Composting Your Office

THE NETHERLANDS - An office block designed to be sustainable for 20 years is to be built in the western city of Delft. The construction materials will either decompose after that time or be suitable for recycling or reuse. Currently, many buildings need replacing or renovating after 20 years anyway. [Stuurgroep Experiment Huisvesting, PO Box 1878, 3000 BW Rotterdam.]

UN Eco-Soldiers?

GERMANY - Just before Klaus Topfer left his job at Bonn's Federal Ministry for Regional Planning, Construction and Urban Development, he proposed that the international community should approach environmental protection in the same way it addresses international peacekeeping: Send in the UN troops! Töpfer now heads the United Nations Environmental Program.

This Land is (not) Your Land

ENGLAND - Under the UK's historic right to roam legislation, Britishers have long cherished the right to meander over 1.3 million acres of common heath, moor and mountain land. But now, Prime Minister Tony Blair is being pushed (by wealthy land owners, including the Duke of Westminster) to give roamers the boot. Environment Minister Michael Meacher has proposed allowing ramblers to roam free on 3.2 million acres in England and Wales as long as they respect closed gates, leash their dogs and don't start open fires. Blair has put off any decision until the year 2000. The UK, which lacks a comprehensive land registry, is peppered with a hundreds of unowned parcels of land. Often the only way to find out if a parcel is owned is to erect a structure on it or try grazing animals there and wait for deeds to be produced. The Land is Ours [10 Highwood Close, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8HT] advocates seeking out unowned land and claiming the sites as locations for eco-villages or to serve groups in genuine need of land.

Occidental Buys Killing Power

ECUADOR - Thirty percent of native Secoyans residing on the Auguarico River watershed want Occidental Petroleum (OXY) out of their lives. The other 70 percent have been wooed by OXY's lavish gifts of aluminum canoes, solar panels and computers as well as by a company promise to employ native people in top positions. OXY hopes to drill for oil in the Secoy's 42,000-hectares traditional territory where local people hunt, fish and practice small-scale agriculture. OXY's extraction practices have already destroyed gardens and homes in neighboring Quichua communities where the people now suffer from cancer, skin rashes, spontaneous abortions and birth defects. In addition, their water is contaminated with raw crude oil and other extraction wastes leaking from ruptured pipelines and unlined waste pits. Pipeline ruptures over the last 25 years have left the Aguarico River coated with 40 cm of oil. OXY's seismic tests have scared off game animals and the amount of cleared land is steadily increasing as OXY prepares to build highways, heliports and drilling stations.[Contact: Occidental Petrolem, address...]

No Talks with Tokyo

JAPAN - Since 1971, Japan's Ministry of Construction (MoC) has considered the village of Kito expendable. The MoC was determined to place a dam on the Nakagawa River at Kito even if it means the extinction of the village by flooding. The MoC cited flood prevention as the main reason to erect the dam., but when record rains fell in 1976, it was back wash from a Ministry dam, not the rain, that caused the most damage. Villages which occupy the lowest rung on Japan's political hierarchy are expected to quietly comply with federal plans. Kito, however, announced its full opposition to the dam in 1972 and has been fighting ever since. Japan's corrupt public works officials cut Kito's allocations but the villagers remained steadfast. In 1993, 74 percent of Kito's residents signed a petition demanding the cancellation of the project. Two years later, Tokyo created a Deliberative Council to review the dam project but Kito's mayor and assembly, seeing that the council's majority was pro-dam, refused to talk to them. In June of 1997, the MoC finally threw in the trowel and abandoned its plans to build the dam .

A Maize-ing Grace

FRANCE - 120 members of the French Peasant Confederation [81 Avenue de la République, F-93170 Bagnolet, France] took direct action against Novartis, the corporate love-child of Ciba Geigy and Sandoz the biggest agrochemical producer, the second largest seed producer and the third largest pharmaceutical company on the planet. The Confederation members entered a Novartis factory in Nérac and destroyed 30 tons of transgenic maize seeds. The activists were protesting France's decision to become the first EU member to permit the cultivation of genetically engineered crops. Three trade union activists were arrested. They hope their trial will showcase the issues surrounding the use of transgenic genetically-modified organisms.

Against the Auto-Tyranny

EUROPE - In November 1997, the Free the Streets Collective [Collectif pour des Rues Libres, 4 Rue Bodin, 69001 Lyon, France] hosted a Toward Car-Free Cities conference in Lyons. Anti-auto activist groups from 21 nations exchanged strategies for non-violent direct action against the auto-dictatorship. Munich's Michael Hartmann (a sworn enemy of any large machine that makes noise, stinks, takes up too much space and kills children) offered his strategy of choice: Whenever he finds a vehicle parked on a sidewalk or in a pedestrian walkway, Hartmann walks on the car. Hartmann has been arrested, fined and even locked up in a mental hospital for his actions, but a German judge has ruled that it is permissible to walk on a car as long as the walker does not intend to damage it. Britain's Reclaim the Streets told conferees how to stage surprise road parties where a large crowds blocking intersections and offer food, drink and entertainment to drivers who get out of their cars to party. Back in England, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has proposed allowing local authorities to fine drivers for causing pollution and congestion. Revenue from fines and parking fees would be used to improve public transportation. Businesses and motorist organizations such as the Royal Automobile Club applaud the legislation, but the Association of British Drivers' Paul Hemingway is up in arms. It sounds like something out of Eastern Europe, Hemingway harumphs, being told to pay more taxes for road space we've already paid for.

