DAILY GRIST WEEKLY COMPLIATION
1.DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS
Conservation medicine unites doctors, vets, scientists
As doctors, veterinarians, and biologists join forces to fight diseases like monkeypox, malaria, Ebola, and SARS that pass from animals to human hosts, a new field is emerging: conservation medicine. Researchers say human activities -- everything from chopping down forests and spewing greenhouse gases to globe-trotting and bolstering international trade -- may be causing these infectious diseases and many more to spread to ever wider human populations. Jim Motavalli investigates the intersection of disease and environmental destruction -- today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: A look at the emergence of conservation medicine -- by Jim Motavalli <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4420>
2.PEOPLE, PEOPLE WHO BREED PEOPLE
Better make room -- world population to hit 9.1 billion by 2050
There will be 9.1 billion people on this li'l planet of ours by 2050, according to revised U.N. population figures released yesterday. That's a 40 percent increase from today's mere (!) 6.5 billion. While population in developed countries is expected to remain largely stable at 1.2 billion -- mainly due to immigration, as their native birth rates are declining -- the world's 50 poorest countries will see their numbers more than double. At the same time, life expectancy in southern Africa has declined from 62 years in 1995 to 48 years in 2000-2005, and is projected to hit a low of 43 before a slow recovery. That means Africans are being born and lost to AIDS at a rate almost incomprehensible to comfortable Westerners. Speaking of which, U.S. population is set to rise from 298 million in 2005 to 394 million in 2050, with immigration the main driver of growth. Meanwhile, India will probably surpass China as the world's most populous nation in coming decades, due to higher birth rates. "It is going to be a strain on the world," said Hania Zlotnik, U.N. Population Division director and master of understatement.
straight to the source: The Globe and Mail, Associated Press, 25 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4416>
straight to the source: BBC News, 25 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4417>
3.
GREENWALSHING
Green-building expert chats about constructing healthy homes
Turns out Grist readers have a healthy appetite for information about green building; they want to know what the best and worst companies are, how to choose products for their homes, and where to learn more about green building standards and techniques. Bill Walsh, founder of the Healthy Building Network, is just the man to sate their hunger with helpful tidbits about the dangers of the vinyl industry, the significance of the LEED rating system, and more -- in InterActivist, today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: Bill Walsh, Healthy Building Network founder, answers readers' questions -- in InterActivist <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4415>
4.
DAM
Hydropower a major greenhouse-gas producer, researchers say
Although hydroelectric power is often heralded as a green alternative to fossil fuels like coal, scientists now say that in terms of greenhouse-gas production, hydro projects may be just as damning. Ahem. New research reveals that the initial flooding involved in creating hydroelectric dams releases large amounts of carbon from plants that are killed in the process. Then, leftover plant matter and other plants killed when water levels rise decompose and release methane into the atmosphere. These greenhouse-gas emissions add up -- in the case of one Brazilian dam project studied, emissions released over a year were more than triple what would have been produced by burning oil. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is considering counting some hydro-related emissions toward countries' allotments, but its proposed new guidelines would not count methane in this group, so some scientists say the proposals don't go far enough.
straight to the source: New Scientist, Duncan Graham-Rowe, 26 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4412>
5.
EXHAUSTED
Old diesel engines kill more than 20,000 Americans a year
Particulate pollution generated by old diesel engines is killing more people per year than drunk driving, said a report released yesterday. Using data and methodologies from the U.S. EPA, the Clean Air Task Force and a coalition of public health groups found that more than 20,000 Americans -- particularly those in urban areas near bus stops, highways, truck stops, or construction sites -- die, and more than 400,000 visit the emergency room, each year after breathing in tiny particles of diesel exhaust. While the EPA has mandated the phase-in of cleaner diesel engines for highway vehicles and heavy equipment starting in 2007, it has not addressed the 13 million such engines already in use, which have a lifespan of some 30 years. The groups behind the report recommended requiring the upgrading of current engines and the use of cleaner-burning fuel. "We do not need to wait," wrote Howard Frumkin of Emory University in the report's foreword. "Technology is available today that can reduce particulate matter emissions 90 percent." Industry groups, you'll be shocked to hear, decried the study.
straight to the source: Scripps Howard, Joan Lowy, 22 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4394>
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Shankar Vedantam, 23 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4395>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Devlin Barrett, 23 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4396>
6.
