4) After Beatings, Activists Promised Access to Bhopal Site
Ranjit Devraj

After brutal beatings and police detention, environmental activists have been promised free access to investigate and conduct tests at the pesticides factory in central Bhopal city which 18 years ago was the scene of the world's worst industrial disaster.

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (IPS) - After brutal beatings and police detention, environmental activists have been promised free access to the pesticides factory in central Bhopal city which 18 years ago was the scene of the world's worst ever industrial disaster.

The promise was made by Digvijay Singh, chief minister of central Madhya Pradesh state who, according to Pryaag Joshi, Greenpeace International director for political affairs, also said permission would be given for carrying out soil tests and containment work on the site heavily contaminated with toxic chemicals.

Singh has instructed his officers to drop charges against activists of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) who were violently stopped by police on Nov. 25 from 'containing' some of the hazardous waste lying abandoned at the plant which was sold by the U.S. trans-national Union Carbide to the Michigan-based Dow Chemicals in Feb. 2001.

''We appreciate the gesture of the chief minister and see this as a move which will help the campaign to nail Dow and obtain justice for the affected victims and citizens of Bhopal. But we do hope it will be followed up by real and timely action,'' Joshi said Wednesday.

Greenpeace screened in the capital on Tuesday, footage from the Nov. 25 police action showing activists being clubbed and kicked at the site by police before being flung into vans and taken away and charged with various offences starting with criminal trespass.

''The police also impounded equipment used for containment by ICJB activists, making it impossible for international specialists to pursue their peaceful intentions of bringing the world's attention to the ongoing crime in Bhopal,'' Joshi said.

The police brutality and the arrests of 56 activists, 13 of them foreign nationals, reeked of the government's anxiety to protect the interests of Dow Chemicals rather than that of the hapless victims or the safety of ordinary people in Bhopal, he said.

On Tuesday, gas-affected victims and supporters led a huge rally through the streets of Bhopal and called upon Dow Chemical, the new owners of Union Carbide to assume liabilities and responsibility for the Dec 3, 1984 Bhopal disaster. A toxic gas leak from the plant resulted in the deaths of 6,500 people and the maiming of 500,000 others.

It has been established by scientists that had refrigeration units at the plant not been shut off as an economy measure to save about 50 dollars a day, the runaway reaction in its storage tanks full of deadly methyl-isocyanate may never have occurred.

Various Indian governments appear to have colluded with Union Carbide in thinly disguised cover-up jobs and also in watering down the original suit filed for 15 billion dollars and which former chairman Warren Andersen had publicly committed to pay in the aftermath of the tragedy.

After arrogating to itself the right to represent the victims, the central government filed a weak claim for three billion dollars and finally collected 470 million dollars in an out-of-court settlement which was never accepted by several of the organisations working for the victims.

Union Carbide came out of it all relatively unscathed. At a time when it had an annual revenue of eight billion dollars it had to cough up just 70 million dollars for the final settlement because more than 200 million dollars had already been collected as insurance while another 200 million dollars had been set aside under court instructions.

Andersen, who was briefly arrested in Bhopal on charges of culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy and other serious offences along with several other Indian company executives, was allowed to fly back to the United States where he quickly ''disappeared'' ignoring summons to face trial.

In August, Greenpeace traced Andersen to his home in Long Island, New York and served him a 'citizen's arrest warrant.' Said Joshi: ''The fact that Greenpeace activists could find Andersen when several intelligence agencies failed speaks for the seriousness of the U.S. government in getting him to face trial,'' said Joshi.

But the Indian government has not been particularly serious either.

In May, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country's main sleuthing agency asked the courts in Bhopal for a dilution of charges against Andersen to negligence and let him off criminal culpability.

Greenpeace campaigner Von Hernandez said it did appear that India, as with other developing countries, was eager not to do anything that might discourage foreign investors.

''As far as we know there has been no move on the part of the Indian government to initiate extradition proceedings against Andersen,'' he said.

Rallies were conducted by the ICJB and its supporters on Tuesday not only in Bhopal but also in the western port city of Mumbai where Dow Chemicals has its country headquarters.

Said Vinod Shetty convenor for the group in Mumbai: ''If Dow can accept Carbide's assets they must accept its liabilities as well and these include cleaning up the plant site and its surroundings.''

Greenpeace, which has carried out soil sampling and other tests on the site said it is prepared to share technology to help the Madhya Pradesh government clean up the site from where toxic chemical are said to be leaching into the ground and contaminating drinking water.

''We have told the chief minister that while Greenpeace does not have the resources to provide continuous support in financial and other matters, we can give technical and developmental support,'' said Ruth Stringer, senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories in Exeter, U.K.

She described the site as one of the most toxic places she had ever seen with the soil still loaded with chlorinated benzenes, chlorform, carbon tetrachloride and other chemicals that could penetrate the skin and affect the kidneys, liver and the nervous system.

