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-
- <x-rich>Got this off a hunter's website (www.wlfa.org)...Looks like we're getting
- to them! To see the statistics onstates which allow the use of dogs, the
- use of bait and other stats, go to their site...meanwhile, take a look at
- this---
-
-
-
- <underline>Continued Antagonism Expected Against U.S. Bear Hunters in '97
- & '98
-
- </underline>
-
- Though sportsmen's campaigns scored some resounding victories in 1996,
- there is no time for celebration. Current bear hunting practices were
- preserved in Michigan and Idaho, thanks to the outstanding efforts of
- sportsmen and women in those states. Through a combination of impressive
- organizational skills and unrelenting fund¡raising efforts, sportsmen's
- campaign committees took their message to the public, resulting in a
- sound defeat for anti¡hunters. On the other hand, national anti¡hunting
- organizations have loudly claimed their own victories, as sportsmen were
- dealt stinging voter initiative defeats in Colorado, Oregon, Washington
- and Massachusetts. These losses affected trapping, use of dogs for
- certain types of hunting and bear baiting. Don't look for the
- anti¡hunters to be satisfied with these initial achievements. These same
- groups have vowed to further utilize their deep pockets and the voter
- initiative system in future elections. Already activity is underway in
- other states to place similar initiatives before the public in the next
- two years. There have been indications that petition signature drives are
- afoot in Utah, California and Arizona. In addition, anti¡bear hunting
- groups are also poised to have bills introduced on their behalf before
- several state legislatures during 1997. Legislators sympathetic to the
- anti bear hunting groups in Wisconsin, New Hampshire and New Mexico are
- reportedly prepared to sponsor legislation when lawmakers convene early
- this year. At the present time, a total of 24 states may use the voter
- initiative process to determine wildlife management related issues. Of
- that total, seven now allow the use of trained dogs for bear hunting and
- six utilize bear baiting. Sportsmen in these states should be especially
- vigilant in coming months.
- </x-rich>
- Date: Sat, 05 Jul 1997 00:15:33 -0700
- From: Hillary <oceana@ibm.net>
- To: "ar-news@envirolink.org" <ar-news@envirolink.org>
- Subject: excellent stats on trapping
- Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970705001531.006d8734@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- The opposition has compiled some excellent stats for our use....on trapping
- in each state, and which traps are allowable etc.
-
- Visit www.wlfa.org
-
- Hillary
-
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 12:35:30 +0800 (SST)
- From: Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: (US) Fast food goes into the slow lane
- Message-ID: <199707050435.MAA09129@eastgate.cyberway.com.sg>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
-
- >The Straits Times
- 5 July 97
- Fast food goes into the slow lane
-
- WASHINGTON -- Fast food, a mainstay of American eating for decades, may
- have reached a plateau in the US as the maturing baby-boom generation looks
- for a more varied menu.
-
- Fast food still represents US$102 billion (S$145.9 billion) a year, but
- growth has turned sluggish recently amid tough competition from retail food
- stores and a more affluent population willing to try new things and spend
- more, analysts say.
- Signs of trouble in the fast-food industry include price-cutting by industry
- leaders, including efforts by McDonald's to attract customers with a
- U$0.55-cent hamburger, and major players pulling out or selling.
-
- Pepsico, for example, is spinning off its fast-food restaurant division
- that includes Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC. And Hardee's, a struggling
- hamburger chain, was sold last month.
-
- "It's becoming harder and harder for these firms to grow," said Mr Jim
- Brown, a professor of marketing at Virginia Tech University.
-
- "I think in the US, fast food has reached a saturation point because of
- the number of competitors and the number of outlets ... the only way to gain
- market share is to steal it away from the competition."
-
- Fast-food restaurant revenues grew 2.5 per cent in 1996, industry figures
- show, the slowest since the recession of 1991.
-
- That is a far cry from the levels of 1970s and 1980s.
-
- According to the Food Marketing Institute, consumers are using
- supermarkets for 21 per cent of take-home food, nearly double the level of
- a year ago.
-
- The share of fast-food restaurants slipped significantly, from 48 per
- cent in 1996 to 41 per cent in 1997.
-
- "Consumers have never been more demanding than they are today," said Mr
- Michael Sansolo, the supermarket trade group's senior vice president.
- "They are pressed for time. Money is still an issue ... but their tastes are
- increasingly diverse -- whether it's gourmet foods, ethnic foods or organic
- offerings."
-
- Meanwhile, the aging of the baby-boom population -- and the growth in
- the number of so-called "empty nesters" with grown children -- has meant a
- surge in the number of people willing to spend more for upscale items.
-
- The demographic changes have led to an increase in gourmet
- supermarkets, bakeries and coffee bars.
-
- This generation "will have the luxury of being more discriminating" as
- their children leave home, notes Mr Harry Balzer, vice president of the
- Chicago-based NPD consulting group.
-
- However, Mr Balzer said: "Fast and cheap will still be driving
- factors ... but our definitions of fast and cheap may be changing."
-
- Various reports suggest industry leader McDonald's is struggling,
- losing market share with lower same-store sales while cutting back the
- number of new outlets in the United States, partly due to pressure from
- franchisers who don't want to be squeezed.
-
- The company replaced the head of its 12,000 US restaurant chain last
- October amid a slump in US market share.
-
- "Our view is that the industry is continuing to grow but there is
- oversupply in some locations," said Mr Ron Paul, president of Technomics, a
- Chicago consulting firm.
- Mr Paul said that despite demographic changes, fast food will not go away
- because US consumers insist on value.
-
- "I don't think they have time to go elsewhere," Mr Paul said. "They're
- going to eat at one of the places.
-
- "It is not going to be a full service restaurant where they take an
- hour for lunch." -- AFP.
-
- Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 23:47:53 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [CA] Greenpeace ships blockade update
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970704234839.4507886c@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- VANCOUVER, BC - Captain Arne Sorenson of the Greenpeace Vessel Arctic
- Sunrise ordered a marine pilot for 11 a.m. today planning to depart
- Vancouver harbour for climate work in Alaska and the Beaufort Sea.
-
- This was done after Greenpeace received legal advice that the action by IWA
- workers does not constitute a "picket line" and therefore the Pilot's
- Association should not refuse to walk past an information booth to supply a
- service that is essential for safe and efficient navigation in the harbour.
