President Bush said yesterday that the relatively little damage suffered by oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Gustav should prod Congress to open more coastal areas to offshore oil drilling, sounding a political note in the wake of the storm.

And Then There Was One (NY Times)
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.

CLIMATE CHANGE

A huge 19 square mile (55 square km) ice shelf in Canada's northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, the latest sign of accelerating climate change in the remote region, scientists said on Tuesday. "The changes ... were massive and disturbing," said Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec.

NATURAL DISASTER

Haitian families scrambled onto rooftops and screamed for help Tuesday in a city flooded by Tropical Storm Hanna, as U.N. peacekeepers and rescue convoys tried in vain to reach them.

Sean Gardner for USA TODAY

Nearly 2.5 million Indians remained stranded, homeless and hungry in flood-ravaged villages in the eastern part of the country Tuesday, 17 days after a river burst a dam in neighboring Nepal and changed course.

Few people are aware of the considerable risk that hurricanes pose for this part of the country, and scientists are warning that a major storm is overdue.

New Interest in Warning System After Grand Canyon Flood (NY Times)
Federal and state officials are reviving a proposal to install a warning system for the isolated Havasupai Indian Reservation after a flood last month in the Grand Canyon.

DISASTER RELIEF

As you know, hurricanes can be pretty devastating, leaving people without homes, clothing or food. If you would like to help victims of Gustav, check out the following organizations.

CONSERVATION

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday all but killed a federal plan nearly seven decades in the making to build the world's largest water pump in the Mississippi Delta.The EPA feared that the project could destroy thousands of acres of wetlands, impair water quality, and harm the habitat of threatened and endangered species, all violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

A Slow Food Festival Reaches Out to the Uncommitted  (NY Times)
A gathering in San Francisco last weekend was a sort of coming-out party for Slow Food U.S.A., a 10-year-old group that links the pleasures of food with community and environmental activism.The sold-out Food for Thought series there assembled speakers like the Sierra Club’s executive director, Carl Pope, and the physicist and environmental activist Vandana Shiva on such topics as “Building a New Food System: Policy and Planning” and “Climate Change and Food.” Topics included social justice, biodiversity, the elimination of subsidies, and the role of agriculture in the current economic, climate and health problems.

Yet another much-loved species imperiled by humankind? The fate of the insects drew more than 100 entomologists and biologists to Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai last week for an international symposium on the "Diversity and Conservation of Fireflies."

More than 150 snakeheads, the toothy predators known as "Frankenfish," were found last week by a Charles County sheriff's corporal who recognized the fish from a television show. Snakeheads are among the top targets for officials governing the health of the Potomac. They eat almost anything, making them both predators and competitors for native fish, including bass. "They're an ambush predator with a high reproductive rate, so there is no way to eradicate them in a large freshwater tidal system," said John Gill, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Some residents have fed the wild creatures, which now come around looking for food, sometimes even entering homes.

ENERGY POLICY

It's desperation time for the Big Three automakers. They are awash in gas-guzzling vehicles nobody wants to buy, bleeding red ink and running out of cash.

POLLUTION

Maryland environmental officials proposed tougher pollution controls yesterday on Montgomery County's storm water runoff as part of an effort to protect drinking water supplies and restore the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Tata Motors said that violent political protests over land had compelled it to stop building a plant in eastern India where it was to manufacture its much-awaited Nano model.

Hezbollah Shrine to Terrorist Suspect Enthralls Lebanese Children (NY Times)
Hezbollah has opened an exhibit in honor of Imad Mugniyah, who is accused of masterminding devastating bombings and hijackings in the 1980s and ’90s.

AND FURTHERMORE...

Mr. Bush’s Blue Legacy (NY Times)
If President Bush succeeds with a plan to create sanctuaries in the Pacific Ocean it would be an achievement for the ages.

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This news summary has been prepared for you by:

 
Carole Ashkinaze
Editor / Writer / Communications Consultant
Washington, D.C.
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