Stringer was part of a team which authored the Greenpeace document entitled 'The Bhopal Legacy', released three years ago which put the number of killed by the traged at ''an estimated 16,000'' and those injured at 500,000.

Her colleague Hernandez said Greenpeace was determined to carry on with its global campaign to get Dow Chemical to accept responsibility.

Global Warming

6) 2002 the Planet's Second Warmest Year
Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 18 (IPS) - This year, which saw an increase in the Earth's average surface temperature, is the second warmest in the 160 years since instrumental measurements of temperatures have been recorded, reports the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Another notable weather trait of 2002 is the reappearance of the phenomenon known as El Niño, though in a more moderate version than its most recent occurrence, in 1997-1998.

Since 1900, the planet's average surface temperature has risen 0.6 degrees Celsius, and the temperatures recorded this year, through late November, were a half-degree higher than the annual average from 1961 to 1990.

As a result, 2002 replaced 2001 as being the second hottest year -- after 1998 -- of the 20th century.

The exceptional readings on thermometers in the last few years are not isolated incidents. "Clearly, for the past 25 or 26 years, the warming has been accelerating," said WMO Climate Programme director Kenneth Davidson, adding that the rate of increase "is unprecedented in the last thousand years."

This warming has been verified through ice core samples, seabed samples and tree ring samples, Davidson explained.

The rate of warming is the most noteworthy aspect of the phenomenon. Davidson admitted that he is surprised at the rate of temperature increases.

"Personally, I would say it isn't what I expected," he told a press conference as he presented the WMO report Tuesday. "I think that everyone is surprised to see this rate of increase" in the average world temperatures.

The phenomenon is being tracked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is made up of scientists specialising in studying aspects related to global warming.

In its the third assessment report, the IPCC states that the world is warming at unprecedented rates and it is "likely" that human activities are influencing this phenomenon.

"And I would say that certainly is the opinion of the members of the WMO as well," the United Nations agency entrusted with research and information on climate phenomenon, said Davidson.

The warming trend will persist unless additional steps are taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to retaining heat in the Earth's atmosphere, according to WMO assistant secretary-general Hong Yan.

The WMO annual report, which Yan presented Tuesday in Geneva, notes the reappearance in 2002 of conditions in the tropical Pacific that are known to give rise to El Niño.

The El Niño event occurs every three to seven years, when the sea-surface temperature over a large area of the equatorial Pacific, off Australia, becomes warmer than normal, and this current of warmer water moves eastwards, towards South America.

The presence of the current alters the winds and the climate in general, and can cause weather extremes, including torrential rains and drought, in the Pacific region.

Climatologists explain that El Niño is only one stage of a characteristic cycle of changes that occur in this region, and can be likened to a pendulum. An El Niño event occurs when the pendulum reaches its maximum point.

The two relatively recent El Niño experiences that are considered the most intense in history occurred in 1982-1983 and 1997-1998, causing the extremes of drought and flooding, with devastating consequences for humans and for economies.

But Davidson said, "We are anticipating that the El Niño conditions will begin to move back to neutral after next May."

The WMO also called attention to the reduced size of the so- called ozone hole over Antarctica. The Southern Hemisphere spring is when the atmospheric ozone layer thins, but this year the total area of the hole was the smallest since 1988.

In late September, an unprecedented event occurred: the ozone hole cleaved into two parts. The hole expanded until mid-October, but by early November it had disappeared. The thinning is cyclical, occurring from September to as late as December.

The limited area of the hole and the brevity of its appearance can be explained by meteorological conditions in the stratosphere, says the WMO. Efforts must continue to eliminate the production and use of ozone-depleting gases, particularly CFCs and furans.

The UN agency's report also states that the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean in September this year was less than in any previous September since 1978, when satellite observations began to be conducted.

7) Groups Sue Government Agency Over Global Warming
Jim Lobe

Amid growing anger among environmentalists over the record and intentions of President George W. Bush, three major U.S. environmental groups said Thursday they are suing his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to curb global warming.

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (IPS) - Amid growing anger among environmentalists over the record and intentions of President George W. Bush, three major U.S. environmental groups said Thursday they are suing his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to curb global warming.

The lawsuit by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) charges the EPA with violating the 1977 Clear Air Act by failing to limit air pollution caused by automobiles that ''may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare''.

Despite growing impacts of global warming on human health and the environment, the three groups charged, the EPA has steadfastly refused to control automobile emissions, which contribute to global warming.

''It's time for the Bush administration to get its head out of the sand," charged Joseph Mendelson, CTA's legal director. ''The EPA stalling tactics are doing real damage in the fight against global warming."

The lawsuit marks the latest expression of rising frustration on the part of environmental activists over the administration's failure to act, despite a report by its own scientists last June that concluded that the burning of fossil fuels for industry and automobiles was contributing heavily to the climate change that will itself wreak havoc on natural ecosystems throughout the United States.

