Long-legged birds add beauty to island off Venezuelan coast

By RACHEL BECK Associated Press writer March 23, 2003

WASHINGTON SLAGBAAI NATIONAL PARK, Bonaire - It took two hours of driving along the bumpiest road I have ever traveled until they came into view.

The drive through this rugged terrain suddenly became worth it.

A sea of bright-pink flamingos appeared before my eyes, in shades of bubble gum and set against a serene backdrop of blue waters and barren mountains. Gorgeous.

Ask most people who visit Bonaire about its huge flamingo population, and they will likely remind you that this tiny Dutch Caribbean island just off the coast of Venezuela is known for its amazing underwater life.

True, Bonaire is a divers' paradise, but it's often overlooked as a popular destination for flamingo watchers, too.

It should be more obvious. Flamingo Airport is the main transportation hub, and T-shirts and trinkets for sale all over the downtown area bear flamingo designs.

But it takes some driving around the island for the live flamingos, sometimes huddled in groups of hundreds, to really come into view.

That's what got me hooked. I had been to Bonaire a year ago, and noticed the beauty of the flamingos from afar during a quick ride around its southern end.

This trip, I yearned to learn more about these birds.

So I set out one morning with Gijs van Hoorn, an environmental officer on the island who counts the number of flamingos on Bonaire each month to gauge how they are faring.

On average, there are 3,000 to 7,000 flamingos in Bonaire at one time. That fluctuates because they often fly to Venezuela - even for the day - if food on Bonaire becomes scarce.

Bonaire is one of a few places in the world where flamingos actually breed. They like the temperate climate - it always seems to be around 80 degrees - and the lack of predators around to bother them.

There are two spots where the flamingos tend to congregate on the island, which spans 116 square miles. To the south, they flock to the Pekelmeer Sanctuary, where they frolic in the massive, protected salt ponds.

On the northern end, they are found in pockets of desolate Washington Slagbaai National Park. That's where we headed to count the flamingos.

Armed with binoculars, van Hoorn has more than a dozen watch-points set along the 21 miles of unpaved, mountainous trails that run through the national park. At each, he stops his rickety truck and climbs down through trees and brush to get a better view.

The counting begins.

With a naked eye, we couldn't see anything at the first stop but a slight hint of pink in the distance. He counted more than 70 birds with his binoculars.

Moving on, we saw a few here and there. Some were close; most were far away.

The rocky ride was getting harder to take. There wasn't any flat road to drive on.

I was gripping my seat for balance, hoping that would prevent me from being thrust through the windshield.

Then that sea of color appeared as we approached an area called Salina Slagbaai. Dots of pink popped out of the blue waters as we neared.

We stood far enough away that we wouldn't scare them. Flamingos are shy and tend to flee when humans come too near.

Their long necks dipped below the water to grab food. Then suddenly, they extended their lean, long legs, making it appear that they were walking on water.

This is what I had come for.

We counted 117 in that spot alone. But it was time to move on. We had more counting to do.

Hundreds were spotted at Salina Goto, but mostly from afar. At one point, we stood on a mountaintop and looked down. Huge patches of pink blanketed the water.

We counted 619 flamingos that day during our trip around the national park. Others counting on the island's southern end found 4,225 more.

As we drove home along the bumpy road, it didn't seem to matter anymore that I was being tossed all around.

I had been blinded by the pink light.

Bush Plan to Exploit Alaskan Oil Thwarted --Environmentalists Celebrate as Senate Votes Against Drilling

Published on Friday, March 21, 2003 by the Guardian/UK by Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles

Just as the war was starting in Iraq, President Bush lost a different kind of battle in the senate as his plans for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska were defeated.

But supporters of the drilling plans were yesterday warning that this battle was far from over, and they would be returning with new plans.

By a vote of 52 to 48, the senate rejected President Bush's plan to open the refuge for drilling. Eight Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent to remove the drilling clause from a budget vote on Wednesday night. The outcome of the vote had been in doubt until the final moment.

The president believed the war in Iraq and the uncertain situation in Venezuela would convince waverers that the domestic oil supply should be expanded.

He has been opposed by environmental groups which warned that it would cause ecological damage to the area. The local Native American people, the Gwich'in, have also opposed the drilling and were present for the vote in Washington this week.

The vote in effect kills off drilling in the area for the year, conceded the chairman of the Senate energy committee, Pete Domenici, who had backed the plan. But its supporters believe a petrol-price hike due to the war in the Gulf would put senators under renewed pressure from their constituents.

The failure of last-minute attempts by vice president Dick Cheney to sway Republican senators who were opposed to drilling on the eve of war was significant. The White House criticized the senate vote, saying it was "unfortunate that the senate missed an opportunity to increase our energy independence at a time when that's critically important".

The California senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, was the most vocal opponent to the plan. She produced photos of the wilderness area where drilling would have taken place, showing caribou and polar bears. "Cast your eyes on this," said Ms Boxer. "One cannot paint anything quite as magnificent as what God has created."

Ms Boxer argued that the government should be concentrating instead on fuel economy measures. "We can do more for our troops if we just increase fuel economy," she said.

Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska who has been a main supporter of drilling, attended the debate wearing an Incredible Hulk tie. Mr Stevens, who argued that drilling would bring much-needed employment to the state, said afterwards: "There will be another vote, another day."

Mr Stevens had argued that it would have been possible to have extracted oil with a minimum of ecological damage. He said that the issue had been taken over by "extreme environmental organizations" who had spread "propaganda". He told Californians that when their petrol prices went up, they should call Ms Boxer.

