06/29/00 -- Climate News-29 June 2000

Climate News-29 June 2000

Climate Change Info Mailing List
Chad Carpenter
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
New York, NY
Tel: (212) 375-8727
Fax: (212) 656-1788
E-mail: chadc@iisd.org
IISDnet: http://iisd.ca/
June 29, 2000

1) US-GORE UNVEILS $125 BILLION ENERGY PLAN (NY Times, CNN) 2) EU-FINE NATIONS THAT DON'T CUT GREENHOUSE GAS (Reuters) 3) PANEL PROPOSES CARBON TAX ON FOSSIL FUELS (Japan Times) 4) UK-ENERGY USE NEEDS RADICAL CHANGE (Financial Times, BBC) 5) UN-PROGRESS ON GLOBAL WARMING PLAN (Reuters) 6) ABARE WARNS OF GHG REDUCTION EFFECT (Australian Broadcasting)

7) US, RUSSIA PROMOTE NUCLEAR SAFETY, CLIMATE COOPERATION (ENS) 8) EU SAYS COUNTRIES MUST DECIDE THEMSELVES ON NUCLEAR (Reuters) 9) SWEDISH NUKE PLANT CLOSE RAISES CO2 OUTPUT (Reuters) 10) GREENS TAKE PROTEST TO STOCK EXCHANGE (Sydney Morning Herald) 11) ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS DECRY WARMING NEGOTIATIONS (Fox News) 12) US SAYS DOING ALL IT CAN TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING (Reuters)

13) COCA-COLA UNVEILS ENVIRONMENT PLAN (NY Times, ENS) 14) EXXON MOBIL STANDS FIRM (Dallas Morning News) 15) TRANSALTA, HEW IN FIRST TRANSATLANTIC EMISSIONS DEAL (Reuters) 16) WATER POWER 'FUELS CLIMATE CHANGE' (BBC News) 17) GROWING GREENHOUSE FORESTS (Sydney Morning Herald) 18) COAL SHAKES OFF OLD IMAGE (Financial Times)

19) WARNINGS AGAINST OZONE-UNFRIENDLY GADGETS (Panafrican News) 20) UNION LEADER ATTACKS BUSINESS TAXES (Times of London) 21) ECO-FRIENDLY TAXIS PLY KYOTO (Japan Times) 22) BALTIC CO2 OUTPUT HAS NOT FALLEN OVER LAST 10 YEARS (Reuters) 23) WASHERS TO CUT ENERGY USE BY HALF (L.A. Times) 24) AUSTRALIA SETS RENEWABLE ENERGY SALES TARGET (Reuters)

25) US-WARMING EFFECTS TO BE WIDESPREAD (NY Times, USA Today, Washington Post, CNN, ABC News, Fox News) 26) US-AGENCY WARNS OF GROWING COASTAL EROSION (NY Times) 27) US-SPRING BROKE RECORD AS NATION'S WARMEST (Washington Post) 28) IPCC-GLOBAL WARMING TO STRIKE HARD (Japan Times) 29) AUSTRALIAN STATE GETTING WARMER, WETTER - SCIENTISTS (Reuters) 30) KYOTO PROVISION: SPARE THE FORESTS, BOOST THE ECONOMY (CNN)

31) RED CROSS WARNS ON CLIMATE (BBC, ABC, Times of London) 32) MEDITERRANEAN WATERS TAKE A DIVE (BBC News) 33) STUDY EYES FLUCTUATING CROP YIELDS (NY Times, Washington Post) 34) STORM'S PASSAGE ACROSS CHILE LEAVES 60,000 HOMELESS (CNN) 35) DROUGHT FORCES RATIONING IN CHINA'S CAPITAL (Reuters) 36) GREAT LAKES SIGNAL GREAT SHIFT IN SEASONAL CHANGES (CNN)

ON THE WEB 37) PEW CENTER REVIEWS CLIMATE PROGRAMS OF FIVE EU COUNTRIES 38) OZONE ACTION'S RESPONSE TO WFA LAWSUIT

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS 39) THE ATOM'S PLACE IN EUROPE'S FUTURE (Intl. Herald Tribune) 40) REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRATIC STAFFERS SAY KYOTO IS A NO GO (RFF) 41) DISASTERS BLAMED ON POLLUTION (BBC News) 42) NOT SO HOT NEWS (National Review) _______________________________________________

1) GORE UNVEILS $125 BILLION ENERGY PLAN New York Times June 28, 2000 Internet: http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/062800wh-gore.html

PHILADELPHIA, June 27 -- Offering a sweeping vision of a future in which pollution is conquered and cars run without a "drop of oil or gasoline," Vice President Al Gore today proposed tax breaks and other incentives for both reducing America's dependence on oil and cleaning up the environment. And he made clear that he wanted to claim these issues in the presidential election not only with his soaring oratory but with the amount of money -- more than $125 billion over 10 years -- that he was willing to devote to them.

The plans that the vice president outlined today -- mostly various forms of tax breaks for businesses that provided or invested in more efficient, less conventional or less polluting sources of energy -- represented an estimated $75 billion in lost federal tax revenue or spending over 10 years, aides said. But they said that the additional proposals that Mr. Gore was expected to make on Wednesday and Thursday would bring that figure up to more than $125 billion. Mr. Gore framed that investment as both an opportunity and an obligation created by the country's current period of extraordinary prosperity.

"There can be a next stage of prosperity in which American creativity builds not just a better product but also a healthier planet," Mr. Gore said outside an energy plant here that was a model for the use of newer, cleaner, more efficient technology. "We will say to the nation's inventors and entrepreneurs: if you invest in these new technologies, America will invest in you," Mr. Gore continued. "And we will prove, once and for all, that we can clean up pollution, make our power systems more efficient and more reliable, and move away from dependence on others all with no new taxes, no new bureaucracies, and no onerous regulations."

While economists and business executives often worry that more clean-air efforts and stringent environmental regulations would hamper industry and limit the creation of new jobs, Mr. Gore's approach emphasized the carrot of tax savings rather than the stick of restrictions, and it anticipated the growth of new companies and new jobs on the cutting edge of fuel technology. But Mr. Gore's pitch was more than just an exhortation for a cleaner environment. It also reflected the sudden emergence of high gasoline prices as a potent issue in the 2000 presidential elections. Republicans have assailed the Clinton administration for an energy policy that they say has left the country too vulnerable to the whims of foreign oil producers.

Mr. Gore even folded into his speech a call for the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into possible price-gouging by the oil industry to include public hearings, possibly with testimony from consumers. Earlier this month, when Mr. Gore embarked on what he called a "prosperity and progress" tour, he said he would spend this week talking about environmental policy. But since then, gas prices have become an increasingly heated point of contention between Republicans and Democrats, and today, the word energy accompanied and even preceded the word environment in the headlines atop the written remarks and policy summaries that Mr. Gore's aides distributed to reporters. And Mr. Gore frequently alluded in his 26-minute address to the problems of American dependence on "big oil," a phrase undoubtedly meant as a dig against his Republican rival, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, a former oil company executive.

Democrats have said that Mr. Bush's former professional ties and the enormous sums of campaign money he has received from oil companies would make him unwilling to press for lower prices at the gas pump. In any case, Mr. Gore said in his speech, "Our next- stage prosperity must be built on our ability to make sure Americans will be free forever from the dominance of big oil and foreign oil." Mr. Gore said that America today stood "on a new frontier of energy independence and environmental protection" and should not fail to explore it. "It is an old, timid way of thinking to build our lives and livelihoods around a fuel source that is distant, uncertain and easily manipulated," he said. "It is a new, bold way of thinking to demand and develop new technologies to free ourselves from gas-tank price-gouging." Later, in a satellite interview with an ABC affiliate in Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Gore attacked Mr. Bush more directly.

"I have never been afraid to take on big oil," Mr. Gore said. But, the vice president added, "My opponent comes out of the oil industry. His experience is as an oil company executive. He called for higher oil prices to boost the oil companies' profits."

Officials with the Bush campaign noted that Mr. Bush had endorsed the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into oil companies and said that Mr. Gore was merely trying to deflect attention from the Clinton administration's responsibility for gas prices that have risen as much as 50 cents a gallon in some areas of the Midwest. Mr. Gore, as it happens, will be taking his new energy message to that region over the next few days.

Mr. Bush's aides further said that what Mr. Gore unveiled today was really a set of environmental proposals, none of them especially visionary, that were recast and reconfigured to sound like an energy plan because the political landscape had changed so quickly. "The vice president seems to forget who's been in office for seven years," Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Michigan this afternoon. "This is an administration that's been in charge and the price of gasoline has risen steadily."

The plan that Mr. Gore began to outline today centered on an unspecified "menu of financial mechanisms," as material distributed by his aides called it, of tax incentives, loans, grants and bonds to help "power plants and industries that come forward with projects that promise to dramatically reduce climate and health-threatening pollution." Some of Mr. Gore's proposals represented expansions of current federal programs, while others were new. They included doubling the tax credit for businesses that turn wind or landfill methane into electricity and giving accelerated tax deductions to companies for the purchase of equipment that makes cleaner and more efficient use of fuel. In the coming days, Mr. Gore's aides said, the vice president will talk about tax breaks for consumers who use solar energy or buy products, like cars, that do not use traditional sources of fuel like oil.

Mr. Gore's proposals seem to veer in somewhat different directions from those of the last Democratic president to offer a sweeping set of proposals on energy use, Jimmy Carter. As a way of trying to reduce dependence on foreign oil, Mr. Carter set import quotas on the amount of foreign oil accepted into American ports. And he encouraged the development of alternative sources of fuel, including coal, oil shale, unconventional gas and the sun. Mr. Carter asked that utility companies cut their use of oil by 50 percent over a decade, and switch to other fuels, particularly coal. And most famously, he ordered thermostats turned down in the winter as a conservation measure and wore a sweater in the chilly White House.

See also-- CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/06/27/campaign.wrap/index.html

Washington Post: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7872-2000Jun27.html

2) EU SAYS FINE NATIONS THAT DON'T CUT GREENHOUSE GAS Reuters June 23, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7236&newsDate=23-Jun-2000

LUXEMBOURG - European Union environment ministers said yesterday that countries which fail to meet their international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be made to pay financial penalties. The ministers met in Luxembourg to hone the position the 15-nation bloc will take to negotiations later this year to decide the rules for complying with the Kyoto Protocol which limits richer nations' greenhouse gas emissions. At Kyoto in 1997, a group of industrialised countries agreed to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases - those that contribute to global warming, primarily carbon dioxide - by an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

How this will be enforced is a thorny issue that must be decided by the parties to the UN climate change convention in the Hague in November. The EU wants a compliance regime "with a clear economic impact...to both discourage non-compliance and compensate for damage to the environment", the ministers said in a statement. According to a source at the EU's executive Commission, this should include fines for non-compliance, paid into a fund to support projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The negotiating stance hammered out over several hours today will have to bear up to pressure from the United States and other countries which favour a more flexible approach to the emissions reductions.

3) PANEL PROPOSES CARBON TAX ON FOSSIL FUELS Japan Times 18 June Internet: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20000618a7.htm

The government's Tax Commission is to propose a carbon tax on gasoline, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in an interim report to be presented to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori next month, commission sources said Saturday. The report will recommend the new tax be introduced as a national tax on fossil fuels by volume, with the aim of having users of fossil fuels pay for the cost of environmental protection, the sources said.

In a report released last December, the government advisory commission called for the introduction of "an environment tax," but no specifics were revealed. The interim report is expected to set a timetable for the introduction of the carbon tax by 2002, the year by which implementation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is aimed for, the sources said. The protocol legally obliges developed countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by between 2008 and 2012. The reduction target for Japan, one of the world's largest emitters, is 6 percent during the same period.

