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Environment Action
Alerts for
February 8 - February 15, 2001
from Environment News Service February 8, 2001
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
(ENS) http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
************************************************************
BRITISH COLUMBIA BANS GIZZLY
HUNT FOR THREE YEARS
By
Neville Judd
VANCOUVER,
British Columbia, Canada, February 8, 2001 (ENS) - British
Columbia has announced
a three
year moratorium on grizzly bear hunting, to allow scientists to
establish a definitive count of the grizzlies in the
province.
For full text and
graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-11.html
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EUROPEAN UNION AGREES TO
CLIMATE TALKS DELAY
BRUSSELS,
Belgium, February 8, 2001 (ENS) - European Union countries have
accepted a demand by the United States and allied countries
to push back
the date of the next formal attempt to
finalize the 1997 UN Kyoto climate
protocol from May to
July.
For full
text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-02.html
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GLOBALIZATION WIPING OUT
LANGUAGES, NATURAL LINKS
NAIROBI, Kenya, February 8, 2001 (ENS) - Native farmers
high in the Andes
mountains grow abundant yields of
potatoes and quinoa despite floods,
frosts, and
droughts. They use a system of terraces, canals and raised
fields that evolved over 3,000 years ago.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-01.html
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IWC CONSIDERS RESUMING
COMMERCIAL WHALE HUNT
MONACO,
February 8, 2001 (ENS) - After a 15 year moratorium, commercial
whaling could resume under a scheme being considered by the
the
International Whaling Commission at its
inter-sessional meeting in Monaco
this week.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-10.html
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GUIDE RANKS GREENEST AND
MEANEST VEHICLES OF 2001
By
Brian Hansen
WASHINGTON, DC,
February 8, 2001 (ENS) - Shopping for a new set of wheels?
When it comes to cars and the environment, there are both
"green" models"
and "mean" models to chose from on
dealer showroom floors this year,
says a new consumer
guidebook unveiled today.
For
full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-15.html
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SOOT CALLED MAJOR CAUSE OF
GLOBAL WARMING
STANFORD,
California, February 8, 2001 (ENS) - Soot, the familiar black
residue that coats fireplaces and darkens truck exhaust,
may be a leading
cause of global warming. A study in
the current issue of the journal
"Nature" indicates
that soot may be the second biggest contributor to
global warming - just behind the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-06.html
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U.S. WILDLIFE REFUGES FACING
MAJOR THREATS
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, February 8,
2001 (ENS) - The National Wildlife Refuge
System is in
a state of crisis, warns the National Audubon Society. In a
new report, the group warns of dire problems facing refuges
around the
country, ranging from chemical pollutants to
invasive species, and calls
for immediate measures to
protect these natural oases and the species that
rely
on them.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-07.html
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: FEBRUARY 8, 2001
Human Viruses Found in California Coastal Waters
Washington DC Commuter Bridge
Challenged by Lawsuit
Energy
Department Seeks Projects To Improve Power Plants
Air Quality Models Need Improvement
Rockies Ecosystem Bill
Reintroduced
Turner Foundation
Funds Water Protection Projects
Alexander Skutch Honored for Costa Rican Conservation
Website Answers Climate Questions
For full text and graphics
visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-08-09.html
Copyright Environment News
Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
************************************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
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E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New
Executive Appointment - Dr. Gilbert Amelio -Director/Management Consultant of
Advanced Communications Technologies Inc.
New Director Appointed to
ACT-Australia and Australon Limited (ASX: AUR)
IRVINE, CA, Feb. 8
-/E-Wire/-- Advanced Communications Technologies,
Inc.
(OTC Bulletin Board: ADVC - news; ACT-US) today announced that the
former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apple
Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:
AAPL - news), Dr. Gilbert F.
Amelio, has agreed to join the board of
directors of
Advanced Communications Technologies Inc.
/CONTACT: Jeremy Norton, 949-622-5566/
/Web site: http://www.act-usa.net/
For Full Text
Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/08Feb0105.html
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E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PDC
Innovative Industries By Request Adds Larger Sterile Box to Product Mix
CORAL SPRINGS, FL, Feb. 8
-/E-Wire/-- PDC Innovative Industries Inc. (The Company) (OTCBB:PDCI - news)
announced today it will start immediately to construct a prototype
of a larger sterile box 2000 with tailored alternatives as
requested by certain medical sites,
based on reports
from Clearlake Financial Corp., President Ron Epstein at a meeting
last Thursday in Coral Springs.
/CONTACT: PDC Innovative Industries Inc., Coral
Springs, David Sowers,
954/341-0092/
/Web site: http://www.pdcinnovative.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/08Feb0104.html
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E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
ENERGY EDITORS:
Ionic Fuel
Technology, Inc. Announces Fiscal Year 2001 Second Quarter
and
Six Months Results
Revenues
Nearly Double From Comparable Periods of Fiscal Year 2000
Positive Contribution from All
Revenue Activities Produces Gross Margin
of 28 Percent in Fiscal
Year 2001 Second Quarter
ESSEX, England, Feb. 8 -/E-Wire/-- Ionic Fuel Technology,
Inc. (OTC
Bulletin Board: IFTI) today announced that
revenues in the second fiscal
quarter ending December
31, 2000 were $332,645 as compared to $167,925
for the same period
last year, an increase of 98 percent. The gross
profit,
defined as revenues less cost of revenues, for the second fiscal
quarter of 2001 was $95,002 producing a 28 percent gross
margin. This
compares to a gross profit of $12,083
reported in the second fiscal
quarter last year. All
revenue activities, IFT Sales, IFT Rentals and
Engineering, made positive gross margin contributions.
