Candidate Criticizes Ethanol

  • An ethanol distilling plant under construction. Democratic candidate Mike Gravel argues that producing ethanol is a strain on water resources. (Photo by Lester Graham)

A presidential candidate says ethanol subsidies jeopardize water resources. Democrat
Mike Gravel says producing the alternative fuel could cause over-use of water in some
areas. Samara Freemark has that story:

Transcript

A presidential candidate says ethanol subsidies jeopardize water resources. Democrat
Mike Gravel says producing the alternative fuel could cause over-use of water in some
areas. Samara Freemark has that story:

More corn is being grown for ethanol. Some corn growers pump water from
underground to irrigate their crops. And it takes about four gallons of water to distill a
gallon of ethanol.

Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel says that means subsidizing ethanol
could threaten some water resources.

He says Congress is jumping on the ethanol bandwagon without taking the time to look
at harmful side effects. And he says in areas that have seen water loss such as the
Great Lakes, that’s a mistake:

“The farmers who are going to be draining out their aquifers to satisfy the corn needs
are going to find themselves assaulting the Great Lakes. That is a national policy that
doesn’t get any stupider.”

Gravel blames that policy on lobbying by ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels
Midland. ADM has received more than ten billion dollars in federal ethanol subsidies
since 1980.


For the Environment Report, this is Samara Freemark.

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Largest Freshwater Reserve in the World

  • Lake Superior, part of which is to be protected by Canada. (Photo by Lester Graham)

An area three times the size of Rhode Island has been declared a conservation
area by Canada. That makes an area along Lake Superior’s north shore the
largest freshwater reserve in the world. Mike Simonson reports:

Transcript

An area three times the size of Rhode Island has been declared a conservation
area by Canada. That makes an area along Lake Superior’s north shore the
largest freshwater reserve in the world. Mike Simonson reports:


This is a big piece of Lake Superior. It extends from Thunder Bay to the border
with the United States and eastward more than 100 miles covering the lake and
islands. Canadian Conservation Policy Director Steven Price says it’s necessary
to protect a large area:


“So this isn’t a postage stamp or what we would call a ‘site.’ It’s an entire region
which means that the large schools of fish, the ducks and the water fowl that rely
on the habitats, the wetlands along the shorelines, large amounts of these can be
protected, so they have what we call integrity.”


Price says this will prohibit industrial activity and mineral exploration in that part
of Lake Superior. He says he hopes the United States will put aside a similar
conservation area.


For the Environment Report, I’m Mike Simonson.

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Tree-Killing Bug Continues to Spread

  • An adult ash borer. The tree-killing bug has now been found in Toronto. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture)

Since arriving in North America in the 1990’s, the emerald ash borer
has largely been contained to the upper Midwest. But now scientists say
the destructive beetle is spreading. Noah Ovshinsky has more:

Transcript

Since arriving in North America in the 1990’s, the emerald ash borer
has largely been contained to the upper Midwest. But now scientists say
the destructive beetle is spreading. Noah Ovshinsky has more:



Since the emerald ash bore arrived, the pest has killed more than 20
million ash trees in North America. Canada has by and large been spared
with infestations confined to the extreme southwest of Ontario.


Now, Canadian officials say the bug has traveled more than two hundred
miles to Toronto. Scientists don’t know how many trees have been
infested. Ken Marchant is an ash borer expert with the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency:


“It can be in a tree at undetectable levels and be quit heavy and then
the tree dies and so it’s incredibly difficult to detect at low levels.
Nothing has changed, there’s no traps for it and really no effective
way of surveying for it with any great accuracy.”


The ash borer has now spread across southern Ontario and six states.


For the Environment Report, this is Noah Ovshinsky.

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Food Shortages in a Warmer World?

Three new scientific studies find that agriculture could go into
steep declines in some regions in the coming decades. Julie Grant
reports that the authors of these studies say they’re looking at
complications that until now have not been adequately considered:

Transcript

Three new scientific studies find that agriculture could go into
steep declines in some regions in the coming decades. Julie Grant
reports that the authors of these studies say they’re looking at
complications that until now have not been adequately considered:


Global warming predictions often assume steady changes to the
environment. But these new studies’ authors say previous predictions
fail to account for seasonal extremes of drought or rain. or spreading
weeds and diseases.