GLOBAL WARMING -- IT'S INFECTIOUS
Environmental change linked to spread of infectious diseases
If the catastrophic flooding, drought, and weather-related calamities associated with global warming don't kill you, exotic infectious diseases might step up to do the job, a new report released by the U.N. suggests. It found that changes to the environment -- such as deforestation, urban growth, mining, and pollution of coastal waters -- may be aiding the spread of infectious diseases, including ailments never before seen in humans. The report also suggests that global warming could be a major aggravating factor because rising temperatures and altered habitats could allow more diseases and their carriers to flourish. Climate change may also increase the number of environmental refugees moving to new areas and taking germs with them. The researchers noted a rise in the occurrence of dengue fever, found in only nine countries in the 1970s, but now present in more than 100. Other ailments scientists have linked to the environment include tuberculosis, bubonic plague, and cholera.
straight to the source: The Independent, Michael McCarthy, 22 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4391>
straight to the source: VOA News, Cathy Majtenyi, 21 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4392>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, C. Bryson Hull, 22 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4393>
7.
MARSHING OUR MELLOW
Legendary Iraqi marshes slowly on the mend
Despite certain, er, unfortunate events elsewhere in the country, one part of Iraq, subject to some of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's worst crimes, is experiencing a glimmer of hope. For years after the 1991 Gulf War, much of Hussein's industrial machinery was turned toward a massive dam-building project that drained some 90 percent of the southern wetlands where Marsh Arabs had lived for more than 5,000 years. Aside from the human toll -- hundreds of thousands of marshland inhabitants were displaced -- it was an ecological catastrophe, destroying an area many call the cradle of Western civilization, periodically flooded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and home to hundreds of fish and bird species. After Hussein was booted, residents tore down the dams and water began flooding back in -- water a group of researchers now says is much cleaner than they expected. The researchers report in the latest issue of Science that the marshes are surprisingly resilient and that while full restoration is impossible, signs are positive that with enough water, much of their former glory could return.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, 19 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4397>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Maggie Fox, 21 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4398>
8.
BULLY FOR HIM
Inhofe accused of intimidating Clear Skies naysayers
Crossing Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is a risky prospect these days. A representative of two national pollution-control groups recently spoke out against the Bush administration's embattled Clear Skies bill in testimony before a subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee. (The 18-member committee, chaired by Inhofe, is currently deadlocked over whether to send the bill to the Senate floor.) Ten days later, Inhofe asked the groups, which represent state and local air-pollution agencies, to fork over their financial and tax records. Andrew Wheeler, the committee's majority staff director, said the request has nothing to do with the testimony. "If we wanted to intimidate them, we would have done it before they testified, not after," he said. But Dems don't buy it. Said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), "This is a blatant attempt at intimidation and bullying so that experts will be afraid to speak out about a bill that rolls back air-pollution protections for all Americans."
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Alan C. Miller and Tom Hamburger, 19 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4381>
see also, in Gristmill: Inhofe tries to intimidate clean-air officials
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4382>
9.
TO SHARE, PERCHANCE TO DRIVE
Umbra on how to drive an eco-friendly car without buying one
A reader asks advice guru Umbra Fisk where she can rent a hybrid. Turns out it's not as easy as one might like, though the option is spreading. But Umbra's got another suggestion for how city dwellers can drive a hybrid without buying one. Learn about car sharing, the hippest trend in urban living -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: You really don't need to own a car -- in Ask Umbra
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4387>
sign up: Receive word by email when new Ask Umbra columns hit the scene <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/signmeup.pl?source=daily>
10.
NARY A DROP TO DIVERT
Rash of water-rights lawsuits in California worries conservationists
A series of water-rights lawsuits in California -- one of which is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow -- has conservation activists worried about what Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is calling a backdoor assault on the Endangered Species Act. At issue are contracts between farmers and the federal government for irrigation water from public works -- water that is diverted to streams and rivers in times of drought, to help preserve endangered fish species, per the ESA. Traditionally, the water has been viewed as a public resource, to be allocated as the public deems appropriate. But in a highly controversial 2001 case, a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims sided with farmers from California's Tulare and Kern counties, ruling that such diversions constitute "physical taking[s]" as described in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which means the feds must compensate the farmers. Conservationists worry that the expense of such compensation will quickly prove prohibitive, and the feds will simply stop diverting water to save fish.
straight to the source: The New York Times, Dean E. Murphy, 22 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4383>
11.
STURM UND STANG
Nun's murder spurs Amazon protections
Outrage over the Feb. 12 murder of nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang has finally catalyzed Brazil's government to protect the forest Stang worked for decades to save. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in addition to once again pulling logging permits he had restored just a week before Stang's assassination due to intense pro-logging protests, announced on Thursday that nearly 20,000 square miles of Amazon forest will be federally protected. But so far, laws and reserves have made little difference in the Para region, since loggers and ranchers seize more and more land illegally using forged deeds or sheer force, something Stang died trying to stop. Even with federal troops now in the area, business as usual hasn't halted. But at least those suspected of orchestrating her killing are being brought to justice: one surrendered to police and another was apprehended on Sunday, though the rancher believed to have ordered the hit seems to have fled the region.
