Going Dutch: Ecoteams Rule
THE NETHERLANDS - In 1992, small groups of Dutch citizens began meeting to discuss strategies to tackle conservation issues. Today there are nearly 700 of these "Ecoteams" in the country and, according to the Global Action Plan [PO Box 18626, 2502 EP The Hague, The Netherlands], they are saving 900,000 kwh of electricity, 30,000 cubic meters of gas and 170,000 kilos of waste each year. In 1996, 70,000 Dutch drivers participated in car-sharing. The Dutch Ministry of Transport predicts that car-sharing could reduce driving by more than 100 billion car-kilometers by 2010.

US Military: Friend or Foe?
JAPAN - A coalition of mayors is calling for a ban on low-level US jet training flights over their cities. The ear-splitting roar of low-flying US jets already affects 23 prefectures and 130 municipalities. In Shimane Prefecture, shockwaves from streaking jets have shattered residential windowpanes. In 1994, a US jet on a training mission crashed near the village of Motoyama. When the nuclear-powered USS Independence became the first US aircraft carrier to dock at a civilian port last September, local residents greeted the ship with banners reading "Go Home US Navy." Newly revised US-Japan defense guidelines could trigger an escalation of US jet flights. Critics claim that the new agreement violates Japan's constitution and would allow unprecedented US incursions under a "declaration of emergency."

Die, Amerikanski Burger, Die!
RUSSIA - Last August, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky stormed the McDonald's franchise on Moscow's Pushkin Square, ripping Big Macs to bits and trampling their remains into the ground. "This is not real meat!" he snorted. Outraged that a shipment of "poisonous" British beef (banned owing to fears of mad cow disease) had been smuggled into Russia, Zhirinovsky vowed to demand a parliamentary vote to expel the British ambassador.

Call it Eco-Fidelity
CUBA - Following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Cuba wrote the summit's Agenda 21 "plan of action" into the island's constitution. Since 1995, Cuba's Foreign Investment Law has required foreign businesses to protect the environment. Last July, the Cuban Parliament introduced "polluter pays" legislation setting penalties for any person or business found guilty of damaging the environment. The legislation also mandates environmental education for schoolchildren.

Massive Leak: Massive Cover-Up
JAPAN - On August 26, the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (PNC) admitted that massive amounts of low-level radioactive wastes were leaking from steel drums at the Tokai waste storage pits northeast of Tokyo and had been leaking since 1982. In September, however, Japan's Science and Technology Agency reported that the leaks began in 1970 and that the PNC had engaged in a 27-year cover-up. The PNC has also been accused of misusing 80 percent of the government clean-up funds released to clean up the problem.

Fire the Conference Organizer
INDONESIA - Last October, fires set by agribusiness consumed thousands of acres of Indonesia's forests and sent a deadly pall of smoke over Asia. Indonesian President Suharto belatedly mobilized battalions of firefighters and offered his "most sincere apologies" to the world. Despite the conflagration, reports The Earth Times, Suharto kept a scheduled appearance in Jakarta as the keynote speaker of a three-day conference hosted by Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and the UN Development Program. The title of the event (for those who could read the programs through the thick smoke) was: The Third World Conference on Zero Emissions.

A Great Matter of Little Interest
JAPAN - Last September, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto announced a plan to offer "green loans" to support environmental projects in developing countries. Japan's current interest rate for foreign loans is 2.5 percent, but the rate for green loans will be a mere 0.75 percent. In addition, green loans will be repaid over a 40-year period instead of the standard 30-year span.

PETA Pecks at McDonald's
US - No sooner had a British High Court ruled that McDonald's was "culpably responsible" for cruelty in its handling of animals used to make its burgers and sandwiches, than the US animal rights group PETA demanded the fast-food giant take immediate steps to redress the treatment of its pigs and chickens. PETA's six demands: no more meat from pigs raised in concrete cells; no more eggs from factory-farmed hens; improved means of transport and slaughter; at least one-half-square-feet of living space for chickens; no more genetically altered chickens with leg deformities in sandwiches; and, finally, put a veggie burger on the menu.

"Sub-Nuclear" Tests Destroy US Trust
JAPAN - The US decision to commence nuclear test explosions in Nevada has outraged the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka declared that the tests "oppose the global trend that is moving toward a total ban on nuclear weapons" and undermined public trust in the US and other nuclear superpowers. Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito was even more blunt, stating that "the US government conducted the tests with the aim of continuing to hold nuclear weapons."

US Corps Plot to Buy Paran River
ARGENTINA - Multinational lenders like the World Bank are souring on funding megadams in the Third World, but now a private consortium of US corporations is bidding to build the first privately owned dam in Latin America. The 3,000-Mw Paran Medio project would create 10,000 temporary jobs and obliterate 30,000 jobs in ranching, farming, fishing, tourism and forestry. Despite a plebiscite that showed 90 percent of the local people were opposed to the dam, Argentine President Carlos Menem approved both the dam and an attached series of foreign-controlled tollroads linking three major cities in the region. This marks the first time that a foreign corporation has bought control of a nation's river.