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Environment Action
alerts March 24 - 31, 2000
Protest Dam at Bujagali Falls No New Oil (a Laugh on BP ) Help Protect Yellowstone
Denlines Issue # 11 Polar Bears take Manhattan More on Yellowstone-Snowmobiles
Family Planning Urged in congress Action Letters from IFAW Victory Over Logging Industry
USDA PATENT - Genetically
5000 Letters sent to BP Amoco U'wa
territory now off limits to
engineered Corn
Occidental Petroleum
* 2nd Iceberg Breaks off from Antarctica*
from Global Response March 24, 2000
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response
Network:"
Please help Ugandan environmental
organizations protest the construction of
a dam at Bujagali Falls. This Alert is circulated by International
Rivers
Network, in collaboration with Ugandan organizations.
Action Alert!
Stop US-based AES Electric, Ltd. from Damming Uganda's
Bujagali Falls
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Future economic prosperity and sustainable water resource management in
Uganda will not lie in huge dams. The way forward is the wise use of
river-based environmental goods and services; not their extinction through
the pursuit of hydropower lunacy."
- National Association of Professional Environmentalists (Uganda)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Uganda is one of the world's poorest
countries, with a per capita GNP of
just US$190 and a position of 163 out of 191 countries in UNDP's Human
Development Index. Approximately 95% of the population does not have access
to electricity, and most could not afford it even if they were connected to
the national grid.
The U.S.-based AES corporation, the largest independent power
producer in
the world, proposes to construct a US$520-million dam near Bujagali Falls
on the Nile. The
dam would create a socially and environmentally
destructive reservoir, would worsen downstream
impacts as it would be the
third dam in the upper Nile, and would drown the spectacular Bujagali Falls.
After being rejected by Parliament on numerous occasions, the Ugandan
government finally approved the project last fall, and now international
money lenders are reviewing it for possible investment. In January, the
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector investment arm
of the World Bank, began evaluating whether or not, and under what
conditions, it will financially support the project. This appraisal is
expected to begin in April and last about six months, at which time the IFC
could begin to negotiate terms of a loan for the project with the Ugandan
government.
Local environmentalists believe the dam will harm Uganda's chances to
pursue true renewables like solar and wind, and point out that this project
will do nothing to help the majority of Uganda's poor majority. Not only is
this large dam a bad match for the country's needs, but it will have
serious social and environmental impacts as well. Concerned citizens should
send letters to AES and the IFC calling on them to propose more appropriate
energy options for Uganda--ones that protect its natural resources while
also helping the poor majority of its citizens. While it will likely take
up to 6 months for the IFC to decide whether or not to fund the project,
letters now will have the effect of making them take notice of local NGOs'
concerns.
BACKGROUND: PROJECT IMPACTS
The dam would be built 10 miles below two other large dams, the existing
Owens Falls Dam and the Owens Falls Extension Project, now under
construction. The Bujagali Falls project would flood the Nile all the way
to the base of the Owens Falls Dam.
According to AES's own environmental impact assessment, the dam would
permanently displace 820 people, and affect an additional 6,000 by
submerging communal lands, burial sites or portions of their land.
Replacement land for those who would lose homes or crops is practically
non-existent in the area. The record of large dams worldwide reveals that
those displaced will be left permanently poorer as a result of the project.
In addition, the reservoir is expected to increase serious water-borne
diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis. Stagnant pools of water are
breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes and
schistosomiasis-spreading vector snails. Malaria is already the leading
cause of death in Uganda.
The creation of a reservoir could also permanently harm fisheries. The area
around
Bujagali Falls supports a substantial number of subsistence and
commercial fisherman, who depend on the resource for both
food and income.
The project will permanently submerge highly productive
agricultural land
on the river's banks as well as
islands of extreme biodiversity. Displaced
peoples will increase the stress on land near the
reservoir, resulting in
further watershed degradation
and deforestation and a loss in soil
productivity.
The project will also drown
Bujagali Falls, a spectacular series of
cascading rapids
which Ugandans consider a national treasure. With the true
"Source of the Nile" submerged by the upstream Owens Falls
Dam in 1954,
Bujagali has become a popular site for
Ugandans as well as foreign
tourists. AES's project
environmental assessment dismisses the falls as
"attractive but not exceptional." Tourism around
Bujagali Falls has offers
great potential to Uganda's
burgeoning tourism industry. Recent figures
show that
over 6,000 people raft the Nile each year near Bujagali, and it
is estimated that these tourists spend nearly $4 million a
year in Uganda
on ancillary activities not related to
rafting. The dam will snuff out this
income, much of
which goes directly to local communities.