Environmentalists also fear future administration plans, particularly now that Republicans have gained control of both houses of Congress. Last year, much of the administration's energy plan, particularly its hopes of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling by U.S. energy companies, was held up by the Democratic majority in the Senate.

But Republican control of Congress should make it much easier for Bush to relax existing environmental laws and regulations over the coming two years, at the behest of energy and automobile companies and electrical utilities that contributed heavily to his presidential campaign in 2000.

In the Senate, for example, the new chairmen dealing with energy and the environment both support drilling in ANWR and have among the upper chamber's worst voting records on environmental protection.

In his first move since the elections, Bush proposed a substantial loosening of federal regulations under the Clean Air Act two weeks ago to permit old coal-fired power plants to upgrade their facilities without requiring them to install new anti-pollution equipment, as they must now do.

While the administration insisted that the change would encourage investment that would eventually result in cleaner air, environmentalists blasted the proposals as a major step back in the fight against air pollution, and a number of leading Democrats called for EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to resign her post in protest.

Whitman, a former governor of New Jersey, has long urged Bush to toughen regulations governing the Clean Air Act and even to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the international accord that requires industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions some seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States currently accounts for about 25 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions.

But Whitman has been largely sidelined by the administration. She even avoided appearing personally to announce the power-plant proposals as she would normally do, issuing a statement through her spokesperson instead.

Thursday's lawsuit was motivated by the EPA's failure to respond to a formal petition submitted to it three years ago that demanded the regulation of global warming pollutants under the Clear Air Act.

The EPA subsequently received some 50,000 comments on the petition, the vast majority of which strongly agreed that global warming should be addressed under those provisions of the Clean Air Act that require it to regulate air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.

Yet, 18 months after the public-comment period closed, the EPA has yet to offer a formal response to the petition, let alone to enact rules regulating greenhouse-gas emissions as requested by the petitioners.

According to the lawsuit, which cites the government's own studies about possible impacts of global warming on ecosystems and human health, climate change is responsible for unstable weather patterns, floods, droughts, and outbreaks of tropical diseases, including the West Nile virus that raged through much of the eastern United States last summer.

Scientists says warming, if left unchecked, will cause potentially catastrophic rises in sea level, the melting of the polar icecaps, and the loss of unique ecosystems around the world.

''Under the Bush administration, the EPA has found time to weaken or threaten many crucial environmental protections that Americans take for granted,'' according to David Bookbinder, an attorney with the Sierra Club. ''But it can't find time to get serious about the most pressing environmental problem in the world's history.''

The lawsuit coincides with the launch this week of the administration's first phase of its strategy to deal with climate change, a meeting of hundreds of scientists here to map out a research plan designed to better assess the problem and more accurately predict the effects of certain policy changes.

But environmentalists and many of the scientists taking part in the exercise have said enough is known about the threat posed by global warming to warrant a decision to cap, if not reduce, U.S. emissions immediately.

''The Bush administration is asking for five more years of studies while the world is warming and regular people will pay the price,'' said Gary Cook, climate coordinator for Greenpeace.

''We are asking the courts to intervene and order the EPA to enforce U.S. environmental laws and take action to address global warming.

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Food and Hunger

10) A Forgotten Food Crisis in Refugee Camps
Katy Salmon

''We have just enough food for January. In February, we will have no maize whatsoever. The following month, we'll run out of salt. The month after that, we'll run out of vegetable oil and it goes on,'' says the World Food Programme's communication officer in Kenya, Laura Melo.
Food shortages facing refugees in Kenyan camps are so acute that more than 60 percent of children are already malnourished.

NAIROBI, Dec 17 (IPS) - ''We have just enough food for January. In February, we will have no maize whatsoever. The following month, we'll run out of salt. The month after that, we'll run out of vegetable oil and it goes on,'' says the World Food Programme's communication officer in Kenya, Laura Melo.

Food shortages facing refugees in Kenyan camps are so acute that more than 60 percent of children are already malnourished.

''In the last two months, we've had an increase in admissions to the therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes. The situation has deteriorated and will further deteriorate if something does not happen urgently,'' warns Blessing Ezeibe, head of the WFP in Kakuma refugee camp, on the Kenyan-Sudanese border. The WFP is so concerned that it has flown one of the refugees, Fatuma Ahmed Ali, to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to publicise the plight.

''My weight is going down day by day. Even my eyes (are failing). I don't have vegetables, I don't have milk,'' says the 46-year-old mother of eight.

Ali supervises food distribution at the camp, ensuring that elderly and pregnant women get served first. She says many pregnant and lactating mothers are already anaemic because of the lack of nutritious food.

''We want to beg donors to give us food to keep us alive. Otherwise, we are dying, all of us. Kakuma camp will become a grave,'' she warns.

This is not the first time WFP has run into trouble. In February, drastic cuts were imposed, with each refugee receiving just 500 Kcal a day instead of the usual 2160 Kcal ration. The number of children attending therapeutic feeding centres went up dramatically.

