Robots Rule
Switzerland - Un-employment is a problem for many world economies but, if you're a robot, the future couldn't be rosier. The UN Economic Commission for Europe reports that sales of industrial robots soared 101 percent globally in 1999. Sales in North America rocketed 214 percent. The robo-workforce is expected to grow at a rate of 8 percent per year. The US expects to have 15,600 robo-workers in 2002. Europe anticipates 32,000. The US Postal Service plans on buying 80,000 robot employees over the next 20 years. Robots built to mow lawns and vacuum floors soon may displace domestic workers.

Globalization and AIDS
South Africa - In a Boston Globe article, South African doctor Clive Evian offered a surprising explanation for the spread of the AIDS virus. "HIV epidemics go with a package," Evian said. "An emerging economy, transitions from traditional cultures into industrial economies? and economic stress on families." According to the Globe, men have abandoned their families to work in gold and diamond mines. The major recreations in the mining camps involve alcohol and prostitution. "Traditional cultures had strict rules governing sexual relationships," the Globe reported. But, with the coming of a modern economy, "those codes have broken down, with nothing to replace them."

Milk: Something for Every Baldy
US - Dairy products are among the most heavily marketed consumer products, but because milk and cheese contain large dollops of artery-choking fats, some nutritionists prefer to call this food group "liquid meat." In April 1999, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine [PCRM, 5100 Wisconsin Ave., NW, No. 404, Washington, DC 20016] petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to ban the popular "milk mustache" ads for making the false claim that drinking milk builds strong bones in adults. (PCRM notes that the medical studies cited by the milk advocates specifically "excluded African-Americans.") "A cup of whole milk contains 5 grams of saturated fat, a level that is high enough to disqualify it from any health claims at all, according to federal rules," PCRM notes. Among the celebrities who have appeared with milk-smeared upper lips: Conan O'Brian, Larry King, Bart Simpson, Spike Lee and Tyra Banks. Celebs who have vowed never to sprout milk moustaches include: Bill Maher, Kim Basinger, Kevin Nealon, Alicia Silverstone and James Cromwell. More bad news for lactophiles: Harvard researchers have found that high levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the blood can promote male baldness. IGF-1 is found in cows' milk.

A-Bombs into Baubles
US - The Department of Energy's plan to recycle radioactive scrap from atomic weapons plants into consumer goods is nothing new, according to documents obtained by former Paducah, Kentucky, nuclear workers who are suing the DOE for exposing them to dangerous levels of radiation. According to the Washington Post, "recovering gold and other valuable metals from retired nuclear weapons had been a little-known mission of the government's uranium enrichment plants over the past five decades." Long-secret documents have revealed how armed guards escorted the warheads into plants under cover of darkness. Paducah workers recovered radioactive gold, lead, aluminum and nickel from the warheads and turned them into ingots. "It is my belief that these recycled metals were injected into commerce in a contaminated form," Paducah technician Ronald Fowler testified. According to Joseph R. Egan, a lawyer representing the Paducah workers, "If you had a wedding ring made out of those [gold] flakes, you'd be getting twice as much radiation in an hour as most people get in a year." The Steel Manufacturers Association has vowed not to accept any metal that triggers personal radiation monitors.

A Cloud over Yellowstone
US - The Department of Energy plans to build a nuclear waste incinerator at its Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 90 miles upwind from Yellowstone National Park. The facility, which would be built by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., would import and burn 200,000 tons of radioactive trash from around the world. According to Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free [PO Box 4838, Jackson, WY 83001, www.yellowstonenuclearfree.com], the incinerator was rushed through the approval process "without so much as one legal notice to the residents of Wyoming." But radiation cannot be incinerated away. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Labs have called such incinerators "a violation of the cardinal principal of radioactive waste treatment: namely, containing radioactivity rather than spreading it around." If the burner is built, clouds of radioactive microscopic ash may soon be falling on the heads of the park's annual four million visitors. Local residents are suing to stop the plan and activist-lawyer Gerry Spence is donating his skills.