Francesco Tubiello is an agricultural expert with NASA. He was a co-
author of all three of the studies published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. Tubiello says previous studies have
found that global warming might actually increase food production. But
these new studies find those gains will be offset by loss of tropical
farmland – and eventually tip the whole world into food shortages.


Tubiello says things could happen suddenly – and that the potential for
bigger, more rapid problems remains largely unexplored.


For the Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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Toxic Toys on Store Shelves

  • A lead detector finds over 5000 parts per million of lead in this toy. (Photo by Lisa Ann Pinkerton)

Over the past year, the federal government has recalled more than 25
million toys because of unsafe levels of lead. But as Rebecca Williams
reports… some experts say there could still be unsafe toys on shelves
that have not been recalled:

Transcript

Over the past year, the federal government has recalled more than 25
million toys because of unsafe levels of lead. But as Rebecca Williams
reports… some experts say there could still be unsafe toys on shelves
that have not been recalled:



The Consumer Product Safety Commission has its own investigators. But
it does not have the authority to test toys before they reach the
market. That’s why it relies on toy companies, doctors and consumers
to report problems before recalling toys.


Rebecca Morley is the executive director of the National Center for
Healthy Housing. It’s trying to eliminate lead poisoning in children.


She says start with the toy recall list. But she says there could be
other toys that contain lead that haven’t been recalled yet:


“I would also err on the side of getting kids things that are not
painted. I wouldn’t get jewelry. I would avoid some of the vinyl toys
that we are seeing that are likely to contain lead that are on the
recall list.”


Morley says the only reliable way for parents to test for lead is to
send the toys to a lab.


For the Environment Report I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Home Deconstruction vs. Demolition

  • The deconstruction method can preserve many of a house's resources in order to decrease waste from demolition. (Photo courtesy of Buffalo ReUse)

Every year, cities across the country spend millions of dollars tearing down condemned
houses and hauling away tons of debris to landfills. But progressive engineers and
community activists have found a way to reverse that wasteful process. A demolition
method called “deconstruction” uses human power instead of the wrecking ball to
preserve and reuse everything from floor joists to the kitchen sink. Joyce Kryszak puts
on her hard hat and takes us to one deconstruction site:

Transcript

Every year, cities across the country spend millions of dollars tearing down condemned
houses and hauling away tons of debris to landfills. But progressive engineers and
community activists have found a way to reverse that wasteful process. A demolition
method called “deconstruction” uses human power instead of the wrecking ball to
preserve and reuse everything from floor joists to the kitchen sink. Joyce Kryszak puts
on her hard hat and takes us to one deconstruction site:



This is not your typical demolition site. There are no wrecking balls or back hoes carting
away splinters of this once grand two-story home. Instead there are walls, lying
everywhere, and workers are taking them apart. A neat stack of harvested hemlock
beams grows on the vacant lot next door. There are cabinets, doors, books, furniture,
and dishes scattered all around them. There’s even a pile of dusty wine bottles retrieved
from the cellar. Deconstruction technician John Markle is covered in the dirt and grime
of the 100-year-old colonial. That’s because he’s taking this house apart with his
bare hands:


“Yeah, you won’t see a wrecking ball on our job site, but you will see a telescopic
forklift…And as you can see right there, we cut the house literally into big pieces,
and just take it apart, piece by piece.”


Markle does have some help. A crew of seven is busy carefully lifting off walls, pulling
apart beams and setting aside the spoils of their painstaking work. With a standard
demolition, about fifteen tons of usable building materials and supplies would have gone
to a landfill. Instead the materials are resold to builders, and at a discount to low-income
families so they can make repairs to their own homes. Dave Bennink is a deconstruction
consultant from Seattle. He’s spent the last fourteen years teaching communities this
sustainable method. And Bennink loves his job:


“We’re creating jobs, we’re keeping things out of landfill, we’re saving energy,
saving resources and we’re helping lower-income families…I mean, how could you not
like it every day.”


And he says the idea is slowly catching on. Bennick has clients in 21 states. Some of
them are private developers. Some are local governments. Right now, he’s working in
Buffalo, New York. He says when city officials learn they can deconstruct a house for
about the same cost as a demolition, in about the same time, the idea sells itself:


“I think they’re looking to make responsible choices, but they’re still looking to
make good decisions with the taxpayers’ money. So, when I can offer them both, I
think that’s more and more appealing.”