With so many other food crises facing the African continent, the predicament of the 220,000 mainly Sudanese and Somali refugees in the Kakuma and Daadab refugee camps in north-west and eastern parts of Kenya is being forgotten.

''There are such big, high-profile crises that have emerged in Africa. Donors have this attention span which follows where the big crises are,'' complains Melo.

''The fact that 14 million in southern Africa and 14 million Ethiopia are in need of food does not mean that these refugees go away. They are here and they will stay here for a while,'' she emphasises.

''If we cut off food distributions, people pretty much start dying,'' Melo warns.

Food shortages are also a security concern for WFP staff, as Ezeibe explains.

''A hungry person is an angry person. There have been cases of attacks in the camps. The former head of sub-office was assaulted,'' she recalls.

''They don't really understand the situation. Not all of the refugees are privileged with information. Most of the time, they think that we have got this food and we don't want to give them. But the truth is we give what we have,'' she says.

Ali, an articulate and energetic woman, is frustrated by her dependency. She has lived in Kakuma for seven years and expects to remain there for several more, given the continuing chaos in her home country, Somalia.

''Our situation is so bad. We are beggars. We eat whatever they give us. If they give us stones, we have to eat them,'' she says.

Kakuma is situated in an extremely hot, arid part of Kenya. Little grows there. The refugees cannot keep livestock because it leads to conflict with the local, equally impoverished, Turkana people over scarce resources like grazing land.

The refugees cannot even leave the camp to collect firewood because many have been raped or assaulted.

Kenyan government policy of encampment means that refugees are not allowed to leave the camps to look for work, thus making them wholly dependent on handouts.

''A lot of these people have handicraft abilities. They can do little things. But the camps are located in extremely remote and hostile areas. There's no market for them to sell. They are stuck. They can really do very little for themselves,'' says Melo.

''We don't have the freedom of movement to be self-reliant. The United Nations refugee agency is doing its best. But human beings need more,'' complains Ali.

''We are not blind. We are not disabled. We can cover our lives. There are other solutions. We can farm. We can do whatever,'' she urges.

Some argue that allowing the refugees to work or farm would provide a solution to the current dependency - which fatigued donors appear reluctant to continue funding.

The situation for refugees in Angola is very different. ''Those who are able-bodied and healthy can engage themselves in activities. They can cultivate, work on construction sites. They can do a lot of things to help themselves. They are not as restricted like those in Kakuma,'' says Ezeibe.

The Kenyan government argues that refugees pose a security risk if they mix with the rest of the population. The ongoing civil wars in Sudan and Somalia have led to a serious influx of small arms into Kenya, many brought by people fleeing those countries.

In a country where millions are unemployed and living in poverty, refugees might also be resented if they are seen to be taking jobs away from indigenous Kenyans.

''When it comes to protection, everyone, including refugees, must be protected. But at the end of the day, Kenya is for Kenyans. That is very clear,'' Kenyan police spokesperson, King'ori Mwangi, told the UN news agency, IRIN.

Aid agencies have no choice but to work within these restrictions.

''There are countries that allow refugees to settle in villages, work, farm and produce their own income. That could be the case in Kenya. But it is not. And that is, therefore, the reality that we have to deal with,'' emphasises Melo.

''It is an extremely sensitive situation. But there are no better solutions for the time being. We have to respond to this,'' she urges.

''There's nothing much we can do but sit and wait for donors to react,'' agrees Ezeibe.

11) Thousands of Children Could Die of Hunger
By Néfer Muñoz

SAN JOSE, May 2 (IPS) - Some 700,000 Central Americans are suffering from hunger today, including 6,000 children at risk of starving to death, while the international aid needed to finance a 4.8 million dollar World Food Programme (WFP) emergency plan is only slowly trickling in.

The situation is at its most dramatic in Guatemala, but in the mid-term, food shortages and malnutrition will also worsen in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, warned the WFP, which reported that it has only received one-third of the funds pledged by the international community.

''The current situation, especially among the children in Guatemala, is terrible. I can't remember ever seeing images like these in Latin America,'' Olga Moraga, WFP information officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, told IPS.

''We are in a high risk situation, with serious difficulties,'' WFP director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Francisco Roque, also commented to IPS.

Roque explained that the drought, hurricanes and earthquakes that have hit the region in the past five years compounded the slump in international coffee prices to create severe social difficulties for this poverty-stricken region of nearly 37 million.

The WFP estimates that around 60,000 Guatemalan children are suffering some degree of malnutrition, representing a 16 percent rise on the number of undernourished in 2000. Of that total, 6,000 youngsters are at serious risk of dying of hunger.

''We must not let the children die of starvation,'' said a visibly anguished Roque.

Aid has come in from the United States, Germany and Norway, but the desperate situation means more is urgently needed from the international community, he added.

The non-governmental organisation Friends of WFP is collecting aid for the hungry children in Guatemala from private individuals and companies, at the following address: Friends of WFP, PO Box 11856, Washington, DC 20008, telephone (202) 530-1694.

