ECOLOGY

MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. STREAMS ARE POLLUTED

REUTERS - More than half of U.S. streams are polluted, with the worst
conditions found in the eastern third of the country, according to a
study by the Environmental Protection Agency. In its first-ever study of
shallow streams, the agency found 42 percent were in poor condition, and
another 25 percent were considered fair. Only 28 percent were in good
condition, EPA said. Another 5 percent were not analyzed because of
sampling problems in New England. Streams running in the East, from the
Atlantic coast through the Appalachian Mountains, fared the worst, with
52 percent listed as poor. In contrast, 45 percent of streams running
west of the Rocky Mountains were the least polluted, the report found.

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TIBETAN PLATEAU LOSING 46,000 GLACIERS

GEOFFREY LEAN, INDEPENDENT UK - The Chinese Academy of Sciences - the
country's top scientific body - has announced that the glaciers of the
Tibetan plateau are vanishing so fast that they will be reduced by 50
per cent every decade. Each year enough water permanently melts from
them to fill the entire Yellow River. They added that the vast
environmental changes brought about by the process will increase
droughts and sandstorms over the rest of the country, and devastate many
of the world's greatest rivers, in what experts warn will be an
"ecological catastrophe."

The plateau, says the academy, has a staggering 46,298 glaciers,
covering almost 60,000 square miles. At an average height of 13,000 feet
above sea level, they make up the largest area of ice outside the polar
regions, nearly a sixth of the world's total.

The glaciers have been receding over the past four decades, as the world
has gradually warmed up, but the process has now accelerated alarmingly.
Average temperatures in Tibet have risen by 2 degrees Fahrenheit over
the past 20 years, causing the glaciers to shrink by 7 per cent a year,
which means that they will halve every 10 years.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/050806EA.shtml