But sometimes a good idea needs a push. Michael Gainer is a former teacher and
community activist who needed little convincing. He sought out Bennink to help his city
get a deconstruction not-for profit business started.


Gainer is pretty young and strong, but he was still struggling to open the huge overhead door
that’s slipped off its tracks. This warehouse is where they keep all their salvage and then later sell it . And there’s plenty to choose from:


“We have a pretty big selection of doors, sinks, clawfoot tubs…”


And all of that from only a few months in the deconstruction business. The not-for profit
has already salvaged several houses on private contracts and has contracts with the city to
deconstruct about a dozen houses that were slated for demolition. And all with little to
no start-up money. Gainer says they’ve gotten a few grants, but so far they haven’t seen a
dime. They keep going with contracts and proceeds from sales. He pauses from telling
story to pull back a hair that’s strayed from his pony tail. His bandaged fingers leave a
smudge of dirt on his face. Gainer says the work isn’t easy, but he was eager to dig in:


“You know you gotta get out there and do it though. You gotta do the work. You
know, we talked about this for a year and I was about going bonkers, because I said,
I’m tired of talking about stuff. Let’s just go to work and get it done.”


Gainer is even more eager about the impact on the community. They’ve trained and hired
five, full time employees, a few part-timers, and are paying them all a living wage. They
get full medical coverage too, including the volunteers who pitch in. Gainer says it’s
possible because they’re not just throwing away resources:


“I was looking at wasteful expenditure of a hundred to two hundred million dollars
in a city to throw things in a landfill, and I’m like, this doesn’t make any sense. My
goal is to divert money from wasteful demolition and put young people to work,
improving their community.”


But Gainer says he’d really prefer not to take apart houses. His crew spruces up and
boards up abandoned houses that could still be saved. And he says if someone comes
along who has the vision to rehab it, they’ll help with that too.


For the Environment Report, I’m Joyce Kryszak.

Related Links

Food Deserts in the City (Part 2)

  • For many inner-city neighborhoods, access to fresh produce is difficult if not impossible because there are no supermarkets. Farmers' markets attempt to fill the gap, but they're not as convenient as supermarkets. (Photo by Pat Blochowiak)

The loss of supermarkets in cities from L.A. to Detroit to New
York has left many people without access to fresh fruits and
vegetables. In some places, farmers’ markets are helping to fill the
void. But Julie Grant reports that there are still a lot of
barriers to finding healthy food in many inner cities:

Transcript

The loss of supermarkets in cities from L.A. to Detroit to New
York has left many people without access to fresh fruits and
vegetables. In some places, farmers’ markets are helping to fill the
void. But Julie Grant reports that there are still a lot of
barriers to finding healthy food in many inner cities:


When family physician Patricia Blochowiak moved to this
neighborhood six years ago, she didn’t anticipate a problem
finding fresh foods:


“I had thought that since I had a grocery store within walking
distance of my house that I’d be able to get my groceries there.
And it isn’t the case.”


Blochowiak is afraid she’d be sued if she said what she really
thinks about the quality of fruits and vegetables in her
neighborhood grocery store.


JG:”You don’t want to say what you thought? You’re shaking your head no.”


“No.”


So the neighborhood doctor started driving to a nearby farm
market to buy her vegetables. The market building has been on
this corner for 75 years in East Cleveland. This area was once
home to millionaires and to the world’s first industrial park.
These days much of it looks dilapidated, abandoned. But
Blochowiak says she can get free-range eggs, cauliflower from the
next county over, and apples from third generation family
farmers. It’s great for her. But she says a lot of other people
can’t get here:


“It’s very disappointing. You really see first-hand, that those of us
with cars, we can get where we want to go. But those without
cars have a difficult time. So you have to take several buses, or
you have to find a friend who can drive you, or you have to walk
long distances, and for people with a lot of small children, for the
elderly, it just doesn’t work.”


Dr. Blochowiak is president of the Cleveland Academy of Family
Physicians. She says people, especially children, need fresh
foods to perform at their best. But like in inner-cities across
the nation, it’s tough to find and buy fresh fruits and
vegetables.