Globalization/Destabilization
US - Globalization pressures could topple governments and ignite bloody civil wars, according to the Control Risks Group (CRG), a British security consulting firm. "Asian and African nations' pursuit of foreign investment and International Monetary Fund loads will force them to adopt Western economic ideas like ... reduced public spending," Reuters reports, and this will "undermine ... political stability." CRG's senior analyst David Lewis predicts that "globalization will be a major cause in the downfall of governments." A survey conducted by CRG found that investors were "least worried about pressure group action and consumer boycotts." The threat they feared most was "international sanctions."

Solarize Now!
US - The accounting firm KPMG concludes that one large factory making five million solar photovoltaic (PV) panels a year could provide 250,000 homes with solar-power systems and cut energy costs by 75 percent or more. This would make solar power "cost-competitive for domestic consumers." The 105 million buildings in the US consume ten percent of the world's energy. Obstacles standing in the way of a long-awaited Solar Revolution are now neither technical nor financial, says Greenpeace (which commissioned the KPMG report). One large PV factory could be built for $660 million (about 0.5 percent of what oil companies spent on exploration and production in 1998). The government could accelerate this solar shift by ordering PV panels for all federal buildings. It was US investment in the semiconductor industry in the 1970s that led to the computer revolution of the 1990s.

Arctic Oil Plan Challenged
US - Greenpeace and native Inupiat have sued to prevent oil drilling in the waters off Alaska's north coast. BP Amoco's Northstar Project, would drill for oil on a platform six miles from shore and send the oil to shore via a pipeline buried in the seabed below the dangerous, ice-choked waters. The lawsuit claims that there is no way to contain a spill in these waters and that drilling would jeopardize the marine and coastal ecosystems that support the Inupiats' subsistence. "The Arctic Ocean is our garden and we cannot afford to have it contaminated by oil spills and industrialization," said Inupiat spokesperson Charles Edwardsen, Jr. "The science of climate change tells us that we cannot afford to burn even one-quarter of all known fossil fuel reserves without risking dangerous levels of global warming," said Greenpeace's Steve Sawyer. "Against this backdrop, it is irresponsible for the federal government to allow BP Amoco to open this new oil frontier to drilling."

Saving Nature ... for the Rich
US - "As the population booms, the desire for space is high on the list among home buyers, who are making quality-of-life choices on behalf of their families." So reads the press release from The Santa Lucia Preserve?, a 32-square-mile nature-estate-for-the-elite that "balances development and preservation for both society and nature." Ninety percent of this 20,000-acre site bordering Carmel and Pebble Beach on California's Monterey Peninsula would remain "permanent natural landscape and wildlife habitat." About 2,000 remaining acres would be developed for 350 family homes. Called one of the most "environmentally aware" land settlements in history, the reserve promises "today's high-end home-buyers the private, secure open spaces they are looking for." A $20 million endowment from the Santa Lucia Conservancy will ensure "the protection and restoration of native plant populations and animal habitats." This protection will not extend to the natural landscape that will be removed to build a "Tom Fazio golf course." Potential buyers are assured that the "peaceful 19th century landscape of open grassland, chaparral and coastal sage, creeks and streams, and woodlands of oak, redwood and pine" will prove "appealing to those with shared interests and values."

Dry, the Beloved Country
Ivory Coast - Fifty years ago, Africa was a net exporter of food. Today, Africa's soil is dying. A joint report issued by the United Nations and the World Bank finds that 200 million Africans are chronically malnourished - twice as many as 30 years ago. Within 25 years, two-thirds of Africa's anticipated population of one billion people may face starvation. Forests are logged and grasslands are burned to plant cash crops for export. These crops deplete the soil, leaving a growing legacy of degraded land - 850,000 square miles according to the World Bank. In Ivory Coast, the Associated Press reports, "agronomists are locked in a fight against time to provide alternatives to farmers who are obliterating the country's rainforests in a voracious search for rich virgin land." Ninety percent of the country's trees are gone and "the rest could be gone in a decade."

