|
|
You play an important role as a World Wildlife Fund activist, working alongside us to protect the world's wildlife and wild lands. Over time, you've spoken out for countless imperiled creatures, including the world's great apes. Nearly 100,000 messages from WWF activists like you over the past four years helped convince the U.S. Congress to steadily increase funding for the protection of great apes. Even now, Congress is poised to approve more than $1 million for great ape conservation for the coming year.
However, these funds are woefully insufficient to address the crisis affecting one of the most loved great apes - the gorilla.
Thousands of lowland gorillas are being slaughtered and the trend is alarming: once hunted only by local people to feed their own families, gorillas are now being gunned down with automatic weapons, murdered simply to be served smoked, or as a steak or stew in "gourmet" restaurants as far away as Paris or Brussels.
Habitat loss, poaching for a growing commercial bushmeat trade, and most recently an outbreak of Ebola that is affecting human and ape populations alike, threaten to decimate Africa's population of lowland gorillas and other great apes. We could lose not just populations but entire species of gorillas in the next five to ten years.
WWF has launched an emergency response to this crisis.
We have created a plan to safeguard gorillas - stepped up anti-poaching activities; increased support for protected areas; and innovative efforts with multinational logging companies to stem their harmful actions --
and we want you there by our side once again.
With a donation to WWF, you can make a difference in our life or death efforts to save wildlife and wild spaces. Your contribution supports programs that protect gorillas and other wildlife rescue projects where the need is most urgent.
DONATE NOW at http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/ctt.asp?u=26681&l=3507
The odds may seem stacked against the gorilla's survival, but we haven't given up - and neither should you.
Sincerely,
Kathryn S. Fuller
President
In reaction to a strong financial privacy law adopted earlier this year in California, big banks, insurance companies and other financial firms are pressuring Congress to pass legislation that would set a low national standard for our financial privacy.
Current federal law allows widespread distribution of your private information among financial institutions. Under legislation being considered by the Senate, financial institutions would be able to continue selling and sharing details of your personal financial life without your approval. This includes all of the financial and personal information that banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions possess.
But some Senators are fighting back. A proposed amendment to the bill would restrict the amount of information available for sharing and would allow you to indicate that you do not want your information to be released.
Take Action! Help ensure your financial records are kept private and secure.
Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Senators:
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=13719&c=40
*************************************************************
For more information on other issues and the latest news, please visit our website at http://www.aclu.org
Help Strengthen the ACLU's Voice in Congress... Click below to become a card-carrying Member or donate today!
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========================================
NRDC's EARTH ACTION:
The Bulletin for Environmental Activists
October 1, 2003
========================================
In This Issue:
--Action alerts--
1. Speak out to keep snowmobiles out of Yellowstone National Park
2. Don't let an industrial hydropower complex destroy Canada's boreal forest
======================================================
You will also find these alerts in NRDC'S Earth Action Center, which includes
tools for taking action easily online, at http://www.nrdc.org/action
(Please do not reply to this message; see the instructions below for how to
unsubscribe or contact NRDC with questions or comments.)
=============
Action alerts
=============
1. Speak out to keep snowmobiles out of Yellowstone National Park
Bowing to the pressure from the snowmobile industry and the Bush
administration, the National Park Service has proposed a new rule that would
allow snowmobile use to continue in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
In doing so, the Park Service is abandoning its original proposal to ban
snowmobiles in the parks, as well as ignoring the wishes of hundreds of
thousands of people who wrote in support of the original plan (including almost
70,000 NRDC online activists).
Although the new proposal includes a few new restrictions on snowmobile use,
the end result would not reduce pollution or noise, or protect the parks and
their wildlife and visitors. In fact, a two-year Park Service study showed that
continued use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone would cause haze at Old Faithful;
present a continuing risk to visitors and employees, especially those who
suffer from asthma and other respiratory conditions; generate engine noise
across many of the park's most visited attractions; cause more stress and harm
to Yellowstone's wildlife; and emit twice as much carbon monoxide as compared
to switching to snowcoaches.
The Park Service has identified banning snowmobiles and implementing the use of
snowcoaches as the best way to protect the park, its wildlife and its visitors,
but is nevertheless moving ahead with the new, ill-advised plan. The Park
Service is accepting public comments on the proposed rule through October 14.
== What to do ==
Send a message, before the October 14 comment deadline, urging the Park Service
to protect Yellowstone and Grand Teton by banning snowmobiles in the parks.
== Contact information ==
You can send a message to the Park Service directly from NRDC's Earth Action
Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the contact information and
sample letter below to send your own message.
Park Service Planning Office
Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190
== Sample letter ==
Subject: Ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
Dear Park Service staff,
I urge you to adopt the National Park Service's original plan to ban noisy,
polluting and disruptive snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national
parks and replace them with a public transportation system of multi-passenger
snowcoaches. Adopting such a plan is the best way to protect the parks for our
inspiration and enjoyment now and for future generations.
Your agency's own two-year study, costing $2.5 million, showed that allowing
snowmobiles to remain in Yellowstone would cause haze at Old Faithful; present
a continuing risk to visitors and employees; generate engine noise across many
of the park's most visited attractions; stress and harm Yellowstone's wildlife;
and emit twice as much carbon monoxide as switching to snowcoaches. This option
would also cost taxpayers $1.3 million more each year while providing less
protection for the health of visitors, employees and Yellowstone itself. Less
protection at a higher cost simply makes no sense.
The new draft plan is not the kind of farsighted directive called for here. The
law, science and overwhelming public opinion all support a phase-out of
snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I again urge you to adopt the
Park Service's original decision to ban snowmobiles in these historic national
parks.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
2. Don't let an industrial hydropower complex destroy Canada's boreal forest
Canada's boreal forest, part of a green crown circling the northern reaches of
the globe, is a wild, prehistoric landscape of granite rock formations, lakes,
rivers and marshes interspersed with pine and poplar forests. This vast expanse
of forest is home to woodland caribou, moose, bears and wolves. The elusive
great gray owl is a year-round resident, while pelicans, geese and 30 percent
of North America's songbirds come to nest every spring. The boreal forest is
also home to hundreds of First Nations communities, many of which rely on
fishing, hunting and trapping for their livelihoods.
In Manitoba, the heart of the Canadian boreal forest is threatened by a massive
hydropower industrialization plan. Manitoba Hydro, the provincially run
hydroelectric company, is planning to build an enormous complex of new dams and
transmission lines, in part to send power to the United States. One of the
first projects in Manitoba Hydro's long-term plan is the proposed Wuskwatim
dam, which would be located to the north of Lake Winnipeg and would
dramatically affect the traditional territories of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation.
The Pimicikamak know the consequences of industrial hydropower development.
Since the 1970s, dams have flooded their lands. Sediment has clouded waters
they rely on and starved fish of oxygen. Erosion has eaten away at thousands of
miles of shoreline, causing landslides and exposing ancient burial grounds.
The Pimicikamak, along with Manitoba environmental organizations and other
First Nations, are asking provincial officials to study the environmental
impacts not just of the proposed Wuskwatim dam, but of the entire hydropower
complex that will surely follow if this dam is approved. But the Manitoba
government is currently reviewing and licensing components in the expansion
individually -- a process that cannot possibly offer a true assessment of the
full range of consequences.
== What to do ==
Send a message urging the Manitoba Minister of Conservation to broaden the
environmental review of the Wuskwatim hydro projects.
== Background information ==
The Boreal Forest - Earth's Green Crown
http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/boreal/intro.asp
== Contact information ==
You can send a fax or email to the Manitoba Minister of Conservation directly
from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the
contact information and sample letter below to send your own message.
Honourable Steve Ashton
Manitoba Minister of Conservation
333 Legislative Building
R3C OV8 Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
Fax: 204-945-3586
Email: mincon@leg.gov.mb.ca
== Sample letter ==
Subject: Broaden environmental assessment and review of proposed Wuskwatim dam
Dear Minister Ashton,
I urge you to use your authority to ensure that the Manitoba Clean Environment
Commission carries out the environmental assessment and review of the Wuskwatim
hydropower projects in the context of Manitoba Hydro's larger expansion plans.
The Wuskwatim dam and transmission projects are a first step in Manitoba
Hydro's plan to expand its industrial hydropower facilities in Manitoba's
boreal forest. Consequently the true environmental impacts of the Wuskwatim dam
can only be adequately assessed as part of a review of the overall planned
industrial hydropower complex. Such an assessment must include all elements of
the complex of which the dam would be a part.
Manitoba's boreal forest is a natural treasure of global significance and its
health is critical to the survival of both people and wildlife. I therefore
urge you to ensure that the Clean Environment Commission carries out a
comprehensive and realistic assessment of the full range of
environmental
consequences of the Wuskwatim dam and all
related projects.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
========================
Subscription Information
========================
NRDC distributes three bulletins by email: the CALIFORNIA
ACTIVIST NETWORK
ACTION ALERT, EARTH ACTION, and
LEGISLATIVE WATCH. To subscribe to any or all
of them,
go to: http://www.nrdcaction.org/join/subscribe.asp
If you already subscribe and want
to change your subscriptions or update your
email
address or other information, go to:
http://www.nrdcaction.org/profileeditor
==========
About NRDC
==========
The Natural Resources Defense
Council is a nonprofit environmental organization
with
more than 550,000 members nationwide and a staff of scientists, attorneys
and environmental experts. Our mission is to protect the
planet's wildlife and
wild places and ensure a safe and
healthy environment for all living things.
For more information about NRDC or how to become a member
of NRDC, please
contact us at:
Natural Resources Defense
Council
40 West 20th Street
New
York, NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773
(fax)
General email: nrdcinfo@nrdc.org
Earth Action email: nrdcaction@nrdc.org
http://www.nrdc.org
Also visit:
BioGems -- Saving
Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural
Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org
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Read our Privacy Policy. |
Alaska's cold ocean waters support some of the largest
populations of marine birds, mammals, fish, and
invertebrates in
the world. They also support some of
the largest commercial
fishing operations in the United
States and the world. Dramatic
changes in marine
populations have led many fishery scientists
to conclude
that unsustainable commercial groundfish fishing is
negatively impacting the Alaskan marine ecosystem.
Steep declines in Steller sea
lions, northern fur seals, harbor
seals, seabirds, and
several species of crab and fish, and
widespread habitat
disturbance have gone hand in hand with the
explosive
growth of North Pacific groundfish fisheries. We need
your help to get the federal government to take action to
protect Alaska's remaining pristine marine ecosystem
before it
is too late!
The National Marine Fisheries Service (Fisheries Service)
is the
government agency charged with protecting our
oceans resources.
Recently, due to a Court order, the
Fisheries Service released a
document describing the
effects of the massive groundfish
fisheries on the
Alaskan and North Pacific marine ecosystem.
This
report, also called an Environmental Impact Statement,
provides an opportunity for the public to tell Fisheries
Service
how we can better protect our oceans.
Please take a minute to tell the
government that it should
protect Alaska's marine
mammals, and pristine marine ecosystems.
The more people
who send in public comments about the new report
- the
better the chance we all have of making a difference.
Right now, NMFS only hears fishing
industry advocates - the
Fisheries Service needs to
hear another point of view, from
ocean conservation
advocates BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Now is your
chance to
tell the Fisheries Service to take care of your ocean
resources.
For the oceans,
Dawn Martin
Oceana
You
can take action on this alert either via email (please see
directions below) or via the web at:
http://ga0.org/campaign/protect_alaska/
Visit the web address below to
tell your friends about this.
http://ga0.org/campaign/protect_alaska/forward/
We encourage you to take action by
November 10, 2003
Help Protect
Alaska's Marine Mammals and Pristine Oceans
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://ga0.org/campaign/protect_alaska/
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email program.
Your letter
will be addressed and sent to:
Dr. James Balsiger
----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN
YOUR NAME----
Dear [decision maker name automatically
inserted here],
I am writing to
voice my strong concern about the current
management of
commercial groundfish fishing in the North Pacific
and
to encourage you to adopt and implement the Oceans
Alternative. The Oceans Alternative incorporates ecological
principles into fisheries management to ensure that all
elements
of the marine ecosystem are given due
consideration and
protected from harm.
As stewards of our oceans public
resources, you must put
commercial groundfish fishing in
its proper context and ensure
that our marine ecosystems
are protected for future generations.
----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT----
--------------------------------------------------
If you received this message from
a friend, you can sign up for
Oceana Action Center at:
http://ga0.org/wavemaker/join.html?r=P1zXrt61hP-ME
 | ||||||||||||
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***********************************************
*Your WildAlert for Thursday, October 2, 2003
***********************************************
The House-Senate Energy conference
committee has released a
draft energy bill "compromise"
that will pave the way for
drilling and mining on our
most special public lands, from the
Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to the Otero Mesa of
New
Mexico and the Red Desert of Wyoming. Although still termed
a "draft" proposal, these provisions could very well end up
in
the final bill.
It is a horrid bundle, written by a few members of Congress
working with corporate special interests in the back
room,
dripping with bad ideas and taxpayer giveaways
that will enrich
energy companies.
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF
CONGRESS TODAY. PHONE CALLS ARE
BEST
You can reach your congressional representatives
at:(202)224-3121. Talking points are below. Or, send a fax
from
our web site:
http://ga1.org/campaign/enconf_tws
***************************************
THE BILL IS TAKING SHAPE NOW
Although final action on the bill won't occur until later
this
month, key decisions are being made right now. It
is critical
that members hear from us as soon as
possible. Phone calls would
be best, faxes second best.
There is little in this legislative
package to boost
alternative energy sources, still less to
foster
conservation. Even solutions to the recent blackouts in
the eastern U.S. and Canada haven't yet been drafted, and
have
taken a back seat to the bill's "drill America
first" policy.
If its goal was
to do damage to the largest number of special
places
this draft achieves near-perfection. The bill relies on
production at any cost. And the cost will be huge, both
environmentally and fiscally: the measure could contain as
much
as $20 billion in handouts to industry. Please take
a few
minutes to tell your Members of Congress that this
energy bill
is so bloated with destructive provisions
and unnecessary
subsidies, so lacking in sound policy,
that it must be scrapped
for the good of the country.
**********************************
TALKING POINTS
Ask for the staff
person handling energy issues for the senator
or
representatives. After identifying yourself, ask that the
senator or representative vote against the energy bill when
it
comes to the floor. And if you are speaking to a
Senate office,
urge the senator to vote to sustain a
filibuster against the
bill. If you wish, you can also
make these points:
* The bill
does nothing to meet America's energy needs through
conservation or alternative energy sources.
* But it contains countless provisions that will endanger
America's wildest places, from the Arctic National
Wildlife, the
nation's coastlines and wonderful public
lands in the
intermountain west.
* The bill will weaken environmental protections on millions
of
acres of public land and do little to give us lasting
energy
security.
* The bill will
give away as much as $20 billion in subsidies
and tax
deals to big oil companies.
********************************************
BACKGROUND:
We've enlisted your help
regularly to protect the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge
from energy drilling. That provision
is, once again, in
the conference committee's package. But with
little
fanfare, the conference committee (really only the
majority members since Democratic conferees have been all
but
excluded from the process) has loaded the bill with
draconian
provisions that threaten public lands across
the west and all of
America's coastlines.
