Turning Blood into Coconut Water
INDIA - For centuries, the arrival of the January festival of Makar Sankranti meant the slaughter of tens of thousands of goats and sheep, butchered as living offerings in village temples throughout India. This year, however, in the Karnataka village of Udbut, instead of offerings of bloody goat's heads, the deities were presented with fresh bananas and flowers. Altars - that had been stained with blood - ran with sweet coconut water. The remarkable change was the result of long and respectful discussions among village elders, the animal rights groups Compassion Unlimited Plus Action and Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC), Panchayat President G. Murthy and police superintendent Sunil Agarwal. As BWC reports, "People who were happy to see the temple free of blood that day owe much to [Agarwal]." Instead of watching hapless animals being slaughtered, the children of Udbut "got to run around in the temple in the fun and merriment that is in keeping with the true spirit of [the festival]."

Navy's Ocean-Going SUV Riles Japanese
JAPAN - The 8,900-ton Osumi is the Godzilla of landing crafts. Held aloft on a cushion of air blasted downward from two jet engines and propelled forward by two more jet turbines, the Osumi can carry 3,000 soldiers (or 24 troops and a battle tank or 75 tons of cargo) over the waves at 75 knots (86 mph). The Osumi is one of seven sea-faring battle tanks deployed by the UN Navy in Japanese waters. Sasebo's city officials have repeatedly complained that the noise from these war machines disrupts civic tranquility.

Water from Fog
CHILE - On Chile's north coast, the villagers of Chungungo have enjoyed a steady stream of fresh water for the past five years - only there is no stream involved. The 340 villagers each receive 30 liters of water daily from a pipeline winding its way down a nearby mountain. At the top of the mountain stand 75 fog collectors. The collectors - installed as part of a Chilean-Canadian joint project - each net an average of 160 liters of water per day, cost about $12 to install and last 10 years. According to scientist Robert Shemenauer of Canada's Department of the Environment, this method of collecting water could be "sustainable for periods of hundreds or thousands of years."

Fellow Humans, an Afterthought
UK - During the Second Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM II) in April, leaders of Asian and European nations noted for the first time that international financial difficulties and strictures placed on certain nations by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank may, in fact, have detrimental effects on the poor people of these nations. The ASEM Trust Fund was launched to monitor these effects.

No Sweatshop Sweatshirts
US - North Carolina's Duke University will no longer allow products carrying the Duke logo to be produced in sweatshops. The $20 million worth of Duke gear produced annually now must be made by factories that pay their workers at least their national minimum wage, do not employ children and adhere to Duke's safety standards.

Too Fast to Breathe
THE NETHERLANDS - As most of us run headlong into a not-so-pleasant future on the endorphin rush of "progress," Dutch citizens are saying no to the 24-hour economy. Church communities have been joined by unions, environmental groups and sports organizations in promoting the "Take Time to Live" campaign. Hopefully some of the rest of us can take-five to join in.

Tourism Threatens Cyprus
CYPRUS - The peninsula of Akamas, site of the mythical Baths of Aphrodite, has been one of the last places on the island of Cyprus to remain untouched by developers. Now Akamas' ancient forests and endangered green and loggerhead turtles may fall prey to their worst enemies - humans with bulldozers. Ten years ago Thanos Holdings started bulldozing and dynamiting to erect a luxury hotel on Asprokremos beach. Almost finished and already disrupting the landscape, the hotel will serve as a cornerstone for further Thanos developments. Unfortunately, Cyprus officials seem willing to destroy the country's natural resources in exchange for a few tourist dollars. Environmental concerns aside, tourism may not be the best choice for Akamas. Cyprus is a heavily militarized nation bound by internal and regional conflicts. With conflict brewing at any moment, Cyprus cannot depend on tourism as the primary source of income.

Bad for the Body Shop
UK - The same small band that successfully tackled the McDonald's empire in Britain's longest-running court battle (the so-called McLibel Trial), has published a new leaflet: "What's Wrong with the Body Shop? A Criticism of Green Consumerism." London Greenpeace (no relation to the worldwide environmental organization) takes the Body Shop to task for feeding the fires of consumerism, misleading customers, exploiting indigenous people and mistreating their own employees. Many of the company's "natural" products contain non-renewable petrochemicals, synthetic fragrances, colors, and preservatives, and are often irradiated. The company claims to oppose animal testing, but many of its products contain ingredients tested on animals by other companies and some products contain gelatin (made from crushed animal-bone). The Body Shop's "Trade Not Aid" programs are dismissed as a marketing ploy as less than 1 percent of sales reach Third World producers and some products are coming from commercial markets rather than indigenous groups. On their home turf, the Body Shop pays its UK employees poorly and discourages employee organizing. Finally, the leaflet asks, isn't there something wrong with convincing people that, because they are too unattractive in their natural state, they should buy lots of little bottles of petrochemicals to "Save the Earth." [London Greenpeace, 5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX, UK, www.mcspotlight.org]

