Green Carts Will Bring Fresh Produce to New Yorkers – NEW YORK, New York, December 21, 2007 (ENS) – Apples, oranges, lettuce, green beans – they are part of a healthy diet, but many New Yorkers live in neighborhoods where fresh fruits and vegetables are not available in stores. As a remedy, New York soon may be dotted with food carts that sell only fresh produce.

Green Carts Will Bring Fresh Produce to New Yorkers

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn Tuesday proposed legislation that would increase the number of greengrocers’ carts where access to fresh fruit and vegetables is limited.

The Green Cart proposal, recommended by the Food Policy Task Force, calls for 1,500 cart permits to be phased in over two years, and requires vendors to operate in designated neighborhoods where consumption of fruits and vegetables is low.

“Access to healthy foods varies widely throughout New York City, and in many lower-income neighborhoods, supermarkets are few and far between. There is demand for fruits and vegetables in these neighborhoods, and this regulatory change will enable the market to meet that demand,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

“The Green Cart legislation will also provide opportunities for vendors to make a living selling fresh fruits and vegetables in communities where healthy food can be difficult to find,” he said.

Cart permits will be issued for vendors in areas throughout the five boroughs where fruit and vegetable consumption is low. Bronx and Brooklyn will each get 500 permits; Queens will receive 250 permits; Manhattan will have 200, and Staten Island will receive 50 permits.

“The only way we’ll ever put a dent in the dual problems of malnutrition and obesity is to increase access to healthy food,” said Quinn. “The Council has taken major steps to improve access to nutritious food, and with this legislation, we’ll take another bold effort towards becoming a healthier and more equitable city.”

A recent Health Department study comparing the low income neighborhood of Harlem to the upscale Upper East Side found that supermarkets in Harlem are 30 percent less common, and that only three percent of bodegas in Harlem carry leafy green vegetables as compared to 20 percent on the Upper East Side.

The Green Cart legislation covers neighborhoods where at least 12 percent of adults reported, in Health Department surveys, that they did not eat any fruits or vegetables on the previous day.

“We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden. “In some neighborhoods, rates of obesity and diabetes are 50 percent higher than the citywide average. To tackle this problem, and help prevent diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, we must change our environment and make healthy food more available.”

The mayor and the speaker also announced a new partnership with The Food Trust and the Food Bank for New York City that will work with supermarket operators to develop policies encouraging them to locate in neighborhoods in need of improved access to healthy foods.

“Our work at the Food Bank and FoodChange to address hunger, poverty and nutrition issues has taught us that creating access to affordable, nutritious food in low-income communities is the long-term solution we need,” said Food Bank President Lucy Cabrera.

“The city’s new Green Cart legislation will put fresh fruits and vegetables on the tables of families in low-income neighborhoods across the city, and that is a huge achievement by any measure.”

“One of the easiest ways to better our health is to eat more fruits and vegetables every day,” said Ulysses Kilgore, president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center in Brooklyn.

“And while some New Yorkers are already doing this, many of us have difficulty because fresh fruits and vegetables are not as accessible in our neighborhoods,” he said. “This proposal will make it possible for every New Yorker to choose a healthier diet.”

Global Warming Could Kill World’s Coral Reefs in 50 Years – Seventeen eminent marine scientists warn that world leaders face a race against time in preparing coral reefs, and the coastal communities dependent upon them for the “inevitable impact” of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Their new study shows that levels of carbon dioxide could become unsustainable for coral reefs within 50 years.

The warning comes in a new study published in the journal “Science” on December 14.

“It’s vital that the public understands that the lack of sustainability in the world’s carbon emissions is causing the rapid loss of coral reefs, the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystem,” said Drew Harvell, Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and head of the Coral Disease Research Team, which is part of the international Coral Reef Targeted Research, CRTR, group that wrote the new study.

The rise of carbon dioxide emissions and the resulting climate warming from the burning of fossil fuels are making oceans warmer and more acidic, said Harvell.

These conditions are causing widespread coral disease and stifling coral growth toward what Harvell calls “a tipping point for functional collapse.”

The study’s senior author, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Center for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia, says coral ecosystems provide habitats for a vast array of marine species that are essential to the complex food chain in all the oceans of the world.

