World Bank Fuels Global Warming
US - At the 1992 Earth Summit, World Bank officials vowed to take the lead in investing for a "green" future. Since 1992, however, the bank has promoted $13.9 billion worth of fossil fuel projects. Over the next 20 to 50 years, The Ecologist estimates, these projects will produce "some 37.5 billion tons of CO2 - 1.3 times the approximate CO2 emissions of the entire industrial world in 1995." At the second Earth Summit in 1997, Bank President James Wolfensohn vowed to "finance more climate-friendly options." Instead, the WB embarked on plans to finance an oil project for the military dictators in Chad. As for the WB's highly-touted solar-thermal power station in Rajasthan, India, The Ecologist points out that "the project actually derives roughly three times more energy from fossil fuels than from the sun."

More Dirty-fuel Funders
US - "Business as Usual," a joint report from Friends of the Earth (FOE) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) reveals that the US Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) lead the world in bankrolling global warming. From 1992 to 1996, Ex-Im and OPIC financed $23.2 billion in oil, gas and coal projects around the world - nearly double the fossil-fuel funding from the World Bank. (The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development spent $1.2 billion on dirty-fuel projects during the same period.) "OPIC and Ex-Im are guaranteeing climate change for all of us," charged IPS energy analysts Daphne Wysham. FOE policy analyst Jon Sohn noted that it was hypocritical for the US to demand that poorer nations commit to greenhouse-gas reductions while its lending arm is "simultaneously funneling billions of taxpayer dollars towards the opposite goal."

England's "Green Bank" Grows
UK - Triodos, Britain's first "organic" bank, has been growing at a rate of nearly 50 percent a year, thanks to Brits who are transferring their investments to Triodos' environ- mentally, socially and ethically correct clients. The bank's "organic saver" account is handled by the Soil Association, which invests in organic farms and restaurants.

We're Number Three!
US - The US Council on American Competitiveness likes to issue reports celebrating US leadership among the world's top 17 industrial economies. Last year, despite the bullish US economy, Japan claimed the top spot in innovation and the US fell to third place, after Switzerland. The slide was attributed to cuts in the US research budget.

Carbon Taxes Pass in Germany
Germany - Last April, the Bundestag voted to increase taxes on gasoline, heating oil, electricity and natural gas. This "carbon tax" is expected to cut consumption, reduce global warming and generate 12.4 billion marks ($6.8 billion). The revenue will be used to reduce taxes.

US Does Biotech's Bidding
Colombia - Diversity magazine details how the 10-day debate on a proposed addition to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was sabotaged by a US delegation known as the "Miami Group." Representatives of 138 countries met in Cartagena to devise safety protocols for biogenetic research and "living modified organisms." The US had the largest delegation at the conference but, because the US Senate has refused to ratify the CBD treaty, the US had only "observer status." More than 50 countries subsequently charged that, thanks to the machinations of the US delegation, "the negotiating process had become the purview of insiders and had lost any democratic character." Rafe Pomerance, head of the US delegation, dismissed growing evidence of the health risks associated with genetically engineered foods. "Many countries have urged that we address issues like health and socioeconomic concerns," Pomerance decreed, but the US position is that such concerns "are really outside the mandate of the negotiations."

Adios Pesos, Hello Amero-dollar
France - You can kiss your cruzeros goodbye under a controversial plan to "dollarize" Latin American currencies. Last March, Latin America's finance ministers flew to Paris - the home of the Eurodollar - to discuss fundamental changes in the regional economy. According to International Development Bank America, Argentine Economy Secretary Pablo Guidotti argued that "in an increasingly globalized economy, it made little sense to have to deal with 180 different national currencies." US Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers offered the ominous caveat that any country that dollarized its economy "must embrace greater discipline." Mexican Finance Minister José Angel Gurría, however, would have none of it. "Would a dollar bill with the face of Columbus be the solution? The answer is no!"

Floods R Us
US - Floods and mudslides continue to increase in northern California as logging strips trees from watersheds. Last August, residents living along Freshwater Creek and the Elk River appealed to the State Board of Forestry (BoF) to protect them from mudslides that have damaged their homes. BoF officials asked Pacific Lumber to voluntarily stop logging in a threatened 38,000-acre area. Pacific Lumber thought it over and said, "No." PL President John Campbell explained that reducing the timber cut would cause his firm "economic hardship." Besides, he argued, the accelerated logging was perfectly legal under the Headwaters Forest Agreement, under which PL turned over an ancient redwood grove for $480 million and a promise that its future timber cutting plans could proceed "without being further modified."

A New "Foreign Funds" Scandal
Russia - "Who's been running the Russian economy?" That's the question that Russia's lower house of Parliament, the Duma, has put to the government. The Duma wants Russia's Prosecutor-General to probe the role of US aid programs designed to promote "privatization, the advancement of the capital market and reform legislation." The Duma is particularly interested in "presidential decrees prepared by the Harvard Institute for International Development." According to George Washington University professor Janine Wedel, most of the US aid wound up in the hands of US consultants and close friends of Anatoli Chubais, the head of the Russian Privatization Center. Many state assets were turned over to a few powerful politicians and businesspersons.

French Fried over US Edict
France - When the European Union refused to import US beef pumped full of artificial growth hormones, the White House retaliated by slapping a 100 percent tariff on a whole range of European cuisine - Roquefort cheese, Dijon mustard, Danish ham, Italian tomatoes, French truffles and German chocolate. The tariff war pleased the petulant US cattle lobby but outraged the Europeans (who know something about good food). The first day the tariff went into effect, 150 French farmers seized a McDonald's restaurant in Auch, and the largest farmers' union has called for a boycott of US cuisine - bourbon, Coca-Cola, and Big Macs.