The conference leaders, Sen. Pete
Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Billy
Tauzin (R-LA) released
their draft on September 23. Its language
unabashedly
paves the way for oil and gas development to be the
dominant use of America's public lands. Under these new
rules,
oil and gas development on our National Forests
and on the lands
the Bureau of Land Management oversees,
would trump every other
use. All else would take a
distant back seat: water quality,
wildlife and wildlife
habitat protection, the preservation of
wild lands, the
protection of cultural, historical and
recreational
values and even the property rights of ranchers and
farmers.
In
significant ways, this legislative proposal is nothing more
than a codification of much that the Administration has
sought
to do by internal fiat. And both are a direct
reflection of many
of the fevered dreams of Vice
President Cheney's industry-only
energy task force.
The toll is already apparent. "The
results of these actions,
billed as promoting national
energy security, have begun to turn
vast tracts of the
western United States into industrial
landscapes. The
winners are the energy companies..." So reads a
special
report in the October 2003 issue of Field and Stream
magazine.
This "drill first, wild places be damned" philosophy emerges
in
a whole suite of provisions in the draft conference
bill. It is
an approach fundamentally at odds with the
careful balance that
the Congress has crafted and that
has governed our public lands
for more than 50 years.
Americans have every right to expect
that oil and gas companies
should have to obey common
sense laws and reasonable regulations
to protect the
environment and the public interest. Yet the
energy
conferees are systematically sweeping aside
"inconvenient" rules in an effort to drill anywhere and
everywhere.
Specifically, the bill would:
* Prohibit drilling fluids (drill "muds") from being
considered
"pollutants" of drinking water under the Safe
Drinking Water Act
(Sec. 28);
*
Require the United States Geological Survey to report on
"restrictions and impediments" to the development of federal
oil
and gas deposits (Sec. 45). These inconvenient
"restrictions and
impediments" would include policies
and regulations designed to
protect fish and wildlife,
wild lands, and cultural and
historical values on the
public lands;
* Possibly allow the Interior Department
to designate utility
and pipeline corridors across
public lands without seeking
public comment through the
land use planning process (Sec. 51);
* Establish an
"Office of Federal Project Coordination" within
the
White House intended to expedite the permitting and
completion of energy projects on federal lands, and override
environmental safeguards (Sec. 41);
* Put the Department of Energy in charge of implementing
Executive Order 13211, which requires federal land
management
agencies to determine, before "taking any
action," whether such
actions would have a "significant
adverse effect on energy
development (Sec. 46).
Beyond these, there are other
damaging provisions of the
proposal that neither the
Senate nor the House has ever
approved. The conference
chairs simply imposed them on the
draft. Here are some
of them:
* Sec. 49 allows
applicants for drilling permits on federal
lands to take
up to two years to comply with application
requirements,
but provides the Bureau of Land Management only a
few
days to approve drilling permit applications.
* The
measure would mandate an immediate survey of the oil and
gas resources in sensitive marine habitats of the Outer
Continental Shelf, including previously off-limits waters
off
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and Alaska, using
seismic and
other intrusive techniques (Sec. 14).
* The proposed bill greases the skids for the
Administration's
plans to lease 100 percent of the
National Petroleum Reserve in
Alaska (NPRA). It would
expand the Interior Secretary's
authority to permit oil
and gas development there without
consideration for
wildlife habitat, native hunting and fishing,
water
quality or other non-commercial values.
* The bill makes
it far easier for the Interior Secretary to
quite
literally give away public resources to private companies,
letting her waive all fees and royalties for almost any
reason.
What's Missing from the
Bill?
The short answer: Anything
that doesn't directly benefit Big
Oil, either through
subsidies or gutted environmental
safeguards!
America needs-deserves!-a responsible energy policy that
enhances our national security by promoting clean, renewable
energy sources and energy efficiency.
Such a policy must respect the
private property rights of
western ranchers and
landowners, protect our most
environmentally sensitive
lands and wilderness-quality
landscapes from the impacts
of energy development, and preserve
the entire spectrum
of values and uses of our public lands, from
drinking
water and wildlife habitat to clean air and recreation.
There is
nothing of the sort in the draft energy conference
bill.
Rather, it would actively undermine public-lands
protection, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and
NPRA to
full-scale drilling, and hand out an estimated
$20 billion in
subsidies and tax give-aways to oil, gas
and coal companies.
That's not an energy plan for
America's future. It is a lavish
payday for the energy
industry, tough luck for taxpayers and
consumers, and a
devastating blow to the public lands our
children will
inherit.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TODAY!
The conference committee continues its dismal work on
the energy
bill and will probably wrap it up in the next
two weeks. The
next step would be to send it to the
House and Senate for
ratification. Please contact your
Members of Congress now. Phone
calls would be best,
faxes next best. Please tell them this
energy bill is
fatally flawed. Even if drilling in the Arctic
Refuge is
not included in the final bill, the balance is too
destructive to allow it to become the law of the land. You
can
take immediate action from:
http://ga1.org/campaign/enconf_tws
If you'd rather prepare your own
message to your senators and
representative, we've
included a sample letter and link that
will give you
contact information.
****************************************
CONTACT INFORMATION
The Capitol switchboard at
(202)224-3121 will connect you to
your senators' and
representative's offices.
You can
find other contact information for your Member of the
House of Representatives at
http://www.wilderness.org/TakeAction/contactdir.cfm
********************************************
THANK YOU
Thanks for helping us
defeat this resoundingly bad legislation.
There is
additional background below, as well as a sample
letter.
If you'd like to write your own letter, you can draw on
it for the major points.
Thank you, as always, for being an important part of
WildAlert,
our online community of wilderness
activists!
**********************************
WORDS TO INSPIRE
"The Arctic has a
call that is compelling. The distant mountains
(of the
Brooks Range) make one want to go on and on over the
next ridge and the one beyond that... This wilderness must
remain sacrosanct."--William O. Douglas
You can take action on this alert
via the web at:
http://ga1.org/campaign/enconf_tws/
Visit the web address below to tell
your friends about this.
http://ga1.org/campaign/enconf_tws/forward/
We encourage you to take action by
October 30, 2003
Stop the Bloated
Energy Bill
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://ga1.org/campaign/enconf_tws/
Your letter will be addressed and
sent to:
Your Congressperson
Your
Senators
----THIS LETTER WILL BE
SENT IN YOUR NAME----
Dear decision maker name
automatically inserted here],
I
write to urge you to oppose the energy bill now under
consideration in the House-Senate Conference Committee. The
bill
fails to meet America's energy needs, but carries
countless
provisions that endanger this country's
wildest, most important
natural places. By putting
drilling first on America's public
lands, the energy
bill promises lasting harm without offering
lasting
energy solutions.
As drafted, the
bill would weaken environmental protections on
millions
of acres of land that belongs to all Americans. It
would
hand over as much as $20 billion in taxpayer subsidies
and tax breaks to corporate special interests. It would pave
the
way for oil and gas drilling off America's Pacific
and Atlantic
coastlines. And it would open the pristine
Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to industrial energy
activity that would surely
destroy it, all for what at
best would be a few months' energy
supply for this
nation and even that a decade away from
consumers.
When the energy bill emerges from
the conference committee,
please vote against final
passage. Thank you for your
consideration.
----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT----
--------------------------------------------------
If you received this message from a
friend, you can sign up for
The Wilderness Society
at:
http://ga1.org/wilderness/join.html?r=Ipa4MzE1s7q7E
U.S.
oceans are plagued by overfishing and habitat destruction. And now, Senator Ted
Stevens has attached anti-environmental amendments to the Department of Commerce
funding bill that would undermine vital protections for ocean ecosystems.
Important work to protect fish
habitat and marine ecosystems will be undone unless Senator Stevens's amendments
are removed from the bill when it is considered by the Senate within the next
few weeks.
Please take a moment
to urge your senators to oppose Senator Stevens's amendments and safeguard our
ocean resources. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this
e-mail to them.
To take action,
click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=313&id4=ES
Just as the
Pew Oceans Commission and prominent scientists are warning of the collapse of
our ocean ecosystems, Senator Stevens, the powerful chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, is trying to roll back some of the most vital
conservation provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act by:
* Stopping
regional fishery and federal fishery managers from protecting essential fish
habitat in the North Pacific. By blocking funding for habitat preservation, the
Stevens amendments stop a seven year effort to protect essential fish habitat,
including deep water coral and sponge ecosystems, from destructive fishing
practices like bottom trawling.
* Directing the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to
reopen fishing for depleted Aleutian Islands pollock. Pollock feed on
kelp-eating sea urchins, and in turn provide food for the endangered Stellar sea
lion. Overfishing this species will destabilize an entire ocean ecosystem.
* Protecting a groundfish fishery
that causes substantial habitat damage, targets long-lived fish that are
vulnerable to overfishing, and kills other marine life as bycatch.
* Micromanaging the work of the
North Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council by dictating the allocation of
fisheries.
These amendments
bypass the public fishery management system established by Congress under the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. If these amendments
prevail, they set a dangerous precedent for the protection of other important
ocean ecosystems.
Congress
should instead enact laws that provide an open and public framework for
fisheries management and ecosystem protection.
Please take a moment to urge your senators to oppose Senator
Stevens's amendments and safeguard our ocean resources. Then ask your family and
friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web
browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=313&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
GeneK@uspirg.org
http://www.USPIRG.org
P.S. Thanks again for
your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family
and friends.
The
October 6 issue of Newsweek includes a lengthy article about
the problems facing the United States in rebuilding Iraq.
The
lead paragraph includes an astounding piece of
information. The
entire paragraph is below. It makes
clear the this
administration's one guiding principle is
to keep the right-wing
happy.
LAST FEBRUARY, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner
was trying to put
together a team of experts to rebuild
Iraq after the war was
over, and his list included 20
State Department officials. The
day before he was
supposed to leave for the region, Garner got a
call from
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who ordered him
to
cut 16 of the 20 State officials from his roster. It seems
that the State Department people were deemed to be Arabist
apologists, or squishy about the United Nations, or in
some way
politically incorrect to the right-wing
ideologues at the White
House or the neocons in the
office of the Secretary of Defense.
The vetting process
"got so bad that even doctors sent to
restore medical
services had to be anti-abortion," recalled one
of
Garner's team. Finally, Secretary of State Colin Powell tried
to stand up for his troops and stop Rumsfeld's meddling. "I
can
take hostages, too," Powell warned the secretary of
Defense.
"How hard do you want to play this thing?" (end
of Newsweek
paragraph)
This information comes on the heels of recent administration
actions to end funding for a well-respected program
working to
fight the spread of HIV/AIDS among refugees
in Africa and Asia
because one of the organizations
involved supports abortion
rights and to expand the
odious global gag rule policy. Finally,
the
administration is still refusing to release the funding
Congress approved for the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA). The Senate will likely consider legislation to
reverse
that decision sometime in the next few weeks. We
will let you
know when that happens.
Thanks for your support.
--------------------------------------------------
Visit the web address below to tell
your friends about this.
http://actionnetwork.org/join-forward.html?domain=ZPG_Action_Network
If you received this message from a
friend, you can sign up for
Population Connection
(formerly ZPG) Email Action Network at:
http://actionnetwork.org/populationconnection/join.html?r=Z1qUq8d1UP-1E
| |||
|
The House and Senate
Appropriations Committees will meet soon to finalize spending on parks, refuges,
and forests for 2004. It is extremely important that you contact your U.S.
Senators and Representatives, urging them to include $3 million for the Land and
Water Conservation Fund to directly support the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
This year, the U.S. Forest Service has an opportunity to
acquire a total of 1,747 acres of land in Montana within the ecosystem. It is
important that the final funding level for this critical project in the Land and
Water Conservation Fund within the Senate's 2004 Interior Appropriations bill be
maintained at $3 million because the House of Representatives did not provide
specific funding for Greater Yellowstone in its version of the bill.
We urge you to help protect this great national treasure.
Please contact your Senator or Representative.
More information on the Land and Water Conservation Fund in FY 2004
appropriations.Ask Congress to continue its support for the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem
At the
last minute, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has attached
legislative language (known as a rider) to the
appropriations
bill funding the Department of Commerce
that undermines vital
legal protections for the ocean
ecosystems of the U.S. North
Pacific. In stalling
protection for the North Pacific, this
legislative end
run puts at risk habitat protections that have
been under
development with public participation for seven
years.
This rider sets a dangerous precedent that threatens fish
habitat and ecosystem protection for all of our country's
marine
ecosystems.
Important ongoing work to protect essential fish habitat
and
marine ecosystems will be stymied unless the Stevens
rider is
removed from the bill when the Commerce
Appropriations bill is
considered on the Senate Floor
within the next few weeks. Thus,
your Senator will be in
a key position to stop this anti-ocean
conservation
rider. Please respond to this alert immediately and
urge
your Senators to notify Senator Stevens about their
opposition to this rider.
The language blocking work to protect essential fish habitat
is
one of several anti-environmental riders included in
Title IX of
the Commerce, Justice, and State
Appropriations bill for fiscal
year 2004. For the sake of
simplicity we refer to these riders
collectively as the
Stevens rider, both in this alert and in the
sample
letter. The essential fish habitat and the other "Title
IX" riders are summarized in the "Tell Me More" Section of
the
Alert Website: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/f714AwK1QPJa/
You can take action on this alert
either via email (please see
directions below) or via
the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/title9/
Visit the web address below to tell
your friends about this.
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/title9/forward/
We encourage you to take action by
November 5, 2003
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/campaign/title9/
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email program.
Your letter will
be addressed and sent to: Your Senators
----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME----
***To Make Edits to this Sample Letter, Please Visit the
Alert
Website and Make Changes in the Letter Edit
Window***
Dear [decision maker
name automatically inserted here],
I am writing you out of a deep concern for the health and
future
of our nation's ocean ecosystems. I urge you to
oppose a rider
added to the Commerce Department
appropriations bill by Senator
Ted Stevens of Alaska to
prohibit the implementation of critical
protections for
North Pacific ecosystems mandated by the
conservation
provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation
and Management Act.
Senator
Stevens' rider mandates that no funds may be used to
implement the essential fish habitat provisions of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(Magnuson Act) in the North Pacific, and that no funds can
be
spent to establish marine protected areas to protect
important
habitat, including recently discovered deep
water corals. The
rider also proposes incentives for
reopening fishing for
depleted pollock stocks and
continues rockfish fisheries that
target vulnerable
species, have high levels of destructive
bycatch, and
utilize practices that damage sensitive bottom
habitats.
The
rider does all this and more by bypassing the regular
legislative process and the fishery management system
established by Congress under the Magnuson Act. If this
rider
prevails, it sets a dangerous precedent for
removing protections
from other important U.S. ocean
ecosystems. Congress should not
carelessly endanger our
resources and eliminate the opportunity
for public
participation by doing end runs around our existing
conservation laws.
I urge you to do all you can to protect our oceans by
publicly
opposing the Stevens rider. Please sign onto
dear colleague
letters that oppose this dangerous
legislation and support
efforts to strike Title IX when
the Commerce Department
appropriations bill is considered
on the Senate Floor. Thank you
for considering my views
and please let me know your actions on
this important
issue.
