Critics question World Bank’s role as carbon trader, fossil-fuel funder
By Daphne Wysham
25 Mar 2005
For as long as it’s been around, the World Bank has been prone to mission creep. Since its founding 60 years ago, the World Bank has shifted its focus from rebuilding war-torn Europe to aiding developing countries. Now the organization is brokering deals in the fledgling carbon-trading market, some of which could harm the very people it’s supposed to help. At the same time, the bank continues to fund fossil-fuel extraction projects that create the emissions carbon trading is intended to fight. Of course, more carbon emissions mean more carbon-market profits … Daphne Wysham takes a look at the troublesome cycle Read More..
Why can’t they just invest in providing cheaper and better solar panels?

Sixteen years ago this week, the Exxon Valdez oil spilled 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and horrified Alaska and the world.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is running a special series on
the environmentally precarious state of modern oil-tanker transport.
Some key findings of its investigation: Post-Valdez initiatives
intended to reduce crew hours, require more tug escorts for tankers,
and crack down on alcohol use are all regularly dodged. Many West
Coast officials have been lobbying to loosen tug-escort rules meant
to help shepherd tankers safely to port. Also, even 16 years later,
Exxon still hasn’t double-hulled any of its Alaskan tankers. And
even modern double-hulled tankers are still vulnerable to spills thanks to human fallibility.
Interviews with crew members and internal company documents reveal serious safety lapses on vessels that are considered to be the best tankers in the world.

“…The stakes are very high. ConocoPhillips ships each carry nearly 38 million gallons of oil into some of Washington’s most delicate waters.Experts say a spill of just 1 million gallons in any portion of Western Washington’s waterway would be impossible to control and would devastate wildlife, fishing, commerce, tourism, ferry traffic and the daily enjoyment of the state’s most precious asset for months, perhaps years….”Read More..

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Eric Nalder

(Source: Pall Corporation) – An update on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), including variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of Mad Cow Disease, was a key topic at the Food & Drug Administration’s Blood Products Advisory Committee meeting in Gaithersburg, Maryland yesterday.

Issues such as the number of people that could be harboring vCJD as carriers, the impact on the blood supply and new risk reduction measures were addressed. The Pall Corporation presented an overview of their research on prion reduction technology as a new risk reduction measure to help prevent transfusion transmission of infectious prions that can cause vCJD. The Company expects to launch the new filter commercially in Europe this spring.