LOCAL
ACTIVISTS WORK FOR BETTER ALTERNATIVES
Two groups in
particular are leading the charge in Uganda against this
project: a grassroots group called Save Bujagali Crusaders,
and the
National Association of Professional
Environmentalists (NAPE).
The
NGOs say the project will cause the Basoga people, who live near the
falls, to suffer "cultural death." They also note that this
project and
other dams proposed for the Nile in Uganda
could heighten water conflicts
in the Nile Basin.
AES's Uganda representative,
Christian Wright, brushes off local opposition
as an
inevitable but manageable feature of large dam proposals. "A project
this size will always have someone taking an issue against
it," he says.
AES may be
dismissive of local activists' claims against the project, but
it will be hard pressed to show how their dam project will
help solve what
some see as Uganda's biggest
environmental problem: grinding poverty.
Bujagali
Crusader Martin Musumba says, "The real issue in Uganda is not
electricity but poverty. Currently the majority of Ugandans
have no money
for electricity, for they are below the
poverty line. Production of more
electricity will not
reduce use of fuelwood and charcoal until deliberate
programs are evolved to reduce poverty and the cost of
power." Musumba,
NAPE and others are pressing for a
sustainable fuelwood program as well as
a solar PV
program, which could be modeled on Kenya's experiences, which
have been highly successful.
In Uganda, the potential for alternatives to large hydro is
excellent, but
has generally been overlooked by major
funders. In addition to improving
efficiencies and
wastage in the existing system (estimated to have losses
of power of up to 40%), Uganda is favorably endowed for
both solar and wind
power.
Solar's biggest advantage is that it does not require
connection to the
national grid, which is a huge expense
if electricity is to be made
available to the rural
population. Emphasizing solar instead of hydro would
also open up good opportunities to collaborate with
neighboring Kenya,
whose highly regarded private-sector
system of photovoltaic solar systems
have caught the eye
of the world. In Kenya, more households get their
electricity from the sun than from the national grid,
according to The
Economist. Some 50 local companies now
manufacture or assemble PV systems
in Kenya. Unlike the
region's big hydro projects, Kenya's solar industry
has
developed without significant aid, subsidies or government support,
according to renewable energy experts working in the
region.
Activists working to
stop Bujagali envision a national energy plan that
takes
into account the needs of the poor and emphasizes true renewables
like solar, wind, micro-hydro. In addition, NAPE activists
say, "Fuelwood
energy development must also be an
integral aspect of any energy plan for
Uganda if it is
to be socially relevant to the poor."
They believe a commitment to big hydropower now may
preclude Uganda from
pursuing such a path, and are
convinced it will come at the expense of the
rural poor,
as have all of Africa's large dams.
"Future economic prosperity and sustainable water resource
management in
Uganda will not lie in super or huge
dams," the activists write in a
submission on the
Bujagali project to the World Commission on Dams (now
reviewing the worldwide development record of large dams).
"With Bujagali
saved, the country would have one of the
most attractive cascades of
nature-based tourist sites.
The way forward is the wise use of river-based
environmental goods and services; not their extinction
through the pursuit
of hydropower lunacy ... or forced
development that leads to extinction of
bio-cultural
diversity."
REQUESTED ACTIONS:
What you can do:
- Write to AES urging it to preserve Bujagali Falls, and
invest in energy
projects that will help the majority of
Ugandans. Such projects might
include demand-management
and energy conservation measures, and wind and
solar
power. Tell them that because the cost of extending the national
electricity grid to those without power (who are mostly in
remote rural
locations) is prohibitively expensive for
Uganda, the AES claim that this
project will bring power
to the poor does not hold water.
- Explain that the many functions of a freshwater ecosystem
like the Nile
-- as a source of rich fisheries, forests,
natural water filters, and
reservoirs for groundwater
storage -- would be seriously impaired by the
continued
damming of the river. Destroying these riverine ecosystems by
building more large dams will cause serious problems for
Uganda in the long
run, at great economic and
environmental cost. Tell them that sustainable
human
development depends on healthy ecosystems. The prudent course,
therefore, is to invest in less harmful energy projects.
- If you own AES stock (NYSE
symbol: AES) or are invested in a fund that
has
significant AES stock holdings, note that fact in your letter and state
that as a shareholder, you are interested in seeing AES
follow its stated
principals of "social responsibility"
and "to serve the electricity needs
of the world." If
they are truly interested in serving Uganda's electricity
needs, they will work to find ways to help the majority of
Ugandans who
cannot afford power from expensive,
centralized electricity projects like
large dams.