----END OF LETTER TO BE
SENT----
Instead
of protecting communities at risk from forest fires, the so-called "Healthy
Forests Restoration Act" weakens environmental protections, interferes with our
independent judiciary, and cuts the public out of the decision making process
for public lands. It also fails to provide any protections for roadless areas in
our national forests.
To protect
lives and communities at risk from forest fires, Congress should direct scarce
federal funding and resources to the Community Protection Zone, the area
immediately surrounding at-risk communities.
Please urge your senators today to vote NO on the Healthy
Forests Restoration Act and to instead support efforts that protect communities
from forest fires without weakening environmental protections. Then ask your
family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link
or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=181&id4=ES
Among other
harmful impacts, the misnamed "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003" would
eliminate the core of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and allow the
Forest Service to conduct large-scale, environmentally damaging logging projects
without considering alternatives, including the "no-action" alternative. The
bill would also limit the public's involvement in forest management decisions,
and allow temporary roads to be built in pristine roadless areas of our national
forests, even though these roads can be as harmful to the environment as
permanent roads.
The full of
House of Representatives approved the bill in May. The Senate version of the
bill passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee in July, and a number of
senators recently filed an amendment to the bill using language reportedly
worked out with former top timber industry lobbyist and current Undersecretary
of Agriculture Mark Rey.
This
"compromise" language still fails to prioritize protecting communities at risk
from forest fires and it still continues to weaken environmental protections,
interfere with our independent judiciary, undermine public participation in
decisions affecting our public lands, and fails to provide any protections for
roadless areas in our national forests.
Please urge your senators to vote NO on the Healthy Forests
Restoration Act and to instead support efforts that protect communities from
forest fires without weakening environmental protections. Then ask your family
and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link
or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=181&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
GeneK@uspirg.org
http://www.USPIRG.org
ETC
Group
Genotypes
10 October 2003
www.etcgroup.org
Maize Rage in Mexico
GM maize
contamination in Mexico - 2 years later
Twenty-five months after the first scientific evidence
became public, the Mexican government and the scientific community have
acknowledged that Mexico's traditional maize crop is contaminated with DNA from
genetically modified (GM) maize despite a government prohibition on the planting
of GM seeds in Mexico. Mexico is the centre of origin for maize - one
of the world's most important food crops.
Yesterday, peasant farmers and indigenous communities along
with civil society organizations in Mexico publicly released the results of
their own testing that found GM contamination of native maize in at least nine
states - far more serious and widespread than previously assumed. (1) For a
detailed report of their findings see: http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=407 and http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=408 (The
report will soon be available in English.)
No fewer than four government-sponsored studies have been
undertaken in Mexico over the past two years to determine whether or not
transgenes are present in native maize (see details below). Although none of the
studies has yet been published, each study found varying levels of contamination
in two or more states. But acknowledgment of gene flow has not come with a clear
plan of action to address contamination and to prevent it from continuing.
Neither is there a plan to protect vital national and international collections
of crop germplasm stored in gene banks in Mexico and elsewhere.
Given the appalling lack of action
and follow-through by the Mexican government, international plant breeding
institutes and the multinational Gene Giants, the true creators and custodians
of maize decided to take matters into their own hands. At a news conference
yesterday in Mexico City, indigenous and peasant farmer communities in Mexico
joined with civil society organizations, including ETC Group, to announce the
results of genetic testing of maize grown by traditional farmers in 138
communities. The results show that contamination has spread to farmers' fields
in nine states, including Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango, Estado de Mexico, Puebla,
Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Tlaxcala and Veracruz.
Of 2,000 maize plants tested,
samples from 33 communities in nine Mexican states tested positive for
contamination. In some cases as many as four GM traits, all patented by
multinational Gene Giants, were found in a single plant. The organizations were
especially alarmed to find traces of the insecticidal toxin (Cry9c), the
engineered trait found in StarLink maize (formerly sold by Aventis CropScience).
StarLink was never approved by the US government for human consumption because
of concerns it could trigger allergic reactions. Illegal traces of StarLink were
found in US food products in 2000. Following a massive recall of tainted food
products in the US, Aventis withdrew StarLink from the market. Apparently,
StarLink sought asylum in Mexico.
Baldemar Mendoza, an indigenous farmer from Oaxaca, said at
yesterday's news conference that people had come to his community to tell them
that they needn't worry about GM contamination because transgenic crops have
been available in some countries for six or seven years and there is no evidence
that GM crops are harmful to health. "But we have our own evidence," asserts
Mendoza. "We have 10,000 years of evidence that our maize is good for our
health. To contaminate it with transgenics is a crime against all indigenous
peoples and farming communities who have safeguarded maize over millennia for
the benefit of humankind."
The
coalition of indigenous communities, farmer and civil society organizations
demanded that the Mexican government make public the results of all studies on
GM contamination, stop all imports of transgenic maize, continue its moratorium
on the cultivation of transgenic maize, and scrap the flawed "biosafety" bill
crafted by biotech proponents, which is now under discussion in Congress.
Safe Contamination? At
events leading up to today's news conference, many Mexican government officials
and scientists acknowledged contamination, but insisted that it wasn't a
problem.
On September 7th
Mexico's newly-appointed Minister of the Environment, Alberto Cárdenas told the
Global Biodiversity Forum in Cancún that there is no doubt that GM contamination
in Mexico is real but he insisted there is no harm to native maize biodiversity
or to public health. The Minister offered no specific information on
contamination levels, nor did he provide evidence supporting his claim that
public health and the environment had not been compromised.
At a conference held September 29-30
in Mexico City, academics, and government officials confirmed -and even Gene
Giant corporations accepted- that there has been a "flow" (contamination) of GM
traits into traditional maize varieties in at least two states. The
conference, titled "Gene Flow: What Does It Mean for Biodiversity and Centers of
Origin," was organized by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology (PIFB)
and the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science (FUMEC). www.maizegeneflow.org.
At the conference, Klaus Amman,
Director of the University of Bern's Botanical Garden (Switzerland), argued that
there are no known environmental impacts of transgenic gene flow. Amman cited
data from Novartis (one of the Gene Giants - now Syngenta) showing that under
field conditions genetically engineered Bt maize posed minimal risk to Monarch
butterflies in the United States. Jorge Soberón, the director of Mexico's
National Commission on Biodiversity (CONABIO) pointed out that a comparison
between field conditions in the US and those in mega-diverse Mexico may not be
relevant. He noted that the USA has around 60 butterfly species whereas Mexico
has more than 2,000. In the meeting, Soberón called for a strict application of
the precautionary principle.
A
representative of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Victor Villalobos,
recently described the GM contamination in Oaxaca as "a natural laboratory" to
study the effects of gene flow, and he complacently urged that the moratorium on
the planting of GM maize be lifted. (2)
"It is exasperating that many scientists refused to take
action on gene flow for more than two years, insisting that they required
stronger scientific evidence," said Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group. "Now those same
scientists admit gene flow but are claiming - in the total absence of scientific
proof - that gene flow poses no threat to biodiversity or to people. Using
Mexico and its people as guinea pigs is good science?"
Studies Concur: According to
Ezequiel Ezcurra, the director of Mexico's National Institute of Ecology of the
Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, four government-sponsored
studies have been undertaken in the past two years to determine whether or not
transgenes are present in maize in Mexico. Although none of the
studies has yet been published, Ezcurra stated that each study found varying
levels of contamination in two or more states:
* The National Institute of Ecology, an agency that operates
under Mexico's Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, conducted an
initial study that was released in September 2001.
* The
National Institute of Ecology (INE) and the National Commission for the
Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) jointly sponsored a study that was
conducted by scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
and the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic
Institute (CINVESTAV). The results of this study were announced in December
2002.
* The Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and
Fisheries (SAGARPA) conducted a study that was commissioned by the
Intersecretarial Commission for Biosafety and Genetically Modified Organisms
(CIBIOGEM). The results of this study have not been made public.
* The National Institute for Agriculture and Forestry
Research (INIFAP). The results have not been made public.
The studies corroborate the
independent findings of two University of California (Berkeley) researchers who
first reported their conclusions in Nature in September 2001. In an
unprecedented move, the editor of Nature later disavowed the Berkeley
scientists' peer-reviewed report in his own journal.
Traveling transgenes are a global problem, not one confined
to maize in Mexico. Among others, GM contamination of traditional varieties of
cotton in Greece,(3) canola (rapeseed) in Canada,(4) soy in Italy,(5) papaya in
Hawaii have been reported.(6)
International Action Needed: In February 2002 La Via
Campesina (the international organization of small farmers) and several hundred
other civil society organizations worldwide joined forces to call upon the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and CGIAR (Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research) to address the issue. Although FAO has
expressed concern, it has only been in touch with CIMMYT (International Maize
and Wheat Improvement Centre), the CGIAR institute in Mexico, which has global
responsibility for maize breeding and for the world's most important maize gene
bank. CGIAR has refused to take decisive action until they are convinced there
is solid scientific proof of contamination. However, CIMMYT did decide to halt
its maize collection program in the region for fear that it could inadvertently
introduce GM traits into its gene bank, and began to test for the presence of
transgenes in its seed collection.
At yesterday's press conference in Mexico City, indigenous
people and small farmers described CIMMYT's failure to acknowledge and take
action on the contamination of traditional maize as "deplorable," and urged that
responsibility for the CIMMYT gene bank as well as other banks in the CGIAR
network be surrendered to an intergovernmental body such as FAO, under
conditions that will make it more responsive to the concerns of small farmers
and indigenous people. The group also condemned the Convention on Biological
Diversity for its failure to effectively address GM contamination in centers of
genetic diversity.
Next
Steps:
The long-term
impacts of GM contamination on crop genetic diversity are not known. Neither
governments nor international institutions have taken action to stop GM
contamination and to protect farmers and indigenous peoples' livelihoods. In
February 2002 hundreds of civil society organizations called for a moratorium on
the shipment of GM seed or grain in countries or regions that form part of the
center of genetic diversity for the species. The communities and CSOs meeting
yesterday in Mexico City repeated demands for a global moratorium.
ETC Group believes that a number of
issues urgently require further study. Most obviously, studies are needed to
determine the impact of GM contamination on traditional maize varieties in
Mexico, not only looking at the traits that are currently contaminating the crop
but also consider future introductions that might include traits for industrial
or pharmaceutical compounds. Most importantly, we need to understand not only
how to prevent further contamination but whether or not it is possible to
de-contaminate without further harming diversity. Peasant farmers throughout the
world, those who hold intimate knowledge of local farming systems and crop
diversity, are the only ones capable of undertaking the task, but must have the
support of the international community in this process. Globally, there is a
pressing need to study more broadly the impacts of gene flow, which are already
affecting other crops and regions. Most urgently, FAO and CGIAR need a specific
strategy and procedure to ensure that gene bank accessions are protected from
contamination and that the vitally important exchange of genetic resources
between gene banks and breeders is not imperiled by concerns about
contamination. Because all GM traits are patented, the intellectual
property implications of accidental contamination and dissemination should also
be studied. Until the studies can be completed and evaluated by farmers'
organizations and the international community, existing national moratoria on GM
crops should remain in place. These issues should be discussed at the next
meeting of the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture and at the FAO Conference in November.
Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group (Mexico) siliva@etcgroup.org --
+52 55 55 632 664
Hope Shand or Kathy Jo Wetter, ETC
Group (USA) hope@etcgroup.org -- +919 960-5223
Jim
Thomas, ETC Group (UK) jim@etcgroup.org -- +44 (0)18652 07818
Pat Mooney, ETC Group (Canada) etc@etcgroup.org -- +204
453-5259
The Action Group on
Erosion, Technologyand Concentration, formerly RAFI, is an international civil
society organization headquartered in Canada. The ETC group is dedicated to the
advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human
rights. www.etcgroup.org. The ETC group is also a member of the
Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme
(CBDC). The CBDC is a collaborative experimental initiative involving
civil society organizations and public research institutions in 14
countries. The CBDC is dedicated to the exploration of
community-directed programmes to strengthen the conservation and enhancement of
agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC website is www.cbdcprogram.org .
Endnotes:
(1) The document released
yesterday is a collective effort prepared by indigenous communities and peasant
farmers from Oaxaca, Puebla, Chihuahua, Veracruz and CECCAM - Centro de Estudios
para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano, CENAMI - Centro Nacional de Apoyo a
Misiones Indígenas, Grupo ETC - Grupo de Acción sobre Erosión, Tecnología y
Concentración, CASIFOP - Centro de Análisis Social, Información y Formación
Popular, AJAGI - Asociación Jaliscience de Apoyo a Grupos Indígenas, UNOSJO -
Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca.
(2) Lourdes Rudino, "Aprueban experimentos con maiz
transgenico - Tiene SAGARPA 'laboratorio natural' en Oaxaca," El Financiero,
October 3, 2003.
(3) Dina Kyriakidou, "Greece to further
test, destroy any GM cotton crops," July 4, 2000, Reuters News
Service. Available on the Internet: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7343
(4) See www.percyschmeiser.com
(5)
David Brough, "Italy police seize more Monsanto seed in raid," April 10, 2001,
Reuters News Service. Available on the Internet: http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE2/Italy-Seizes-Monsanto.htm
(6) Greenpeace, "Genetically Engineered (GE) Papaya
-- Unknown Plant," June 2003. http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/multimedia/download/1/290394/0/papaya_unknown_plant.pdf
*************************************************
*Your WildAlert for Friday, October 10, 2003
*************************************************
The WildAlert community has done a
terrific job of sending
letters to the Park Service
about snowmobiles in Yellowstone
National Park. So far,
we've generated nearly 10,000 comments
opposing the
noisy, polluting vehicles! Thanks for all you've
done on
this issue.
If you haven't yet
had a chance to send your comments to the
Park Service,
there's still time. Click here to take action:
http://ga1.org/campaign/yell2_tws
****************************************
BACKGROUND: We Can Enjoy Yellowstone in Winter Without
Wounding
The Park
Ignoring public sentiment, solid science and the law, the
Bush
Administration is moving to not only perpetuate
harmful
snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
National Parks but
to actually increase it by as much as
35 percent. We urgently
need your help in opposing this
terrible decision! The deadline
for comments is Tuesday,
October 14, 2003. You can take action
immediately by
clicking here:
http://ga1.org/campaign/yell2_tws
The Administration's proposal for
winter use in Yellowstone is
depressingly familiar. It
would continue current problems from
snowmobile use in
Yellowstone, the pollution, the noise, the
threats to
human health, and the disturbance of wildlife. It
flies
in the face not only of common sense but also of years of
scientific analysis.
Continuing snowmobile use in Yellowstone, in light of all we
know about the damage it causes, will put America's
national
parks on a sad new path. In taking it, the
National Park Service
would flatly reject the essence of
its mission: to protect our
parks for all Americans and
to hand them on, undiminished, to
future generations.
That would be a scandalous surrender to an
industry that
profits from the insistence of a selfish few on
rampaging through our first National Park as they choose,
never
mind the impact on the park, its employees or
other visitors.
The
Administration's own two-year study is unequivocal. Phasing
out snowmobiles in favor of snowcoaches offers the best
protection for visitor and employee health. Even the newest
and
most advanced snowmobiles would:
* Emit twice as much carbon monoxide as snowcoaches;
* Cause haze at Old Faithful;
*
Present a continuing risk to those who suffer from asthma and
other respiratory conditions;
*
Generate engine noise across many of the park's most visited
attractions; and
* Cause more stress
and harm to Yellowstone's wildlife.
