NATIONAL MOUNUMENTS - The Pacific Remote Islands Marine Preserve

"U.S. expands pristine national monument in the middle of the Pacific" PBS NewsHour 9/25/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  A region of the Pacific Ocean three times the size of California will now be off-limits to commercial activity.  President Obama signed an order today expanding protection for what scientists say is one of the most pristine remaining ocean ecosystems.

Hari Sreenivasan has more.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  The Pacific Remote Islands Marine Preserve is farther from human settlement than any other U.S. territory.  The president’s expansion of the reserve today will close 490,000 square miles of largely undisturbed ocean to commercial fishing and underwater mining.

The area is home to thriving colonies of rare and endangered ocean life, including fish, sea turtles, and coral reefs.

Joining me now to talk about the significance of today’s announcement is Elliott Norse.  He is founder and chief scientist of the Marine Conservation Institute.

Thanks for joining us.

So, first off, what is in these waters?

ELLIOTT NORSE, Marine Conservation Institute:  These waters are filled with marine life.

They have extraordinary coral reefs, extraordinary because they are among the most pristine coral reefs on earth.  They still have their big sharks.  Waters further from shore have large predators, including tunas of several species.  They abound with seabirds, sea turtles.  There’s a species of whale there that was discovered within the waters of that monument just a relatively few years ago. It’s full of life.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  The area was deemed a monument by President George W. Bush.  Why the need to expand it?

ELLIOTT NORSE:  Well, President Bush did something really visionary in 2009 by designating it as Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, but I don’t think all of the scientific information was taken into account at that point.

We know now that the seabirds that feed their chicks in their nests on the islands forage out to a distance in some cases of several hundred miles, and they need to find concentrations of food so they can go back and feed their babies.

CALIFORNIA - San Francisco's Drive to be a Zero Waste City

"San Francisco on Track to Become Zero Waste City" PBS Newshour 1/25/2013

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SPENCER MICHELS (Newshour):  Each year, Americans throw away about 250 million tons of garbage.  That's roughly four pounds per person per day.

You can find all manner of trash in a landfill, old bent music stands, plastic bags, and a lot of items that could have been recycled, like bottles and cardboard.  Beyond the obvious blight they cause, landfills create environmental damage and emit harmful greenhouse gases.  They are monuments to waste.

Those concerns have prompted San Francisco and a handful of other cities to aim for a once-unthinkable goal, zero waste.

In 2009, San Francisco became the first city in the country to require that residents and businesses alike separate from their trash compostable items, like food scraps, and recyclable goods, like paper, metals, and plastic, into separate bins.

And that has led to a big reduction in the amount of garbage headed to the landfill, according to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.

AMERICA - Oregon's Forests

"Majestic Forests in Oregon at Risk from Timber Industry and Chemical Spraying" PBS Newshour 9/12/2012

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): We head out West now to rural Oregon, known for its forests and as a place where the timber industry is a major player in the economy. But there is growing concern from some residents about chemical spraying practices.

The story comes from our partners at the Center for Investigative Reporting, who produced this story.

The correspondent is Ingrid Lobet.

INGRID LOBET, Center for Investigative Reporting: Western Oregon's beautiful forests and fish-filled streams are known as a paradise for nature lovers, but this is also one of the finest timber-growing regions in the world.

With 30 million acres of forestland, Oregon's timber industry generates $13 billion in sales each year. But in Triangle Lake, some residents worry that timber industry practices are exposing people to harm.

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INGRID LOBET: Witt says he hasn't heard of any cases of wide-scale herbicide contamination from the forest industry.

Of course, none of this is an issue on federal land, where nearly all spraying has been banned in Oregon since the 1980s, when residents successfully challenged the use of herbicides, including Agent Orange.

Jim Furnish, a former Forest Service deputy chief, says his agency discovered that hand-cutting unwanted brush was just as effective.

JIM FURNISH, former deputy chief, U.S. Forest Service: Suddenly, then herbicides were no longer essential or necessary. It may be preferable economically, but you have to bear in mind that this Douglas fir timber is worth a lot of money.

So you can afford to do other more costly methods, provided that they are still effective, and turn a handsome profit.


INGRID LOBET: Dana Barr's findings also caught the attention of Oregon's Health Authority. It launched a two-year study, with help from the Centers for Disease Control. The first round of testing also found the herbicide 2,4-D in residents' urine.

Herbicides are designed to work on plants, but a growing body of research suggests some may have profound effects on humans.

Suzanne Fenton works for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

SUZANNE FENTON, National Institute of Environmental Health Science: Herbicides are understudied. There's not a lot of funding for it.