- CC your letter to the
International Finance Corporation, which is
currently
deciding whether or not to fund the project, and the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which may also be
approached for
financing. Or better yet, write a
separate letter to the IFC, reminding
them that the
World Bank's overall goal for Uganda is to reduce poverty,
and that its Country Assistance Strategy prioritizes
projects that will
help reduce poverty. Tell them that
this project does not reduce poverty
directly, and in
fact may shut out investment in better options like
small-scale solar or micro-hydro. Remind them that the
economic advantages
from dams in Africa do not "trickle
down," and in fact have left the rural
poor poorer
across the continent.
ADDRESSES:
AES:
Dennis Bakke, President and CEO
Roger van Sant, Chairman of the Board
AES Corporation
1001 North 19th
Street
Arlington, VA 22209
Ph:
(703) 522.1315
Fx: (703) 538.4510
AES Bujagali Project Director: Bob
Chestnutt
AES Nile Power
18
Parkshot
Richmond
TW9
2RG United Kingdom
Telephone: (011 44)
208-334-5300
Fax (011 44) 208-334-5327
E-mail: bujagali@aesnilepower.com
International Finance
Corporation
2121 Pennsylvania Av. NW
Washington, DC 20433 USA
IFC
Bujagali project contacts: Glen D. Armstrong - Head, Environment and
Social Review Unit (email: garmstrong@ifc.org); Ronald B.
Anderson -
Principal Environmental Specialist (email:
roanderson@ifc.org)
Kirk
Robertson
Executive Vice President
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
1100 New York Avenue, N. W.
Washington, D.C. 25027
Email: krobe@opic.gov
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE SEE
THESE WEBSITES:
Save Bujagali
Crusade: http://www.uganda.co.ug/bujagali
International Rivers Network:
web: http://www.irn.org (for
Bujagali-specific information, go to
http://irn.org/programs/safrica/others.shtml)
AES: http://www.aesc.com;
project-specific site: http://www.bujagali.com
This Global Response Action was
issued in support of and with information
provided by
Save the Bujagali Crusaders and National Association of
Professional Environmentalists (both Uganda), and
International Rivers
Network (US).
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger,
Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor,
World Rivers Review
International
Rivers Network
1847
Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel.
(510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
--------------------------------------
GLOBAL RESPONSE is an international letter-writing network
of environmental
activists. In partnership
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justice
organizations around the world, GLOBAL RESPONSE develops "Actions"
that describe specific, urgent threats to the environment;
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from Defenders of wildlife March 24, 2000
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from Zero Population Growth
March 24, 2000
You can take action on this alert either by email or
preferably on the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A5930B953938507C38251.
Here's what this alert is
about:
Support International Family Planning
----------------------
On Monday, March 27, more than one hundred supporters of
international family planning will be walking the halls
of
the U.S. Capitol to urge Congress to support these
critical
programs. Please add your voice to
their's by responding to
this alert or telephoning your
representative on Monday.
As you may know, international
family planning funding has
been slashed by more than a
third since 1995 resulting in
the elimination of
services for literally millions of women
in the world's
poorest countries. In addition, family
planning foes have been successful in imposing other
restrictions that exacerbated the impacts of the
dramatic
funding cuts. The most onerous
restriction was imposed late
last year when Congress
adopted the Global Gag Rule . an
odious law
that limits access to reproductive health care
services
and significantly restricts the right of overseas
organizations to speak freely on the important public
policy
issue of abortion. (For detailed
information on the Global
Gag rule, go to
www.zpg.org/Action_alerts/alert25.html).
The people in Washington will be urging Congress to pass
the
"Saving Women's Lives Through International Family
Planning
Act of 2000" (H.R. 3634) that was introduced by
Rep. Carolyn
Maloney (D-NY). H.R. 3634, if
passed, will increase funding
for international family
planning programs and repeal the
Global Gag
Rule. They will also be asking for support for
another bill that will soon be introduced by Rep. Nita
Lowey
(D-NY) that will eliminate the global gag rule.
Your letters and calls will add to
the grassroots effort
needed to convince Congress to
support family planning.
Please take just a
moment to respond to this alert or to
call the Capitol
on Monday. You can reach your
Representative
and Senators by calling the Capitol
switchboard at (202)
224-3121. Thanks for you help.
----------------------
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE
WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take
action on this
alert by going to the following URL:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A5930B953938507C38251
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email program, and edit
the letter below as you
wish. If your email program does not have
a
"reply to sender" option, you can copy and paste the letter below into
a new email message and mail it to
alert-response-419220A5930B953938507C38251@actionnetwork.org.
You must include the whole letter in your response
including "-YOU MAY
EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END OF
LETTER-". Please do not
add your name and
address to your letter. Action Network automatically
does this for you.
We STRONGLY encourage you to make edits directly to our
sample letter
below, and put the alert talking points
into your own words. An
individualized letter is worth
ten computer generated letters. Of
course, hundreds of
unedited letters will still create a large impact,
so
please reply even if you don't have time to personalize the letter.
