Water Running Out
CHINA - While unseasonable floods killed 3,000 people in China, it is the lack of water that poses a greater threat. Two thirds of China's 600 cities suffer from water shortages and an estimated 550 million residents of northern China lack adequate drinking water. While floods can cause $10-20 billion in yearly damage, drought accounts for $35 billion in agricultural and industrial losses. China's growing population is slowly depleting both surface and groundwater supplies. The Yellow River stopped flowing year-round in 1985 and the Fen River has disappeared. China's 1.2 billion people are adopting water-intensive western habits (indoor showers, washing machines, flush toilets). By 2030, the population is projected to reach 1.6 billion, farmers are expected to need 265 billion metric tons of additional water, and industries plan to increase their water consume five-fold. To meet the demand, China is building the $400 million, 350-foot-high Wanjiazhai Dam on the Yellow River. Water from the dam will be pumped 2,125 feet uphill into tunnels carved through the Luya mountains. China also hopes to redirect water from Yangtze River down a 768-mile channel to fill a vast reservoir. The project will force the relocation of 220,000 people.

Indians, Pakistanis Oppose the Bomb
INDIA - Following the detonation of India's first nuclear bombs, the Hindu nationalist BJP party released a music video to celebrate the occasion. In a more sober response, 20 former military officers from India and Pakistan issued a joint statement declaring that their governments "need to address their real problems of poverty and backwardness, not waste our scarce resources on acquiring means of greater and greater destruction." One of the signatories, Retired Admiral L. Ramdas, subsequently revealed that he did "not believe that either Pakistan or India has the technological competence… to avoid an accidental launch of nuclear weapons." An anti-nuclear march in Calcutta, lead by novelist Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things) drew a crowd of 250,000. Roy called nuclear weapons "the most anti-democratic, anti-national, anti-human, outright evil thing that man has ever made."

Eurocars to Outperform US
GENEVA - In October, environment ministers from the European Union (EU) hailed a proposal by the European Automobile Manufacturer's Association to cut automobile CO2 emissions by 25 percent in 10 years. This would permit the EU to meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2010, as agreed to at the December 1997 UN climate conference in Kyoto.

Genocide for Ballots
BRAZIL - Politicians seeking election sometimes are known to trade gifts (bicycles, food or money) for votes, but Roland Lavigne, a member of the right-wing Liberal Front party is in trouble for trading votes for sterilizations. According to the London Sunday Telegraph, "Brazil has developed a tradition of offering sterilizations" in exchange for votes - anywhere from 7-25 per operation. Lavigne offered free sterilizations to members of the Pataxó Hã Hã tribe as an "alternative" birth control choice. The women, who sought the treatment "because of a lack of alternative birth control under a flagging public health system," were not told that the surgery was irreversible. Roberto Liebgott, of the Missionary Council for Indigenous Affairs called the action "genocide… a deliberate attempt to wipe out an entire tribe." In the village of Baheta, "every woman of child-bearing age was sterilized," the Telegraph reported. The mass surgeries were applauded by the property-owning fazendeiros (farmers) "who have long been in conflict with the tribespeople and would like to see them wiped out."

Still Killing After All These Years
VIETNAM - Twenty-eight years after the US stopped dropping the herbicide Agent Orange on Vietnam, the remnants of the deadly spray - dioxin, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D - have started killing and deforming a third generation of Asian victims. It is now feared that 2 million people may be suffering from Agent-Orange-inflicted diseases. Some 500 Vietnamese children suffering from dioxin-related birth defects are being treated at 11 medical "peace villages." Veterans from four allied countries that fought alongside US troops in Vietnam have sued the US manufacturers of Agent Orange. Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh has suggested that the US should offer to compensate the victims and indicated that it might be a "good idea" for the victims to sue the defoliant's manufacturers - Monsanto, Dow Chemical and Diamond Shamrock, Inc.

