Word: localitis
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...avoid becoming just another environmental headache, aquaculture needs standards. Raising fish species alien to the local habitat should be discouraged, since escapees can drive out native fish or infect them with disease. Penning fish in open waterways is also problematic. Even when the impact on the environment is minimized--as it is with well-run Maine salmon farms--rows of large fish corrals in natural waterways can be eyesores. Fish farming is best done in indoor, onshore facilities. The fish rarely escape, and the wastewater can be treated before being released. Growing vegetarian species such as tilapia is ideal, since...
Borrowing on the idea behind the famed greenbelts surrounding English villages, many state and local governments in the U.S. are trying to concentrate growth in some places while sparing others. Glendening has decreed that roads and sewer lines will be provided only in designated areas. The oldest American experiment along these lines is the growth boundary around Portland, Oregon. Since 1979 development has been forbidden outside an area that covers 24 municipalities and three counties. The plan has kept sprawl in check, but competition for limited space has made the city an expensive place to live. Even if governments have...
...issued bonds to raise $1 billion for the preservation of farms and woodlands, and the U.S. Congress mandates the use of $900 million each year to purchase undeveloped land, though it always falls short of allocating the full amount. In Japan activists like Yoshitoshi Era have helped prod local governments to step up land buying. "We have to protect what is left," he says. Private groups and wealthy individuals can open their pocketbooks too. Preservation-minded Doug Tompkins, founder of the Esprit clothing company, has bought 640,000 acres (259,000 hectares) of forest land in Chile...
...gaining strength by banding together. In 1992 a group of environmental enforcers organized the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to protect environmental heroes like Ron Gatto from intimidation by polluters or by their bosses. Today PEER, based in Washington, has 10,000 members, mostly from various state, federal and local environmental-enforcement agencies. They're fighting for the idea that courage under fire should not get you fired...
...surveys--we didn't even know what we had," says Idechong, who worked for the government's Division of Marine Resources from 1978 to '94. "There was no management program at all. And that scared me." Idechong began studies in 1988--and, crucially, started talking with the local fishermen. By sharing information, Idechong got a picture of what species were in danger, while the fishermen learned how to manage fish stocks for the longer term. "By working with them we ended up getting a lot of support...