The Christian Science Monitor Commentary > Opinion from the April 21, 2003 edition By Paula Dobriansky

WASHINGTON – In recent decades, we've become increasingly aware of the dire global environmental consequences of destruction of the earth's tropical forests - shrunken habitat for animal species, lost biodiversity, more soil erosion, and fewer "carbon sinks" to absorb greenhouse gases.

There are a variety of ways one can assist in arresting tropical forest destruction, such as supporting forestry conservation or enhancing markets for "rain forest friendly" products such as shade-grown coffee. Recycling is also helpful. monitortalk

But if you want to do one thing for Earth Day - Tuesday, April 22 - to conserve forests and even reverse deforestation: stay away from cocaine and heroin.

The strong link between illegal drug use and tropical forest destruction became obvious to me when I visited Colombia last year for the inauguration of Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe and discussed the drug trade with several members of his cabinet.

To cultivate coca and avoid being detected by law enforcement, farmers need to clear fields in fragile tropical forest areas, most often by slashing and burning. Colombia reports that, during the 1990s, more than 3 million acres of rain forest - an area larger than Yellowstone National Park - were cut for the cultivation of opium poppy and coca.

Similarly, Peru estimates that coca cultivation has caused the loss of 5.7 million acres of rainforest - a quarter of its total deforestation.

Deforestation is only one consequence of coca and poppy cultivation. Highly toxic insecticides and herbicides are used indiscriminately by coca and poppy growers in Colombia and Peru and can persist in the environment and harm a variety of wildlife. These products are used at rates that exceed the manufacturers' recommendations by individuals with no training or personal protection. They're often stored in or near the farmers' homes or food supplies, exposing them and their families to hazardous levels of these substances.

Once the coca and opium-poppy crops are harvested, coca leaves and poppy latex are mixed with more industrial chemicals, including sulfuric acid, acetone, potassium permanganate, and gasoline, to make cocaine base and heroin. The Colombian government estimates that in 2000, gasoline, in amounts equivalent to three days of gas consumption in California, were used for coca-leaf processing.

And in the middle of the forest where the processing pits and drug labs exist, you will not find toxic waste-management systems; those deadly chemicals are haphazardly dumped on the land and into the streams and rivers that supply drinking water for local populations.

In the case of Colombia, the drug trade has yet another devastating environmental consequence: It provides funding for the violent activities of three illegally armed groups, all of which are on the US list of known terrorist organizations: the National Liberation Army, the United Self-Defense Forces, and the Armed Revolutionary Front of Colombia.

Illegally armed groups also regularly bomb Colombia's oil pipelines. One pipeline built in 1986, for example, has suffered 700 attacks in which a total of 2.5 million barrels of crude oil were spilled along the Columbia-Venezuela border. That's roughly 10 times the amount of crude oil dumped into Prince William Sound in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

Unfortunately, the US remains the world's No. 1 consumer of the cocaine that originates in the Andes. And Americans consume virtually all of the heroin originating in that region.

A reduction in consumption of these illegal drugs in the US alone would cause a drastic decline in their production in the Andes, slowing deforestation and lessening pollution of the rainforest.

As concerned citizens have Earth Day discussions about how to stop global warming and save the earth's rainforests, they need to think about this linkage that may not be so obvious on the streets of the US. Truly concerned citizens also need to think about it the next time they are tempted to snort cocaine or use heroin, even if it's "just for fun." It's not just their own bodies they'll be polluting.

• Paula Dobriansky is the US undersecretary of State for global affairs.

Posted on Sun, Apr. 20, 2003 BRUCE STANLEY KansasCity.com-Associated Press

LONDON -By boosting production ahead of the war in Iraq, OPEC succeeded in allaying concerns about a possible oil shortage once the shooting began. Yet instead of celebrating its achievement, the producers' cartel fears the world is now awash in crude and at risk of a ruinous price crash.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has called an emergency meeting for Thursday to assess postwar conditions in the oil market, with a view to slashing output to bolster sagging prices. OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah has said he believes the world is oversupplied by 2 million barrels a day at a time when seasonal demand normally slips to its lowest level of the year.

However, energy analysts warn that crude inventories in major importing countries are still alarmingly low. They argue that OPEC must be careful not to curb production so much that refiners face low stocks of oil as they head into summer, the peak season for gasoline consumption.

"This whole idea that there is a tidal wave of overproduction that's going to sink prices is just wrong," said Adam Sieminski, an oil price strategist at Deutsche Bank in London. "Inventories are extremely low, and Iraq is not producing, so there is no overproduction."