Coral reefs provide livelihoods to 100 million people who live along the coasts of tropical developing countries. Diving tourism in the Caribbean alone is estimated to generate more than $100 billion a year.

The loss of coral reef ecosystems also is exposing people to flooding, coastal erosion and the loss of food and income from reef-based fisheries and tourism, warned Hoegh-Guldberg.

The marine scientists argue that “drastic action” is needed from world leaders to turn around the trend in rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, CO2, to protect coral reefs.

They based their conclusions on the forecasts for rising global temperatures and levels of CO2 announced earlier this year by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Coral reefs have already taken a big hit from recent warm temperatures, but rapid rises in carbon dioxide cause acidification, which adds a new threat: the inability of corals to create calcareous skeletons,” said Harvell.

“Acidification actually threatens all marine animals and plants with calcareous skeletons, including corals, snails, clams and crabs,” he said.

In the short term, better management of overfishing and local stressors may increase resilience of reefs to climate threats, the authors acknowledge, but they predict that rising global CO2 emissions will outstrip the capacity of local coastal managers and policy-makers to maintain the health of these critical ecosystems if the emissions continue unchecked.

Today, coral reefs around the world are in such serious decline that their defilement risks contributing to environmental and economic instability of many coastal nations, the scientists say.

Of the 109 countries with significant coral reef communities, over 93 are experiencing damage to them, according to CRTR scientists. They warn that many coral reefs have reached such a state of decline that they can no longer be considered as coral reefs, while others are under increasing threat from local human disturbances and impacts from a changing global climate.

The Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management Program has been established to address fundamental information gaps in understanding of coral reef ecosystems, so that management options and policy interventions can be strengthened globally.

For the first time, this program will join the collective effort of many of the world’s leading coral reef scientists to coordinate research and address key outstanding questions about the health of coral reefs.

The program is being developed in phases over 15 years, and through focused and systematic research is working to support management and policy and to better integrate results with other disciplines, such as economics and law.

It is a partnership of the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, the University of Queensland, Australia, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and some 40 research institutes and other third parties around the world.

Japan Suspends Humpback Whale Hunt – The government of Japan has agreed to suspend its plans to kill 50 humpback whales this year but only on condition that the International Whaling Commission, IWC, reinstates its original task of whale resource management.

Japan Suspends Humpback Whale Hunt

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference today that William Hogarth of the United States, chair of the commission, who arrived in Japan on Tuesday, proposed to Japan’s Fisheries Agency that humpback whaling be suspended, the Kyodo News Service reports.

The Japanese whaling fleet sailed for the Southern Ocean in November, planning to hunt about 850 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpbacks until mid-April under a provision of the Convention on Whaling that allows IWC member governments to set their own quotas for scientific or research whaling. This season’s quota is Japan’s largest.

Japan has set a whale hunt quota every year since the IWC imposed a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. The moratorium was put in place to give whales a period of recovery after more than a century of whaling brought several species to the brink of extinction.

Today, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi told reporters that the suspension on hunting humpbacks is subject to “the condition that the operations of the IWC be normalized as it is not functioning normally as a resources management body in the face of emotional clashes.”

The IWC members have divided into a pro-whaling faction and an anti-whaling faction. In recent years, votes at IWC meetings have been narrowly won, with the anti-whaling group usually turning back proposals made by Japan and other pro-whaling nations.

The 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, under which the IWC was established, was originally supposed to manage a whaling industry. “The purpose of the Convention is to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry,” the IWC states on its website.

After the moratorium was set, the IWC began to develop the Revised Management Procedure, which it describes as “a scientifically robust method of setting safe catch limits for certain stocks (groups of whales of the same species living in a particular area) where the numbers are plentiful.”

There has been pressure from Japan, Norway and Iceland to remove the moratorium for certain stocks of minke whales.

But the IWC says that before the Revised Management Procedure is implemented and the moratorium on commercial whaling lifted, “an inspection and observation scheme must be in place to ensure that agreed catch limits are not exceeded.”

At this point discussions remain at an impasse.

Japan’s decision to suspend the pursuit of humpback whales comes after Australia’s new government said Wednesday that it would send a ship and aircraft to monitor Japanese whaling activities in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in the Southern Ocean. The Australians said they would diplomatic and legal steps to stop the Japanese whale hunt entirely.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura conveyed Japan’s decision to halt humpback whaling to his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith in a telephone conversation today.

