A nuclear power plant hasn’t been built in the United States in two decades, but that could change in the next few years after a consortium announced locations in six states as possible sites for a nuclear renaissance.

Nuclear power consortium NuStart Energy on Thursday named the sites from which it will later pick two for which to apply for licenses to build and operate nuclear power plants.

Four of the six already house operating nuclear power plants. The sites, by location, are:

Scottsboro, Ala. The Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, an unfinished site owned by the U.S. government’s Tennessee Valley Authority.
Port Gibson, Miss. The Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, owned by Entergy.
St. Francisville, La. The River Bend Station, owned by Entergy.
Aiken, S.C. The Savannah River Site, a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons lab.
Lusby, Md. The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant, owned by Constellation Energy.
Oswego, N.Y. The Nine Mile Point plant, owned by Constellation Energy.
All six sites chosen by NuStart are owned either by a consortium member or by the Department of Energy.

The consortium, which hopes to work on two advanced plant designs, said it expects to name the two finalists by October

Global warming advantage
The last license to result in the construction and operation of a new nuclear plant in the United States was issued in 1973.

The U.S. nuclear industry has been virtually frozen since the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. No company has followed through with plans to build a new nuclear plant since the accident.

However, President Bush has backed renewed construction of nuclear plants as part of his energy policy.

And, in an indication of a possible shift in public opinion, a few environmentalists have said they are willing to revisit nuclear power because, unlike fossil fuel, it doesn’t produce emissions tied to global warming.

In addition, designs for new generation plants include smaller reactors that create less radioactive waste.

75 factors to be weighed
NuStart President Marilyn Kray said the four sites with operating power plants have the ?most comprehensive licensing basis,? and the five sites housing power plants have the benefit of established transmission systems.

The consortium will evaluate the sites on 75 factors including seismic activity, availability of water and emergency preparedness issues.

It is also sending letters to state and local politicians and development leaders to determine what incentives they might offer to attract t?e plant.

Kray said Nustart is not particularly worried about protests from environmental activists at the local level, but does expect some resistance from environmentalists on the national level.

The NuStart consortium consists of nine utilities, including Exelon, Entergy, and Duke Energy, as well as nuclear reactor manufacturers GE Energy, a unit of General Electric, and Westinghouse Electric Co., a unit of BNFL Plc. (GE is a parent in the joint venture that owns MSNBC.)

Under the Department of Energy?s Nuclear 2010 program, half of the estimated $520 million cost of the project is being shouldered by the Energy Department and half will be paid by the consortium members.

The consortium expects to apply for licenses in 2008. Construction could then begin in 2010 with completion in 2014, NuStart said.

On the occasion of International Biological Diversity Day, the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity launched a much improved database called EUNIS, European Nature Information System. This database focuses on key biodiversity elements such as species, habitat types, etc and will be ?mproved further during this year with major features such as spatial tools and enhanced data sets.

These on-line information systems will help to assess and understand biodiversity in a wider context. The EUNIS database development was initiated by the Agency in 1997, and the data was made available on the web within European Community clearing House Mechanism process in 2002.

Events were arranged worldwide to celebrate this day and improve awareness of biodiversity and its relevance to human well-being. A synthesis report of the biodiversity part of the UN-driven Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was launched in Montreal, London, Cambridge and Beijing as part of these celebrations.

He thanked Denmark and the other EU countries for taking a strong lead on climate change. "We know there is some tough sledding ahead to make the rest of the cuts in greenhouse gases that will be needed. We came to let people know that climate change is already having an effect in the Arctic, and it will soon be affecting Europe too. It’s really important that Europeans commit to more reductions once the Kyoto commitments are complemented."

A recent report from the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency confirms that changes in climate and impacts on nature and ecosystems are already underway in various parts of Europe, including the Arctic. Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency:

‘These findings provide even more evidence that climate change is really happening. Our report supports policy makers in their efforts to not only reduce emissions of greenhouse gases but also prepare ways to adapt to the changes that will inevitably come. Europe has a particular responsibility because of its leadership in the Kyoto process but also because its geography – from the Arctic to the arid regions of the Mediterranean – means that all Europeans will be affected.’

The aim of this kind of work – the subject of fierce debate – is to make cloned embryos from which stem cells can be used to treat diseases.

Meanwhile South Korean scientists say they have created stem cells to match individuals for the first time.

The resultant cells were a perfect match for the individual and could mean treatments for diseases like diabetes without problems of rejection.

Therapeutic cloning – believed to have huge potential to treat disease and disability – is allowed in Britain.

Reproductive cloning – the cloning of human embryos with the intention of creating a baby – was made illegal in 2001.

The UN recently voted in favour of a ban on all human cloning, but this was non-binding which means the UK can continue to do therapeutic cloning.