Hungry Pirates, Threatened Sturgeon

AZERBIJAN - Harvesting the Caspian sturgeon's black caviar is a multi-million dollar illegal business about to go under. Under Soviet rule, thousands of tons of highly toxic chemicals were pumped into the Caspian Sea and offshore drilling spilled crude oil over its surface. The strong arm of Soviet communism enforced successful restocking of the sea and kept illegal caviar pirates from over-fishing the sturgeon. But now, with the blessing of corrupt local officials, caviar pirates are back in business at least until the fish run out. We know it's illegal, offers one pirate, We know it's bad for the sea. But we have to feed our families today. We can't worry about whether there will be enough fish tomorrow. Although foreign firms have signed tens of billions of dollars in contracts to exploit Caspian oil and gas, few have rushed to address its environmental concerns.

Siberian Forests to Fall

RUSSIA - 305,000 hectares of Siberian forestlands in the Khabarovsk region equal to the Amazon in planetary ecological importance have been leased to one of the world's largest loggers, Malaysia's Rimbunan Hijau (RH) timber company for 48 years. RH's empire includes millions of hectares in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Central and South America, Africa and Cambodia. After causing extensive damage to Papua New Guinea's ecosystems and indigenous communities, the company now promotes itself as the forest management expert worthy of being entrusted with all remaining large, intact primary forests worldwide. Although the Khabarovsk forests are part of a protected resource area that provides critical habitat for the Siberian tiger, the regional forest service insists that it needs to log these forests due to their large percentage of mature and overmature (i.e. old growth) trees. RH isn't satisfied with its allowed cut of 550,000 cubic meters per year: It wants access to neighboring forests as well. RH has bought for its logging plan by purchasing 11 new vehicles for local villagers. Local and international environmental groups now are trying to halt construction of a timber export road leading to the coast.

Incinerating Democratic Process

CZECH REPUBLIC - When communism gave way to democracy in 1989, Czech citizens breathed a sigh of relief believing the new government would work to protect their environment. Instead, the Czech government has revived a 1988 Communist Party plan to build a waste incinerator at Malesice outside Prague. Plastic, polystyrene and aluminum food packages (as well as asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls and other hazardous wastes) slated for incineration will combine to emit at least 15 grams of dioxin per year a level 40 to 50 times higher than permitted by the European Union. Incinerator opponents cite not only health and environmental concerns, but legal improprieties as well. Although construction is nearly complete, the legally required environmental impact statement was only completed in 1996 by a consultant with a conflict of interest. Citizens are now fighting to make the incinerator safer by demanding that Prazke Sluzby, the incinerator's managers, install costly, sophisticated filters. Long-term solutions for waste reduction that could render the incinerator obsolete (i.e. recycling and composting) are being pushed to the back burner. Meanwhile, in order to pay off the mounting construction debt, the city may be forced to collect revenue from incineration even if that means burning refuse from other nations.

Activist Suppression

PUERTO RICO - Wilfredo Torres-Ramos, former partner of mobster German Hau, was jailed for a $1 million cocaine deal in 1992. On his release in 1995, he received a $1.5million loan from GE Finance to start a sand extraction business in the mountains of Utuado. Torres-Ramos plans to clearcut all vegetation at the site and extract 2000 cubic meters of sand per day using 100 or more trucks. Comité Amigos del Ambiente (Friends of the Environment) concerned about vegetation loss, erosion, heavy traffic and air pollution, voiced their opposition to the project and immediately began receiving death threats. In 1996, Amigos del Ambiente spokesperson Héctor Moreno-Luna received a courtesy call from Torres-Ramos offering to assassinate his daughters if he did not stop criticizing the Utuado project. In early 1997, Moreno-Luna's home was the target of a drive-by shooting. A former partner of Torres-Ramos subsequently admitted that Torres-Ramos had hired him to kill Moreno-Luna and Amigos secretary Pérez-Kolb. Later that year, Torres-Ramos told Pérez-Kolb in person that he, other Amigos supporters and all their children were sentenced. The environmentalists' lawyer, Orlando Martínez, was told to leave the country. In spite of the threats, the citizens of Utuado are determined to stop the sand extraction project.

Ecuador, Enemy of the People

ECUADOR - Arrest warrants were issued against two campesino leaders and a member of Defensa y Conservacion de Intag (DECOIN: Ecological Defense and Conservation of Intag) charged with crimes against the state following the burning of an empty mining camp in Intag, high in the Ecuadoran Andes. Although no legal evidence has been presented, these citizens (currently in hiding) face 12-16 years in prison if convicted. After 5 years of environmental abuse by CODIGEM, Ecuador's state mining company, and Mitsubishi's Bishimetal Exploration, 150 people from eight communities did, in fact, set fire to the camp. Prior to this incident, the people of Intag had great difficulty attracting government attention. Now that they have it, they hope the government will address concerns presented in the regional environmental impact statement: loss of homes, massive deforestation, contamination of water sources, climate change, desertification, increased population and violent crime. More likely, the government will brush the incident under the rug and refocus its energies on inviting multinationals to grow fat on Ecuador's resources.

Radioactive Cargo Lost at Sea

FRANCE - Late last year, en route from France to the US, the Panamanian freighter Carla snapped in half during a mid-Atlantic storm dumping into the sea a cargo of cesium equaling 330 terabecquerels of radioactivity. (Chernobyl released 4,800 terabecquerels, creating a dead-zone that will last thousands of years). Greenpeace complains that nuclear materials lost at sea will be left there and that appears to be exactly what [France and the US] intend to do. It is chilling that, while this is one worst nuclear transport accidents documented, governments are trying to sweep the matter under the carpet. Dumping nuclear waste at sea was banned internationally in 1993 but the issue of accidental dumping has become more of an issue as France, Japan and Britain have begun shipping plutonium and other nuclear waste around the globe by sea and air. Greenpeace has called for an international investigation of the accident.