A Sun Yi Disposition
China - Every week, millions of Chinese children turn on their radios to hear a sweet voice announce, "Hello children. Welcome to this starry evening and the 'I Love Mother Earth' program." The announcer, a teenager named Sun Yi (but better known to her rapt audience as Sister Raindrop), has been broadcasting since 1997. According to One Earth magazine, when Sun Yi's not in the studio broadcasting environmental messages, she's likely to be found in the countryside interviewing wildlife defenders and organizing conservation appeals.

Machu Picchuland
Peru - The mysterious ruins of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes, were placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1983. Isolated Machu Picchu is now about to fall before an onslaught of tourists - and the Peruvian government is leading the charge. The self-appointed government of Alberto Fujimori has privatized the old public railway leading to Machu Picchu and has started selling plots to developers. Construction of a cable car capable of whizzing 400 people per hour to the ruins and back has already begun. There are plans to erect a huge hotel atop an Incan cemetery, although the project violates both Peruvian law and international heritage agreements. Send letters to President Fujimori, Palacio de la Republica, Plaza de Armas, Lima, Peru.

The Blair Sandwich Project
UK - British Prime Minister Tony Blair seems to be losing his battle to push genetically modified (GM) food into the lunchkits and pantries of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party arrived at the Swallow Highcliff Hotel for its annual conference only to find that the hotel had gone GM-free. Blair's favorite restaurant, Granita, has also banned GM produce and even the caterers at Westminster Palace have given GM foods the royal boot. Greenpeace made an appearance at the Labour Party meeting, handing out bottles of GM-free organic beer. "Tony Blair is going to have real trouble trying to find GM food," said Greenpeace campaigner Jim Thomas. "Let's hope that Monsanto or AgrEvo can rush him a hamper to keep him going."

A Graduated Retort
US - More than 50 universities are participating in a Dirty Jobs Boycott. The boycott will initially target one major corporation in each of 12 industries. "There's a growing frustration with the unwillingness or inability of the state to go after polluters," Northeastern University Sociology Professor Daniel Faber told the Christian Science Monitor. Participating seniors promise to consider "the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider."

Frankenfood Backlash Grows
US - "Unlabeled, untested ... and you're eating it." That was the headline on full-page ads created by the Turning Point Project [www.turnpoint.org] to promote legislation requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods. The Alliance for Bio-Integrity has sued Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala over the issue, and Greenpeace has filed a similar suit against EPA chief Carole Browner. Currently, the only way to know that you are not consuming "frankenfoods" is to eat only organic-labeled foods. Last October, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) became the first member of Congress to introduce a bill requiring labeling of genetically modified crops.

Dupont vs. Pulicat Lagoon
India - Six years ago, protesters forced Dupont to abandon plans to open a chemical plant in Goa, on India's west coast. Now Dupont wants to locate the plant in Chennai, near a lake that provides a livelihood to 25,000 fisherfolk. Dupont's plant would be built nine miles from Pulicat Lagoon. It would produce nylon threads for use in US aircraft tires. The Coastal Poor Development Network fears that effluent from the site will threaten the lake's stock of shrimp, prawn, crab and migrating fish. Also at risk: a restoration effort that has already planted 40,000 mangrove seedlings along the estuary that connects Pulicat to the Bay of Bengal. Another 100,000 seedlings are waiting to be planted but the industrial pollution could destroy them.

Economic Inequity
Kenya - The UN Environment Program's (UNEP) "Global Environmental Outlook 2000" (GEO-2000), a massive study comprising the work of 200 experts from 50 countries, concludes that the biggest challenges of the 21st Century will be global warming and water shortages. InterPress Service reports that GEO-2000's main conclusion is that "social inequality - expressed in terms of continuing poverty suffered by a majority and excessive consumption by a small minority - is the key factor in the degradation of the environment." Despite US vows, the Free Market has not eliminated poverty in Latin America - 160 million Latin Americans were still mired in poverty in 1995. UNEP Regional Director Ricardo Sanchez claims that free-market policies have "accentuated the region's over-dependence on the exploitation of natural resources."