ˇEducation, Sí: Income, No!
Latin America - Last year, the International Development Bank (IDB) gave UNESCO a $750,000 grant to fund Latin America's First International Comparative Study of student math and language skills. The massive test included 4,000 third- and fourth-grade students from 11 countries. The results were expected to show a link between higher incomes and higher test scores. The researchers were dumbfounded to find that Latin America's economic powerhouses - Brazil, Chile and Argentina - performed only marginally better than the poorest countries. The big surprise was Cuba. Despite registering the region's fourth-lowest per-capita earnings, the IDB reports that Cuba "scored far higher than average in every one of the tests." The IDB speculates that "small student/teacher ratios, high education levels among teachers, and the high rate of preschool education among Cuban children could be part of the answer." Following the Cuban Revolution, private schools were replaced with free public education. Cuba also provides children and parents with free health care, dental care and daycare.

"End Corporate Welfare!"
US - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CEO T. J. Rodgers and 78 other Silicon Valley industrialists have called on the White House to "end corporate welfare." More than 90 percent of US businesses compete successfully without subsidies, Rodgers notes, so why should some of the world's biggest companies be receiving $75 billion a year in federal handouts? Did McDonald's really need $14 million tax-dollars to build 16 stores in Brazil? GM, GE, Chevron, IBM, AT&T, United Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Exxon, McDonnell Douglas, Archer Daniels Midland, Tyson Foods, Welch Foods, and Ralston Purina all feed at the public trough. Citizens Against Government Waste, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Cato Institute, the Progressive Policy Institute, and Ralph Nader's Public Citizen have called for an independent commission to prune the corporate moneytree. The next step: Abolish the Commerce Department, the Market Access Program and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Pesticides Are Tax-Free
US - In 29 states, chemical pesticides and fertilizers are exempt from sales taxes. Friends of the Earth estimates that this costs the states at least $674 million each year. California alone is losing $54 million. FoE claims that health costs from pesticide use top $8 billion a year. An average tax of five percent could generate $1 billion annually.

Coke Pushers
US - More than 100 of America's cash-starved schools and school districts have signed exclusive pacts with Coca Cola and Pepsi to peddle caffeinated sodas on campus in return for financial kickbacks. In 1998, principals and teachers in one Colorado high school district were instructed to "do whatever it takes" to triple the students' Coke consumption. A school district letter suggested a list of "promotional activities" that included allowing kids to drink Coke in the classroom. Elementary schools are also on the take from Coca-Cola, which pays to see that kids drink plenty of Minute Maid and Fruitopia (high in sugar with only 5 percent fruit juice). [To fight back, call 800-UNPLUG.] Last May, the US Senate introduced a bill to ban soft drinks and candies from the national school lunch program. (The bill was drafted by lawmakers from several dairy states.)

Why Cook Inlet Is Greasy
US - Oil companies operating offshore oil rigs in Alaska's Cook Inlet are exempt from US laws against dumping toxic oil, grease, and wastewater directly into coastal waters. The Surfrider Foundation reports that Cook Inlet is the only offshore drilling area in the US where platforms are allowed to dump oil and grease directly into the water.

Jabiluka Travesty
Australia - Environmentalists and aboriginals opposed to the government's plan to open a uranium mine near Kakadu National Park have suffered a setback. Kakadu is a UN World Heritage Site and the operation of such a mine ordinarily would have resulted in having the park listed as "in danger" - an international embarrassment for Australia. Despite unanimous support from three advisory bodies, the World Heritage Bureau (WHB) refused to issue the "in danger" listing. Friends of the Earth claims the WHB buckled under political pressure and a multi-billion dollar lobbying campaign. FoE accused the Australian government of conducting a campaign of "sleazy backroom deals and quid-pro-quos including a deal with Hungary and a possible deal with Italy, and of intense diplomatic pressure, which they have applied to France." If the decision is allowed to stand, FoE claims, it will "compromise the integrity and standing of the entire World Heritage Convention."

122 Corporate Climate Killers
US - A joint investigation by the NRDC, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund has identified 122 companies that are responsible for nearly 80 percent of the dirty fuel that causes global warming. According to the report, "Kingpins of Carbon," 22 percent of the world's carbon-based fuels are produced by 20 of the world's biggest companies. The list of top climate-killers includes Shell, Exxon, Peabody, BP Amoco, ARCO, Chevron, Mobil, and Russia's Gazprom. Prior to the December 1997 climate negotiations in Japan, these industries spent $13 million on ads claiming that the Kyoto agreement was unfair to the US because developing countries were not required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This new report reveals that many of these companies - Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, and the Peabody coal company among them - were each responsible for more carbon pollution than were many developing countries.

Exxon and Mobil's combined annual carbon production surpasses the combined annual carbon emissions of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Shell's yearly carbon production exceeds the combined carbon emissions of Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Peabody's annual carbon production exceeds Brazil's.

Oil Honchos: "Y'all Come!"
Canada - The 16th World Petroleum Congress is set for June 11-16 in Calgary and it's being promoted as "the petroleum event of the year 2000." As Canadian Organizing Chair Jim Gray puts it, the WPC [www.wpc2000.com] will bring together "key members of the global petroleum, natural gas and related industries" along with academics, scientists and the media. "What more convenient way to do business than to have all of the players in one spot?" The fact that Mr. Gray made no mention of the public in his list of key players may have been an oversight. We're certain he had the public in mind when he extended the invitation to "Mark your calendars for June 11-15 and begin planning your trip to Canada. I look forward to welcoming you to Calgary."