The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial, with opponents arguing that all embryos, whether created in the lab or not, have the potential to go on to become a fully fledged human. Others fear there are safety concerns.

Supporters of cloning say it could offer numerous benefits in the future, such as fighting disease, battling infertility or preserving endangered species.

Criticising the Newcastle research, Julia Millington from the ProLife Alliance said cloning for research purposes was profoundly unethical.

Josephine Quintavalle from CORE said: "No matter how it is created, a human embryo’s destiny should be to live and not to be turned into human stem cells."

Life said cloning was "unsafe and inefficient", and involved exposing women to dangerous fertility drugs in order to collect sufficient eggs.

In the Newcastle research, three of the resultant clones lived and grew in the laboratory for three days and one survived for five days.

The critical factor for success appeared to be how quickly the egg was collected and manipulated, Professor Alison Murdoch and colleagues found.

The clone that lasted for five days had been collected and manipulated within 15 minutes.

Other tissues

Stem cells have the ability to develop into virtually any tissue in the body and could, in theory, be used to replace damaged cells in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.

But Professor Murdoch said this was still a long way off.

"We are talk?ng about several years before we are talking about a cell-based therapy that can go back into the patient," she said.

Colleague Dr Miodrag Stojkovic said: "I’m really happy but I know that this is just the beginning of a long journey so we have to continue to try to derive stem cells that will definitely help us one day to cure diseases."

The UK research is published in Reproductive and BioMedicine Online.

Colibri means "Hummingbird" in Spanish and the the winner of the annual award receives a trophy, diploma and a $1,000 cash award from Emilio Kifuri, president of Canyon Travel.

The winner of the Colibri Award is selected by Planeta.com founder Ron Mader with consultation from members of the Mexico Ecotourism Network.

"Ecotourism depends on the leadership of individuals who are resourceful and innovative and who are bold enough to bridge the traditional divisions between tourism and the environment," said Mader.

"Mexico is one of the world’s mega diverse countries with one of the most successful tourism industries," said Emilio Kifuri. "If ecotourism is ever to overtake the senseless destruction of the world’s natural areas, it certainly has to develop at a much faster pace. We feel fortunate to be in a position to demonstrate to the tourism industry that ecotourism can be more profitable than mainstream tourism. It is this potential for profit that has the greatest ability to cause the most profound changes."

Planeta.com will partici?ate in several environmental events in Mexico City during the World Environment Day weekend and will present the award on the waters of the Xochimilco Gardens.

"If we desire to make our cities greener, making tourism greener is a great step forward," said Mader, adding that urban ecotourism is a reality in Mexico City with such pioneering projects as the ciclovia (bike path) and the hiking and biking trails in the Ajusco Mountains.

Planeta.com is no stranger to city-based nature tourism, having hosted the 2004 Conference on Urban Ecotourism. Participants at that event agreed upon the Urban Ecotourism Declaration, a collective response to a common challenge: making urban spaces more livable while protecting biodiversity.

Landscapes will also be enhanced and conserved to build thriving rural towns and villages – plans outlined last year in the government’s Rural Strategy.

Under the bill, a single body, called Natural England, will be created to manage the environment.

This will be created by fusing English Nature, parts of the Countryside Agency and most of the Rural Development Service. The new organisation will be established by January 2007, subject to parliamentary agreement.

The government says this would establish a powerful champion for landscape and conservation working "for people, places and nature" and will be responsible for issues of access, recreation and quality of life.

Rural advocate

The bill will also establish a new Commission for Rural Communities to act as an advocate and watchdog for rural people and to ensure government policy delivers improvements for them.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) broadly welcomed the announcement, but expressed concerns about how the organisation would work.

Tom Oliver, head of rural policy at CPRE, commented: "We very much welcome the opportunity the government is providing to ensure both the countryside and the wildlife that inhabits it is properly protected.

"But the effectiveness of the legislation depends on the clarity and robustness of the legal duties given to the new agency and on the degree of independence it has from central and regional government."

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the bill, along with three others, would improve wildlife protection and help the government meet targets for halting biodiversity loss.

Martin Harper, head of government affairs at RSPB, commented: "Occasionally, some very valuable legislation can in the end be left out. We are very pleased that the three bills that primarily concern us are in, but given the big legislative programme announced today, we’ll be even more pleased when they come out the other side."

But the government has insisted it remains committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010.

The society published on Monday its response to the current review of the UK climate change programme.

Sir David Wallace, vice president of the Royal Society, said: "There are some tough political decisions to be made, in this parliament, about how the UK manages its seemingly insatiable appetite for energy at a time when cutting emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is imperative.

