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1. Wind Energy Featured By Bill Moyers Friday Night on PBS
2. Organic Christmas Trees
3. Roundup Ready Rice Shelved in Japan
4. Desert Pronghorn Nears Extinction

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1. WIND ENERGY FEATURED BY BILL MOYERS FRIDAY NIGHT ON PBS

With dwindling oil supplies and the high environmental cost from fossil fuel energy production, many are searching for practical renewable energy sources. Wind energy is rapidly becoming popular and this Friday night Bill Moyers, host of the PBS show "NOW" features a profile of an effort underway in Minnesota to find energy solutions through the use of wind energy. 

According to the PBS press release this effort seeks to establish an aggressive national Renewable Energy Standard, unite environmental, economic and governmental interests around wind power and develop renewable electricity in Minnesota in ways that provide direct benefits to the host rural communities. 

Be sure and check it out this Friday night, December 13, 2002 at 9 p.m. Central Time For local listings see www.pbs.org/now/sched.html. For more info visit the PBS Internet site at: www.pbs.org.

Here's one you can forward to all your friends. This holiday season, if you plan on buying a Christmas tree, why not get an organically produced one? 

While everyone loves the smell and sight of an evergreen harkening us back to a primordial grasp of warmer and brighter days to come, few think about the massive chemical investments involved in traditional Christmas tree production. 

Heavy doses of nitrogen and a host of pesticide and herbicide applications are traditionally used generously by commercial tree growers. Yet, in North Carolina and Maine tree farmers have broken the mold and are growing certified organic Christmas trees. Using ingenious herbicide mixtures such as hydrogen peroxide and water for fungal infestations, these growers are out to show the world that organic Christmas trees are a viable and environmentally sound alternative. Why not support a business striving to reduce pesticide and nitrogen use? 

This year check some of these alternative organic producers. They do mail order. See http://home.nclink.net/plouffe/ and http://www.pineridgefarm.com/

3. ROUNDUP READY RICE SHELVED IN JAPAN

For the last six years authorities in a Japanese "prefecture" or region have been working with Monsanto to help develop a genetically modified strain of Roundup Ready rice for commercialization. Similar to Roundup Ready soybeans, the rice strain in question would supposedly withstand the widespread spraying of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. However, after 580 thousand Japanese citizens last week handed over a petition to prefecture authorities, they have decided to withdraw from any collaboration with Monsanto, citing consumer opposition as the primary reason. According to the Japanese information service, "Japanese consumers opposed the development because rice is their main food in life" and "The stop of the development of GM rice in Japan may be a great set back for Monsanto." Contact for the article is j46033a@nucc.cc.nagoyau.ac.jp

4. DESERT PRONGHORN NEARS EXTINCTION

In Arizona, where a drought is approaching its seventh year, biologists fear the immediate extinction of the Sonoran Pronghorn, a native species highly adapted to desert climes. An aerial survey has confirmed that fewer than 33 endangered Sonoran pronghorns survive in the desert between Tucson and Yuma. A lack of winter rain in 2001, followed by no spring rain and a late-arriving monsoon, combined to kill off not only fawns but full-grown pronghorns, said John Hervert, a wildlife program manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "I was actually concerned that every single one of these animals would be dead," Hervert said in an Arizona Daily Star article. "Fortunately, we just got lucky that it rained at the end of August and early September and saved the few we did have." 

Four years ago the estimate of sheep in the area was 142 animals, while two years ago, it was 99. While the primary culprit is thought to be the drought, conservationists point out that a suite of problems including from road construction, border patrol developments and overgrazing are all contributing to the extinction of the pronghorn.