The report will also call for the introduction of a special- purpose local tax to make it possible for local governments to help finance the disposal of industrial waste, and as a way to cut outlays for road construction from vehicle tax revenues, spending from which is limited to road construction, the sources said. The commission expects the reduction in spending to save money that could be used for environmental protection.

The commission issues an interim report once every three years, and the upcoming report is designed to set the groundwork for taxation in the early 21st century.

4) UK COMMISSION-ENERGY USE NEEDS RADICAL CHANGE Financial Times June 16 2000 Internet: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3ZJZ91K9C&liv e=true&useoverridetemplate=IXLZHNNP94C

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution on Friday called for a "complete transformation in the UK's use of energy" in what it called one of the most important reports in its 30-year history. It urged the UK to plan for a 60 per cent cut in the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels over the next 50 years, as an essential part of the global response to climate change. "We cannot expect other nations to do their part in countering this threat - least of all if they are much less wealthy - unless we demonstrate we are really serious about it," said Sir Tom Blundell, commission chairman.

Michael Meacher, environment minister, said he accepted the report's call for further action on global warming. But he stressed it was important not to force the pace of change faster than the public was ready to accept. The target of a 60 per cent cut by 2050 was "not real politics, globally, at this time". The commission cast doubt on the likelihood of achieving the government's stated goal of a 20 per cent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2010, despite being on target to meet the 12.5 per cent cut required under the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol.

The report also called for an expansion of renewable energy, where the UK is lagging behind several European neighbours, and said large improvements in the energy efficiency of industry, households and motorists were needed. The government's climate change levy, a tax on the industrial use of energy, should be replaced by a tax on fuels that emitted carbon dioxide. The commission said that the emission cuts would involve difficult choices. For example, keeping energy consumption at current levels would require energy crops covering 15 per cent of farmland, 200 large offshore windfarms, onshore windfarms covering one per cent of the land, a tidal barrage across the Severn estuary, photovoltaic cells on most buildings and 46 new nuclear power stations.

See also:

Reuters: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000606/sc/environment_australia_dc_1.html

7) U.S., RUSSIA PROMOTE NUCLEAR SAFETY, CLIMATE CHANGE COOPERATION ENS 6 June Internet: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-05-06.html

MOSCOW, Russia, June 5, 2000 (ENS) - The United States and Russia have signed agreements to reduce their stockpiles of weapons grade plutonium and establish a permanent joint early warning system to reduce the threat of mistaken missile attack warnings. During a visit by U.S. President Bill Clinton to Russia, the two countries also committed to strengthen their joint efforts to combat global climate change. During Clinton's visit, both presidents stressed that the U.S. and Russia hope to cooperate to reduce the worldwide threat of nuclear war, and to address global issues like climate change that affect both countries.

"Both in terms of the spirit and the quality of our talks, as well as the results, the Russian side cannot but express its satisfaction," said Putin. "We not only confirmed the high level of our relations, but we also expressed the trend of the development of our relations between our two countries for the near future." "For today, the United States is one of our main partners," Putin continued. "And as far as Russia is concerned, it will never make the choice regarding the United States in order to start once again confrontation. Never. We are for cooperation. We are for coming to agreement on problems that might arise."

"We've had good discussions, both last night and today, on a range of common interests, including nonproliferation and arms control," said Clinton. "We expressed our differences with clarity and candor." Where differences existed, as in the presidents�failure to agree on the creation of an anti-ballistic missile defense program, "We've asked our experts to keep working to narrow the differences, and to develop a series of cooperative measures to address the missile threat," said Clinton. "And we have agreed that we will continue to discuss it in our next meeting."

Turning Bombs into Fuel - or Trash The plutonium agreement, signed by President Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin, requires each country to dispose of 34 metric tons of its plutonium stockpile over the next 20 years. Both countries have kept large stockpiles of weapons grade plutonium, which could be easily adapted to power bombs if it fell into terrorist hands. Unlike weapons grade uranium, which is being blended with other materials for use as nuclear power fuel in both the U.S. and in Russia, plutonium cannot be blended with other materials to make it unusable in weapons. The agreement signed Sunday provides two options for disposing of the plutonium.

One alternative is to immobilize the plutonium with high level radioactive wastes and placing it in permanent underground repositories, such as the proposed storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The other alternative is to use the plutonium as fuel in nuclear reactors. Once the plutonium has been irradiated in a reactor, it is unsuitable for weapons use. The United States intends to use 25.5 tons as fuel and to immobilize 8.5 tons. The Russian Federation intends to use all 34 tons as fuel. The countries have agreed to accelerate their work to build new industrial scale facilities for turning the plutonium into fuel or immobilized waste, and attempt to open such facilities by 2007. Once the facilities are open, each country must dispose of at least two metric tons of weapons grade plutonium per year, and work with other countries to identify additional means of at least doubling that disposition rate.

Strict monitoring and inspections of both countries will confirm proper disposition of the plutonium and ensure the plutonium can never again be used for nuclear weapons or any other military purposes. The Russian program is estimated to cost more than $1.7 billion over 20 years. The U.S. program, which includes immobilization facilities as well as conversion and fuel fabrication facilities, is estimated to cost $4 billion. The U.S. Congress has already appropriated $200 million for plutonium disposition in Russia, which will now be used for pre-construction design work for industrial scale facilities in Russia. The new agreement will also accelerate research, development and demonstrations under a 1998 technical agreement for plutonium disposition between the U.S. and Russia.

Early Warning of Missile Launches A new "Joint Data Exchange Center" will be established in Moscow to allow the U.S. and Russia to exchange information on missile and space launches. The Center is intended to provide uninterrupted communication between the two countries to reduce the possibility that a civilian or test launch might be interpreted as a missile attack.

This agreement is the first time the two countries have agreed to a permanent joint operation involving U.S. and Russian military personnel. The Center will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with both American and Russian personnel. The Center is expected to be completed by the fall of 2001. The Center will monitor not only U.S. and Russian launches, but launches from other countries worldwide. Any launch that is seen by either country? surveillance systems will be immediately reported to the other side, so that both countries can investigate its source. "In this new center, Russian and American military officials will be working side by side, 24 hours a day, to monitor missile warning information," said Clinton. "It is a milestone in enhancing strategic stability, and I welcome it."

Combating Climate Change President Clinton and President Putin announced a new commitment between the U.S. and the Russian Federation to strengthen joint efforts to combat global climate change. The presidents pledged to work together to "elaborate upon elements" of the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol, an add-on to the United Nations climate change treaty, mandates greenhouse gas emissions limits for 39 industrialized countries including the United States. The two nations pledged to work together and with other nations to complete the negotiations necessary to make the Kyoto Protocol a working reality. They pledged to expand cooperation on the measurement and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, and called for strong, transparent international rules that maximize the potential of the Protocol's market based tools to achieve cost effective emissions reductions.

The U.S.-Russia Joint Statement on Cooperation to Combat Global Warming follows a joint statement between the United States and China last month, and a U.S.-India statement in March, pledging stronger cooperation on climate change and other environmental concerns.

"We believe it's essential to conclude work on the Kyoto Protocol, including market mechanisms, to protect the environment, promote clean energy and reduce costs," said Clinton. "I think that has a great economic opportunity here as well as a great environmental one." The Statement builds upon ongoing cooperation on climate change between the two countries, which has been coordinated primarily through the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission, under the leadership of Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov.

A variety of ongoing technical assistance programs have been carried out in recent years under the sponsorship of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Current work includes efforts to encourage energy efficiency in Russia, capture methane emissions from coal mines and landfills, curb natural gas pipeline leakage, improve greenhouse gas inventories at the regional level, reduce mobile source emissions, and develop domestic emissions trading programs in Russia.

8) EU SAYS COUNTRIES MUST DECIDE THEMSELVES ON NUCLEAR Reuters June 16, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7132&newsDate=16-Jun-2000

BRUSSELS - The European Commission said yesterday it had no influence over European Union countries' energy policy decisions, adding it had no comment on Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power. "We do not have to object to such a decision, which is not against the EU treaties," said Commission spokesman Gilles Gantelet. "All that matters to us is that other provisions of the treaties, such as the free movement of nuclear products, must be ensured in Germany."

Germany and its energy industry yesterday agreed to a plan aimed at launching the fastest withdrawal from nuclear power by a major industrial power. It sets a total lifespan of 32 years for each of the country's 19 nuclear power stations, longer than the government wanted but shorter than industry's demands. Gantelet said the Commission would look into the effects of the decision on the European Union's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

"Nuclear energy was contributing to efforts to reach the Kyoto targets, so if we suppress it, we will have to find other solutions, other ways of producing power without greenhouse gases. "These are just longer-term concerns we have," Gantelet said.

9) SWEDISH NUKE PLANT CLOSE RAISES CO2 OUTPUT Reuters June 7, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7011&newsDate=7-Jun-2000

STOCKHOLM - The closure of a second reactor at Swedish nuclear power plant Barseback by 2001 will lead to raised imports of oil and electricity, increasing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), two consultancy firms reported yesterday. "It seems inevitable that some of the power losses (from a close) will be replaced by imported fossil fuels," they said in a report commissioned by the government.

In an 1997 accord, the government must present a plan to supersede the lost power with renewable energy such as wind, solar, biomass and small hydro power, to get the go-ahead and close down the two- reactor Sydkraft -owned plant. Sweden closed a first reactor at Barseback in November last year in line with a scheme to phase out nuclear power. But the goal to replace the lost power from the first closure had not been met and it was unlikely the plan for the second reactor would work, said Swedish and Danish consultancy firms KM Miljoteknik and Cowi. It said the plan to replace lost power by saving energy, making energy use more efficient and converting to other kinds of heating power than electricity, had failed.

"There is no doubt about the programme failing to meet the goals to save energy," they said in the report, commissioned by the government. It said the estimated four terrawatt hour loss from a close of the second reactor would double the 500 megawatt shortage in the winter in south Sweden, pressing for increased power imports.

10) GREENS TAKE OIL PROTEST TO ASX Sydney Morning Herald 07/06/2000 Internet: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0006/07/text/business04.html

Greenpeace has complained to the Australian Stock Exchange about the $250 million Stuart shale oil project, claiming that the developers misled investors about the environmental risks. In a report to the exchange yesterday Greenpeace alleged Southern Pacific Petroleum and Central Pacific Minerals have not kept the market informed of liabilities that they have admitted in technical documents such as an environmental impact statement. "The companies understate the greenhouse-gas emission problems they face and overstate their capacity to rectify the problems," Greenpeace told the ASX.

The environmental group said its "comprehensive investigations suggest serious misstatements and omissions" by the partner companies, which were "likely to have a material impact on future returns to shareholders". The Queensland project plans to use new technology from a third joint-venture partner, Canada's Suncor Energy, to extract shale oil. It has run behind schedule and generated controversy because of the emissions created in the process.

Greenpeace's climate change campaigner, Mr Robbie Kelman, said yesterday it was "quite clear [Southern Pacific] are not going to make the emission reductions they claim in their financial reports". An ASX spokesman said: "Just because it's a political or environmental issue doesn't necessarily make it a stockmarket issue." The exchange would make inquiries if it deemed the market was not properly informed. Southern Pacific shares fell 12c to $1.83 and Central Pacific lost 30c to $4.20 as oil stocks eased.

11) ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS DECRY GLOBAL WARMING NEGOTIATIONS Fox News Friday, June 16, 2000 Internet: http://www.foxnews.com/science/061600/negotiations.sml

WASHINGTON - U.S. environmental activist groups on Thursday criticized the negotiating stance taken by the Clinton administration at talks in Bonn, Germany, for settling an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for causing global warming. The groups - which include the National Environmental Trust, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the World Wildlife Fund - said U.S. representatives at the talks were trying to push through "loopholes" that would defeat the purpose of Kyoto Protocol.