-
- The pilot, however, thought differently and refused to cross the picket
- line, stating to waiting reporters that such a refusal was allowed under his
- contract.
-
- Jeanne Moffat, Greenpeace Canada Executive Director, tried to argue the
- points that the IWA action was not a strike, there was no dispute between
- employees and employer and there was no question the Pilot's Association has
- an obligation to provide the service, but the pilot replied he was going
- home to await his next call.
-
- The log boom surounding the Arctic Sunrise and the MV Moby Dick, remained in
- place today, despite an order from the Vancouver Harbour Master to remove it
- yesterday. He later recinded the order, provided the boom is regularly
- patrolled.
-
- Greenpeace again asked the Harbour Master to order the boom's removal
- earlier today, but it isn't clear yet what the Harbour Master's final
- decision is. The boom was later chained to both vessels by IWA activists, a
- clear breach of the undertaking to enable it removed quickly in case of
- emergency.
-
- The chains were later cut off by crew members aboard the Artic Sunrise using
- acetyline torches
-
- Greenpeace has itself expressed interest in the precedent-setting log boom
- They anticipate using log boom barricades in future to prevent the export of
- raw or squared logs and the export of B.C. jobs.
-
- "The IWA has taken great delight in 'turning the tables' on Greenpeace,
- using our tactics against us," said Steve Sawyer, Arctic Expedition leader.
- "But they are overlooking one small
- detail: when Greenpeace undertakes blockades we don't have the government
- infrastructure, right up to the Premier of the province, supporting our
- activities - especially those deemed
- illegal."
-
- While Greenpeace says it fully supports the right of the IWA or any citizens
- group to peacefully protest, the environmental organization expressed
- surprise at the government's tolerance of extortion. IWA leader Dave Haggard
- has repeatedly stated the Arctic Sunrise will be released once Greenpeace
- "cuts a cheque".
-
- Media reports of these tactics receiving the support of Premier Glen Clark
- should be an issue of concern to every Canadian, says a Greenpeace spokesperson.
-
- Haggard is asking for a total of $125,000 to replace what he claims are lost
- wages and benefits for IWA members unable to work during recent protests at
- Roderick Island and King Island.
-
- "The only cheque that Greenpeace is going to cut is the cheque to the
- Pilot's Association," said Moffat.
-
- Haggard has begun referring to the Greenpeace crew as "eco-terrorists"
- despite the peaceful, non-violent nature of all the protests held to date.
- He has also attacked the protests as being "fundraisers" for the
- environmental groups taking part, but doesn't appear to have any problems in
- using the blockade being organized by his members as a means of raising
- funds for the union.
-
- Haggard also constantly refuses to speak to Greenpeace officials, saying it
- is a classic case of organized labour fighting a large, multi-national
- corporation - his term for Greenpeace.
-
- The blockade is costing Greenpeace approximately $5,000 per day in moorage
- fees and is preventing the Artic Sunrise from conducting important climate
- studies in the Arctic similar to those the organization carried out in the
- Antarctic earlier in the year, and which led to the discovery of previously
- unknown major cracks in the ice shelf.
-
- David J Knowles
- Animal Voices News
-
-
-
- Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 23:47:56 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: Greenpeace International Annual Report Released
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970704234841.4507611a@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- >From The Greenpeace Media Server
-
- 1996: GREENPEACE GOES EAST !
-
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 4 July 1997 --- " In 1996 we took another step
- in becoming a truly environmental organisation and achieved major results
- outside Western countries", said Thilo Bode, Executive Director of
- Greenpeace International (GPI), during a press conference in Amsterdam,
- where the environmental organisation presented its annual report 1996.
-
- In 1996, after years of sustained campaigning, Greenpeace's efforts have
- lead to the signature of the Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
- Other major achievements for the environmental organisation have been the
- fuel-efficient SMiLE car, which was unveiled as a challenge to the motor
- industry, and the approval of the Greenfreeze refrigerator by the European
- Union. In 1996, China manufactured 140,000 units of
- the Greenfreeze and has planned to produce 800,000 in 1997.
-
- Greenpeace has been successfully campaigning in a number of countries,
- including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Czech Republic, Japan and the
- Mediterranean region, in particular Tunisia, by finding the right approach
- to the specific cultures of those countries.
-
- The financial results in the audited statements show a slight decrease in
- worldwide donations from 138.3 million US dollars in 1995 to 136.8 million
- US dollars in 1996. However most Greenpeace donations are in Dutch guilders
- and deutschmark which
- suffered from appreciation of the US dollar. Using constant end of year
- exchange rate, donations actually increased from 138.3 million US dollars in
- 1995 to 141.8 million US dollars in 1996. Strategic investments like opening
- an office in Hong Kong, and the move of the Communication Department to
- Amsterdam are being financed from reserves.
-
- Last year Greenpeace began increasing its presence in the rapidly developing
- regions of Asia. At the beginning of this year Greenpeace opened a national
- office in Hong Kong, now part of China. The organisation is at present
- investigating a presence in Thailand and other possibilities in India,
- Philippines and Indonesia, where it has already been successfully
- campaigning against waste trade.
-
- "The importance of Asia is obvious: economic expansion will put extreme
- pressure on resources and the environment" said Thilo Bode. " This will
- present us with a new challenge: how to implement environmental protection
- in those countries without making the mistake of presuming we always know best".
-
- In the coming months, Greenpeace will concentrate its campaign efforts on
- climate/ oil and forests. The organisation will focus on helping people
- understand that the existing resources cannot be used without jeopardizing
- the ecological balance of the planet. "We must stop oil exploration" said
- John Hinck of Greenpeace International."We can't afford to burn all the
- coal, oil and gas that we have already found without dangerously
- escalating the speed of climate change."
-
-
- For information:
- - Luisa Colasimone, Greenpeace International Press Desk, T +31 20 52 49 546
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- --------------------------------------------------
- Annual Report 96, Press Conference summary
-
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- In this era of globalisation, increased worldwide competition, employment
- issues, and the reform of the social welfare state have all threatened to
- push the environment aside. The outcome of the recent Earth Summit in New
- York is proof that progress towards protection of the environment has been
- insufficient in the last five years, and that governments are not serious
- enough about fighting environmental destruction.
-
- Instead, commercial interests are prevailing. For example, the oil and car
- industries -- in particular in the United States -- are preventing progress
- towards a climate convention with
- legally binding reduction targets of CO2, to be concluded in Tokyo at the
- end of this year.
