^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Featured stories in this issue...

New U.S. Government Report Predicts Dire Consequences of Warming
A new report from the U.S. Climate Science Program concludes that
damage to the U.S. from global warming will likely be widespread and
significant.
There's No Inherent Right To Local Self Government, Says Pennsy AG
The fight by local governments to control corporate behavior is
heating up. The Attorney General of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit
against Pennsy towns that have passed local laws stopping corporations
from dumping contaminated sewage sludge on farmland.
Shutting Down Coal Plants Improves Brain Development of Children
"This study provides direct evidence that governmental action to
eliminate polluting coal-burning sources benefits children's
neurodevelopment."
Coal-to-liquid-fuel Plan Means a Kentucky Fried Earth
Plans to construct a $4 billion coal-to-liquid-fuel plant in
Kentucky is a sign of desperate times in the U.S.
Career of a Chemical
Recent media superficialities have concentrated on cancer caused by
dioxin. Many other types of damage, notably birth defects, are also
expected from dioxin dosages. But let us never forget: the main harm
from the USA's chemical warfare in Vietnam was on Vietnamese people
and ecosystems.
Chesapeake Watermen Fear Blue Crab Not Coming Back
It is hard to imagine the Pacific Northwest without salmon or the
Chesapeake Bay without blue crabs. But that seems to be the world our
children will inherit from us. Who is guarding the future?
Trawlermen Cling on as Oceans Empty of Fish...
"Just as the oil price now seems to be all that stands between us
and runaway climate change, it is also the only factor which offers a
glimmer of hope to the world's marine ecosystems."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From: Greenwire, Jul. 17, 2008
[Printer-friendly version]

NEW U.S. GOVERNMENT REPORT PREDICTS DIRE CONSEQUENCES OF WARMING

By Katherine Boyle, Greenwire reporter

Global warming could have devastating effects across the United
States, harming human health, settlements and welfare, according to a
report (2.4 Mbyte PDF) released today by the U.S. Climate Change
Science Program.

The study arrives in the wake of the Bush administration's decision to
reject the idea of using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse
gases last week. In the past, watchdog groups have accused the White
House of attempting to suppress reports from the climate change
program.

This particular report, which was led by the Global Change Research
Program in EPA's Research and Development Office, concludes the damage
from climate change will likely be widespread and significant.

Changes in the intensity and frequency of precipitation, more frequent
heat waves, more persistent and extreme drought conditions and
associated water shortages are likely to create problems across the
country, the study says. Extreme temperatures, potential increases in
strong tropical storms, sea-level rise and increases in the occurrence
of coastal and riverine flooding also are likely effects of climate
change.

Those challenges will be compounded as the nation struggles to cope
with population growth, aging citizens, migration patterns, and urban
and coastal development, the report notes.

The shifting climate is likely to have a drastic effect on U.S.
residents' lifestyles, affecting where they live, work and play.

Health

The report predicts human health effects will be substantial, though
the United States may skirt some of the illness and death that could
plague the developing world, thanks to its better developed public
health infrastructure and greater wealth.

It is very likely heat-related illness and mortality will rise over
the coming decades, the study says. The United States' rising
population of elderly citizens will be most susceptible to the
temperature extremes. By 2030, about 20 percent of the general
population, more than 50 million people, will be over 65. Poor and
minority populations concentrated in inner city neighborhoods also
would be affected as they are more likely to lack air conditioning.

Higher temperatures, which lead to a spike in ozone levels, are likely
to cause or exacerbate cardiovascular and pulmonary illnesses if
current regulatory standards are not attained, the report notes. Air
pollution in urban centers may also increase thanks to stagnant air
masses related to climate change.

The rising temperatures may lead to an increase of disease caused by
food and water-borne pathogens as well, particularly among vulnerable
populations.

Physical features of communities, like housing quality and green
space, can help or hurt the United States' efforts to cope with global
warming. Social programs that affect access to health care and
additional social and cultural factors also will have an effect, the
study says.

As a result, climate change will probably accentuate the disparities
in the nation's health care system, the report notes.

Extreme weather events, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires,
also have the potential to affect public health. They also could take
a toll on public infrastructure, such as sanitation, transportation,
supply lines for food and energy and communication.

High energy use, thanks to a growing population and more extreme
temperatures, also probably will result from global warming, the study
says.

Regional variation

Overall, health effects are expected to vary by region, particularly
in those prone to wildfires and flooding.