/CONTACT: Europe - Tony Garner
of Ionic Fuel Technology,
011-44-1268-491409; or North
America - Barry Morris of Morris Capital
Markets
Communications, LLC, 212-687-9707, for Ionic Fuel Technology/
/Web
site: http://www.ionicfuel.co.uk/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/08Feb0102.html
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E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
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TO ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
EDITORS:
California Power Crisis:
Impacting the Green Power Market
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA, Feb. 8
-/E-Wire/-- A national green power non-profit has pooled industry experts and
resources to provide an accurate overview of the California energy crisis and
its effect on green power choice in the state. The Center for Resources
Solutions in San Francisco has put together a striking summary of facts that
affected California's green power market and also has recruited leading energy
authorities to document events leading to the California energy crisis.
/CONTACT: The Center for Resources Solutions,
Keri Bolding, 415/561-2100, kbolding@resource-solutions.org/
/Web site: http://www.resources-solutions.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/08Feb0103.html
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E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
John
Turner Probable Interior Department Choice
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 8
-/E-Wire/-- Mr. John "Czar" Turner may be named today Deputy
Secretary of the Interior, the department's #2 position and
a post from
which he is expected to effectively control
the Interior Department's
operations.
/CONTACT: michael hardiman, lobbyist, American
Land Rights Association, 202-251-3473, mike@hardimanconsulting.com/
/Web site: http://www.landrights.org/
For Full Text
Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/08Feb0101.html
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SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON E-WIRE --
1-888-764-NEWS
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from Rainforest Action Network February 8, 2001
In this post :
1. CULTURE JAMMING CONTEST! Spoof Citi's new logo
2. poem POVERTIES by Eduardo Galeano
3. Citi CEO appointed to NY Federal Reserve Bank (ie. The
fox is watching
the henhouse)
#4
APPLY NOW! Ruckus Spank the Bank Action Camp March 11-18, Florida!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. ARE
YOU SICK OF CORPORATE PROPAGANDA? TAKE ON CITIGROUP'S NEW ADVERTISING
CAMPAIGN! CULTURE JAMMING CONTEST! (see www.adbusters.org
for more
info on culture jamming)
Send in your Brilliant spoofs of Citigroup's "Live Richly"
Slogan
Perhaps you've seen it - in newspapers, magazines,
television, billboards,
bus shelters, subway stations -
its EVERYWHERE! Citi's slick new advertising
campaign. Citi's new tag line is "LIVE
RICHLY". The ads appeal to hip
young people
to realize that there's more to life than just money and to
allow Citi to take care of all their financial needs.
"Live richly" is exactly what Citi
is doing. Citigroup reported a record
net
income of $13.52 billion in 2000. A 14% increase from 1999. And some
analysts speculate that Citi will shortly surpass
General Electric as the
world's most profitable
company. Business is booming at the world's most
destructive bank. So when they say "live richly" they really
mean it - they
just aren't telling us that they are
getting rich at the expense of the
environment, human
rights, and democratic decision making.
To add insult to injury just a few weeks ago Citigroup CEO
Sandy Weill
was appointed to sit on the board
of directors of the Federal Reserve
Bank of New
York. (See #3 below) Talk about the fox guarding the hen
house. Despite several federal
investigations into Citi's involvement
in money
laundering and Citi's horrible track record from predatory lending
to funding deforestation Sandy Weill has
recieved this powerful
appointment.
As the NY Federal Reserve Bank is the branch of the Federal
Reserve system
charged with implementing US fiscal
policy in the foreign exchange markets
it is an
incredibly lucrative place for an international banking magnate like
Sandy Weill. We must expose this notorious
corporate criminal and his incredibly
destructive
company.
The Orwellian logic of
this outrageous "live richly" PR campaign is too
blatant
for all of us to pass up. What a world we live in where the world's
most
destructive bank tries to greenwash away its
history of unchecked greed,
ruthless exploitation and
environmental destruction by attempting to subvert their
critics demands that Wall Street go beyond the
bottomline. It is a perfect
example of
Australian historian Alex Carey's analysis of the three great
political trends of the 20th century.
1. the growth of democracy
2. the growth of corporate power
3.
the growth of corporate propaganda to protect corporate power from
democracy
We'll here is our chance to bring some truth to advertising
and to
appropriate the new citi slogan so completely
that they'll regret
they every thought it
up. So send us your brilliant guerrilla
slogan ideas. We'll compile them and distribute
them back out to
everyone. And one
particularly brilliant one may even become a new
campaign sticker.
The perfect culture jam will be authoritative, witty (maybe
even funny!) and
speak not only to activists but also to
the average Citi customer.
Let
your creative juices flow! Contact RAN for some exciting stickers to
start spreading the word now!
RAN SF - Patrick organize@ran.org
415-398-4404/1-800-989-RAIN
RAN NY - Beka beka@ran.org
718-218-7566/888-840-6416
www.ran.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#2
What
will it take to make the world's most destructive bank
go beyond their own public relations and hypocrisy and truly
redefine their
bottom line?
This struggle between grassroots
activists and the overlords of the
corporate global
economy is nothing less than the battle for the
conscience of modern society. As we build a
diverse and unified movement
for a democratic, just and
ecological sane economy, we must remember that not only
are we up against incredibly concentrated corporate power
but also some of
the underlying assumptions of
corporate capitalism itself.
Our work must confront the sacred mantras of consumerism
that more is better
and that wealth can be measured in
stock prices and account balances. For
this
profound work let us be guided by the poets :
POVERTIES
by Eduardo Galeano
Truly poor people have no time to
waste time.
Truly poor people have no silence and can't
buy it.
Truly poor people have legs that don't remember
how to walk any more than
chicken wings remember how to
fly.
Truly poor people eat garbage as if it were food
and pay for it.
Truly poor people have the right to
breath shit as if it were air and not
pay for it.
Truly poor people have the freedom to choose -
between one TV channel and
another.
Truly poor people live passionate dramas with their
machines.
Truly poor people are always cheek by jowl
and always alone.
Truly poor people don't know they are
poor."
from Upside down: A
Primer for the Looking-Glass World
copyright 2000
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
#3
Citigroup CEO Weill Elected
To NY Fed Board Of Directors
01/10/2001
Capital Markets Report
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Citigroup
Inc. (C) chairman and chief executive
officer Sanford
Weill has been elected to the board of directors of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the bank announced
Wednesday.