"The Clinton administration is pushing loopholes in the global warming treaty just as big as President Bush did eight years ago," said Philip E. Clapp, president of National Environmental Trust. They said positions favored by the U.S. to construct emissions trading and investments in projects in developing countries come at the expense of making real gas emission cuts in developed countries like the United States. "If the current U.S. negotiating positions were adopted, it could instead allow these (industrialized) countries to substantially increase their emissions over the next 10 years," said Alden Meyer, director of government relations for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

That treaty, named after the Japanese city where the basic agreement was negotiated in late 1997, aims to curb fossil fuel emissions by industrialized nations by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by the years 2010-2012. Republicans, and many Democrats in Congress, do not like the treaty, saying its goals would gut the U.S. economy and allow developing nations like India and China to skirt the carbon emissions reductions that developed nations must meet. The Senate has not ratified the treaty, and the White House has never submitted it for a vote, saying negotiations to settle a final agreement must happen first.

In an attack from the opposite political camp, former Republican lawmaker Jack Kemp, currently a distinguished fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the high gasoline prices witnessed across the nation were a sign of the future if the Kyoto Protocol was ever put in action. "With gas prices surging, and the Environmental Protection Agency responsible for up to 40 cents of the record-high price in the Midwest, President Clinton still had the nerve this Monday to call on Congress to 'stop blocking our common sense efforts to combat global warming'," Kemp said.

"Well, Mr. President, if these extraordinary energy costs are what you want for America, then go ahead and submit the Kyoto Protocol to the Senate for ratification." The White House task force on climate change was not immediately available for comment.

12) U.S. SAYS DOING ALL IT CAN TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING Reuters June 22, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7198&newsDate=22-Jun-2000

LONDON - A high ranking U.S. negotiator on climate change has slammed critics of the Clinton administration who complain that the United States is not doing enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions. At a conference on the Kyoto Protocol in London on Tuesday, Ambassador Mark Hambley, U.S. special negotiator for climate change, said the United States was taking the fight on climate change "seriously" and was committed to an equitable gobal solution.

"The United States at a federal, state, local and corporate levels is taking considerable action in recognition of our obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change," he told the conference. He also rubbished allegations by leading environmental groups and other governments party to global climate negotiatons that the U.S. will seek to use certain "technical" loopholes contained in the global treaty to avoid taking action at home. Some critics believe Washington is out to scupper the Kyoto Protocol altogether because it fears its potential economic impact and gives developing countries such as China and India a competitive edge.

"Since Kyoto, we have been asked some basic questions routinely only to have the sincerity of our answers or the motivations underlying our responses ignored," said Hambley, who has been involved in climate change negotiations for five years. "Obviously our message is not getting across, it either suffers from credibility, or is an indication of the kind of company we keep." In a spirited defense of his administration's policies to date, Hambley catalogued initiatives the government had undertaken so far. He also cited evidence "decoupling a rise in emissions from economic growth. "The bottom line is that in 1998, total emissions of greenhouse gases grew by 0.2 percent in the U.S. from their 1997 level in comparison with an economy that grew by 3.9 percent."

CULTURE ON EMISSIONS CHANGING At the federal level, he said a recent presidential executive order requires the federal government - the largest energy consumer in the U.S. - to slash greenhouse gases to 30 percent below their 1990 levels by 2010. A second order that deals with biomass production aims to shift energy based on "geology" to energy based on "biology" with the aim to save 200 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010. Other initiatives include a U.S. Department of Energy plan to issue mandatory efficiency standards on four products: water, heaters, clothes washers, central air conditioning and florescent lighting ballasts. "The new standards are expected to save consumers $30 billion, while cutting carbon dioxide emissions by eight million metric tonnes per yer by 2010 and by 20 million metric tonnes by 2020," Hambley said.

Under renewable projects, wind energy as a power source would be bumped up to five percent of all U.S. energy output by 2005, while a voluntary scheme aims to realise one million solar roofs on American homes by the year 2010. Hambley said state and local governments too were taking action. New Jersey, he said, had taken upon itself to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 3.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2005; Oregon is capping emissions generated by power plants and California has instituted multiple energy options for consumers. Moreover California, said the ambassador, is only one of 28 states that require that some portion of their electrical power needs to be generated by renewable sources. Thirty four other states are preparing their own green house gas inventories as a step towards mitigating the effects.

Cities and municipalties have also entered the struggle. Hambley pointed to 60 leading municipalties that have associated themselves with the "Cities for Climate Protection". Hambley spoke of 600 leading municipal leaders that recognize the seriousness of the global climate change challenge and pointed to pledges from corporate America - over 40 large and medium sized companies - to clean up its act.

13) COCA-COLA UNVEILS ENVIRONMENT PLAN New York Times June 27, 2000

ATLANTA (AP) -- Under fire from environmentalists, the Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday that it would have in place new policies on the use of hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration by the time of the 2004 Olympics. Environmental watchdog Greenpeace has targeted the Atlanta-based company in Australia, accusing Coke of breaking ``Green Games'' environmental guidelines, including bans on HFCs, which have been linked to global warming, at Olympic sites. The guidelines formed an integral part of Sydney's bid to serve as host of the 2000 Olympics.

In an announcement in Sydney and Atlanta, Coca-Cola chairman Doug Daft detailed a new environmental policy for cold drink equipment. ``We will intensify our efforts to support research and innovation to accelerate the technological development of more environmentally friendly equipment,'' Daft said.

He said the initiative includes: -- By the Olympics in Athens four years from now, the company will no longer purchase cold drink equipment using hydrofluorocarbons as refrigerant gases or insulation when cost-efficient alternatives are available.

-- Between now and 2004, Coca-Cola will expand its research and development program to identify and field test a variety of alternative refrigeration methods.

-- Suppliers will be required to announce schedules to use only HFC-free foam insulation and refrigerant in all new cold drink equipment by 2004.

-- In accord with the international Kyoto Agreement on climate change, the company is requiring suppliers to develop, by the end of the decade, new equipment that is 40-50 percent more energy efficient than today's.

Environmentalists estimate Coca-Cola will have 1,700 refrigerators using HFCs in Sydney and only 100 coolers that comply with the ``Green Games'' guidelines. Coca-Cola has said the cooling equipment to be used at Olympic sites was a ``significant advance'' in energy efficiency and that commercial drink coolers using alternative refrigerants were not commercially available on a scale required for the Olympics.

See also-- ENS: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-28-01.html

14) EXXON MOBIL STANDS FIRM Dallas Morning News 06/01/2000 Internet: http://dallasnews.com/business/88821_exxonmobil_01b.html

Executives doubt fossil fuels' usage tie to global warming

Despite more than three hours of hammering from environmentalists and public interest groups, Exxon Mobil Corp. stood firm Wednesday - it does not believe there is a proven link between the use of fossil fuels and global warming of the earth's atmosphere. Chairman Lee Raymond told shareholders at Exxon Mobil's annual meeting that he recognizes that many have concluded that there is a definite link between global warming and fossil fuels, but many have failed to reach the same conclusion. "We look at statistics. We look at science. That's where everything starts," Dr. Raymond said.

Shareholders overwhelmingly turned down a series of proposals sponsored by critics of the energy company's plans and practices, including a call for increased investment in renewable types of energy such as solar power, biomass and photovoltaic technology. But before the vote was concluded, a long line of speakers opposed to Exxon Mobil's stance on environmental issues urged the company to take steps to protect the environment and promote nonfossil types of energy

One of the critics, paleoclimatologist Dr. Michael Summer, said that it was a "well-established fact" that there is a linkage between a deterioration in the global climate and the use of oil, gas and other fossil fuels. In response, Dr. Raymond quoted from a petition signed by 17,000 scientists saying there was no proven link. But another speaker said the 17,000 signers included members of the Spice Girls singing group, cast members of the M*A*S*H* television show and singer James Brown. The meeting marked the first annual meeting since Exxon Corp. and Mobil Corp. completed their merger six months ago. During the meeting and afterward, Dr. Raymond said Exxon Mobil isn't investing in renewable energy because it wouldn't be a moneymaking proposition.

Dr. Raymond estimated that between 1970 and 1983, Exxon invested about $1 billion in renewable and alternative forms of energy, including nuclear energy - an investment of about $2.5 billion in 2000 dollars. The investments came to nothing. "We have a lot of experience in all these areas. Good judgment comes from bad experience," he said. As for the variety of renewable forms of energy out there today, he said, "The economics as we see it right now just don't support it."

Lou Noto, former Mobil chairman who is now vice chairman of Exxon Mobil, estimated that Mobil spent hundreds of millions of dollars on renewable energy in the past, mostly on photovoltaic research, before abandoning its efforts. "If you start to be intellectually honest with yourselves, oil and gas have to provide the vast bulk of the energy supply for the foreseeable future. There is no black box, there is no smoking gun technology that's somebody's trying to subvert and sit on," Mr. Noto said.

On other matters, the Exxon Mobil executives said the industry will have to work hard to meet demand for a new reformulated gasoline that the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered for many cities. Complicating the problem is that Unocal Inc. recently won a lawsuit in California that protects its patent on reformulated gasoline. Exxon Mobil is trying to work around that problem by blending gasoline to meet the EPA requirements, Dr. Raymond said.

However, blending gives refiners less flexibility to meet quality requirements, he said. "Which means their flexibility is down, and likely it has a negative impact on total volume that's available for the market. The other comment we'll make is that we're making all the RFG [reformulated gasoline] we can everywhere."

Mr. Noto told shareholders that Exxon Mobil has raised its estimated savings and efficiencies from its merger, from the $2.8 billion it previously estimated, to nearly $4 billion. He and Dr. Raymond said the merger looks like an even better deal than when the two companies first announced it in late 1998. Dr. Raymond and Mr. Noto said Exxon Mobil has reached no conclusions about long- term oil and natural gas prices, despite high prices being paid now for both commodities. Oil has soared to more than $30 a barrel, and natural gas futures have gone over $4 per thousand cubic feet.

"I've been through, in my career, five new eras in oil," Dr. Raymond said. "I guess maybe a sixth will come along. I think it takes us a while to conclude that things have fundamentally changed." If natural gas stays at the $4 level, it will prompt a lot of new drilling and production, and make feasible other projects to bring more natural gas into the United States, Dr. Raymond and Mr. Noto said.

15) TRANSALTA, HEW IN FIRST TRANSATLANTIC EMISSIONS DEAL Reuters June 19, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7142

LONDON - The first transatlantic trade in greenhouse gas emissions was brokered on Friday between two utilites, one German and one Canadian. Broker Natsource told Reuters that Canada's TransAlta Corp will purchase 3,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission reducations each year for the next seven years from Germany's Hamburgische Electricitaets-Werke (HEW). "The buyer is financing actual emission reductions that can be made at lower cost in a different country," said Natsource broker Garth Edward.

TransAlta will pay HEW to build new wind powered generation which does not produce greenhouse gases. The German company already operates more than four million kilowatt hours of wind power generation in plants at Georgswerder and Neuland. Edward said the deal is important because it shows the way forward for trans- border emissions trading. Some analysts believe the global market for greenhouse gas emissions trading could be $100 billion.

"TranAlta are hedging against a time when they might be forced to reduce emissions," said Edward. TransAlta hopes it will be cheaper for it to pay HEW to produce green energy than if it was forced to cut emissions at its own power stations. "TranAlta is environmentally aware and forward thinking," said Edward. Developed countries have committed to reduce or limit emissions of greenhouse gases under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol reached in Japan in 1997.