The northern parts of the nation will probably experience the largest
increases in average temperatures and ground-level ozone and other
airborne pollutants, the report says. As a result, people living in
Midwestern and Northern cities are likely to be disproportionately
affected by heat-related illnesses.

The range of areas in which certain diseases occur is likely to grow,
particularly in a northerly direction.

Forest fires are also expected to increase in frequency, severity,
distribution and duration in the Southeast, the Intermountain West and
the West.

One of the areas most vulnerable to climate change is Alaska, which is
likely to experience increased permafrost melt, flood-risk coastal
zones and river basins, and arid areas. In parts of the state, the
economic base is particularly climate sensitive.

States across the nation will face likely reductions in snowmelt,
river flows and groundwater levels, as well as an increase in saline
intrusion into coastal rivers and groundwater, the report says.

Coastal areas, which have seen a population surge as people move
toward the water, face some of the biggest dangers.

Adaptation and mitigation

The United States is in a position to mitigate some of the effects of
climate change and adapt to others that cannot be avoided, according
to the report.

The most important step the United States can take to adapt to climate
change is to support and maintain its public health infrastructure,
the study says.

The nation's capacity for disaster planning and emergency response
also is a key asset that should allow the United States to adapt to
many of the health effects associated with climate change.

Despite their vulnerability, large cities have a good opportunity to
adapt infrastructure and limit their susceptibility to global warming,
as do coastal areas, the study notes.

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program integrates federal research on
climate and global change and is sponsored by 13 federal agencies. The
Science and Technology Policy Office, the Council on Environmental
Quality, the National Economic Council and the Office of Management
and Budget oversee the program.

Click here to read the report (2.4 Mbyte PDF).

Copyright 1996-2008 E&E Publishing, LLC

Return to Table of Contents

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From: The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, Jul. 12, 2008
[Printer-friendly version]

THERE'S NO INHERENT RIGHT TO LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT, SAYS PENNSY AG

Dozens of communities adopt resolutions defending local self-
government, stand with East Brunswick, Pa. as Attorney General Corbett
sues on behalf of sludge dumpers

By Ben Price

The Attorney General of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit to prevent
the town of East Brunswick, Pennsylvania (Schuylkill County) from
passing a local law that stops corporations from dumping sewage sludge
on farmland.

In response, municipal governments across Pennsylvania are voting
their support for the right of a municipality to protect its citizens'
against corporate sludge dumping.

On December 6, 2006, the Board of Supervisors in East Brunswick
Township upheld their oaths to protect the health, safety and welfare
of the community by enacting an Ordinance that prohibits corporate
sludge dumping. Their vote came after months of petitioning and
organizing by residents, who argued that Pennsylvanians retain the
right to make local self-governing decisions for the protection of
their communities, and that those rights cannot be preempted by the
State.

With reports continuing to come in, so far twenty-two local
governments have reported passing Resolutions in support of East
Brunswick, and in opposition to State Attorney General Thomas
Corbett's law suit in which he has asked the Commonwealth Court to
strip the community of its local law.

Five other communities and organizations have signed on as legal
allies of East Brunswick, filing "friend of the court" briefs, and
asking the Commonwealth Court to leave the Ordinance intact. Those
allies include: Tamaqua Borough in Schuylkill County, Donegal Township
in Washington County, Blaine Township in Washington County, the Town
of Barnstead in New Hampshire, the Town of Halifax in Virginia, the
Pennsylvania Farmers Union, the Pennsylvania Family Farm Coalition,
and Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County California.

In a legal brief filed with the Court against East Brunswick on
January 31, 2008, the Attorney General's office had this to say:
"There is no inherent right to local self government." Municipal
officials and Pennsylvanians from a growing list of communities have
made a point to publicly and officially disagree.

On June 27th, Stephen C. Brown, Township Manager for London Grove
Township in Chester County wrote on behalf of that municipality: "The
Board voted 5-0 to support East Brunswick Township in your drive to
support the right of Townships to local self-government. The London
Grove Supervisors believe this basic issue of self-determination is of
the utmost importance to our community and to communities throughout
the Commonwealth."

Bethel Township in Berks County passed a Resolution on June 16th
expressing "concern about actions of certain Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Agencies which seek to limit and/or impair the ability of
local government to enact Ordinances and take actions that directly
impact on the health, safety and welfare of residents within local
government jurisdiction."

