Toxic Fleet
In the upper reaches of San Francisco Bay lie more than 50 decaying military ships, a ghost fleet that is now little more than a toxic dump. Some of the vessels have been in the bay since the Vietnam War, their hulls rusting and depositing heavy metals from peeling paint into its waters. Now, under a new settlement with the U.S. Maritime Administration, NRDC is helping to make sure that the fleet’s pollution ends. "This is an agency that chose not to obey the same laws that apply to every other polluter," says Michael Wall, a senior attorney with NRDC who has led the push for the cleanup. Although the Maritime Administration has known since the 1990s that heavy metals from the vessels were accumulating in Suisun Bay, it took no action to halt the pollution. More than 20 tons of lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, and other toxic metals have already fallen into the bay. Under the agreement with NRDC, the agency will remove the biggest danger — the remaining paint chips on the ships’ decks, which can wash off each time it rains — within four months. Peeling paint on the rest of the vessels will be removed or encapsulated within two years. The 25 most decayed ships will be removed for disposal within two and a half years, and all ships will be out of the bay by September 2017. "This area should never have been a dumping ground for toxic waste," Wall says.
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The Fight Against Drilling
Two years ago, NRDC celebrated an important victory when a federal court ruled against Shell’s bid to drill for oil in waters off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Now NRDC has gone to court to halt Shell’s new drilling plans in the same waters. In January, the Obama administration granted the company permission to do exploratory drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort seas, despite evidence that this could lead to dangerous oil spills and irreversibly damage the sensitive Arctic ecosystem. "We know far less about the Arctic than we do about any other part of the earth," says Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC’s Alaska program. "We desperately need a time-out on drilling so we can first understand, scientifically, what we need to do to protect this ecosystem." The Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco will likely issue a decision this summer, says Clusen, although drilling could start as early as June. The Chukchi Sea, which lies off Alaska’s northwestern coast, and the Beaufort Sea, along the state’s northeastern coast, are home to endangered bowhead and beluga whales, polar bears, seals, and dozens of species of Arctic birds. Shell’s new permits allow the company to drill just 20 miles from the wildlife refuge. Arctic ecosystems are already jeopardized by climate change, which is accelerating faster there than in other regions. The human activities associated with oil exploration, including increased pollution, noise, and added roads and traffic, will intensify the effects of climate change, such as the melting of sea ice, according to Tara Connelly, an Arctic scientist in NRDC’s Science Center. "Almost all aspects of the marine Arctic ecosystem are related in some way to sea ice, and its loss will affect everything from algae to top predators like polar bears," Connelly says. Large animals, including walruses and polar bears, depend on sea ice for hunting and breeding; tiny brine channels within sea ice also house the unique microbial communities that fuel the Arctic food web. Experts predict that a major oil spill will occur if commercial drilling is allowed to proceed. When that happens, little can be done to protect fragile wildlife against the inevitable ensuing devastation. "The conditions up there are dark and very cold, and we just don’t have the technology to clean up oil in cold waters amid broken ice," Connelly says. "There’s no infrastructure in the Arctic to respond to such a disaster."
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The Fight Against Drilling
China and Us
Seven years ago, the lights went out across vast swaths of China. Massive blackouts, like those in California in 2000 and 2001, left residents and businesses without power. Among the regions hardest hit was Jiangsu Province, a growing industrial center north of Shanghai, whose skyrocketing — and inefficient — industrial and residential energy use was overtaxing its power grid. Barbara Finamore, director of NRDC’s China program, recalls Jiangsu’s initial response to the energy conservation measures proposed by NRDC. "Ten years ago, they laughed," she says. But then the blackouts hit, and Jiangsu’s leaders recognized pretty quickly the role that energy efficiency could play in stabilizing the province’s power grid — and its economy. Jiangsu, with a population of 76 million, and California still have much in common. Each is a major economic engine in its country (Jiangsu’s economy accounts for 10 percent of China’s gross domestic product; California represents 11.5 percent of the U.S. GDP), and both are interested in developing cleaner sources of energy. Last October California and Jiangsu signed a formal agreement to promote cooperation between their governments, industries, and universities to boost energy efficiency and renewable energy use and to curb emissions. This is the first time that such a deal has been struck between a Chinese province and a U.S. state with the specific aim of tackling climate change. NRDC’s China program helped design the agreement’s basic framework and will continue to "help ensure that both California and Jiangsu stay on the right track," says Mona Yew, the new director of the China energy-efficiency program.
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China and Us