-
-
- INTERNAL REVIEW 96
-
- Internally, Greenpeace has made progress in improving its international
- performance on the way to becoming a even stronger international campaigning
- and environmental pressure group.
-
- In 1996, Greenpeace adopted its Program of Reform, the basis of which had
- been decided upon in 1995. The organisation has now a clear separation of
- power between constitutional and executive levels, combined with a fair
- voting rights system which gives
- the overwhelming majority (25) of its 33 offices a vote. This will help to
- coordinate activities better and to more effectively monitor the performance
- of national offices, without
- becoming too centralised. The organisation consists of legally independent
- national entities obliged to work together according to certain rules within
- the framework of Greenpeace
- constitution.
-
- FINANCE
-
- In terms of finance, Greenpeace offices in some European countries such as
- the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain have made noticeable
- improvement, with donations considerably higher in 1996. In others, such as
- Germany, Greenpeace has experienced a slight decrease of donations. However,
- given the economic situation facing Germany at the moment, Greenpeace
- Germany can be considered to be doing extremely well. The organisation also
- experienced a slight decrease in donations in the US, but this is mainly due
- to a change in fundraising techniques. The net income there actually
- increased.
-
- In Argentina and Japan, after years of hard work, Greenpeace believes it has
- found the right approach to the specific cultures of those countries, where
- the total income has increased. Greenpeace national offices strategy is
- based on strategic management in priority areas. The organisation
- concentrates its efforts on fewer countries with quicker and more visible
- results.
-
- The financial results in the audited statements show a decrease in worldwide
- donations from 138.3 million US dollars in 1995 to 136.8 million US dollars
- in 1996. However most of Greenpeace donations are in Dutch guilders and
- deutschmark which suffered from appreciation of the US dollar. In constant
- end of year exchange rate, donations have actually increased from 138.3
- million US dollars in 1995 to 141.8 million US dollars in 1996.
-
- Strategic investments like opening an office in Hong Kong, and the move of
- the Communication Department to Amsterdam are being financed from reserves.
- The decrease of the fund balance is due to the strong US dollar.
-
-
- CAMPAIGN REVIEW 1996
-
- This annual report looks for the first time in more detail at Greenpeace
- activities outside the United States and Western Europe. Greenpeace is
- currently represented in 33 countries and has campaigners, if not offices,
- in the Mediterranean area, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, and
- Latin America. There were major achievements outside Western countries, for
- example in Russia, where Greenpeace has secured World Heritage status for
- Lake Baikal and the Karelia forest, and in Brazil, where a massive media
- campaign forced the city government to adopt new policies on urban transport
- and air quality management.
-
- The campaign year 1996 was perhaps not as dramatic as 1995, but progress was
- achieved in important areas. For example, the signing of the Comprehensive
- (nuclear) Test Ban Treaty, the presentation of the fuel-saving SmILE car and
- the EU labelling of the environmentally friendly Greenfreeze fridge and its
- production in China.
-
- In addition, the Brent Spar issue continued to move towards a solution.
-
- CAMPAIGNS 97
-
- Greenpeace future campaign priorities will be climate and forest. It is no
- coincidence that these were also key issues at the Earth Summit. They are
- the areas where the world has to act fast and where strong commercial
- interests are preventing progress. The organisation will have to draw
- attention to the United States in particular, where Greenpeace will attempt
- through its campaigning to provoke a change of public opinion.
-
- One of Greenpeace's most important campaigns will be climate/oil. According
- to the carbon logic argument, only one-quarter of the known oil, gas and
- coal reserves can be burned.
- The organisation will focus on making people understand that the existing
- resources can not be used without jeopardizing the ecological balance of the
- planet. The endgame of the fossil fuel industry has begun as solar and other
- renewable energies start to prove themselves to be viable alternatives.
- Greenpeace believes that the solar age is beginning.
-
- MOVING EAST
-
- Last year Greenpeace took another step in becoming a truly international
- organisation. The organisation opened a national office in Hong Kong, now a
- part of China. Greenpeace will start campaigning in Hong Kong, and then
- slowly widen those campaigns to China itself. The organisation is also
- investigating a presence in Thailand as a suitable location for a presence
- in Southeast Asia, and exploring possibilities such as India, where
- Greenpeace already has campaigners working particularly on the waste trade
- issue, as in Indonesia and the Philippines.
-
- The importance of Asia is obvious. The fast rate of growth in Asia will
- incur major environmental problems. It is an area where economic and
- technological expansion will put severe pressure and demand on resources and
- the environment. This presents Greenpeace with a new challenge: how to
- export its environmental message to such regions, without appearing to be
- arrogant or patronising.
-
- Nevertheless, Greenpeace knows that, when striving for change, conflict is
- almost always inherently involved. It remains an organisation which names
- parties responsible, discloses
- polluters, and reveals independent information to the public.
-
- The organisation work in these new areas will involve new approaches,
- different to those Greenpeace is already familiar with. Some of these areas
- enjoy neither a free press nor an open democracy. This will mean that
- Greenpeace will have to find new tactics and new ways of confronting
- environmental wrongs.
-
- It is a challenge the organisation looks forward to.
-
- ENDS
-
-
- Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 23:54:49 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [CA] Arctic Sunrise sets sail
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970704235535.45075ecc@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- VANCOUVER, BC - The Greenpeace vessels Arctic Sunrise and Moby DIck finally
- set sail at 9:30 PM tonight after being held in port since Wednesday after a
- blockade was set up by the IWA.
-
- The vessels made the break after Port of Vancouver Police became concerned
- the escalating levels of pressure being applied by the IWA would lead to
- problems. Port police and the Vancouver Harbour Master assisted with the
- sailing.
-
- The Arctic Sunrise is believed to have left port without a pilot on board,
- and no waiver releasing them from the requirement to carry one to safely
- navigate the harbour. Greenpeace could face a penalty of $5,000 for breaking
- Candian maritime regulations.
-
- The Moby Dick is a smaller vessel, and does not require a pilot.
-
- Members of IWA tonight they would catch up with the environmental group at a
- later time.
-
- Interviewed on BCTV, one IWA picketer called the ship's crew "terrorists and
- whackos masquarding as environmentalists."