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Monte Reel, 21 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4384>
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, Michael Astor, 21 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4385>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Vivian Sequera, 22 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4386>
Conservation medicine unites doctors, vets, scientists
As doctors, veterinarians, and biologists join forces to fight diseases like monkeypox, malaria, Ebola, and SARS that pass from animals to human hosts, a new field is emerging: conservation medicine. Researchers say human activities -- everything from chopping down forests and spewing greenhouse gases to globe-trotting and bolstering international trade -- may be causing these infectious diseases and many more to spread to ever wider human populations. Jim Motavalli investigates the intersection of disease and environmental destruction -- today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: A look at the emergence of conservation medicine -- by Jim Motavalli <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4420>
2.PEOPLE, PEOPLE WHO BREED PEOPLE
Better make room -- world population to hit 9.1 billion by 2050
There will be 9.1 billion people on this li'l planet of ours by 2050, according to revised U.N. population figures released yesterday. That's a 40 percent increase from today's mere (!) 6.5 billion. While population in developed countries is expected to remain largely stable at 1.2 billion -- mainly due to immigration, as their native birth rates are declining -- the world's 50 poorest countries will see their numbers more than double. At the same time, life expectancy in southern Africa has declined from 62 years in 1995 to 48 years in 2000-2005, and is projected to hit a low of 43 before a slow recovery. That means Africans are being born and lost to AIDS at a rate almost incomprehensible to comfortable Westerners. Speaking of which, U.S. population is set to rise from 298 million in 2005 to 394 million in 2050, with immigration the main driver of growth. Meanwhile, India will probably surpass China as the world's most populous nation in coming decades, due to higher birth rates. "It is going to be a strain on the world," said Hania Zlotnik, U.N. Population Division director and master of understatement.
straight to the source: The Globe and Mail, Associated Press, 25 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4416>
straight to the source: BBC News, 25 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4417>
3.
GREENWALSHING
Green-building expert chats about constructing healthy homes
Turns out Grist readers have a healthy appetite for information about green building; they want to know what the best and worst companies are, how to choose products for their homes, and where to learn more about green building standards and techniques. Bill Walsh, founder of the Healthy Building Network, is just the man to sate their hunger with helpful tidbits about the dangers of the vinyl industry, the significance of the LEED rating system, and more -- in InterActivist, today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: Bill Walsh, Healthy Building Network founder, answers readers' questions -- in InterActivist <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4415>
4.
DAM
Hydropower a major greenhouse-gas producer, researchers say
Although hydroelectric power is often heralded as a green alternative to fossil fuels like coal, scientists now say that in terms of greenhouse-gas production, hydro projects may be just as damning. Ahem. New research reveals that the initial flooding involved in creating hydroelectric dams releases large amounts of carbon from plants that are killed in the process. Then, leftover plant matter and other plants killed when water levels rise decompose and release methane into the atmosphere. These greenhouse-gas emissions add up -- in the case of one Brazilian dam project studied, emissions released over a year were more than triple what would have been produced by burning oil. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is considering counting some hydro-related emissions toward countries' allotments, but its proposed new guidelines would not count methane in this group, so some scientists say the proposals don't go far enough.
straight to the source: New Scientist, Duncan Graham-Rowe, 26 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4412>
5.
EXHAUSTED
Old diesel engines kill more than 20,000 Americans a year
Particulate pollution generated by old diesel engines is killing more people per year than drunk driving, said a report released yesterday. Using data and methodologies from the U.S. EPA, the Clean Air Task Force and a coalition of public health groups found that more than 20,000 Americans -- particularly those in urban areas near bus stops, highways, truck stops, or construction sites -- die, and more than 400,000 visit the emergency room, each year after breathing in tiny particles of diesel exhaust. While the EPA has mandated the phase-in of cleaner diesel engines for highway vehicles and heavy equipment starting in 2007, it has not addressed the 13 million such engines already in use, which have a lifespan of some 30 years. The groups behind the report recommended requiring the upgrading of current engines and the use of cleaner-burning fuel. "We do not need to wait," wrote Howard Frumkin of Emory University in the report's foreword. "Technology is available today that can reduce particulate matter emissions 90 percent." Industry groups, you'll be shocked to hear, decried the study.
straight to the source: Scripps Howard, Joan Lowy, 22 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4394>
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Shankar Vedantam, 23 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4395>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Devlin Barrett, 23 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4396>
6.
GLOBAL WARMING -- IT'S INFECTIOUS
Environmental change linked to spread of infectious diseases
If the catastrophic flooding, drought, and weather-related calamities associated with global warming don't kill you, exotic infectious diseases might step up to do the job, a new report released by the U.N. suggests. It found that changes to the environment -- such as deforestation, urban growth, mining, and pollution of coastal waters -- may be aiding the spread of infectious diseases, including ailments never before seen in humans. The report also suggests that global warming could be a major aggravating factor because rising temperatures and altered habitats could allow more diseases and their carriers to flourish. Climate change may also increase the number of environmental refugees moving to new areas and taking germs with them. The researchers noted a rise in the occurrence of dengue fever, found in only nine countries in the 1970s, but now present in more than 100. Other ailments scientists have linked to the environment include tuberculosis, bubonic plague, and cholera.
straight to the source: The Independent, Michael McCarthy, 22 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4391>
straight to the source: VOA News, Cathy Majtenyi, 21 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4392>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, C. Bryson Hull, 22 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4393>
7.