Weill 's three-year
board term begins this month. He succeeds Walter
Shipley, retired chairman of Chase Manhattan Corp.
There are nine members of the New
York Fed's board of directors - three from
the banking
community and the rest representing business and industry,
agriculture, labor and consumers.
Other directors include: T. Joseph
Semrod, chairman of Summit Bancorp, Kraft
Foods
executive vice president Ann Fudge, and Albert Simone, president of
the Rochester Institute of Technology. Peter Peterson,
chairman of The
Blackstone Group, is the chairman of
the New York Fed's board of directors.
The board meets once a month at the New York Fed and every
two weeks via
conference call. It's charged with
recommending changes in the discount rate
as well as
selecting the president of the New York Fed.
William McDonough is currently president of the New York
Fed, a position he
has held since 1993.
-By Brian Blackstone, Dow Jones
Newswires;
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#4 RUCKUS CAMP
APPLY
NOW! APPLY NOW! **** www.ruckus.org or www.ran.org ****
APPLY NOW!
PLEASE FORWARD AS APPROPRIATE
Are you sick of a corporate global
economy that puts profits ahead
of the environment,
democracy, workers, human rights, justice and local
communities?
Does the vacuous debauchery of typical spring break fare
bring you down?
Wanna learn to raise hell and create a
more just and sustainable future
with a couple hundred
other committed young people? If it's a yes & yes,
alright. If it's a no & no, you're missin' the boat,
friend. If it's no,
but YES, we might still figure
somethin' out...
2nd Annual Ruckus Society Alternative Spring
Break :
'Spank the Bank!' Action Camp
Co-sponsored by Rainforest Action Network
March 11-18 ,
sunny Florida Endorsed by Free The Planet!, Just Act--Youth Action for Global
Justice,
Student environmental action Coalition,
Student Peace Action Network,
Student Alliance to
Reform Corporations
'Spank the Bank!' Action Camp will be a week-long intensive
skill-share
in the strategies and tactics of nonviolent
direct action for student
organizers and activists
engaged in campus and youth organizing for
fundamental
social change. This year's theme is SPANK THE BANK! focusing
on the campaign to confront the world's most destructive
financial
institution--
Citigroup. This campaign is an effort to unite different
social movements to attack the corporate globalization
problem at its
roots - the banks! Regardless
of what issue you are working on Citi is
involved. Whether its forest destruction,
predatory lending, militarism,
fighting the prison
industrial complex, genetic engineering or the
corporate take over of our political process Citigroup is
involved.
Comprised of Citibank, investment house
Salomon Smith Barney and Traveler. s
Insurance Citi is
a global slum lord, loan shark and ecoterrorist.
The
Wall St. bully who will make a buck of anything.
Unless of course all of us get together and STOP them!
Workshops will include: The
History & Philosophy of Nonviolence, Building
Unity: Confronting Imperialism and Oppression, Nonviolent
Direct Action
Planning, Campus Organizing 101, Campaign
Strategy, Direct Action Climbing,
Blockades, Political
Theater, FTAA--Who Benefits From Trade Agreements?,
How
to Organize a Movement to Kick Wall St's Ass and Build an Ecologically
Sane, Just and Democratic Society, etc.
We will also have inspiring and
visionary panels & speakers, considerable
campfire
conspiring, and a last night graduation party that will make you
wistful when you're rocking your chair in front of the fire
in the old folks
home. We ask only a sliding-scale
donation from $75 bucks - $1million
dollars
(dare to dream) but no one's ever turned away for lack of
funds. The world
-famous roving Ruckus kitchen will
dish out yummy vegetarian meals and
juicy nuggets of
wisdom. Bring your vision of a global economy based on
social equality and ecological sanity and join in the fun!
For more information contact:
Beka Economopoulos, Rainforest Action Network -
beka@ran.org ph)
917-560-3609
Han Shan, The Ruckus Society -
han@ruckus.org ph) 510.848.9565
Apply online now at www.ruckus.org
or www.ran.org. Please fill the
application out as
completely as possible. This is not an elitist application process to
find the best, brightest, or most experienced activists.
Application
responses help us bring a diverse pool of
people together, with a diversity of
politics and
backgrounds. We hope to create a camp environment that promotes a rich
and new experience on many levels for all attending.
DON'T BE
AFRAID TO THINK BIG. OUR TIMES DEMAND IT!
from Natural Resources Defense Council February 8, 2001
Natural Resources Defense Council's
LEGISLATIVE WATCH
February 8, 2001
Contents:
1) Legislative Watch
2) About Our Bulletins/How to Subscribe & Unsubscribe
3) About NRDC/How to Contact Us
The information in this bulletin
is also available on our
website at http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/legwatch.asp. The
web version links to the text of bills and congressional
web
pages. To take action on these and other
environmental
issues, visit NRDC's Earth Action Center
at
http://www.nrdc.org/action, where you can use our
online
activism tools or subscribe to Earth Action, our
biweekly
activist bulletin.
******************************
Special Announcement: NRDC launches BioGems website to save
endangered wild places!!
BioGems are exceptional and imperiled natural treasures:
wild places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
the
Everglades, and British Columbia's Great Bear
Rainforest,
each threatened by corporate exploitation
or government
action (or inaction). Some are, or soon
will be, under
attack by the current administration
and/or Congress. Yet in
each case, well-focused citizen
activism can turn the tide.
Visit http://www.savebiogems.org today and help defend these
ecological jewels.
http://www.savebiogems.org
******************************
1) LEGISLATIVE WATCH
2/8/01
While the House and Senate work to complete their
organizational structures, little actual legislative
activity has occurred so far this session (House Democrats
were expected to assign committee members on 2/7, while
Senate committees continue to work out power-sharing
arrangements). Early legislative efforts are expected
to
focus on energy policy, brownfields and pipeline
safety.
