| EcoVaria is a digital imprint of Casavaria Publishing, devoted to delivering the latest information, from a diverse range of sources, related to ecological science and environmental conditions across the world. EcoVaria is not an academic undertaking or a non-profit publication, but a free-access venue for the release and analysis of credible and vital environmental studies, reports and controversies.
Casavaria plans to publish an annual bound edition of stories and reports compiled through the online EcoVaria.com resource. The publication would be titled EcoVaria 2004, for instance, and we are currently seeking submissions both for the online project and for the anthology.
Contributions of various institutions and publications (such as Albaeco and the Earth Policy Institute), which are republished in the pages of EcoVaria, are produced only with the full authorization of the copyright holder. Other news items, covered here in summary, are reported through fair use standards and as independent EcoVaria stories, with links to any relevant primary source material or third-party reporting.
Casavaria's interest in this subject is more profound than a basic reverence for the living world. The Casavaria philosophy exalts the activity of the creative individual, and seeks to promote a variety of voices, in order to bring forth a richer, more textured realm of interpersonal discourse. In line with this thinking, it is necessary to provide a range of information about the state of the world in which creative people are working, in order to increase awareness, and to concentrate the energies of thinking people on the difficult work of crafting a more humane, sustainable and productive social environment, in which the creative urge can be encouraged to fully flourish.
CYANIDE SPILL POISONS ROMANIAN RIVER
21 MARCH 2004
Romania's Siret River, a tributary of the Danube, is now reported to be contaminated by cyanide. The chemicals involved in the spill leaked from a deactivated chemical processing plant, where storage conditions may not have been up to international standards. Estimates are that "10 tons of toxic substances leaked into the river", according to Ioan Jelev, of Romania's Environment Ministry. [For more: Reuters]
NUCLEAR SUPERFUND SITE IN SLEEPY CONCORD, MA
5 MARCH 2004
The birthplace of the American Revolution, an historic site frequented by tourists, and a quiet Massachusetts suburb, Concord has a big problem. It's one of the most complicated superfund cleanup jobs in the country. The historic town is host to a plant where depleted uranium munitions were manufactured for the Pentagon. There is a nuclear waste dump nearby, and the soil as far as a mile away from the dump is radioactive.
According to Ed Ericson, "A 1993 epidemiological study found the town's residents suffered higher rates of cancer than the state average." The state has had to sue the company responsible for the dumping, and the EPA has quickly ruled that the bankrupt company should not pay for its waste cleanup. [For more: E Magazine]
THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION: A Status Report
2 MARCH 2004
Almost 440 million years ago, some 85 percent of marine animal species were wiped out in the earth's first known mass extinction. Roughly 367 million years ago, once again many species of fish and 70 percent of marine invertebrates perished in a major extinction event. Then about 245 million years ago, up to 95 percent of all animals—nearly the entire animal kingdom—were lost in what is thought to be the worst extinction in history.
... After each extinction, it took upwards of 10 million years for biological richness to recover. Yet once a species is gone, it is gone forever.
The consensus among biologists is that we now are moving toward another mass extinction that could rival the past big five. This potential sixth great extinction is unique in that it is caused largely by the activities of a single species. It is the first mass extinction that humans will witness firsthand—and not just as innocent bystanders. [More EPI at EcoVaria.com]
WRI OFFERS 6 ISSUES TO WATCH
22 DECEMBER 2003
This morning, Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute, presented a list of 6 major environmental issues to watch in 2004. As current trends in economics, industry and international politics show environmental degradation ongoing, with no clear established governing authority to scale back pollution, pressures on the environment are likely to bring these issues to the fore in the coming year. [Full Story]
DEFORESTATION CONTRIBUTES TO PHILIPPINE FLOODING DISASTER
21 DECEMBER 2003
Landslides caused by widespread flooding have killed 200 people in the central and southern Philippines. Massive deforestation is blamed for the floods. In 1991, over 8,000 people were killed by landslides and flooding in the same area. According to an American University case study, "Forest cover in the Philippines has decreased by 56 percent in the postwar period". Some estimate the Philippines will be the first country in the world to lose all of its native rainforest ecosystem. [Full Story]
ECOLOGICAL HUMANISM:
IS HUMANITY DEFINED BY OPPOSITION TO NATURE?
Joseph Robertson
Of prime importance in attending to ecological sustainability is real and resilient diversity. Science does not yet know how to create ex-nihilo. All materials are derived from natural resources, however microscopic the beginnings. Our power to create and to innovate is only enhanced by diversity....
We did not emerge in a vacuum, and there is no evidence to suggest that humanity's best habitat would be an urban-desertified sphere peppered with wholly artificial agribusiness systems ('dumb' systems, or rather systems so monolithic in design as to serve no larger purpose [a deep economic flaw]). There is no evidence that anything other than the atmosphere whose existence gave rise to ours would support the human species over an extended period of time. [Full essay: Ecological Humanism]
THE CLOUD:
LARGEST KNOWN POLLUTANT PHENOMENON
South Asia is gasping under a two mile thick cloud of toxic pollutants and carcinogens. This mega-smog is caused by industrial and automotive emissions, and is said to be killing half a million people a year. It is so vast that it is altering some of the most powerful, established weather systems on the planet. And its influence is not restricted to South Asia. It is estimated that the cloud is capable of reaching half-way around the globe at any given time, meaning that the Americas may be seeing environmental impact from this unfettered pollution... [Learn More]
LEFT, RIGHT, GREEN
Is ecology, the study of natural systems, informed by a will to protect the environment, strictly a "leftist" issue?
There are political involvements, inroads, backwaters and obstructions, but the issue itself is simply one of logic, sound science, and sustainable economic integrity. It is entrenched opposition to intelligent ecological policy that makes this very basic scientific field into a political hotzone. [Find out more...]
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