Bhopal: A Lingering Shame
India - More than 15 years since a disastrous chemical spill killed thousands of nearby residents, Union Carbide's long-abandoned plant in Bhopal continues to kill. The US company turned the site over to the Indian government, leaving behind tons of toxic chemicals and mercury-laden residues. Last year, two major fires roared through the chemical storage area. People in nearby slums were told to avoid drinking water from 200 shallow wells. Unfortunately, there is no other source of water. Although 10,000 people lived near the plant, Union Carbide routinely dumped wastes into open pits or into public sewers. Between 1950 and 1963, Union Carbide released an estimated 2.4 million pounds of mercury into the air, water and soil surrounding the plant. Despite mounting evidence of persistent contamination, the Indian government has still not ordered a cleanup of the site.

National Eco-Geographic
US - Thirty international organizations have challenged the National Geographic Society to show its concern for the Earth's forests by launching a "responsible paper purchasing program." The Society has been asked to switch to "100 percent recycled or agricultural residue, chlorine-free office paper" and to start printing its world-famous magazine on chlorine-free recycled and agricultural residue fiber products beginning in 2000. The US uses nearly one-fifth of the world's wood products. Seventy-five percent of US paper comes from the southeastern US where 140 chip mills have devastated 1.2 million acres of forests. Native mixed pine forests have been chipped, pulped and replaced with biologically purged plantations of Monterey pine and eucalyptus.

Pedaling a Message
US - A team of EarthCulture bicyclists completed a 1,000-mile five-day relay from Jacksonville, Florida to Washington, DC to call attention to the explosive expansion of wood-chipping and paper-pulping in the southeastern US. "Four million acres [are] being destroyed annually for those industries," says Rick Spencer, the director of Earth Culture [PO Box 4674, Greensboro, NC 27404, (336)685-7012], "Paper companies are clearcutting natural habitat for endangered species? and replacing the trees with only one even-aged species that has been genetically engineered for rapid growth. To make sure nothing else can grow in these sterile environments, herbicide is sprayed from planes." US residents, the world's worst paper-hogs, use and discard 700 pounds of paper per capita per year. EarthCulture has called on business, government, schools and individuals to reduce the demand for wood and paper products by 75 percent over the next decade. "Globally, 100 forest-dwelling species are driven to extinction every single day," says Spencer. "Paper plates and Victoria's Secret catalogs aren't worth it."

Welcome to my Dome-icile
US - Christopher John Eldridge has a solution to housing and land-use pressures - group living in mega-domes. "Economy of scale is one of the main design advantages of communal living," Eldridge writes. "Structurally, a three-family communal home would have 23.5 percent less exterior surface area exposed to the elements" which would mean "less heat loss in the winter and? less heat transferred to the building during the summer." Communal domes would require nine percent less building material and require 20 percent less land. Centralized communal kitchens, dining and bathrooms would achieve added economies. Eldridge's domes are neither geodesic nor stratodesic. These partially buried seven-level domes would be erected around massive 14.6-meter columns running up the center of the building and containing stairs, ventilation ducts and bathrooms. After surveying 312 alternative communities in the US with a combined population of 14,350, Eldridge concluded that 38 to 53 residents would be the best goal for a communal dome. Eldridge believes that the "largest possible design" would be a 100-120-person unit rising nine levels, spanning 36.4 meters and containing 70,000 square feet. There is an added benefit: Spherical shelters are more resistant to the increased the hurricane activity associated with global warming.

