Northern California's coho salmon on endangered species list

Northern California's struggling coho salmon population will get extra protection from the state's Endangered Species Act.

The state Fish and Game Commission voted to place coho, or silver, salmon from San Francisco to Punta Gorda in Humboldt County on the state's "endangered'' list.

It was time to bite the bullet here and list the species as endangered,'' said Sam Schuchat, commission vice president. "We're down to thousands of fish. If we hadn't done what we did today, the species is going to wink out of existence and be gone forever.''

Environmentalists who pushed for the listing hailed the vote, which now mandates that loggers, farmers and other developers seek special permits before embarking on projects that might harm the once-abundant fish.

From San Francisco to Oregon, the coho population has plunged 70 percent since the 1960s, and is estimated to be just 6 percent to 15 percent of its 1940s level despite the release of millions of hatchery-raised fish.

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Northern California's coho salmon on endangered species list

Athens Olympics Forgets Going Green

When Athens was an Olympic candidate city Greek authorities declared: ”The Olympic Games are a challenge as well as an opportunity for the broad implementation of programmes and actions which are environmentally friendly and in accordance to the principles of sustainable development. . . . Projects will be realised with the use of environmentally friendly technologies and materials, and this will be a prerequisite in all relevant tenders.”


But far from using green energy, the Olympics facilities are doing the very opposite: use of heavy air-conditioning plants using hydrofluorocarbons means greenhouse emissions that will be far more damaging than carbon dioxide.

The Olympics are unconvincingly green also quite literally. With just days to go before the Olympics are due to begin (they run Aug. 13 to Aug. 29) authorities are busy trying to turn the environment green around the stadia. But it does not seem likely that the plants being dug in at breakneck speed will last to the end of the games.

Athens had won the bid for the Olympics seven years ago. But bulldozers and workmen are still working desperately to complete work on the main stadium and other facilities just two weeks before the opening of the Games. The Greeks clearly left themselves no time to build in green energy and other facilities - even if they had the inclination.

In a new report Greenpeace said that ”far from advancing since the last Olympic games in Sydney 2000 the Athens 2004 Organisers have taken a definite step backwards.”

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Colourful Olympics Forgets Green

Athens 2004 disqualified from Green Olympics