Komura told reporters Smith said Australia welcomes the move but continues to call for a halt to all Japanese whaling activities, Kyodo reports.

When asked how long the suspension will continue, Komura said, ”What Chairman Hogarth requested was one to two years. From the Japanese government’s point of view, [the suspension will continue until] Japan can conclude that the [IWC discussion] process is moving back on track.”

While Dr. Hogart is the present chair of the IWC, the vice-chair is Minoru Morimoto, who heads the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo.

Whale conservation groups say the suspension is a good move, but a complete halt to Japanese whaling is needed.

“This is happy news for 50 humpback whales but Japan’s whaling continues to expand,” said Patrick Ramage, Global Whale Program Manager with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

“Withdrawing wild threats to kill humpbacks isn’t enough, Japan needs to stop whaling and join the emerging global consensus for whale conservation,” he said.

Greenpeace said, “The news that humpback whales will be spared this season from Japanese harpooners is a victory for Greenpeace supporters all over the world who have joined with us in demanding action from their governments, participated in promoting non-lethal alternatives to whale research.”

EPA Faces Wave of Challenges to California Waiver Denial – A powerful Congressional committee has launched an investigation into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of California’s request to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles and other tailpipe toxics. It is the first time a waiver request has been denied under the federal Clean Air Act.

EPA Faces Wave of Challenges to California Waiver Denial

The Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform has ordered EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to preserve all documents relating to the decision he issued Wednesday not to grant a waiver of less stringent federal rules so that California’s clean car law could take effect.

Committee chair Congressman Henry Waxman of California has requested that Johnson provide all the documents from his office relating to the California waiver request to the committee by January 10, 2008. Documents from all EPA offices relating to this decision are to be handed over to the commettee by January 23.

“Prior to making this decision you assured the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as well as the state of Califomia and many others, that you would make this decision on the merits. It does not appear that you fulfilled that commitment,” Waxman wrote in a letter to the EPA administrator on Thursday.

“Your decision appears to have ignored the evidence before the agency and the requirements of the Clean Air Act. In fact, reports indicate that you ovemrled the unanimous recommendations of EPA’s legal and technical staffs in rejecting California’s petition,” Waxman wrote.

“Your decision not only has important consequences to our nation, but it raises serious questions about the integrity of the decision-making process,” wrote Waxman. “Accordingly, the Committee has begun an investigation into this matter.”

Announcing the denial, EPA administrator Johnson said the energy bill signed into law by the president earlier this week would be sufficient to curb greenhouse gases from cars because it mandates a 35 mile per gallon fuel efficiency standard for cars and light trucks across the country by 2020.

“The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution – not a confusing patchwork of state rules – to reduce America’s climate footprint from vehicles,” said Johnson.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, wrote Johnson Thursday to state her disagreement with his position and to remind him that Congress recently upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and grant waivers.

“In particular,” she wrote, “I find implausible your inference that the passage this week of the “Energy Independence and Security Act” eliminated the need for the waiver requested by California.”

“Surely you and others in the Bush Administration were aware that the Congress rejected requests from the Administration to waive the Environmental Protection Agency’s longstanding authority to regulate emissions and to grant states waivers under the Clean Air Act,” Pelosi wrote.

“Citing the passage of our new law as a justification for denying California’s request defies the legislative history as well as the explicit language of the “Energy Independence and Security Act.”

The EPA is also facing lawsuits from states that adopted the California clean car standards. The states will challenge the denial of the waiver request, because approval of California’s waiver would have meant that other states get approval automatically.

California Attorney General Ed Brown, Jr. said Wednesday that he and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are preparing for a lawsuit.

On Thursday, Governor Chris Gregoire said Washington state would seek legal action against the federal government over clean air laws designed to reduce global warming pollution from that state’s automobiles.

“The Bush administration’s decision to deny states the right to pass environmental protections to fight global warming is wrong,” said Gregoire. “Washington cannot wait for permission to do the right thing for our state’s environment and future generations. I have requested our Attorney General file in support of California’s challenge to this decision as soon as possible.”

Putting the California standards into action would mean the equivalent of eliminating 690,000 cars from Washington’s roads in 2020, said the governor. Without the waiver, each year millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases, which otherwise would be eliminated, will instead continue to spew into our atmosphere.