"This is underlined by the fact that, at the current rate, even the government’s revised assessment of how much carbon dioxide the UK will cut is frankly unrealistic."

The Royal Society warns that unless the rate of development of both renewable and energy efficiency measures make up for the loss of capacity resulting from the phasing out of nuclear power, the UK will actually become more reliant on fossil fuels with the result that carbon dioxide emissions will go up rather than down.

The UK’s emissions of greenhouse gases rose between 2003 and 2004, according to the government’s own data.

The emissions last year were 1.5% above those in 2003, and are now higher than at any time since the Labour government came to power in 1997

The eggs were leaving Monday from the Pittsburgh International Airport, flying by jet to Los Angeles, then to Seoul, then to Kakbarovsk, Russia. From there, it’s a nine-hour train ride to the Khinganski Nature Reserve, located near the Amur River and China.

The National A?iary has been leading the reintroduction program for a decade after taking it over from the International Crane Foundation.

"It’s wonderful because it’s really taking a captive institution (and) taking that next step and trying to release these animals back into the wild," said Ann Burke, spokeswoman for the foundation in Baraboo, Wis.

This year, zoos in Cincinnati, Houston, Birmingham, Ala., Oklahoma City, Seattle, Boston and South Bend, Ind., provided eggs.

Usually, the National Aviary also provides some eggs, but a female crane died two years ago and the aviary’s new female hasn’t mated yet, said Jim Dunster, the aviary’s curator of birds.

"They’re good friends, they’re not lovers yet," he said.

In all, about 150 eggs have made the trip in the past decade.

"The eggs are much tougher than you would think," Dunster said. "They’ve always been alive and kicking when we got them (to the reserve.)"

The eggs, about 4 1/2 inches long for the red-crown and about 3 1/2 inches for the white-naped, are placed in coolers atop foam rubber, which sits on hot water bottles to keep them at a steady 99 degrees Fahrenheit.

Eggs are easier to send than birds, which have the potential to carry disease and require more permits, Dunster said.

Numbering between 1,700 and 2,000 in the wild, the red-crowned crane is the third most endangered bird in the world, according to the aviary and the International Crane Foundation. It’s native to Russia, China and Japan. Between 4,900 and 5,400 white-naped cranes live in the wild. Both species are threatened by loss of habitat because of human encroachment.

The birds are banded in the Russian reserve, but once they leave, they can’t be tracked, Dunster said. The program has been seeking grants for satellite tracking, but that would cost between $6,000 to $7,000 a bird, he said.

Taking Action for Animals will offer a varied and dynamic program in complimentary tracks. On Day One panels and keynote speakers will address a future vision for our movement showcasing successful campaigns and setting an agenda for the future of animal protection. Day Two will build upon the lessons of the first day with specific skills training. Leaders of the animal protection movement and experienced campaigners will address the conference alongside external professionals and visionaries from other social justice movements and those providing services and support for the non profit sector.

More: [url=http://www.takingactionforanimals.com?www.takingactionforanimals.com[/url]

As the shepherding group Earth Day Network points out, the relatively new holiday really makes a difference. "Earth Day broadens the base of support for environmental programs, rekindles public commitment and builds community activism around the world through a broad range of events and activities," concludes the organization.

This year’s theme is Protect Our Children and Our Future, and a number of events are planned to highlight the threats of air and water pollution, particularly in inner city communities. Kathleen Rogers, the president of Earth Day Network, explains, "While progress has been made, many of those problems still exist, especially among children, the poor and other vulnerable populations. On this important anniversary we are bringing people together to focus on those environmental concerns that threaten the environment our children are growing up in.

In fact, a lot has changed since more than 20 million people rallied around the first Earth Day in 1970. Many environmentalists were deeply disappointed at their failure to get green issues seriously considered in the course of the heated 2004 national elections. And as E reports in our upcoming May/June 2005 cover story "Trashing the Greens," in 1992, according to Canada-based Environics Research Group, 17 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that pollution [is] necessary to preserve jobs, whereas in 2004, a whopping 29 percent agreed with it. Even more disturbing are the controversial conclusions of Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, who argue in their hotly debated essay The Death of Environmentalism that only a quarter to a third of the American people are now firmly in the environmental camp a dramatic drop from previous numbers.

What’s going on? E’s upcoming cover story will investigate many of the underlying forces that have conspired to push the environment essentially to the back burner of most Americans’ lives, even though they literally can’t live without it. Some of the chief suspects include systemic problems with the media and with our electoral politics, as well as the heightened effectiveness of ultra-right-wing foundations who are pushing a special interest agenda. But there are other forces at work as well.

