Best of 1991

1 ANTARCTICA TREATY

Believe it or not, the White Continent has already been fouled by oil spills and garbage dumps, but efforts are under way to prevent further damage. All but two of the 26 nations that jointly set policy on Antarctica, including the U.S., agreed on a treaty that will ban mining and mineral exploration on the continent for at least 50 years.

2. JOHN SUNUNU'S RESIGNATION

The White House chief of staff was notorious for his hostility to environmentalists and their agenda. If it was good for the earth but bad for business, Sununu's opposition generally persuaded the President -- witness the Administration's refusal to take global warming seriously.

3. TOXINS RECONSIDERED

Fresh studies and new interpretations of old data suggested that some feared substances -- dioxin, radon and asbestos -- were less toxic or carcinogenic than previously thought. They aren't exactly part of a complete breakfast, but slight exposures aren't inevitably fatal either.

4. DERAILMENT OF THE ENERGY BILL

The Johnston-Wallop energy bill in the Senate downplayed conservation, boosted nuclear power and called for oil exploration in Alaska's pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It was this last provision that sparked the threat of a filibuster, forcing the bill's sponsors to bail out.

5. DRIFT NETS BACK IN THE DOCK

After years of moral and political pressure from around the world, Japan finally agreed that its commercial fishing fleets would stop using drift nets by the end of 1992. These enormous webworks float through the oceans, efficiently gathering up food fish but also killing dolphins and other marine mammals.

. . . AND THE WORST

1 VANISHING OZONE

The Antarctic ozone hole has gone global. Under assault by man-made chlorofluorocarbons, levels of the vital stratospheric gas have begun to decline over temperate latitudes both north and south of the equator, including the skies above most of the continental U.S. The thinning ozone layer lets more solar ultraviolet light reach the ground, and the incidence of skin cancer and cataracts is likely to rise as a result.

2. GULF WAR

The impact of bombs and marauding armies was bad enough. So why did Iraq have to dump millions of gallons of oil into the fragile waters of the Persian Gulf and thus devastate its marine life? And set an estimated 650 oil-well fires that spewed untold tons of smoke into the air? Some of the direst predictions, including altered weather patterns across Asia, failed to materialize, and the well fires were put out in only eight months (actually faster than expected). But in Kuwait itself, the air remained acrid the whole time, and the oil that seeped into the sandy soil will stay there for years.

3. MOUNT PINATUBO'S ERUPTION

The big blowup of 1991 rained volcanic ash on the Philippines and triggered massive mudslides. It also lofted 15 million to 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide high into the atmosphere, creating droplets of sulfuric acid that will reflect some of the sun's heat back into space. That could hold off global warming for a few years, but when the volcanic gas dissipates, The earth could make up for lost time and heat up uncomfortably fast.

4. WHITE HOUSE ON WETLANDS

During his presidential campaign, George Bush promised "no net loss of wetlands." But under pressure from business, his Administration proposed a new definition of a wetland that would open at least 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of off-limits land to development. It was a good try, but opposition prompted the White House to back away, at least temporarily, from a policy change that was all wet.

5. BIOSPHERE 2

Eight Biosphereans in color-coordinated jumpsuits plan to spend two years in an enclosed 1.3-hectare (3.15-acre) microcosm of earth. But since real scientists do not understand even simple ecosystems yet, the idea that anyone can accurately simulate an entire world is just short of ridiculous.