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The Independent July 30, 2003 Bush, the Rainforest and a Gas Pipeline to Enrich his Friends By: Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles PRESIDENT GEORGE Bush is seeking funds for a controversial project to drive gas pipelines from pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon to the coast. The plan will enrich some of Mr Bush's closest corporate campaign contributors while risking the destruction of rainforest, threatening its indigenous peoples and endangering rare species on the coast. Friends of the Earth describes one threatened area as "one of the world's most pristine tropical rainforests", home to the Nahua, Kirineri, Nanti, Machiguenga and Yine indigenous groups. Past contact between indigenous peoples and loggers have proven disastrous - 42 per cent of the Nahua died from diseases contracted from outsiders in the 1980s. Already, the project, which is 60 per cent complete, has run into difficulties, including the kidnapping of 60 pipeline workers last week. They were later freed by the Peruvian military. Environmental News Service July 28, 2003 Internal U.S. Evaluation Casts Doubt on Camisea Impact WASHINGTON, DC, July 28, 2003 (ENS) - Environmentalists say an internal evaluation of the environmental impacts of the Camisea Gas Project by the U.S. Export Import Bank confirms violations of international standards. Friends of the Earth reports that the U.S. Export Import Bank's evaluation, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, provides additional evidence the project should be rejected by both institutions. The environmental group says that the Export Import Bank's own evaluation finds impact mitigation measures for Camisea are "woefully inadequate" and will result in "irreversible impacts" and the spread of non-indigenous diseases and has already caused serious landslides. Staff with the IADB offer "a lot of bells and whistles as mitigation, but the reality is Camisea equals destruction of primary rainforests and indigenous peoples," said Jonathan Sohn of Friends of the Earth. Chemical & Engineering News July 21, 2003 Trade Advice Flows Once More - Chemical Industry Group Resumes Meetings By Cheryl Hogue In February, the Bush administration selected David Waskow, international policy analyst and trade policy coordinator for Friends of the Earth, as the environmental representative to the Industry Sector Advisory Committee on Chemicals & Allied Products (ISAC-3), according to the International Trade Association spokesman. Following Waskow's appointment, ISAC-3 resumed its meetings and is again taking up issues of concern to industry, such as lowering tariffs on chemicals and protecting the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical makers. Waskow "is eminently qualified to represent the environmental viewpoint" and has the support of many environmental groups, says Patti A. Goldman, managing attorney for Earthjustice. She says his appointment fulfills the government's obligations in the legal settlement to appoint a "qualified environmental representative" to ISAC-3. Waskow's training is in international economic policy. The Dallas Morning News The Associated Press State July 1, 2003 Green Groups: We'll Say Yes to Circ, with Conditions By David Gram Two environmental groups that have been fighting construction of the Chittenden County Circumferential Highway say they'll agree to part of the road if the Douglas administration meets some conditions. The Conservation Law Foundation and Friends of the Earth, in a letter sent to Douglas Monday, said they would drop legal action designed to block construction of a 4-mile section of the road between Interstate 89 south of Exit 12 in Williston and the IBM plant in Essex. "We believe these measures would reduce the highway's environmental impacts and also make Vermont economically stronger," Sinclair and Brian Dunkiel, a Burlington lawyer who represents Friends of the Earth, wrote to Douglas. |
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