Supporters of the drilling mocked the photos produced by Ms Boxer, saying that the area concerned was just a frozen wasteland.

The other Alaska senator, Lisa Murkowski, also a Republican, attacked the opponents of the plan, saying: "The rest of the country would just as soon lock us up and say, 'nothing, nada, zip, you cannot do anything.'"

The US uses around 7bn barrels of oil a year, and the government had estimated that as many as 16bn barrels could have been found in Alaska. Opponents suggested that only around 3bn could have been recovered without causing major damage.

The Bush plan would have allowed for drilling over 600,000 hectares (1.5m acres) of the 8m-hectare (20m-acre) refuge.

www.guardian.co.uk Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Friday March 21, 2003 The Guardian

Just as the war was starting in Iraq, President Bush lost a different kind of battle in the senate as his plans for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska were defeated.

But supporters of the drilling plans were yesterday warning that this battle was far from over, and they would be returning with new plans.

By a vote of 52 to 48, the senate rejected President Bush's plan to open the refuge for drilling. Eight Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent to remove the drilling clause from a budget vote on Wednesday night. The outcome of the vote had been in doubt until the final moment.

The president believed the war in Iraq and the uncertain situation in Venezuela would convince waverers that the domestic oil supply should be expanded.

He has been opposed by environmental groups which warned that it would cause ecological damage to the area. The local Native American people, the Gwich'in, have also opposed the drilling and were present for the vote in Washington this week.

The vote in effect kills off drilling in the area for the year, conceded the chairman of the Senate energy committee, Pete Domenici, who had backed the plan. But its supporters believe a petrol-price hike due to the war in the Gulf would put senators under renewed pressure from their constituents.

The failure of last-minute attempts by vice president Dick Cheney to sway Republican senators who were opposed to drilling on the eve of war was significant. The White House criticised the senate vote, saying it was "unfortunate that the senate missed an opportunity to increase our energy independence at a time when that's critically important".

The California senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, was the most vocal opponent to the plan. She produced photos of the wilderness area where drilling would have taken place, showing caribou and polar bears. "Cast your eyes on this," said Ms Boxer. "One cannot paint anything quite as magnificent as what God has created."

Ms Boxer argued that the government should be concentrating instead on fuel economy measures. "We can do more for our troops if we just increase fuel economy," she said.

Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska who has been a main supporter of drilling, attended the debate wearing an Incredible Hulk tie. Mr Stevens, who argued that drilling would bring much-needed employment to the state, said afterwards: "There will be another vote, another day."

Mr Stevens had argued that it would have been possible to have extracted oil with a minimum of ecological damage. He said that the issue had been taken over by "extreme environmental organisations" who had spread "propaganda". He told Californians that when their petrol prices went up, they should call Ms Boxer.

Supporters of the drilling mocked the photos produced by Ms Boxer, saying that the area concerned was just a frozen wasteland.

The other Alaska senator, Lisa Murkowski, also a Republican, attacked the opponents of the plan, saying: "The rest of the country would just as soon lock us up and say, 'nothing, nada, zip, you cannot do anything.'"

The US uses around 7bn barrels of oil a year, and the government had estimated that as many as 16bn barrels could have been found in Alaska. Opponents suggested that only around 3bn could have been recovered without causing major damage.

The Bush plan would have allowed for drilling over 600,000 hectares (1.5m acres) of the 8m-hectare (20m-acre) refuge.

new.stockwatch.com 2003-03-20 14:10 ET - News Release

HOUSTON, March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Environmental Safeguards, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: ELSF) said today that it completed the implementation of its financing arrangement with a private investor group.

The $1,500,000 loan is payable in equal quarterly principal payments plus interest and matures in May, 2008. The loan has an interest rate of 12%. Warrants for the purchase of 1,500,000 shares of the company's common stock at $0.01 were issued in connection with this transaction.

The Company said that the proceeds of the financing would be used for working capital in its expanding environmental cleanup and recycling operations and for other corporate purposes.

In an unrelated matter, Environmental Safeguards noted that it generally responds to bids in the normal course of business, and that it currently has numerous bids for cleanup outstanding, including several bids for equipment to be used in oilfield operations in the Middle East. The Company emphasized, however, that it is currently not operating in the region, nor has it received any response from the US Government or private concerns to whom bids have been submitted.

The Company's patented ITD technology uses a heat jacketed rotating chamber that vaporizes hydro-carbons and hydrocarbon derivatives from contaminated materials, and a condenser that liquefies the vapor into hydrocarbon liquids of better than 99% purity, for reuse. A single ITD unit can process one to 10 short tons of waste per hour, depending on its content. In addition to the United States, soil remediation and hydrocarbon recycling operations have been successfully conducted in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Scotland and the U.A.E. The Company has processed more than 750,000 tons of contaminated waste, recovering in excess of 15 million gallons of hydrocarbon fluids. More information on Environmental Safeguards and its subsidiary, OnSite Technology, can be found at www.onsite2.com .

The Forward Looking Statements or Projections contained herewith involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed and, accordingly, should be read in conjunction with the Company's 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001, with particular reference to Information Regarding and Factors Affecting Forward Looking Statements in the Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Environmental Safeguards, Inc. CONTACT: James S. Percell, Chairman and President of Environmental Safeguards, Inc., +1-713-641-3838

Web site: www.onsite2.com

www.iisd.ca

A Reporting Service for Environment and Development Negotiations

Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Vol. 09 No. 255 Thursday, 20 March 2003