Thailand

Coconuts fuel green hopes
A Thai farmer is using coconuts to address global warming and Thailand's stagnating rural economy. Kitti Maneesrikul extracts oil from dried coconut flesh (or gets it used from street stall vendors), filters it and adds a little kerosene. He claims coconut fuel works for trucks and industrial engines, gets more miles per gallon, is 30 per cent cheaper than diesel and doesn't produce carbon dioxide (a global-warming gas).

"[W]e've shown the poor can also take the future into their own hands.''

Environmentalists say coconut fuel could help millions of poor farmers in tropical regions. The government says it needs more research.

Source: Reuters (via http://www.envirolink.org/environews)

March 8/2001 Mexico

Rocky solution's in the bucket
The inhabitants of Zimap‡n (a long-time mining district) live with water supplies contaminated with arsenic Ñ but they can't afford commercially available domestic purifying systems. Now geoscientists have discovered that the answer could lie all around them, according to a Geological Society of London report. Researchers found arsenic in contaminated water is reduced below detectable levels when mixed with rocks of the locally common Soyatal Formation (a calcareous shale).

Local residents could decontaminate their water with no more sophisticated equipment than a bucket (for mixing rocks and water). Scientists warn that further research is needed before residents try it themselves.

Source: (UniSci) (http://www.envirolink.org/environews)

April 2/2001 United States

A losing logging proposition
Logging operations cost more money than they generate for the U.S. Forest Service, according to a longawaited report on timber operations. In fiscal year 1998, the U.S. Treasury lost $126 million from logging in national forests, the report finds. The Forest Service's timber sale program generated $546 million in 1998, but it cost $672 million to operate. That loss equals a $2,200 subsidy per timber job, conservation groups note.

"This report makes clear that timber companies have squandered millions of taxpayer dollars with federallysubsidized, inefficient logging practices," according to the group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "It is a clearcut case of corporate welfare."

Source: Environmental News Network (http://www.envirolink.org/environews)

March 13, 2001 China

Putting on a greener face
China has reportedly attached unprecedented importance to environmental protection and sustainable development in its five year plan for the 2001- 2005 period. Increasing environmental protection spending to 1.2 per cent of GDP, China plans to launch comprehensive pollution treatment projects along three major rivers, treat 45 per cent of urban sewage water and recycle 60 per cent of industrial wastewater. It has banned natural forest cutting along parts of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and has slashed its coal consumption by 400 million tons over the last 20 years. China still plans to implement a highly controversial project to divert Yangtze River water to thirsty areas in the north.

Source: Peoples' Daily Online (http://www.envirolink.org/environews)

March 13, 2001 United States

Sweet victory: Coastal Berry goes union
More than 750 pickers labouring in Ventura County for the nation's largest strawberry employer are making history. After a four-year worker struggle for union representation, the United Farm Workers (UFW) and Coastal Berry Company signed a landmark contract giving the UFW its first major stake in California's $600 million-a-year strawberry industry. UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said the "breakthrough agreement" makes Coastal Berry's Ventura employees "the best-paid and best-protected workers in the vastest growing strawberry-producing region in the state."

The UFW appeals "to all those who care about justice for farm workers to ask for Coastal Berry strawberries in stores, hotels and restaurants."

Source: www.ufw.org

March 9, 2001 United States

Santa Cruz leads the way against FTAA
Santa Cruz City Council has voted to officially oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas, becoming perhaps the first municipality in the U.S. to do so. In a 6-1 vote, city council passed a resolution calling for the U.S. Trade Representative to withdraw from any further negotiations on the proposed FTAA. The council was urged to act by the Santa Cruz Coalition Against the FTAA, an ad-hoc group of local activists.

"Local resolutions like this one have been instrumental in defeating other destructive trade agreements," states the resolution. Santa Cruz joins Vancouver, B.C. in officially opposing the FTAA.

Source: smacruz@onebox.com, (Santa Cruz Coalition Against the FTAA)

March 13, 2001 Thailand

GM crops on the outs
Greenpeace has applauded the Thai government's decision to stop the release of all genetically modified (GM) crops into the environment and no longer allow any GM field trials in Thailand. With this decision Thailand takes the lead in Asia to protect its environment, biodiversity and farmers from genetic pollution. The decision should halt all approvals for GM field trials, marking the end of ongoing field trials on GM cotton and corn, conducted by agribusiness giant Monsanto, the second largest seed provider in Thailand. Thailand has already banned all commercial growing of GM crops on its territory.

Source: JustFood.com (www.envirolink.org/environews)

April 9, 2001 International

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) believes it can make money by providing poor people with electricity Ñ and is willing to fork over $30 million to prove it. GEF, a World Bank affiliate which invests public and private money in environmentally sound projects, has launched Solar Development Capital. The $30 million private investment fund will provide funding for business projects using photovoltaic systems to deliver electricity to people off national grids. The businesses, primarily in Africa, Asia and South America, will be privately owned and the customers, now receiving no electricity at all, would pay for the new service.

Source: Earth Times News Service April 9, 2001