Your letter will be addressed and
sent to:
Representative Maurice Hinchey
-------YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW---------
I am
writing to urge you to support an increase in funding
for international family planning
programs. International
family planning has
been crucial in improving the lives and
health of
millions of women and families around the world,
but
funding has been slashed by more than 30 percent since
1995.
The
"Saving Women's Lives Through International Family
Planning Act of 2000," (H.R. 3634) introduced by Rep.
Carolyn Maloney, will restore the funding to the 1995
level.
The draconian cuts have meant that women in the
poorest
countries in the world have been denied access
to voluntary
family planning services. This
has led to more unintended
pregnancies, more maternal
and child deaths and more
abortions.
In addition, Congress has imposed
the Global Gag Rule on
international family planning
agencies. This rule
disqualifies foreign
non-governmental organizations from
receiving U.S.
family planning assistance if they -- with
their own
funds -- perform legal abortions or talk openly
about
their country's abortion laws. Federal law already
prohibits the use of U.S. funding to provide
abortions. So,
this rule is not about
abortion. The Gag Rule's only
purpose is to
limit the effectiveness of non-governmental
organizations to provide voluntary preventive family
planning services.
Please support the Saving Women's Lives through
International Family Planning Act of 2000 and other
efforts
to repeal the Global Gag
Rule. International family
planning funding
provides necessary assistance to millions
of women
around the world.
-------END OF
LETTER-------------------------
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from Rural Foundation Advancement International March 24, 2000
RAFI
Rural Advancement
Foundation International
www.rafi.org | rafi@rafi.org
News Release - 24 March 2000
USDA Betrays Public Trust with
Two New Terminator Patents
Will USDA's Biotech Advisory Board Demand
Accountability?
The Rural Advancement Foundation
International (RAFI), an international civil society organization based in
Canada, announced today that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) holds two new patents
on the controversial Terminator technology, the genetic engineering of plants
to render their seeds sterile. If commercialized, Terminator would
make it impossible for farmers to save seeds from their harvest, forcing them to
return to the commercial seed market every year.
"The US
government is advancing research and squandering taxpayer dollars on a
technology that has been universally condemned because it is bad for farmers,
food security, and biodiversity," says Pat Mooney, Executive Director of RAFI.
"It's an egregious misallocation of public resources for the sole purpose of
maximizing seed industry profits," adds Mooney.
"It's disgraceful," says Hope Shand, RAFI's Research
Director. "We were shocked to discover USDA's new patents because when we met
with US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Richard Rominger on two separate
occasions last year, his staff assured us in no uncertain terms that there were
no more patents in the works. Why didn't we get the straight story?" asks
Shand.
"Despite mounting
opposition from national governments, United Nations' agencies, farmers,
scientists, and civil society organizations around the world, USDA continues to
ignore the public outcry at home and abroad," adds Silvia Ribeiro, RAFI
Programme Officer. Last month for example, the Director General of the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization declared FAO's opposition to
Terminator. Earlier this month, the state of Maryland (US) introduced a bill to
ban Terminator seeds. (See RAFI Communique, "Suicide Seeds on the Fast Track,"
Feb./March, 2000,http://www.rafi.org).
According to RAFI, the new patents on genetic seed
sterilization were issued in 1999 (US Patent No. 5,925,808 issued on July 20,
1999 and US Patent No. 5,977,441 issued on November 2, 1999). The patents are
jointly owned by USDA and Delta & Pine Land (the world's largest cotton seed
company), the owners of the original 1998 patent. The USDA's new patents share
the same titles, inventors, and abstracts as the earlier patent, but they
describe new innovations and demonstrate that USDA scientists are continuing to
refine the technology and advance the research.
On October 28, 1999 representatives from a broad base of
civil society organizations (CSOs) met with US Secretary of Agriculture Dan
Glickman to demand that his agency abandon research and development of genetic
seed sterilization. Participants included the American Corn Growers Association,
Consumers Union, National Family Farm Coalition, Ralph Nader of Public Citizen,
International Center for Technology Assessment, Mothers and Others for a Livable
Planet, Consumer Federation, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, RAFI, and
RAFI-USA. Less than five days later, USDA won a new patent on Terminator.
Duped and Betrayed: "We
feel duped and betrayed," says Gary Goldberg, CEO of the American Corn Growers
Association. "We demand to know why the USDA continues to invest
taxpayer dollars on anti-farmer research that, if commercialized, will hold
farmers hostage to giant agribusiness corporations," said Goldberg.
Destroying National Seed
Sovereignty: USDA's growing portfolio of Terminator patents sends an ominous
message to the rest of the world, says Rafael Alegria, General Coordinator of
Via Campesina, the largest confederation of peasants' and small farmers'
organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America. "It
amounts to a declaration of war against the 1.4 billion people who depend on
farm-saved seeds - mainly poor people - and it's an assault on global food
security," explains Alegria.