16) WATER POWER 'FUELS CLIMATE CHANGE' BBC News 31 May, 2000 Internet: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_771000/771465.stm

Hydro-electric power, often proclaimed as one of the greenest ways of generating energy, can be more polluting than coal. This is because the reservoirs that power the dams can trap rotting vegetation, which emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. But establishing just how much pollution a particular reservoir will cause is very difficult, because they vary widely. The announcement of this cause of gas emission comes shortly before the next round of negotiations on how to tackle it. The discovery of the full greenhouse potential of hydro-electric schemes, reported in New Scientist magazine, was made by the World Commission on Dams (WCD).

Clean claim The commission, a group of scientists, engineers and environmentalists, is supported by the World Conservation Union and the World Bank, which is the single biggest funder of large dams. Supporters of dams argue that they should qualify for support as a clean technology under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on tackling climate change.

Shallow reservoirs are bigger problems Many scientists believe there is strong evidence to suggest that the Earth's atmosphere is warming, and that human activities - chiefly the burning of fossil fuels - are a significant cause. The WCD will report its findings at a meeting in the German city of Bonn in June to discuss the Clean Development Mechanism, a key part of the Kyoto Protocol. It says the decay of forests submerged when reservoirs are flooded produces only a fraction of the two gases involved, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Much more is produced by organic matter washed into the reservoir from further upstream, a process which may continue for the lifetime of the reservoir. Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. It is given off by stagnant water, while running water, which contains oxygen, produces CO2.

Extensive problem So a reservoir will produce more methane than the river which ran before the dam was built. The WCD, which believes the problem is far more widespread than first thought, says the reservoirs that appear most at risk are shallow ones in the tropics which have not been cleared of biomass before they were flooded. It says one particular cause for concern is the Balbina reservoir in Brazil, which in parts is only four metres deep.

Ariane: Power from a suspect source

Its generating capacity is 112 megawatts, and it is estimated to produce three million tonnes of CO2 annually over its first 20 years. A coal-fired power station of the same capacity would produce 0.35m tonnes of CO2 a year. In French Guyana, the Petit- Saut reservoir, which has a similar capacity and powers the launch site for Europe's Ariane rocket, is expected to produce 0.9m tonnes of CO2 annually in its first 20 years. The WCD has looked at only a few dams in four countries, and thinks there will be many similar examples. But it says one study of nine Brazilian reservoirs found their greenhouse emissions varied per unit of electricity by a factor of 500. It says: "There is no justification for claiming that hydro-electricity does not contribute significantly to global warming."

17) GROWING GREENHOUSE FORESTS Sydney Morning Herald 05/06/2000 Internet: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0006/05/text/national11.html

In open fields, within sight of the Olympic shooting range, corporate pragmatism and principles of environmental conservation are about to converge to produce Australia's first greenhouse forest. In what the State Government has hailed as a national first, Integral Energy is to fund the rehabilitation of an endangered ecological woodland on crown land in Sydney's south- west. Only 7 per cent of the endangered Cumberland Woodland remains in the Sydney basin. Under an historic deal struck between State Forest and Integral, five hectares of paddocks will be replanted with plant species which were once native to the region.

The commercial deal heralds a fundamental revolution in the management of ecosystems, with the State Government planning to regenerate rare habitats using incentives of carbon and biodiversity credits. While the initial sum paid is small - an upfront commitment of $30,000 - the deal gives Integral the carbon rights for the five hectares. This is measured by the amount of carbon the growing plot of trees consumes - in this instance 50 tonnes a year - which in future years will have a tradeable value.

This new concept of credits is based on the idea that a company can compensate for environmental damage or pollution in one area by repairing another place. As well, Integral Energy gets to advertise its commercial commitment on a billboard installed on crown land and has the contractual right to use the ecosystem which it paid to have created for its own marketing purposes. Acting as the broker is State Forests, which instead of being paid to harvest native forests, will be paid to keep trees.

The landmark agreement is to be announced by the Minister for Energy and Forestry, Mr Yeadon, today to coincide with Western Sydney Environment Week. The State Government hopes the agreement will be the first of many in which the corporate world recognises the opportunity to make money from being green and to pay to grow forests if it intends to pollute. "This is the first time an agreement such as this has been struck and hopefully it is the first of many," Mr Yeadon said. "Just last week the Global Ministerial Environmental Forum of the United Nations Environment Program met in Sweden and identified climate change, land degradation and loss of biodiversity as the earth's major environmental problems.

"This project in western Sydney, although small on a world scale, addresses all these issues." Under the carbon credit scheme, a Japanese power company, TEPCO, has already paid State Forests $30 million to plant an initial 10,000 hectares to partially compensate for pollution it causes in Japan. It also has an option to contract State Forests to plant 40,000 hectares, which would be worth $130 million. The chief executive officer of Integral Energy, Mr Richard Powis, said the company had made progress in cutting greenhouse gas. "This greenhouse forest provides an important impetus to the efforts being made to build business commitment for green investment," he said.

18) COAL SHAKES OFF OLD IMAGE Financial Times June 26 2000 Internet: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3MO3KMY9C&liv e=true&useoverridetemplate=IXLZHNNP94C

The US coal industry is shaking off its antiquated image and promoting coal as the solution to America's fast-growing electricity needs. A recent revival of interest in coal has been driven by forecasts suggesting the booming US economy will need record levels of electricity in the near future - half of which will come from coal-based plants. But environmental concerns about air pollution and global warming remain stumbling blocks and have generated new friction within the industry.

In 1998, coal-fired plants produced 52 per cent of US power needs, according to government figures, making coal the most important fuel base for US electricity output. The Energy Information Administration suggests domestic coal demand will rise by 20 per cent, from 950m to 1,316m tons, as US power consumption surges. Concerns about the environmental impact of mining and burning are prompting government agencies to monitor coal mines and power plants more closely. Richard Lawson, president of the National Mining Association, told a Congressional hearing that certain land usage restrictions (enforced by the US Forest Service and clean water restrictions of the environmental protection agency ) threatened to curtail US coal reserves, currently estimated to last over 275 years. "A more than adequate coal reserve base is quickly being depleted, not by mining, but by government fiat," he said.

The coal industry has responded to its environmental critics, citing official figures showing substantial declines in emissions of sulphur and nitrogen pollutants from coal burning since 1970. Coal advocates also point to the energy department's plans to design new power plants that could potentially reduce sulphur and nitrogen emissions to zero. But environmentalists charge that the industry has failed in the all-important area of cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases", which many scientists believe raise global temperatures. Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming unit, dismisses claims that "carbon sequestration," a new technique being developed in government and private research laboratories, will cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning. Like many US environmentals, Mr Becker believes that the solution to America's growing power needs lies in increased energy efficiency and reliance on renewable forms of energy.

"The US uses twice as much energy to achieve roughly the same standard of living as Europe," he said. Antagonism between the coal industry and environmental groups is set to intensify, following a recent corporate defamation suit filed by Western Fuels Association, a co-operative of power companies, against six environmental groups which placed an advertisement in The New York Times last December which linked the burning of fossil fuels with global warming. Western Fuels, which supplies coal, claimed the environmental groups hid their commercial interest in attacking coal.

19) EXPERT WARNS AGAINST USE OF OZONE UNFRIENDLY GADGETS Panafrican News Agency June 20, 2000 Internet: http://www.africanews.org/south/malawi/stories/20000620/20000620_feat2.html

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - The continued importation of ozone unfriendly gadgets in developing countries, especially in Africa, has been cited as a major impediment to the implementation of the 1997 Montreal Protocol banning the use and consumption of ozone depleting substances. Following the delay, according to a German consultant in the field, Erwin Protzen, these countries would take more than 50 years to phase out the use and consumption of these substances. "The delay by developing countries in implementing the protocol is due to continued importation of refrigerators, oils and gases that were phased out in Europe," he told Malawian industries selling such gadgets. Francis Nselembo, an ozone desk officer in the Department of Environmental Affairs, said efforts to ban substances that cause global warming were being hampered by unscrupulous traders in rich countries that export these substances to developing world.

"Indeed Africa, including Malawi, has been a dumping ground for second-hand refrigerators which were phased out in Europe because they are not ozone friendly," he said. Ozone-unfriendly substances like refrigerators, oils and gases emit gases that erode the ozone layer thereby inducing global warming. The ozone layer protects the earth from ultra-violent radiation from the sun. These ultra- violent rays of the sun can cause cancer and weaken the immune system in animals, including human beings. They also contribute to climatic changes that affect rainfall pattern thereby affecting crop yields.

In the wake of these concerns, the German Technical Corporation (GTZ) has organised an awareness campaign to sensitise customs officials from the 14- member Southern Africa Development Community to detect substances that contain gases that induce global warming and barnish them from entering the regional economic bloc. The GTZ programme is also aimed at training industrialists on the use of new technologies and non-ozone depleting substances.

20) UNION LEADER ATTACKS BUSINESS TAXES Times of London 12 June Internet: http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/06/12/timbizbiz01021.html

ONE of the UK's most senior union leaders has criticised the Government's policies on tax and investment, calling for greater Treasury support for industry. Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary of the AEEU, joined the increasing calls from business for new taxation to be curbed, particularly the climate change levy and the proposals for double taxation on multinationals. Sir Ken said: "We're not against taxation, but do you really hit business with new taxes when industry is already under pressure from the pound? Business should be treated more fairly."

He also warned Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, against making repeated calls on industry to raise productivity when faced with criticism over business policy. "In this country the most productive car manufacturers in the world - Nissan and Toyota - cannot make any money, " he said. Sir Ken called for billions from the Treasury's cash pile to be put into enterprise initiatives and incentives for business. "Spending should be comparable with that going into education," he said.

21) ECO-FRIENDLY TAXIS PLY KYOTO Japan Times June 11, 2000 Internet: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20000611b4.htm

KYOTO -- Kyoto has long been a mecca for school excursions, especially in May and June, but only recently have environmentally friendly taxis been gaining popularity as a means of touring the city. As a way to contribute to the environmental cause, Yasaka Taxi Co. in Shimogyo Ward introduced one of Toyota Motor Co.'s low-emission Prius hybrid cars in May 1998 after carefully checking that the sophisticated computers of the vehicle would not affect the fare meters and other fixtures used in a cab. It was the first taxi company to introduce the hybrid car.

The Prius, which made its debut in December 1997, is powered by a combination gasoline engine and an electric motor. It discharges half the carbon dioxide of conventional cars of the same engine size and is twice as fuel-efficient as conventional vehicles. Because the eco-car has been popular with passengers as well as with drivers, Yasaka has since increased the number of Priuses in its fleet to five. "I like this car because it is comfortable to drive," said cabby Toshiko Takeuchi, who has been driving the company's first Prius for the two years since its introduction. "And this new image attracts passengers." The car is light blue, while most taxis in Kyoto are black. Passengers also like the cab's quiet ride, the firm said.

Earlier this month, about 140 students from Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, visited Kyoto, and those who were chosen to take a Prius tour let out shouts of excitement. The company's five Prius cars are in full operation during this school-trip season.

22) BALTIC CO2 OUTPUT HAS NOT FALLEN OVER LAST 10 YEARS Reuters May 31, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=6911

STOCKHOLM - Sweden said on Tuesday that emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea were unchanged over the last 10 years but that emissions of acid were reduced.

The countries - Germany, Poland, Russia, the Baltic states and the Nordic countries - face the challenge of cutting use of non- renewable energy and material, the environment ministry said in a statement from a United Nations Environment Programme meeting in southern Sweden. Other challenges for the countries participating in the "Baltic 21 project" were to increase recycling significantly and to reduce the socio-economic differences in the region, it said. The ministry said gross domestic product (GDP) had increased throughout the Baltic Sea region during the last 10 years but that the gap between the richest and the poorest countries had widened. The Baltic 21 project, started in 1996, works to improve and stimulate social and economic develoment in the regon and focuses on energy, fishing, agriculture, industry, forestry, transport and tourism.

