Sign up to get Grist by Email. Go here to unsubscribe. More than 15,000 green sea turtles are slaughtered in Bali each year, even though they are considered endangered in most of the world and a law in Indonesia prohibits catching, possessing, or eating the animal.
Environmentalists say more sea turtles are killed in Bali than any other place in the world.
Eating turtle meat is an integral part of Balinese celebrations, however, and catching one turtle can bring hunters the equivalent of more than two-month's pay for an average worker. Today, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is expected to appeal to Bush on behalf of European Union countries to reconsider his decision, arguing that the U.S. has a responsibility to act on climate change because it is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases. E.U. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom indicated she will continue to push for ratification and enforcement of the treaty by 2002, with or without U.S. participation. Meanwhile, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman is entering a meeting today with environmental ministers from around the Western Hemisphere with no alternative policy on global warming to discuss. It appears that Anne Petsonk, a lawyer with Environmental Defense and supporter of the Kyoto treaty, will be chosen as an advisor on climate change to President Bush, half with the White House Council on Environmental Quality and half with the National Security Council.