Neth Dano, Executive Director of SEARICE, the Southeast
Asian Regional Institute for Community Education, agrees, "This technology goes
far beyond intellectual property. A patent expires after 20 years, but if
Terminator seeds are commercialized it will give a handful of multinational Gene
Giants a monopoly with no expiration date. This technology aims to eliminate the
right of farmers to save seeds and do local plant breeding, and it will destroy
the concept of national seed sovereignty."
Litmus Test for USDA's Biotech Advisory Board: USDA's
newly-appointed Biotech Advisory Board will hold its first meeting on March
29-30. "It's a litmus test for the USDA advisory board," explains RAFI's Shand.
Will they or won't they demand accountability from USDA? There's no doubt that
the biotech advisory board has a full plate and it's loaded with controversial
GMO (genetically modified organisms) issues, but Terminator must be the number
one priority," stresses Shand.
Launching Pad for Bioserfdom: Without effective action by
civil society and governments to ban Terminator seeds, RAFI concludes that
suicide seeds will be commercialized, with potentially disastrous consequences
for farmers, food security and the environment.
"Terminator has grabbed the spotlight, but we are equally
concerned about the closely related genetic trait control technologies (Traitor
Tech) which enables a plant's genetic traits to be turned on or off with the
application of an external chemical - the company's proprietary chemical," adds
Ribeiro. "Although the USDA and Delta & Pine Land are the high-profile
crusaders, the goal of genetic trait control is industry-wide," concludes
Ribeiro.
Coming Soon: In May,
2000 RAFI will release a status report on Terminator and Traitor patents, which
will examine the current goals of private and public sector institutions that
are promoting bioserfdom with genetic trait control technology.
For more information:
Hope Shand, RAFI
Tel: 919 960-5223
Email: hope@rafi.org
Silvia Ribeiro, RAFI
Email:
silvia@rafi.org
Julie Delahanty, RAFI
Tel: 819
827-9949
Email:julie@rafi.org
Rafael
Alegria
General Coordinator,
Via
Campesina
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, C.A.
email: viacam@gbm.hn
Neth Dano
Executive Director,
SEARICE
The Philippines
Tel: 63-2-922-6710
Email: searice@philonline.com.ph
Gary Goldberg
CEO,
American Corn Growers
Association,
Tel: 918
488-1829
http://www.acga.org
Action
Needed:
1. USDA should cease negotiations with Delta & Pine
Land on the licensing of it's jointly held patents, and abandon all research and
patents on genetic seed sterilization.
2. USDA should adopt a strict policy prohibiting the use of
taxpayer dollars to support genetic seed sterilization.
3. USDA should terminate all
research on Terminator seed technology as well as the closely related genetic
trait control technologies. Remote control of a plant's genetic traits,
triggered by proprietary chemicals, is grim news for farmers and the environment
because, if commercialized, farmers will become more dependent on chemical
inputs manufactured by the agrochemical/seed industry.
4. USDA should use public research
dollars to re-invigorate public plant breeding for family farmers and
sustainable agriculture. Instead of engineering seeds for sterility, USDA should
boost breeding programs that will lessen farmers' dependency on chemicals,
fertilizers, and other expensive inputs.
Send a Message of Protest to US Secretary of Agriculture
Dan Glickman:
A sample letter to US Secretary of
Agriculture Dan Glickman can be found on RAFI's web site:
http://www.rafi.org
Secretary Dan Glickman
USDA
200-A Whitten Bldg.
1400
Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250
USA
Email:
agsec@usda.gov
Tel: 202
720-3631
Fax: 202
720-2166
RAFI (the Rural
Advancement Foundation International) is an international civil society
organization based in Canada. RAFI is dedicated to the conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity, and to the socially responsible development
of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI is concerned about
the loss of agricultural biodiversity, and the impact of intellectual property
on farmers and food security.
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from Greenpeace March 24, 2000
|
The latest report from London: |
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from Greenpeace March 26, 2000
The Polar Bears Take Manhattan
The latest report from
New York City.
Dear
all:
The support actions in New York City (on Friday, 24 March)
for the ice
camp/campaign went very well. It
started at BP Amoco headquarters on
Madison Ave. 4
polar bears (out of their natural habitat and in 75 degree
heat) arrived pulling the wagon with solar panels powering
LED with our
message to BP. Caused quite a stir in
the morning traffic.
The PIRG/Ecopledge people were there too, with their
inflatable caribou.
