An important shift is taking place in the environmental movement in the United States and, indeed, around the world. Dioxins are supremely toxic by-products of many industrial processes, especially incineration. The new global treaty has the potential to change the way the chemical industry is allowed to conduct its business world-wide. International arenas are offering new opportunities to curb the power of corporations. As a class, POPs create problems that can only be solved on a global scale.
POPs are persistent in the environment.
POPs travel like grasshoppers, rising into the air, settling back to earth, rising again, moving on air currents. POPs can also be transported by ocean currents and through the migration of species that carry them in their bodies. And just this week Norwegian researchers reported finding four hermaphroditic polar bears, meaning bears born with both male and female sex organs, on the arctic Svalbard islands. The POPs treaty negotiations, which will take about five meetings to complete, are expected to end by 2000, and will be held in different locations around the world. After the negotiations end, the new treaty will need to be ratified by each country.