MARSHING OUR MELLOW
Legendary Iraqi marshes slowly on the mend
Despite certain, er, unfortunate events elsewhere in the country, one part of Iraq, subject to some of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's worst crimes, is experiencing a glimmer of hope. For years after the 1991 Gulf War, much of Hussein's industrial machinery was turned toward a massive dam-building project that drained some 90 percent of the southern wetlands where Marsh Arabs had lived for more than 5,000 years. Aside from the human toll -- hundreds of thousands of marshland inhabitants were displaced -- it was an ecological catastrophe, destroying an area many call the cradle of Western civilization, periodically flooded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and home to hundreds of fish and bird species. After Hussein was booted, residents tore down the dams and water began flooding back in -- water a group of researchers now says is much cleaner than they expected. The researchers report in the latest issue of Science that the marshes are surprisingly resilient and that while full restoration is impossible, signs are positive that with enough water, much of their former glory could return.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, 19 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4397>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Maggie Fox, 21 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4398>
8.
BULLY FOR HIM
Inhofe accused of intimidating Clear Skies naysayers
Crossing Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is a risky prospect these days. A representative of two national pollution-control groups recently spoke out against the Bush administration's embattled Clear Skies bill in testimony before a subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee. (The 18-member committee, chaired by Inhofe, is currently deadlocked over whether to send the bill to the Senate floor.) Ten days later, Inhofe asked the groups, which represent state and local air-pollution agencies, to fork over their financial and tax records. Andrew Wheeler, the committee's majority staff director, said the request has nothing to do with the testimony. "If we wanted to intimidate them, we would have done it before they testified, not after," he said. But Dems don't buy it. Said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), "This is a blatant attempt at intimidation and bullying so that experts will be afraid to speak out about a bill that rolls back air-pollution protections for all Americans."
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Alan C. Miller and Tom Hamburger, 19 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4381>
see also, in Gristmill: Inhofe tries to intimidate clean-air officials
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4382>
9.
TO SHARE, PERCHANCE TO DRIVE
Umbra on how to drive an eco-friendly car without buying one
A reader asks advice guru Umbra Fisk where she can rent a hybrid. Turns out it's not as easy as one might like, though the option is spreading. But Umbra's got another suggestion for how city dwellers can drive a hybrid without buying one. Learn about car sharing, the hippest trend in urban living -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: You really don't need to own a car -- in Ask Umbra
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4387>
sign up: Receive word by email when new Ask Umbra columns hit the scene <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/signmeup.pl?source=daily>
10.
NARY A DROP TO DIVERT
Rash of water-rights lawsuits in California worries conservationists
A series of water-rights lawsuits in California -- one of which is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow -- has conservation activists worried about what Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is calling a backdoor assault on the Endangered Species Act. At issue are contracts between farmers and the federal government for irrigation water from public works -- water that is diverted to streams and rivers in times of drought, to help preserve endangered fish species, per the ESA. Traditionally, the water has been viewed as a public resource, to be allocated as the public deems appropriate. But in a highly controversial 2001 case, a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims sided with farmers from California's Tulare and Kern counties, ruling that such diversions constitute "physical taking[s]" as described in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which means the feds must compensate the farmers. Conservationists worry that the expense of such compensation will quickly prove prohibitive, and the feds will simply stop diverting water to save fish.
straight to the source: The New York Times, Dean E. Murphy, 22 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4383>
11.
STURM UND STANG
Nun's murder spurs Amazon protections
Outrage over the Feb. 12 murder of nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang has finally catalyzed Brazil's government to protect the forest Stang worked for decades to save. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in addition to once again pulling logging permits he had restored just a week before Stang's assassination due to intense pro-logging protests, announced on Thursday that nearly 20,000 square miles of Amazon forest will be federally protected. But so far, laws and reserves have made little difference in the Para region, since loggers and ranchers seize more and more land illegally using forged deeds or sheer force, something Stang died trying to stop. Even with federal troops now in the area, business as usual hasn't halted. But at least those suspected of orchestrating her killing are being brought to justice: one surrendered to police and another was apprehended on Sunday, though the rancher believed to have ordered the hit seems to have fled the region.
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Monte Reel, 21 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4384>
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, Michael Astor, 21 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4385>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Vivian Sequera, 22 Feb 2005 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4386>
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 4:33 AM
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