The WFP's biggest concern is that new climate changes are being seen in the region, apparently the result of another El Niño, a current that warms the waters of the Pacific Ocean, starting in Australia, which appears every three to seven years.

A lack of rain has been reported along Central America's Pacific shoreboard, where the region's main cities are located, while rainfall has been excessive along the Caribbean coast.

The last El Niño occurred in 1998, causing billions of dollars in damages around the world, including substantial losses in Central America.

''If the rains are not good in May, there will be big problems in October,'' said Roque, who explained that the WFP is currently conducting a needs assessment in the highest-risk areas.

The study, which is to be ready by the end of the month, is evaluating the most pressing problems faced by 30 communities in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, in order to design proposals for short, medium, and long-term solutions.

The populations affected by the famine are the same ones that over the past few years have suffered the brunt of natural catastrophes - including two major earthquakes early last year in El Salvador - and severe economic difficulties, said WFP spokeswoman Moraga.

Hit hardest by the hunger and malnutrition are poor peasant farmers who lost their crops last year to the drought that swept the area along the Pacific coast.

According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), drought caused 189 million dollars in losses last year in Central America. Researchers warn that the damages will worsen if the region continues to suffer difficult weather conditions.

''In Guatemala, we have undertaken a special six-month operation aimed at assisting 155,000 people, including 59,635 children under five suffering varying levels of malnutrition,'' said Moraga.

Central America, a region of 523,000 square kilometres, is made up of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Belize.

The gap between rich and poor is enormous - with the exception of Costa Rica, which has the highest standard of living in the region - and poverty affects up to 80 percent of the population in countries like Nicaragua and Guatemala.

A study by the United Nations chidren's fund (UNICEF) found that drought led to an increase in acute malnutrition - from 2.7 to 5.9 percent of children - in the hardest-hit parts of Honduras between July and November 2001.

The Red Cross reported that it provided food aid to 7,700 families in Honduras from August 2001 to January 2002.

''This is a silent emergency,'' Roberto Escoto, UNICEF health and nutrition officer in Honduras, told IPS. He underlined that although the visible effects of malnutrition and drought are perhaps not as dramatic as those of a hurricane or earthquake, they are steadily undermining the physical and mental capacities of broad segments of society.

12) Houston Repeat as 'Fattest City'

HOUSTON (Jan. 2) - Houston, we still have a weight problem.

For the third year in a row, ``Men's Fitness'' magazine has named the city the nation's fattest, blaming the region's hot and humid climate, ``abysmal'' air quality, relative lack of outdoor recreation and residents' love of junk food.

The country's fourth-largest city topped a list of 25 cities, followed by Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

Last year, the city launched a Get Lean Houston! initiative, aiming to encourage residents to get fit and live healthier lives. It also named Lee Labrada, a former Mr. Universe, as the city's first fitness czar.

Labrada said he's skeptical of surveys like the magazine's, and places more stock in studies like a recent one by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC interviewed 185,000 Americans by telephone in 55 U.S. cities to determine the percentage of people who are overweight or obese.

``Houston was not even in the top 10,'' Labrada said.

Houston Mayor Lee Brown, who last year admitted he had packed on a few pounds, has lost 20 pounds since.

``We do not relish the title bestowed upon us by 'Men's Fitness' magazine,'' Brown said in a statement, ``and will continue to work to involve all Houstonians in our programs to improve the overall health and fitness of the city's residents.''

01/02/03 22:55 EST

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13) Who Can Afford To Be Vegan?
Jennifer Contreras, WireTap
November 25, 2002
Viewed on January 3, 2003
http://www.wiretapmag.org/print.html?StoryID=14644&wiretap=yes

I'm not a vegetarian. I eat fish and if I have the choice to eat vegetarian -- I do. I don't like red meat and chicken is almost out the window. But when I stand in line for my lunch at the cafeteria, I almost always grab the vegetarian box. And when I look around, it seems a lot of other people go for the vegetarian option as well. A few people go the extra mile and choose the vegan option.

I think that it is great to eat healthy and support animal rights and go as far as to implement those beliefs in your daily diet. Hey, I even participate myself to a certain extent. However, I find myself torn time and again over what I like to call the "privileged diet."

Let me explain. The whole idea behind eating vegetarian and vegan is awesome in theory. But my question is, who is privileged enough to participate in this phenomenon? Is it the poor African-American family living in the ghettos of Los Angeles? Is it the Mexican farmers in Mexico who farm for survival? Is it the under-privileged families in the South? No, it is those that are privileged enough to be able to CHOOSE where their food comes from as opposed to eating whatever is available. The vegan and vegetarian food market is too expensive for many people to afford.

The USDA recently reported that between 1996 and 1998, about 10 million American households did not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs. In fact, the Food Security Institute at the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University in Massachusetts recently released a national report ranking the state of Oregon as the number one state in hunger, with Washington pulling in at second hungriest. Researchers say that rural isolation and high cost of living are factors that contribute to the findings. When that much of the American population can barely afford to survive, who has time to think about buying overpriced vegan ice cream?

