California Presses Its Green Chemistry Initiative.
August 2008, by Peter Hsiao, Robert L. Falk,  http://www.mofo.com/news/updates/files/1…

California has undertaken a number of new initiatives in its environmental and product liability laws. One of the most significant is its Green Chemistry Initiative to attempt on a state level to remove or reduce toxic chemicals in products, and to require advance study and disclosure of chemical risks. Introduced by Governor Schwarzenegger in April 2007, the Department of Toxic Substances Control has conducted a series of public workshops, expert panel meetings and electronic solicitations to collect ideas for how to implement the Initiative.

These efforts have led to the introduction and recent amendment of Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1879 by our former colleague, Assemblyman Michael Feuer. The proposed legislation would empower DTSC, with the help of a “Green Ribbon” panel, with new statutory authority to adopt regulations by January 1, 2011 to identify and regulate chemicals of

These efforts have led to the introduction and recent amendment of Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1879 by our former colleague, Assemblyman Michael Feuer. The proposed legislation would empower DTSC, with the help of a “Green Ribbon” panel, with new statutory authority to adopt regulations by January 1, 2011 to identify and regulate chemicals of concern in consumer products.

AB 1879 proposes the creation of a systematic process to evaluate products for green chemistry regulation. The process includes 13 life-cycle criteria to be considered including the product’s manufacturing process, use characteristics, and its waste and end-of-cycle disposal. Based upon that analysis, AB 1879 allows DTSC to adopt a broad variety of regulations that may require:

(1) Disclosure of additional information needed to assess a chemical of concern and its potential alternatives,

(2) Labeling or other types of consumer product information,

(3) Restrictions on the use of the chemical of concern in the consumer product,

(4) Prohibition of the use of the chemical of concern in the consumer product,

(5) Controlled access to or limited exposure to the chemical of concern in the consumer product,

(6) Requiring the manufacturer to manage the product at the end of its useful life, including recycling or responsible disposal of the consumer product,

(7) Seeking funding for green chemistry challenge grants where no feasible safer alternative exists,

(8) And – in a broadly worded authorization, DTSC would be authorized to seek any other outcome to accomplish the requirements of the law.

AB 1879 is joined to a companion bill, Senate Bill (“SB”) 509. SB 509 aims to make more chemical risk information available to the public by directing the DTSC to create a web accessible Toxics Information Clearinghouse of chemicals listing their hazards and toxicological end-point data.

Morrison & Foerster is carefully following the Green Chemistry Initiative and participating in the agency process. If you would like more information, please contact Peter Hsiao, the Chair of the firm’s Green Chemistry Group, Bob Falk, or any other member of the Group.

***

AB 1879 proposes the creation of a systematic process to evaluate products for green chemistry regulation. The process includes 13 life-cycle criteria to be considered including the product’s manufacturing process, use characteristics, and its waste and end-of-cycle disposal. Based upon that analysis, AB 1879 allows DTSC to adopt a broad variety of regulations that may require:

(1) Disclosure of additional information needed to assess a chemical of concern and its potential alternatives,

(2) Labeling or other types of consumer product information,

(3) Restrictions on the use of the chemical of concern in the consumer product,

(4) Prohibition of the use of the chemical of concern in the consumer product,

(5) Controlled access to or limited exposure to the chemical of concern in the consumer product,

(6) Requiring the manufacturer to manage the product at the end of its useful life, including recycling or responsible disposal of the consumer product,

(7) Seeking funding for green chemistry challenge grants where no feasible safer alternative exists,

(8) And – in a broadly worded authorization, DTSC would be authorized to seek any other outcome to accomplish the requirements of the law.

AB 1879 is joined to a companion bill, Senate Bill (“SB”) 509. SB 509 aims to make more chemical risk information available to the public by directing the DTSC to create a web accessible Toxics Information Clearinghouse of chemicals listing their hazards and toxicological end-point data.