Sun's Up Down Under
AUSTRALIA - In 2000, some of the world's best athletes will find themselves living in one of the world's largest "solar suburb." ReNew magazine reports that more than 660 new homes in Newington, the site of the Olympic Village, will be built with rooftop solar panels capable of producing all the electricity needed for residential use. High-efficiency lighting, thermal insulation and low-energy appliances will require only half the power used in a typical home. The solar suburb will generate 1 million kWh annually, resulting in a 7,000-ton reduction of CO2 emissions. After the Olympics, the homes will be sold to the public.

Solar City Up Above
AUSTRIA - The Solar City of Pichling, due to be completed by 2001, will feature 1500 homes equipped with passive solar design, natural lighting and solar collectors for storing hot water, reports Renewable Energy World. Electricity will come from a community cogeneration plant run on biogas (from human and organic waste) and vegetable oil. Cars will be stored in underground garages, leaving streets open to bicyclists and pedestrians. Schools, workplaces and stores will be within easy walking distance and suburban trains will link the village to the urban center.

Casks and Reactors
GERMANY - Shipments of nuclear wastes were halted in Germany after the discovery that the shipping containers (CASTORs) were emitting unexpectedly high levels of radiation that could pose a danger to people standing nearby. The government of former Prime Minister Helmut Kohl had claimed that a police officer standing near a CASTOR could get a year's worth of maximum radiation exposure in an hour. Now the danger appears to have been much greater. The German police union announced that it would no longer offer to guard the CASTORs and the Kohl government was forced to halt all shipments. Shipments of nuclear wastes were also halted in the Netherlands after it was discovered that the transport casks were leaking radioactivity. In Sweden, a shipload of 49 casks filled radioactive waste from nuclear powerplants was "found to have external contamination." Sweden is taking no chances with its nuclear powerplants: The government plans to shut down all its reactor facilities on December 31, 1999 to avoid loss of control due to the millennium computer bug.

Downwind, Downgene
UK - Research published in the British Journal of Cancer reports finding that genetic damage caused by exposure to radiation is passed on to subsequent generations of laboratory mice, making it more likely that the next generation will contract leukemia.

Near-Disaster for British Nuke Sub
UK - A Royal Navy Trident submarine was nearly destroyed during a training exercise in the Celtic Deep off the Irish coast last year. According to Scotland's Sunday Mail, "the 135 crew aboard the HMS Vanguard carrying up to 96 nuclear warheads - though they were seconds from death, after a power failure… sent [the sub] into an uncontrolled dive." Navy officials tried to cover-up the incident but crewmembers brought their harrowing story to the press. "The boat was shuddering and shaking," one sailor told the Mail. "We were on our knees praying. Everyone was scared out of their wits because we'd never experienced anything like this." The electrical backup power had failed while the Vanguard was in a steep dive, sending the vessel plummeting toward a depth of 450 meters, beyond which its hull would have crushed. Fortunately, the sub was saved by an emergency backup engine powered by steam. It kicked in "only minutes from disaster." Had it not been for the steam engine, a former Royal Navy submarine commander told the Mail, the sub would have "probably imploded, killing the crew and spreading radioactivity over a massive area."

A Really Green Energy Option
GERMANY - When Bonn opened the electricity market to competition, no one expected that one of the new players would be Greenpeace Germany but on September 11, Greenpeace Managing Director Walter Homolka announced plans to challenge nuclear power by offering environmentally sound power using natural gas resources and heat reclamation technology. "Greenpeace does not want eco-electricity to be a niche product," Homulka said. Greenpeace predicted that green electrons would begin flowing early in 1999, priced to compete with nuclear-powered suppliers.

Chemical Weapons Burners Flunk
US - The US Army began destroying chemical weapons at an incinerator in Utah in August 1996 but critics of the incineration process have revealed that the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility "is producing 15 pounds of hazardous waste for every one pound of chemical agent burned." The Chemical Weapons Working Group [PO Box 467, Berea, KY 40403, (606) 986-0868], citing government reports, claims that the Tooele site destroyed 2,995,954 pounds of chemical weapons from M55 rockets and MC-1 bombs and produced 45,028,256 pounds of hazardous waste, "which was then shipped off-site to landfills, incinerators and other disposal facilities, including deep-well injection sites all cross the country." CWWG spokesman Craig Williams (whose group favors chemical neutralization as a preferred disposal method) noted that "The Army stated in the 1980s that a primary reason for choosing incineration… was the low amount of hazardous waste it would generate." Incineration discharges dioxins, PCBs and heavy metals from Tooele's smokestacks. The solid wastes (hazardous brine, ash and metals) are shipped to sites in Texas, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, Colorado and California.

