Environmental▼News follow in 2015. However, the protocol allows parties to apply for critical-use exemptions when there are no technically or economically feasible alternatives or for health and safety reasons. For example, developed countries can still use chlorofluorocarbons in metered dosed inhalers for the treatment of asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases eight years after the official phaseout. Under the latest agreement, the United States will be able to “regress” and use as much as 35% of its 1991 baseline in 2005, which is scaled back from the government’s original request of 39%. However, the country cannot produce more than 30% of this methyl bromide, with the difference coming from existing stockpiles. The United States requested and received the lion’s share of the 2005 exemptions— 8942 t. Historically, the United States has been the world’s largest methyl bromide consumer, according to the U.S. EPA. Other countries that receive exemptions include Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain,
and the United Kingdom. “We’re disappointed that the exemptions were as high as they had to be, but governments, it seems, are finding it more difficult than they expected to phase out methyl bromide,” says Michael Williams, a spokesperson for the United Nations Environment Programme, under whose auspices the protocol was first adopted in 1987. “The good news is that production of the chemical won’t go up next year, but the bad news is that it won’t go down either,” says Daniel Doniger, policy director of the climate center operated by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. He and Williams question the message that the exemptions are sending to developing countries. “Industrialized countries could’ve sent a much stronger signal that methyl bromide has no future if they were farther ahead on [finding alternatives],” Williams notes. A senior U.S. state department official, who requested anonymity, defends the request by pointing out that viable alternatives haven’t become available as quickly as the
United States had hoped. As a result, the United States now has an exemption request pending for 2006 that raises the amount to 37% of the 1991 baseline. The official adds, however, that several promising alternatives, including sulfuryl fluoride and methyl iodide, are currently going through EPA’s pesticide approval process. Meanwhile, the Clean Air Act requires EPA to issue a rule implementing any critical-use exemptions. The agency will consider what uses qualify for the exemption and how much methyl bromide should actually be taken from existing stockpiles or from new production or imports, according to John Millett, an EPA spokesperson. When the rule is proposed, “We’ll argue that the 35% use level is too high because it doesn’t reflect progress on substitutes made since the applications were filed,” Doniger says. “We’ll also argue that the 30% number is too high because there’s a large stockpile, and the treaty and Clean Air Act require that the stockpile be used first.” —KRIS CHRISTEN
1992 LANDSAT SATELLITE IMAGE
In West Africa, more than 40 million people struggle to survive as subsistence farmers on the dry Sahel plateau bordering the Saharan desert. That number grows by approximately 3% every year. Across the region, fields of sorghum and millet are replacing shrubland as cropland expands and wood is harvested for cooking fuel. On the ground, the transformation is obvious, but its overall extent and impact were hard to measure until resource managers in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and six other countries in the region began using sophisticated satellite photographs and vegetation maps to assess land-use changes and model the effect on soil erosion and fertility. Increasing developing countries’ access to spatial and climate information and other technologies readily available elsewhere is one of
1965 CORONA SATELLITE IMAGE
Scientists analyze the problems of world’s poor
Between 1965 and 1992, the population of Niamey, Niger, grew from 50,000 to 400,000, dramatically increasing demand for nearby fuel wood and charcoal. Comparing these two satellite images shows the almost complete loss of shrubland within a 15-km radius of the city by 1992.
many solutions raised at an interdisciplinary meeting on fighting global poverty held this spring in New York City. Hundreds of scientists, doctors, and policymakers
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from around the world attended the State of the Planet 2004 conference organized by the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Over two days, the group produced a set
body with members from more than 40 nations. The recommendations also strongly support further development of genetically modified crops for tropical and arid climates where malnutrition alone causes at least 8 million deaths every year. For example, by adopting pest-resistant Bt varieties of cotton, farmers in China and India have increased yields, in some cases as much as 80%, and have significantly reduced the application of pesticides. However, in Asia and Africa, progress lags years behind on creating and commercializing enhanced varieties of subsistence food crops like rice, cassava, and sweet potato from which agricultural economists see little chance for private companies to profit. Energy experts at the conference recommended against introducing experimental forms of alternative energy into the developing world. Instead, they advocated replacing traditional sources of rural home heat and cooking, such as firewood and dung, with synthetic, cleanerburning fuels like kerosene, liquid petroleum gas, or dimethyl ether, which would improve efficiency and respiratory health significantly, with no sizable contribution to global warming. The statement, quickly signed by more than 75 participants, also stresses that funding for many of these advances must come from wealthier countries. The recommendations and further details of the conference are available at www.earth.columbia.edu/sop2004. —KRISTEN FOUNTAIN
Common fern may aid communities coping with arsenic contamination Scientists have demonstrated that a common fern can remove enough arsenic from drinking water to meet the stringent new U.S. standard set to take effect in 2006. The results, published in this issue of ES&T (pp 3412–3418), could lead to an inexpensive, solar-powered technology for small U.S. communities and developing countries.
The latest research builds on the 2001 discovery by scientists from the University of Florida that a species of brake fern can soak up large amounts of arsenic from soil (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2001, 35, 278A–279A). Edenspace Systems Corp., a phytoremediation technology company based in Dulles, Va. (www.edenspace.com), bought rights
News Briefs Renewable energy jobs If the U.S. government invested more in renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, and the use of municipal and agricultural waste, it would generate more jobs by 2020 than if it spent the same funds on fossil fuel energy sources, according to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley in a report released in April. Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate? projects the outcomes of five scenarios with varying percentages of solar, biomass, and wind renewables, as well as natural gas and coal. The report is available at www.apollo alliance.org.
Uneven power plant emission rates Just 20 out of 100 electric power companies in the United States are responsible for nearly 50% of the industry’s total emissions of SO2, NOx , CO2, and mercury, according to an analysis of government data. Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Generation Owners in the U.S.—2002 documents that only a “few” power companies use currently available, state-of-the-art emission-control technologies to lower their emissions. The study was a collaborative effort by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group; Ceres, a coalition of investor and environmental groups; and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., a power company. The groups used 2002 data supplied to the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Energy Information Administration by the 100 largest power companies, which account for about 90% of all electric plant emissions. To see the report, go to www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/bench marking.
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of recommendations for international government officials, which covered scientific applications needed for increasing global living standards in four basic areas: food, water, energy, and health. A recently stepped-up international effort to create a Global Earth Observing System will aid efforts on all fronts, according to Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, the head of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Like the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather Watch, the system would strive to provide a continuous stream of remotely sensed data from satellites to every country via the Web and digital HAM radio operating at high and very high frequencies. The network would also be used to collect onthe-ground observations from the region. Along with increasing Internet and radio connections within developing countries, the long-term project will require an agreement on uniform metadata protocols among countries and the development of targeted software tools for analysis and interpretation. “It’s not just data,” said Lautenbacher. “It’s information provided to the right decision makers so that they can make the best use of any aid that comes their way.” The Agrhymet Regional Center, a research organization based in Niamey, Niger, does much of the West African Sahel land-use mapping and will be an important regional node. NOAA is promoting these goals through the Group on Earth Observation, a coordinating