Morrison & Foerster is carefully following the Green Chemistry Initiative and participating in the agency process. If you would like more information, please contact Peter Hsiao, the Chair of the firm’s Green Chemistry Group, Bob Falk, or any other member of the Group.

The following was published on Japan Times online and we think it is either very naive or somewhere partisan and misleading.

 The UN, when it come to disputes - means the UN Security Council - the only UN body that can decide on matters of war. The Veto-Power system turns there the P5 into plain untouchables. How does Ramesh Thakur expects a UN position on Georgia when Russia holds a veto vote? Then, does he really believe that the other 4 Veto Powers will take decisions that are contrary to their self interests or perceived alliances?

The Supreme Court In Brazil Setting an Important Precedent for Indigenous Lands.
Friday 22 August 2008, by Marta Caravantes, Inter Press Service.

 http://www.truthout.org/article/setting-…

Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil - An imminent decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reservation in the Amazon jungle region has the country’s native communities on edge, because of the precedent it will set.

Raposa Serra do Sol is in the Amazon jungle state of Roraima at the northwestern tip of Brazil, a land of water and abundance.

The 1.7 million hectare reserve was officially demarcated by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2005, after judicial appeals and debates that dragged on for nearly two decades. The decision was based on the principles laid down in the 1988 constitution.

    The Supreme Court is set to decide next week whether or not to uphold the demarcation of the reservation as a single, unbroken territory.

    The reservation is home to more than 19,000 members of the Macuxí, Wapixana, Taurepang, Patamona and Ingarikó indigenous communities.

But since 1992, invasions of indigenous land by large-scale rice producers have become frequent, and in just 13 years, rice plantations in the area covered by the reservation grew sevenfold, to 14,000 hectares.

In March, the Lula administration sent in the federal police to evict a group of rice farmers who have refused to leave the land they are farming. The landowners responded with violence, and 10 indigenous people were injured.

“They began to shoot at us, they threw bombs and we started to leave. I was hurt on one of my legs, my back and my head,” says a young Macuxi Indian.

Santinha Da Silva was also there that day, with her three children. “I’m not going to say I’m not afraid,” she says. “I am scared, but I’m going to confront them. If they want to kill me, then they can do that, as long as they leave the land to my children.”

Two weeks after the start of the police operation, the Supreme Court not only called it off, but also accepted a legal challenge which, in the case of a favourable decision, would allow the rice farmers to continue occupying portions of the indigenous territory, setting a dangerous precedent.

    “Not only Raposa Serra do Sol would be at risk, but all indigenous reservations in the country,” says Rosane Lacerda, a law professor at the University of Brasilia.

  No rice farmer has paid the fines owed for environmental damages, and none are in jail for the attacks on the local indigenous residents.

“Several of them went to prison, but they were only in for a short time, since they have money and political influence, with which they are able to turn these cases into interminable legal disputes,” says Paulo Santille, head of the identification and delimitation of indigenous lands department in the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), the federal agency in charge of indigenous affairs.

James Anaya, the recently appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, is currently visiting Raposa Serra do Sol to assess the situation there.

    Lacerda says it is not far-fetched to talk about “a declared war on indigenous people by groups that have economic interests on their lands.”

    For five centuries, the indigenous people of Raposa Serra do Sol have suffered invasion after invasion of their land, first by the Portuguese colonialists and later by ranchers, “garimpeiros” (gold panners) and large landholders.

    All of these groups employed the local Indians as labourers. Ranchers sometimes even branded their indigenous workers, like cattle.

Orlando Pérez Da Silva, “tuxaua” (chief) of the village of Uiramutá, exemplifies that tragic history with his own life. “The non-Indians arrived and invaded our land. They started to hire us on their haciendas. But when an Indian would ask for his wages, he would get a beating and would be thrown out,” he recalls.

Da Silva spent six years as a slave: “We were enslaved. To buy a hammock we had to work for an entire month.”

One of the organisations helping to coordinate the struggles of indigenous people, the Commission of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon, is presided over by a member of the Sateré-Maué community, Gecinaldo Barbosa, who says the problem goes beyond Brazil’s borders.