-
- The Arctic Sunrise is now en route to Prince William Sound, and the Moby
- Dick will remain stationed on the BC Coast, acting as a support vessel for
- any future anti-logging protests.
-
- David Knowles
- Animal Voices News
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:41:56 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [UK] Gene switch strawberry to be picked
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970705004242.450774f4@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997
-
- Gene switch strawberry to be picked
- By David Brown, Agriculture Editor
-
- EUROPE'S first crop of transgenic strawberries will be harvested from a
- field near Dundee next week.
-
- The strawberries, which are close to ripening, have been genetically altered
- by scientists using material from cowpeas to make them resistant to pests.
-
- In compliance with strict Government controls, the experimental crop will be
- destroyed after scientists have examined the results of the field trials.
- Under a project to increase yields by reducing losses from pests, two
- varieties - symphony, a dessert strawberry, and melody, which is grown for
- processing - have been modified to include a cowpea gene to make them
- resistant to vine weevils. Tim Heilbronn, spokesman for the Scottish
- Research Institute at Invergowrie, near Dundee, said "We are very pleased
- with the results. The genetic modification has worked against vine weevils.
- But we are about three to four years away from seeing these strawberries on
- sale."
-
- Picking will coincide with European Plant Biotechnology Week.
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:41:58 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [HK] Hong Kong 'will not restrict Greenpeace'
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970705004244.4507a9a6@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- [Is this the right designation for Konk Kong, or should it noe be counted
- the same as China? Also, does anyone know if the classification of
- "non-political" would also be applied to animal-rights/welfare groups? David]
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997
-
- Hong Kong 'will not restrict Greenpeace'
-
- GREENPEACE International is to be allowed to campaign in Hong Kong under the
- new administration, despite restrictions on public protest. But it said
- yesterday it had no immediate plans to do so.
-
- Greenpeace opened an office in Hong Kong this year in the hope of increasing
- its influence in the area. Thilo Bode, its director, said: "We've had some
- positive feedback from the new Hong Kong government which said explicitly
- that environmental organisations such as Greenpeace are not political
- organisations." He added: "Obviously we will need to think carefully about
- our confrontational tactics in a country like China."
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:42:00 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [BE] Firms in beef smuggling raid
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970705004246.45079e2e@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997
-
- Firms in beef smuggling raid
- By Helen Cranford, Brussels
-
- POLICE and European Union inspectors have raided two Belgian companies
- suspected of involvement in a beef smuggling ring. The raids followed a
- two-month investigation by British, Dutch and EU authorities after 700 tons
- of British beef, labelled as Belgian, was seized in Holland.
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:42:02 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [UK] A doctor blabs - how medicine created the superbugs
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970705004247.4507e47e@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997
-
- A doctor blabs
-
- Every week our resident consultant Hippocrates Spratt reveals what
- physicians really get up to. This week: how medicine created the superbugs
-
- The secret is out. I wouldn't say there has been a deliberate attempt at a
- cover-up, more a case of information released on a need-to-know basis. Yes,
- dear reader, the fact is that hospitals are breeding grounds for some
- increasingly horrible infections. If you go to hospital you stand a chance
- of being infected - simply by being there.
-
- Infection-control teams patrol the hospital looking under sinks and behind
- toilets with unrelenting interest. They have an absolute mandate to evacuate
- any area which has become colonised by the so-called superbugs. Their
- searching extends to the staff, who have to go to a secluded spot and stick
- cotton wool buds up their nose, in their ears and down their underpants. The
- buds must then be delivered to the hospital laboratory. If you are found to
- be "unclean", you are suspended on full antibiotics.
-
- In recent years countless hospital wards have closed and planned admissions
- have been cancelled because of a mighty microbe dubbed MRSA. It doesn't
- matter what the letters stand for (OK, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus
- aureus); suffice to say it began as a fairly ordinary bacteria but has been
- honed to near perfection by doctors sloshing antibiotics around willy-nilly.
-
- MRSA can now only be killed by one available antibiotic, and some varieties
- are becoming resistant to it. In most hospitals the problem is so serious
- that doctors have begun to concede defeat. Wards are being kept open and
- infected patients are merely moved to the end farthest from the door (to
- reduce the number of people they come into contact with). We doctors wash
- our hands, wear rubber gloves and silly plastic aprons - none of which does
- much good, but it makes a theatrical show of things at least.
-
- Surgeons no longer sit around for weeks twiddling their thumbs while waiting
- for their wards to be given the all-clear - they just keep cutting and
- accept the risks. One surgeon has half-jokingly suggested that it would be
- safer to operate on patients in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.
-
- This glum acceptance is a recent development. I recall a female anaesthetist
- who was beside herself with rage at having been asked by the (male) surgeon
- to take off the dress she was wearing and put on some trousers instead. He
- justified himself by declaring that infection was less likely if all
- operating theatre staff wore trousers, as "perineal fall-out" would be
- prevented. The workings of such an imagination are almost unfathomable.
- Nevertheless, his diligence was characteristic of the spirit in which we all
- sought to fight hospital-acquired infections.
-
- We have lived through the antibiotic era. Its end is nigh and outside the
- bright citadel await some truly terrifying diseases. Drug companies have
- wanted the widest possible use of their products - easy access,
- over-the-counter sales in some countries and indiscriminate use in farming.
- This, coupled with an explosion in international travel, has caused the
- global spread of the superbugs. From its first outbreak in a south London
- hospital we have now
- given MRSA to the world. But you can't just blame the drug companies. No,
- doctors' ill-informed prescribing habits and patients' insistence on having
- antibiotics for anything and everything are equally responsible.
-
- The result is that we rely less on our immune systems and more on medicines
- that have been responsible for creating a microbial master-race, against
- which our flabby immunity has no answer. There is a form of tuberculosis,
- probably from Asia, that cannot be cured. We have enjoyed a 50-year holiday
- from infectious scourges of this kind and the holiday is about to end.
-
- So what can be done? Well, in the hospitals we will continue to wash our
- hands, wear rubber gloves and put on silly aprons. You can help by not
- whingeing to your GP about how you really need antibiotics when all you've
- got is a bit of flu. You can grin and bear it, take a few aspirin and wait.
- Out there are several bacteria which are on the point of being resistant to
- all known antibiotics - and they are coming to a street near you.