Sadly, it didn't inflate and
ended up looking a bit like road kill on the
pavement... However, the press photographers went mad with
the Polar
bears. As far as I know, the NYPost and
APTV did interviews with our people
and APTV did a
to-camera piece with Iain MacGill.
Iain got into the building, and had a brief meeting with a
BP Amoco
PR person. He presented our demands and
passed along the clip
reel of the ice camp to
BP.
We then went to Wall Street and the NY Stock Exchange
during
the lunch hour where we passed out
leaflets, stickers and talked to
thousands of
people about the campaign, ice camp, Sane BP,
renewables. Very well received and lots of fun. 2 Polar
bears were
given tickets to enter the building but
as we thought, they were
denied access although
made quite an impact on the people
waiting in line
with them.
It was the
first warm sunny day of the year and New Yorkers were in a good
mood...Loved the bears, lots of hugs and even the cops told
us ( unofficially)
they agreed 100 percent with
us. Some even took leaflets and stickers. Iain
and
a Polar bear then delivered material to a few financial institutions in
the
area.
I was a long and tough day for the bears but worth it. It's
so good to
actually interact with people and hear
what they say...Very
supportive.
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Greenpeace Arctic Activists List
NO NEW OIL
http://greenpeace.org/arctic
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from International Fund for Animal welfare March,
2000
One of the most effective actions
you can take is to write letters of protest to elected officials and the leaders
of major corporations.
Make no mistake, your letters are tremendously effective. When enough people speak out,
world leaders will change their policies. Please take a moment right now to
write a letter to one, or all, of the following individuals:
Act to stop new ivory trade
Write to Rt Hon Michael Meacher saying "I
protest any relaxation of the ban on ivory. During the 1980s, 600,000 elephants
-- half of Africa's elephants -- were slaughtered for ivory! This cannot be
allowed to happen again. Any trade in ivory however 'limited' will lead to
increased poaching. The UK government, as the chair of the CITES committee
deciding whether to resume trading in ivory, must take a leadership role in
protecting this threatened species."
Send your letter to:
Rt
Hon Michael Meacher, MP
Minister for the Environment
Department of the Environment
Eland
House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1 5DV
ENGLAND
Help stop commercial whaling
Write to Dr. James Baker, urging him to oppose
continued whaling by Japan and Norway. Both countries continue whaling despite
the International Whaling Commission moratorium, and plan to kill more than
1,200 whales in the next 12 months.
Send your letter to:
Dr.
James Baker, Administrator
National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration
Herbert C. Hoover Building
Room 5128
14th St. &
Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20230
USA
Defend the seals
Write to Hon. Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's
Solicitor General, respectfully urging him to conduct a full investigation and
lay criminal charges against sealers who have been caught abusing animals on
IFAW videotape. The prosecution of these sealers will ensure these innocent
seals didn't die in vain.
Send your letter to:
Hon. Lawrence MacAulay, M.P.
Solicitor General of Canada
340
Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0P8
CANADA
E-Mail: macaull@sgc.gc.ca
You can also protest the commercial seal hunt by
telling the Canadian Embassy in the United States to stop the killing of
seals.
Send your letter to:
His Excellency
Mr. Raymond Chretien
Canadian
Ambassador to the United States
501 Pennsylvania Ave.,
NW
Washington, DC 20001
USA
Or you can contact your government
representatives to protest the Canadian Government's funding of the cruel
commercial seal hunt. This year countless seals will suffer as they are clubbed
or shot to death.
Save cats &
dogs from suffering
Write to the
Chinese ambassador urging him to promote legislation in China improving animal
welfare and protecting animals from cruelty.
Send your letter to:
Mr. Li Zhaoxing
Chinese Embassy
2300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
USA
Ask him to forward your letter to
Mr. Jiang Zemin, President of China.
Stop the torture and human consumption of South Korean dogs
and cats
Each year in South Korea, an
estimated 3 million companion animals are slowly beaten to death to "tenderize"
their flesh before they are eaten. Write or call South Korean President Kim Dae
Jung and urge him to enforce existing anti-cruelty laws and to introduce new
legislation that clearly condemns the human consumption of dogs and cats.
Send your
letter to:
President Kim Dae Jung
Blue House
1 Saejong-Ro,
Chongro-Ku
Seoul, South Korea 110-760
Ask Canada to revise its Criminal Code
Canadian Justice Minister Anne McLellan has
proposed several ammendments to the Criminal Code of Canada. These ammendments
will tighten up the outdated sections pertaining to animal abuse.
Click here for more information.
If you support strengthening the Cruelty to Animals
sections of the Criminal Code, please write to your Member of Parliament and
other key federal officials. Click here for a sample letter.
If you don't know who your MP is, call Elections Canada at
1-800-667-3355.
