by Common Ground staff

UN plans to save Iraq’s marshlands
The United Nations has announced a major project to help restore the lost marshlands of Iraq, which supported the ancient way of life of the Marsh Arabs.
The $11 million scheme, funded by Japan, will help purify contaminated water and recreate natural habitats destroyed during the rule of Saddam Hussein.
The wetlands were drained as punishment after the Marsh Arabs gave sanctuary to rebels fighting the Saddam regime.
About 250,000 Marsh Arabs now live in refugee camps and Iraqi cities.
It is estimated that during the Saddam period, around 95 percent of the marshes dried out, largely due to the deliberate diversion of water.
An intricate structure of banks and islands built more than 5,000 years ago was also levelled.
The UN Environment Program believes that since last year’s war, about a fifth of the area has been re-flooded by local people opening floodgates and breaching embankments.
However, this has led to disease, as much of the water is contaminated.
The Mesopotamian marshes, once the largest wetland area in the Middle East, also provided one of the world’s most important habitats for birds.
They covered more than 20,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles) and straddled the Iraq-Iran border at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The new project will construct small-scale water treatment plants and recreate reed bed habitats which help purify water and shelter wildlife.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3921151.stm

Whistleblower scientists to fight government firing
Three scientists fired July 14 by Health Canada after criticizing the department’s drug approval policies said Thursday they will fight the decision.
Steven Hindle, president of the Professional Institute of the Public
Service of Canada, believes Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard
Lambert were terminated because of their outspokenness vis-à-vis the approval process for new drugs.
The three were especially critical of Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone, which led to a Senate inquiry and a decision not to approve the drug.
They also questioned carbadox, a drug used in pigs, and Baytril, which
was used to promote growth in cows and chickens.
Haydon called a 2001 Canadian ban on Brazilian beef a political decision, and Chopra criticized former health minister Allan Rock for stockpiling antibiotics during the post-Sept. 11 anthrax scare.
Prior to the May 2003 discovery of mad cow in Canada, both Haydon and
Chopra also warned measures to prevent the disease were inadequate. They
had called for a ban on the use of animal parts in feed.
“They’ve faced various levels of discipline,” said Hindle. They’ve been
verbally reprimanded, instructed not to speak to media and suspended, he
added.
The three scientists weren’t fired from the Veterinary Drugs Directorate
because of their public criticism, said Health Canada spokesperson Ryan
Baker, adding the reasons for the dismissals are confidential and included in the letters of termination.
The scientists’ whistleblowing actions were applauded by NDP MP Pat Martin, who called the three “heroes.”
“If the government has signalled the way they feel about whistleblowing
by firing these three prominent whistleblowers, it doesn’t bode well for
the future of meaningful legislation ... this is a huge step backward,” added Martin.
Hindle agrees that this action sets a bad precedent saying, “it will cause other public service employees, who have legitimate concerns, to keep those concerns to themselves.”
The union will take the case to the public service staff relations board
for resolution. Its decision can be appealed by either side.
www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/07/15/whistleblower_scientists040715.html

Undersea noise ‘does harm whales’
Evidence that noise from human sources harms whales and other marine mammals is overwhelming, scientists say.
The International Whaling Commis-sion, holding its annual meeting in Italy, says military sonar and oil and gas exploration are particular threats.
The numbers of beached whales found may seriously underestimate the numbers actually killed by sound.
They believe special protected areas could help to save marine mammals from being harmed in this way.
A report by the IWC’s scientific committee says there is “compelling evidence” that entire populations of marine mammals are at potential risk from increasingly intense man-made underwater noise.
The committee says in its report: “The weight of accumulated evidence now associates mid-frequency military sonar with atypical beaked whale mass strandings.
“The evidence is very convincing and appears overwhelming. Assessments of stranding events do not account for animals that are severely affected or died, but did not strand.”
Earlier this month about 200 melon-headed whales headed into shallow water off the coast of Hawaii, with one dying, during US and Japanese naval exercises.
One possible cause under investigation is mid-frequency sonar. The report also expressed “great concern” over the impacts of oil and gas exploration on large whales.
It mentioned an incident in 2002 in which humpback whales were stranded off the coast of Brazil in unusual numbers during a submarine oil and gas survey that generated intense sound pulses.
The committee called for “strong, prompt action,” especially for endangered whale populations like the western North Pacific grey whales. Only 100 animals, among them 23 females of reproductive age, are known to exist.
Global conservation campaign group the World Wildlife Fund has urged the Royal Dutch Shell energy group to suspend its Sakhalin oil project in the Russian Far East after the IWC called it a threat to the survival of the grey whales in the area.
The scientific committee urged investigation into setting up marine protected areas to keep marine mammals safe from underwater noise.
Last October, the US Natural Resources Defense Council said the US Navy had agreed to cut its use of a controversial low-frequency sonar system which could be harming marine mammals.
The journal Nature said the sonar signals might cause bubbles in the animals’ tissue, in much the same way as divers can suffer decompression sickness known as “the bends.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/
nature/3916249.stm916249.stm

Tell US navy to stop harming whales with high-intensity sonar
In the last several years, thousands of you have taken action to help stop the
navy from deploying harmful low-frequency sonar, and last year NRDC reached a landmark agreement with the navy limiting the use of this particular type of sonar. But the navy continues to use mid-frequency sonar, another form of high-intensity sonar, to blast large expanses of the ocean with sound. This
technology has been implicated in a growing number of whale strandings and even deaths around the world, from the state of Washington to the Bahamas to Greece.
Most recently, navy training exercises off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, earlier
this month coincided with a stampede to shallow water by a pod of up to 200
melon-headed whales. Melon-headed whales (which resemble dolphins) usually stay in deep water and are not known to beach themselves. Although concerned locals in kayaks and canoes were eventually able to herd most of the whales back out to sea, one young whale did become stranded and die. It’s too soon to know for certain whether the sonar was the direct cause of the pod’s distress, but the
incident was similar enough to previous strandings caused by sonar that it
warrants a full investigation by the navy.
NRDC has sent a letter to the navy, demanding that it stop using high-
intensity, mid-frequency sonar in a way that harms whales. You can help by
sending the navy your own letter.
You can send a message to the secretary of the navy directly from NRDC’s
Earth Action Center at www.nrdc.org/action/. See also www.nrdc.org/wildlife/