Bagging the Environment
BANGLADESH - The monsoon flooding that covered Bangladesh was exacerbated by the presence of polyethylene garbage bags. Dakar Mayor Mohammed Haif told InterPress Service that "indiscriminate dumping of polyethylene bags" caused floods that covered two-thirds of his city "because this insoluble object is choking the drainage system and causing overflow of filthy sewerage water." Nearly 3,000 tons of garbage are produced in Dakar each day. The garbage is placed outside to be collected by poor street children "who are said to lift up to 600 tons of garbage every day." Polyethylene garbage bags have become omnipresent. Dakar residents are estimated to discard 4.5 million such bags every day. The Ministry of Environment and Forests convened an emergency meeting in October to devise ways to control the proliferation of polybags.

Our Unequal World
UNITED NATIONS - According to the UN's 1998 Human Development Report, a child born in Britain, France or the US will consume more resources and create more pollution in his or her lifetime than 50 children born in a developing country. But it is the one billion people outside the "consumer society" who will suffer most from the unequal distribution of resources and wastes. Global consumption of goods and services reached $24 trillion in 1998 six times greater than in 1975. In a troubling trend, the UN found that western TV shows, movies and advertising are creating a growing global desire for "rich-and-famous" lifestyle choices and that these are competing with the need for such basics as "food, education, health care, child care and saving for a secure future." In 1998, the world's richest 20 percent consumed 86 percent of the world's goods, 45 percent of the meat and fish, 74 percent of the telephone lines and 84 percent of the paper. In 1998, the average resident of China was responsible for the production of 3 metric tons of CO2: In the US the per capita figure was 21 metric tons.

A First Step for Animal Rights
TAIWAN - On October 13, the Legislative Yuan (parliament) passed the country's first Animal Protection Law. According to the Life Conservationist Association [3F, No. 90 Nan King E. Rd., Sec 5, PO Box 112-565, Taipei, Taiwan] the new law will prohibit direct and indirect gambling on animal sports, establishes an Ethics Committee to oversee the scientific use of animals, provides for humane slaughter and mandates fines for people found guilty of abandoning or abusing animals.

British A-Base Brass Fights Bach
SCOTLAND - Last August, 300 peace activists rallied outside the Faslane Nuclear Submarine Base to call for dismantling of Britain's nuclear weapons system. Thirty-seven protesters were arrested after some activists tried to cut through the base's security fence. One women was arrested while playing a Bach solo on her violin and charged with breach of the peace and resisting arrest. A French activist was fined £50 for singing outside the base.

Earthquakes and Chemical Fallout
JAPAN - In the aftermath of the great Hanshin earthquake that damaged Kobe, the Shukan Gendai reports on an unexpected hazard of earthquakes: The fires that raged through the damaged city released dangerous levels of dioxin, one of the deadliest chemicals known. Evenly distributed, 20 kilograms could kill everyone in Japan. The Kobe fires released 71 grams into the air, most of which wound up in an Osaka Bay landfill as dioxin-saturated ash. In any major city, an earthquake and fire could be expected to unleash a deadly rain of dioxin.

It's Not Good for Kentucky
US - "Mountaintop mining. It's good for West Virginia and it's the right thing to do." So reads a newspaper ad from Arch Coal, Inc. But the folks in neighboring Kentucky (where Arch Coal has plans to chop the top off a famous summit named "Big Black") have a different opinion. "Ecologically and biologically it's the crown jewel of Kentucky," senior state ecologist Marc Evans told the Associated Press. "During mountaintop removal," the AP explains, "the coal is exposed as the tops of hills are removed and the earth is dumped in nearby valleys. At times, streams are buried in the process. A flat or gently rolling landscape is left after the mountaintop removal operation." Coal River Mountain Watch [Randy Sprouse, (304) 854-2408] is asking for people to write Vice President Al Gore [(202) 456-1111] demanding a permanent ban on mountaintop mining.