Conewango Township in Warren County passed their Resolution on the 9th
of June, explaining their "full support of East Brunswick Township
Board of Supervisors and its residents in their efforts to defend
their sewage sludge Ordinance against the suit filed by the Office of
the Attorney General," saying in part "representatives of agribusiness
and waste disposal corporations succeeded, after years of efforts
opposed by communities and local governments, in driving anti-
democratic legislation through the Pennsylvania General Assembly to
strip municipalities of self-governing authority over issues that
directly effect local citizens..."

On June 5th, York County's Hopewell Township joined others in
prefacing their support for East Brunswick's stand with provisions
like the se: "Whereas, just government is ever at the consent of the
governed, and the People of East Brunswick have taken a clear stand in
enacting said Ordinance indicating that they do not consent to the
disposal of sewage sludge in their community; and Whereas, a denial of
local self-governing authority by the State on behalf of corporations
that will especially benefit from such usurpation is unjust,
illegitimate and beyond the authority of the State or any
government..."

Borough Manager Chris L. Boehm of Macungie wrote on June 13th, "We
agree that the people who reside in the community and are directly
affected by decisions must be the ones to make them. We support East
Brunswick Township Board of Supervisors and its residents in their
efforts to defend their sludge ordinance and wish you all the best."

A partial list of communities that have passed similar Resolutions in
support of Local Self-Government:

London Grove Township in Chester County

Bethel Township in Berks County

Conewango Township in Warren County

Daugherty Township in Beaver County

Eden Township in Lancaster County

Elk Township in Warren County

Hopewell Township in York County

Lancaster Township in Lancaster County

Lausanne Township in Carbon County

Macungie Borough in Lehigh County

Maidencreek Township in Berks County

Maxatawny Township in Berks County

Millersburg Borough in Dauphin County

Oregon Township in Wayne County

Oxford Township in Adams County

Peters Township in Washington County

Shrewsbury Township in York County

Tamaqua Borough in Schuylkill County

Thompson Township in Fulton County

Tilden Township in Berks County

West Brandywine Township in Chester County

West Brunswick Township in Schuylkill County

Since the Attorney General filed his law suit against East Brunswick,
these (and perhaps other) municipalities have adopted Ordinances to
prohibit and make impractical the surface dumping of sewage sludge:

Mahanoy Township in Schuylkill County

Packer Township in Carbon County

Branch Township in Schuylkill County

Other communities are actively considering adoption of similar
Ordinances, including Shrewsbury Township in York County, which has
voted to advertise a public hearing to consider adoption, with a vote
likely in September.

Return to Table of Contents

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From: Science Daily, Jul. 15, 2008
[Printer-friendly version]

SHUTTING DOWN COAL PLANTS IMPROVES BRAIN DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN

Closing coal-fired power plants can have a direct, positive impact on
children's cognitive development and health according to a study
released by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health
(CCCEH) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The
study allowed researchers to track and compare the development of two
groups of children born in Tongliang, a city in China's Chongqing
Municipality -- one in utero while a coal-fired power plant was
operating in the city and one in utero after the Chinese government
had closed the plant.

Among the first group of children, prenatal exposure to coal-burning
emissions was associated with significantly lower average
developmental scores and reduced motor development at age two. In the
second unexposed group, these adverse effects were no longer observed;
and the frequency of delayed motor developmental was significantly
reduced. The study findings are published in the July 14th
Environmental Health Perspectives.

"This study provides direct evidence that governmental action to
eliminate polluting coal-burning sources benefits children's
neurodevelopment," said Frederica Perera, DrPH, professor of
Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health,
director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health,
and lead author of the study. "These findings have major implications
for environmental health and energy policy as they demonstrate that
reduction in dependence on coal for energy can have a measurable
positive impact on children's development and health -- in China and
elsewhere."

To conduct the study, researchers from CCCEH partnered with physicians
and scientists from the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical
University, the School of Public Health at Fudan University in
Shanghai, and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The researchers followed two successive
cohorts of Chinese newborns through age two. Children in both cohorts
were born in Tongliang, a city with a coal-fired power plant that
operated seasonally until it was shutdown by the government in May
2004. The first cohort involved 107 women whose children were born in
2002, prior to the plant closing. The second involved 110 women whose
children were born in 2005, when the coal plant was no longer in
operation.

"This is a unique environmental intervention study using molecular
techniques to demonstrate the relationship between a cleaner
environment and healthier children," added Deliang Tang, MD, DrPh,
associate professor of clinical Environmental Health Sciences at the
Mailman School, director of the Tongliang Project, and co-author of
the study.

Prenatal exposure to plant emissions was measured by a biomarker of
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure in umbilical cord
blood. The investigators controlled for exposures to other pollutants,
such as tobacco smoke and lead, which might have contributed to
neurodevelopment problems.

