At least half the Amazon rain forest is dry enough to go up in smoke according to a new seven year study conducted by scientists with the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. According to this research, even at its most pristine core, the rain forest is dangerously dry and flammable due to logging, deliberate burning around its edges and El Nino. In one test in October, American and Brazilian scientists threw a match on kerosene that had been sprinkled in a small parcel of undisturbed jungle in the eastern Amazon. Normally, the wet vegetation wouldn't burn, but this time, 300 acres went up in flames. As part of their research, they also dug 35 foot shafts into the clay soil of unlogged Brazilian rain forest at five different sites. Several years earlier, they had struck water deposits at this depth, but not this time.

The Woods Hole research is the first hard evidence to suggest that the Indonesia scenario may soon be repeated across the Amazon, raising the specter of a worldwide ecological disaster. About 12% of the 2 million square mile Amazon jungle is already gone, and burning in recent months has been intense. According to at least one estimate, if half the Amazon were to burn, 35 billion tons of carbon would be released into the atmosphere - the equivalent of six years' worth of worldwide fossil fuel emissions. Not only would this add to the atmosphere's carbon accumulation, it would seriously reduce the rainforest's capacity to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that traps solar heat and is thought to increase global warming.

Visit the following site for more information:

• Woods Hole Research Center

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 13 - Deforestation and Loss of Biodiversity

In increasing numbers, pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies have been turning to the Amazon for the plants, barks and seeds they need to develop future medical and beauty products. The potential profit from the development of these newly discovered plants is huge. In response, Brazilians, who still remember how their lucrative rubber trade monopoly was destroyed by 19th century British smugglers, have been looking for ways to demand their fair share of the wealth from their biodiversity.

The recent case of the Kaxinawa Indians in the southwestern state of Acre, Brazil has sparked renewed interest in the development of so-called "bio-piracy" laws. Indians and state officials accuse an Austrian-born Brazilian of using a nonprofit charity, Living Jungle, to trick the Indians of Acre into sharing their traditional knowledge of more than 300 species of plants. With the Kaxinawa's help, Living Jungle has begun developing a nursery of potentially exportable plants, but the Indians have received only a few baseball caps and an occasional bottle of aspirin as compensation. Investigation by the Acre attorney general's environmental protection office has uncovered many similar abuses.

A Brazilian congressional commission is investigating the issue and a national bio-piracy law is being worked on to strengthen ineffective legislation passed in 1993. In the meantime, Acre has recently enacted legislation which requires plant researchers to sign very specific contracts, work with a national research institute, and pay royalties to the state for the information they use. Several corporations, such as Aveda, The Body Shop and Shaman Pharmaceuticals, have tried to develop socially responsible working relationships with indigenous peoples to avoid the whole bio-piracy issue, but the issues are complex and even some of these companies have been criticized in the past.

Visit the following sites for more information:

• Bioprospecting or Biopiracy?
• Conservation International - Bioprospecting

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 13 - Deforestation and Loss of Biodiversity

The California Air Resources Board has teamed up with Atlantic Richfield Co., the state's biggest oil company, and Ford, Honda, and Toyota, three major car manufacturers, to sell Californians on a new message- the air is cleaner than ever. This unorthodox alliance of interests, which calls itself Californians for Clean Air Progress, has produced a $2.4 million newspaper and radio ad campaign that has left environmental groups fuming.

Although the public's contribution to the "Success is in the Air" campaign was only $85,000, a fraction of the total cost, environmentalists are troubled by the use of public funds for this campaign at all, no matter how small. The bigger issue, however, is the appropriateness of the very state regulators responsible for monitoring air quality in smoggy California touting the "success" of the industries they regulate.

Furthermore, these ads come at a time when environmental groups have sued the Wilson administration over its alleged throttling of air quality regulations and as the gasoline additive MTBE faces intense scrutiny for fouling the water. Environmental groups view this campaign as propaganda designed to sway public opinion as the Wilson administration comes under increasing attack for ignoring the environment.

Visit the following sites for more information:

• Facts About Smog
• California Air Resources Board

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 17 - Air and Air Pollution

At a recent three-day seminar in Moscow, organized with NATO's assistance, several dozen Western and Russian experts gathered to discuss nuclear submarine dismantling technologies. Although this is a complex problem faced by the United States and other nations, this conversation is particularly urgent in Russia where scores of mothballed submarines are rusting away in Russian harbors, threatening to unleash radioactive waste. Only last May, one of these decommissioned nuclear submarines sank near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula when it collided with another vessel while being moved. Fortunately, there was no radiation leak because the vessel's nuclear fuel had already been removed.