It gets worse. In early September the Los Angeles Times
reported
that the snowmobile industry is actually
producing dirtier
machines today than it did just two
years ago. In fact, the new
machines heralded by the
Administration emit between 40 percent
and 213 percent
more carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons than those
the
Administration used in its studies do.
There is absolutely no doubt that if the current plan is
implemented, health risks, haze and engine noise will be
significantly worse than the Administration's most
optimistic
predictions.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY
The Park
Service's own analyses point the way, one that
preserves
our opportunity to see the achingly beautiful
spectacle
of Yellowstone in winter but without inflicting
lasting
damage on one of America's best-loved National Parks.
Three years ago, the National Park Service embraced that
approach, the heart of which is replacing snowmobiles in
Yellowstone and Grand Teton with park-friendly snowcoaches.
A
new administration, capitulating to industry, blocked
that move.
Growing public
concern over this issue has reached the Congress
and has
influenced lawmakers. In July, the House of
Representatives voted on the issue of snowmobile use in
Yellowstone. As time expired, the vote tally favored ending
snowmobile use in the park. Before the gavel could fall,
however, high-level arm-twisting and political chicanery
managed
to change one vote. The ban failed on a tie,
210-210.
And it's not only the
Congress that is concerned.
In
an unprecedented letter in late May, leaders of the National
Park Service under Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Carter,
Reagan,
Bush, and Clinton came together to condemn a
decision they
believe is crucial to the future of our
National Parks.
In their letter
to the Administration they wrote:
"The choice over snowmobile use in Yellowstone is a choice
between upholding the founding principal of our national
parks-stewardship on behalf of all visitors and future
generations-or catering to a special interest in a
manner that
would damage Yellowstone's resources and
threaten public health.
The latter choice would set an
entirely new course for America's
national parks."
*************************************************
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP: Please Take Action Today!
Though the Administration has been slavishly attentive to
the
demands of the snowmobile industry, it has turned a
deaf ear to
the public's voice and a blind eye to the
imperatives of its own
science.
Can it also ignore the cumulative
weight of these distinguished
National Park Service
leaders, energized congressional champions
and public
health advocates? We don't think so. But we need you
and
other WildAlert subscribers to keep the pressure on and to
help create the political strength necessary to save
Yellowstone
from the Administration that is pledged to
protect it.
Please contact the
National Park Service today! Urge it to
protect the
world's first national park and the people who work
and
visit there from the pollution, noise and disruption caused
by snowmobiles. The deadline for comments is Tuesday,
October
14, 2003!
You can send a your comments immediately from:
http://ga1.org/campaign/yell2_tws
MAIL ADDRESS FOR COMMENTS
Planning Office
Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box
168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190
THANK YOU!
We appreciate your help in
protecting Yellowstone and Grand
Teton National Parks.
There's more information below. We've also
included a
sample letter you can draw from should you wish to
write
your own comments. We hope you can! Your own thoughts
expressed in your own words are the most powerful.
And thank you for being part of
WildAlert, our online community
of wilderness
activists!
********************************************
WORDS TO INSPIRE
"It is not
enough to understand the natural world; the point is
to
defend and preserve it." - Edward Abbey
Read more
inspiring words about conservation at:
http://ga1.org/ct/4pa4MzE1DpqG/
********************************************
You can take action on this alert
either via email (please see
directions below) or via
the web at:
http://ga1.org/campaign/yell2_tws/inbx8bav63jn
It is so important that the
Administration hear a resounding NO!
in opposition to its
plan to allow snowmobile use to continue in
Yellowstone.
Please forward this message to your friends,
colleagues
and family.
http://ga1.org/campaign/yell2_tws/forward/inbx8bav63jn
We encourage you to take action by
October 15, 2003
Help Keep
Snowmobiles Out of Yellowstone
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://ga1.org/campaign/yell2_tws/inbx8bav63jn
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email program.
You MUST Reply
with "Action" in the subject.
Your letter will be addressed and sent to:
National Park Service Winter Use Rulemaking
----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR
NAME----
Dear [decision maker name automatically
inserted here],
Yellowstone and
Grand Teton National Parks should be protected
so their
beauty remains undiminished for today's Americans and
for future generations.
The National Park Service's original decision, made after
years
of conclusive study and public participation,
provides the
necessary protection for these two National
Parks. That decision
would phase out noisy, polluting,
disruptive snowmobiles and
replace them with
multi-passenger snowcoaches that can provide
ample
access to both parks.
As you
know, the National Park Service recently completed its
own two-year supplemental study of this matter and spent
$2.5
million doing it. The study determined that
replacing
snowmobiles with snowcoaches is the best
alternative for
Yellowstone's future. And that study
further demonstrates that
your plan will:
* Result in twice as much carbon
monoxide as snowcoaches;
* Create haze at Old
Faithful;
* Present a continuing risk to visitors and
employees,
especially those who suffer from asthma and
other respiratory
conditions;
*
Generate engine noise across many of the park's most visited
attractions; and,
* Cause more stress
and harm to Yellowstone's wildlife.
Taxpayers themselves will bear a dollar cost for this as
well as
an environmental one: the Park Service
acknowledges that the
continued use of snowmobiles will
cost us $1.3 million more
each year than the shift to
snowcoaches.
In the National Park
Service Organic Act, the Congress directs
you to:
"conserve the scenery and the
natural and historic objects and
the wildlife therein
and to provide for the enjoyment of the
same in such
manner and by such means as will leave them
unimpaired
for the enjoyment of future generations."
Your plan fails to meet that standard. Indeed, your plan
will
harm the world's first national park and diminish
the experience
of those who come to enjoy it.
It is time to implement the original
National Park Service plan
to protect Yellowstone and
Grand Teton National Parks, as well
as those who visit
and work there.
We are greatly
indebted to those who had the insight and
determination
to create Yellowstone and other National Parks. We
should honor their vision and resolve by adhering to the
original Park Service decision. The law, science and
overwhelming public opinion support that decision. Most
basically, though, it is simply the right thing to do.
----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT----
For
Immediate Release
From: Indigenous and farming
communities in Oaxaca, Puebla, Chihuahua, Veracruz
CECCAM, CENAMI, ETC Group, CASIFOP, UNOSJO, AJAGI
Mexico City, Mexico
October 9, 2003
Contamination by genetically
modified maize in Mexico much worse than feared
* Contamination has been found in cornfields in the states
of Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango, Mexico State, Puebla, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí,
Tlaxcala and Veracruz
* Analyses
show contamination with the genetically modified (GM) variety Starlink,
prohibited for human consumption in the United States
* Some plants found to show presence
of two, three and four different GM types, all patented by transnational
biotechnology corporations
*
Mexican indigenous and farming communities demand a halt to corn imports,
continuation of the moratorium on sowing GM maize, and rejection of the Bill on
Biosafety currently before the Mexican Congress.
Representatives of indigenous and farming communities from
the states of Oaxaca, Puebla, Chihuahua, Veracruz, and the Center for Studies on
Rural Change in Mexico (CECCAM), Center for Indigenous Missions, (CENAMI),
Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group), Center for
Social Analysis, Information and Popular Training (CASIFOP), Union of
Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO), Jaliscan Association of
Support for Indigenous Groups (AJAGI) released the results of their own
independent studies and conclusions on the presence of transgenic contamination
in nine Mexican states: Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango, Mexico State, San Luis
Potosi, Puebla, Oaxaca, Tlaxcala and Veracruz. The analysis were carried out on
2,000 plants (in 411 groups of samples), from 138 farming and indigenous
communities. In 33 communities (24% of total samples) from nine states, the
tests found some presence of transgenes in native corn. The results show
percentages of contamination that run from 1.5% to 33.3%, in a second round of
analysis.
In the nine states
that tested positive, genetic contamination was found that coincides with the
protein Bt-Cry9c, that identifies the corn variety Starlink, patented by Aventis
(Bayer), prohibited for human consumption in the United States and nowadays
taken off the market. In these same states, other strains of Bacillus
Thuringiensis (Bt), used in creating transgenic Bt corn varieties by companies
including Monsanto and Novartis/Syngenta, were found, as well as presence of the
protein CP4-EPSPS patented by Monsanto and used to create corn genetically
modified to resist herbicides.
The analyses were carried
out with commercial detection kits of the Agdia brand, applying the DAS ELISA
test. The first round of tests were done by the members of the communities and
organizations themselves, with the technical assistance and support of
biologists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The second
round of tests was carried out by a company that distributes the kits in Mexico.
“Our analyses confirm the
findings of contamination of native corn that were released to the public
previously by researchers Chapela and Quist of the University of California at
Berkeley, and by the National Institute of Ecology (INE) and the National
Council on Biodiversity (CONABIO). Now we see that the contamination has spread
at least to the South, Central and Northern regions of the country,” stated Ana
de Ita of CECCAM. She added, “This is just a small sample, but it indicates the
seriousness of the problem. If we’re finding contamination in random samples
from indigenous and farming communities far from urban centers and in
communities that have traditionally used their own seed, then the problem is
much more widespread. The presence of Starlink is especially serious because it
ends up in the corn these communities consume. The plants in several communities
that contain two, three and even four different transgenes together indicates
that the contamination has been around for years, and that contaminated maize on
small farms has been cross-pollinating for generations to have incorporated all
these different traits in its genome.”
Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group warned that “Recent U.S.
production of corn genetically modified to produce substances ranging from
plastics and adhesives, to spermicides and abortifacients poses an even greater
risk of contamination. There have already been cases in Iowa and Nebraska of
accidental escape of corn modified to produce non-edible substances. If we’re
already finding contamination in remote areas of Mexico, where cultivation of GM
corn is prohibited by law, how can we guarantee that these other types won’t
spread as well?”
Ribeiro
continued: “Like all GM products in the world, the proteins detected are all
under patent. The Monsanto corporation that accounts for 90% of the world market
in genetically modified agricultural products already won a lawsuit against
Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser claiming unlicensed use of their patent, even
though Schmeiser’s fields were inadvertently contaminated by Monsanto’s GM
canola. There are currently 2,000 similar cases filed by Monsanto and other
biotech corporations against farmers in Canada and the U.S.”
Elizabeth, a peasant from the state
of Veracruz, declared: “The companies themselves should be sued, for
contamination. We publicly declare their responsibility, and we will not permit
any lawsuit filed by them, in any part of Mexico, since they’re the ones who
have damaged our corn with their genetically modified products.”
Pedro, an indigenous community
member in Chihuahua, echoed a view expressed by many of the representatives of
indigenous and farming communities affected, stating that for them the
contamination of their corn is an attack on their most profound cultural roots
and a threat to their basic source of sustenance and autonomy. “Our seeds, our
corn, is the basis of the food sovereignty of our communities. It’s much more
than a food, it’s part of what we consider sacred, of our history, our present
and future.”
Baldemar Mendoza,
an indigenous farmer from Oaxaca, reported at the news conference that deformed
plants with GM traits have been found in Oaxaca and other states. “We have seen
many deformities in corn, but never like this. One deformed plant in Oaxaca that
we saved tested positive for three different transgenes. The old people of the
communities say they have never seen these kinds of deformities.”
He also stated that government
representatives came to his community to tell him not to worry about
contamination, because GM crops have been available in some countries for five
or six years and there is no evidence that GM crops are harmful to health. “But
we have our own evidence,” asserted Mendoza. “We have 10,000 years of evidence
that our maize is good for our health. To contaminate it with genetically
modified maize is a crime against all indigenous peoples and farming communities
who have been cultivating and improving maize over millennia for the benefit of
humankind.”
Alvaro Salgado of
CENAMI cited a Nahuatl poem that emphasizes the role of corn in Mexican
communities: “It is our mother because it gives us life; it gives us unity and
identity, as children of the same family. It makes us love our mother earth and
not abandon her. It makes us peoples. We share the maize with joy, but nobody
has the right to use it as its owner, maize can feed us all, but we cannot
appropriate it. We have a mutual relationship, that’s why we defend it from
foxes, coyotes and rats. We don’t want it to run out, because we exist thanks to
corn.”
“Contamination isn’t just
one more problem”, said Salgado. “It’s an aggression against Mexico’s identity
and its original inhabitants. That is why the communities and organizations have
decided to take matters in their own hands. We won’t let the same technicians
and institutions and companies that gave us chemicals and hybrid seeds come
along now to tell us not to worry and that the solution is their seeds. We want
our seeds and we are going to defend them and rescue them.”
Carlos Chavez of AJAGI further
noted: “In the two years that the government has known about the contamination,
it hasn’t done anything to determine how far it has spread or to stop the
sources of contamination. With the exception of the studies done by INE-CONABIO,
it hasn’t released the results of governmental studies, like the ones carried
out by the Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA).” Chavez also noted that Victor
Villalobos, the Ministry’s delegate in the Intersecretarial Commission for
Biosafety and Genetically Modified Organisms (CIBIOGEM) stated publicly that
“contamination in Oaxaca is a natural laboratory” and called for lifting the
moratorium on sowing genetically modified maize in national territory.
“This would only help the five or
six multinationals producing GM corn.” Chavez said. Meanwhile, the Senate
approved a bill on Biosafety with no discussion and with the support of all the
political parties. Instead of protecting Mexico’s interests, this bill protects
the multinationals that contaminate us, and rejects the precautionary principle
although this should be the major priority in our country since Mexico is a
mega-diverse country and center of origin for corn and other food crops. Out of
respect for indigenous peoples, small farmers and all Mexicans, this bill should
not be approved in the Chamber of Deputies, where it is currently under
discussion. What we need in Mexico is to say NO to genetically modified
crops—they contaminate native varieties, they make us dependent and we don’t
need them.”
He added that, “Even
international institutions like the International Center for the Improvement of
Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT), which has the largest public seed bank for maize in
the world gathered from small and indigenous farmers, have failed to publicly
recognize that contamination exists but at the same time it has projects to
develop GM maize and wheat. They are betraying what they say is their mission:
to serve poor farmers.”
CECCAM’s
Ana de Ita summed up the demands of the organizations and communities involved
in the study:
- Total rejection of genetically modified
crops
- Rejection of the bill on biosafety before
Congress, which would only legalize genetic contamination
- Hold the multinational producers of GM products,
particularly Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dupont, Dow and BASF, responsible for
the contamination. We reject their lawsuits for “unlicensed use of patents,”
that are in direct violation of farmers‘ rights.
- The
Mexican government and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and
Food (SAGARPA) must make public all the results of studies of contamination.
- Maintain the moratorium on cultivating and freeing GM
maize into the environment
- Immediate halt to
importations of GM corn, the most likely source of contamination
- Indigenous and farming communities, supported by the
organizations they choose, will take specific actions to stop and reverse GM
contamination. We invite all indigenous and farming communities to join the
movement to defend our maize.