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 00:42:10 -0700 (PDT)
- From: David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [TZ] What the witchdoctor ordered
- Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970705004255.4507d786@dowco.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-
-
- >From The Electronic Telegraph - Saturday, July 5th, 1997
-
- What the witchdoctor ordered
-
- Africa should benefit from a project to tap its wealth of healing plants.
- Aisling Irwin reports
-
- THE witchdoctor unwound six feet of beads from his magic doll and pushed one
- end into his ear to make contact with his spiritual father hundreds of miles
- away in Zaire.
-
- I sat in his dark hut and studied the array of plants and powders while he
- chatted on the bead line, a medical consultation of a type I had not
- experienced before. My mind drifted as I waited. Then I woke up: "I'm in a
- mud hut in a Tanzanian village with no electricity, happily listening to
- this man with manic eyes using a piece of string for a telephone." I'd only
- popped
- in to get something for a stomach bug.
-
- Tanzania is rich in diverse plants and in people who say they can use them
- to cure a multitude of diseases. The country's scientists want to study the
- remedies and isolate the beneficial ones - though they often have
- insufficient resources with which to do it.
-
- In the West, on the other hand, there is panic that the African repository
- of potential future drugs will disappear as agriculture spreads across the
- continent.
-
- >From next week, a pioneering project will try to document this plant world
- before it's too late. An army of barefoot botanists, plucked from villages
- across Tanzania and trained in the rudiments of the science will record its
- flora. The project, run by the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United
- States, is training local people in science and trying to quell the fears of
- African scientists, who are increasingly wary of the drug company scientists
- who they say fly in, whip some exciting looking plants from the bush, and
- jet home again without benefiting the host country.
-
- The village collectors will be the base of a pyramid. Further up, the
- National Herbarium of Tanzania and other bodies, such as Dar es Salaam
- University's botany department, will analyse the collected plants and
- accumulate training, equipment and plant samples as they go.
-
- When the project is finished, Tanzanians should be better equipped to study
- the country's biodiversity and to argue with their government over
- ecological issues. In the US, the Missouri garden will have a wealth of new
- specimens to store away. Among them could be the precursors of some powerful
- new drugs.
-
- Researchers at the herbarium and the university already work with
- traditional healers on a small scale, searching for active substances. They
- avoid witchdoctors, however. "We do not get involved with them," said
- Boniface Mhoro, a botanist at Dar es Salaam University. "They pretend they
- are treating people but they are fake and it goes bad."
-
- Professor Rogasian Mahunnah, director of the Institute of Traditional
- Medicine, affiliated to the university, said: "We go to the villages, live
- with the traditional healers and they tell us what they use. We establish a
- rapport, collect the material, bring it to the institution and do a
- botanical identification." It is this painstaking work that the scientists
- hope will be boosted by the new project.
-
- In hot and busy Dar es Salaam, Mr Mhoro took me to a corner of the market
- where the healers sell their exotic wares. The good ones have learnt their
- wisdom from their great grandfathers, he said, as he walked past booth after
- wooden booth, each with shelves and tables piled high with twisted roots and
- barks.
-
- There were smooth cone shells; little cowrie shells waiting to be ground up
- with lemon juice; big brown seeds from a tree with huge pods - you graze
- your skin and rub in the seed powder to get it into the blood from where it
- can treat the liver, one of the healers said. In a basket were seaweed and
- other white stringy offerings from the ocean floor. Under a table lay a pile
- of elephant dung - its smoke treats children's fits, a healer said.
-
- On one table lay a pile of gnarled ebony roots, each with a core of black
- running through it (take it to relieve pain). I caught sight of a single jar
- of clear liquid. "Lion oil," the healer said. It relieves an inflamed leg.
-
- At the university, Prof Mahunnah has the task of isolating a substance from
- the ritual that surrounds it. "There is a treatment for epilepsy," he said.
- "They might say, 'Put a coin on the ground, pick the root, cut both ends,
- don't talk to anyone before you go back home'."
-
- The healer sometimes instructs patients to pick a plant only early in the
- morning, said Prof Mahunnah. Now the scientists have found that there is a
- family of healing plants whose active ingredients dissipate during the day -
- so they must be picked in the morning.
-
- Up the street, away from the profusion of roots, barks and plants, a Muslim
- traditional healer in a blue boiler suit was sitting watching over his
- treasures. He works with spices and powders. The university learns from him
- as well. A table covered in yellowing newspaper carried neat rows of wooden
- boxes filled with powders, resins and seeds.
-
- The healer said that some of the seeds contain quinine, the old enemy of
- malaria. There were tortoise shells, starfish, sea horses and chunks of coral.
-
- One bottle contained water from the Seven Seas, said the healer. He can
- produce another medicine by writing a message on a sacred piece of paper and
- dropping it into a bottle of water. The scientists confine themselves to his
- plant matter. Mr Mhoro said: "He will give us medicine for doing research
- but the rest of it - we leave it to him."
-
- The new project, whose Tanzanian leader is Dr William Mziray, curator of the
- national herbarium, should provide a boost to Tanzanian researchers'
- resources in several ways. The local people, who will be known as
- parataxonomists, will be chosen because they live in places where it is
- believed there are plants of interest and where there are conservation or
- research programmes into which they can slot. They will be sufficiently
- literate to take field notes.
-
- The barefoot botanists will be trained to interview healers and scour the
- areas in which they live to record what they find. They will be paid and
- when the project is finished they will be guaranteed three years' work with
- conservation organisations and reserves throughout the country, after which
- they should be sufficiently experienced to be employable.
-
- "It has happened far too often in the past that you train people to do
- something that you need and then afterwards they can do nothing with it,"
- said Roy Gereau, curatorial assistant in the Africa and Madagascar
- department at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The result is that programmes
- give no lasting benefits to a country.
-
- The approach, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Ortenberg
- Foundation, has been tried once before, in Madagascar, and the long-term
- employment rate there is around 70 per cent.
-
- Working above the collectors will be regional coordinators - also Tanzanian.
- Above them, cataloguing and studying the results, will be graduate students
- at the university.
-
- But despite all the benefits to Tanzania, the Missouri Botanical Garden has
- a lot to gain. "We are a museum," said Mr Gereau. "We are frankly and
- unapologetically acquisitive. We are doing a basic scientific inventory and
- taxonomic status. But we want to do this in the support of building up the
- scientific capacity of the country."