But even worse than that is the fact that early life exposures to herbicides are really understudied. We know that many herbicides are endocrine disrupters.

INGRID LOBET: Endocrine disrupters act like hormones, but they relay the wrong signals to and from the brain and reproductive system.

Fenton has found that mice whose mothers were exposed to atrazine for just three days while pregnant experienced changes that lasted throughout their lives. Atrazine is heavily used in Oregon forestry.

SUZANNE FENTON: It can affect pubertal timing, so it can affect breast development during the period of puberty.

It can then also -- if it persists, if the effect persists, it can affect lactation. So it can affect the ability of the mom to provide nutrients to her offspring.

COMMENT: Ah, yes. Put citizens health at risk for the sake of profits. Note that this could be called a typical Republican view.

ECOSYSTEM - Live Eco-Conscious, Die Eco-Conscious

"Six Feet Under Can Be Green for Eternity" by Frank N. Carlson and Saskia De Melker, PBS Newshour 4/12/2012

In 1998, Dr. Billy Campbell, a family practitioner in Westminster, South Carolina, opened a land preserve founded on a unique model: enlisting death in the fight for ecological conservation.

Calling it the Ramsey Creek Preserve, Campbell's idea was twofold: First, he would provide a place for those who wanted a green burial. Known also as natural burial, this practice eschews modern techniques for delaying decomposition. This means no embalming fluids or chemical preservatives such as formaldehyde - a probable human carcinogen - are used, and the body is placed in a simple shroud, a biodegradable casket or urn, instead of one made of treated hardwood and metal. Plus, no pesticides are used to maintain the grounds, and grave markers are natural - composed of rocks or trees native to the environment.

But the second part of Campbell's plan was key: By having people choose green burial on land set aside as a cemetery, Campbell could protect that land from development and contamination over generations.

"Ecological restoration...may take several hundred years, and that's way beyond any of our lifespans," he said. "So how do you fund it, No. 1? And how do you sustain it? You have to build a community."

Campbell presents these ideas in a new short film now touring the documentary circuit called "Dying Green," directed by Ellen Tripler. Hari Sreenivasan recently sat down with Tripler and Campbell to discuss the film. (You can view the interview in the video above.)

Today the number of green cemeteries across the country has grown to 36, with some 300 providers of green burial options. That's according to Joe Seshee, executive director of the Green Burial Council, which provides standards and certification for funeral services. Seshee predicts the trend will only grow with the Baby Boomer generation (ref below).

Yet some, like Robert Fells, executive director of the International Cemetery, Cremations & Funeral Association, say green burials and cemeteries don't represent such a grand departure from current industry practices.

"Cemeteries have always been green and facilitated green burials," Fells says. "What we're seeing today, what the green burial grounds are promoting, is they're saying the remains cannot be embalmed. In the past [embalming] was the family's option, never a cemetery requirement."

Fells also cautions against industry "green washing" -- advertising that falsely markets environmentally sound practices. Seshee says the Green Burial Council is working to develop standards to prevent against that as demand for green services and products grows.

REF

"Green burials are gaining traction in the Washington area" by Rachel Saslow, Washington Post 6/6/2011

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Live eco-conscious, die eco-conscious. People who drive hybrid cars, recycle, compost and eat vegetarian are showing increased interest in leaving this world in an equally Earth-friendly way: a green burial.

“Baby boomers who define themselves as environmentalists don’t want to go out with a final act of pollution,” says Joe Sehee, executive director of the Green Burial Council, headquartered in Santa Fe, N.M. “A lot of people find solace in returning to the earth naturally.”

PERU - Peruvian Gold Rush Threatens Amazon Rain Forest

"Gold Lures Illegal Miners to Peru's Rainforests" PBS Newshour 11/7/2011

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STEVE SAPIENZA, special correspondent: In southeastern Peru, where the Andes Mountains meet the Amazon lies one of the world's richest ecosystems.

Roughly the size of California, the Madre de Dios region not only attracts tourists, but also those trying to cash in on this region's abundant natural resources. Rampant illegal gold mining has authorities here scrambling to protect the Amazon's last untouched tracts of rain forest. At stake are countless rare plant and animal species and the sanctity of indigenous tribes, some still living in self-imposed isolation.

Rising gold prices and the near-complete Brazil-Peru Interoceanic Highway have combined to propel fortune hunters deeper and deeper into the Amazon. A few hundred miners first settled along the new highway in 2007. Now dozens of ramshackle mining towns line the road, catering to every need and desire of the miners. Close to 30,000 people tied to mining activity now call the region home, with more arriving daily.

In the region's capital, Puerto Maldonado, recent efforts by local officials to halt illegal mining have been met with violence.