Sixteen other states – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington – have adopted, or are in the process of adopting California’s emissions standards.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said his state is committed to fighting the decision in consultation with California and other states.

“It’s frustrating to see this administration, which has consistently failed to lead on environmental issues, act as an obstructionist to states that are stepping up to protect their citizens and the environment,” said Rendell.

“Each of us has been entrusted with a solemn obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation,” he said. “If the federal government doesn’t wish to recognize that or exhibit real leadership on the issue, it needs to get out of the way and let states like California and Pennsylvania act to protect the health of our people, the environment and our economy.”

“The federal government should be a partner in states’ efforts to curb pollution that ravages the health of our people and our environment,” said Maine Governor John Baldacci. “Unfortunately, instead, the administration in Washington, DC, has chosen to play the role of obstructionist.”

While he does not say that Maine will join a lawsuit against the EPA, Baldacci said his administration will “continue to put forth strong, good faith efforts to protect our natural resources and our people.”

Maine’s climate change action plan has set a goal of reducing climate altering emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2010, and 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. This goal has also been set by other northeastern states.

At the EPA, Johnson is opposed to a state-by-state approach to addressing greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles.

“EPA has determined that a unified federal standard of 35 miles per gallon will deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks in all 50 states, which would be more effective than a partial state-by-state approach of 33.8 miles per gallon.” he said Wednesday.

But California clean car standards would start two years sooner than federal energy bill, and be fully phased in four years sooner. The California law would require a 30 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions on new vehicles by 2016.

Although the federal energy bill requires a fleet-wide average of 35 mpg by 2020, California officials say the state law would result in a 36 mpg average four years earlier.

California’s law also would regulate a broader spectrum of greenhouse gases, including refrigerants from vehicle air conditioners, and it governs the emissions of a range of alternative fuels, not just gasoline. Under a waiver, California, Washington and other states could tighten their emission rules beyond 2020.

Congress Earmarks $3 Million to Reopen EPA Libraries – Buried in two short paragraphs within the voluminous omnibus appropriations bill Congress sent this week to President George W. Bush is a Christmas present for EPA scientists and anyone else that wants to use the library network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Congress Earmarks $3 Million to Reopen EPA Libraries

Congress ordered the EPA to restore its library services across the country and earmarked $3 million for that purpose, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, a national association of workers in natural resources agencies.

The report language attached to the omnibus appropriations bill for the remainder of the 2008 fiscal year directs EPA to use $3 million to “restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration…” and to report within 90 days on its plans to “restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region…”

Beginning in early 2006, without public announcement or congressional approval, the EPA began dismantling its network of technical and research libraries.

In total, EPA has closed regional libraries serving 23 states and its headquarters library in Washington, DC, and has reduced services and hours in libraries covering another 14 states.

In addition, EPA has shuttered several of its specialized, technical libraries, such as its unique library dedicated to the effects of pesticides and new chemicals.

The EPA claimed it was “providing broader access to a larger audience by making agency library materials available through its website. “Retrieving materials will be more efficient and easier to locate by using EPA’s online collection and reference services,” the agency said in December 2006.

“When libraries go digital, everyone benefits,” declaimed EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock. “By modernizing our libraries, EPA is bringing our cutting edge science to your fingertips, whether you live across the street, or on the other side of the world.”

But the agency’s original claim of cost savings clashed with the enormous expense of digitizing hundreds of thousands of documents. In addition, the agency did not anticipate copyright restrictions, which barred many of its holdings from being digitized.

Now some at the EPA worry that the congressionally mandated restoration will be bungled.

“We have already been contacted by EPA librarians who are concerned that the same officials who destroyed the libraries will be in charge of their restoration,” said PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. “We hope that Congress continues to closely oversee whether EPA fully restores the full range of library services it had provided.”

Before the closures, the budget for the EPA library network was $2.5 million. By earmarking $3 million, Congress increased the total library budget, allowing the agency to absorb the expense of collecting dispersed collections and replacing jettisoned facilities.

For example, “EPA closed its largest regional library in Chicago and sold all of its fixtures, valued at more than $40,000, for less than $350,” PEER says.