Although all of President Bush's cabinet
nominees were
approved, confirmation hearings and votes
on John Ashcroft
(attorney general) and Gale Norton
(interior secretary) were
contentious.
...
Cabinet Confirmations
On 2/1, the Senate confirmed John Ashcroft as attorney
general by a vote of 58-42. Many environmental, civil
rights
and women's rights groups, including NRDC,
opposed
Ashcroft's nomination because of his poor
record on these
issues.
The Senate confirmed Gale Norton as secretary of interior
by
a vote of 75-24 on 1/30 (Sen. Dorgan (D-ND) missed
the
vote). NRDC strenuously opposed Norton's
appointment because
of her extreme anti-environmental
record.
Also on 1/30, the
Senate approved Christine Todd Whitman as
the new
administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
by
a vote of 99-0 (Sen. Dorgan missed that vote as well).
The unexpectedly large number of
"No" votes on the Ashcroft
and Norton nominations sends
a strong message that members
of Congress will
scrutinize the actions of these two new
cabinet
secretaries. Even several of the senators voting
"Yes"
expressed serious concerns about these nominees and
pledged to closely monitor their actions in office.
...
Clean Air and Energy
Energy policy has emerged as an early key issue for the
Bush
administration, with the new president expected to
push for
increases in the domestic energy supply
through oil drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge and environmental
protection rollbacks. The
environmental community disagrees
vehemently with
Bush's policy that would place the primary
energy focus
on increasing domestic supply, rather than on
reducing
demand by increasing energy efficiency of vehicles,
appliances and buildings. Environmentalists point out that
because the United States uses 25 percent of the
world's
oil, but has only 3 percent of the world's
energy resources,
achieving energy independence through
domestic supply
increases alone is impossible.
A new NRDC report, "A Responsible
Energy Policy for the 21st
Century" (http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/rep/repinx.asp),
outlines the components of an alternative energy policy --
one that can meet the nation's energy needs without
destroying wilderness or rolling back environmental
safeguards.
Nevertheless, Republicans in Congress, under the leadership
of Sens. Murkowski (R-AK) and Lott (R-MS), plan to
offer an
energy policy bill that stresses supply. While
this bill
will contain a few provisions to increase
energy-efficient
buildings and equipment, it also would
open up the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge to oil and
gas drilling,
effectively exempt coal power plants from
clean air
requirements and turn over federal oil and
gas leasing to
the states.
On 1/22, Sen. McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Byrd (D-WV), from
two of the biggest coal-producing states, introduced
the
National Electricity and Environmental Technology
Act (S.
60), designed to encourage utilities to use
more coal by
waiving environmental standards that
protect air quality. S.
60 effectively repeals Clean
Air Act provisions that require
new and modified
coal-fired plants to meet tougher pollution
control
requirements and prohibit increased levels of
pollution
in or near national parks or areas that fail to
meet
air quality standards. By granting coal-fired power
plants relief from Clean Air Act requirements, the bill
could also undercut recent government enforcement actions
--
a dozen of which are still pending -- that mandate
new
pollution controls on dirty power plants and assess
penalties worth over $3.5 billion on polluters.
Sen. McCain (R-AZ) and Sen.
Bingaman (D-NM) recently
introduced S. 235, a pipeline
safety bill that does not
provide adequate
environmental protections. Sens. McCain and
Bingaman
plan to bring this bill to the Senate floor on 2/8,
despite the objections of the environmental community.
...
Public Health
On 1/31, Rep. Boehlert (R-NY) introduced H.R. 324, the same
Superfund and brownfields bill that passed the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during the
last
Congress. (Superfund is the federal law that
governs
hazardous waste cleanup, while brownfields are
contaminated
sites that have been partially, but not
completely, cleaned
up.) The environmental community
objects to the bill because
it would result in lower
cleanup standards at Superfund
sites, slower cleanups
and increased litigation.
Environmentalists consider
these modifications unnecessary
because the Superfund
program has improved implementation
dramatically and is
cleaning up sites at a record pace.
Moreover,
Superfund's liability provisions are already well
defined, largely as a result of past litigation over their
meaning.
With S. 223, Sen. Domenici (R-NM) is attempting to overturn
the EPA's new drinking water standard for arsenic, a
human
carcinogen. The previous arsenic standard, which
was set in
1975 at 50 parts per billion (ppb), was
based on public
health data from 1942, and had never
been revised until this
past winter, when the EPA
finally issued the new standard
requiring that arsenic
levels in drinking water be no higher
than 10 ppb. This
new standard is based in part on a 1999
National
Academy of Sciences report that found the old 50
ppb
standard too low to protect public health.
...
Regulatory Reform
On 1/31, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) introduced the Small
Business Relief Act (H.R. 327), which contains overly broad
and burdensome obligations on federal agencies to
annually
compile a list of each piece of information
they have
requested from businesses. Because this
requirement would be
incredibly expensive and
time-consuming, it could be
virtually impossible for
federal agencies to comply without
severely disrupting
their operations.
...
For information on the
environmental voting records of
members of Congress,
see the League of Conservation Voter's
National
Environmental Scorecards at
http://www.lcv.org/scorecards/index.htm.
...........
2) About Our Bulletins/How to
Subscribe & Unsubscribe
NRDC distributes three bulletins by email. To subscribe to
any or all of them or to join our activist networks, go
to
http://www.join.nrdcaction.org/subscribe.asp. If you
already
subscribe and want to change your subscriptions
or update
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the
unsubscribe information below).
EARTH ACTION is sent biweekly and
calls out urgent
environmental issues requiring
immediate action. To
unsubscribe from Earth Action,
send an email message to
earthaction@nrdcaction.org
with REMOVE in the subject line.
LEGISLATIVE WATCH is sent biweekly when Congress is in
session and tracks environmental bills moving through the
federal legislature. To unsubscribe from Legislative
Watch,
send an email message to legwatch@nrdcaction.org
with REMOVE
in the subject line.