Health Risks of Progress
US - One in five of the world's poorest children will not live to see her fifth birthday due to environmentally related disease, reports the World Resources Institute (WRI). Four million children a year die of acute respiratory disease linked to air pollution. Malaria, also linked to poor environmental conditions, claims up to 3 million people a year - most of them children. And in 1991, cholera reappeared in Latin America - its resurgence linked to a combination of environmental and social factors. Up to 5 million deaths a year are due to pesticide poisonings. As the people of developing nations continue to live with inadequate water, housing and sanitation - and at the same time experience extremely high levels of industrial pollution unlike those found in any developed nation - they are twice as likely to die from illnesses considered preventable in the developed world.

Zero-Waste Beer
TOKYO - Gunter Pauli, the director of United Nations' University's Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI) has concluded that the international pastime of beer drinking is a perfect match for zero-waste industrial production. Brewery wastes (spent grains, yeast, water and CO2) can easily be put to other industrial uses. ZERI pilot projects in Fiji and Namibia have demonstrated how spent grain can be used for bio-gas production while wastewater can be used in fish production. Unfortunately, buying beer from zero waste company like Namibia Breweries does little to reduce the overall debris trail of consumerism if the average beer drinker winds up enjoying a brew that's traveled halfway around the world in an overpackaged state. Options? Patronize your local microbrewery or brew your own.

Auto-Free Europe
EUROPE - To protect their residents' health, officials in Athens, Florence, Barcelona, Lisbon, Stockholm and Oxford all support closing city centers to gas-powered vehicles. It is hoped that 100 or more European Union cities will follow suit. Italy is setting an example on an even larger scale by promoting mandatory ride-sharing for companies employing more than 300 people, time-share ownership of electric or cleaner cars in smoggy areas and replacement of half of its fleet of governmental vehicles with low-emission cars by 2003.

Politics of Embarrassment
GUATEMALA - In the northern town of San Jose, the Bio Itzá community organization - comprised of Maya Itzá whose ancestors lived on the land currently known as Guatemala's Tikal National Park - have clung to traditional ways by caring for the Maya Itzá Biosphere Reserve on land rented from the city. Last year, San Jose's mayor (who is also Maya Itzá), threatened to log the Reserve and offer the cleared- land to immigrant farmers in exchange for votes. Soon after this threat, he began cutting trees belonging to a relative of Bio Itzá director Reginaldo Chayax. That dispute ended in a fist fight and soon other Bio Itzá leaders were threatened, their horses mysteriously killed and plants in their medicinal gardens uprooted. With the help of grassroots groups like ProPeten and EcoLogic, the Bio Itzá conflict gained international attention and a high level commission of Guatemalan officials was formed to address the issue. The mayor, embarrassed by the prospect of a high level commission arriving in San Jose, came to a compromise with the Bio Itzá - they get to keep their lease for another 25 years rent-free. Although the mayor has already used this "peace for conservation" agreement to hype his re-election, the Bio Itzá have yet to receive an official copy of the accord.

Vanunu Released from Solitary
ISRAEL - Political prisoner and former Israeli nuclear engineer Mordechai Vanunu was allowed to enter the general population of Israel's Ashkelon Prison this spring after 11 years in solitary confinement. Believing that the world and his fellow Israelis needed to know the truth about Israel's nuclear arsenal, Vanunu leaked photos and detailed information about Israel's secret nuclear weapons factory at Dimona to the British press. Kidnapped by Mossad agents and spirited back to Israel, Vanunu was convicted of espionage and treason in a secret trial and sentenced to prison for 18 years. Growing international pressure finally pushed Israel to end Vanunu's solitary confinement. US and Israeli activist groups will continue to pressure the Israeli government until Vanunu is freed from prison entirely. [International Campaign to Free M. Vanunu, Bay Area Chapter, PO Box 2853, Oakland, CA 94609.]