No Blanca Check for US Rad Waste
US The 700 residents of Sierra Blanca breathed a huge sigh of relief on October 23, when the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission voted unanimously to deny licensing a nuclear waste dump in the small town 16 miles from the Mexican border. The commission was concerned that the dump would be built in the most seismically active place in Texas. Sierra Blanca Legal Defense fund lawyer David Frederick acknowledged that Sierra Blanca "may not have a great future now, but at least there won't be a dump." Texas' Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority may appeal.

Chemical Cover-up in Air Crash
THE NETHERLANDS - In October 1992, an El-Al Boeing 747 crashed into a 12-story apartment building in Amsterdam, killing 43 people. An El Al spokesperson assured the Dutch public that the plane's cargo contained only military spare parts and perfume. In October, the paper NRC Handelsblad revealed that the plane had, in fact, also carried 50 gallons of dimethyl methylphosphonate and two of the other three chemical ingredients needed to manufacture 594 pounds of deadly Sarin nerve gas. The chemicals were supplied by Solkatronic Chemicals in Pennsylvania and sold to Israel with the permission of the US Commerce Department, which knew that the shipment was going to the Institute for Biological Research, a secret Israeli research facility south of Tel Aviv. For years, several hundred survivors of the crash have suffered from mysterious ailments including chronic fatigue, bronchial problems, muscle pain, nervousness, drowsiness and depression. They were enraged to learn that the Dutch government conspired in the cover-up.

Will New AG Act on Unocal?
US - On September 10, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and 30 groups (including Earth Island Institute) filed a petition with then-State Attorney General Dan Lungren calling for the state to revoke the corporate charter for the Union Oil Company of California (Unocal). The 127-page petition accused the oil company of violating state and international laws and called on Lungren to take action as required under state law. Ludgren's response was a terse 3-sentence letter of rejection dated September 15. "The Attorney General's capricious action breaches his legal duty - he is now a law-breaker," declared NLG attorney Robert Benson, who noted that "under the law, the governor can direct the attorney general to start revocation proceedings against a corporation." It is hoped that the petition will receive a fairer hearing under Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Tank Attacks "Lost World" Blockade
VENEZUELA - Rainforests and sacred native sites are once more in danger after the government broke off talks with indigenous forest dwellers opposed to the construction of a 450-mile powerline in Canaima National Park and southern Venezuela. Work on the project was halted after an August 26 attack by National Guard forces who fired on 300 Mapauri villagers with tear gas and rubber bullets, sending three Indians to the hospital. On October 12, after Venezuela broke off negotiations, the native people rebuilt their roadblock at he base of Mount Roraima. The Venezuelan National Guard dispatched soldiers and a military tank to the area.

Greens Knock Nukes
GERMANY - In Bonn, the coalition Social Democrat/Green government has announced plans to rid the country of nuclear powerplants. Green Environment Minister Juergen Trittin has ruled that any reactors not proven safe will be shut down and work on new nuclear waste dumps will halt. The Greens hope to phase-out nuclear powerplants within four years in favor of safe renewable energy technologies. Last November, the coalition government called on NATO to renounce the "first-use" of atomic weapons. US Defense Secretary William Cohen reacted angrily, insisting that pre-emptive attacks are "an integral part of our strategic concept." As the New York Times explains, "The US has always reserved the right to start a nuclear war." Cohen may have a hard time convincing Germany's new Green Party Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Denmark, Canada and Greece also reportedly support a "no-first-strike" policy. [To add your name to a petition for the abolition of nuclear war, contact Council for A Livable World, 110 Maryland Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20002, (202) 543-4100.]