“While the intervention of Congress is most welcome,” said Goldberg, “it comes after several closures and much disruption, leaving the remaining EPA librarians with the task of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

Pennsylvania Invests $20 Million in Community Recycling – Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell says the state will spend $20 million to support new and expanded recycling programs benefiting 10 million people in 134 communities across the state.

Pennsylvania Invests $20 Million in Community Recycling

Counties, cities and townships will purchase recycling containers, establish a drop-off recycling programs, yard waste collection and composting, and augment recyclable materials processing.

“Recycling is a dynamic and growing enterprise in Pennsylvania,” said the governor Friday, announcing $20 million in funding through the Recycling Development and Implementation Grant Program.

Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty said reusing materials is an important factor in Pennsylvania’s drive to energy independence.

“To put it in perspective,” she said, “the materials Pennsylvanians recycled in 2005 saved almost 98 trillion British thermal units of energy and cut more than 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the air.

“That’s the equivalent of eliminating the output from three large coal-fired power plants and taking 1.7 million cars and light trucks off the road,” McGinty said.

The Recycling Development and Implementation Grant Program reimburses local governments, councils of government, consortiums and solid waste authorities for the cost of municipal recycling and composting programs.

Pennsylvania’s recycling program, created under Act 101 of 1988, mandates recycling in the state’s larger municipalities and requires counties to develop municipal waste management plans.

“The more we recycle, the more natural resources we preserve and the better our environment’s health,” said Governor Rendell. “And, it’s important to recognize that these investments by the commonwealth come back to us in more jobs and a stronger economy.”

One of the largest grants will go to Pittsburgh, which will receive $499,695 to enhance downtown and small business recycling.

Blair County will receive $500, 000 to improve, enhance and expand recycling efforts in Altoona, Holidaysburg, Tyrone and Logan and to increase diversion of leaf and yard waste to the Blair County compost site.

Union County will get $492,044 to improve the county-wide recycling program and implement a commercial food waste composting program.

In 2005, Pennsylvanians recycled a record 4.86 million tons of municipal waste, saving consumers and industries nearly $263 million in disposal costs and providing businesses with materials valued at $577 million.

“Recycling is an important tool in growing Pennsylvania’s economy and for protecting our environment, but it also plays a role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil and other fossil fuels,” said McGinty. “Greater levels of recycling mean fewer natural resources have to be extracted from the earth and manufactured into finished products. The supply chain and production processes associated with that conversion consumes an incredible amount of energy, scars the planet, and creates a tremendous amount of air pollution.

The commonwealth’s recycling and reuse industry includes more than 3,200 establishments with total annual sales of $18.4 billion. The industry employs more than 81,000 people and has an annual payroll of $2.9 billion. Additionally, these businesses add more than $305 million in taxes to the state treasury.

Nepal Safeguards Four Sacred Himalayan Lakes – To commemorate the Ghunsa tragedy, in which the lives of 24 conservationists from the Nepalese government and WWF were lost in a helicopter crash, the government of Nepal has announced the designation of four new high altitude Wetlands of International Importance.

The helicopter went down on September 23, 2006 in Ghunsa, Nepal. WWF lost seven colleagues – Chandra Gurung, Mingma Norbu Sherpa, Harka Gurung, Yeshi Lama, Jill Bowling Schlaepfer, Jennifer Headley and Matthew Preece – in the crash.

The country lost its minister of state for forests and soil conservation, the secretary of that ministry, the director general of national parks and wildlife conservation, the director general of forests, several of its most distinguished defenders of natural resources and overseas specialists who were champions for conservation in Nepal.

They were returning from a trip to Ghunsa, in the mountains of eastern Nepal where they had participated in a ceremony in which the government of Nepal handed over to local communities responsibility for managing the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, a place known for its beauty, biodiversity and rich cultural heritage.

At the ceremony in Kathmandu on the first anniversary of the crash September 23, 2007, Ramsar’s Assistant Advisor for the Asia-Pacific Pragati Tuladhar delivered an address on behalf of the Secretary General and presented Ramsar site certificates for the four new sites to the government of Nepal.

The paperwork has now been completed and the sites have been added to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.

The designation of these lakes under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands means the government undertakes to protect them and report on its progress in doing so.

