Informant38

Ellen Goodman August 31 2003 in the Boston Globe�
On a Lake in Maine, Rachel Carson's Warning Resonates: "Back in 1965, only four eaglets fledged in a state that once saw thousands. Last year 115 made it into the sky.
Through all this time, the nesting site on this lake has been one of the most successful. Indeed, the generations of eagle parents that the neighbors have generically nicknamed Sam and Betsy probably produced a good percentage of the offspring that helped demote bald eagles from an endangered status to a threatened status.
But what 'bothered' the eagles most was DDT. The postwar pesticide had won its inventor a Nobel Prize. But it thinned the shells of eagles who live at the top of the aquatic food chain, threatening their survival.
In 1962, Rachel Carson, who spent summers near here, took on the pesticide in her book, 'Silent Spring.' The chemical industry spent some $250,000 to discredit her work and trivialize her as a 'bird and bunny lover.' But the book led to federal investigations and a domestic ban on DDT in 1972.
On this summer day I wonder what would happen to a Rachel Carson now?
A few days ago, Interior Secretary Gale Norton introduced the president as a 'compassionate conservationist.' This administration has weakened the Clean Water Act, undermined wetlands protection, taken 200 million acres of lands off the protected lists. This week they eased the rules against air pollution for the sake of industry. But they've learned how to 'greenwash' the language.
It was all in the famous memo by political strategist Frank Luntz, who urged the Bush people to talk of 'climate change' instead of 'global warming,' and to 'be even more active in recruiting experts who are sympathetic to your view."

Frank Luntz
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Guardian UK September 1, 2003:
"Nike factories and Coca-Cola bottling plants could be forced to open their doors for 'periodic monitoring' by UN inspectors, under new proposals released last month.
The recommendations by a UN human rights panel will require businesses to demonstrate how they are living up to a range of existing human rights, labour, environmental, consumer protection and anti-corruption laws.
On the face of it, it is difficult to see how the corporate sector could object to the UN's request not to engage in human rights violations, such as torture or slave labour.
But object they have. Thomas Niles, president of the US Council for International Business, has been one of the most vociferous opponents of UN norms on the responsibilities of multinationals in recent weeks. His principal objection is that the norms are 'totally duplicate and unnecessary'."
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Rainforest Action Network: Yesterday, fossil fuel giant Shell Oil, a company that has raped countless hectares of virgin rainforest and trampled on the human rights of indigenous communities from South America to Central Africa, �undertook not to explore for, or develop, oil and gas resources within� the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Tower of London, Acropolis, the Vatican City, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Palace and Park of Versailles, the Taj Mahal, Masada, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Kremlin and Red Square, and over 700 other World Heritage Sites, only 149 of which are �natural.� Key sites, including the pristine and threatened Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, do not make the list.

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