Send copies of your letter to members of the federal
government:
Right Honourable Jean Chretien
Prime Minister of Canada
309-S
Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa ON
K1A 0A6
E-Mail: Chretien.J@parl.gc.ca
Honourable Anne McLellan
Minister
of Justice
5th Floor
284
Wellington Street
Ottawa ON
K1A
0H8
E-Mail: McLellan.A@parl.gc.ca
Send copies of your letter to
members of the opposition parties:
The Honourable
Preston Manning
Reform Party Leader
541-S Centre Block
House of
Commons
Ottawa ON
K1A 0A6
E-Mail: Manning.P@parl.gc.ca
The Honourable Alexa McDonough
New
Democratic Party Leader
649-D Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa ON
K1A 0A6
E-Mail: McDonough.A@parl.gc.ca
The Honourable Gilles Duceppe
Bloc
Quebecois Leader
409-S Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa ON
K1A 0A6
E-Mail: Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca
The Honourable Joe Clark
PC
National Headquarters
275 Slater Street
Ottawa, ON
K1P 5H9
E-Mail: joe.clark@pcparty.ca
Send us a copy of your
letter:
IFAW-CANADA
Suite
1100, 1 Nicholas Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7B7
Thank you for your efforts and
steadfast commitment
to the animals.
You are truly making a
difference!
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from greenpeace March 30, 2000
At least 5000 letters have been sent to BP
Amoco in the last month
opposing the Northstar offshore
oil project in the Arctic Ocean. This is a fact
that
does a lot to warm up our activists at Ice Camp Sirius!
Thank you everyone who sent a
letter so far.
Many of you will
have received BP Amoco's latest form letter response. We
have prepared a detailed rebuttal to this inaccurate and
misleading form
letter. You can read the rebuttal by
going to Arctic Action site via the link at
the end of
this message.
If you haven't
sent a letter yet, you still can by visiting the Arctic Action site
today.
Kevin
----------------------------------------------
Greenpeace Arctic Activists List
NO
NEW OIL
http://greenpeace.org/arctic
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from Earth Island Institute March 30, 2000
Help Protect Yellowstone from Snowmobiles!
Background The National Park Service's (NPS) decision to finally
enforce the Organic Act's requirements with regard to snowmobile impacts has not
pleased pro-snowmobile groups such as the well-funded BlueRibbon Coalition.
Snowmobile groups are swamping Congress, especially the legislators of Montana,
Idaho, and Wyoming, with calls demanding that something be done to stop the Park
Service plans. Senator Max Baucus' (D-MT) office is receiving a lion share of
these correspondences. To counter BlueRibbon's attack, Congress and in
particular Senator Baucus, needs to hear from people who support the NPS
snowmobile plan.
Take Action Now!
On March 13, the National Park Service at Yellowstone and
Grand Teton National Park announced its intentions regarding the future of
snowmobile activity in these premier parks. In particular, the NPS appears to be
leaning toward a plan, which will phase out snowmobile use by the winter of 2002
-2003. The Park Service cited the nearly 40,000 comments it received, many
generated by Bluewater Network members, as one of the factors that caused it to
adopt a no snowmobile stance.
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from Earth Island Institute March 31, 2000
Thank you for assisting our efforts to
protect Yellowstone and Grand Teton
National Parks from
snowmobiles. The billion-dollar snowmobile industry is
already flooding congress with comments opposing the NPS
plan. If
we are
to protect Yellowstone and Grand Teton from
snowmobile damage, thousands of
people calling for a snowmobile prohibition
must make their voices heard
. In particular, we need to generate
hundreds
of comments from Wyoming, Idaho, and
Montana. Therefore, if you haven't
already
please encourage your friends and colleagues to send their support
by visiting Bluewater's Yellowstone action alert at:
http://www.earthisland.org/takeaction/actionalert_bw23.html
Finally, we recently learned that
Rep. Rick Hill (R-MT) is calling for
Congressional
hearing/rally on the matter. The National Park Service, the
Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air
Resources Board, the
Southwest Research Institute as
well as other organizations, have all
investigated the
impact snowmobiles cause the natural world.
Congressional hearings are unlikely to uncover any new
information on the
subject. Therefore, a
hearing/rally is unlikely to discover anything new
and
could result in the waste of countless taxpayer dollars.
Please call or email Rep. Hill's
office (202-225-3211,
rick.hill@mail.house.gov). Address
your correspondence to Geoff Bowman,
the
Representative's staffer who handles National Park issues. Tell
Mr.
Bowman that 1) you strongly support the NPS'
snowmobile phase out plan, 2)
new untested snowmobile
technology will not solve all problems associate
with
snowmobiles, such as wildlife disturbance and public safety, and 3)
Rep. Bowman should stop wasting taxpayer's money and forgo
his attempts to
hinder the NPS's landmark efforts.
