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After reaching an agreement with Baxter, investors withdrew a shareholder resolution calling on the company to phase out use of PVC materials in its intravenous health care products. In exchange for shareholder withdrawal of the resolution, Baxter will identify all PVC-containing products it manufactures and provide a timetable for replacement with non-PVC IV bags. The company will update shareholders on its steps to replace all PVC products with suitable alternatives. Baxter will also request that the Vinyl Institute, American Plastics Council and Chlorine Chemistry Council refrain from using its name in their public ad campaigns. Baxter maintains that it is already supplying many products without PVC, and that as viable alternatives arise they plan to use them. The sponsors, ICCR’s (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility) International Health Issue Group and health care activists, argue that chemicals used to manufacture PVC products include suspected carcinogens, hormone disrupters and reproductive toxicants. Research shows one such chemical, DEHP, leaches out of PVC medical devices and into the fluids they carry, and has been linked to adverse effects in premature infants and other vulnerable persons, such as dialysis and AIDS patients. When incinerated, PVCs produce dioxin. 90 percent of dioxin exposure to humans comes […]
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The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) approved over $18 million to support Suriname in its creation of one of the world’s largest tropical forest wilderness reserves. The funding will support the management of the four million acre (1.6 million hectare) Central Suriname Nature Reserve and create conservation- based economic opportunities such as ecotourism. “The Suriname project is an outstanding example of the kind of visionary, yet practical, partnership the GEF seeks to support,” said Mohamed T. El-Ashry, CEO and chairman of the GEF. “It underscores Suriname’s initiative and commitment to making conservation part of its economic development strategy, as well as the important role of non-governmental organizations at the community level.” Part of the forest area within the reserve was formerly targeted by international logging companies, which sought concessions in some 11 million acres. Suriname harbors more rain forest than all of Central America combined. The Central Suriname Nature Reserve is part of the Guyana Shield, one of the world’s most undisturbed tropical wilderness areas extending across the southern Guianas, southern Venezuela and adjacent parts of Brazil. These forests have at least 75 percent of their original forest cover and many, like Suriname’s, are still in pristine condition, virtually uninhabited and […]
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In response to sustained negative European response, foods giant Unilever UK has decided to phase out genetically engineered foods, a move that was closely followed by a similar announcement by Nestle UK. Unilever sells over 1,000 brands of foods through 300 subsidiaries in 88 countries, and Nestle, with 495 factories, is the world’s largest food production company. Nestle UK production facilities manufacture for the entire European market. Over the past month’s, a number of large supermarket chains including the UK’s Iceland Stores and Marks and Spencer banned all GM ingredients from their private label products. Prince Charles commented, “I suspect that planting herbicide resistant crops will lead to more chemicals being used on our fields, not fewer. But this isn’t the whole story. Such sterile fields will offer little or no food or shelter to wildlife, and there is already evidence that the genes for herbicide resistance can spread to wild relatives of crop plants, leaving us with weeds resistant to weedkiller.” UK law requires GM seed firms notify the public prior to planting. The first farm to take part in the UK government’s farm scale trials of GM crops may be forced to plough up seed because the company […]
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A recently passed law in India requires all buildings to have solar-assisted water heating. The law affects all states, and includes hospitals, lodges, colleges, military barracks, railway terminals, community centers and other institutions, and in larger residential buildings.
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Daniel Quinn’s book, Ishmael, is an environmental fiction classic. He’s produced a thought-provoking video, “Food Production & Population Growth” to address the many questions he receives on population. One of the subjects he explores is the relationship between food surplus and population growth. Fred Elbel, who produces the EcoFutures website, reviews the video. “We make food a commodity and reward producers for higher output. The surplus allows our population to grow even more. The presenters contend we need a systemic change – one that rewards producers for their work, but not by the pound. We also need to tie food production to local areas of sustainability. Original Native American tribes were restricted to the food supplies of their own geographic areas and could not infringe on food sources in the territories of neighboring tribes. Similarly, areas such as Houston could become sustainable if they included a regional area sufficient to produce food for their residents, necessarily enforcing population to remain in equilibrium with available food supply.” http://www.ecofuture.org [sorry this link is no longer available]
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The U.S. government will mandate uniform tailpipe emissions for passenger cars, sport utility vehicles and other light-duty trucks. President Bill Clinton said, “For the first time, we require all passenger vehicles, including the popular sport utility vehicles, to meet the same tough pollution standards. And for the first time our plan addresses not only the cars we drive, but also the fuel they use. Because sulfur clogs and impairs anti-pollution devices, we’re proposing to cut the sulfur content of gasoline by about 90 percent over the next five years.” The new standard mandates that cars are 77 percent cleaner, and SUVs and other light-duty trucks 95 percent cleaner, than today’s models. It will be effective beginning in 2004 and will be phased in over the following five years. The measures, when fully implemented, will reduce vehicle emissions at a level equivalent to removing 166 million cars from the road. The projected costs to meet the standard equal about $100 for cars, $200 for light-duty trucks, and between one and two cents per gallon of gas. At the same time, average gasoline sulfur levels will be reduced from 300 to 30 parts per million. The impact of this reduction equals removing […]
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The SUN DAY Campaign has published three directories. The fifth edition of its “National Directory of Sustainable Energy Companies” provides a zip-coded and indexed listing of 1,500 U.S. firms working on renewable energy and energy efficiency. The “National Directory of Sustainable Energy Organizations: 5th edition” lists 1,000 citizen groups and trade associations that promote sustainable energy technologies, and “National Directory of Sustainable Energy Periodicals: 5th edition” list 800 newsletters, magazines, and other periodicals that report on sustainable energy issues. To get copies, contact Ken Bossong: kbossong@cais.com
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In a $1 billion deal, General Motors will sell its aluminum scrap to Imco Recycling, and buy 2 billion pounds of recycled aluminum back over 13 years. Its vehicle aluminum content is projected to rise by 7 percent annually. Ford Motor Co. is getting into the recycling business with its purchase of a Tampa, Florida automotive recycling company. The company intends to become the world’s largest car-parts recycler and plans to buy dozens of similar businesses across the U.S. in the coming months. The company projects annual revenues of $1 billion within five years. The Ford subsidiary will dismantle all types of vehicles and sell the parts over the Internet to body shops, insurance companies and consumers. Eventually, Ford plans to expand the business to Europe, Asia and Latin America. It also intends to increase the recyclable content of its cars from today’s 75-80 percent level to 90 percent or more.
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Other cities will be added soon, but if you live in Orange County, CA., you can sign up for a free four-week trial of the the hybrid-electric ‘Prius.’ Five people will be selected in each test city. The Prius, which has been sold in Japan for a couple of years, will be sold in the U.S. next year. It uses a small internal-combustion engine in conjunction with an electric motor to achieve very high fuel economy and very low emissions. In Japan, the car gets 66 miles/gallon and goes 800 miles between fill-ups of gasoline. [sorry this link is no longer available]
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Taking a courageous stand, Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad has issued a decree that blocks future oil exploration, mining, logging, and colonization in the Cuyabeno-Imuya and Yasuni National Parks, covering 2.7 million acres of old growth rainforest. The parks are home to thousands of indigenous peoples; two subgroups of the Huaorani people are among the world’s last nomadic, largely uncontacted indigenous peoples. To become permanent, this decree must be passed into permanent legislation. In 1991 an Ecuadorian Supreme Court decision to ban oil projects in protected natural areas was overturned after oil companies threatened to divest from Ecuador.
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