Wildlands' Battle Scars
MOZAMBIQUE - Gorongosa National Park was once a healthy green forest filled with wildlife - one of Mozambique's most biologically diverse parks. After 17 years of civil war all that has changed. During the war, Renamo - the National Resistance of Mozambique, backed by the US and South Africa - made Gorongosa their headquarters. Government and resistance soldiers not only burned vegetation and destroyed park buildings as they fought. They also killed and ate much of the park wildlife. Renamo poached elephant ivory and rhino horn to trade for guns. White rhinos went locally extinct during the war. Renamo also cleared park land to grow food for their troops. Today, Gorongosa's thriving wildlife has been replaced by a population of starving people marooned amidst war's debris on a scorched piece of land laden with land mines. Park managers are slowly picking up the pieces. They are collaborating with the park's new human population, fighting off poachers and working steadily to re-introduce animals and rebuild the park. Park Administrator Roberto Zolho intends to leave the buildings standing in ruins as a reminder of the war's destruction. [To assist, contact Roberto Zolho, Gorongosa National Park Administrator, address.]

Texaco Blows into Town
SWITZERLAND - Green Party delegates to the European Parliament (EP) caused a stir earlier this year by proposing that the World Meteorological Institute begin naming storms and hurricanes after members of the Global Climate Coalition (Exxon, General Motors, Ford). They argued that headlines such as "Exxon Kills 20 in Miami" or "Ford Causes £500 million of Damage in Japan" would give the companies second thoughts about their continued denial that carbon emissions change climate. Predictably, the EP rejected the proposal.

Missing Nukes
US - Here's more proof that the world has too many nuclear weapons. The US has lost track of 30,000 of the 70,000 nuclear weapons it has built over the last 50 years. When the Natural Resources Defense Council asked for the accounting, the Department of Energy claimed it could not find the records. Red-faced DOE officials subsequently announced the discovery of an electronic database and 15 million pages of documents that may indicate the whereabouts of the missing nukes. But be patient: The search is expected to take two years and cost $3 million.

Turning Roads into Solar Powerplants
DENMARK - Converting modern cities to run on decentralized solar power seemed like an infrastructural impossibility, but Danish engineers may have answered the question of where to put the solar panels. A 1650-meter-long sound wall along the A9 motorway south of Amsterdam has been fitted with 2,106 solar panels that will begin pouring 172,000 kWh of power into the electric grid each year. Solarizing highways makes sense: They cover huge amounts of urban open space, they are rarely covered by trees and they are already equipped with underground cables connected to the electric power grid. Taking the idea a step further, imagine California's Santa Monica Freeway closed to traffic, paved with solar panels - transformed from one of the world's most polluted corridors into the world's largest solar power station.

Microwave Bombs
SWEDEN - Svenska Dagbladet reports that Sweden and Australia have purchased suitcase-sized Russian microwave bombs capable of knocking out the computer systems in jet fighters and nuclear powerplants. The bombs can silently destroy targets with a short high-energy 10 gigawatt blast. The existing weapons only have a range of 12 meters, limiting the risks to "inside jobs." Larger versions carried in vans can destroy targets a at a few hundred meters. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Department of Defense has refused to confirm whether it had the bought the bomb. [What does the US DOD have to say?]

Don't Trade on Me
US - Renato Ruggiero, Director General of the World Trade Organization, had agreed to debate the merits of globalization during a visit to San Jose, California in February, but he reneged. In a private meeting with anti-WTO activists, Ruggiero explained his position. "The WTO is not the appropriate forum for labor or environmental issues." The WTO is about trade, not about labor or the environment. We cannot address those problems."

Will Abort for Work?
NORTHERN MARIANAS -- US "free trade" advocates like to point to the "economic miracle" of the Northern Marianas Islands, a US trust territory that is exempt from federal wage laws. But a March 31 hearing before the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recorded testimony that painted a picture of indentured servitude and worsening labor and human rights conditions for island workers. Among the disclosures: female garment factory workers who became pregnant were forced to chose between having their babies or having their jobs. If they refused to have abortions, they lost their jobs. The committee is considering extending US wage and immigration laws to the Marianas.

Marlboro Countries
US - Calling the Marlboro Man "America's most visible ambassador to young people around the world," Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) have introduced the International Tobacco Responsibility Act. The US supplied about one-fifth of the six trillion cigarettes smoked around the world last year. In 1996, Philip Morris made 70 percent of its sales in overseas markets. The Pelosi/Doggett bill is intended to curb the industry's "attempt to find replacement smokers in overseas markets, especially among children and teens."

Women Burying Hunger
SOUTH AFRICA - EcoLink permaculturists Shirley and Mike Masuku are bringing new gardening tools - trench gardens, keyhole beds, mandala gardens and tire ponds - to more than 100,000 residents of the rural Mpumalana region. "The objective is to have the women grow enough vegetables not only to feed their own families, but to sell and make an income," Shirley told Permaculture International Journal. Once the women get busy, Shirley noted, the men quickly joined in. "The people call the gardens their 'hunger graveyards' because they are burying their hunger." [EcoLink, PO Box 727, White River, South Africa.]