Indigenous and farming communities in Chihuahua, Puebla,
Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and otehr states
CECCAM
(Center for Studies on Rural Change in Mexico)
CENAMI
(National Center to Support Indigenous Missions)
ETC
Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration)
CASIFOP (Center for Social Analysis, Information and Popular
Training)
UNOSJO (Union of Organizations of the Sierra
Juarez of Oaxaca)
AJAGI (Jaliscan Association of Support
for Indigenous Groups)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary of results of the tests for
genetic contamination of native corn, Mexico 2003
The analysis were carried out on 2,000 plants (in 411 groups
of samples), from 138 farming and indigenous communities. In 33 communities (24%
of total samples) from the states of Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango, Mexico State,
San Luis Potosi, Puebla, Oaxaca, Tlaxcala and Veracruz, the tests found some
presence of transgenes in native corn.
All the communities that participated in this study practice
campesino, or small-scale agriculture, using family labor, and little or no
chemical inputs. The corn produced is destined primarily to family consumption
and is sown on plots of between one and two hectares, using their own stores of
saved native seed. Most of the communities are located in regions far from urban
centers. Each one of the communities participating in the study defined the size
of its sample and the plants were selected at random, taken from the corners and
center of each plot.
In January
2003, 105 groups of leaves from 520 plants were analysed from the states of
Puebla, Veracruz, Chihuahua, San Luis Potosí, Mexico State and Morelos. In
August of 2003, additional samples from the state of Tlaxcala were analyzed that
also tested positive using the same method described below.
Based on tests to determine the
presence of endotoxins through the DAS-ELISA technique, using commercial kits
manufactured by Agdia, with a reader of optical density and a filter of 620 nm,
the first test was carried out to determine the presence or absence of five
types of proteins that are present in GM organisms. Four of these detect the
toxin Bacillus Thuringiensis: Bt-Cry 1Ab/1Ac, Bt-Cry9C, Bt-Cry 1C y Bt Cry2a,
and one detects herbicide-resistant CP4 EPSPS.
Of these 105 samples, gathered from 95 plots in 53
communities, 48.6 % tested positive for transgenic proteins. 17% of the samples
were positive for three or more, 13% were positive for two or more, and 18.6%
for one.
Of the total of samples
analyzed, in 21% Cry 1a/1ac was detected, among other things, and 26.67% tested
positive for Cry9c (Starlink). Another 34% were positive for CP4 EPSPS.
In July/August 2003 a second study
was carried out on 306 samples, made up of groups of leaves from 1,500 plants
and using samples from the corners and centers of fields located in 101
indigenous communities in six Mexican states: Oaxaca, Puebla, Chihuahua, Durango
and Veracruz.
The study sought
to determine the presence of endotoxins through the DAS-ELISA technique, and was
done by the laboratory Fumigaciones y Mantenimiento de Plantas S.C., using the
Agdia commercial kits, with a reader of optical density and filter of 620 nm,
diagnosing the presence or absence of three types of proteins indicators of the
presence or absence of the toxin Bt that produces insect-resistant plants
(Bt-Cry 1Ab/1Ac, Bt-Cry- 9C, Bt-Cry 1C) and one resistant to herbicides (CP4
EPSPS).
Of the 306 samples in total in this case—from
all the communities and points of sampling—32 samples (10.45%) tested positive.
1% of the simples registered the protein Bt-Cry 1Ab/1Ac; 1% of the samples
registered the protein Bt-Cry 9C; 3.6% were positive for resistance to
herbicides CP4 EPSPS. 4.9% of the samples were positive concomitantly for two or
three different transgenes: 3.9% of the samples for three types—two different
types of Bt (Bt-Cry9C, Bt Cry 1Ab/1Ac) and the herbicide resistant CP4 EPSPS;
while 0.65% of the samples registered the presence of two transgenic
characteristics: CP4 EPSPS and Bt-Cry 1Ab/1Ac. The remaining 0.33% was positive
for CP4 EPSPS and Bt-Cry 9C.
In
18 of the 105 sample groups, between 1.5% and 33.3% of the samples registered
positive results.
Deformed plants have been found in the
states of Oaxaca and Chihuahua that have tested positive for the presence of GM
products.
Some commercial brands
and companies that market GM products containing transgenes found in Mexican
maize:
Bt-Cry- 9C present in the maize Starlink of
Aventis (owned by Bayer), prohibited in the United States for human consumption;
Bt-Cry 1Ab/1Ac, present, among other commercial brands
in the products YieldGard from Monsanto, Knockout from Novartis (owned by
Syngenta), and NatureGard from Mycogen;
Bt-Cry1C in
products from Mycogen y Ecogen.
CP4 EPSPS that
identifies, for example, the GM maize resistant to herbicide RoundUp Ready Corn
from Monsanto, (resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, known locally as Faena or
Basta).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For further information, contact:
ETC Group in Mexico: (+52-55) 55 63 26 64),
silvia@etcgroup.org
CECCAM (+52-55) 5661 1925 ,
ceccam@laneta.apc.org
CENAMI, cenamidad@terra.com.mx
The Bush
administration is continuing to work with polluters on one of the broadest
efforts to weaken our clean air protections in the history of the Clean Air Act.
In October, Congress is expected to make a number of crucial decisions on clean
air, including whether to allow a Bush administration practice known as the
"Senior Death Discount."
The
White House is trying to downplay the health impacts of proposed environmental
rules by underestimating the value of a human life, and counting the lives of
senior citizens for even less. For example, the Bush administration had devalued
saving the life of someone over 65 by 37 percent compared to younger people,
helping to mask the health impacts of various pieces of clean air legislation.
These "death discounts" should not be used to derail public health proposals.
Please take a moment to ask your
senators to support an amendment proposed by Senator Durbin (IL) that will stop
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's current use of the "Senior Death
Discount." By passing the Durbin Amendment, Congress will stop the EPA from
discriminating against seniors when it weighs the value of environmental and
public health protections. Then ask your family and friends to help by
forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web
browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=31&id4=ES
Right now
America's senior citizens are at risk from adverse health impacts from
pollution, including premature deaths due to power plant pollution. Fine
particle "soot" and ground-level ozone, or "smog," are air contaminants that
attack the cardiopulmonary system, reducing lung and heart function for even the
most robust Americans. But for senior citizens, the effects of breathing air
contaminated with soot and smog can be deadly. In fact, each of the four most
frequent causes of death in people aged 65 and over - heart disease, cancer,
stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - are worsened by air
pollution.
Given this, the
Environmental Protection Agency should be designing its health protections so
that they protect and extend senior citizens' lives.
But, incredibly, the Bush administration is instead
devaluing the lives of senior citizens as a justification for weakening our
nation's clean air policies.
The
Bush administration and EPA back air-pollution legislation and proposals that
will worsen senior citizens' health, including the so-called Clear Skies
Initiative, which would allow polluters to emit more smog- and soot-forming
pollution and more mercury over a longer period of time than faithful
enforcement of current law.
In
part, the White House justifies doing less to protect public health from air
pollution by lowering the estimated value of a human life, and lowering even
further the estimated value of the life of a senior citizen. Since senior
citizens, along with children, benefit the most from reduced pollution, EPA is
exploiting these calculations to reduce the economic benefit of environmental
safeguards to justify weakening them.
Although former EPA Administrator Whitman said that the EPA
would stop using the Senior Death discount in its calculations, the EPA
continues to devalue the lives of senior citizens, and now the Office of
Management and Budget has indicated that it favors continuing such approaches.
Fortunately, Senator Durbin (IL)
has introduced an amendment that would prevent the offensive practice of
applying any senior death discount to older Americans.
Please take a moment to ask your
senators to support the Durbin Amendment and stop the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency from using the Senior Death Discount. By passing the Durbin
Amendment, Congress will stop the EPA from discriminating against seniors when
it weighs the value of environmental and public health protections. Then ask
your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link
or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=31&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
GeneK@uspirg.org
http://www.USPIRG.org
P.S. Thanks again for
your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family
and friends.
***********************************************
*Your WILDALERT for Wednesday, October 15, 2003
***********************************************
Cumberland Island National Seashore
off the Georgia coast is one
of the largest undeveloped
barrier islands in the world. It
offers a wilderness
experience within 300 miles of several
metropolitan
areas including Atlanta, GA, and Orlando and
Jacksonville, FL. More than 50,000 people visit Cumberland
every
year.
But pending legislation threatens the very qualities that
make
Cumberland Island so valuable. The measure would
take portions
of the island out of protective status to
benefit private and
commercial interests. That would set
a terrible precedent for
wilderness everywhere and for
our National Parks.
WHAT YOU CAN
DO TO HELP: Take Action Today!
Your Senator may soon be
considering this legislation in
Committee. Please let
your Senator know that you oppose this
special interest
bill. You can send that message immediately by
clicking
here:
http://ga1.org/campaign/island_tws
*******************************************
THANKS!
Thanks for helping us
protect Cumberland Island's wilderness!
And thanks for
being part of WildAlert, our online community of
wilderness activists.
********************************************
BACKGROUND: An Island of Quiet, for Now
Cumberland Island, accessible only by boat, is the
southernmost
of Georgia's barrier islands. It is one of
only six National
Park service wildernesses in the east
and the United Nations has
named it an International
Biosphere Reserve.
Cumberland's
40,000 acres provide habitat for over 300 bird
species,
including the endangered wood stork. American
alligators
are common and the nesting population of loggerhead
sea
turtles is one of the largest along the Georgia coast.
Visitors hiking from east to west across the island will
encounter a white sandy beach, a maritime forest of live
oaks
and pines and a rich mosaic of salt marshes and
tidal creeks.
SOME 'WILDERNESS
FOREVER,' SOME 'WILDERNESS AGAIN'
In 1972 Cumberland
Island was protected as a National Seashore
to be
managed by the National Park Service for the enjoyment of
the American public. In 1982, the Congress designated 8,840
acres of the island wilderness. The Congress
simultaneously
designated another 11,718 acres of the
island "potential
wilderness," meaning that as soon as
uses antithetical to
wilderness ended, the land could be
formally and fully protected
as wilderness. And the
Congress clearly stated that the
potential wilderness
was to be managed AS wilderness such that
the island
would revert to native wildness with the passage of
time.
The
potential wilderness includes:
-a
spur road to Plum Orchard and North Cut Road that runs east
to west through the wilderness on the north end of the
island;
and,
-a historic district
at the north end of the island that is in a
natural
condition except for two primitive roads and a few
structures.
Designated wilderness typically is off-limits to motorized
vehicles. These routes on Cumberland Island were made a
temporary exception to accommodate private property
owners that
remain on the island but have agreed to
leave after various
periods, pursuant to the terms of
contracts by which the
National Park Service paid owners
and acquired most of the
properties. The legislation and
the contractual agreements allow
residents to use only
specific roads to reach their property, a
fair
arrangement.
Now, though, Georgia
Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Zell Miller have
introduced
legislation (S.1462) that will yank hundreds of acres
of
the island out of protective status, including the main road,
the Plum Orchard Spur, the North Cut Road and the entire
historic district at the island's north end, literally
hundreds
of acres.
If that happens, it will split the small wilderness area in
two
and create a permanent motorized loop through the
heart of the
area. In practical terms it will be
impossible for visitors to
the island to ever get more
than a mile from a motorized road or
to ever escape the
signs, sounds and smells of automobiles. This
completely
undermines the original intent of Congress when the
Cumberland Island Wilderness was established.
PRIVATE PRIVILEGE OVER THE PUBLIC
INTEREST
This legislation is meant to benefit a small
group of business
people. It allows privately owned
Greyfield Inn to conduct
motorized tours through the
wilderness where they currently have
no right to drive.
That's bad enough, but the attendant
consequences are
even more serious. Other island residents,
whose right
to drive on the island is circumscribed by the terms
of
their contracts, will be free to drive where they please.
In fact, the legislation opens the
island to widespread motor
vehicle use from anyone,
residents or simply visitors, who can
get a car,
motorcycle or ATV to the island. There will be no
limit
to the amount of traffic through the wilderness.
Furthermore, the bill allows the Secretary of Interior to
enter
into commercial concession contracts for motorized
seashore
tours, opening this mostly-wilderness island to
even more
motorized use.
The historic district, now managed as wilderness, will lose
this
protection and be open to development. The Park
Service could
build anything from visitors' center to a
hotel on that land.
With the authorization of motorized
travel on the island, such
development is all but
inevitable.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION
TODAY!
http://ga1.org/campaign/island_tws
We need your help. The Senate Energy
and Natural Resources
Committee will hold a hearing on
this bill before the month is
out. We urgently need to
reach the members of that committee
with the truth about
this ill-conceived legislation, S.1462. One
of those
members represents you. Will you write today urging
both
your senator and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), ranking
minority member of the committee, to strongly oppose this
bill
when it comes before the Energy Committee? You can
send that
message to your senator and to Sen. Bingaman
immediately from
http://ga1.org/campaign/island_tws
A sample letter is below along with
a link that will give you
contact information for the
senators. Please feel free to draw
from the sample if
you'd like to write your own letter.
***************************************
CONTACT INFORMATION
You can find
addresses for your senator and Sen. Bingaman at:
http://www.wilderness.org/TakeAction/contactdir.cfm
You can take action on this alert
via the web at:
http://ga1.org/campaign/island_tws/inbx8baf3n57
Visit the web address below to tell
your friends about this.
http://ga1.org/campaign/island_tws/forward/inbx8baf3n57
We encourage you to take action by
October 31, 2003
Help Protect
Cumberland Island Wilderness
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://ga1.org/campaign/island_tws/inbx8baf3n57
Your letter will be addressed and
sent to:
Committee
----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME----
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
Cumberland Island National Seashore
is a 40,000-acre barrier
island off the coast of
Georgia. It is one of the largest
undeveloped barrier
islands in the world and, appropriately,
includes a
significant area of designated wilderness, drawing
thousands of visitor to its solitude and quiet every year.
Georgia Sens. Saxby Chambliss
and Zell Miller have introduced
legislation (S.1462)
that would eliminate this wilderness
protection from
part of the island and open it to motorized
travel. The
bill benefits a few commercial interests and some
private interests whose right to reach their inholdings by
motorized vehicle is already amply protected. The change
will
devastate the island's character, spirit and
primitive nature.
It also
eliminates wilderness protection for the historic
district and allows development on that land. Such a retreat
from a congressional decision to set aside wilderness
raises
serious questions about this nation's commitment
to protect in
perpetuity the wildest places on our
public lands.
When the Congress
designated wilderness on Cumberland Island,
its intent
was to allow areas, over time, to return to their
wilderness state. It was clearly never the intent of the
Congress to give parts of the islands over permanently to
motorized use. Nor was it intended to allow the historic
district to turn into a theme park. But that is
precisely the
impact of the Chambliss-Miller
legislation.
The measure would
remove from wilderness protection the island's
main
road, the spur road to Plum Orchard, the North Cut Road and
the historic district at the north end of the island.
Specifically, the legislation will open the island to
commercial
sightseeing tours conducted by Greyfield Inn
and other
commercial operators. Beyond that, it will
allow island
residents, whose rights of access to their
inholdings are
already well protected by contract, the
right to drive anywhere
they choose on the island, any
time.
If that happens, visitors
now drawn to the island's natural
sights and sounds will
never be able to get free of motors. In
fact, they will
never be able to get more than a mile away from
a
motorized route with its motorized sounds and smells.
Apart from the damage to the
experience of visitors, the
legislation would lead to
substantial environmental impacts.
Wildlife will suffer
from increased dust, noise and general
disruption.