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ACTION ALERT is distributed
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of its citizens. To unsubscribe, send an email
message
to wildcalifornia@nrdcaction.org with REMOVE in the
subject line.
...........
3) About NRDC/How to Contact Us
The Natural Resources Defense
Council is a nonprofit
environmental organization with
over 400,000 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
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212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
General information: nrdcinfo@nrdc.org
Email subscription questions: nrdcaction@nrdc.org
from Union of Concerned Scientists February 8, 2001
********** UCS ACTION
ALERT **********
February 8, 2001
Historic Rule to Clean Up Trucks and Buses at Risk
ISSUE: In the last months of his
administration, President Clinton and the EPA
finalized
a rule requiring cleaner engines and cleaner fuel for large diesel
vehicles. This rule requires that trucks and buses be 95%
cleaner than those on
the road today and, to ensure
cleaner-running trucks, that sulfur in diesel fuel
be
reduced by 97%. This will remove some 110,000 tons of toxic soot from
the
air each year and reduce as much smog-forming
pollution as taking 67 million
cars off the road. On
the first day of George W. Bush's presidency, his Chief of
Staff, Andrew Card, issued a memorandum on the president's
behalf calling for a
postponement of the effective date
of this, and other rules, to allow for
additional
review. The oil and trucking industries are taking advantage of this
regulatory freeze to push for a weakening or rollback of
this historic clean air
rule.
ACTION:
CALL IN DAY - On February 15, 2001, call Andrew Card's
office at the White House
and voice your concern that
the new administration not weaken or rollback the
diesel rule.
And/or write to
Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff with the same message.
(Contact information below.)
BACKGROUND: Diesel exhaust may be the most significant -
and most
under-addressed - public health threat in
urban America today. The main threats
of diesel
emissions to public health can be put in three categories: fine
particle matter (PM) or soot, nitrogen oxide (NOx) - a
smog-forming pollutant,
and toxic
compounds. Although they drive less than 6 percent of our highway
miles, diesel trucks cause 25 percent of smog-forming
emissions and over half of
the soot from all highway
vehicles. The average truck on the road today spews 22
grams of smog-forming pollution and nearly one gram of soot
every mile.
Breathing smog and diesel soot causes
respiratory and heart disease, aggravates
asthma, and
is linked to lung cancer. EPA estimates that the new rule would
prevent 8,300 premature deaths, avoid over 360,000 asthma
attacks, and 7,100
hospital emissions each year. For
more information and a copy of our report,
Rolling
Smokestacks - Cleaning up America's Trucks and Buses, go to
www.ucsusa.org.
HOW TO CONTACT: On February 15th call Andrew Card, White
House Chief of Staff at
202-456-6798 or write him at
Office of Chief of Staff - The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Unfortunately, there is no public
e-mail address
available for the Chief of Staff.
QUESTIONS: If you have questions about this
action alert, please contact Miriam
Shapiro or Michelle
Robinson in UCS' Washington, D.C. office by responding to
this email or by calling (202) 223-6133.
You helped us get this important
public health rule in place last year. Thank
you for
taking the time now to ensure that this rule is implemented so that we
will finally see the end of the road for today's rolling
smokestacks.
**********
NOTE: If you send a letter, a fax,
or an email, please send us a "blind copy."
(A blind
copy simply means that you do not indicate anywhere on your letter that
you are sending a copy to us.) By regular mail
send to 1707 H Street NW, Suite
600, Washington, DC
20006-3919. By email, send to transpointern@ucsusa.org.
Fax to (202) 223-6162.
from Rainforest Action Network February 8, 2001
Rainforest Action Network - Monthly Email Newsletter
February 2001
Welcome! Thank you for
being a partner in Rainforest Action Network's
campaigns. Read on to get the latest news and
how you can help save the
world's rainforest.
In this issue:
1.) Forest Friends Forever Video
Completed!
2.) Boise Cascade Continues Dinosaur Logging
Practices.
3.) Citigroup's money in Chile.
4.) Chance to win a RAN T-shirt!
___________Forest Friends Forever Video
Completed_______________
After
two and a half years, RAN's children's educational video is
finally complete! Forest Family Forever! features a
thousand-year-old
grandfather tree having a
conversation with his sapling grandson about
the
rainforests, how they're important, why they're being destroyed, and
what people can do to help protect them. This 13-minute
state-of-the-art
computer-animated video features
rainforest footage from around the
world as well as the
lively voices of actors Ed Asner (Lou Grant; JFK)
and
Jake Richardson (Richie Rich; Honey We Shrunk Ourselves). Music was
provided by Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead; Planet Drum).
Forest Family
Forever! will be distributed to schools
across the United States for use
in the
classroom. For more information on teacher resources see
http://www.ran.org/kids_action/teachers.html
<a href="http://www.ran.org/kids_action/teachers.html">Teachers</a>
___________________Old Growth
Forest Campaign__________________
We no longer hunt whales to near extinction; nor do we
slaughter
elephants for their ivory tusks. It's now
time to end the practice of
destroying the world's last
remaining old growth forests for 2x4's and
toilet
paper.
Boise Cascade is the
country's largest logger of old growth forests in
the
United States. Boise Cascade also sells wood products that have been
ripped from the heart of the Amazon Basin, tropical
rainforests in
Southeast Asia, and British Columbia's
Great Bear Rainforest.
Sadly,
Boise Cascade's response to date to Rainforest Action Network's
campaign has been a telling example of a company in denial.
Observe the
shrill and defensive rhetoric from the
company's CEO by visiting their
website. http://www.bc.com/enviro/ran1027.html <a href="
http://www.bc.com/enviro/ran1027.html">BoiseCascade<a/>
They are also
responding to letters and emails with a
form letter response that is a
fairly typical
collection of misstatements and distortions. Here's our
response.
Please write a letter to Boise Cascade CEO George Harad
today, urging
the company to end its destructive
logging practices once and for all.
If Boise Cascade can't make such a simple commitment, what
kind of
legacy are we leaving for our kids?