Together they are an extraordinary group of Himalayan lakes, says the Ramsar Secretariat. All are within national parks and the first of these is already a UNESCO World Heritage site – Sagarmatha National Park – the site of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain.

The Ramsar Secretariat commended government of Nepal for this initiative, and acknowledged WWF Nepal “for its considerable assistance in preparing the groundwork for these designations.”

Gokyo and Associated Lakes – 4,710 – 4,950 meters

Gokyo and Associated Lakes. 23/09/07; Sagarmatha; 7,770 ha; 27°52’N 080°42’E. Within Sagarmatha National Park, UNESCO World Heritage site.

A system of glacial lakes at 4,710m-4,950m altitude in the high Himalayan region at the base of Cho Oyo (the world’s 6th highest mountain), not far from Mt. Everest, at the headwaters of the Dudh Koshi River which is part of the Ganges river system.

The alpine pasture meadow and sloping mountain terrain support IUCN Red listed rare and vulnerable species, such as the kutki plant, the Himalayan tahr or goat, the snow leopard, wood snipe, endemic species like the flowering plant Kobresia fissiglumis, and many important birds.

The system is a vital source of water for downstream communities.

Eight hotels with campgrounds serve ecotourists and religious visitors. Garbage and sewage left by visitors is difficult to dispose of and such pollution pressures represent a potential threat, as does overgrazing and deforestation caused by mountaineering expeditions seeking firewood.

The site is two days’ walk from Namche, the nearest town.

Gosaikunda and Associated Lakes – 4,054 – 4,620 meters

Gosaikunda and Associated Lakes. 23/09/07; Bagamti; 1,030 ha; 28°05’N 085°25’E. Within Langtang National Park. A treeless region with shrub land interspersed by rocky slopes and alpine pasture, with a complex of at least 15 lakes and ponds.

IUCN Red listed endangered and vulnerable species of animals and plants are present. The site has religious associations for Hindus and Buddhists and is the locus of the important Gangadashahara and Janaipurnima festivals.

Human uses include grazing during summers, and there are four hotels with campgrounds for trekking groups and pilgrims. Threats to the site include pollution from the huge gathering during the festivals. There is a religious ban on the killing of animals within much of the site.

Phoksundo Lake – 3,611 meters

Phoksundo Lake. 23/09/07; Karnali; 494 ha; 29°12’N 082°57’E. Within Shey-Phoksundo National Park. A glacial lake near Ringmo in the Dolpo region, the deepest lake in the country, that is the centre of endemism in the eastern Himalayan region and a vital source of freshwater for downstream, with the highest waterfall 167 meters in Nepal a short walk from the lake.

The lake, alpine meadows, and bogs provide habitat for a number of rare and vulnerable plants and animals, including the snow leopard, musk deer, and grey or Tibetan wolf.

The site has great cultural and religious importance, with traditional Tibetan culture of the upper Dolpo and both Buddhism and the ancient Tibetan Bon-Po religion of the lower Dolpo both observed in Ringmo village. There is some grazing and cultivation, but tourism, dependent upon the wetland, is the base of the economy.

Overgrazing and pollution from the 42 households of Ringmo village are seen as potential threats to the site.

Rara Lake – 2,900 meters

Rara Lake. 23/09/07; Karnali; 1,583 ha; 29°30’N 082°05’E. National Park. The largest lake in Nepal, lying at about 2,900m altitude and providing water to the important Kamali River.

The area has developed unique floral and faunal assemblages with a number of rare and vulnerable animal and plant species, and the wet alpine pasture, moraines, and damp stream banks along the lake area are the natural habitats for endemic species of plants.

The endemic frog Rara paha is found at only one other location in the Central region, and three endemic species of snow trout are found only here.

Two temples in the area are the venue for a number of religious festivals. Principal threats come from pollution caused by army personnel and tourists and unregulated fuelwood collection, especially during festivals.

On Third Anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami UNICEF Reports – The United Nations Childrens’ Fund counts its blessings in numbers in its new three year report on recovery from the Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people on December 26, 2004.

UNICEF says more than 20,000 water points have been restored, serving over 730,000 people, and over 42,000 latrines have been constructed.

Construction on 59 health facilities has been completed, and is underway on another 115.

The 2007 tsunami report says life-saving insecticide-treated mosquito nets have been distributed, benefiting nearly 3.5 million people.