“Amazonia is in Brazil, but the problem is a global one, of concern to anyone who defends life,” he argues.

The pressure of agribusiness and large-scale agriculture on indigenous lands has intensified as a result of the “biofuels revolution” and the need to produce feed for the world’s livestock, says Barbosa.

Beto Ricardo, coordinator of the non-governmental Socioenvironmental Institute of Brazil (ISA), says the Lula administration is an economic development-oriented government immersed in a “certain climate of economic euphoria.”

“The pressure on indigenous people is multifold,” says Ricardo. “It doesn’t only come from agribusiness, but also from public works like roads, hydroelectric plants or dikes.”

For Nilva Barauna, superintendent of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment (IBAMA) in Roraima, Raposa Serra do Sol is “the last agricultural frontier, on which agribusiness has its sights.”

    “We will see a major modification of the landscape here, of water resources and the fauna and flora as a result of the rice plantations. The agrotoxics used by the landowners are polluting the rivers and hurting the aquatic fauna,” says Barauna.

    Gercimar Moraes Malheiro, a Macuxi Indian and the coordinator in Boa Vista - the capital of Roraima - of the Project for the Protection of Indigenous Populations and Land in Amazonia, also complained about the environmental damages: “All the poison, all the residues from the processing of rice, are dumped into the rivers.”

    Despite the violence of landowners against local indigenous people and IBAMA’s reports on the environmental impact of rice farming, the immense majority of non-indigenous residents of Roraima want the rice farmers to stay, arguing that they bring jobs and money.

    Many people interviewed in Boa Vista expressed fears that the price of rice would shoot up or that an economic crisis would be triggered if the rice farmers were expelled.

But the superintendent of IBAMA says the rice farms actually offer little to the local residents, because “most of the work is mechanised,” the plantations don’t create jobs and don’t pay taxes, and the benefits are concentrated in just a few hands.

According to Ricardo, the head of ISA, “indigenous lands will not survive unless there is an ecological and economic realignment of the country and of Amazonia.”

As a metaphor for what is happening, he says “Brazil is the only country named after an (almost) extinct tree” - the Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata) tree, whose wood provided a highly prized red dye. The species is now on the verge of extinction.

There are 604 indigenous reservations in Brazil, which are home to 215 distinct native groups totalling around 600,000 people.

In the indigenous world view, there are no borders, or bureaucracy or a concept of private, individual ownership of land. Indigenous people in Brazil are fighting to defend their own model of development at a time when nature “is rebelling against the world,” as native leaders said.

    The original inhabitants of Raposa Serra do Sol have developed a self-sufficient economy. They grow rice, beans, plantains and cassava, raise 35,000 head of cattle, and combine “white man’s medicine” with their traditional remedies, based on local plants with curative properties.

    “As indigenous people, we are going to defend nature because that is our conception of life, that cosmogonic view of the world, for the future of humanity,” says Barbosa.

    Pueblos Hermanos, a non-governmental organisation from Spain, and the Madrid-based audiovisual company Compañía de Información y Proyectos Originales (CIPÓ) have launched an awareness-raising campaign on the vulnerability of indigenous people in Raposa Serra do Sol.

The initiative has included messages of support sent to the local indigenous communities and letters to the Brazilian Supreme Court urging the expulsion of the rice farmers, sent from the web site of Pueblos Hermanos, http://www.puebloshermanos.org.es. And in September, the two groups will present a documentary filmed in Raposa Serra do Sol.

——-

The author is head of content and communications at CIPÓ.

From:  media at avaaz.org
Subject: Release: global Olympic handshake to reach Beijing
Date: August 22, 2008

The August 23, 2008 - PRESS RELEASE - Will Appear In the International Herald Tribune and China’s Ming Pao, on the Day of The Beijing Olympics’ Closing. It Willl Say - Love China / Love Tibet / Love Burma / Love Darfur - and Will Promote Human Rights For China - a Hanshake to the World.

