Global News Headlines 06/28

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, June 28, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
------------------------------------------------------------------------

 TOXICS 

1) Reuters EVC shuts down PVC plant temporarily. NETHERLANDS: June 28, 1999
AMSTERDAM - Europe's biggest PVC producer EVC International said on Friday
it was temporarily shutting down its VCM and PVC  manufacturing plants at
Porto  Marghera, Italy, on the orders of the Italian Environment Ministry.
"The shortfall of VCM and PVC product arising from the temporary closure of...

2) European Environment Agency: Environment in the European Union at the turn
of the century Environmental Assesment Report no. 2, released 23 June 1999:
says: page 209-210: PVC WASTE  Polyvinylchloride waste (PVC waste) accounts
for a total of 12 % of all plastics waste in the EU, Norway and Switzerland,
or 2.1 million tonnes PVC waste in 1994 (SOFRES,1996). In comparison, PVC...

3) AP June 28,HEADLINE: Meeting in Rome to deal with organic food, animal feed
crisis UN-Food Codes DATELINE: ROME BODY: A U.N. commission this week will
discuss the possibility of a task force aimed at pushing for adoption of a
code to ensure proper feeding of animals which end up on dinner tables.
Following the recent scandal in Belgium in which cancer-causing dioxin ended...

4) Campaigners Halt Proposed Toxic Waste Project, All Africa News Agency, June
28, By Mercedes Sayagues  Nairobi - Environmental and community
activists have succeeded in  halting a controversial Danish-funded
project to burn obsolete pesticides at a cement factory in Matola,
15kms from the Mozambican capital of Maputo. But the backers maintain
that it would create a national...

5) AP June 28, HEADLINE: U.S. says no immediate danger from dioxin at Thai
airport Thailand-US-Agent Orange DATELINE: BANGKOK, Thailand BODY: Tests
conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on soil samples taken
from an airport believed to be contaminated by Agent Orange reveal 'no
immediate danger,' the U.S. Embassy said Monday. But the tests did show that...

6) APf 06/28 Mercury Pollution By DAVE HOWLAND BOSTON (AP)--In most places,
people who worry about the environment can recycle their cans, soda bottles
and yard clippings with a quick trip to the curb or local landfill. This
week, the Environmental Protection Agency is set to approve a new rule
intended to add another product to that list--fluorescent light bulbs....

7) AP June 28, HEADLINE: Report: India dumping ground for banned toxicants
India-Toxicants, 0150 DATELINE: NEW  DELHI, India BODY: Millions of tons of
drugs and toxic chemical wastes, banned in their countries of origin, are
coming into India each year, a local news agency quoted experts as saying
Monday. Outlawed  pesticides, painkillers and lead-laced paints are some of...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

8) Radioactive Leak Reported in Russian Plant  MOSCOW (June 28) XINHUA - Two
Russian workers suffered exposure to  high doses of radiation two weeks ago
in a chemical plant in the  central part of the country, Russian Atomic
Energy Minister Yevgeny  Adamov said on Monday. He blamed the failure of
the emergency prevention system rather than  any human error for the...

9) Jabiluka stand 'like racist US'  Date: 25/06/99 Sydney Morning Herald By
MURRAY HOGARTH, Environment Editor  Australia's treatment of Aborigines
opposed to the Jabiluka uranium mine has been likened by an US Congresswoman
to the racism experienced by black Americans in the Deep South. Ms Cynthia
McKinney has organised a petition of 30 US politicians to President Clinton...

10) Money for spent nuke fuel better than IMF loans. OBNINSK, June28 Itar-Tass
-The Russian Atomic power ministry wants  to get a permission to process and
bury in Russia nuclear waste from  all wishing clients saying that would
bring considerable profits. To get money for the reprocessing and dumping of
spent nuclear fuel is better than borrowing money from the IMF," Atomic...

11) Associated Press. December 31, 1999 HEADLINE: Nuclear  power plants
going on the market BYLINE: By H. JOSEF HEBERT, DATELINE: MIDDLETOWN, Pa.
BODY: Island  property for sale, cheap! It didn't take long for a buyer. The
Three Mile  Island  nuclear  reactor on a small island in the middle of the
Susquehanna  River went up for sale - and a purchaser came running. It...

12) WIPP Finds Plug Missing On Nuclear-Waste Canister  Series of Problems Fuel
Critics of Site  By Mike Taugher, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer, June 26,
1999 A missing plug on a nuclear-waste transport canister is the
latest in a series of minor mishaps since the nation's first planned
underground nuclear-waste dump opened three months ago. The U.S.
Department of Energy...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

13) AP June 27, HEADLINE: Plutonium byproduct found near Hanford Reach spawning
beds DATELINE: RICHLAND, Wash. BODY: A scientist hired by a Hanford nuclear
reservation watchdog group says he has detected high levels of a radioactive
byproduct of plutonium near salmon spawning beds along the Columbia River's
Hanford Reach. Norm Buske's finding, detailed in a draft report issued last...

14) NATO bombs liberated environmental demons June 26, Christopher Walker
Commentator St. Paul, MN, Pioneer-Planet Among the broad range of difficult
issues to be resolved in the post-conflict period in Yugoslavia, one that
has been largely overlooked is the environmental damage caused as a result
of NATO bombing.  Besides hitting military targets, NATO consistently bombed...

 OCEANS 

15) 06/28/99 Crude Oil Spill Reported in Wash. FERNDALE, Wash. AP_An oil
tanker spilled about 1,050 gallons of crude oil into north  Puget
Sound waters Sunday, the Coast Guard said. The Arco Texas was
unloading oil at the Tosco refinery when the  ship's stern came 
unmoored  at about 1:55 p.m., said Coast Guard Lt.  j.g. Paul
Lattanzi. As  the ship  drifted away from the...