More than 1.2 million children have benefited from UNICEF’s psycho-social activities and HIV/AIDS awareness and education campaigns have reached over 330,000 people.

But the work of UNICEF has in some cases been halted.

In Sri Lanka and Somalia a resurgence of violence in the past year has created much suffering, says UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman.

“An estimated 1.5 million children and their families in Somalia are in urgent need of emergency humanitarian assistance, as some of the worst fighting in 17 years devastates the country,” she said.

“The suffering of children and their families is acute, particularly in the capital, Mogadishu, where fighting prevents families from accessing emergency facilities and from leaving the city.”

“UNICEF staff on the ground report critical shortages of food, water, and medicine – putting children at high risk of disease and malnutrition. Children are also suffering from exhaustion and emotional trauma.”

“In addition to the immediate threats to their lives and health, children’s futures are being damaged because the conflict has severely restricted access to education.”

“UNICEF appeals to all parties for an immediate cessation of the conflict to enable humanitarian workers access to those in need, especially children. Safe zones must be created where children and families can find assistance and stability,” said Veneman, herself a cancer survivor, and a former U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Meanwhile, construction in Indonesia has been hampered by the lack of new roads and unresolved land titles.

Monitoring and evaluation in the low-lying Maldives island nation is hindered by the dispersed geography.

Its access to help children in Myanmar is hampered by “geography and security,” UNICEF says.

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.

The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.

Realizing that lasting recovery will take years, a statement from the organization says UNICEF “tries not only to move quickly, but also to be accountable and ensure its work has lasting impact.”

“The aim is not to find quick solutions that cannot be sustained, but to build back better, involving communities and local governments in the recovery and rebuilding process

With these long-term goals in mind, UNICEF’s tsunami programs and corresponding funding are planned through the end of 2009.

And a few more numbers…

School construction in the eight countries affected by the tsunami is being accomplished.

Since 2004, more than US$150 million have been spent on education – more than a third of which were put into use in the past year. UNICEF has completed construction on more than 100 schools, and the building process is underway for another 254.

UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet).

This was the ninth-deadliest natural disaster in modern history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and Myanmar were hardest hit.

With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.

Scientists said this earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.5 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

The quake, centered in the Indian Ocean, also created the biggest gash in the Earth’s seabed ever observed, nearly 800 miles long.

Cooling Earth’s Climate As A Matter Of Faith – World Council of Churches General Secretary Dr. Samuel Kobia is calling concerns about climate change “a matter of faith” and says the Christian faith community must be at the vanguard of the response to global warming.

Cooling Earth’s Climate As A Matter Of Faith

“I think as Christians we should be the ones to lead the way so that others then can follow because for us it is not just a matter of political or economic or ecological concern it is a matter of faith,” Kobia said Thursday in New York.

“We have seen that when we become careless the effect is what we are seeing now with global warming,” he said.

An ordained minister in the Methodist Church in his native Kenya, Kobia is in the United States for meetings with heads of churches and other ecumenical leaders, including Church World Service Executive Director and CEO John McCullough.

Church World Service is a member of the Central Committee, the chief governing body of the World Council of Churches, which represents over 560 million Christians around the world.

Although the subject of climate change has only recently become a focus of global concern, Kobia said the World Council of Churches, WCC, is not a newcomer to the debate.

“The WCC has had a program around climate change since 1992. We have books on eco-theology. We called the program Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. We talked about the danger the approach to development has to the integrity of creation. Therefore, for us it is not a new idea.”

Kobia says he would like to invite the entire Christian community to be involved in the work on climate change.

“It is a gospel imperative for churches to be involved in the work on climate change. It is a gospel imperative because human beings are entrusted with the rest of God’s creation,” he said. “It is there for us not to plunder and not to dominate, but to care.”

The Church World Service is accelerating its own advocacy campaign on climate change, as well as advocacy work with faith-based and other partners in Washington, pressing U.S. policymakers and lawmakers to raise the bar on this country’s commitments to combat the crisis.

Along with the National Council of Churches and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Church World Service filed a brief in 2006 supporting the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 11 other states in the lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for the EPA’s failure to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Despite the court’s finding against the EPA in April this year, the Bush administration Thursday announced that it will block efforts by California, Maryland, and 15 other states to cut emissions of global warming gases from cars and trucks.