23) WASHERS TO CUT ENERGY USE BY HALF L.A. Times 24 May Internet: http://www.latimes.com/print/business/20000524/t000048966.html

WASHINGTON--Whirlpool Corp., Maytag Corp., General Electric Co. and other leading home appliance makers in the U.S. agreed to make clothes-washing machines by 2007 that use half as much energy as current models. The effort will cost each manufacturer tens of millions of dollars to redesign production lines and upgrade manufacturing capacity, said the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which helped broker the agreement. Consumers will pay about $100 more for a washing machine, the group said. Some washing machines from Maytag and Frigidaire, a unit of Sweden's Electrolux, already meet the new energy efficiency standards, though those front-loading machines cost several hundred dollars more than standard washers, the appliance group said.

The agreement is the latest of several such accords made between the Clinton administration and appliance makers to develop and manufacture energy-efficient and cost-effective consumer products. The parties also agreed to a tax credit for washing-machine manufacturers that exceed these efficiency standards. The Energy Department said it plans to adopt the standards by the end of the year, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers said it will back efforts to have the tax credit approved by Congress. "The U.S. consumer will reap the benefits of what we have agreed to here," Larry Johnston, chief executive of General Electric's GE Appliances unit, said at a briefing in Washington to announce the agreement. He said the washers will use less energy and less hot water, saving consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills.

Whirlpool President Jeff Fettig said his company, which has made more than half the home washing machines in North America, plans to "use our global product development and technology capabilities to develop both clothes washers and refrigerators that exceed the new energy efficiency levels." "The standards announced [Tuesday] will save enough electricity to light 16 million U.S. homes for 25 years while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equal to that produced by 3 million cars every year," Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said.

Environmental groups said that consumers will save $75 a year in energy costs, and that pollution will be reduced because less energy will have to be generated to run the washers. Manufacturers agreed to meet some stricter energy efficiency standards by 2004, with the stronger standards in place by 2007, when energy use will be cut by about half.

See also: ACEEE Release: http://www.aceee.org/press/cwstnd.htm DOE Release: http://www.doe.gov/news/releases00/maypr/pr00143.htm ENS: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-23-06.html

24) AUSTRALIA SETS RENEWABLE ENERGY SALES TARGET Reuters June 21, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7185&newsDate=21-Jun-2000

MELBOURNE - Sales by Australia's renewable energy industry annual were targeted to reach A$4 billion by 2010, the Federal government said on Tuesday. A spokesman for Industry, Science and Resources Minister Nick Minchin said after the launch of an industry and government renewable energy industry action agenda that the target required sales growth of about 25 percent a year. "It is an ambitious task," he said. Current sales from the Australian renewable energy industry, excluding large hydro, are about A$330 million. The renewable energy industry covers power sources including solar, wind, biomass, tidal, wave, hydro-power, geothermal and renewable hydrogen.

Government support for the industry, including A$387 million funding over 1998 to 2003, is part of a strategy to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, which are set to exceed levels targeted under the Kyoto commitment to contain emissions. The government has already mandated that electricity retailers source an extra two percent of their demand from renewable or waste product energy sources from 2010. The introduction of emissions trading, which is yet to be determined by the government, would also boost the competitiveness of renewable energy, which costs well above coal-fired baseload power. The action agenda said for the industry to achieve its objectives, exports were expected to comprise half of the forecast growth in sales.

BP Amoco Plc regional director and chairman of the industry leadership group Greg Bourne said the industry must focus on providing clean, reliable and low-cost energy. "Globally the renewable energy industry is destined to grow rapidly over the next decade," he said in a statement.

25) US-WARMING EFFECTS TO BE WIDESPREAD New York Times June 12, 2000 Internet: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/061200sci-environ-climate.ht ml

Warming of the global climate is likely to have substantial consequences -- for better and worse -- around the United States in coming decades, including bumper crops in the heartland, chronic erosion of coasts, summer water shortages and winter floods in the West and a future New York City that steams in summer like present-day Atlanta. These are a few of the predictions made in the first thorough federal assessment of the possible effect on the country, region by region, of a warming trend that many scientists expect will characterize coming decades. Increasingly, mainstream scientists are concluding that a buildup of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has contributed to warming in the last 100 years, and they say the trend is likely to carry well into the new century.

Some of the growth in these so-called greenhouse gases, scientists say, is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, destruction of forests and other human activities. Temperatures nationwide rose about one degree in the 20th century, and the report estimated the potential effects of further warming by using a "business as usual" assumption, in which carbon dioxide levels continued to grow at the rate of recent years. At this pace, the average temperature in the country would rise 5 to 10 degrees in the next century, although the authors stressed that this was only one possibility. To put that in perspective, the world is 5 to 9 degrees warmer than in the last ice age, 18,000 to 20,000 years ago.

The study, which is to be released today by the Clinton administration for 60 days of public review, was ordered by Congress in 1990 to help lawmakers identify vulnerabilities and potential benefits of the warming trend. But it kicked into high gear only three years ago, when computer models grew sophisticated enough to analyze links between the atmosphere and oceans and local systems like crops and forests. The assessment includes an illustrated summary and a series of technical analyses of the effect of a warmer world on forestry, fresh water, farming, coasts and human health. The report will be on the Internet at www.nacc.usgcrp.gov.

The report forecasts some profound changes, with many regions of the country seeing conditions shift to those of their present-day neighbors to the south. In the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, rising stream temperatures are very likely to harm migrating salmon, the report said. In California, less snow in winter would lead to less runoff from melting snow in the late spring, reducing water supplies during the summer growing season. The Southwest would see rising precipitation that could cause shrubby forests to overtake desert landscapes. The study says one of the most likely of all consequences from continued warming would be coastal erosion and destructive storm surges as sea level steadily rises.

In Eastern cities, the summer heat index, combining humidity and temperature, is likely to rise, so that as New York City takes on Southern steaminess, Atlanta will see hot spells more typical of Houston. The biggest benefits are likely to come from the positive effect of rising carbon dioxide concentrations on plants, which rely on the gas for photosynthesis. Using computer models of climate, crops and forest health, the study found that the country could see rising yields and falling prices for food and timber. The falling prices would be good for consumers but could hurt some timber companies and farmers as already tenuous profit margins shrink.

But scientists who conducted the study cautioned that the benefits would not be uniform. For example, while farmers in the Northern plains could see gains, those in Southern states could see losses because of increased risk of droughts and damaging floods as more rain falls in drenching downpours. The good news should be tempered, too, because the study did not calculate possible agricultural losses because of flourishing weeds or migrating insect pests, its authors said. And the composition of wild forests is likely to change, with some species that are considered hallmarks of particular regions disappearing. For example, the sugar maple, the New York state tree and an important species for tourism, is likely to vanish from all but the most northern parts of the state as its preferred colder climatic zone moves north.

The warming is likely to keep shipping lanes in Alaska and the Great Lakes free of ice longer, easing the movement of oil and other goods. But other effects could negate any savings, the study concluded. Water levels in the Great Lakes are expected to drop, increasing the need for costly dredging of channels. In Alaska, the effects of the warming have already been felt and are requiring costly adjustments, with roads and air strips requiring constant repair as underlying permafrost thaws and buckles, scientists said. Native Alaskans, who rely on ice-dwelling seals for food, are finding it more difficult to hunt, said Gunter Weller, a climatologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who is participating in the project.

"For the native community or the oil industry or the fishing industry, this is no longer some nebulous global thing coming in 100 years," Dr. Weller said. "These are real things in real time that are really occurring." Scientists from dozens of government agencies, universities, private groups and industries conducted the studies and more than 300 independent reviewers offered comments, the authors said. The overview's three principal authors were Dr. Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.; Anthony Janetos of the World Resources Institute in Washington; and Dr. Jerry M. Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

As the overview moved from early to final drafts in the last few months, the politics of climate intruded, with intense tugs of war being felt by some scientists involved in the work over how to word conclusions. Indeed, in recent weeks the emphasis changed, participants said, with the focus shifting somewhat toward the positive consequences for agriculture, for example. Also, the 145- page overview was released even though not all the underlying regional studies are complete, a decision that drew criticism from scientists from both ends of the political spectrum. "There's been pressure all along that the synthesis had to come out first because of the election," said a scientist who shares the Clinton administration position that global warming is a serious problem, but who is still involved in the report and thus spoke only on condition of anonymity. "It's unfortunate, because the whole process would have been stronger if you did it the right way. Then the critics wouldn't have anything to say."

Over the weekend, officials at the White House said the summary was released ahead of time only because the final work on some of the underlying studies had been delayed. Apart from the timing, a variety of experts involved in preparing the document, including people from industry and advocacy groups, say it represents a real consensus and that its findings are significant.

Thomas F. Cecich, vice president for environmental safety at the drug company Glaxo Wellcome and a member of the team that wrote the national overview, called the report a first look at a dizzyingly complicated system. He said that everyone involved tried to filter out politics and preconceptions. "I think it's been a fair and open and scientifically valid process," he said. In particular, many scientists said, the effort, if continued and refined, could offer the first opportunity for the country to incorporate long-term climate projections into its planning for everything from bridge building to crop planting.

The report concludes that society, for the most part, will probably be able to adapt to many of the coming shifts, but that some natural systems -- alpine meadows, coral reefs, mangrove swamps and the like -- will be damaged or disappear because they are either hemmed in by man-made structures or geography or simply cannot keep pace with the rate of temperature change.

The authors stressed that the consequences described in the study -- like the visions of Scrooge's future in "A Christmas Carol" -- mainly represent developments that may be, not things that must be. And there will always be surprises, said Dr. Karl, one of the main authors. "There are a lot of uncertainties with respect to interactions between natural systems, human systems and climate." Even if the surprises are good news, he said, humans will not necessarily be able to exploit them. "Usually, if something is not anticipated, you can't take advantage of it."

See also: USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/clisci/cassess60900.htm Wash. Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39384-2000Jun11.html CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2000/WEATHER/06/12/climate.changes/index.html Fox: http://www.foxnews.com/science/061200/climate.sml ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/warmingforecast060900.html

EDITOR'S NOTE: The U.S. National Assessment, "The Potential Consequences of Climate" is available at: http://www.nacc.usgcrp.gov/

26) US-AGENCY WARNS OF GROWING COASTAL EROSION New York Times June 28, 2000 Internet: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/062800sci-environ-erosion.ht ml

In a report to Congress, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that a quarter or more of houses within 500 feet of the United States coast may be lost to erosion in the next 60 years, putting intolerable strain on the federal Flood Insurance Program. The report called for a major new effort to map coastal erosion, identify hazard areas and raise premiums in the insurance program, perhaps even doubling them, to take erosion risk into account. And it suggested that the agency consider adopting setback requirements to limit building at the edge of the sea.

Though the report covers all ocean and Great Lakes coasts, it said the erosion problem was particularly severe on the Atlantic, where beaches retreat on average two to three feet a year, and the Gulf Coast, where the overall annual erosion rate is six feet a year. More than 1,500 coastal structures now fall to erosion annually, James Lee Witt, director of the emergency management agency, said in an interview yesterday, adding that the figure could rise to as many as 10,000 in 10 years. Almost 350,000 houses are within 500 feet of the coastline, according to the report. Though most are not covered by the federal program, "we have a lot more structures out there at risk than we anticipated," Mr. Witt said. He said the situation would get worse if sea level continued to rise and Americans continued to migrate toward coastal regions.

"You have on average 3,600 people relocating to these regions per day," he said. "You're looking at an awful lot of risk." Stephen P. Leatherman, a coastal geologist at Florida International University, where he heads the International Hurricane Center, led the team of researchers who produced the report. "A lot people have been startled by the findings," Mr. Leatherman said. "What we see is a lot of properties that have been insured by FEMA that were built when there was a wide beach and a big sand dune. Those have either been diminished or in some places are completely gone." Mr. Witt said erosion hazard maps and better building codes would reduce property damage, but he also praised setback requirements as "a first step and a good step."