175,000 STRONG GLOBAL HANDSHAKE TO LAND IN BEIJING AHEAD OF OLYMPIC CLOSING CEREMONY see avaaz.org

A virtual global handshake will land in Beijing tomorrow ahead of the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

Since the beginning of the Olympics, Avaaz.org has taken actions worldwide to promote a dual message of friendship with China and the need for renewed dialogue and action on human rights post Olympics. Aside from the handshake website, they have launched a sister website in China www.onevoicechina.org, and have run an ad campaign which has made a splash in London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Sydney using print media, adwalkers, and mobile billboards to carry the message Love China / Love Tibet / Love Burma / Love Darfur. You can see images of these ads at avaaz.org

To culminate the campaign, this weekend, Avaaz.org has taken out an advertisement in Saturday’s International Herald Tribune and China’s Ming Pao to deliver the handshake to the world.

“Some in China have slandered human rights activism as violent and anti-Chinese. Our handshake campaign is an attempt to reach out to Chinese people and show that our call is for peaceful and respectful dialogue”, said Avaaz Executive Director Ricken Patel.

However, Avaaz is concerned that the end of the Olympics may herald an era of further oppression.

“People around the world are concerned that the Olympics are coming to a close without any changes in Chinese policy on Tibet, Burma or Darfur — will things get better or worse?” said Patel.

***

The global handshake petition reads:

“With this handshake, we reach out to one another as citizens round the world in the Olympic spirit of friendship and excellence, committing to hold all our governments to a higher standard of peace, justice and respect for human dignity wherever they fall short – be it in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. Dialogue is the best way forward, for China, and the world.”
For more information, see www.avaaz.org

***

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Ricken Patel, Executive Director,  ricken at avaaz.org, +1 646 229 5416
Brett Solomon, Campaign Director,  brett at avaaz.org, +61 407 419 320

***
ABOUT AVAAZ:

Avaaz is a global web movement with over 3.3 million members worldwide, working to ensure that the views and values of people everywhere inform global decision-making. Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.

Eurozone swings closer to economic recession - Europe’s economy is shrinking while prices remain at record highs.
LUCIA KUBOSOVA, for the EUobserver, August 15, 2008.

The eurozone’s economy has slipped further towards recession, with fresh output figures pointing to an economic downturn in the 15-strong zone as well as in the whole of the European Union, while inflation remains at a record high.

According to early predictions by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro area dropped by 0.2 percent during the second quarter of 2008. This makes it the very first time that the monetary bloc’s economy declined since the launch of euro.

Similarly, the GDP for the whole of the EU shrank by 0.1 percent during the same period, with the worst performance recorded in the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia.

The gloomy forecasts – published on Thursday (14 August) - have reinforced concerns about the European economy moving closer to recession, with both Germany and France as the two biggest countries showing signals of an economic slow-down. The German economy dropped by 0.5 percent - which was less than analysts had predicted – while France’s shrunk by 0.3 percent.

Amelia Torres, European Commission spokeswoman for economic and monetary affairs, refused to speculate on recession fears and suggested that the latest figures were of no surprise to the EU executive, referring to unexpectedly high growth rates in the first quarter of 2008.

“I think it’s a bit exaggerated to use that word,” she told reporters in Brussels. But she admitted that “the signs are not really very good for the future”.

According to eurozone figures, no eurozone country is yet officially in recession – seen as two consecutive quarters of economic decline – but within the whole of the EU, Estonia has officially slipped in recession.

Along with the declining growth, inflation in the eurozone remained at a record high of 4 percent in July, unchanged from June. A year earlier the rate was 1.8 percent.

From:    unnews at un.org
Subject: UN DAILY NEWS DIGEST - 15 August
Date: August 15, 2008

IN CHINA, UN OFFICIALS HAIL SPORT’S CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPMENT

Sport is increasingly recognized as an important tool in helping countries achieve their development goals, the United Nations envoy for sport said today in Beijing, where athletes from around the world are currently competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The UN Resident Coordinator in China, Khalid Malik, also praised the Chinese authorities’ efforts to create an Olympic Games with an emphasis on environmental sustainability.

Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

Ways of beating malaria without using DDT.

By Cesar Chelala, A Health Consultant in the US, for The Japan Times on line, New York, August 15, 2008.

Malaria continues to be endemic in the developing world, causing more than 1 million deaths every year, mostly among children living in Sub-Saharan countries.

The good news is that the results of a new project carried out in Mexico and Central America show that the fight against malaria does not have to depend on using DDT. In Mexico and the Central American countries, it is estimated that around 108.7 million people live in areas that are environmentally favorable to transmission of malaria, with 35 percent at high risk of contracting the disease.

The need to continue to rely on DDT to effectively combat malaria has been the subject of a long running discussion. Although DDT spraying has long been successfully used in controlling the mosquito population and the spread of malaria, it easily enters the food chain and persists for many years in the environment. The result is often serious harm to wildlife. In addition, the mosquito population under attack can become resistant to DDT, making necessary the search for alternatives.

Since 2004, a project funded by the U.N. Environmental Program and the Global Environmental Facility has been carried out with the technical support of the Pan American Health Organization in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama. It was developed on strategies outlined in the “Roll Back Malaria” approach championed by the World Health Organization.

This project was initially implemented in Mexico and subsequently adopted to local areas in the Central American countries. Critical to its success has been the use of public health measures aimed at controlling mosquito breeding and standing sites, rapid diagnosis and treatment of those affected with malaria and active community participation.

Public health measures against malaria had already shown their effectiveness in Central America. During the construction of the Panama Canal, which had been abandoned by the French in 1889 due to financial scandals and the high number of worker deaths from malaria and yellow fever, thousands of lives were saved thanks to public health measures implemented by Dr. William C. Gorgas of the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Similar public health measures have been applied in the Mexico/Central America project, including participatory community treatment of larval breeding sites, improvements in housing conditions, periodical clearing of vegetation around houses, and elimination of stagnant water near houses. These actions are complemented by a wide array of educational interventions aimed at information about malaria transmission, and rapid diagnosis and prompt treatment of those affected in the community.

Early detection and treatment is crucial for eliminating the parasite carriers. A key aspect has been the collaboration of voluntary community health workers who are taught to make an early diagnosis in situ and to administer complete courses of treatment not only to those affected but to patients’ immediate contacts.

The project was carried out in “demonstration areas” selected for their high levels of malaria transmission. In those areas, the number of malaria cases fell 63 percent from 2004 to 2007. In several demonstration areas I visited in Honduras and Mexico as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization, malaria had practically been eliminated. Plans are under way to expand the project to other regions where malaria remains a serious threat.

One of the advantages of avoiding DDT (and its toxic effects) is the enormous savings realized from discontinuing its routine use. These savings can now be put to good use against other diseases.

Although DDT can still be used in some countries or regions with extremely high levels of malaria infection, the fact that an effective campaign against malaria can be waged without it, and at much lower cost, raises hopes that this approach can be used as time goes on by a wide range of developing countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia.

From:  sniffenj at un.org
Subject: NEWS RELEASE: Biofuels soon to be measured by international standards.
Date: August 13, 2008

forwarding of News Release from: Charlotte Opal
Tel: + 41 21 693 5351
 charlotte.opal at epfl.ch

Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels - An initiative of the EPFL Energy Center.

Ensuring that biofuels deliver on their promise of sustainability - Biofuels soon to be measured by international standards.

300 experts and representatives of the public and private sector have come
together in the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, housed at the EPFL
Energy Center, to develop global norms for the economic, social, and
environmental impacts of biofuels.

LAUSANNE, 13 August 2008 – Are biofuels a panacea or a threat to climate,
food and energy security? While the answer is indeed “it depends”, pundits
so far have not agreed on global criteria to evaluate the positive or
negative impacts of a certain crop, produced in a certain area, processed
in a certain way into a biofuel to be used in a certain place.