Send an email to
mailto:george_harad@bc.com and use the sample letter
below or click on this link
http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/old_growth/boise_action.html
<a href="http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/old_growth/boise_action.html">George</a>
Dear
Mr. Harad:
I am surprised and
deeply disappointed to learn that Boise Cascade
continues to log and sell wood products from the world's
last remaining
old growth forests. Not only are old
growth forests ecologically
irreplaceable, but it seems
that the rest of society is moving to
preserve these
forests, not destroy them. In fact, several hundred
companies have committed to eliminate their use of wood and
paper from
old growth forests. Please understand that
values are changing among the
general public and Boise
Cascade's customer base, and that your
company's
defiance will not be accepted.
Please stop logging and selling old growth wood products
immediately!
Sincerely,
Your name
___________________Campaign for a
Sane Economy___________________
Citigroup Bankrolls Rainforest Destruction in Latin America
From the tropical rainforests of the Amazon Basin to
the temperate
rainforests of Chile, many of the Earth's
most biologically rich
ecosystems can be found in Latin
America. Four hundred groups of
indigenous people live
in the Amazon Basin alone, and the rainforests of
Latin
America are home to over half of all land-based species in the
world. These forests are recognized as a global treasure.
American banks, which often
bankroll environmental destruction in
pursuit of
profit, pose one of the greatest threats to the forests of
Latin America. Citigroup (Citi), North America's largest
bank, is the
number one financer of large-scale
projects in Latin America. In 1998
alone, Citi arranged
twenty-six deals in Latin America worth almost $2
billion.
As one of the top recipients of funds from the
taxpayer-supporter
Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC), Citi avoids much of the
risk
associated with these projects. In the event that an ill-conceived
project fails, taxpayers pick up the bulk of the tab and
Citi escapes
almost unscathed.
With Latin America's magnificent
forests disappearing at a rate of more
than fourteen
million acres a year, it is time to expose Citigroup's
record and demand that the World's Most Destructive Bank
cease funding
activities that result in the destruction
of rainforests and their
inhabitants.
What You Can Do:
Recently, Citi
announced its intention to increase its lending in Brazil
by 50 percent in 2001. Write to CEO Sandy Weill at
Citigroup Center, 153
East 53rd Street, New York, NY
10043 and demand that Citi funds not be
used in Brazil
or anywhere else to fund the destruction of precious
ecosystem and communities.
Here's a sample letter:
Sandy Weill
CEO
Citigroup Center
153 East 53rd
Street
New York, NY 10043
Dear
Mr. Weill,
I was outraged to learn that Citigroup has
used its financial influence
in Latin America to
promote the destruction of vital ecosystems. In the
past, Citigroup's involvement in this region has resulted
in the
destruction of pristine rainforests at the
expense of indigenous
communities. With the recent
announcement of increased lending in
Brazil, the home
of the Amazon rainforest, it is more critical than ever
that Citi take the lead in promoting sustainable
development around the
world. Almost 80 percent of the
world's old growth forests have been
destroyed or
degraded. Since 1980, the Brazilian Amazon has lost over
100 million acres of tropical forest. As one of the world's
largest
banks, Citi has a responsibility to set the
standard for an ecologically
sane, democratic, and just
economy. Please let me know where you stand
on this
critical issue.
Sincerely,
________________Chance to Win a
Free T-shirt_____________________
RAN is working to reduce the amount of paper we
use. You are helping us
by reading these
Action alerts via email instead of the print version.
If you have a friend or friends you'd like to help get more
involved in
the fight to save the rainforest, send us
their email(s) and we'll sign
them up for our email
updates. You could win a free RAN T-shirt in the
exchange!
Email ranmembers@ran.org with the names and electronic
addresses of
those you know would like to get more
involved.
If you'd like to
give an additional donation you may do so online at:
http://www.ran.org/scripts/ran/join_start.pl/
As always, your comments regarding
this newsletter are always welcomed.
Email
ranmembers@ran.org or call 415-398-4404.
To unsubscribe from this list,
send an email to
ran-updates-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com
*******
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine
Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94104
tel: 415-398-4404
fax:
415-398-2732
URL: http://www.ran.org/
from Sierra Club February 8, 2001
SC-ACTION Vol. III, # 15
DEFENDING
THE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
February 7, 2001
Quote of the Day
"The most powerful thing the Sierra Club can do is to
educate and create
demand within members."
--A very wise SC leader
***********************************************************
I. During the first two weeks of the
Bush administration, Sierra Club
spoke out on Norton and
Ashcroft.
II. Horseshoe Crab Success
III. Roadless
***********************************************************
I. During the
first two weeks of the Bush administration, Sierra Club
spoke out on Norton and Ashcroft.
The Sierra Club opposed Bush's
selection of Gale Norton as Interior
Secretary. During the Reagan presidency, Norton
served as associate
solicitor at
the Interior Department under Interior Secretary James Watt.
In that capacity she authored and signed legal
opinions in support of
drilling the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and provided legal advice on
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's
controversial approval of Two Forks
Dam.
Watt later hired Norton as a
lawyer for the arch-conservative Mountain
States Legal
Foundation, which often represents loggers, miners, ranchers
and water developers in fights against environmental
groups. Norton is also
the founder and serves on
advisory committee of the Coalition of Republican
Environmental Advocates (CREA), which
is considered by the Republicans for
Environmental Protection (a legitimate GOP
environmental group) to be "a
transparent attempt to
fool voters who care about environmental
protection."
The Sierra Club also opposed the
appointment of John Ashcroft as Attorney
General.
Ashcroft has an exceedingly poor environmental voting record and
is openly hostile to most environmental laws.
Ashcroft voted against
additional funding
for environmental programs including the Clean Water
Action Plan and toxic waste cleanups at
Superfund sites. He also voted for
a bill to roll
back clean water protections, to prevent the EPA from
enforcing arsenic standards for drinking water,
and to allow mining
companies to
dump cyanide and other mining waste on large areas of public
lands next to mining sites.