-
- ⌐ Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 10:52:01 -0700 (PDT)
- From: civillib@cwnet.com
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: 4 ARRESTED TRYING TO STOP PRAIRIE DOG SLAUGHTER
- Message-ID: <199707051752.KAA16043@borg.cwnet.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- Early this morning (Saturday) 4 activists from Rocky Mountain Animal Defense
- (RMAD) were arrested after they went onto the killing fields in Burlington,
- CO to intervene and stop the gunshot slaughter of hundreds of prairie dogs
- by the "Varmint Militia."
-
- More arrests are expected at the "Prairie Dog Shooting Contest."
-
- Greg Litus of RMAD is desperately seeking support. He's in the field, and
- RMAD is not being allowed in the jail.
-
- Call the Kit Carson County Jail at 719/346 7006 or 719 346 8934 and tell
- them you're concerned about Scott Keating, Nicole Rosamarino, Loren McCain
- and Jay Manows.
-
- Beginning Monday, if they are still in (we will keep you posted), you can
- call the clerk's office at 719/346 5524 and the county commissiner at 917
- 346 8133.
-
- More later.
-
- cres
-
- Date: Sat, 05 Jul 1997 19:13:09 -0400
- From: allen schubert <alathome@clark.net>
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: Updated Page for VSCP
- Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970705191306.006e1044@clark.net>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- Posted for VSCP:
- -----------------------------
- Feel Free to forward to other lists!
-
- Vegan Standards and Certification Project, Inc.'s website is newly
- updated.....check it out!
-
- http://www.veganstandards.org
-
- Hillary Morris
- Vegan Standards and Certification Project, Inc.
- 91 Joralemon Street
- Suite 4
- Brooklyn, NY 11201
- 718-246-0014
- F: 718-246-5912
- email: VeganStandards@ibm.net
- http://www.veganstandards.org
-
-
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 17:48:15 -0700 (PDT)
- From: civillib@cwnet.com
- To: ar-wire@waste.org
- Subject: UPDATE: 7 ARRESTED AT PRAIRIE DOG PROTEST (US)
- Message-ID: <199707060048.RAA29294@borg.cwnet.com>
- Mime-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-
- UPDATE....Ellie and Greg have called in from RMAD, and the total now stands
- at 7 arrested trying to stop the gunshot slaughter -- otherwise known as the
- "Prairie Dog Shooting Contest" by the Varmint Militia in Burlington, Colorado.
-
- The first four jailed -- Scott Keating, Nicole Rosamarino, Loren McCain
- and Jay Manows -- are being held on $3,500 bail EACH for trespassing,
- resisting, hunter harassment and conspiracy. The other three -- Chris
- Atencio, Betina Rosamarino and Jill ____ (sorry for misspellings) -- are
- being held on $1,500 bail EACH for trespassing and hunter harassment.
-
- Police at the Kit Carson Jail have locked supporters out, and are being
- difficult. You might try to contact them AGAIN at 719/346 7006 and tell
- them you're concerned about the jailed activists.
-
- Beginning Monday, Greg says you can call the clerk's office at 719/346 5524
- and the county commissioner at 917 346 8133.
-
- More later.
-
- cres
- National Activist Network/Activist Civil Liberties Committee
-
-
- Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 12:16:56 +0859 (JST)
- From: nagaoaki@leda.law.osaka-u.ac.jp (Aki Nagao)
- To: ar-news@envirolink.org
- Subject: [ISAHAYA BAYUPDATE]
- Message-ID: <199707060317.MAA07201@leda.law.osaka-u.ac.jp>
-
- ------ Forwarded Message
- MIME-Version: 1.0
- Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp
-
- ISAHAYA BAY UPDATE
- 3rd JULY 1997
- By Maggie Suzuki
- Japan Environment Monitor
-
- They have not opened the gates. The Bay is getting dead fast. The
- cracked and drying-out tidal flats are littered with dead shellfish.
- Occasionally a crab or "tobi-haze" goby can be seen deep in the
- cracks but, as noted by Hanawa Shinichi of WWF-Japan on June
- 14, "Their bodies no longer glisten, instead they're covered with a
- thick layer of dull mud." As predicted, two months later it's a
- nasty mess. Hopes now are for restoration of tidal flows in time to
- bring the ecosystem back enough to provide at least some
- sustenance for the fall migration of shorebirds.
-
- GOVERNMENT REPLIES HYSTERICAL
-
- The authorities have not altered their stance, but have started to
- react, issuing letters, statements, and replies. I received a reply
- from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries which
- told me I don't have to worry about the impact on the
- environment because they are "performing monitoring surveys"
- and have planted some of the endangered saltwater plant Suadea
- japonica "in planters." The largest colony in the country of this
- plant used to be found on the uppermost edges of Isahaya's tidal
- flats. I guess they water the planters with salt water twice a day...
-
- Most of these official replies emphasize the dangers to local
- people, in an attempt to make it look like poorly-informed bunny-
- huggers are trying to force disaster-plagued salt-of-the-earth
- farmers to die and lose crops for the sake of not-even-very
- endangered wildlife. As evidence for the project's necessity,
- statistics from all sorts of disasters, including a volcanic eruption
- of neighboring Mt. Unzen 200 years ago, are being added to a
- mysteriously growing number of casualties from the great 1957
- Isahaya flood. This number, originally recorded as 539, has lately
- been upped to 760, or even "over 800."
-
- Ironically, when questioned about the Isahaya issue at his press
- conference following the Denver G-8 Summit on June 22nd, Prime
- Minister Hashimoto huffily attempted to browbeat the reporter,
- saying "How much have you studied this issue? Do you know the
- number of people killed or missing in the great Isahaya flood?" It
- appears, however, that authorities are having considerable
- difficulty making up their minds about this number and have
- refused to answer questions about the basis for their recent
- revisions.
-
- PROJECT NOT DELIVERING
-
- Meantime, the local people who have been supporting the project
- hoping for relief from flooding of paddy fields on low-lying
- formerly reclaimed land adjacent to the bay have had to continue
- using pumps to clear out water from Typhoon No. 8 and other
- recent heavy rainfalls. The project was supposed to improve
- drainage by lowering the level of water caught behind the new
- seawall by one meter. Authorities have blamed the lack of
- improvement in drainage on "garbage accumulated in drainage
- gates."