Advocates for coastal property owners called the report a thinly disguised effort to use federal insurance regulations to force people off the beach. "There is a small group of self-proclaimed experts who are convinced that no one should live anywhere near the coast," the American Coastal Coalition, an advocacy group for coastal communities, said in a statement. "Unfortunately the report cloaks bad policy recommendations in the garments of scientific respectability." Howard Marlowe, the coalition's president, said in an interview that it was important for coastal residents, or prospective coastal residents, to understand the hazards. But Mr. Marlowe said the federal government should not use its insurance program to discourage people who want to build at the coast. As for setback requirements, he said it was crucial for decisions to be made locally. "We don't want to put the federal government into the business of making zoning ordinances," he said.

Michael Buckley, who heads FEMA's mapping effort, said the agency would seek Congressional approval of money to cover erosion mapping and whatever authorization was needed for changes in insurance rates. A similar effort, including setback requirements, foundered a decade ago amid opposition from representatives of coastal areas. The agency administers the Flood Insurance Program, which since its establishment in 1968 has offered coverage to homeowners in coastal areas who might otherwise have been unable to obtain it. Towns seeking to make the insurance available to residents must enact FEMA-approved building codes that, among other things, call for structures to be elevated in zones where flood waters would spread in major storms. Structures built in compliance with FEMA codes have consistently survived with less damage in coastal storms.

Critics assert that the program, by offering coverage that private insurance companies are increasingly unwilling to provide, inadvertently encourages unwise development of the coast. In any event, in establishing its zones and insurance rates, the program did not take erosion into account. The report issued yesterday says that was a mistake.

"Within the first few hundred feet bordering the nation's coast, property owners face as large a risk of damage from erosion as they do from flooding," it says. Unless rates are altered to reflect that risk, it says, "erosion losses will be subsidized by policyholders in noneroding areas or general taxpayers." To fully reflect this risk, the report says, insurance rates in high-risk areas would be, on average, twice as high as they are now -- typically $700 to $2,000 per $100,000 worth of coverage. Coverage is capped at $250,000 for a house and $100,000 for its contents.

The report, produced by the H. John Heinz III Center for Science Economics and Environment under contract with FEMA, is available at www.heinzcenter.org. It estimates that it would cost approximately $5 million per year to identify erosion hazard areas, map them, maintain the maps and make the information available to potential buyers or local officials. But the investment would save money in the long run, it says, because "if all currently empty lots in areas most susceptible to erosion are built on, damage from erosion would rise by roughly $100 million per year for the value of the structures alone."

The report notes that several methods, notably beach nourishment and so-called hard structures like groins, revetments or sea walls can protect structures on the beach. But hard structures can, as the report put it, "have negative impacts on the physical and aesthetic characteristics of beaches." And replacing sand lost from eroding beaches costs an average of $300,000 per year per mile of coast, the report said. "Shoreline protection measures can augment, but are not substitutes for, other options," it says.

27) SPRING BROKE RECORD AS NATION'S WARMEST Washington Post Saturday, June 17, 2000; Page A02 Internet: http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/17/125l-061700-idx.ht ml

This spring was the warmest on record for the United States, nearly half a degree warmer than spring 1910, the previous record- holder. The official meteorological spring--March through May-- averaged 55.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the United States, the National Climatic Data Center reported. The agency also noted that the United States experienced the warmest January-to-May period in 106 years of record-keeping, a report sure to stir the debate over the potential threat of global warming.

But these findings didn't hold true for the rest of the world. Colder-than-normal waters in the tropical Pacific held down readings so that the globally averaged temperature was 0.07 degrees below normal for spring. Climatologist Jay Lawrimore of the data center said he is reluctant to blame global warming directly for the unusual warmth in the United States. "However," he added, "there is the possibility that there is some impact from global warming and it is amplifying the normal oscillations in our climate."

It's unusual for every state to be above normal for a season, he said. In addition to topping the 1910 record for warmth, spring 2000 was 3.3 degrees above average for the period, according to data compiled by the data center, located in Asheville, N.C. The center is part of the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency said that every state in the continental United States was warmer than normal during spring, with Texas experiencing its warmest spring on record.

It was the second warmest spring in New Mexico; more than 20 additional states ranked within the top 10 warmest spring seasons on record. For the five-month January-to-May period, the nation's average temperature was 48.5 degrees. The old record of 47.4 degrees was set in 1986. The heat contributed to worsening drought conditions in many areas, the agency noted. Parts of the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest are under severe to extreme drought, causing crop damage and creating the need for water rationing. It was the third driest January-May period on record for Florida, the eighth driest for Mississippi and the 10th driest for Louisiana, the report said.

Worldwide, it was the 24th consecutive March-May period in which temperatures were warmer than average over the Northern Hemisphere, the report said.

28) GLOBAL WARMING TO STRIKE HARD: IPCC Japan Times 30 May Internet: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20000530b4.htm

Global warming may cause large-scale flooding after 2100, leading to water shortages and the spread of infectious diseases, according to the draft of a report to be issued next year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If allowed to continue increasing after 2100, greenhouse gases may cause irreversible environmental changes, entailing heavier rainstorms, larger floods, serious droughts and crippled circulation of ocean water on a global scale, says the draft, obtained by Kyodo News last week.

The draft, drawn up by one of three working groups under IPCC, says recent mathematical modeling estimates that between 260 million and 320 million more people stand to be infected with malaria around 2080 in climate scenarios that average 3 degrees of warming by that time period.

IPCC, an international organization established in 1989, assessed scientific, technical and socioeconomic data relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change. About 2,000 scientists from various nations have taken part in projects launched by the body. Working Group II addresses the vulnerability of socioeconomic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change and options for adapting to it. "Should climate change reduce food supply in areas of low food security, tens of millions of people could be placed at risk of hunger with attendant negative health effects" around 2080, it says.

"If extreme events such as heavy rainfall events, floods, droughts and cyclones increase in frequency or intensity, they would adversely impact human health through displacement of population, contamination of water and increased risk of injury and loss of life," it says. It says per capita water availability is anticipated to decline substantially in most countries by 2050 relative to the present due to population growth, with or without projected changes in climate.

"Differences between developed and developing countries in the factors that determine adaptive capacity suggest that developing countries have lower adaptive capacity than do developed countries," the draft says, citing a lack of funds and technologies by developing countries. It is necessary to improve medical systems and infrastructure in both urban and rural areas to alleviate damage brought by global warming, the draft says.

It also reports that changes in glaciers and species composition have occurred as a result of greenhouse gases. The draft will be published next March along with reports by IPCC's two other working groups -- Working Group I and Working Group III. Working Group I assesses the scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change, while Working Group III assesses options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and otherwise mitigating the effects of climate change.

29) AUSTRALIAN STATE GETTING WARMER, WETTER - SCIENTISTS Reuters June 29, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7305

SYDNEY - The northeastern Australian state of Queensland was getting warmer, continuing a trend over the past 100 years, Australian scientists said yesterday. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were likely to raise temperatures in the tropical and sub-tropical state and also increase the number of downpours, while tropical cyclones may also become more intense, they said. These are the latest findings of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Atmospheric Research, based on research undertaken for the Queensland government.

By 2010 there would be more than twice the number of hot days between October and March and less than half the cold days from April to September, CSIRO said. In addition, rainfall was likely to become heavier, although this did not necessarily mean greater annual rainfall, it said. "We expect downpours to become heavier, which may mean more local flooding," CSIRO scientist Kevin Walsh said in a statement. El Nino events may also become more common, although this was still uncertain, he said. It was becoming more likely that tropical cyclone intensities would increase moderately in Queensland in future decades, he said.

Increases in tropical cyclone intensities together with rising sea level were likely to increase tropical storm surge heights, it said. A storm surge is a dome of water pushed ahead of a tropical cyclone by strong winds. In Cairns, for example, predicted increases in tropical cyclone intensity, combined with predicted sea level rises, were likely to raise one-in-100 year storm surge events by about 0.4-0.7 metres, Walsh said. CSIRO climate modelling also showed an increase in drought frequencies in Queensland in the next century for most months, with considerable variation from region to region. Warmer seas were likely to cause coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef, it also said. Bleaching was likely to become frequent during the next 30 to 40 years, with the southern part of the reef affected first.

30) KYOTO PROVISION: SPARE THE FORESTS, BOOST THE ECONOMY CNN

9 June Internet: http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/06/09/rainforest.economy.enn/

Imagine a world in which humans combat global warming, conserve the rain forest and fill the coffers of developing countries all at once. Proposed regulations in an international treaty to reduce greenhouses gases could make this scenario a reality, scientists report in today's Science. "(Developing) countries that practice conservation are doing so at huge opportunity costs for themselves because they don't get aid," said Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. "They could make more money by logging."

Yet, a proposed provision in the Kyoto Protocol that would allow wealthy countries to receive credit for financing rain forest conservation in developing countries would also eliminate the economic incentive to sell the forest to logging concessions, said Kremen.United Nations negotiators will begin meetings Monday in Bonn, Germany, to hammer out the details of this provision, known as the Clean Development Mechanism, before they meet in The Hague, Netherlands, in November to ratify the treaty. "People would agree that forest conservation is a laudable goal," said Janine Bloomfield, an ecologist at Environmental Defense in New York and co-author of an accompanying article in Science. "But people are concerned whether it can be accounted for properly. Are the credits going to have integrity?"

The proposal to include protection of tropical rain forests in the Clean Development Mechanism is endorsed by several countries, including the United States, and several environmental groups, including Environmental Defense and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The proposal is not without skeptics. Countries such as Brazil wish to keep forests out of the plan. Some environmentalists are concerned that there is no way to ensure that when a country protects one area it does not offer equivalent lands to timber companies. There is also concern among some European Union countries that such a mechanism undermines the true intent of the treaty to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

"Shouldn't the emphasis be on fossil fuel reductions?" said Bloomfield. "The majority of carbon emissions come from fossil fuels and it is where our efforts should be." "However, forest conservation as well as other land-based methods of storing carbon or avoiding emissions have many environmental benefits and should be a supplement to fossil fuel reduction," she added. Using Masoala National Park as a model, researchers showed that 8,000 local residents reap more than $1 million per year from rain forest products such as plants and animals used for food, medicine and construction materials.

In the Science study, Kremen and colleagues note that more than 32 million acres of tropical forest are lost each year to logging and slash-and-burn agriculture. As a result, at least 14,000 plant and animals species are rendered extinct and 5.6 to 8.6 gross tons of carbon are emitted. Using Madagascar's 888-square-mile Masoala National Park as a model, the researchers showed that 8,000 local residents reap more that $1 million per year from rain forest products such as plants and animals used for food, medicine and construction materials.

However, a large-scale logging operation in the park would benefit Madagascar $2.37 million on a national level. "Thus, large-scale logging is a realistic prospective use for Masoala and similar areas," the authors write in Science. In fact, logging companies were already prospecting for concessions on the Masoala Peninsula before the park was even established. Had the conservation and diplomatic community not applied pressure on the government of Madagascar to protect the area, one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world would have been lost, said Kremen.

31) RED CROSS WARNS ON CLIMATE BBC News 28 June, 2000 Internet: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_808000/808537.stm

The world's largest non-governmental aid organisation says the developed countries' polluting lifestyles represent a massive debt owed to the poor. The charge comes in the World Disasters Report 2000, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The report says the developed world's pollution is heating the planet, with potentially drastic consequences for all on Earth. And it argues that everybody, rich and poor, should have an equal right to pollute the atmosphere.