Even here, at her farm market, farmers can only provide
vegetables in certain seasons. Walking by the market,
Blochowiak runs into an old friend. William Muhammad tries to provide produce year-round:


“Yeah, it is difficult. It’s very difficult to get produce.
Normally, I always have a stand in the wintertime. I have pies
now, but I always have another stand in the winter with produce.”



In the off-season, Muhammed buys produce from a wholesaler and
sells it here at the farm market. But as more retail groceries
close, the wholesalers are also closing:


“It’s difficult to get anything. All you can do is buy where you
can. It’s too difficult for me.”


Grant: “So what do you do?”


“Right now, I don’t know what to do yet. Next month, I’ll see
what I could work up.”


One thing they’re trying to do near the farm market is grow their
own food. Blochowiak has worked on a community garden nearby in
hopes of providing more fresh produce to the neighborhood.


But there’s concern here that such efforts are barely tipping the
scales. They’re not a dependable, accessible source of fruits
and vegetables for most people. Kevin Scheuring sells spices at
the market. He says a lot of people forego fresh fruits and
vegetables and opt for mac and cheese or canned food from the
convenience store because getting fresh food in the inner city is
such a tough row to hoe:



“Not that they wouldn’t make a better choice if it was easier.
Again, you’ve got to get on a bus with a bunch of groceries and
go really far away and haul stuff, especially in the winter. Or
you can just go – ehh – maybe tomorrow and just go down the
street and buy a can of beans or something. And call it a day.”


Scheuring says a lot people want to do better for themselves and
their families, but it’s just becoming too difficult to get to
the few remaining places that do sell fresh food in the inner-cities.


For the Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

Related Links

Food Deserts in the City (Part 1)

  • The Chene-Ferry market was once a bustling center of commerce in this Detroit neighborhood. It closed in the 1970s. There are no major chain grocery stores to serve the community, so many people shop for food at liquor and convenience stores. (Photo by Marla Collum)

Most of us don’t have to think too much if we
want fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods. We
drive to the supermarket or farmers’ market and find
whatever we’re looking to buy. But for many people
living in the inner city, it can be tough to find
fresh foods. Julie Grant reports that can lead to
health problems:

Transcript

Most of us don’t have to think too much if we
want fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods. We
drive to the supermarket or farmers’ market and find
whatever we’re looking to buy. But for many people
living in the inner city, it can be tough to find
fresh foods. Julie Grant reports that can lead to
health problems:



Neighbors having been counting down the days for this store to
open. The bright lights, the shiny floors, 217,000-square feet
of retail and grocery. This Wal-Mart Supercenter offers produce
bins overflowing with dark leafy kale, imported plantains, and a
rainbow of green, yellow and red apples. Mother of two Dionne
Smith says she’s glad it’s here:


“I was looking at the prices. I mean because I was looking at this. In a regular store that’s
like 2 dollars 79 cents. Here it’s a dollar-fifty. So it’s
pretty good.”


“You’re looking at the Velveeta Mac n’ Cheese?”


“Mmm hmm.”


This Wal-mart is located on the south edge of Cleveland. It’s
part of the first new shopping center in the city limits in
decades. But it’s close to the suburbs. Not an easy trip from most
of the low income neighborhoods to the northeast – places where
it’s tough to find fresh foods.


In this poorer area, a lot of people who come to see dietitian
Cheri Collier have problems with diabetes, heart disease and
obesity. Collier says the health center opened adjacent to a
supermarket a few years ago. She planned to show people
firsthand how to improve their diets:


“I was very excited about the idea of having grocery store nearby.
Because I felt it was easier to teach people how to shop by having live
models. Taking you into the grocery store, showing which aisles have the appropriate foods, how to pick food labels, how to shop based on
what’s available for you in the area that you’re living.”


But it didn’t work out. Just six months after the health center
opened, the supermarket closed.


Today Collier looks around at what’s left on the food landscape near her health center:


“We got a couple of beverage stores, check cashing stores. Might
have beverages or food, and snacks in there. We’ve got
McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, KFC. Those are the main
things we see right away… Lot of stuff you can get that’s
quick. And you have United Convenient Market, has a lot of convenience-type foods. Some snacks, and some alcohol of course, and some pops and beverages. The two grocery stores we had in the area
are closed down.”


