The UN Climate Change Conference COP25 (2 – 13 December 2019) will take place under the Presidency of the Government of Chile and will be held with logistical support from the Government of Spain. SBSTA 51/ SBI 51 will take place on December 2-13, 2019.
Countries are expected to finalize their climate commitments. The global goal is to stay below the 1.5°C threshold. Global emissions need to be cut by more than 7% every year between 2020 and 2030.
The French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe suffer the effects of a toxic chemical. Ninety-five (95%) of the population of Guadalupe and ninety-two (92%) of the people in Martinique are contaminated with the insecticide Chlordecone (called Kepone). Local adult residents have traces of the chemical in their blood.
Chlordecone is a chlorinated chemical similar to DDT and an endocrine disruptor. It can interfere with hormones and cause disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes it as “potentially carcinogenic.”
The pesticide is known to cause cancer. Large tracts of soil are infected, as are rivers and coastal waters.
The US banned Kepone in 1975 after several hundred workers suffered illness after contamination at a factory in Hopewell, Virginia. These French Islands continued using Kepone until a ban in1993.
French lawmakers designated the state as the main culprit. French President Emmanuel Macron recently called it an “environmental scandal” and said the state “must take responsibility.”
Tourists view these islands as idyllic sun, sea, and sand destinations. However, few visitors are aware of the chronic pollution problem.
What is the controversy over the Factory Butte landmark in Utah that has environmental groups filing lawsuits? –M. Jensen, Taos, NM
The
kerfuffle over Factory Butte, a 6,300-foot peak in Wayne County, Utah about 25
miles east of Capitol Reef National Park, stems from the on-again, off-again
nature of federal rules about whether Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs) should be
allowed to roam the 5,400 acres of wild desert surrounding it.
Environmentalists would like to see the 5,400 acres of desert wildlands surrounding iconic Factory Butte in central Utah permanently protected from off-road vehicles and mechanized transport of any kind. Credit: David Kingham, FlickrCC
Named
by white settlers in the mid-19th century who thought its almost-architectural
stature resembled a Provo, Utah woolen mill, Factory Butte is the latest
flashpoint in a long timeline of disputes over what constitutes fair and proper
use of federally managed desert wildlands in Utah and across the Southwest.
Grand
Staircase-Escalante and Bear’s Ears have been in the news lately given efforts
by the Trump administration to ease restrictions on development, but Factory
Butte has remained out of the spotlight since a George W. Bush-era ruling to
close it to ORVs given potential risks to fragile desert soils and endangered
species. But in May 2019, after some 12 years of protection, Trump’s Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) opened up the desert around Factory Butte to ORVs once
again despite protests.
“The
agency’s decision ensures that one of Utah’s most recognizable landscapes will
be defaced and damaged for years to come,” reports the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance (SUWA), a Salt Lake City-based conservation group leading the fight to
keep ORVs out of fragile desert wildlands. “Contrary to popular myth, these
tracks don’t simply disappear after the next rain!”
“Faced
with public pressure and well-documented damage to the natural resource
values of the areas around Factory Butte, the BLM disallowed ORV use in
the area in 2006,” reports the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a
leading environmental non-profit working with SUWA in suing the BLM over the
move in hopes of getting it overturned. “BLM indicated in its environmental
impact analysis that the area around Factory Butte should remain permanently
closed to unrestricted cross-country travel.”
Furthermore,
environmental advocates are incensed as to how BLM re-opened the
Factory Butte desert to ORVs—that is, without any new environmental reviews of
feasibility, and in secrecy without soliciting or considering public comments.
“By failing to update earlier environmental analyses, the BLM violated the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it failed to, at the very least, conduct a
supplemental environmental analysis to account for the significant changes that
have occurred in the Factory Butte area over the past decade, including the
significant changes being wrought by the climate crisis,” says NRDC.
This
violation of NEPA is a central tenet of the lawsuit the two non-profits are
jointly filing against the Trump administration for opening up the area to ORVs
once again. “Unrestricted ORV use in this area is simply incompatible with its fragility.
Those who hope to appreciate its awe-inspiring beauty would instead confront a
vast web of tire ruts carved into the desert,” adds NRDC. “And the area faces a
potential loss of its highly vulnerable desert species. We hope our lawsuit
once again demonstrates these facts and brings renewed protection of this
iconic western landscape.”
