Friday, January 18, 2008

Reconsidering nuclear power, paper industry scandal, ecology watchdog resigns and much more...

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Friday, January 18, 2008
News of Note

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Following a resounding victory for Taiwan's pro-nuclear opposition party, record oil prices and concerns over a possible power deficit, Taipei is reopening the debate over potential expansion of its nuclear capacity.

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It's widely known that lead poisoning poses a threat to public health. The metal's negative effect on the nervous system as well as its propensity to cause renal and cardiovascular diseases has promoted the FDA to continually lower the legal limit of lead content in paint, children's toys, and playground substrate since the late 70's.

Two major players in the Japanese paper industry have been left with egg on their face after admitting they lied about the amount of recycled paper in their products.

Several days ago Nippon Paper Group, the second largest paper company in Japan, admitted it had lied about the percentage of recycled material in its products. Oji Paper, the country's biggest paper company, revealed that it too had lied about the recycled content of its paper today.

The full recovery of ecological systems, following the most devastating extinction event of all time, took at least 30 million years, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government must decide first if polar bears are threatened by climate change before it opens part of their icy habitat to oil drilling, the head of a congressional environment panel said on Thursday.

The decision whether to list the big Arctic bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was supposed to happen last week but was postponed for up to 30 days.

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Whether the long road from last year's Bali climate summit to the 2009 Copenhagen gathering ends with a binding deal to replace Kyoto depends crucially on the United States, according to the Danish climate minister.

"I think that the United States, and getting the United States to move, is the key to also get China and India moving," Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard told Reuters in an interview this week.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's most vocal environmental inspector whose crusades were the scourge of Western companies including oil major Shell, has tendered his resignation, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Friday.

Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the state Rosprirodnadzor agency, part of the natural resources ministry, has submitted his resignation to minister Yuri Trutnev, Tass said, quoting the resignation request but giving no reason for the move.

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Member Press Releases
By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced January 17 that it will not prepare a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar and will not attempt to recover the species in the United States or throughout its range in North and South America. The decision was signed by Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall on January 7, 2008. By: International Fund for Animal Welfare
Environmental and animal welfare organizations applauded yesterday's decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the Bush Administration's attempt to nullify protections for marine mammals from potentially lethal underwater sound blasts until a federal district court can review the decision. By: the International Fund for Animal Welfare
Today the International Fund for Animal Welfare released On Thin Ice: The Precarious State of Arctic Marine Mammals in the United States Due to Global Warming, a comprehensive report commissioned to gauge the effects of unprecedented climate change on polar bears and other ice-dependent marine mammals within the United States. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed six imperiled birds from around the world as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act Wednesday. Fourteen years after first determining these species warranted protection, the Service finally responded to a series of lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity and listed the black stilt (New Zealand), caerulean paradise-flycatcher (Indonesia), giant ibis (Laos, Cambodia), Gurney's pitta (Burma, Thailand), long-legged thicketbird (Fiji), and Socorro mockingbird (Mexico) as endangered species. By: National Wildlife Federation
As Congress considers legislation that seeks to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by mid-century, colleges and universities may hold the key. Campuses nationwide have launched climate-driven projects that are taking a significant bite out of emissions along with saving money, according to a new publication from the National Wildlife Federation, Higher Education in a Warming World: The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus. The report demonstrates how schools are stepping up efforts in response to the potential threats of global warming and how these institutions are reaping multiple rewards. By: Stockholm International Water Institute
Companies that have contributed to pollution elimination or reduced freshwater consumption through innovative programs, policies, processes or products now have the opportunity to be nominated for the prestigious 2008 Stockholm Industry Water Award. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
In a January 7, 2008, memo, Mike Lockhart, who retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in frustration after 32 years - including the past eight years as the leader of the black-footed ferret recovery program - strongly criticized the agency's leadership for making back-room deals with the state of South Dakota and U.S. Forest Service that undermined the black-footed ferret recovery program by allowing poisoning of prairie dogs. Black-footed ferrets depend on prairie dog colonies for survival; prairie dogs are their primary prey, and prairie dog burrows are used as shelter and dens. By: the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) will present a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Robert W. Corell, Global Change Program Director at The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and Senior Policy Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, on Thursday, January 17, 2008 in Washington, D.C. Given for a lifetime of leadership and achievement in advancing environmental science and its use in decision-making, the award will be presented during NCSE's 8th national conference, Climate Change: Science and Solutions, at a special ceremony at 5:30 p.m., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

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