*sigh*..a host of icky news

[Guest guest]

FIRST OIL LEASE GRANTED IN GULF SINCE 1998

Because of a compromise between the Bush administration

and the president's brother, the federal government will

sell leases for petroleum drilling off Florida this week

for the first time in more than a decade. The Minerals Management

Service will lease tracts for oil and gas exploration in

a 1.5 million acre area Wednesday, instead of the 5.9 milllion

acres that President Bush proposed early in his administration,

a time when it appeared the United States was headed for

a long-term energy crisis.

 

Source: Associated Press

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12042001/ap_oil_45768.asp

B.C. FISH FARMS DAMAGE ENVIRONMENT, FORMER JUDGE FINDS

Aquaculture is damaging the marine environment of British

Columbia, and some practices may be illegal according to

an independent inquiry conducted by a former judge of the

B.C. Supreme Court. The Leggatt Inquiry into Salmon Farming

in British Columbia found that salmon farm net cages pose

a threat to wild salmon and the marine environment and should

be removed from the waters of British Columbia on Canada's

west coast.

 

Source: Environmental News Network

 

http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/12/12042001/fish_45763.asp

 

EXPERTS GATHER TO DISCUSS DEGRADATION OF WORLD'S OCEANS AND COASTLINES

Environment officials and experts met Monday in Paris for

a UNESCO conference on how to protect the world's oceans

from damage caused because more than half the world's population

lives close to the seashore. About 400 government officials

and environmentalists from 55 countries gathered for the

three-day UNESCO conference to draft recommendations ahead

of next year's World Summit on Sustainable Development in

Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

Source: Associated Press

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12042001/ap_coasts_45771.asp

 

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CHINA BEAR BILE INDUSTRY EXPOSED

Some of the black bears at the Dianchuan and Dianye bile

factories in China's southwestern Yunnan province gnawed

at their own paws to relieve the pain. Others in the cramped

cages were not so lucky, having had their teeth and claws

sawed off so they would not hurt their minders.

 

Source: Reuters

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12042001/reu_bears_45765.asp

 

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MEXICAN OFFICIALS REPORT DEFORESTATION WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

A new study of satellite images suggests that Mexico is

losing forest cover almost twice as fast as previously estimated,

making it the country with the second-highest deforestation

rate in the world, the Environment Department reported Monday.

For years, government agencies had estimated that Mexico

was losing about 1.5 million acres (600,000 hectares) of

forest each year to logging, fires and the expansion of

farms and ranches, the government news agency Notimex reported.

 

 

Source: Associated Press

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12042001/ap_mexico_45773.asp

 

BIOLOGISTS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY GRIZZLIES IN THE SELKIRK MOUNTAINS

FACING EXTINCTION

There are so few grizzly bears roaming the Selkirk Mountains

that biologists have given many of them individual names.

They also have a collective moniker: " The walking dead. "

 

 

Source: Associated Press

 

http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12042001/ap_grizzlies_45767.asp