The action that set aside Cumberland
Island over 30 years ago
for future generations was the
product of years of hard work by
environmental
organizations, the National Park Service and
island
residents. It carefully balanced the rights and interests
of all parties. The Chambliss-Miller legislation will
shatter
that balance. It will reward commercial
interests and a few
inholders who are now, years after
the fact, simply looking for
a better deal than they
agreed to by contract and for which they
received fair
payment from taxpayers.
I urge
you to oppose S.1462. It places private and commercial
interests over the clear public interest in protecting
Cumberland Island for us and for generations yet to come.
----END OF LETTER TO BE
SENT----
Sincerely,
cc:
Senator
Jeff Bingaman
|
Recalls. Administration leaks.
Weapons of mass distraction.
Okay, MAYBE sometimes the
politics gets so ludicrous that we
ponder chucking it
all and moving to the North Pole. But then
the Arctic's
largest ice shelf fractures, and the seriousness
and
necessity of our fight comes rushing back. This month, we
need you to stay with us in that fight. Read on to take
action.
Cut through the spin. Help our lawyers keep
fighting the good
fight in court. Our efforts are paying
off, friends, let's keep
at it!
:: STOP THE "HEALTHY FORESTS"
SMOKESCREEN!
:: CHALK UP A VICTORY FOR NATIONAL PARKS!
:: VOTE EARTHJUSTICE!
:: WHERE WE
LIVE (AND ROCK!) BUY THE CD!
:: RUMBLE IN OKINAWA:
DUGONG V. RUMSFELD
:: SMELTERS AND CLEAN AIR
:: DEBORAH SIVAS FINDS SMOG'S SILVER LINING
:: HOT DOCKET! CASES YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
:: BUCK IN BRIEF: THE NEW PLOT AGAINST ROADLESS
:: TOM'S TURN: AIR REGULATIONS WORK. IMAGINE THAT
:: ABOUT EARTHJUSTICE
---------------------------------------------------
STOP THE "HEALTHY FORESTS" SMOKESCREEN!
The Bush administration's so-called "Healthy Forests
Initiative"
is a prescription for anything but. Within
the week, your
Senators could be voting on this
disastrous proposal for handing
our forests over to the
timber industry. Capitalizing on fear of
fire, the bill
seeks to waive crucial environmental laws and
lock the
public out of meaningfully participating in the
management of our forests. Ironically, by allowing
destructive
logging far from homes, the bill would
actually INCREASE fire
risk. Urge your Senators to
oppose the "Healthy Forests
Initiative" and provide
communities with real protection from
wildfires: =
http://ga0.org/campaign/hfi/
---------------------------------------------------
CHALK UP A VICTORY FOR NATIONAL PARKS!
Until this month appreciating the natural treasures of
Yellowstone, Sequoia, or Acadia National Park might have
been
difficult because it can be hard to see the forest
for the,
well, haze. But no longer! We've just won a
thirteen-year battle
to get the EPA to enforce the Clean
Air Act on behalf of our
National Parks. Find out how we
did it, and just how much more
scenic your next family
vacation could be:
http://ga0.org/ct/S11aAPE1yPK6/
Then keep clean air front and center
with this month's desktop
download, a beautiful
Yellowstone vista--courtesy of the Clean
Air Act! Get it
here:
http://ga0.org/ct/Q11aAPE18uCN/
---------------------------------------------------
VOTE EARTHJUSTICE!
Would you like to
cast your ballot in a race you feel GOOD
about? We've
got the perfect solution: Vote Earthjustice! Every
year,
Working Assets selects a group of 50 top non-profits
(yours truly is on the list) to receive a portion of the
revenue
from its long-distance service (and credit card,
and shopping,
and wireless service). That's where you
come in.
If you are a customer
of ANY of Working Assets services, you can
help decide
just how large a portion of the donations will be
allocated to Earthjustice. That could mean tens of thousands
of
dollars to support our work, and that's a lot of
cases! Please
vote Earthjustice here:
http://ga0.org/ct/S71aAPE1yPKW//
Not a Working Assets customer? You
can still help support
Earthjustice. Click here:
https://secure.ga3.org/02/supportus/nlp1aAPE1qcZO
---------------------------------------------------
WHERE WE LIVE (AND ROCK!) BUY THE CD!
Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, and
many
more greats have contributed stellar tracks for our
new CD.
"Where We Live" directly benefits Earthjustice's
campaign to
promote the universal right to clean air and
clean water. It's
great music for a great cause--what's
not to love? Check out the
CD (complete with liner
notes) here:
http://ga0.org/ct/P11aAPE18uCL//
---------------------------------------------------
RUMBLE IN OKINAWA: DUGONG V. RUMSFELD
It's the rumble to remember in Okinawa, and sorry, Rumsfeld,
but
our bets are on the thousand-pound sea mammal. The
endangered
Okinawa Dugong, or sea cow, has seen its
numbers reduced to just
50 due to habitat loss. And now
this beloved fixture in Japanese
culture and folklore is
gravely threatened by the U.S. Secretary
of Defense's
plans to build a new heliport facility on its coral
reef
home. Find out why we remain optimistic about our case to
defend the Dugong:
http://ga0.org/ct/Cp1aAPE1yPKw/
---------------------------------------------------
SMELTERS AND CLEAN AIR
If you live in
the shadow of Hayden, Arizona's smelter, you're
exposed
to ambient arsenic levels 150 times higher than the
state's guidelines thanks to loose limits on pollution. When
it
comes to copper smelters, the EPA is chalking up a
remarkable
record of ignoring their effects on people,
endangered animals,
AND their habitat. Call us crazy,
but we're pretty sure the
Clean Air Act has something to
say about that. And we're going
to court to prove it.
Check it out here:
http://ga0.org/ct/171aAPE1yPK3/
---------------------------------------------------
DEBORAH SIVAS FINDS SMOG'S SILVER LINING
Newsflash: LA's smog DOES have a silver lining. No, really!
After all, smog and sprawl inspired Los Angeles native
Deborah
Sivas to make a life protecting the natural
places that remained
untouched. Find out how Sivas is
helping a new generation of law
students turn their
environmental frustration into motivation
(and effective
legal action!) at her current post as Director of
Earthjustice's Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford.
http://ga0.org/ct/zd1aAPE1yPKt/
---------------------------------------------------
HOT DOCKET! CASES YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
The hottest cases our attorneys are working on this month:
Just saying no to snowmobiles in
Yellowstone.
http://ga0.org/ct/111aAPE1yPKs/
Supreme Court case: Opposing Bush's
attempts to block citizens
from protecting public
lands.
http://ga0.org/ct/C71aAPE1yPK2/
Challenging EPA's lax regulation of
PVC plastic, a known
carcinogen.
http://ga0.org/ct/1d1aAPE1yPKx/
---------------------------------------------------
BUCK IN BRIEF: THE NEW PLOT TO GUT "ROADLESS"
Whatever its faults, you won't find us accusing the Bush
administration of being unmotivated. No longer content to
merely
chip away at the edges of the seminal Roadless
Rule, President
Bush and his industry pals have a new,
much more direct, plan
for toppling the Rule. This
month, Executive Director Buck
Parker clues you into the
plot against Roadless, and our own
plan to stop it.
http://ga0.org/ct/ap1aAPE1yPKv/
---------------------------------------------------
TOM'S TURN: AIR REGULATIONS WORK. IMAGINE THAT
In the canon of Bush the younger,
environmental regulations are
a drag on the economy, and
public health should be entrusted to
the good
citizenship of various polluting industries. It is not
news to readers of this newsletter--to readers of every
newspaper in the land, for that matter--that this
administration
has set out to weaken, water down,
eviscerate, or repeal
countless regulations adopted to
protect air, water, wildlife,
wilderness, and all other
resources you can think of.
But
now, in an amazing irony, the administration's own Office of
Management and Budget has released the results of the most
extensive survey of the costs and benefits of 107
different
regulations ever conducted. As a general
proposition, the study
found that the benefits of
investing in pollution-control
equipment far outweigh
their costs.
A few details: The
study examined costs and benefits of the
rules over a
full decade, from October 1, 1992, through
September 30,
2002. The rules examined were issued by the
departments
of agriculture, education, energy, health and human
services, housing and urban development, labor,
transportation,
and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In aggregate, the estimated
benefits of all the rules fell
between $146 billion and
$231 billion, with costs estimated to
fall between $36.6
billion and $43 billion.
The
Environmental Protection Agency accounted for most of the
benefits, measured in reductions in hospitalization and
emergency room visits, premature deaths, and lost workdays.
And
four air pollution rules--two that limit particulate
matter and
nitrogen oxide emissions from heavy trucks,
other regulations on
light-duty vehicles, and a rule
that reduces emissions that lead
to acid rain--were the
biggest producers. These four rules had
estimated
benefits of between $101 billion and $119 billion at
a
cost of a paltry $8 billion to $8.8 billion.
The most surprising thing about all this is that the White
House
didn't deep-six the study. The New York Times
commented,
"Whether these findings will alter the
administration's
suspicion of federal regulation is
unclear. President Bush has
rarely allowed science (or,
for that matter, logic) to interfere
with his
policies--witness his attempts to suppress or ignore
alarming evidence about global warming to justify his
cost-free
strategy--Fundamental policy shifts are
probably not in the
cards."
One important sidebar to this story: Many EPA regulations
mandated by Congress were only issued after Earthjustice
and
other organizations filed lawsuits against the
agency to force
it to act. Thus, your investment in
Earthjustice resulted in the
government's forcing
significant investments in pollution
control equipment
and strategies and it has paid huge dividends.
We can
all take pride in the results.
The OMB study--all 234 pages--is available at
http://ga0.org/ct/Sd1aAPE1yPKO/
Tom Turner is Earthjustice's Senior
Editor. E-mail him at:
mailto:tturner@earthjustice.org.
---------------------------------------------------
MAILBAG
I
appreciate all you do in the courtroom, working to reverse the
damage our esteemed president is doing. It's ironic that now
we
are trying to protect our best places FROM the
government, where
not long ago that we depended on the
government FOR protection
of these areas.
Again, while I appreciate your
keeping your mailing list updated
on Dubya's
anti-environmental activities, it seems I see very
little about this type of thing in the daily media. What we
really need is to make the average American aware on a
consistent basis of what is going on. Most people care
about the
environment in an off-hand way, but they have
many other
competing priorities, and are often simply
ignorant of what is
happening. Articles on the types of
abuses you report to your
membership should show up
daily in every newspaper as news
releases, public
interest stories, editorials, opinion pieces,
etc.
If we could get enough people mad
about this, we might not only
correct some of Dubya's
abuses, we might even get him
dis-elected! How about
it?
Walt Gammill, Boise, ID
We have four people who spend most of their time feeding
stories
to the media, and the coverage is far more
extensive than you
may think. We have a clipping service
that lets us know when
stories that mention Earthjustice
are published, and that runs
into the hundreds each
month. There are many times that number
that mention the
administration's environmental misdeeds. The
news is
there if only the people will bother to read it. --TT
I fully agree with Yael Artiz. The
Bush regime must be closely
tabbed for its pillage of
the environment. The planet and its
inhabitants must be
protected. Our very future rests in the
hands of these
unconscious people who actually profit from their
abuse.
These individuals must be stopped at all cost, because
they also pose a serious threat to global peace.
Trudy Desouza
I am a Wyoming resident and I love our Wyoming wilderness.
But
there is no more roadless land in Wyoming. I doubt
that there is
any undesignated roadless land anywhere
else in the country. So
just how do you expect to unmake
all those roads and who is
going to pay for all that
deconstruction ?
Jon Davis
In fact, there are millions of acres of roadless lands in
the
West and Alaska, nearly 60 million on the national
forests
alone, plus millions more on land managed by the
Bureau of Land
Management. In Wyoming, the Forest
Service identified 3,257,000
roadless acres. So yes,
there are plenty of acres to fight for
without digging
up any asphalt.
Earthjustice has
been high on my list for some years and
continues to be.
The plundering of our land, the secrecy of the
administration in its dealings with corporations with no end
to
their greed is appalling. I live in the outer rim of
Yellowstone's ecosystem and am on the wildlife corridor.
We are
about to be assaulted by major development of a
huge ranch.
There are no zoning laws here. And so
another piece of awesome
land will be filled with
upscale housing and fenced properties.
Louise Lord,
Sheridan, MT
Reading the comments
on your board brings up the question I have
been asking
for a few years now. Nobody I know voted for Bush
(or
admits to it), most sites are against him. None of the
people I talk to or correspond with like the guy. The
conclusions I came to are frightening but I can't see any
other
possible explanations: either the people who voted
for Bush are
so ashamed that they can't defend their
actions or nobody did
vote for him after all. I know
that I did NOT vote for him. I
wonder how many others
can truly say the same, and why the
American public
accepted this four-year farce. Those who DID
vote for
him ought to be getting him to see that they don't
accept his misuse of office and those who didn't should be
wondering how to prevent the same thing from happening
again and
meanwhile, do all we can to minimize the
damage.
Thanks Earthjustice!
Jenni Hymoff
Reading your update from Cancun, I was reminded of an excuse
given by multinationals that oppose international
environmental
and labor standards: Every country is
different. It would be
unreasonable if we Americans put
regulations on Chinese
factories; the Chinese are used
to working in horrible, unsafe
conditions for very
little money. But now, we see that national
laws really
CAN be changed by international treaties!
How convenient that globalization can be used to lower
environmental standards, but cannot be used to raise them.
Sandra Schachat
As an Earthjustice member I just want to thank you for all
that
you do. It's unfortunate that the problems we now
face regarding
the environment "cannot" and "will not"
be solved by the minds
that created them. It's a tough
fight, but we will win! Thanks
again.
Jinny Lee, Melrose, FL
I continue to be amazed and horrified by the Bush
administration's attacks on the environment. Thank God for
Earthjustice. Without your organization, our environment
would
be completely stripped of its beauty and future. I
read your
newsletters avidly and forward the information
to friends and
family each day. I am making sure that
all are informed of
Bush's total disregard for America's
environmental future. As to
Bush's rating with the
public, I think those numbers are greatly
overrated.
Often the polls only involve 1,000 people randomly
selected, hardly a true representation. If we, as citizens,
push
the media to expose more of this administration's
negative
environment actions, more of the public will
be aware of what
is truly happening. Keep up the good
work; you are greatly
appreciated!!
Diane Finley, Baxter, TN
Keep those cards and letters coming:
mailto:tturner@earthjustice.org.
-----------------------------
ABOUT
EARTHJUSTICE
Founded as the Sierra Club Legal Defense
Fund in 1971,
Earthjustice is the non-profit law firm
for the environment.
Earthjustice represents hundreds of
environmental organizations,
large and small, from eight
offices across the country. We do
not charge our clients
for our services. To learn more about our
work:
http://www.earthjustice.org
THE EARTHJUSTICE SUPPORTER CENTER AND YOU
Are you an Earthjustice supporter yet? See what all the buzz
is
about at our online Supporter Center where you can
get the
inside scoop, be inspired, and find out the
latest news. Click
here:
http://ga0.org/ct/zp1aAPE1yPKb/
SUPPORT EARTHJUSTICE!
Your support of Earthjustice will help defend and protect
our
forests and other public lands; our air, water, and
wildlife;
our children and our communities. Please, give
online today:
https://secure.ga3.org/02/supportus/nlp1aAPE1qcZO
QUESTIONS? FEEDBACK?