Studies have shown direct correlations between poverty and obesity or health problems. Is it fair that the impoverished continue to consume unhealthy foods that are affordable to them, while those who can afford health care -- and even a gym -- eat "healthy" vegan and vegetarian meals? That is not to say that poor people do not have the right to eat vegetarian or vegan, because they definitely do. And believe me, I know plenty of vegans that are poor and opt for no food over animal food. But in general, most people who swing to the veggie side can afford to fund their preferred diets.

In the San Francisco and Sacramento school districts, concerned parents petitioned to have healthier school meals for their children and the districts responded. This proves that at least some regions are beginning to realize that the processed foods in subsidized school lunches are harmful to children's health.

Scientists have shown that milk consumption in children leads to so many infections and conditions like asthma. They have also shown that the human body was not built to consume any other milk than breast milk. Yet, we continue to enforce the idea that the more milk, the better. If we could get the government to subsidize veggie options to schools, we would have children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds benefiting from healthier meals. Unfortunately, this does not seem like something that will be happening any time soon.

So we will continue to allow this gap in resources to widen. Those who can eat well will continue to do so. And those who can't will continue to eat 49-cent cheeseburgers at McDonalds. I will grab many more veggie sandwiches in my life, because I have a choice, but I will always keep in mind the privileges that I enjoy over a child who gorges herself on unhealthy, processed foods because that is all she can afford.

Jennifer Contreras, 21, is a senior journalism student at University of La Verne in Southern California.

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Indigenous People Struggle

14) Sacred places under attack in Native America
Posted: December 18, 2002 - 9:28am EST
by: Suzan Shown Harjo / Columnist / Indian Country Today
URL: http://IndianCountry.com/?1040221839

It's been a busy fall for federal, state and private exploiters of Native American sacred places.

The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service take the prize this season for abetting their constituent developers in the desecration of Native holy lands. (The National Park Service and Army Corps of Engineers still share the lifetime achievement title for violating Native burial grounds and other sacred areas, and are the culprits attacking many of the places listed later.)

Medicine Lake Caldera is a sacred place to the Pit River and other tribes, who have used it for thousands of years for ceremonies and healing.

It sits in the Modoc National Forest in northeast California on the cratered edge of the largest shield volcano in the United States.

Two years ago, the outgoing administration denied geothermal power development there because of the irreversible physical and cultural impacts.

The BLM and FS reversed that determination on Nov. 26. They decided that the state-funded Calpine Corporation can build the network of power plant facilities, roads, cables and drills it will need to dig deep into Mother Earth, tap the hot water, convert it to electricity and export it to Bonneville Power Administration for consumers in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Pit River Chairman Gene C. Preston called the decision a "very serious blow." Pit River's press release stated that the "Tribe has no intention of giving up the battle."

BLM reversed another decision the prior administration made as it was leaving office. On Sept. 27, BLM issued a report finding that Glamis Gold, Ltd., has valid claims to mine in the Quechan Indian Pass area of the California Desert.

The Quechan Indian Tribe says the proposed Glamis Imperial Mine is a "massive, open-pit, cyanide heap-leach gold mine on 1,600 acres … in the heart of an area now withdrawn from future mining claims to protect Native American religious and cultural values."

Included in the area are 55 properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places; items subject to the graves protection and repatriation law; and religious sites - "prayer circles, ceremonial places, shrines, ceramic scatters, petroglyphs and spirit breaks linked by ancient trails."

The Interior Inspector General is investigating the Indian pass decision processes, as well as the ties between several decision-makers and the mining industry generally and Glamis specifically.

Lawsuits are contemplated in both the Medicine Lake and Indian Pass cases.

On Dec. 2, a federal appeals court ended a case that tried to stop the massive telescope project atop Mount Graham, an Apache sacred place in the Pinaleno Mountains in Arizona. The University of Arizona and its development partners, the Forest Service and the Vatican, launched the project, and Congress waived all laws to accommodate it.

An Apache and environmental coalition claimed that the National Historic Preservation Act was not followed in developing power for the project. The court ruled that the appeal was moot because the power line and electricity were in place, and the "harm that the coalitions seek to prevent has already occurred and no effective relief for the alleged NHPA violation can be given." More litigation is likely at the next phase of the project.

Whenever Congress has explored legislation to protect Native sacred places, the most strident objections have been raised by the extractive and logging industries and the federal agencies that represent them.

They and other developers say they don't know the location and details of Native sacred places, implying that they would refrain from harming known sacred places.

This, of course, is not true. It is more the case that a voluminous record on a sacred place is tantamount to a neon invitation to "Dig Here."

By the federal agencies' own account in the Medicine Lake case, the "decision follows extensive consultations with the affected Tribes to hear their concerns regarding the significance of the Medicine Lake Highlands as a sacred area and the manner in which the proposed development would affect this important cultural property and its use.