OPEC has timed its meeting in Vienna, Austria, to assess market conditions in the immediate aftermath of the war. This won't be easy, and some analysts argue that such a meeting is premature.

No one knows when Iraq, historically a large producer, will be able to resume its crude shipments. Nigeria and Venezuela, meanwhile, are still clawing their way back to production levels they enjoyed before social unrest and a national strike, respectively, dented their output.

Yet OPEC, which pumps about one-third of the world's oil, is eager to show that it is in control of - or at least closely monitoring - a tempestuous market.

OPEC's members agreed in January to a production target of 24.5 million barrels a day. They soon were busting their quotas, to profit from the high prices preceding the war as much as to reassure markets that supplies would be plentiful in spite of any hostilities.

OPEC earned plaudits from the United States and other importers for its proactive, and unofficial, production increase. By some estimates, OPEC's 10 members excluding Iraq were pumping an average of 26.2 million barrels a day last month - 7 percent above their quotas.

But oil prices tumbled as the conflict unfolded. By the time the fighting was over, futures contracts of U.S. light, sweet crude had fallen by more than one-third, from a high for the year of $39.99 a barrel reached on Feb. 27.

OPEC worries that prices may have farther to fall.

"I do not think there is any necessity for OPEC to carry on with its excess production. We should consider a cutback in production to balance supply and demand, especially in the second quarter," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said Thursday in Tehran.

Many analysts accept that a production cut may be a foregone conclusion.

Kevin Norrish, head of commodities research at Barclays Capital in London, said OPEC would need to rein in output by 1 million to 1.5 million barrels a day to keep prices from sliding below $22 a barrel - the bottom end of the group's targeted price range.

Leo Drollas, chief economist of the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies, suggested that a much smaller cut of 650,000 barrels a day would suffice to stabilize prices.

However, crude inventories are unusually low for this time of year, and a deep cut by OPEC would make it harder for importers to build them to comfortable levels.

Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency - a watchdog agency for the world's leading importers - warned last week that a possible cut in output wouldn't actually take effect until demand starts to rise in the third quarter.

Replenishing oil inventories is a priority, he added. U.S. crude stocks stood at 281 million barrels at the end of the first quarter, or nearly 43 million barrels below the average for the previous five years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

For Paul Horsnell, head of energy research at J.P. Morgan, the implications for OPEC's representatives in Vienna are clear.

"What they should do is nothing," he said.

Aside from policy issues, OPEC must wrangle with at least one glaring question of protocol: Who will represent Iraq at this week's meeting?

Iraq, a founding member of OPEC, hasn't participated in the group's production agreements since the 1991 Gulf War, but it normally sends at least one representative to OPEC's meetings.

With the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government, it's not clear who, if anyone, will speak for Iraq this time.

Iraq's acting ambassador to Austria, the cultural attache at Iraq's embassy in Vienna, served this function at OPEC's previous two meetings. Because the Austrian government still recognizes the embassy as Iraq's official representation in Austria, an OPEC source suggested that the attache, Khalid al-Shamari, may do so yet again.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2003 By: Anthony Romeo

Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 17:26:50 +0000 From: Anthony Romeo toneman86@hotmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Such bias...

Dear Editor: Let me start off with a little background. I am an American citizen, born and raised in the US. My wife is from Venezuela. She left the country in the early 90s and is happy here in the US.

I see a lot of complaining on your website, about supposed atrocities the US has caused your country. I liken it to the Boston Red Sox fans who continually whine, "Yankees suck, Yankees suck," all the while their team, trying so HARD to beat the Yankees, falls into a sewer.

Worry about your own country's problems before blaming them on the US ... I know the history: Venezuela used to be doing quite well economically.

Although Venezuela has had problems with the constitution and Presidents/Dictators, I believe that it can once again be a prosperous country ... but is your country willing to do what it takes?

...or to just ignore the challenges at home and instead get in on the US bashing?

C'mon, you even have a poll asking if the US should interfere with Venezuela. Of course, the answer should be no ... but again that depends on circumstances.

Has Venezuela tried to take over another nation?

Has Venezuela needed to have weapons inspections after the war to liberate the victimized country?

Has Venezuela been in defiance of the UN laws?

Has Venezuela harbored terrorists?

Is Venezuela a violent (to its own citizens) dictatorship?

Does Venezuela have weapons of mass destruction?