II. Horseshoe Crab Success
The National Marine Fisheries
Service on Monday banned the harvest of
horseshoe crabs
in a newly created, 1,500-square-mile sanctuary, just off
the Delaware coast. The ban, effective March 7,
is intended to protect the
population center of one of
nature's most ancient mariners. The crabs, more
closely
related to spiders than to crabs, predate the dinosaur. The crabs
also are a vital link in the food chain for millions of
migratory
shorebirds that stop each spring along
Delaware Bay to feed on the eggs of
horseshoe crabs.
Congratulations to Mike D'Amico and friends! Great work!
III.
Roadless
From NW Field
Staffer, Kathleen Casey:
(On
Tuesday, the administration stated that it would review the roadless
plan that President Clinton announced two weeks before he
left office.
Roadless areas cover roughly 213,000 acres
of the Gifford Pinchot National
Forest in Southwest
Washington. The roadless-area protection plan includes
2,015,000 acres in Washington and 1,965,000 acres in
Oregon.)
Yesterday, Bill and I
were interviewed by KIRO news radio and KPLU (local
NPR) about the roadless plan. Holly Forrest, our
X-traordinary volunteer in
Vancouver, had this to say:
"I'm very disappointed," said
Holly Forrest, political chairwoman of the
club's Loo
Wit chapter. "I'm not surprised. The shame is that President
Bush is dragging his feet on something the American people
have clearly
indicated they want."
Barbara
Boyle, Sr. Regional Representative in CA, reported three great
editorials focused on the administration's
announcement. Editorials were
printed in the
Reno-Gazette Journal, LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
-------------------------------------------------------
Sierra Club Legislative Hotline - 202-675-2394
Sierra Club National Headquarters - 415-977-5500
Sierra Club World Wide Web - http://www.sierraclub.org
Sierra Club Vote Watch Website - http://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch/
White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111
White House Fax Line - 202-456-2461
George W. Bush's e-mail -
president@whitehouse.gov
Dick
Cheney's e-mail - vice-president@whitehouse.gov
White House Address - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC
20500 US
Capitol Switchboard - 202-224-3121
To contact your senators - http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
To contact your representative - http://www.house.gov/writerep
from Global Response February 8, 2001
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
Thanks for your letters to
President Gustavo Noboa of Ecuador in support of
indigenous protesters. Today, Ecuadoreans are
celebrating victory in their
negotiations with the
government, and all jailed protesters have been
released. Please see the following report,
circulated by The Development
GAP:
Thank you
for your overwhelming response to the sign-on letter to Ecuadoran
President Gustavo Noboa.
As you may have heard, a 23-point agreement was reached
yesterday afternoon
between the government and the
indigenous movement. It was signed by the
presidents of the three major indigenous organizations
(CONAIE, FENOCIN and
FEINE) and the country's
Presidente and Vice-president. The agreement was
celebrated with a march of about 5,000 indigenous people --
who had spent
10 days inside the Polytechnic University
in Quito surrounded by the military
-- who were cheered
on by many supporters on the streets of the capital.
With the agreement signed, the
government moved to lift the state of
emergency,
release all those who had been arrested during the protests and
suspend all legal actions against them, return all goods
and documents
confiscated during these actions, and
compensate the families of those
killed and wounded in
the protests. During the two-and-a-half weeks of
indigenous mobilization and protest, 5 indigenous people
were killed, 50
were wounded (including some members of
the military) and 930 were
arrested.
Among the agreements are
provisions to:
- Reduce the
price of cooking gas by 20%, freeze the price of gasoline for
at least one year and enforce half-price bus fares for
children, students,
senior citizens and the disabled.
- Restructure the National
Development Bank and make $10 million available
for
loans on preferential terms to community businesses and micro, small
and medium-scale enterprises.
- Increase the budgets of state organizations that run
development programs
for indigenous peoples.
- Recover public funds invested
during the country's banking crisis.
- Seek the participation of indigenous and other
civil-society
organizations to develop social
investment projects, with a priority given to the poorest
regions of the country, to be funded through debt swaps.
- Resolve existing conflicts
over land, water rights and natural resource use.
- Seek consensus on the reform of the social security
system.
- Refuse to allow the
regionalization of Plan Colombia or to involve the
country in a foreign conflict.
- Broaden the debate and carry out a dialogue on tax reform
prior to
approving new legislation.
- Open a dialogue based on the
document "Proposals of indigenous, campesino
and social
movements of Ecuador for a national dialogue" to reach
agreements regarding fiscal, financial, social, trade and
monetary policies.
While
indigenous peoples and many others are celebrating these agreements
as a victory, it is also clear that much will depend on
when and how these
agreements on paper are carried out
in practice. Some Ecuadorans have
pointed
out that certain agreements reflect actions that the government is
obligated to carry out but has failed to
implement. Other agreements are
very similar
to those made in the past as a result of previous protests,
reflecting the fact that they were never put into practice.
At the international level, we
clearly see that the protests in Ecuador
were a result
of policies imposed by the IMF. At the same time, some of the
agreements signed yesterday run counter to the IMF program
in Ecuador. We
would like to continue to
take further action to pressure the IMF to
refrain from
imposing structural adjustment policies in Ecuador and elsewhere, and
in the case of Ecuador, to support the agreements between
the government
and indigenous movement. We
plan to send you additional information in the
next
week with suggestions on how to pressure the IMF through Congress and the
U.S. Treasury. In this way, we hope to
contribute to helping the
indigenous and social
movement in Ecuador hold the government accountable to carry
through with its commitments.
As
we mentioned in the initial appeal, there was a protest at the Ecuadoran
Embassy in Washington, DC yesterday. A local
journalist wrote an article
about the protest that you
might find interesting. It is available at
<http://www.dc.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=7125>
.
Please circulate this note to the lists that received
the urgent action
request. We are also
sending along the final version of the letter, which
was sent yesterday to President Noboa and delivered to the
Ecuadoran
Ambassador.