16) APf 06/28 Shipping Salmon By JOHN HUGHES CASCADE LOCKS, Ore.(AP) Gray
clouds hug the Cascade Mountains along the Columbia River as a barge called
the Chinook chugs into the Bonneville Dam lock with its cargo-- a 200,000
live salmon. For more than two decades, the federal government has been
shipping young fish downstream past eight federal dams, hoping the fish will...

17) Polar Bears Attack Trapped Whales Off Canada TORONTO (Reuters)-Polar
bears are preying on a group of Beluga whales trapped by shifting ice in the
Canadian Arctic, ripping off flesh as the whales surface to breathe, the
Canadian Press news agency reported Monday. It said a hunter first noticed
in late April that about 50 whales were trapped under ice near Ellesmere...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

18) Reuters BP Amoco sanctions team to monitor emissions. UK: June 28, 1999
LONDON - Oil giant BP Amoco Plc said late last week that it had commissioned
an  independent audit and verification of its greenhouse gas emissions as
part of its goal  to cut  such emissions to 10  percent below 1990 levels by
2010.  An independent team would  verify BP Amoco's emissions and 
develop...

19) The Times (London) June 28, SECTION: Business HEADLINE: Top companies
launch greenhouse gas trading BYLINE: Carl Mortished, international business
editor BODY: BRITAIN'S top industrial companies are banding together to
launch a greenhouse gas emissions-trading system in an attempt to persuade
the Government that it should drop its plans for a carbon tax that could...

20) The Gazette (Montreal) June 28, 1999, FINAL SECTION: Editorial / Op-ed; B3
HEADLINE: It makes sense for business to go green BYLINE: STEPHEN BRONFMAN
BODY: There is a vital shift under way in how business leaders look at
environmental crises. As the damage of burning fossil fuels--coal, oil and
gas -- becomes irrefutable, major  corporations are moving from denial that...

21) AP Worldstream June 28, 1999 HEADLINE: Ten bodies found  at scene of fuel
pipeline explosion Nigeria-Pipeline Explosion DATELINE: LAGOS, Nigeria BODY:
Oil company executives surveying the scene of a  pipeline fire  made the
grisly discovery of 10 charred bodies, the apparent  remains of thieves who
triggered an explosion while siphoning off fuel. The  bodies were found...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

22) 06/28 1417  Canada-Forest Deal MONTREAL (AP) -- U.S. lumber company
Louisiana Pacific Corp. is acquiring Quebec's Le Group Forex Inc.,
the second takeover of a Canadian forestry company by an American
buyer in the past several days. Under a deal announced Monday,
Louisiana Pacific will pay $408 million for Montreal-based Forex,
which employs about 750 people...

23) Reuters New FSC certified paper USA: June 28, NEW  YORK - The first
letterhead-style business paper made from pulp that originated in certified,
well-managed forests has been  produced by Lyons  Falls Pulp & Paper Co. The
stationery  stock is the first  to bear the  watermark logo of the Forest
Stewardship Council  (FSC), an international  nonprofit organisation that...

24) AFP HEADLINE: Paradise island of Bali faces threatsBYLINE: Bernard Estrade
DATELINE: DENPASAR, Indonesia, June 28  BODY: The Indonesian tourist island
of Bali has become a victim of its own success, with environmental, cultural
and social pressures threatening its survival, according to some officials.
When is too much already  enough?" asked Gede Rai, a question especially...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

25) The Times (London) June 28, SECTION: Home news HEADLINE: Warning on 'GM
pollution' BODY: GENETICALLY modified micro-organisms are being released
into the environment every day, according to a report by published today.The
campaign group GeneWatch UK said that the micro-organisms were used for
research and to make drugs, and were being  released in waste from factories...

26) Plot thickens on supposed EU GMO "ban" ENDS Daily-25/06/99 After apparently
reaching a unanimous political agreement to institute a pseudo ban on
further permitting of genetically modified organisms during yesterday's
marathon Environment Council in Luxembourg, a much more complex position
emerged at 6am this morning than the clear EU moratorium claimed by jubilant...

27) DJ WSJ(6/28):Foundation Asks Monsanto To Kill 'Terminator Gene' By Scott
Kilman Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal The Rockefeller Foundation,
which funds research to help poor farmers in developing countries, asked
Monsanto Co. to swear off use of the "terminator gene," which would make
seed sterile. Gordon Conway, president of the New York City foundation,...

28) New Straits Times(Malaysia)June 28, SECTION: Cutting edge Petri dish; Pg. 6
HEADLINE: Debate continues on modified food BYLINE: By Koshy Philip BODY: A
BRITISH Medical  Association (BMA) report last month states that food items
containing "modified" genes should be labelled precisely to enable the
consumer to distinguish them from the "unmodified" or conventional ones. The...

 OTHER 

29) National Post June 28, 1999 @SERIES=EDITIONS SECTION: SPECIAL REPORT:
PASSPORT; Pg.  E03 HEADLINE: 'Roof of the World' rescue sets out BYLINE:
Kevin Platt DATELINE: BEIJING  BODY: BEIJING - Tibet has always been a land
of extremes -- cloud-capped mountain peaks and lush tropical valleys, held
together in a delicate ecosystem mix that  inspires a mystical reverence for...

------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: The above newsclips are to indicate the environment news of the day.
Whole news articles are copyright protected, so unfortunately Greenpeace
cannot distribute them publicly.