-
- However, what the authorities fail to mention is that local people,
- have for decades been asking them to shoulder the costs and
- improve pumping facilities, to no avail. This did not prevent MAFF
- from sending me a photo of local people engaged in the difficult
- and dangerous work of maintaining drainage channels in the mud.
-
- The most important un-mentioned fact, however, is noted by local
- activist Yoshida Yukio in an email message posted on the ever-
- growing "wetland" mailing list which has sprung up to facilitate
- communications about the Isahaya issue: "Standing on the old
- seawall between the bay and the paddy fields reclaimed in former
- years, even a child can see that lowering the water level in the
- bay behind the new seawall is not going to help because the level
- of the old reclaimed land is three meters lower than the level of
- the now drying-out tidal flats. Obviously rain water is going to
- seek the lower level."
-
- WATER QUALITY PROVING A PROBLEM
-
- When the environmental impact assessment for the project was
- approved by the Environment Agency in 1987, one of the items in
- the opinion statement was an injunction to take measures to
- prevent eutrophication of the reservoir. Naturally, with the
- stoppage of tidal flows and large-scale dying of shellfish and other
- tidal flat organisms, the water quality of this area is deteriorating
- fast.
-
- Both the MAFF's Isahaya Project Office and Nagasaki Prefecture
- have carried on monitoring surveys of water quality at least since
- the project was commenced in 1989, and this data is being
- supplied to the Environment Agency. Since the wall closing, the
- number of survey points has been increased from three to five,
- and these points are surveyed once a week.
-
- Data apparently shows considerable worsening in water quality.
- However, the Environment Agency has yet to call on MAFF to take
- substantive measures, for example to open sluice gates in the wall,
- saying they can't comment because the water quality has not
- "stabilized" yet, partly due to heavy rains. It also notes that the
- desalinization process is progressing more slowly than expected.
-
- The MAFF refuses to consider opening the gates in answer to
- public appeals on the grounds that it would "negate the purposes
- of the project," and, ironically, "negatively affect fishing areas
- adjacent to the sluice gates."
-
- Many feel that present Environment Agency Director-General Ishii
- has shown a remarkable absence of backbone, and mourn the
- vigorous leadership of the Agency's last Director, in the Murayama
- Cabinet, Iwatare Sukio.
-
- OPPOSITION MOVEMENT DIGS IN
-
- The Dietmembers Association to Consider Isahaya Bay now has
- over 90 members, and on June 18th submitted a comprehensive
- list of questions to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
- Fisheries and the Environment Agency about the project. The
- authorities will be less able to evade answering when these
- Dietmembers invite their response in a series of meetings planned
- for this month.
-
- As a lead-up to this process, a seminar involving representatives
- of the Dietmembers Association together with well-known
- experts, such as Professor Ui Jun of Okinawa University, a
- renowned water-quality expert, and Professor Katayose Toshihide
- of the Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, coordinator of the
- alternative "Mutsugoro Road" development plan, will join JAWAN
- and the Isahaya Bay Emergency Rescue Task Force
- representatives in Isahaya on July 6th.
-
- The Emergency Rescue Task Force, which operates offices in Tokyo
- and Isahaya, has in the meantime gathered well over 40,000
- signatures on a petition calling for the gates to be opened and the
- project reviewed (see English version attached below). It also
- organized a mass demonstration in which about 500 people,
- including Dietmembers as well as children and one large dog,
- demonstrated and marched through Shibuya on June 14th, waving
- home-made mud skipper banners.
-
- The Task Force published in time for this event a concise 94-page
- booklet explaining the issue and what has happened since the wall
- was closed. (This Japanese-language booklet can be purchased for
- 700 yen or as a set with a ceramic mud skipper for 1500 yen; see
- contact below). Funds gathered at this event enabled a
- representative to take the issue to New York.
-
- INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ESCALATES, TRAILS PM HASHIMOTO
- THROUGH U.S.
-
- Prime Minister Hashimoto was not allowed to forget about
- Isahaya Bay while he was in the United States; not only was he
- questioned in Denver, but at the United Nations General Assembly
- Special Session "Earth Summit + 5," paid opinion advertisements
- about Isahaya Bay asking "Is this what you call sustainable
- development Mr. Hashimoto?" in the Earth Times newsletter, and
- a demonstration on the steps of the United Nations led to Japanese
- newspaper coverage headlining "In America Too, Isahaya." A
- comprehensive article on the issue appeared in the June 23rd Los
- Angeles Times, the same day PM Hashimoto gave his talk at the
- ultimately indecisive UNGASS.
-
- Meantime, letters were sent in mid-June both by the American
- NGO Alliance to Save Isahaya Bay and by JAWAN, WWF-J and the
- Wild Bird Society of Japan to PM Hashimoto, the US Secretary of
- State, and other appropriate governments and convention
- secretariats alleging that the project violates international treaties
- and agreements, such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
- International Importance, the Biodiversity Convention, and
- bilateral migratory bird agreements which Japan shares with the
- United States, Australia, the Russian Federation, and the People's
- Republic of China.
-
- WWF-Japan, which has actively pursued the Isahaya issue, took
- out a paid advertisement in the Japanese-language July issue of
- the National Geographic, has set up a special Isahaya Bay fund. It
- also revealed that His Royal Highness Prince Philip Duke of
- Edinburgh sent a letter to PM Hashimoto May 26th which asked
- him to take measures to prevent damage to Isahaya's tidal flat
- ecosystem.
-
- The Emergency Task Force is also planning a demonstration at the
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on July 14th.
- Please call them for details (see below).
-
- TO NAGASAKI JULY 27, TOKYO AUGUST 8
-
- Japan Wetland Action Network, WWF-Japan and the Emergency
- Task Force are sponsoring a "Tidal Flat Summit" to be held in
- Nagasaki July 27th at Nagasaki-shi Heiwa Kaikan from 13:00-
- 17:00 (1:00-5:00 pm); a donation of 1500 yen (800 for students)
- will be requested.
-
- Speakers will include Yamashita Hirofumi of JAWAN, Hobo
- Takehiko, professor of political science at Shimane University, and
- one Dietmember from each of the political parties represented in
- the Dietmembers Association to Consider Isahaya Bay. JAWAN
- Steering Committee members will also be on hand to deliver
- reports about the many other tidal flat ecosystems throughout
- Japan similarly threatened by public works. There may be other
- speakers, but the need for haste in organizing this event means
- confirmation for some participants is still pending.