The report says: "Reckless human use of fossil fuels - overwhelmingly by industrialised countries - has helped raise the spectre of climate change, which darkens everyone's horizon. "But poor people in poor countries suffer first and worst from extreme weather conditions linked to climate change. Today, 96% of all deaths from natural disasters occur in developing countries.

Increasing disasters "By 2025, over half of all people living in developing countries will be 'highly vulnerable' to floods and storms." The report says this year's floods in Mozambique were just the latest example of climate-induced disasters. Others were the flooding in Bangladesh and eastern India, storms in Venezuela, and the effects of El Nino. "When Hurricane Mitch hit central America, the Honduran president commented: 'We lost in 72 hours what we have taken more than 50 years to build'. "According to the re-insurance giant MunichRe, the number of great weather-related and flood disasters quadrupled during the 1990s compared to the 1960s, while resulting economic losses increased eight-fold."

The report acknowledges the recurrence of natural cooling and warming cycles in the Earth's history, but says humanity is now "moving beyond natural climatic variations". It argues that all nations will have to live within "one global environmental budget", which will mean a drastic change from the situation today, when "industrialised countries generate over 62 times more carbon dioxide pollution per person than the least developed countries." The report contrasts the monetary debts owed by developing countries to their wealthy creditors with the rich world's climate debt. "By using fossil fuels at a level far above a threshold for sustainable consumption, year after year the carbon debts of rich countries get bigger." It says the poorest states, the heavily-indebted poor countries, are owed up to three times as much in carbon credits as they owe in dollars. But the world's richest nations have amassed a climate debt totalling $13 trillion, the report says.

Compelling respect The Federation argues for a policy to match the structural adjustment programmes imposed on many developing countries, which force their economies into line with Western norms. It says there is a need for sustainability adjustment programmes, which would compel rich countries to respect the common environment.

And it endorses the idea of contraction and convergence, which would mean that citizens of every country, rich or poor, would be entitled to emit the same amounts of climate-changing pollution, an idea pioneered by the London-based Global Commons Institute. Aubrey Meyer of GCI told BBC News Online: "This endorsement by the Federation, which is a fairly cautious group, shows that contraction and convergence is an idea whose time has come."

Persistent sceptics Some researchers still doubt that human activities are inducing rapid climate change. They highlight the inconsistencies between the temperature records taken at the Earth's surface, which show rapid warming over the last two decades, and the data produced by satellite and balloon studies. These show little if any warming of the low to mid-troposphere - the atmospheric layer extending up to about 8km from the Earth's surface. Climate models generally predict that temperatures should increase in the upper air as well as at the surface if increased concentrations of greenhouse gases are causing the warming seen there.

See also- ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/redcross000628.html

Times of London: http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/06/29/timnwsnws01018.html

32) MEDITERRANEAN WATERS TAKE A DIVE BBC News Wednesday, 14 June, 2000 Internet: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_791000/791313.stm

Global warming may be raising sea levels in the rest of the world, but the waters of the Mediterranean are falling - and fast. New research shows the Mediterranean has lowered by about three to five centimetres in the past 40 years. Dr Michael Tsimplis, of the Southampton Oceanography Centre, UK, says different climate effects and dam building are increasing the salinity of the water.

This makes its density go up and its volume go down. Dr Tsimplis told BBC News Online: "The fall is in the range of one to 1.4 millimetres per year," which has returned the sea to levels not seen since the early 19th Century. The research is reported in New Scientist magazine.

Control stations It is based on data from tide-gauge stations. There are less than ten stations in the Mediterranean with long and reliable records, and most these are in north west of the region and the north Adriatic. Different land movements on either side of the sea also complicate the data. Nevertheless, Dr Tsimplis says, the downward trend is clear. "It is even more dramatic if one considers the control stations which are located in the Atlantic and the Black Sea. The Black Sea continues to go up by approximately two millimetres per year and the Atlantic still goes up by 1.2 millimetres per year."

Many scientists believe the burning of fossil fuels is affecting the Earth's climate system, raising average, global, surface temperatures. Existing tide-gauge data from around the world and computer projections suggest thermal expansion of the oceans will lead to a general rise in sea levels.

Dam building But Dr Tsimplis believes a very specific climate phenomenon is working against any such rise in the Mediterranean. He thinks the North Atlantic Oscillation may be at play. This is a natural and recurring pressure pattern that has a profound impact on the weather experienced in the North Atlantic region and surrounding continents. The Southampton researcher says this could have led to increased evaporation over the Mediterranean area, which in turn increased the salinity of the water. More dam building in the region after 1960, which has reduced the amount of fresh water running into the sea, may also have exacerbated the trend. The original research, co-authored with Dr Trevor Baker, was published in Geophysical Research Letters.

33) STUDY EYES FLUCTUATING CROP YIELDS New York Times 31 May

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Fluctuations in crop yields, prices and farm income over the past 30 years can be linked to global warming, a new study shows. The study by researchers at Iowa State University's Agricultural College, Columbia Earth Institute and the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, examines the effect of a changing climate on U.S. agriculture since 1950. It says warmer winters and greater extremes, such as summer droughts, may have had the most substantial affects on production.

``We find that the variation in yields for such crops as corn, soybeans and cotton has increased significantly since the 1970s. Before the 1970s, variations were small,'' X.B. Yang, a plant pathologist at Iowa State University and a researcher involved in the study, said in a telephone interview. The study cites the direct effects of the 1988 drought and the 1993 Mississippi River flood, greater problems with weeds and insects that coincide with climatic changes, such as drought or increased humidity.

``The trend toward warmer temperatures some may see as a good thing, but it may shift the (country's) center of production for some crops,'' Yang said. ``Some people think yields go up due to warmer temperatures, but variation has increased and we're seeing these weather events.'' Extended drought could mean more viral diseases, mildew and pests such as aphids in some areas, according to the report. High temperatures and increased precipitation also could lead to the spread of plant diseases.

Greater problems with weeds, insects and crop diseases could lead to increased use of chemicals, which have their own health and economic risks, the report said. ``If this continues, we could have a big problem,'' Yang said.

See also-- Washington Post: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/latestap/A18201-2000May27.html

AP Financial: http://biz.yahoo.com/apf/000527/global_war.html

On the Net: Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment: http://www.med.harvard.edu/chge

34) STORM'S PASSAGE ACROSS CHILE LEAVES 60,000 HOMELESS CNN June 15, 2000 Internet: http://europe.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/06/15/chile.storm.ap/index.html

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- A powerful storm left some 60,000 people homeless in a midweek rampage across central Chile, flooding low- lying parts of the capital with the heaviest rains in years before diminishing Thursday. Three days of rain tapered off Wednesday after soaking the capital, Santiago, and a wide swath of the countryside. Heavy snow blocked border crossings with Argentina.

The storm, which brought high winds and rains, signaled the approach of winter in the South American hemisphere. Chilean President Ricardo Lagos delayed a flight to Colombia for a regional summit and surveyed inundated farm fields and slum neighborhoods by helicopter, ordering out the armed forces after declaring an emergency. "The army has spread out to the affected neighborhoods, and is working at the task of removing the mud," said Lagos. While tens of thousands of Chileans remained displaced for a second day, many others began returning home as floodwaters receded.

Health authorities warned Thursday of a possible outbreak of influenza and other respiratory diseases, say a combination of cold weather and water-soaked homes made the elderly and young particularly vulnerable. In the capital, the departing storms cleared the air and afforded unusually sparkling clear vistas of the snowcapped Andes mountains nearby, giving Santiago much of the year. At higher elevations in the towering Andes chain, heavy snowfall was reported. On Wednesday, key border crossings with neighboring Argentina were reported closed and some 300 trucks stranded. On the Argentine side, authorities reported snowfalls between 1 and 2 meters (3-6 feet) with resort owners rejoicing at the prospect of a surge in skiers.

Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza said the storms, affecting a large portion of central and southern Chile, were among the worst in 20 years and had left some 39,000 homeless in the interior -- the rest in or near the capital. Hundreds of army conscripts, backed by teams using heavy equipment, were dispatched Thursday to the hardest-hit neighborhoods. The soldiers joined civilians in bucket brigades that cleared water from homes and used shovels to remove mud and debris from neighborhoods and clogged storm drains.

Army trucks were enlisted to move entire families left homeless and calls went out for donations of roofing materials, bedding, clothing, canned foods and disinfectants to clean schools inundated by backed up sewer systems. Many merchants spent the day clearing away water and debris outside their shops. Some of the homeless were placed in a new community of small homes that was built as government housing project and thrown open to the public ahead of schedule. Maria Iturra was among the storm victims who pleaded for government assistance. "Our mayor must help us, it is his obligation," said Iturra, who said her modest home was already in bad shape from past rains.

Elsewhere in the capital, most schools suspended classes for a second day Thursday and university students heeded a government call to take part in an aid campaign for the victims. The government opened a bank account for donations. In order to free $2 million in government aid, Santiago and the neighboring Pacific port of Valparaiso had been declared disaster zones. Valparaiso was hit by flooding, while landslides were reported outside that city.

On Wednesday, some 75 percent of the streets in the capital were submerged at the storm's height. The Mapocho River, which crosses through the capital, overflowed its banks, flooding fields on the outskirts of the city. Hardest hit were working class neighborhoods and slums. Many more have been left homeless because of flooding in the interior of the country.

35) DROUGHT FORCES RATIONING IN CHINA'S CAPITAL Reuters June 12, 2000 Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7060

BEIJING - Beijing will soon order homes, factories, hotels and bathhouses to ration water amid a severe drought that is devastating crops and drying up rivers across northern China, state media reported. Beijing's worst water shortage in nearly two decades has prompted the government to enact "strict and obligatory" quotas on water usage, Xinhua news agency said in a weekend report. The quota system - yet to be unveiled - would affect industries, hotels, restaurants and universities, Xinhua said. Quotas for irrigation and households would also be introduced on an experimental basis, it said.

Factories that waste water and cause heavy pollution would be ordered to upgrade their technology or close, it said. Several cities in coastal Shandong province have already enacted similar quotas, with residents' water supply cut by half and stiff fines imposed on wasters, Xinhua said on Sunday. A prolonged drought is baking China's northern plains, with wheat one of the crops worst affected. Agriculture sources said last week they expected the national wheat crop to drop nearly eight percent this year, to 105 million tonnes from 113 million tonnes, in large part due to the drought.

"FLYING DESERT" In Henan province, which accounts for 20 percent of China's wheat, rainfall since February has been 80 to 90 percent below the seasonal average. The drought has highlighted grave man-made problems that have contributed to the water shortages affecting the countryside and cities. Environmental degradation, industrial pollution and soaring demand have poisoned waterways and dried out rivers. The mighty Yellow River, tapped by factories and farmers along its 3,000 mile (5,000 km) course, has been reduced to a stream by the time it reaches its mouth in Shandong province. Rampant felling of trees has also permitted winds to whip desert sand from western China and Inner Mongolia into the eastern farms and cities, a phenomenon some rural Chinese call "flying desert".

THIRSTY CAPITAL The worst dust storms in years pelted Beijing in April and May, embarrassing city authorities who had only recently proclaimed victory over such storms through tree-planting programmes. Premier Zhu Rongji, shocked by the extent of desertification during a tour of northern provinces in May, has ordered farmers to stop turning mountain slopes into terraced crop fields and to keep their animals in pens rather than let them graze freely.

In Beijing, the water table and key reservoirs are at their lowest levels since the early 1980s. Water resources per capita were 300 cubic metres - just 3.3 percent of the world average - in the capital city, Xinhua said, citing official statistics. Through the planned austerity programme, the city aimed to save 70 million cubic metres of water this year, 50 percent more than the amount saved in 1999, it said.