"Although the Tribes remain opposed to the project, (BLM and FS officials) met personally with them, which led the agencies to seek design changes to reduce the visual and audible impacts of the project wherever possible."

In other words, the Indians had their say; now, let development begin, except for some minor cosmetology, if you developers feel like it.

Two dozen endangered sacred places were identified in San Diego at a Nov. 8-9 gathering to protect sacred places and at the National Congress of American Indians Nov. 10-15 annual convention. The public record of each of these identified places is exhaustive.

Because both conferences were held in California, many of the endangered sacred places identified are located there:

o Coastal Chumash lands in the Gaviota Coastal region in southern California.

o Yurok Nation's salmon fisheries in the Klamath River affected by the Interior Department's waterflow decreases.

o Berry Creek, Moore Town and Enterprise Rancherias' lands impacted by the California Water Project's fluctuation zone at the Oroville Dam Reservoir.

o the sacred Puvungna of the Tongva and Acjachemen Peoples.

o the sacred Katuktu (Morro Hill) of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.

The groups called for the protection and recovery of sacred places in the Southwest:

o in Arizona - Hualapai Nation landforms in Truxton and Crozier Canyons from private extraction of boulders for decorative landscaping; Hopi and Navajo lands and the Navajo aquifer from slurry coal mining by Peabody Coal Company; the San Francisco Peaks from FS and private expansion of the Arizona Snow Bowl and the Boboquivari Mountain of the Tohono O'odham Nation.

o in New Mexico - the micaceous clay-gathering place of the Picuris Pueblo from mica mining by Oglebay Norton Specialty Minerals and Zuni Salt Lake from coal strip mining by the Salt River Project.

o in Texas - Carrizo/Comecrudo lands flooded by Amistad Lake and Falcon Dam.

Other sacred places identified as under attack now, include

o Badlands, Black Hills, Medicine Wheel and Missouri River in the Plains.

o Semiahmah Village burial ground and Snoqualmie Falls in Washington.

o Pipestone National Monument and Cold Water Springs in Minnesota.

o Hickory Ground ceremonial and burial ground in Alabama.

o Ocmulgee National Monument and Ocmulgee Old Fields in Georgia.

o Taino Caguana ceremonial site in Puerto Rico.

o Yaqui Zona Indigena in Sonora, Mexico.

Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today.

This article can be found at http://IndianCountry.com/?1040221839

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15) US Approves Power Plant in Area Indians Hold Sacred
by Dean E. Murphy
Published on Thursday, November 28, 2002 by the New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 27 - The Bush administration has approved construction of a geothermal power plant in the Modoc National Forest, a remote volcanic field near California's border with Oregon that local tribes consider sacred.

Indians and environmental groups accused the government of betrayal today and said they would fight the decision.

The project, at Telephone Flat, was blocked two years ago by the Clinton administration because of concerns about intrusion on the lands. The plant would be two miles from Medicine Lake, which the tribes believe has healing powers.

In reversing the Clinton administration decision, officials said "the overall interests of the public would be best served" by allowing the project to proceed. Specifically, the decision, released on Tuesday, cited the need for developing renewable energy sources.

Calpine, the utility in San Jose that wants to build the 48-megawatt plant, owns extensive leases for geothermal development in the national forest. Calpine sued the government for $100 million when the project was rejected, but agreed to drop the claim if the Bush administration reconsidered the plan.
Gene Preston, chairman of the Pit River Tribe, one of four near Medicine Lake, said his 2,000 members felt cheated by the reversal.

Two years ago, when the plant was rejected, another geothermal complex proposed by Calpine was approved at nearby Fourmile Hill, just outside the most sacred area. Mr. Preston said the tribe agreed to drop public protests over the Fourmile Hill plant in exchange for a five-year moratorium on additional power projects.

"We sat down and worked out a compromise," Mr. Preston said. "We thought we had five years so that studies could be done and level minds could make more informed opinions. Now that is all moot."

Mark Rey, under secretary for natural resources and environment in the Agriculture Department, which oversees the forest service, said Mr. Preston's complaint was with the Clinton administration.

"I don't know the specifics of this promise because I was not there," Mr. Rey said. "But I can tell you the lion's share of my first year in office has been spent trying to figure out what the outgoing administration promised and whether or not it would be wise public policy to redeem those promises. We are trying to do what is right here."

He said the Calpine suit had heavily influenced the Telephone Flat decision.

"The Justice Department said we are going to lose boatloads of taxpayer money if we don't find a way to give these guys a fairer hearing," Mr. Rey said. "If some folks don't like the decision, the company has already made commitments to make the decision more palatable."

A spokesman for Calpine said it was studying the decision, which included new conditions, including moving the 13-mile power line to run parallel to a Forest Service road and not pass near Medicine Lake.

"There are a number of things that have to be reviewed," the spokesman, David J. Michetti, said.

