OPINION/COMMENTARY

Another Environmentalist Bromide

Environmentalism has never been more predictable than it is today. Left-leaning activists and environmental journalists reflexively turn every green issue into a formulaic "Bush administration rollback" story, often with little regard for the facts and history of the issue. So it is with the much-criticized administration attempt to obtain exemptions for farmers who wish to use the chemical methyl bromide beyond its 2005 phaseout deadline. In truth, these exemptions will help prevent significant hardship for thousand of farmers and their customers, and will do so without any discernable threat to the environment.

Along with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, the once-widely used class of refrigerants and solvents) and other chemicals believed to contribute to depletion of the earth's ozone layer, production of the crop fumigant methyl bromide has been restricted. Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a multilateral treaty designed to reduce and eventually eliminate ozone-depleting compounds, methyl bromide production was to be gradually phased down in the developed world, culminating in a ban by 2005. Developing nations were given an additional ten years, until 2015...

The Price Is Right

Convincing people to conserve water can be a challenge for government planners. The Department of Energy's mandate for water-efficient low-flow toilets has not proven very popular with users, who obstinately insist on flushing multiple times -- defeating the planners' purpose. (Users' discontent hasn't deterred regulators though. Look next for new "low-flow" washing machines -- which DOE has ensured will be all that's available starting in 2007.) Furthermore, local admonitions to forgo watering lawns during summer months often go unheeded.

EPA's Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, Tracy Mehan, has a new approach. He has called for "full cost and conservation pricing to achieve water conservation." There's an idea. Let people pay the cost of the water they use and maybe the interaction of supply and demand will solve the scarcity problem...

Tunnels of Love

STANFORD CAMPUS BIOLOGISTS and students have teamed up in a daring new rescue effort--to save the tiger salamanders. Natives of the Stanford area, the salamanders migrate yearly to nearby Lake Lagunita to breed. The migration route takes them across the busy streets of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Campus Drive East. Some of the salamanders become road kill, which greatly concerns biologists, since California tiger salamanders are nearly an endangered population.

Their solution? Salamander tunnels! Construction crews are currently working to install three metal tunnels under the road so salamanders can move on to breed in peace and safety. One tunnel was installed in 2001 as a test for effectiveness. The Stanford community got the idea from the Germans, who have built tunnels for badgers, and the British, who did the same for toads. In fact, the new tunnels have come specially ordered from England. Other scientists in California have installed salamander tunnels as well.

Alas, the tunnel idea is not foolproof. After all, how do you convince a salamander to use an out-of-the-way tunnel when it is more convenient to cross the road?...

The Gospel According to PETA

It is bear hunting season now, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is upset:

For years, black bears have been safe in New Jersey, but now the New Jersey Fish and Game Council has announced its intentions to reinstate a black bear hunting season this year. While campaigning for governor, James McGreevey pledged to oppose any attempts to allow bear hunting in New Jersey. (From the PETA website "Action Alerts.")

Well, PETA should be leaping for joy that the release of Disney's latest film Brother Bear, coincides with bear-hunting season. I can't think of a better apologetic for the animal rights movement than this film, a full-length animated cartoon that tells kids that killing bears is mean...