If all these are true, then Venezuela is exactly like Iraq.

The people who whine that North Korea is a bigger threat, neglect to add the fact that NK has not tried to take over a country or had the UN step in to try both economic embargo and weapons inspections ... in fact, no other country has all these factors save Iraq!

Frankly, I'm a little surprised at the bias shown on this website. I'll continue to read it in the hopes that it might change, but I see a strenuously pro-Chaves/anti-US position.

To tell the truth, for me, the jury is still out on Chavez ... he may be trying to fix your country ... or to ruin it.

Either way, I support the US and unfounded allegations of "involvement in the coup" does not sit well with me.

Tony Romeo toneman86@hotmail.com

VHeadline.com responds:  We don't really wish to burst your bubble, Tony, but the Venezuelan government already has conclusive evidence of US involvement in last year's 2-day coup against the democratically-elected government of President Hugo Chavez Frias.  Besides that, US officials were in on the pre-coup planning with rebels in the opposition and at least two US embassy liaison officers were buddy-buddy with the coupsters all the while.  US Black Hawk helicopters had already landed at Caracas (Simon Bolivar) international airport and, as we revealed in February last year, the CIA was up to its eyes in back-channel operations to attempt the assassination of President Chavez Frias.   We have no problem with the majority of decent USA citizens who would probably react with abject horror if the full facts were made known to them about the support that Washington has given to anti-democratic forces.  Not just now with regard to Venezuela ... there's a whole bunch of similar covert operations like in Chile, Nicaragua etc., etc.  While it's apparently "a al mode" (pardon my French) to crap all over anyone who disagrees with anything that Bush HQ dictates to the world, we would wish to point out that Venezuela is an independent sovereign state ... not enslaved to the United States of America or subject to any of its dictates.  And while we are about it, how about doing something about the terrorists the United States harbors in Florida and New York?  If we had some Middle East citizen in Venezuela calling publicly for the assassination of George W. Bush, what do you think the reaction would be?  Yet, factually, the USA has done nothing against anti-Venezuelan terrorists who have plotted the overthrow of the Caracas government and called for the assassination of the Venezuelan President ... the indisputable facts show that Washington in fact aided and abetted those terrorists and that continues its subversion of the democratically-elected government!  Is that the USA we should all love and respect?

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuela's Anti-Drugs Office (Conacuid) says it needs 8.3 billion bolivares to carry through its narcotics control plan 2002-2007, revolving around eradication of poppy field cultivations and illegal trafficking and transshipment of drugs inside Venezuela. 

In a breakdown a Conacuid document outlines 46 projects and programs to help reduce supply and demand and push Venezuela into the international arena of the war on drugs. 

4.1 billion bolivares will go to cutting supply by seizures at road checkpoints, airports, seaports etc. and crop dusting organized by the Armed Force Unified Command (Cufan). 

3.2 billion will go towards cutting demand through prevention campaigns aimed at the family, and rehabilitation of addicts. 

684 million will help create the Venezuelan Narcotics Observatory (OVD) attached to Conacuid to collect, collate, analyze data for public use to help draw up policies and strategies to reduce supply and demand. 

Another 180 million will be used to increase international cooperation efforts, especially technical and financial assistance by multilateral organizations, as well as strengthening mechanisms of exchange of information and legal collaboration.

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

According to a Delta Amacuro State non-government organization (NGO), corruption in the Lower Delta Antonio Diaz municipality is a major reason why Warao indians are emigrating to Caracas and other Venezuelan cities to beg and waste away their lives. 

Hernan Rosas and Delta councilor, Luis Rodriguez say they have studied the matter and have attempted to investigate where State resources set apart for the indigenous group have gone. 

Both accuse pro-government Mayor Amado Antonio Heredia Bolano of corruption and confirm that they sent a dossier to the National Assembly  public expenditure control subcommittee in March 2001. 

The subcommittee recommended that Mayor Heredia be held publicly responsible and for the Citizen Power to open an investigation. 

The NGO leaders admit that the first state prosecutor sent to investigate, Jesus Molina undertook a  decent investigation ordering State Political & Security (DISIP) Police to start an audit. 

Molina was replaced by Ana Cecilia Mora, who ordered a physical inspection of the works (housing and sanitary). In July 2002, auxiliary prosecutor Ermilo Dellan allegedly placed obstacles in the investigation. Rodriguez says, "despite complaints, the municipality was then granted 20 billion bolivares for indigenous peoples projects ... only 3 million have been used and used badly."

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com