36) GREAT LAKES SIGNAL GREAT SHIFT IN SEASONAL CHANGES CNN 13 June Internet: http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/06/13/great.lakes.enn/index.html

Scrutinizing a 139-year record, a climatologist has discovered a dramatic shift in the seasonal changes in water levels on the Great Lakes. The finding, reported at a recent meeting of the International Association of Great Lakes Research by climatologist John Lenters, is further evidence that the effects of global warming on natural systems could be far-reaching.

"The bottom line is that over this 139-year period, the annual rising and falling of lakes Ontario and Erie has gotten earlier" by about a month, Lenters said in his assessment of long-term trends in Great Lakes water levels. The finding, Lenters said, also shows that the range of Lake Ontario's "annual cycle" increased from 17 to 22 inches, a change in volume equivalent to 90 billion cubic feet of water. While Lake Erie does not show the same increase, the one-month early arrival of seasonal high and low water levels mirrors that of Lake Ontario.

In the Great Lakes, explained Lenters, there is an annual ebb and flow of lake levels influenced by such things as precipitation, snowmelt and evaporation over the Great Lakes basin. In the spring and summer, lake levels rise, reflecting such things as precipitation and spring snowmelt. In the fall and winter, lake levels recede as a result of evaporation of the relatively warm lake water. These shifts, according to Lenters, are essentially hydrological representations of the seasons, and "what I am finding is a shifting of the seasons."

These shifts are independent of annual variability in lake levels that may reflect, for example, a drought year, or a year when rainfall exceeds normal precipitation averages. "At this time, the most likely explanation for the observed trends appears to be earlier spring snowmelt in association with higher springtime temperatures in the Great Lakes region," Lenters said. "Climate is almost definitely responsible, but exactly how it is responsible is unknown."

Lenters' analysis was made using records of monthly mean lake levels from 1860 to 1998 from four stations around the Great Lakes, including sites along lakes Superior, Huron, Ontario and Erie. Lake Michigan is included in the study as part of Lake Huron since the two lakes are hydraulically connected. Large shifts in the water cycles of lakes Superior and Michigan-Huron were also found, but for fewer months of the year. The result is a different and less dramatic seasonal shift for those lakes, said Lenters.

"It is not clear why Lakes Superior and Michigan-Huron are behaving differently, but it may be related to differences in regional climate, or the fact that Erie and Ontario are the furthest downstream lakes. "If warming continues, we may begin to see the same consequences in lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron," Lenters said. "For example, following the warm El Ni�o winter of 1997-1998, all five Great Lakes reached their annual maximum nearly two months earlier than normal."

It is likely that the changes observed in the lakes are part of a larger systemic change spurred by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and resulting warming trends, according to the University of Wisconsin climatologist. Similar long-term shifts in lake ice and river flow in the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi basins have already been observed by scientists. Lenters is a staff scientist in the Climate, People and Environment Program at the university's Institute for Environmental Studies. His work was supported by a grant from NASA's Upper Midwest Regional Earth Science Application Center.

ON THE WEB 37) PEW CENTER REPORT REVIEWS NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAMS OF FIVE EU COUNTRIES AND THEIR KYOTO TARGETS The Pew Center on Global Climate Change report, "The European Union and Global Climate Change: A Review of Five National Programmes," available at http://www.pewclimate.org/media/pr_621report.html, is co-authored by John Gummer, MP, former UK Environment Minister and Chairman of Sancroft International Ltd., and Robert Moreland, also of Sancroft, an environmental consulting firm. The report examines the climate change programs of Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, presents the national emissions reduction targets to which the countries committed under the Kyoto Protocol, and draws conclusions on the likelihood of success taking into consideration the political will and obstacles in each country.

38) OZONE ACTION'S RESPONSE TO WFA LAWSUIT Six non-profit environmental groups have filed a motion for dismissal in a lawsuit that seeks to restrict their First Amendment right to alert the public to the potential impacts of global warming. They were responding to a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) filed against them in Wyoming District Court by Western Fuels Association, a coalition of western power companies. The motion to dismiss was filed by Turning Point Project, Friends of the Earth, Earth Island Institute, Ozone Action, Rainforest Action Network, and the International Center for Technology Assessment - the six groups named in the SLAPP suit, which was filed April 17, 2000. The non- profit groups seek dismissal of the suit, contending that Western Fuels' lawsuit fails to show why - other than the fact that Wyoming is a coal mining state - the case should be brought in Wyoming. The complaint and motion text are available at http://www.ozone.org/suit.pdf and www.ozone.org/response.p df.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS 39) THE ATOM'S PLACE IN EUROPE'S FUTURE International Herald Tribune June 15, 2000 Internet: http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/THU/IN/atom.2.html

By Barry James

BRUSSELS - Despite opposition in Germany and elsewhere to the continuing use of nuclear power, the European commissioner responsible for energy policy, Loyola de Palacio, warns that without the atom the European Union will never be able to attain its international commitments to cut greenhouse gases.

Even if it meets its target of doubling the proportion of energy it gets from renewable sources to 12 percent of the total and achieves huge gains in savings and efficiency, she said in an interview, the European Union ''doesn't have a chance'' of meeting those commitments without nuclear energy.

Mrs. de Palacio, the former Spanish agriculture minister and now vice president of the commission, is seeking to take a lead in promoting long-term thinking about future energy supplies. This year, she plans to stage a debate involving the commission, the European Parliament and governments on Europe's long-term energy prospects.

''If we integrate our markets,'' she said, ''whatever decision is taken concerning the energy market of one country affects all the others.'' But she added that deregulation in the EU means that policy is increasingly left to commercial companies that in general do not have a long-term vision. ''What we need,'' she said, ''is an analysis of the situation 20 or 30 years ahead, which is not so far away.'' The EU imports about half its energy needs, Within 20 years those imports are expected to increase to between 60 and 70 percent.

Pointing at a large wall map, Mrs. Palacio said, ''The very least you can say is that much of this energy will come from regions that are unstable or fragile politically.'' On the question of Germany's ambition to phase out nuclear energy, Mrs. de Palacio said, ''I do not want to reply today to what must be an open debate. But I have said clearly that Europe cannot renounce nuclear energy, not only for strategic reasons but also because of our commitments at Kyoto.'' That was a reference to the international protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - those that contribute to global warming - made at a United Nations conference on climate change in 1997.

The EU is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. In an effort to increase the use of environment-friendly technology, Mrs. de Palacio recently proposed allowing governments to subsidize electricity production from such renewable sources as wind, waves and the sun. This runs counter to the idea of a totally deregulated energy supply in Europe's single market, as allowing the continuation of government support would give an advantage to certain suppliers. Mrs. de Palacio said at a recent news conference that the best way to promote ''green'' energy was to make it more competitive.

Nevertheless, she said the commission also needed to promote renewable energy and ''ensure a stable framework for investors.'' It would allow subsidies to continue for at least the next five years. In a plan that still requires the approval of EU energy ministers and the European Parliament, the commission is trying to get governments to adopt more ambitious targets for developing renewable energy.

Although the targets would not be a legal obligation, Mrs. de Palacio said, ''if a particular member state doesn't develop renewable sources sufficiently, there is an option for us to propose rules to make sure it does.'' The commission suggests that Britain should increase renewable energy from less than 1 percent to 9.3 percent of total electricity production by 2010; Portugal from 4.8 percent to 21.5 percent and Spain from 3.6 percent to 17.5 percent.

Germany, meanwhile, announced this year that it would seek to produce half its energy from renewable sources within 50 years. But no matter how ambitious these goals - and environmental groups such as Greenpeace say they are not ambitious enough - Gerald Doucet, secretary-general of the World Energy Council, agreed with Mrs. de Palacio. ''I don't believe we can meet the Kyoto targets by taking nuclear off the table,'' he said.

About 23 percent of the EU's electricity generating capacity comes from nuclear energy, compared with 19 percent in the United States, and this rises to nearly 80 percent in France. Germany plans to phase out its 19 plants, and the only question is how long this process will take. The Greens party wants a quick closure, but the government insists on a 30-year period. Sweden has closed the first of 12 plants but is extending the life of others and has invested in the German nuclear industry. Italy, which had three operating plants, has closed them and depends on imported oil for most of its energy needs. Austria has renounced nuclear energy but is surrounded by countries that rely on it. In fact, the issue of nuclear safety in the Central and Eastern European countries waiting to join the European Union is a major factor in the enlargement debate.

Mr. Doucet suggested that the position of countries that seek to end nuclear power on their own territory is hardly consistent, since in an integrated market they are to some extent reliant on imported nuclear energy. Germany partly depends on cheap power from France while seeking to block nuclear development in Eastern Europe, a development that would leave countries like Ukraine more dependent on dirty coal, ''and I mean dirty,'' Mr. Doucet said.

As Mrs. de Palacio pointed out, Europe faces some tough choices. Even to maintain nuclear power's current share of the total energy mix would mean building 80 atomic plants to replace aging reactors, according to a study for the EU by Environmental Resources Management, a consulting group. But building fossil-fuel plants to replace them would instead emit monthly an extra 250 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

40) REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRATIC STAFFERS SAY KYOTO IS A NO GO, BUT ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE NEEDED RFF-Weathervane Internet: http://www.weathervane.rff.org/features/feature098.html

Two Congressional staffers-one Republican, one Democrat-agreed at a recent breakfast discussion that the Kyoto Protocol will not be ratified by the Senate in the near future, but that the Senate should still take action to address the issue of climate change. David Garman, chief of staff for Senator Frank H. Murkowski (R- Alaska), stated that the Protocol imposes "economic pain without environmental gain," is regional rather than global, and was drafted without the involvement of the Senate. He said that Kyoto is also too short-term in focus, concentrating on the next 10-20 years, when it should plan for the next 50-100. But, according to Garman, "that does not absolve us from trying to solve the underlying problem."

Christopher Miller, of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works under ranking Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), expressed the position that a "Kyoto-like instrument" should and will be worked out in the next three years. "Poll data [show that the] public wants Congress to be proactive on climate." "The risk of anthropogenic climate change is a risk that we must responsibly address," said Garman in his presentation. Miller added "there are things that we should be doing [to promote understanding of climate change] that we're not."

Garman and Miller presented their offices' stands on Kyoto and climate change in general at a National Policy Association- sponsored a breakfast seminar titled "A View from the Hill; Congressional Perspectives on the Kyoto Protocol" on May 23. Garman also touched on the backlash that he called the "Kyoto effect," a reaction by Congress to take action against measures that previously enjoyed broad bipartisan support-like energy efficiency improvements-but are now perceived by some as efforts to implement an unratified treaty.

The most visible manifestation of this impact has been the so- called "Knollenberg language" attached to last year's appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture by Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-Mich.). The language prohibits the appropriation of funds "for the purpose of implementation of, or in preparation for implementation of, the Kyoto Protocol."

41) DISASTERS BLAMED ON POLLUTION BBC News Monday, 15 May, 2000 Internet: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_746000/746453.stm

Climate-related catastrophes in poor countries are likely to spiral out of control unless action is taken to tackle global warming, a leading British charity has warned. The United Kingdom churches' development agency, Christian Aid, says in the next 20 years, up to 75% of the world's people, most of them in poor countries, could be at risk from droughts or floods. It says the cost of so-called "natural" catastrophes, triggered by climate change, could be �6,500bn. And it urges developed countries to make big cuts in their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Hurricane Mitch comes to call Malcolm Rodgers of Christian Aid said: "Nine of the past 11 catastrophes to which we have responded have been caused by extreme weather conditions. "Country after country is being devastated by these so-called natural disasters, and we and others are simply picking up the pieces. "The terrible irony is that the poorest countries are suffering, and we believe this is because of pollution by the wealthiest."

Environmental disasters

1998 10,000 people died and two million were made homeless by hurricane Mitch in central America Bangladesh floods affect 30m Drought in Sudan affects 2.5m

1999 10,000 died or disappeare