Don't Dam the Vistula
Poland - The Vistula, the Queen of Polish Rivers, is one of Europe's longest waterways. Rising in southwest Poland, it flows to the Baltic Sea through a landscape that retains much of its natural balance. But this natural treasure is threatened by a proposal to build seven dams on the lower Vistula. The Wloclawek dam, built 30 years ago, has caused downstream erosion and trapped three decades of human waste and industrial pollution behind its walls. Dam-builders contend that it is now necessary to build a new dam to keep the Wloclawek from collapsing. The dam plan is backed by two of Poland's largest companies, Elektrim and ABB. The Polish eco-group Klub Gaja has mounted a Teraz Wisla (Vistula Now!) campaign and is asking that letters of concern be directed to Polish President Aleksander Kwasnieski and Prime Minister P. Jerzy Buzek. Letters may be mailed to Klub Gaja for forwarding [PO Box 261, 43-301 Bielsko-Biala 1, Poland, fax: +48 33 812-3694, klub@gaja.most.org.pl].

Greens Help Shut US Nuke
US - Northern California's Humboldt Bay nuclear plant was shut down in 1976 after it was discovered that it had been built atop an earthquake fault. Now Humboldt Bay may become the first US commercial nuclear plant to be fully decommissioned and dismantled. Pacific Gas & Electric (the plant's owners) and state regulators were at loggerheads until a grassroots group came to rescue. The Redwood Alliance convinced PG&E that it could save at least $47 million in annual inspection costs if it agreed to decommission Humboldt Bay by 2002.

Pipeline Dreams
Cameroon - A proposed 1,500-kilometer oil pipeline has drawn the wrath of environmentalists. The $3.5 billion project would allow a consortium of oil giants - including Exxon, Shell and ELF - to drill 300 wells in Chad and pipe oil to single-hulled tanker in the waters off Cameroon. One section of the pipeline would bisect Cameroon's Atlantic Littoral Forest, a largely intact area of tropical rainforest that is home to indigenous Pygmies, endangered gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants. Oil spills would threaten several major rivers and Cameroon's $1.5 billion fishing and ecotourism industries. The pipeline would generate only $500 million for the local economy - over the span of 30 years.

Goldman Environmental Award winner Samuel Nguiffo noted that armed militias had been used to silence critics inside Cameroon, which Transparency International recently named the world's "most corrupt" country. Environmentalists called the World Bank's offer of a $90 million loan for the project "a disturbing precedent" and noted that such oil projects have "detrimental social and environmental impacts with few development benefits." In October, Royal Dutch/Shell and Elf Aquitaine suddenly pulled out of the project citing the high environmental costs. The World Bank postponed a decision planned for November. Now is the time to contact the World Bank [1818 H. St., NW, Washington, DC 20433, fax: (202) 522-1677].

The Latest in Cat Scans
US - Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley got a lot of press coverage when they plugged electrodes into a cat's brain and turned the feline into a living TV camera. "To their amazement," the BBC reported, "they saw natural scenes with recognizable objects such as people's faces." The research has some spooky implications. Researcher Garret Stanley predicts that the technology could open the door to "artificial brain extensions." The BBC suggests that this would give people "access to extra data storage or processing power or the ability to control devices just by thinking about them." Keep misplacing your car keys? Just install a bigger memory chip.

Greens and Labor Fight WTO
US - The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment (ASJE), a historic teaming of 200 environmental and organized labor groups, made common cause at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. The goal of the ASJE's efforts was to "make sure that basic US standards of fair trade, environmental protection and workers' rights were on the table" at the Seattle meeting. Since its founding, the WTO outraged workers and activists with a string of trade decisions. Since its founding, the WTO has: stopped efforts to ban products made with child labor; ruled against turtle escape devices on shrimp nets; ruled against dolphin-safe labels. "The Alliance will be the conscience for corporations and politicians that have lost theirs," promised ASJE Co-chair and Earth Island Founder Dave Brower. "American workers and the Earth demand respectful and fair treatment."

No More Spills
Nigeria - Oil spills and recriminations are nothing new in Nigeria, but a major oil spill in Delta State last August renewed complaints about an industry that promises wealth but brings disaster. Benson Karika, a young organizer who spoke from the banks of an oil-stained river, complained that the company responsible for the spill "has been exploiting this land since 1972 and they have left my people without development, no good water, no good roads, no electricity."