Shockingly, however, more than 60 percent of Russia's old submarine fleet still have fuel in their reactors and many are in poor condition, with rusted hulls that are half-submerged. In fact, only 16 of the 156 retired nuclear submarines have been fully dismantled, and another 100 are slated to go out of service by 2000. Dismantling the old Russian submarine fleet is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but due to fiscal constraints, the Russian government can only afford to dismantle five or six vessels a year. Because the problem is so grave, Russia has called in NATO, its former enemy, to help assess the problem.

Visit the following sites for more information:

• Environmental Threats of Russian Nuclear Trade

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 16 - Non-renewable Energy Resources (especially Soviet Nuclear Waste Legacy, p451)
• Chapter 21 - Solid and Hazardous Waste

A federal judge in Casper, Wyoming has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's $7 million wolf recovery program in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho is illegal and has ordered approximately 160 relocated wolves to be removed. The order to remove the wolves has been stayed, however, pending an appeal by the U.S. Interior Department.

At the heart of the controversy is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's two year old program of bringing Canadian wolves into the United States and designating them an "experimental population" under the Endangered Species Act. The program was developed because the near extinction of wolves in the United States had disrupted natural predator and prey relationships, resulting in a population explosion of deer and elk. This program was designed to bring them back into the natural food chain at Yellowstone Park. The goal of the program was to create a breeding population of 100 wolves in Yellowstone and Idaho in five years, and then remove wolves from the endangered species list.

The "experimental population" designation was supposed to give the government more flexibility in managing the transplanted wolves by permitting them to be shot by ranchers if they attacked livestock. Unfortunately, it has also reduced protection for the pre-existing or migrating populations of wolves located in the recovery areas which would ordinarily be fully protected under the Endangered Species Act. If the judge's decision is upheld on appeal, the relocated wolves could be captured because many are wearing radio collars for tracking purposes, but the Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping it won't come to that.

Visit the following sites for more information:

• Defenders of Wildlife
• Yellowstone National Park
• Ralph Maughn's Wolf Report

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 25 - Sustaining Wild Species

The world's tigers are disappearing so rapidly, they are in danger of vanishing altogether, according to a recent article in the National Geographic Society's magazine. Although their population stood at over 100,000 at the turn of the century, only 5,000 to 7,000 tigers roam the wild, with about half of them in India. The authors of this article have called for "major human intervention" by international organizations and governments in the 14 countries where tigers can still be found.

They noted that three tiger subspecies-Caspian, Bali and Javan- disappeared 50 years ago and the South China tiger is close to extinction. Four other surviving subspecies-Bengal, Indochinese, Sumatran and Siberian- are all endangered. According to the National Geographic magazine, 2,500 to 3,750 tigers are still in the wild in India; and 2,200 to 3,000 in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. Fewer than 730 live in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Nepal and North Korea. An unspecified number are in Burma and Laos.

The most critical problem for the tigers is the loss of habitat and unavailability of food in their traditional home areas. The World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society have documented 159 "conservation" areas around the world where tigers are most likely to be able to survive. They are trying to enlist international support to preserve these areas for the tiger.

Visit the following sites for more information:

• Tiger Info Center
• Save the Tiger Fund
• World Wildlife Fund
• Tiger Conservation

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 25 - Sustaining Wild Species

December saw the news media full of global warming, the Kyoto conference and treaty plus all the surrounding hoopla. Posturing by the various interests, Al Gore presenting the Clinton administration's compromise and the now seemingly par-for-the-course obstructionist position of the U.S. Congress (that now has a habit of dismissing issues prior to any form of debate) leaves everyone up in the air (they say hot air rises) as to the fate of the proposed treaty and the, dare I say it, doomed planet... In summary, the basic requirements of the treaty are as follow; developed countries must cut emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases an average of 5.2% by 2012; developing countries are not obliged to make comparable cuts unless they choose to; emissions trading would be permitted; forested countries will get a break in their quotas (trees reduce carbon dioxide); penalties for violations are yet to be determined. To pardon the most over-used pun around, this is really all hot air right now, action and results are needed. One also has to wonder how effective all this will be if the two most populous countries, China and India, continue economic expansion fueled by fossil fuels. Still, it is a start. If the U.S. keeps its part of the bargain, there made be some true progress so long as the U.S. Congress does not blow it off.

One final note that left an observer such as myself mystified was the notion of a deadline for the treaty; if an agreement was not arrived at by a certain time, everyone would go home and the planet would be abandoned! If ever there was an issue worth pursuing to a conclusion, surely this would be it”

Visit the following sites for more information:

• Woods Hole Research Center
• Global Warming Information Page

In Living in the Environment see:

• Chapter 14 - Global Warming and Ozone Loss