludes, it "cleans the air."

A Cry for Alps
Switzerland -- The permafrost in Europe's Alps is warming three times faster than at any other time in the last 100 years. The thawing permafrost threatens to topple everything built atop it -- homes, resorts, and ski lifts. The famed St. Moritz cable car that carries skiers up the slopes of Corvatsch Peak is endangered and plans are underway to secure the lift with anchors. Eventually, the BBC reports, "the whole station [must be] rebuilt elsewhere." Costly 13-meter-tall walls are being built to protect tourist villages vulnerable to rockfalls caused by melting permafrost.

Did Chernobyl Kill Millions?
India -- An investigation by R. Ashok Kumar presented at a meeting in Mumbai marking the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion in the Ukraine on April 26, 1986, claims that the fallout from the accident may have killed "one million infants in India alone." Before the 1986 accident, India's infant morality rate was falling by a compounded rate of three percent. Figures from the International Institute of Population Studies in Mumbai show that the decline in infant mortality slowed from 1987-1988. Dr. Sumit Ghoshal notes that numerous studies have shown that "the maximum effect of sudden exposure of radiation in human beings lasts for about three years." Because low levels of radiation are known to cause "maximum damage during stages of rapid cell division and tissue growth," fetuses and newborns are most at risk.

Nuclear Power Kills Kids
Russia -- The Russian Academy of Science has linked radiation from a uranium mine to an epidemic of mental disease that now afflicts 95 percent of the children in a single Russian town. Epidemiologists have discovered that the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident triggered an epidemic of Down's Syndrome that swept across Europe -- from Germany, through Scandinavia, to Scotland. Meanwhile, in the US, a study by the Radiation and Public Health Project found that infant mortality rates in the vicinity of nuclear powerplants fell 15 to 20 percent after the reactors were shut down. Joseph Mangano, the author of the study, noted that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "never voluntarily performed a single study on cancer" in these communities.

Get an Education
Senegal -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was clearly angered by the poor turnout at the World Education Forum in Dakar in April. Only three government leaders bothered to show up (none from the world's richest countries). Annan warned that 375 million children currently are being denied the "fundamental human right" of an education. While Annan addressed the assembly of junior ministers and bureaucrats inside the plush Meridien Hotel, thousands of children and teachers (representing a coalition of 400 non-governmental groups from around the world) marched in the streets outside, unsuccessfully demanding entrance to the forum.

Chemical Stupidity
UK -- Millions of people are being turned into dunces by environmental pollution from lead, radiation, fluorides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Chris Williams, a fellow of the Global Environmental Change Program, reports that the problem may be even worse since "single-substance science does not account for compounding effects." Children with iron deficiency, for instance, can absorb greater amounts of lead. Ten percent of British kids now suffer from brain-dulling lead levels while, in some African cities, lead has dimmed the intelligence of 90 percent of the children. "I've seen Indian villages where the wells have been poisoned with fluoride, causing a loss of intelligence," Williams claims. "The human brain is now at risk from its own behavior. Nothing else in the ecosystem is harming itself in the same way."

Thirsty for Land
India -- Plagued by a record drought, with temperatures hitting 43 C (109°F) in the shade, villagers in Jodhpur have returned to drawing water from ancient, nearly forgotten, cisterns called bheri wells. But now, even these wells are running dry. According to the BBC, the droughts have provided "ruthless landowners with a perfect opportunity for expanding their landholdings" since water must often be purchased by selling land. The Indian government has introduced a program that allows farmers to volunteer work in exchange for water. Eight days of labor earns one tanker of water -- enough to sustain a typical family for seven days.