Children in the first cohort had varying exposure prenatally to PAHs
emitted by the coal-fired power plant. This exposure was recorded by
monitoring the levels of PAHs in air during the mothers' pregnancies
and in measuring a marker of PAH exposure in cord blood-- specifically
the levels of PAHs bound to DNA, known as "PAH-DNA adducts". Among
these children, the researchers found significant associations between
the marker of exposure in cord blood and delayed motor and average
development at age two. The second group of children, who were
conceived after the closure of the plant, had significantly lower
levels of the marker in cord blood and their incidence of delayed
motor development was one-third that of the first cohort.

Coal-fired power plants provide the majority of the energy for China's
industry, as well as the electricity needs of the U.S. The Chinese
government has ordered the closure of older, more polluting coal-fired
power plants such as the one in Tongliang.

The study is one of four parallel international cohort studies being
conducted by the CCCEH that examine the health effects of exposure of
pregnant women and babies to indoor and outdoor air pollutants in
urban areas. Additional studies are being conducted in New York City
and Krakow, Poland.

The Center's prior research findings have shown that exposure to air
pollutants are associated with an increase in risk for developmental
delays among children living in New York City. Today's findings
contribute to a further understanding of how air pollution impacts
child health.

Other investigators on the study include Tin-yu Li, Zhi-jun Zhou, Tao
Yuan, Yu-hui Chen, Lirong Qu, Virginia A. Rauh, and Yiguan Zhang.

Return to Table of Contents

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From: Huffington Post, Jul. 16, 2008
[Printer-friendly version]

COAL TO LIQUID PLAN MEANS A KENTUCKY FRIED EARTH

By Kevin Grandia

An announcement today for plans to construct a $4 billion coal to
liquid fuel facility in Kentucky is a sign of the desperate times
America is in.

Converting coal to liquid fuel has not been used on a large scale
since the 1930's when Nazi Germany developed the technology because
the country had lots of coal but no petroleum of its own.

But the sell-job is well underway right now in Kentucky to re-frame
coal to liquid as a miracle answer to America's energy woes.

One proponent of the Kentucky project went so far as to state that:

"(This) will allow the United States to become energy independent and
free of foreign oil, and money going overseas can actually be invested
back in the United States."

In the same vein is this quote from a local Kentucky newspaper:

"The coal industry and its supporters say such efforts could help wean
the nation from its reliance on foreign oil for transportation. They
insist that the technology would strengthen national security and be
cheaper than petroleum."

The United States currently burns through about 20 million barrels of
oil a day. The Kentucky coal to liquid plant is projected to produce
50,000 barrels a day -- a far cry from the grand promise of energy
independence. Pardon my rough math (and love of simply stated facts)
but based on the coal to liquid model being proposed in Kentucky, we
would need to build at least 120 such projects to produce 6 million
barrels of oil a day -- at a start-up cost for all the plants of
around $480 billion.

Doesn't look like much of a silver bullet to me.

And then there's the costs to our environment -- the one we'll passing
on to our children.

No amount of words will make the processing of coal into a liquid fuel
clean.

But that hasn't stopped Kentucky project cheerleaders, like Pike
County Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford from trying:

"Our goal is to not put anything out in the ozone," Ruther--ford said.
"We know there is no concept in this world right now that does that,
but there's a lot of research going on."

And this in the local newspaper:

"... they are committed to having a plant that is as environmentally
conscious as possible. They say they will choose a company that is
also environmentally friendly."

Not much assurance when you consider that we have yet to be able to
make regular-old coal-fired electric plants environmentally friendly.
Now we are to somehow think that an even dirtier process like coal to
liquid will somehow turn into a green, clean energy machine?

Beyond the obvious implications of increased mountaintop removal coal
mining and hazardous pollution (like the ever-increasing amounts of
mercury being pumped into the air) that would result from a coal-to-
liquids scheme, using liquid coal as a transportation fuel would
nearly double the amount of global warming pollution per gallon of
fuel compared to petroleum.

At a time when the world's leading scientists say we need to cut our
emissions by at least 80 percent to curtail destructive climate
change, the idea of nearly doubling global warming pollution from
liquid coal fuels ought to be tossed aside as a no-brainer.

As the folks at the Natural Resource Defense Council (turn your
speakers down, an auto-play video starts when you click) point out,
"it would be the height of folly to invest in just another
technology that drives us further down the path to dependency on
carbon fuels."