Environmentalists are largely fighting a war of public opinion on two fronts, which is not an enviable position, as any general will tell you. On one hand is the age-old enemy of any social movement, regardless if it is right or left, religious or secular, or revolutionary or reactionary, and that is the demon apathy. It takes a lot of intellectual and emotional convincing to get someone to change a behavior. In today’s world that often means people consume a lot of unnecessary and dirty products and services when better designed, more environmentally friendly options are readily available, from wind power over coal burning to high-tech hybrid cars over gas-guzzling behemoths to recycled-content toilet paper over the same product made from virgin fiber.

Let’s face it, in its history, the environmental movement has seen the biggest gains in support after big disasters and outrageous ?trocities, from the Exxon Valdez spill to rivers catching on fire and nuclear meltdowns. These big events can shock people into making a difference, but they shouldn’t be the only impetus.

The other front is the ongoing "culture war," in which the recently emboldened conservative power brokers in this country are leading a new crusade of anti-environmentalism. Whether it is motivated by a particular strain of religious zeal or pure pocketbook selfishness, big business and its allies in the Republican Party are working hard to roll back environmental protections and progress. At the grassroots, many people are not hearing the green message and fall in line with their peer groups, which take their cues from community leaders and on up the hierarchy to the White House, which is one of the most anti-environmental administrations in history.

Those waging a cultural backlash against environmentalism unfairly exploit the vagaries of scientific uncertainty and the complexity and perceived subtlety of today’s environmental problems. For instance, Ross Gelbspan recently wrote in Mother Jones that as a direct result of highly coordinated public relations efforts on global warming, "The press accorded the same weight to the industry-funded skeptics as it did to mainstream scientists, creating an enduring confusion in the public mind."

Thus, special interests can appeal to apathy and work to head off any discussion of sensible changes to address the threat of climate change by continually harping on over-inflated charges that the "scientific jury" is still out, when actually, "What we know about the climate comes from the largest and most rigorously peer-reviewed scientific collaboration in history–the findings of more than 2,000 scientists from 100 countries reporting to the United Nations as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," as Gelbspan writes.

Similarly, naysayers of the environmental movement like to point out that the U.S.’s air and water are cleaner than they have been in decades, and that there are more trees. First, that speaks to the effectiveness of environmentalism. Second, while there may be more trees than 100 years ago in much of the country, there aren’t more virgin stands of timber, and any ecologist will tell you that you therefore are talking about very different ecosystems that have their own needs and "values." Further, as Shellenberger puts it, Thirty or 40 years ago the environmental problems were cleaning up the air and water, very straightforward and simple to deal with But now were talking about mass extinction, global warming, an oceans crisis In other words, just because the air and water may be cleaner by some measures doesn’t mean other threats aren’t on the horizon.

Earth Day Network helps coordinate more than 12,000 organizations in 174 countries, leading to a highly diverse range of local events and festivities each year. For example, this Earth Day will feature an historic environmental rally in Kiev, Ukraine, where leaders of the new democratic government will address more than 250,000 citizens. There will be actions in China and South America, and a conference on water issues in the Middle East.

In the U.S., a tremendous range of activities are planned. Take Austin, Texas, for instance, which has no fewer than 12 Earth Day 2005 events listed on Earth Day Network’s online calendar. More than 1,000 Austin volunteers are expected to help remove invasive species, pick up trash, build trails, plant native plants and more. If that sounds too strenuous, consider dining al fresco with The Progressive Potluckers, the Austin Parks Foundation and members of the AustinEcoNetwork Eat, Drink and Be Earthy. At this decidedly "low key" event, kite flying, Frisbee throwing, swimming in springs and other fun activities are encouraged.

In Chicago, Friends of the Parks will be organizing volunteer efforts all around the Windy City. In San Francisco, there will be beach cleanups; a special event with folk musician Joni Mitchell (who’s song "Big?Yellow Taxi" helped energize the first Earth Day events in 1970); a "Wild, Wild Wetland Jam" that features wetland restoration activities, bird tours, entertainment, a community talent show, a dessert contest and games; and a day of "green" films, art installations, live music and other activities at the Sony Metreon complex.

The natural products retailer Whole Foods will be hosting composting workshops and other programs at many of its stores, and natural cosmetics and hair-care company Aveda will host highlights of its "April is Earth Month" campaign, during which the company is working to raise $1 million for conservation and collect 100,000 signatures to support the Endangered Species Act.

Getting involved with Earth Day is a cinch, and it’s fun. Some people consider the holiday to be a prime opportunity to display an Earth Flag (with the globe on a blue field) or other symbol of their patriotism in the human species as a whole and our critical role as stewards (whether we like it or not) of the global environment.

Hopefully, this Earth Day will provide an opportunity for people of all stripes to debate the issues, make positive changes, get organized and get to know the world around them a little better. Earth Day is for all of us, as well as for every living thing.

By Brian C. Howard