-
- EVENT CONTACTS
-
- For information on the Nagasaki July 27th event, please contact:
- Mr. Matsumoto at 092-542-5515
- Ms. Itoh (English OK) at 092-43-0374 (email: yorke@sannet.ne.jp)
-
- The program handed out at this event will have space for paid
- advertisements. Individuals are invited to purchase a 9 cm x 5.5
- cm space for 5,000 yen, while organizations and companies are
- asked to pay 10,000 for the same, or multiples thereof (i.e., 18 cm
- x 11 cm for 10,000 individual, 20,000 organization or company).
- Ad copy should be mailed or faxed in by July 22nd and paid for
- by post office transfer.
- Mailing address: Matchbox (attn: Matsumoto)
- 3-17-12-205 Shiohara Minami-ku Fukuoka-shi
- Fax: 092-542-5514 (Tel: 092-542-5515)
- Post office transfer (NB: because this account is a personal, not an
- organization account, the form is different from, for example, the
- JEM account. Don't worry, it will work.)
- Account code ("kigo") 17420 Account no. ("bango") 15067151
- Account name: Itoh Yoshino (Nihon Higata Summit)
-
- Meantime, another meeting, in Tokyo, is now in the planning
- phases with the date initially set for August 8th. Please contact
- the Task Force Tokyo Office for information (in Japanese).
-
- Isahaya Bay Emergency Rescue Task Force
- Tokyo Office: tel: 03-3238-1951 fax: 03-3238-1952
- Isahaya Office: tel: 0957-23-3740 fax: 0957-23-3927
-
- Japan Wetlands Action Network (International Liaison)
- tel/fax: 0879-33-6763 (international: +81-879-33-6763)
- email: BYG05310@niftyserve.or.jp
-
-
- COMMENTARY FROM JAPANESE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITY
-
- Of course the big environmental topic in Japan this year is global
- warming, with the Third Conference of the Parties to the
- International Convention on Climate Change coming up in Kyoto in
- November. However, the implications for the climate change
- situation of government inaction on the Isahaya issue are not
- being lost on Japan's environmental community.
-
- >From the June 1997 Earth Day News Japan editorial: "I have a
- volume here before me, 'Report from Isahaya Bay in the Ariake
- Sea,' published April 1977, 20 years ago... by Yamashita Hirofumi.
- ... It gives a precise analysis of the problems being raised about
- Isahaya Bay today -- the history of reclamation, the importance of
- the tidal flat ecosystem, fishery and agricultural issues, water
- quality, disaster prevention, etc. And in those 20 years, no review
- of the project was initiated...
-
- "For over 30 years, some people have been working hard to
- protect Isahaya Bay. But, at the same time, there have been how
- many tens or hundreds more people throwing their weight behind
- the development. In a case like this, what is needed from
- government is not action based on reactions to images and
- impressions, but the power to predict consequences and to
- conceptualize and put into place necessary policy changes. This
- should be the underlying basis for decision-making. Politicians are
- remarkably poor at this, mere grandstanders.
-
- "How can we expect politicians and society at large to react,
- therefore, to global warming? Climatologists... started issuing their
- warnings about 10 years ago... and nothing has really been done.
- The Denver Summit too resulted in nothing more than skin-deep
- commitments. I do not think that the conceptualizing ability and
- decision-making processes of present-day politicians will be
- anywhere near sufficient to prevent global warming."
-
- -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
-
- To:
- The Honorable Ryutaro Hashimoto, Prime Minister of Japan
- The Honorable Takao Fujimoto, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry
- and Fisheries
-
- PETITION:
- - OPEN THE SLUICE GATES IN THE SEAWALL CUTTING OFF
- ISAHAYA BAY
- - THOROUGHLY REVIEW THE ISAHAYA BAY LAND RECLAMATION
- PROJECT
-
- On April 14th, 1997, the seawall cutting off upper Isahaya Bay
- from the tides was closed. If tidal flows are not restored, great
- numbers of creatures which are particularly adapted to the tidal
- flat environment will be exterminated, migratory birds will lose
- an important stopover and wintering site, and the water
- purification functions previously performed by the tidal flats will
- be lost. The putrid stench of dying shellfish already pervades the
- drying-out bay. Please open gates in the sea wall to preserve the
- ecology of this internationally important tidal flat ecosystem.
-
- The aims of the Isahaya Bay Land Reclamation Project are
- supposed to be "disaster prevention and creation of high-quality
- farmland," but the "Isahaya Bay Disaster Prevention Advisory
- Council" established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
- Fisheries concluded in its interim report that the project could not
- prevent large floods, while the Ministry itself pursues a policy of
- large-scale cutbacks in rice production. Thus we can see no real
- reasons for the land reclamation project. Costs have already
- escalated from 135 billion yen to 237 billion yen, threatening to
- waste ever larger amounts of taxpayer's money.
-
- Destruction of the tidal flats will also hasten the destruction of
- local culture, based from antiquity on the rich and diverse
- resource of the tidal flats, as well as severely impacting the
- productivity of near-shore fisheries. The national government
- must initiate and carry through a thorough re-examination of the
- project, which is being paid for by national government funds, and
- protect the tidal flats of Isahaya Bay, a heritage common to all
- humanity, while taking appropriate measures for disaster
- prevention along the coast of the Bay.
-
- We the undersigned, petition for the following:
-
- - Open the two sluice gates in the seawall across Isahaya Bay
- without further delay.
- - Undertake a thorough review of the tax-wasting Isahaya Land
- Reclamation Project.
-
- Name Address
-
-
-
-
-
- Please send the completed petitions to:
- The Isahaya Bay Emergency Rescue Task Force
- 1100-13 Ono-cho Isahaya-shi Nagasaki-ken 854 Japan
- tel: (+81) 957-23-3740 fax: (+81) 957-23-3927
-
- Initial goal date: September 30, 1997
-
-
- * * * * *
- The full text of this update will be available on the Japan
- Environment Monitor web site:
- http://www.yin.or.jp/user/greenstar/
-
-
- ------ End of Forwarded Message
- :+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:
- $B"v(B NAGAO AKi $B"v(B
- Graduate student,Faculty of Law
- nagaoaki@leda.law.osaka-u.ac.jp
- +:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+
-
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