In Gus Douglass’ personal publication, "The Market Bulletin," which extolls his virtues as the West Virginia Department of Agriculture Commissioner (paid for by the taxpayers, of course), he devotes a whole page in the July 2001 issue to the "Fifth Annual ‘WV Envirothon.’" Forty-three high school student groups competed in Wildlife, Forestry, Aquatics, Soils, Non-point Source runoff [not termed "pollution" apparently] and Applied Integrated Science. Great you say. But get this – the prizes were given by Weyerhaeuser, American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy, notorious environmental degraders. Do you suppose the message that’s given to our school children is truly an environmental one?

 Landslide Brought Them down (from Daily Grist of August 3)

Floods and landslides have rushed down the sides of mountains earlier this week on the Indonesian island of Nias, destroying villages and causing at least 60 deaths. Deforestation may have caused the floods. Indonesia's largest environmental group, Walhi, found in a study this year that flash floods have occurred exactly where deforestation was worst in the country. Walhi's Longgena Ginting said the floods were "really a sign of the environmental destruction of Indonesia," where he said seven out of 10 logs are illegally cut. Similar links between deforestation and floods have been found in China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

Straight to the source: New York Times, Seth Mydans, 02 Aug 2001
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/02/international/02INDO.html>

From the European Union in Brussels comes this. The cost of producing electricity from coal or oil would double if costs such as damage to the environment and health were taken into account, according to the results of a study published last week.

The cost of electricity production from gas would increase by 30 percent if these so-called "external costs" were factored in, the European Union-funded research study found.

The study’s findings were reported by the EU’s executive Commission.

It said such "external" costs amounted to between one and two percent of the EU’s Gross Domestic Product, not including the cost of global warming.

The study found that nuclear power involved relatively low external costs due to its low influence on global warming and the low probability of accidents in EU power plants, according to the Commission.

Wind and hydro energy presented the lowest external costs, it said.

European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin urged energy producers to come up with environmentally friendly options to help reduce the costs of damage to the environment and health.

The study said the cost of environmental and health damage could be taken into account either by taxing damaging fuels and technologies or by encouraging cleaner technologies, the approach the Commission said it had opted for.

The study was the result of work carried out over the last decade by researchers from all EU member states, the Commission said.

Eagle Report (submitted by Don Gasper from DNR publication)

It looks like 2001 will be a banner year for bald eagles in the Mountain State. Twelve nests are active, and as of this writing, chicks have been observed in most nests. In 2000 there were ten active nests, but two nests were abandoned early in the nesting season.

This year all ten pairs are doing well, and a new nest was built on Blennerhassett Island near Parkersburg (but abandoned in May). This is the first confirmed nesting in the Ohio River drainage of West Virginia. _