However, such diverse constituencies as businesses, academics and
environmentalists seem closer to a previously unlikely agreement about the
economic, social, and environmental sustainability of biofuels. A critical
step was announced today, when the Steering Board of the Roundtable on
Sustainable Biofuels (RSB), an international initiative hosted by the
Energy Centre at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
(EPFL), endorsed the first draft of a global sustainability standard for
biofuels.

The standard is intended to be used by investors, governments,
corporations, and civil society groups to assess the sustainability of
different biofuels. “With all of the mixed messages we hear about biofuels,
there is a clear need for a standard that can differentiate the good from
the bad,” said Claude Martin, chair of the Roundtable and former
Director-General of WWF International. “For an issue of such seminal
importance, it was necessary to bring many different stakeholder groups
together to agree on how to define and measure sustainable biofuels. The
publication of the first draft standard today represents an important
consensus for how we can judge the development of this industry”.

The draft criteria of the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels, developed
through a multi-stakeholder process, are based on a comprehensive “land to
tank” analysis, covering the whole chain of biofuels’ production. ‘Version
Zero’ of the standard will now undergo six months of global stakeholder
consultation for incorporation into what will become Version One to be
released in April, 2009. In person feedback sessions on Version Zero are
being planned in East Asia, Europe, Mozambique, Mali, and throughout the
Americas. “Any interested stakeholder is welcome to attend these meetings
or give feedback online,” explained Charlotte Opal, Head of the RSB
Secretariat. “Our hope is that by February 2009, all interested
stakeholders will have had their chance to influence the criteria”.

Over 300 experts from corporations, civil society groups, academic
institutions and government agencies from nearly 40 countries helped draft
Version Zero of the standard, through
teleconferences, an innovative Wiki format  www.bioenergywiki.net), and
in-person meetings in Switzerland, Brazil, China, India and South Africa.
The standard addresses the major issues of concern regarding biofuels’
production, including their potential contribution to climate change
mitigation and rural development; the protection of land and labor rights;
and their impacts on biodiversity, soil pollution, water availability and
food security. Version Zero can be accessed here:
 http://cgse.epfl.ch/page70341.html
.
The Energy Centre at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne,
EPFL (one of the two federal institutes of technology in Switzerland)
houses the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels.

Steering Board members include, among others, individuals from BP, Bunge,
EPFL, the National Wildlife Federation, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), Petrobras, Shell, Swiss and Dutch federal agencies, TERI-
India, Toyota, UNICA (the Brazilian sugar producers’ union), the World
Economic Forum (WEF), and the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF)

—————————–

The following members of the Roundtable’s Steering Board can be contacted
for interviews:

Barbara Bramble, National Wildlife Federation, USA +1 202 797 6601
Jean-Philippe Denruyter, WWF International, +1 202 822 3459
Lukas Gutzwiller, Swiss Federal Office of Energy, +41 31 322 56 79
Stephan Herbst, Toyota Motor Europe, +32 2 745 2720 (August 13th and 14th
only)
Marcos Jank or Geraldine Kutas, UNICA – Brazilian Sugar Producers’ Union,
care of Rose Racorti, +55 11 3093-4949,
Jürgen Maier, German NGO Forum, +49 (30) 6781 775 88 or +49 171 383 6135,
Martina Otto, United Nations Environment Programme, +33 (1) 44 37 46 91
Hans-Björn Püttgen, Director, EPFL Energy Center, +41 21 693 2473
Roberto Smeraldi, Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira, +55 (11) 3887-9369
(August 13th and 14th only)

For more information, please call Charlotte Opal, +41 21 693 5351, or
e-mail her at  charlotte.opal at epfl.ch. The Roundtable’s website is
 http://EnergyCenter.epfl.ch/Biofuels.

***********************************
Jim Sniffen
Information Officer
UN Environment Programme
New York
tel: +1-212-963-8094/8210
 info at nyo.unep.org