Green Hero Dies, Campaign Grows
CHINA - Zhaba Duojie, a Tibetan conservationist who campaigned to save the endangered chiru antelope, was gunned down outside his home on November 8. Chiru are illegally hunted for their shahtoosh, a fine fur around their throats (Fall '98 EIJ). Chinese officials called the death a "suicide" but Reuters reports that the killing "was believed to be connected to poachers." Duojie, who was also deputy Community Party secretary of Zhidoi county, managed the Gyaisang Soinamdaje wildlife protection center in Hoh Xil. The center was named for Duojie's predecessor, who was killed by poachers in 1994. Following Duojie's death, British Prime Minister Tony Blair assured China's Friends of Nature that he would campaign to ban sales of shahtoosh in Britain and the European Community (EC). [For more information, contact EII's Tibetan Plateau Project.]

MAI Be, MAI Be Not
BRUSSELS - The Multinational Agreement on Investing (MAI) is down but not out. Criticisms that the MAI would give foreign investors more rights than local citizens caused to withdraw from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) MAI negotiations last year. The global bankers and business interests backing MAI now plan to shift negotiations to the secretive World Trade Organization. The hand-off attempt will be made at the OECD's April meeting in France. The deal is to be sealed at the WTO's Ministerial Meeting in Washington this fall.
* What We Can Do: Coordinate a local Citizens' Inquiry into MAI [Contact: Anna Dashtgard, Council of Canadians, No. 502, 151 Slater St., Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H3, (6`3) 233-2773, fax: -6776, (800) 387-7177]. Support the Citizens Public Trust Treaty (an alternative to the MAI that was presented to the United Nations last September). For more information, contact Henry Holmes at EII's SAGE Project and read the citizens' treaty on the EII website or contact Joan Russow, National Leader of the Green Party of Canada [Global Compliance Research Project, 1230 St. Patrick St., Victoria, BC V8S 4Y4, Tel/fax: (250) 598-0071].

Clinton's $11 Billion Sequel
US - On November 17, the Pentagon began work on a $11.4 billion missile program to defend the US from rocket attacks by "rogue nations." The untested ground-based anti-missile defense system is to be built in Alaska and Hawai'i. Like Ronald Reagan's discredited Star Wars program, Clinton's scaled-down sequel would violate the 1972 US-USSR Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. (Some neo-coldwarriors argue that the treaty ceased to exist when the USSR ceased to exist.) Four sites are under consideration in Alaska at Clear AFB near Anderson, Eielson AFB near Fairbanks, Fort Greely near Delta Junction and Fort Wainwright east of Fairbanks. The base would be so large that 300 members of the Alaska National Guard would have to be reassigned to service it. One billion dollars has already been spent to develop system specifications. Late last year, the first Minuteman missile was launched successfully from the Pentagon's new rocket base in Alaska. As technology critic and publisher Nick Begich notes, the Alaska base "would allow the US to hit any target in the world while launching from US soil." A draft Environmental Impact Statement is to be published sometime this summer. A decision on deployment will be formally made in 2000. Unless it is blocked, US rockets could be flying toward Iraq or Afghanistan within 3-4 years.

Global Crime Court
UK - On November 30, Britain became the 61st country to sign a global treaty calling for establishing an International Criminal Court. The ICC would try cases of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. Lesotho, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast and Tajikistan joined the UK in signing the treaty. The ICC would come into existence when 60 countries have ratified the treaty. As of December 1998, 62 countries had signed the treaty: The US was not among them.

Africa Condemns Monsanto
KENYA - More than 24 African agriculturalists and environmental scientists have condemned a £1 million Monsanto ad campaign targeted at Africa. "We do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st century. On the contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia and that it will thus undermine our capacity to feed ourselves." Wangari Mathai of Kenya's Green Belt Movement stated that "patenting of life forms and the genetic engineering which it stimulates, is being justified on the grounds that it will benefit society, especially the poor, by providing better and more food and medicine. But in fact, by monopolizing the 'raw' biological materials, the development of other options is deliberately blocked."