Drop us a line: mailto:enews@earthjustice.org
--------------------------------------------------------
All contents copyright 2003 by Earthjustice, 426 17th
Street,
Sixth Floor, Oakland, California 94612
For the next few weeks, you have
one of the best chances in years to speak out for the sea lions, walruses,
whales, seabirds, fish, and shellfish whose survival depends upon the vast and
sensitive Bering Sea ecoregion.
The federal government is seeking public comments on an
environmental impact statement that will shape future management policy for
groundfish fishing in the Bering Sea, with dramatic implications for the future
of the sea and its inhabitants.
Covering almost a million square miles of marine waters
between Alaska and Russia, the Bering Sea is one of the world's most
biologically productive and diverse marine environments.
Go to http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/ctt.asp?u=26681&l=3599
to learn more and to speak out now.
NOTE: YOU CAN ONLY TAKE ACTION VIA THE ABOVE
LINK. THIS ACTION IS NOT POSTED ELSEWHERE ON THE CONSERVATION ACTION
NETWORK WEB SITE.
Please forward
this alert to your friends and colleagues.
_____________________________________________________________________
Direct any questions about the WWF Conservation Action
Network to
actionquestions@takeaction.worldwildlife.org
_____________________________________________________________________
The Conservation Action Network is sponsored by World
Wildlife Fund-
US. Known worldwide by its
panda logo, WWF is dedicated to
protecting the world's
wildlife and the rich biological diversity
that we all
need to survive. The leading privately supported
international conservation organization in the world, WWF
has
sponsored more than 2,000 projects in 116 countries
and has more
than 1 million members in the United
States. WWF calls on everyone
-- government,
industry, and individuals -- to take responsibility
by
taking action to save our living
planet.
World Wildlife Fund
1250 Twenty-fourth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.worldwildlife.org
http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org
| | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
River Advocates:
Starting in Oregon, the Bush Administration has proposed changes to the Clean Water Act that would make it easier for polluters to harm water quality in our nation's rivers and streams. Comments on the proposed changes are due by November 10th, so please take action now and tell the EPA not to weaken the Clean Water Act. Act today at: http://amriversaction.ctsg.com/ctt.asp?u=27370&l=6649
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a proposed new plan for Oregon's water quality standards that will gut requirements that polluters clean up their act. Under the proposed plan, the federal government prevents the public and state government from making important decisions about how clean their rivers and streams should be. The rule could also allow federal dams to pollute rivers by exempting them from current requirements under the Clean Water Act.
Your help is needed to keep the Bush Administration from moving ahead with this "dirty watersheds" plan for Oregon and the nation. With 30 years of work under the Clean Water Act, we have been making great progress in cleaning up our rivers and streams in Oregon and around the nation. Don't allow the Bush Administration to take this step backward; support continued strong protection for clean water.
ACT NOW FOR CLEAN WATER! Send a letter to the EPA and urge them not to weaken the Clean Water Act. Take action today at: http://amriversaction.ctsg.com/ctt.asp?u=27370&l=6649
Sincerely,
American Rivers
*************************************
Thank you for helping to protect and
restore America's rivers, and being a part of American Rivers' River
Action Center (http://amriversaction.ctsg.com/wac/).
Take the next step - become a member of American Rivers! Visit
http://www.americanrivers.org/joindonate or call us at 202-347-7550,
or toll free at 1-877-347-7550.
To contact American Rivers, email us at outreach@amrivers.org
Dear U.S. PIRG supporter,
Across the U.S., thousands of industrial facilities use and store hazardous chemicals in large quantities that pose great, and often unnecessary, risks to the general public. For example, 50 oil refineries across the country use hydrofluoric acid, putting over 15 million Americans at risk of injury or death from an accident or terrorist attack, even though safer alternatives exist that would eliminate the threat.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is debating legislation supported by the chemical industry that would make security guidelines at chemical facilities voluntary and could exempt parts of the industry from any regulation.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to oppose the industry-supported Senate Bill 994 and support amendments that would increase public accountability and close industry loopholes. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click here or paste this link into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=456&id4=ES
Across the U.S., thousands of industrial facilities use and store hazardous chemicals in large quantities that pose great, and often unnecessary, risks to their neighbors. One specific threat comes from 50 oil refineries across the country whose use of hydrofluoric acid puts over 15 million Americans at risk of injury or death in the event of an accident or terrorist attack, even though safer alternatives exist that would completely eliminate the threat.
And the threat of a terrorist attack on a vulnerable facility is frighteningly real: on February 12 of this year, the National Infrastructure Protection Center cautioned, "Al Qa'ida operatives may attempt to launch conventional attacks against the U.S. nuclear/chemical-industrial infrastructure to cause contamination, disruption, and terror." Various reporters and activists continue to find lax security at a variety of sites around the country, gaining access to storage containers of toxic chemicals and other dangerous locations.
But, despite the threat, Congress has not taken action to make chemical facilities safer and protect the people living near them. The best way to reduce the threat of a terrorist attack or devastating accident at a chemical facility is to replace unsafe chemicals with safer alternatives. For that to work, the public needs to be able to hold chemical facilities accountable for the hazards they pose.
The Chemical Security Act (S. 157), sponsored by Senator Corzine (NJ), would require chemical facilities to submit a safety plan to the government and to consider changing the chemicals and processes to a safer alternative where such an alternative exists. And the public would have the right to know what facilities are using safer chemicals and safer processes.
In contrast, the industry-supported Chemical Facilities Security Act (S. 994), sponsored by Senator Inhofe (OK), not only keeps the public in the dark regarding security efforts, it also includes a major loophole that would make security guidelines voluntary and could exempt parts of the industry from any regulation.
Standards should be applied consistently across the board, and the government should protect the public through tough security standards instead of voluntary guidelines. Two years after 9/11, Congress has heavily regulated the airline industry, and even set up a new Department of Homeland Security to coordinate security efforts. Nothing, however, has been done to address the gaping hole in our national safety posed by chemical facilities.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is expected to debate this legislation soon. Please take a moment to ask your senators to oppose the industry-supported Senate Bill 994 and support amendments that would increase public accountability and close industry loopholes. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click here or paste this link into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=456&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
GeneK@uspirg.org
http://www.USPIRG.org
Though Alaska's oceans and fisheries are still among the most productive in
the U.S, they are far from healthy. Many species in Alaskan waters are
declining rapidly, including harbor seals, steller sea lions, and several
seabirds. Why? Industrial overfishing causes much of the damage by
depleting the fish stocks on which these animals depend.
Now, for the first time in over 20 years, you have a chance to tell the
National Marine Fisheries Service that you support basic fisheries reform
in Alaska that protects ocean habitat and endangered marine wildlife from
the effects of overfishing. Please join us in asking NMFS to adopt the
environmental community's "Oceans Alternative" in place of a fundamentally
flawed environmental impact statement on North Pacific groundfish
fisheries.
Make your voice heard! Click on the link below for more information and to
send your comments to NMFS.
http://www.care2.com/go/z/8207/1029
National Park Lines 2003-22, October 21, 2003
News for NPCA's Park Action Network
http://www.npca.org/takeaction
TakeAction@npca.org
BOO! Welcome to a very SCARY edition of Park Lines.
In this issue:
1. The Bush Administration's Park Policies:
Trick or Treat?
2. Go to Bat for Bats!
3. Haunting History
4. Bring NPCA's Bag to Your Halloween Festivities
5. Thoughts For All Time: Edgar Allen Poe
1. The Bush Administration's Park Policies: Trick or Treat?
Poor decisions by the Bush Administration are having a haunting effect on our national parks.
TRICK: Up to 58 percent of National Park Service employees may fall victim to an administration process for outsourcing their jobs to the private sector. As a result, our national parks could lose scientists, archaeologists, maintenance workers, educators, and many others who protect park resources and provide visitors with a safe and enjoyable experience.
TREAT? Congress is currently in conference debating a decision that could delay outsourcing for a year while the plan and its funding are more closely analyzed.
Take Action >> http://www.npca.org/aa.asp?ID=352
Move quickly to let your members of Congress know that dedicated Park Service staff should be sheltered from the administration's privatization plans.
TRICK: The administration has agreed to relinquish most of its federal water rights to the Gunnison River, which runs through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. By handing over the very water resources that created the park over the centuries, the administration has driven a stake through the heart of the park.
TREAT? Congress is currently reviewing legislation to expand Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. While expansion would greatly benefit the park, it will be a hollow victory if the life-blood of the park has been drained away by the state of Colorado.
Take Action >> http://www.npca.org/aa.asp?ID=351
This Halloween, pay a visit to your members of Congress and send a message that the Black Canyon of the Gunnison must be protected against the threats to the Gunnison River that flows through it.
TRICK: At least as frightening has been the administration's refusal to acknowledge the scientific evidence of global warming. The threat of global warming and air pollution looms large over our national parks. Sooty haze shrouds scenic views in Shenandoah, glaciers are melting in Glacier, mercury poisons the waters of the Everglades, and acid rain damages the forests of Great Smoky Mountains, and still, the administration refuses to believe in global warming.
TREAT? Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) have introduced a bill to control the pollution that causes global warming.
Take Action >> http://www.npca.org/aa.asp?ID=349
Tell your Senators that you support the Climate Stewardship Act.
2. Go to Bat for Bats!
Did you know bats are the only mammals capable of true flight? Bats also make up a quarter of all mammal species. While bats are found in many of our national parks, habitat destruction in surrounding areas has affected the population of several species. You can help. Here's how:
Make a Difference>> Build a bat house in your backyard. You'll be rewarded with fewer mosquitoes at your next barbeque or picnic.
http://www.npca.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bats/bat_house.asp
Get the Facts>> about bats.
http://www.npca.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bats/default.asp
3. Haunting History
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park: Fredericksburg, Virginia is considered one of the bloodiest landscapes in America, for good reason - more than 15,000 men were killed there during the Civil War. Most have been buried in graves unknown, but some residents believe that the spirits of fallen soldiers still roam the town.
Harper's Ferry National Historical Park: A long history of violent and sudden deaths at Harpers Ferry fuels speculation over the presence of ghosts in this West Virginia town at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. From John Brown's raid to free slaves to the bloody Civil War and the town's string of disastrous floods, Harpers Ferry has a history of gruesome deaths rivaled at few other places.
Gettysburg National Military Park: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is the site of one of the most epic and bloody battles of the Civil War, where more than 51,000 soldiers were wounded or killed.
Read All about It >> Do something special this Halloween. Take a trip back in time at a national park near you. National Parks magazine shares some of the best ghost tours with you in its September/October issue.
http://www.npca.org/magazine/2003/september_october/hauntinghistory.asp
4. Bring NPCA's Bag to Your Halloween Festivities
A great way to carry your Halloween treats - no need to worry about torn paper goodie bags or lunch sacks any more. The NPCA lunch tote, made of 100-percent cotton with a Velcro closure, is the perfect way to carry your lunch or Halloween treats. Or if you're a really ambitious trick-or-treater, check out our hefty boat tote!
http://www.npca.org/shop_online/
Thank you for your time and dedication to helping enhance and protect our national parks for present and future generations,
NPCA Grassroots Staff
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* National Park Lines is a publication of the National Parks Conservation Association's Park Action Network. To learn how you and your friends can become more involved in national park advocacy, contact our grassroots staff at TakeAction@npca.org. Take action! Tell your friends! Just go to http://www.npca.org/takeaction.
NPCA's park protection work is made possible by the generous support of people like you. Membership is just $15, and includes a subscription to our award-winning National Parks magazine. Join us today!https://www.npca.org/support_npca
Visit us online at http://www.npca.org
From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
To: ACLU Action Network Members
Date: October 21, 2003
Two years after the passage of the PATRIOT Act, the movement to fix this broad and un-American piece of legislation is gaining incredible momentum. But with time running short this year, we are facing a serious deadline to persuade Congress to begin to fix the PATRIOT Act.
Newly introduced bipartisan legislation would ensure that intelligence agents cannot search library records unless there is suspicion that an individual is involved with a foreign power. It would also limit the use of “sneak and peek” searches by government agents. Furthermore, it would limit the government's ability to conduct widespread searches of your personal information without probable cause or individualized suspicion.
This legislation would not hinder the investigative powers that law enforcement agencies need to keep us safe, but would instead ensure proper checks and balances on those powers to help keep us free.
Take Action! Urge your Members of Congress to protect our core civil liberties.
Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Members of Congress:
http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=13907&c=24
*****************************************************
For more information on other issues and the latest news, please visit our website at http://www.aclu.org
Help Strengthen the ACLU's Voice in Congress... Click below to become a card-carrying Member or donate today!
http://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?ORGID=AA02
If you are not already on our mailing list and would like to
subscribe to the ACLU Action Network Updates, click http://www.aclu.org/team/member.cfm
To find out what more you can do to protect your civil liberties, please visit http://www.aclu.org/action
Many of you have previously voiced your support for the Climate Stewardship Act (CSA). This landmark legislation--introduced by Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Lieberman (D-CT)--is a responsible first step that will require reductions in the heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming. After much legislative wrangling, a Senate vote on CSA has been scheduled for October 30. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and ensure that, as the world's #1 emitter of global warming gases, the United States legitimately addresses this critical issue.
TAKE ACTION:
To automatically send the letter below to your Senators, hit "Reply" and then "Send", in your email program.
To customize your letter, learn more about the issue, or if this message was forwarded to you, visit, http://www.ucsaction.ctsg.com/ctt.asp?u=44389&l=6749
**********
Letter:
Dear Senator,
I understand that the Climate Stewardship Act (S.139) is scheduled for a vote at the end of this month. I am writing to urge you to plan responsibly for our children and grandchildren's future, and vote in favor of this bill. As you know, S. 139 will limit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from major industrial sources. These gases are contributing to global warming, which will bring with it serious changes to our way of life and damage America's economy.
Senators McCain and Lieberman have created a practical, market-based approach that would harness American technological know-how to find the most cost effective ways to cut our emissions of heat-trapping gases. Off-the-shelf reductions already available include producing more electricity from clean renewable sources, limiting carbon dioxide emissions from dirty coal-fired power plants, increasing the energy efficiency of our homes and factories, and making cars go further on a gallon of gas. By encouraging investment in these and other methods, the act would also ensure that American technology remains competitive as other countries move to reduce their own emissions.
The United States--with its global technological advantage--should be a leader in the fight to curb global warming. The Climate Stewardship Act provides us with an important opportunity to take a reasonable first step toward addressing this problem, which left unchecked will have devastating environmental and economic consequences in coming years. The status quo has obviously failed. In fact, U.S. emissions are nearly 12 percent higher now than they were in 1990.
Please demonstrate your commitment to responsible stewardship of America's environment by voting for the Climate Stewardship Act. I look forward to hearing your position on this issue.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address will be inserted here]
************
If you have general questions, comments or concerns about this action, send an email to action@ucsusa.org -- replying to this action will send the letter.
ETC Group
Making a Mole Hill out of a Mountain?
ETC Group today released a 6-page Communique on the use of nanotechnology-based products in the environment - products that are coming to market in the absence of both government oversight and public discussion. A recent large-scale application of a product touted to control soil erosion using nanotechnology highlights regulatory inadequacies and lack of clarity in the nanotech industry.