In approving the plant, the administration rejected the recommendation of the Advisory Council on Historical Preservation, a federal agency that seeks to preserve important cultural and historical places.

About 24 square miles of volcanic fields near Medicine Lake, known as the Medicine Lake Highlands, were declared a traditional cultural district in 1999 and are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. In a letter to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, the advisory council urged denying the plant a permit. "The costs to the historic resources of Native Americans and our nation are too high," the letter said.

The Pit River tribe and others consider Medicine Lake and the surrounding area a spiritual sanctuary.
They believe that the creator descended from nearby Mount Shasta and bathed in the lake, giving it healing powers. Medicine men still train there, and coming-of-age ceremonies are conducted there. Many Indians immerse themselves in the lake to cleanse the body and soul.

Mr. Preston said the tribes believed that the geothermal energy, which would be tapped for electricity, had a spiritual origin and should not be tampered with. Already, he said, tribe members wait until nightfall to conduct ceremonies at the lake to avoid motor homes and boaters. A plant at Telephone Flat would further tip the balance toward the outsiders, Mr. Preston said.

"We have to hide in the bushes and wait until everybody is gone and sneak out on the lake," he said. "Our land was taken away initially with land claims, and now they are trying to take our culture and religion."
Deborah Sivas, director of the Earthjustice Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford University, who has represented the Pit River tribe in a suit over Fourmile Hill, said the reversal on Telephone Flat was a big setback. Calpine might view the ruling as a green light to move forward with more geothermal projects, Ms. Sivas said.

"We really perceive this as a policy coming down from Washington to push energy development at whatever cost," she added.

Mr. Preston said he worried about the future of his ancestral lands, as well as the precedent. He said he recently met for three hours with Kathleen Clarke, director of the Bureau of Land Management, and Dale N. Bosworth, chief of the Forest Service.

"They gave me a clear and open opportunity to make our case," Mr. Preston said. "But at the end, they described it as a clash of cultures. They understood our plight and were sympathetic to it. They said they recognize our culture, but also the culture of capitalism."

Copyright The New York Times Company

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16) Northern Calif. Geothermal Plant OK'd
By DON THOMPSON
.c The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The federal government approved a geothermal power plant in northern California, reversing an earlier decision, but required the developer to avoid areas important to environmentalists and American Indian tribes.

The 48-megawatt Fourmile Hill project is needed because of the nation's and California's drive for more domestic and more renewable energy, said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Rebecca W. Watson.

A tribal and environmental coalition already is suing to block the plant near Medicine Lake and will continue its opposition after Tuesday's decision.

``It's another betrayal by the federal government of another promise to the tribe,'' said Michelle Berditschevsky, environmental coordinator for the Pit River Nation and spokeswoman for the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense. ``The site is extremely sacred to the tribe and has been for at least 10,000 years.''

The plant will produce enough power for about 50,000 homes by drawing naturally heated water from the earth, then reinjecting the water to be reheated and reused. Calpine estimates it will operate for 45 years.

Opponents noted most of the power will go to the Bonneville Power Administration, which serves Washington, Oregon and Idaho power users. Nonetheless, the California Energy Commission gave San Jose-based Calpine Corp. a $20 million grant for the project.

Calpine plans to build the $120 million plant at Telephone Flat, on the Modoc National Forest.

The approval requires Calpine to make some changes to meet the concerns of environmentalists and Indian tribes, including relocating a 13-mile power line east of the original proposed location. The line will now be built along an existing U.S. Forest Service road.

The revised project ``will produce renewable energy with fewer environmental impacts,'' said Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. A Calpine spokesman declined to comment, saying the company hadn't seen the decision.

Bosworth and Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke said they consulted extensively with the five nearby tribes. They said the tribes' concerns persuaded the agencies to require Calpine to reduce visual impact and noise wherever possible.

A coalition of environmental organizations and tribes sued in June to block the plant. They were particularly upset with the proposed location of the transmission line, but also concerned about what they said would be gases, heavy metals and other minerals released in steam.

``It's an unfortunate reversal of the original decision made in 2000,'' said Peggy Risch of the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center. ``It's clearly a victory for corporate interests.''

The plant site is within the Glass Mountain Known Geothermal Resource Area, targeted since the 1970s as a region with significant geothermal potential. The government sold leases for geothermal development in the mid-1980s, and received the plant development proposals in 1996. Supporters have touted geothermal plants as a form of renewable energy.

The site is on the edge of a caldera, a crater caused by a collapsed shield volcano, northeast of Redding. The Bureau of Land Management previously rejected a proposed plant within the caldera itself because it would have adverse affects on the American Indian cultural values and on recreation.

On the Net:

http://www.ca.blm.gov
http://www.sacredland.org/medicine-lake.html
http://www.mountshastaecology.org/

11/27/02 11:25 EST

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Dolphins

17) 3,000 Dolphins Killed by Fishing
By JOHN HEILPRIN
.c The Associated Press