Cops for Crops: Monsanto Rules
US - Since the dawn of agriculture, individual farmers have selected, saved and shared seeds. No more. The Brave New World of genetic engineering is showing its totalitarian face. In 1998, the Monsanto Company boasted that it had "hired full-time investigators to follow up on all seed piracy leads it receives." By September 1998, Monsanto had logged more than 475 seed piracy cases nationwide, suing family farmers whose only crime was saving and sharing Monsanto's genetically enhanced Roundup Ready soybeans and Bollgard cotton. Scores of farmers have been forced to pay Monsanto as much as $35,000 in "royalty payments." A Monsanto press release boasts that these felon farmers will have to provide "full documentation confirming the disposal of [their] unlawful soybean crop" and will have to grant Monsanto's agents "full access to all of their property… for inspections… for the next five years."

Que Linda es Cuba
CUBA - When Christopher Columbus encountered Cuba, 90 percent of the island was forested. By 1960, logging, cattle ranching and sugarcane production had reduced forest cover to a mere 14 percent. Late last year, Cuba enacted its first forest conservation law, which promotes tree-planting, bans unauthorized logging and provides subsidies for sustainable forestry. "[Fidel] Castro has always been keen on increasing Cuba's forest cover," reports BBC Wildlife. "On coming to power in 1959, he began a reforestation campaign, which increased tree cover to around 21 percent by 1997."

Kiernan Cleans Up
KENYA - Australian sailor and environmentalist Ian Kiernan is the winner of the United Nations Environment Program's 1998 Sasakawa Environment Prize. Troubled by the growing amount of ocean litter he encountered on his racing voyages, Kiernan started the Clean Up the World Campaign. Last September, 40 million volunteers in 120 countries turned out to clean bottles, cans, nets and plastic debris from the world's beaches.

Automakers Merge, Regroup
GERMANY - Whether the merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler will produce a less-polluting car remains to be seen, but it has already led to the collapse of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, the lobbying group for the "Big Three" US automakers. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were forced to disband the AAMA because its bylaws exclude "foreign" carmakers. US automakers quickly crafted a new lobbying organization expanded to include all carmakers with factories in the US. Meanwhile, the countries of the European Union are hoping to cut greenhouse emissions by posting labels on new cars that show the amount of CO2 each vehicle produces for each kilometer driven.

Right Livelihood Winners
SWEDEN - On December 9, the 1998 Right Livelihood Awards (also known as "the Alternative Nobel Prize") were presented to University of Illinois Occupational and Environmental Medicine Professor Samuel Epstein (US), Grupo de Accion por el Biobío leader Juan Pablo Orrego (Chile), Katarina Kruhonja and Vesna Terselic (two anti-war crusaders from Croatia) and the International Baby Food Action Network (Switzerland). Epstein founded the Cancer Prevention Coalition to expose the links between cancer and chemical pollution. Orrego has successfully challenged plans to build a series of large hydroelectric dams on the Biobío River. Kruhonja and Terseic each inspired separate peace movements in the war-torn Balkans. IBFAN fought against a global campaign by commercial baby milk manufacturers to discourage women from breastfeeding (UNICEF estimates that 1.5 million children die each year because their mothers have been persuaded to stop breastfeeding.) The winners will share the $230,000 prize offered by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull. [PO Box 15072, S-10465 Stockholm, Sweden, fax: 46 (08) 702-0338, www.rightlivlihood.se.]

US Nuclear Testing Backfires
JAPAN - The detonation of a subcritical nuclear test by the US last September sent shock waves across the Pacific. The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sent protest letters to President Clinton expressing outrage that the US had ignored "peoples' wishes all over the world to stop nuclear testing." Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ita noted that Russia, following the US example, now plans to conduct its own subcritical nuclear tests. Last August, on the 53rd anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Japan, a survey conducted by Asahi Shimbun found a growing number of Japanese eager to reject the protection of the US "nuclear umbrella." Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka declared, "It is imperative that all Japanese give serious thought to security policies that are not nuclear-dependent."

The Long March Toward Human Rights
CHINA - On October 5, China became the 140 nation to sign the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. China's UN Ambassador, Qin Huasun, proclaimed that "the universality of human rights should be respected." It remains to be seen whether the National People's Congress will ratify the ICCPR: It still has not ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights signed in October 1997.