Even more remarkable was the statement by Nigerian Environment Minister Ime Okopido, who accused multinational oil companies of a "breach of good environmental management." Okopido complained that the Niger Delta had been "overrun through deliberate over-exploitation carried out in total disregard of the basic principles of sustainable environmental management." Okopido warned that "the patience of the people [has] been tried to the limit. Their mild protests and agitations for compensation and better environmental management/ accounting were rebuffed." In an unmistakable reference to Shell Oil and murdered Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Okopido declared, "Opinion leaders were jailed. A few were murdered, with the implicit support of the major operators who should have shown understanding of their plight."

Sun Run Win Down Under
Australia - The latest World Solar Challenge race - a grueling 3,010-km (1,866 mile) course spanning the Australian continent from Darwin to Adelaide - was won by the privately funded Aurora 101 team from Victoria. This marked the first time that an Australian team has won the world-famous solar-powered race. The Aurora finished the course in 41 hours and six minutes. Radiance, a solar racer assembled by Canadian university students, placed second and the Sunshark, an entry from the University of Queensland, placed third.

Save the Earth: Help the Poor
UK - "Equity and the Environment," a report by Friends of the Earth, argues that no environmental program can succeed unless it addresses the issue of social inequality. The report, which carries an introduction by Britain's Environment Minister Michael Meacher, argues that "Green policies must be designed with social justice issues at their heart if they are ever to be effective." This is because environmental degradation hits hardest at the poor. Britain's poorest communities play host to 662 polluting factories; 90 percent of London's factories are sited in poor neighborhoods. The report calls for increased spending on housing and public transport.

Shame on America
Geneva - November 20, 1999 marked the tenth anniversary of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child - the world's most widely ratified human rights treaty. In the decade since the convention was born, two million children have been killed in wars and eight million wounded. Each year 12 million children under five die from preventable diseases. Some 250 million children must work to survive. The convention establishes basic rights for the world's kids, including the rights to education, health care and freedom from military conscription until the age of 15. Only two countries on Earth have failed to ratify this convention. They are Somalia and the United States of America.

Cellphones
US - In 1993, a lawsuit was filed against NEC claiming that use of a cellphone had caused a lethal brain tumor. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) replied that thousands of studies had proven the safety of cellphones. "In fact, there were no such studies," report Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman [Multinational Monitor, www.essential.org/monitor]. Desperate to bolster their claim, the CTIA hired George Carlo, a scientist with "a good track record as an industry researcher." In 1994, however, Carlo reported that cellphones were interfering with cardiac pacemakers, and the CTIA cut off his funding. Carlo won his job back by promising to stop looking into links between cellphones, pacemakers and automobiles.

Unfortunately, what Carlo discovered next was even more troubling. Carlo found that with cellphone users, the occurrence of benign tumors in the inner ear was 50 percent higher, the risk of rare neuro-epithelial brain tumors more than doubled, and antenna radiation was causing functional genetic damage. Carlo's pleas to his employers to warn the public but were rebuffed. "Some segments of the industry have ignored the scientific finding suggesting potential health effects" that pose a health risk "for all consumers, including children." The Food and Drug Administration has agreed to test cellphone safety - with funds provided by the CTIA. "The FDA seems to be more than willing to jump in bed with the industry," Carlo complains. "This arrangement is wrong, plain and simple."

Vieques Hangs Tough
Puerto Rico - For years, the US Navy has used the island of Vieques for target practice. In April 1999, an errant bomb killed a Vieques resident, triggering an occupation of the Pentagon's bombing range and a demand for an end to the Navy's presence. The Clinton White House attempted to buy the Puerto Rican government off with an offer of $40 million in economic aid. In exchange, the Navy would be allowed to conduct training with "inert" weapons for another five years.

Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Rosello flatly rejected the offer and insisted that the Navy must quit Vieques. The Navy responded with an economic bombshell, threatening to close its massive military base at Roosevelt Roads. With the people of Vieques continuing to occupy the bombing range, the Navy reportedly plans to "conduct naval gunfire exercises in Scotland."