🚀 go-pugleaf

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Faultline News February 7, 2002 Volume 2, Number 2

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NOW PLAYING AT WWW.FAULTLINE.ORG -
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=> Bush wants to drill in condor country
=> We Love Poison Oak (sort of)
=> Making the Polluters Pay $100 Per Second
=> The New York Times in Pathetic
=> Chevron abandons the "People Do" schtick
=> news, news, news

See "New On The Site", below editor's note

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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"You see the signs all the time -- 'missing Chihuahua' -- and
you know they're not missing, they're dead."

- Vi Houske, Rolling Hills resident, on the coyotes roaming
through that Palos Verdes gated city, as quoted in the
Torrance Daily Breeze, 2/7/02

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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
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Activists are suggesting that President Bush will approve
a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada -
a short distance from the California line at Death Valley -
sometime this month. In the middle of what we desert rats
refer to as the godforsaken stinking desert, the dump is
lauded as the safest site for waste from the nation's
nuclear reactors, and 70,000 tons or more will end up there
if the dump is opened.

The aridity of the site is one of the points argued by
proponents of the nuke dump. The Mojave is arid enough,
alright - there are parts of it that sometimes get no
precipitation in a year.

But disposal of nuclear waste forces one to take a longer
view than we're used to. The wastes slated for storage at
Yucca Mountain will be toxic for a quarter of a million
years. 250,000 years ago the Neanderthals were just getting
started. Since then, the Earth has gone through an Ice Age
and two interglacial periods.

Most people look at the Mojave and see a desert of
surpassing antiquity. But the Mojave as we know it is
younger than human history. Eight thousand years ago the
city of Catal Huyuk in present-day Turkey had 6000
inhabitants, and the Mojave had freshwater lakes. 12,000
years ago the Mojave was relatively verdant. 25,000 years
ago you could have grown wheat in Barstow without irrigation.

Climate in the Mojave has varied wildly since 250,000 years
ago, and we have no reason to believe the desert's climate
has stabilized relative to the last few million years.

If the dump is built, nuclear waste will be stored in a
chamber 300 feet above the current water table. Geologists
have pointed out that if one of the 33 earthquake faults in
the vicinity of the dump lets loose, or if a nearby dormant
volcano wakes up, as it last did a mere 20,000 years ago,
that water table could shift dramatically, and that
radioactive contaminants may escape the mountain in as few
as 1000 years. 

Those estimates are based on current rainfall patterns. If
storm patterns change and the Mojave starts getting more
than a couple inches of rainfall a year, that water table
could rise a hell of a lot faster.

Public Citizen's website at http://www.citizen.org has a
wealth of information on the proposed dump at Yucca
Mountain, including a page from which you can fax the White
House to express your opposition to the dump. That page can
be found at
http://dev.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?id=28&source=1

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FAULTLINE NOW A NON-PROFIT!

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In happier news, we at Faultline are pleased to announce
that we've been taken on as a project of the Earth Island
Institute, the environmental network founded by the late
David Brower. Our new non-profit status will allow us to
offer tax deductions to those who donate funds to keep us
working.

We're not about to get all NPR on readers of Faultline News
and fill this newsletter with endless appeals for cash, but
we will let you know sometime soon how you can donate to us
if you're so inclined.

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NEW ON THE SITE
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In Praise of Poison Oak
by Chris Clarke
It's every bit as defining of California as coast redwoods,
gray whales or polished granite domes, but you rarely see
poison oak on the postcards tourists send home to Dubuque.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/place/2002/02/toxicodendron1.html

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Enough is Enough!
by Thomas K. Butt
Yet another toxic release happened in Richmond on January 31,
disrupting the lives of locals yet again. Butt, Richmond's
Vice-Mayor, thinks corporations should compensate for the
disruption -- at $100 per second.
A Faultline guest editorial.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/02/butt.html

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Mostly, People Don't
by Shawn C. Butler
Chevron's People Do ad campaign passed quietly into
oblivion last October, bringing a barely noticed end to one
of the longest running corporate environmental image
promotions in history.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/peopledont1.html

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All The News That Fits Between Griffith Park and Wilshire
by Tim Neagle
When reporters from the New York Times cover California,
they should venture beyond Spago's.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/place/2002/02/dowd.html

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Protect Los Padres

Potential wilderness areas in the Los Padres National
Forest are threatened by oil and gas development. Your
letters are needed.
A Faultline guest editorial by the California Wilderness
Coalition.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/02/lospadres.html

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All the Wild and Lonely Places

Lawrence Hogue hikes in Anza Borrego, and comes back with
some startling observations about California's wilderness --
and the people who built it. Chris Clarke reviews this
stellar work in the Faultline Bookstore.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/bookstore/2002/01/hogue.html

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Court Orders EPA to Move on Regulating Ballast Dumping

After decades of wanton dumping of ballast water from other
parts of the world, 99 percent of the biomass in San
Francisco Bay is exotic.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/ballast.html

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SoCal Land Manager Transferred After Wise Use Complaints

BLM District Manager Tim Salt argued for settlement of
tortoise protection suit.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/02/timsalt.html

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Air Pollution, Asthma Linked Yet Again

10-year study adds ozone to list of asthma-causing
pollutants.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/arbozone.html

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Saudi Financier To Bail Out Cadiz

Oil money will be pumped into aquifer project.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/cadizsaudi.html

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Assembly Passes Climate-Cars Bill

Measure would put California in lead in reducing
contribution to climate change.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/AB1058.html

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UCSF Puts Tobacco Papers Online

Searchable library holds more than 20 million secret
industry documents.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/buttlibrary.html

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Economy Leaves West Oakland Behind

Residents get unfair share of toxins, poverty, freeways.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/woakland.html

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EPA Warning on Perchlorate

Rocket fuel waste in drinking water more hazardous than
agency had expected.

Read it at:
http://www.faultline.org/news/2002/01/perchlorate.html

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VOLUNTEER WITH FAULTLINE
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COMING SOON . . .
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SUDDEN OAK DEATH: Joe Eaton surveys what we know about
Phytophthora ramosa, the scary pathogen implicated in the
deaths of tens of thousands of California's beloved oaks.

MINERAL KING: Tom Turner describes how the Sierra Club and
its lawyers kept a disappointed Disney from Disneyfying the
southern Sierra Nevada. (We've been promising this one for
some time: look for it in a couple weeks!)

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Tell a friend about Faultline: feel free to pass this
newsletter on to people you think may be interested.

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Copyright 2002 Faultline Magazine
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-- 
Chris Clarke             | Editor, Faultline
http://www.faultline.org | California's Environmental Magazine