The full text of the Communique, "Mulch ado about nothing?...Or the Sand Witch?" is available on the Internet at www.etcgroup.org.
Nanotechnology - whose best-known commercial successes have thus far been stain-resistant fabrics, stronger and lighter tennis rackets, and transparent sunscreens - has spawned new environmental products to prevent erosion or to clean up contaminated sites. While the companies claim these products will be beneficial to the ecosystem, in the absence of government regulatory oversight, the unknown short- and long-term implications raise concerns for health and for the environment.
In August and September of this year, a Utah-based company, Sequoia Pacific Research, participated in a $4 million Bureau of Indian Affairs contract to protect more than 1,400 acres of fire-ravaged land on a mountainside near Taos, New Mexico. Sequoia's SoilSET(TM) was used to aid the soil-stabilization effort. SoilSET(TM) is a unique and reportedly organic and biodegradable product that undergoes a 4 nm-level electrochemical reaction when mixed with water. The reaction causes silicates in the soil and silicates in the product to self-assemble into a kind of crust that remains for up to a year. The crust is claimed to prevent soil runoff and allows seeds blended into the product to establish themselves.
"As far as we know, this is the single largest environmental release involving a nanotechnology product. Hopefully there is no problem, but without government evaluation and greater company clarity, we can't be sure of the product's appropriateness or safety," explains Jim Thomas at ETC Group's UK office.
Asked by ETC Group for the chemical composition of the product, Paul Clayson, Chief Operating Officer for Sequoia, declined to say citing the need for confidentiality pending patent approval. When ETC Group inquired into the approval process for the product, Clayson said that the company had contacted a regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was told that no approval was required. Yet the company advertises that the SoilSET(TM) process involves a unique nano-scale effect, causing the silicate particles in the soil and in the product to self-assemble into a resilient matrix.
Kathy Jo Wetter, an ETC Group researcher based in North Carolina, USA says, "Since existing regulations fail to address the changed behaviour of nanomaterials, many products are coming to market without adequate testing. Categories do not even exist for companies to classify their new products. Carbon nanotubes, for example, are often classified as graphite, but nanotubes are nanotech's so-called 'miracle molecule' - and their properties are wildly different from graphite - though they're both carbon."
Sequoia, a self-described nanotechnology company, has stressed that they do not use manufactured nanoparticles and say they are simply taking advantage of conventional silicate-binding technology. Says ETC Group's Jim Thomas, "No authorized agency studied this technology before it was deployed. It is quite possible that the active ingredients in the company's process are nothing more than sand, but - sand or not - it is how sand performs at the nano-scale, catalyzing novel reactions in the soil that matters. The product does something unique to the land that hasn't been done before on anything like this scale. The bottom line is that the nanotech industry can drive a truck through current regulations; nano-scale products and processes are entering the market, which could have environmental implications; and nanotechnologists are neither clear nor consistent in presenting their products."
Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group worries, "The public needs to know how SoilSET(TM)'s matrix forms; how long it lasts; what it does to the living soil; and where the changed particles end up. It is simply unacceptable for this large-scale release to be unregulated." ETC Group's new Communique includes examples of products in the nanotech pipeline that could involve other large-scale environmental releases.
In July 2002 the ETC Group called for a moratorium on the introduction of new nano-based products until governments can decide on "best practices" in the lab. "Although industry has not accepted the call, policy-makers and companies on both sides of the Atlantic are beginning to acknowledge that regulation is necessary and inevitable," Pat Mooney notes, "but the technology is moving fast. Nanotech's political mold is being cast now. In two years it will be too late. If industry and governments continue as they have, we will see nanotech in the same social and scientific chaos we have today with biotech." But regulating products is not enough warns ETC Group. Society must be fully engaged in a discussion of the socio-economic as well as health and environmental implications of nano-scale technologies. To this end, ETC Group is working with partners to develop an International Convention for the Evaluation of New Technologies (ICENT), which it hopes to bring before the United Nations in 2004.
For further information, see the full Communique at www.etcgroup.org or contact:
Pat Mooney, ETC Group (Canada) tel: 204 4535259
Jim Thomas, ETC Group (UK) jim@etcgroup.org tel: +44 1865 207818
Kathy Jo Wetter, ETC Group (USA) kjo@etcgroup.org tel: 919 9605223
The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, formerly RAFI, is an international civil society organization headquartered in Canada. The ETC group is dedicated to the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. www.etcgroup.org. The ETC group is also a member of the Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme (CBDC). The CBDC is a collaborative experimental initiative involving civil society organizations and public research institutions in 14 countries. The CBDC is dedicated to the exploration of community-directed programmes to strengthen the conservation and enhancement of agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC website is www.cbdcprogram.org
Greenpeace Special Alert
Greenpeace wants to bring our ship, the Esperanza, to the Port of Miami for supplies and to bring people from the Miami area on board to discuss our efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest.
But the Port of Miami is refusing us entry because John Ashcroft's Justice Department is prosecuting Greenpeace for a protest action last year. The New York Times has reported that this prosecution is "unusual and questionable." We intend to be exonerated.
Don't let the Port of Miami keep Greenpeace out and silence our voices. Contact the authorities in Miami and tell them that they should allow the Esperanza to dock in Miami!
Take action now:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/bin/view.fpl/10048/action_id/196.html
If you are in the Miami area and would like to get more involved in this issue, please email Ginger Cassady at Ginger.Cassady@wdc.greenpeace.org for more information.
You can read more about the Bush administration's attempts to shut us down here:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/features/details?item_id=327510
and join in the discussion here:
http://act.greenpeace.org/1066893677
VISIT THE CYBERCENTRE
Please don't forget to visit the Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community at:
http://act.greenpeace.org
Pushing an average gas-powered lawnmower for an hour pollutes as much as driving 40 cars. To address the pollution from these and other small engines, California plans a precedent-setting initiative to require manufacturers to equip new engines with catalytic converters beginning in 2008. However, Senator Kit Bond of Missouri, urged on by lobbyists for mower-producer Briggs and Stratton, has introduced a provision that would revoke California or any other state's authority to regulate small engine pollution. House members, however, have not yet agreed to this provision. Urge your Representative to protect states rights and their air by blocking any attempt to include this rider in any final appropriations bill.
TAKE ACTION:
To automatically send the letter below to your Member of Congress, hit "Reply" and then "Send", in your email program.
To customize your letter, learn more about the issue, or if this message was forwarded to you visit,
http://www.ucsaction.ctsg.com/ctt.asp?u=44389&l=6985
**********
LETTER
Dear Representative,
I am very concerned about a rider inserted by Senator Bond in the Senate VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies appropriations legislation that would prohibit states from addressing pollution emitted from engines such as lawn mowers, generators, forklifts and backhoes. I strongly urge you to help block this harmful provision from any final appropriations bill.
Soot and smog pollution emitted from small engines are a significant pollution source--pollution that has been linked to premature death, asthma, and heart attacks. California has taken the lead in tackling this significant problem. The state's newly proposed emission standards for engines less than 25hp would cut emissions equivalent to removing more than one million cars from the roads by 2010.
The Bond provision would prohibit California, or any other state, from putting this or other needed public and environmental heath initiatives into action. This runs entirely counter to the spirit of the Clean Air Act, which explicitly asserts that states and local districts are best equipped to determine the specific actions needed to clean the air in their particular areas. I would like to know that industry is doing what it can to reduce pollution from these engines that are used in my community everyday.
The House version of the VA/HUD appropriations bill does not include this anti-environmental initiative, thereby providing an important opportunity to keep it out of any final bill. Please urge your colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to block this damaging rider from a final VA/HUD or omnibus appropriations conference report. I look forward to hearing your position on this important matter.
Sincerely,
[Your signature will be automatically added]
The energy bill, now in the House-Senate conference under the
leadership of Sen. Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Tauzin (R-LA), will
soon be leaving the conference for a final vote in both
chambers. Senators and representatives, however, cannot amend
the energy bill when it goes to the House and Senate after
leaving the conference. Sen. Domenici and Rep. Tauzin have
packed this bill with horrible provisions that neither the
Senate nor House have approved. The bill could delay air
cleanups and make oil and gas drilling the primary use of public
lands. We need your help asking conferees to vote against this
bill that does nothing to provide a more secure energy future
and instead deepens our dependence on oil and threatens our
health and public lands. Act now and ask your senator or
representative to vote against this bill!
You can take action on this alert either via email (please see
directions below) or via the web at:
http://ga0.org/campaign/energybill/
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this
important campaign.
http://ga0.org/campaign/energybill/forward/w5niwb2z7k5mnx
We encourage you to take action by October 30, 2003
Oppose an energy bill that sells out environmental protections!
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://ga0.org/campaign/energybill/w5niwb2z7k5mnx
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your email program.
Your letter will be addressed and sent to:
Your Congressperson
Your Senator
----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME----
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
Please block final passage of the energy bill, which contains a
large number of measures that could significantly damage the
environment and public health. The bill is a massive handout to
the energy industry, with little attention paid to making energy
cheaper, cleaner and safer.
There may be plans to add provisions to drastically weaken
anti-smog requirements for some of the most polluted cities in
the nation. Smog (ozone) presents a major health threat to
children, senior citizens, and people with respiratory disease.
The waiver would allow clean air delays and rollbacks in cities
already years behind schedule in adopting stronger
anti-pollution measures.
The bill would deepen our dependence and essentially make oil
and gas development the dominant use of our public lands at the
likely expense of all other wildlife and recreational uses. The
draft energy bill includes provisions that seek to: limit the
time the BLM has to review lengthy permit applications and bias
the BLM toward approving completed permit applications; require
approval of an application that is deemed "complete," even if
the project is fundamentally flawed because its environmental
impacts cannot be mitigated; authorize the Secretary of the
Interior to lease 100% of the National Petroleum Reserve in
Alaska (NPRA) for oil and gas development, without necessary
protection for wildlife habitat, native hunting and fishing,
water quality, or other non-commercial values; exclude drilling
fluids from being considered drinking water pollutants; exempt
drilling sites from water pollution controls under the Clean
Water Act; prohibit federal land managers from implementing
plans to protect resources before determining if energy
development would be affected; and language has been suggested
that could weaken a fundamental requirement of the Endangered
Species Act by creating a special rule for endangered species
consultation in the NPRA.
Please oppose this bill, which does nothing to provide a more
secure energy future.
----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT----
More than 23
million schoolchildren board school buses in the United States
each day. While the buses are still the safest way to get to
school, most of the country’s half million school buses run on
aging diesel-powered engines, which emit smog-forming
chemicals and sooty particles known to cause cancer. Tailpipe
exhaust often seeps inside the bus, sometimes in
concentrations far higher than outside the bus.
Thinking of buying
a car but wondering how it rates on fuel economy and tailpipe
emissions? Our interactive Tailpipe Tally allows you to build
your own comparison list of up to four vehicles for model
years going back to 1978. You might discover that your dream
car does more harm to the environment than you thought.
The legendary
California frog said to have inspired a famous Mark Twain
story just got a jump-start on the road to recovery, thanks to
a new Safe Harbor agreement with the Robert Mondavi Winery.
The vintner has pledged to restore streamside habitat at its
Cuesta Ridge vineyards to entice these rare red-legged
critters to take up residence there and breed. Two endangered
songbirds also stand to benefit from this landmark agreement
to protect rare species.
In a
recent closed-door session of House Republican leadership,
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) argued that drilling in the
Arctic would set an example for energy exploration in other
sensitive areas. According to the newspaper Roll Call , DeLay said drilling in
the Arctic was about "precedent." He then made several
references to the "symbolism of ANWR." DeLay's quote is
especially significant given that energy bill conferees,
Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA),
have included a provision that opens the Arctic Refuge to new
oil drilling. This despite the fact that a recent Zogby poll
revealed that 53 percent of Americans oppose drilling in the
Arctic, while a minority 39 percent believe the refuge should
be opened.
Defenders and
sixteen other conservation and wildlife protection groups
filed suit this week to challenge the federal decision to
lower the status of the gray wolf from endangered to
threatened in the lower-48 states. The decision would also
ultimately hand over species management to state governments,
at least one of which has called for extermination of the
species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's new regulation
would eliminate any realistic chance of wolves expanding their
range beyond the current limited recovery areas, and would
undoubtedly undermine the gains that have been made toward
restoring the species. 
Help celebrate the
success of the National Wildlife Refuge System during Refuge
Week, October 12-18. The Refuge System, established 100 years
ago by Teddy Roosevelt, has grown to include 95 million acres
in over 540 refuges–from the Arctic Refuge in Alaska to
Pelican Island in Florida–and is considered the largest system
of lands in the world dedicated to wildlife conservation. With
a refuge within an hour's drive of most major cities, Refuge
Week is a great opportunity for discovery right in your
backyard. Visit 
The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service is investigating the death of six Mexican
gray wolves in New Mexico and Arizona. It is presumed that all
six of the endangered wolves were illegally killed, and some
observers suspect that it may be the work of the same
individual. Through its Imperiled Predator Fund, Defenders of
Wildlife is offering $10,000 of the total $25,000 reward for
information that leads to an arrest of those responsible for
the wolves' deaths. Law enforcement officials will respect
confidentiality. Anyone with information about the incidents
is urged to call one of the following agencies–U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service special agents in Mesa, AZ, (480) 967-7900,
Pinetop, AZ, (928) 367-5689, or Albuquerque, NM, (505)
346-7828, the White Mountain Apache Tribe at (928) 338-1023 or
(928) 338-4385, Arizona Game and Fish Department Operation
Game Thief (800) 352-0700, or New Mexico Department of Game
and Fish Operation Game Thief (800) 432-4263.
Defenders of Wildlife
has awarded $2,500 to David Lewis for providing information
that led to the arrest and conviction of John Aaron Bishop for
the shooting of a southern sea
otter on March 22, 2003, at Montana de Oro State Park near
Morro Bay, California. Lewis, who was leading a boy scout
troop on an outing, witnessed the shooting and immediately
informed officials. 
The Bush
Administration is proposing new rules under the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) that would allow commercial international
trade in many of the world's most endangered species. If
adopted, the new policy would allow hunters, skin traders and
circuses to import any of the more than 500 foreign endangered
species protected by the Act, including Asian elephants,
tigers, chimpanzees and orangutans, under the pretense of
"enhancing the survival" of the species. For three decades,
the Fish and Wildlife Service has prohibited imports of these
species except for clearly scientific or conservation
purposes, such as breeding a critically endangered species for
reintroduction to the wild. The new rule would throw out that
standard and allow the import of everything from sport-hunted
trophies to live wild animals for the pet trade, without
requiring any real evidence that the activity actually
benefits the species in the wild. Moreover, authorizing legal
trade in these species will almost certainly lead to an
increase in poaching and illegal trade.
The U.S. Navy has
reached an agreement with environmental groups to limit the
use of a controversial low-frequency sonar system. A recent
report in the journal Nature revealed a connection between the
stranding of beaked whales in the Canary Islands and the use
of sonar by various NATO navies, including the Unites States.
Researchers have found that the whales showed signs of the
bends, a condition in which gas bubbles form in vital organs
and blood vessels, leading to death. The new limits would not
apply during times of war or times of officially declared
increased threat. 