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Greens and Grounds
Greens and Grounds-- "greens," which are common spaces in small towns (like Craftsbury Common, the current headquarters for this blog), and grounds, a major ingredient in a beverage I will be sipping every time I sit down to write. Greens and Grounds lives at Blogspot.
Wednesday the Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced that the Polar Bear would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This has been a big fight for environmental groups who have tried to leverage the case as a way to fight global warming and to protect ANWR-- if polar bears are protected, and polar bears need sea ice, but sea ice is melting because of global warming, due to the oil and fuel industries, then those industries should have to stop.
Kempthorne says he had no choice but to list the polar bear is light of the scientific record showing the precipice the bear is on for existence.
In an unsatisfying move today, he listed the bear while creating provisions for flexibility for the oil industry so that the listing does not get leveraged against drilling in ANWR, etc.
I had the opportunity to see the Secretary a couple of weeks ago. He struck me as insincere and as having a highly mixed agenda. My opinion was reinforced today.
"The administration acknowledges the bear is in need of intensive care," Ms. Siegel said. "The listing lets the bear into the hospital, but then the 4(d) rule says the bear's insurance doesn't cover the necessary treatments." ~New York Times
In many circumstances, the products we use in our efforts to be more sustainable have a bigger footprint than we think. Recent articles in the Washington Post and from the Worldwatch Institute show how the production of large amounts of polysilicon in China are dumping toxic wastes on the surrounding landscape--the homes of poor Chinese villagers. The byproducts from these industrial processes include silicon tetrachloride, which ruins the soil chemistry and releases poisonous fumes. The situation is ironically inconsistent with the end use of this valuable product, which is usually for photovoltaic solar panels, which turn solar energy into "green, renewable" electricity. This is actually only one example of the ways that efforts by the developed world to become sustainable only result in more environmental degradation and socio-economic disparities.
Producing polysilicon is extremely profitable due to high demand, and the Chinese manufacturers are increasing their profits by refusing to invest in recycling technology, which is available now. The manufacturers apparently have the law on their side. They maintain that their practices are in keeping with all Chinese environmental restrictions, and while formal complaints have been made to portions of the government responsible for environmental protection, no action has been taken.The situation in [one Chinese] village points to the environmental trade-offs the world is making as it races to head off a dwindling supply of fossil fuels. Forests are being cleared to grow biofuels like palm oil, but scientists argue that the disappearance of such huge swaths of forests is contributing to climate change. Hydropower dams are being constructed to replace coal-fired power plants, but they are submerging whole ecosystems under water. -washingtonpost.com
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