Collier takes us to what’s now called the “grocery store” in this
neighborhood. You can buy milk here. And cereal. Juice. But
there is no produce aisle. No fresh fruits or vegetables. Only
canned vegetables. No fresh meat. Collier picks up a can of
something called “potted meat” – and says this is the kind of
food that can lead to her clients’ health problems:


“It has chicken. Pork skin. And that’s my concern because that
skin is high in fat and that’s what giving them a lot of extra
cholesterol and saturated fat. So not only a person may think
they’re getting chicken, they’re actually getting chicken with pork
fat all over it. So it’s not the healthiest option.”


Collier tries to educate her clients about the high fat and salt
content in potted meats, processed boxed foods, and even many
canned vegetables. She says people on limited incomes buy these
foods because that’s what’s available:


“Someone just said earlier, ‘Because I’m in the neighborhood
and I can get to that store and get what I need.’ So to them it’s
like, I can get more of these and still have money left over to
buy something else I want.”


That’s one reason why stores sell cheap processed foods in poor
inner city neighborhoods, while the supermarkets with fresh foods
close down.


Getting quality produce often depends on the wealth of your neighborhood. Researchers have found that again and again. Dr.
Ana Diez-Roux is with the University of Michigan:


“It’s like a vicious cycle. Stores offer what people want to
buy, but people can only buy what the stores offer. So it
becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.”


And Diez-Roux says without supermarkets or other ways to get
fresh produce and meats, certain people will face more health
problems:


“In particular, healthy food options are less available in poor
and minority neighborhoods then they are in wealthy and white
neighborhoods.”


Diez-Roux says that’s one reason poor neighborhoods have higher rates
of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. She says
public policy is starting to address this problem in two ways: by
educating consumers and providing incentives to stores to carry
healthier foods in poor neighborhoods.


But progress is slow. Eating habits are hard to change. And
stores don’t want to stock perishables that don’t sell.


For the Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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High Dioxin Levels Found Near Dow Chemical

A river is polluted with one of the highest
concentrations of dioxins in the nation. The area is
downstream from a Dow Chemical plant. Kyle Norris has
more:

Transcript

A river is polluted with one of the highest concentrations of dioxins in the
nation. The area is downstream from a Dow Chemical plant. Kyle Norris has
more:


Scientists found an amount of dioxins 20 times higher than anything
previously found in the river. The hot-spot is 23 miles from a Dow Chemical
plant.


The EPA has required Dow Chemical to clean up sections of the Saginaw
and Tittabawassee Rivers in mid-Michigan. Dioxins have been linked to
cancer, reproductive problems, and heart and liver diseases, among other
things.


Milton Clark is with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says dioxins
do not break down in the environment:

“It’s very long-lived, it doesn’t readily biodegrade. And so if it’s present in
the sediments it can work itself up into the food chain, get into the fish, and
those fish then can be consumed by people, putting them at increased risk.”


The hope is that the dioxins will be cleaned from the rivers in the next
several years.


For the Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

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Bird Group Calls for Immediate Action

  • A tiny shorebird, the Piping Plover, is a species of concern. It is protected by the Endangered Species Act, but it needs constant vigilance to make sure its beach nesting habitat is protected. (Photo by Gene Nieminen, USFWS)

A new report says more than one quarter of America’s bird species are
at risk of serious declines. Rebecca Williams reports most of the
species are not protected under the Endangered Species Act:

Transcript

A new report says more than one quarter of America’s bird species are
at risk of serious declines. Rebecca Williams reports most of the
species are not protected under the Endangered Species Act:


The National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy put together
a list of the birds at the greatest risk.


More than 175 species in the continental U.S. and 39 bird species in
Hawaii made the list.


Greg Butcher directs bird conservation for Audubon. He says many bird
species are threatened by habitat loss. He says some coastal birds are
losing nesting habitat to rising sea levels caused by global warming.


He says most of the bird species are not on the Endangered Species
List:


“And most of them don’t belong on the Endangered Species Act at this
point. And one of the things we want to do is start active
conservation for these species before they need to be listed.”


Butcher says it’s not just up to conservation groups. He says
homeowners can also help by making backyard habitats better for birds.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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