Across the United States, religious leaders are working to curb climate change.

Rev. Sally Bingham, whose title is “environmental minister” at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, is also president of the Regeneration Project and Interfaith Power and Light.

The Regeneration Project seeks to “deepen the connection between ecology and faith” and the Interfaith Power and Light project is specifically focused on global warming, including how churches can reduce their own electricity bills.

“Ten years ago people thought I was bringing political issues to the pulpit and that I was an environmentalist looking for a platform,” Bingham said. “But there has just been an overwhelming shift in that idea and now everybody wants to hear about it. It’s been an amazing transformation.”

The Interfaith Power and Light effort began in 1998 with Episcopal Power and Light and the support of Grace Cathedral as a unique coalition of Episcopal churches aggregated to purchase renewable energy.

Bingham says, “In 2001, we co-founded California Interfaith Power and Light, which helps people of faith in California to organize and promote positive environmental change around energy and global warming. Nationally, we are working to establish Interfaith Power and Light programs in every state.”

On its website, the Regeneration Project encourages Americans to contact their political representatives about climate change, says, “Tell them global warming is a religious issue, that the U.S. must participate in strong and fair international agreements and adopt strong national policy. This is the most important thing you can do right now!”

Catholics have the moral support of Pope Benedict XVI in their efforts to restore a healthy climate. In his World Day of Peace Message for January 1, 2008, the Pope says,

Pope Benedict XVI (Photo courtesy The Vatican)

“The family needs a home, a fit environment in which to develop its proper relationships. For the human family, this home is the Earth, the environment that God the Creator has given us to inhabit with creativity and responsibility. We need to care for the environment: it has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion.”

“One area where there is a particular need to intensify dialogue between nations is that of the stewardship of the Earth’s energy resources,” said the Pope.

“The technologically advanced countries are facing two pressing needs in this regard: on the one hand, to reassess the high levels of consumption due to the present model of development, and on the other hand to invest sufficient resources in the search for alternative sources of energy and for greater energy efficiency,” he said.

“Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow,” said the Pope. “It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.”

Poll Holiday Shoppers Eager to Purchase Green Gifts – A wide majority of holiday shoppers expressed a willingness to pay more for eco-friendly gifts and took note of the country where items were made, finds the 2007 Annual National Shopping Behavior Survey by the audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP.

Poll Holiday Shoppers Eager to Purchase Green Gifts

“When consumers had the opportunity, they purchased gifts to fit their social conscience,” said John Rittenhouse, a KPMG retail partner and national leader for Operations Risk Management.

“The ‘green-quotient’ and a product’s country of origin have become important reputational concerns for shoppers, due mainly to recent publicity on the environment and manufacturing issues in emerging markets,” he said.

Some 88 percent of the survey respondents, Rittenhouse said, were very concerned about the environment, 74 percent indicated they buy environmentally friendly products, 60 percent were willing to pay more for such items, and 55 percent say they make a special effort to patronize retailers with a “green” reputation.

In addition, 40 percent of consumers said they checked the country of origin on potential gifts, with 31 percent using such information to decide against a purchase.

While 79 percent of those decisions not to buy an item involved products from China, toys were involved more than half (52 percent) of the time.

Money appeared to be more of an issue this year. While an average of 36 percent of shoppers have previously reported spending more each year during similar surveys from 2003 to 2006, just 30 percent of respondents in 2007 said they spent more than the preceding holiday season on gifts.

Mark Larson, KPMG’s global leader for the retail sector, said the survey shows that well-stocked retailers with a customer friendly return policy continued to attract business. He observed that 76 percent of shoppers said their spending decisions were influenced most when a store had the item they expected, while 58 percent cited a store’s return policy as influential.

By contrast, 47 percent said newspaper ads affected where they shopped, and 43 percent said a coupon figured into the decision, the survey said.

Rittenhouse said, “The KPMG survey respondents said they shopped basically at the same time they do every year, and sales or early promotions did little to change their patterns.”

“Even though price remains the most significant driver to attract customers initially, busy shoppers told us they went to the retailer where experience told them they could get what they wanted,” said Larson.

The survey, designed and managed by The Gordman Group, was conducted randomly by telephone with 815 shoppers. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percent, at a 95 percent confidence level.