Taking these simple steps will go
along way to ensure that we win the
battle to save
Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
Sean Smith
Bluewater Network
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
Please join Bluewater Network-a
coalition of environmental organizations,
citizens, and
scientists dedicated to reducing pollution and ecological
damage from vessels, vehicles, and craft. Send your
check/money order for
$30 to Bluewater
Network at the address listed below. Your membership
includes a 1-year
subscription to the award-winning
Earth Island Journal. Help protect our
waters!
To receive our monthly email newsletter/action alert send
an email to
bluewater@earthisland.org.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bluewater Network
300 Broadway,
Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666
www.earthisland.org/bw
"In the struggle between the stream and the rock, the
stream always wins. .
. not through strength, but
through persistence."
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from Rainforest Action Network March 31,
2000
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Yahoo News update March 31,2000
UPDATE 1-Colombia oil site ruled 'off-limits' to Oxy
BOGOTA, March 31 (Reuters) - A Colombian court has ordered Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY - news) to halt all work on a promising oil site that the country's native U'wa tribe claims as part of their ancestral lands, authorities said Friday.
Alberto Calderon, president of state oil company Ecopetrol, said the court injunction was handed down Thursday and would effectively block, if upheld on appeal, what he described as ``the most important oil prospect this country has.''
``The project has been paralyzed,'' Calderon told a news conference.
He was referring to the so-called Samore block in a guerrilla-dominated area of northeast Colombia, which is believed to harbor up to 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil.
The site could help ensure much-needed petro-dollars and energy self-sufficency for Colombia, which could become a net importer of crude by 2005 if no major new finds are made to lift proven reserves from current levels of about 2.4 billion barrels.
But Calderon said a Bogota judge supported the U'wa tribe's claim that Samore -- while located just outside their official reservation -- is part and parcel of the ancestral lands of their forefathers.
He said the judge ruled that drilling on the site would violate ``fundamental rights'' of the U'wa people, including their right to life.
The U'wa grabbed the media spotlight for the first time about five years ago, when they first vowed to commit mass suicide if their land was ``violated'' by Occidental or any other oil company.
``What's at stake here is 40 million inhabitants,'' Calderon said, adding that the government would appeal the ruling next week on grounds that it favored the U'wa, who number no more than about 7,000, over the general population of Colombia.
Occidental has seen its exploration of the Samore block delayed since 1992 because of the land dispute with the U'wa.
The U.S. multinational finally won government permission to develop Samore late last year. But U'wa protesters have surrounded the first test drill site, on the edge of Samore and dubbed Gilbraltar-1, since November to prevent the drilling for oil which they believe to be the ``life blood of Mother Earth.''
The protesters reported that three U'wa children drowned last month, after security forces moved to disperse them and forced the infants' mothers to jump into a fast-moving, rain-swollen river.
Police and the military officials disputed that account, however, calling it ``propaganda'' aimed at calling attention to the Indian group's politically-charged standoff with Occidental.
| More Quotes and News: | Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY - news) |
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Yahoo News Update March 31, 2000
Friday March 31 10:31 AM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A second giant iceberg has broken off from Antarctica and is bumping into a huge iceberg that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf last week, researchers said on Friday.
Matthew Lazzara of the University of Wisconsin's Antarctic Meteorological Research Center found the latest iceberg, which will be named B-17, while scanning images taken from a satellite orbiting the poles.
He said the new iceberg lies to the north and east of Roosevelt Island and is 80 miles by 12 miles (130 km by 20 km). The larger iceberg is 183 miles by 23 miles (295 km by 37 km), roughly the size of Jamaica.
``The high-resolution satellite data that we receive enables us to track these bergs easily, at least in clear conditions,'' Lazzara said in a statement.
The images show the two giant icebergs, and a third, smaller one known as B-16, jostling one another just off the island.
The researchers said it was not yet clear if the icebergs would pose a threat to shipping.
Researchers say large chunks are breaking off of Antarctica for several reasons, some due to global warming.
They say, for example, that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been steadily melting since the end of the last ice age. But they also stress that human-induced global warming can speed the process.
Much of Antarctica consists of ice sheets with no ground underneath. If it shrinks, the process could not only help raise ocean levels but could help shift ocean circulation and weather patterns, bringing drought, severe storms and the wider spread of tropical diseases.
The largest iceberg ever reported was seen in 1956 and was 60 miles wide and 208 miles long (95.6 km by 335 km), or 12,000 square miles (48,564 sq km) in area, more than twice the size of the state of Connecticut.
A satellite image of the new iceberg can be viewed at: http://uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu/amrc/iceberg.html.
B-10A Iceberg images from JPL POG
AMRC's Photo Gallery of A-38 Iceberg images