Thanks again,
Karen Hansen-Kuhn
Stephanie
Weinberg
The Development GAP
--------------------------------------
GLOBAL RESPONSE is an international letter-writing network
of environmental
activists. In partnership
with indigenous, environmentalist and peace and
justice
organizations around the world, GLOBAL RESPONSE develops "Actions"
that describe specific, urgent threats to the environment;
each "Action"
asks members to write personal letters to
individuals in the corporations,
governments or
international organizations that have the power and
responsibility to take corrective action. GR
also issues "Young
Environmentalists' Actions" and
"Eco-Club Actions" designed to educate and
motivate
elementary and high school students to practice earth stewardship.
P.O. Box 7490 Phone: 303/444-0306
Boulder CO, USA 80306-7490
Fax: 303/449-9794
To receive Global Response "Actions" and "Emergency
Actions" by email:
Send a blank message to:
globresmembers-subscribe@igc.topica.com
Visit our website at: http://www.globalresponse.org
from the Audubon Society February 9, 2001
February 9, 2001 (Vol. 2001, Issue 2)
the Audubon Advisory
Audubon's Twice-Monthly Update
From Washington, D.C.
--Audubon Releases Refuge Report--
The National Wildlife Refuge
System is in a state of crisis. There are
major
threats, such as development, invasive species and water
pollution, which in a thousand different ways threaten and
kill birds
and wildlife and destroy habitat. These are
special places in America
that we have set aside to be
preserved and protected that are in serious
trouble. That was the focus of a special Audubon
news conference on
Wednesday, February 7th, as we
announced the release of our special
report "Refuges in
Crisis," and our call to action to help save our
nation's imperiled Refuge System.
Standing with U.S. Representatives
Wayne Gilchrest (R-Maryland), Nick
Rahall (D-West
Virginia), and Ron Kind (D-Wisconsin), and before a
plethora of reporters, Audubon Policy Director Evan Hirsche
released the
Report, which tells the story of ten
wildlife refuges that are major
national or
international conservation priorities. While each of these
refuges is jeopardized by imminent threats, they also are
failing to
protect bird species that are
federally-listed as threatened or
endangered or
included in Audubon's Watch List of species that could be
headed for extinction.
With over 520 Refuges in the country, the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Services
Refuge System is not equipped to
handle the crisis, and faces a $1.6
billion backlog of
operations and maintenance needs. Hundreds of refuges
have no staff and no visitor centers, no signs, brochures
or restrooms,
and no way to serve the public. But most
impor-tantly, they have scarce
resources with which to
help the wildlife populations they were
established to
protect.
Audubon will work
with Members of Con-gress to increase funding and
resources for these ten and all refuges in the Refuge
System. After all,
these refuges are vital to birds and
wildlife. To-gether they harbor
one-third of America's
remaining wetlands, and protect more than 2,000
species
of birds and other wildlife, including 250 endangered species.
Look for more on this as legislation is introduced and
begins to move
through the legisla-tive process. Also,
please check your local papers
for coverage of this
event, and feel free to send in links and copies of
the
articles! If you would like a copy of the report, please e-mail us
today at
audubonacation@audubon.org, and ask for your copy of
Refuges in Crises.
--Norton
Gets the Nod--
On January 30,
the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Gale Norton
as our new Secretary of the Interior. On a 75-24 vote,
Norton now takes
the helm of the government agency
responsible for, among other things,
managing America's
parks, wildlife refuges, national monuments, and the
birds and wildlife that make their home there. In the
coming weeks, we
will gain a better understanding of
the Secretary's agenda and goals for
the next four
years, and will report all our findings and analyses to
you in future issues of The Audubon Advisory.
Also confirmed last week for the
Bush team was former New Jersey
Governor Christine Todd
Whitman as Director of the Environmental
Protec-tion Agency and Spencer Abraham for Secretary of
Energy. You'll
recall Secretary Abraham, while Senator
from Michigan, sponsored and
pushed through the
Neotropical Migratory Bird Conserva-tion Act -
legislation that helps to protect the habitat of the nearly
300 species
of birds who winter in the Caribbean and
Latin America. Norton, Whitman
and Abraham will be
responsible for crafting the Bush Administration's
energy plans. Audubon will keep close tabs on these and all
other
developments. We'll keep you posted!
--Roadless Rule in Jeopardy--
Prior to leaving Office, President
Clinton proudly announced a ruling
that was two years
in the making: the U.S. Forest Service's Roadless
Forest Protection Rule - a regulatory ruling that protects
58.5 million
acres of pristine national forest land
across 39 states from road
building and commercial
logging.
Now Congressional
opponents seek to over-turn the Rule, and they're
using
a little-known law to try. The law is the Small Business
Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, or SBREFA. Passed in
1996, the law,
which has never been tested, gives
Congress the power to overturn regulatory rulings by
garnering a
majority vote in both the U.S. House and
U.S. Senate. The only
stipulation is they must do so
within 60 Congressional Session days
after the release
of the Rule. As the Rule was released on January 15,
2001, the clock is ticking. We could see a vote on the rule
as early as
this month.
Close to 2 million citizens called for strong wild forest
protections.
The Forest Service deliv-ered by ordering
the Roadless Rule. We now need
to make sure that
Congress does not ignore our voices - and you can
help!
Please contact your two Senators and your U.S. Representative and
urge them to OPPOSE EFFORTS TO OVERTURN THE ROADLESS FOREST
PROTECTION
RULE! Click here to immediately identify and
send a fax or e-mail to
your lawmakers through
Audubon's TAKE ACTION site:
http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/
--Bill Opening the Arctic
Introduced--
Bill number H.R.
39, sponsored by Alaska Republican Congressman Don
Young, seeks to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -
com-monly
referred to as America's Serengeti - to oil
and gas drilling. Audubon
vehemently opposes this
measure, and is working with other conservation
organizations to see that Members of Congress do not fall
prey to
believing that drilling in the Arctic would
solve our nation's energy
problems. We hope to see a
bill protecting the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge
from oil and gas drilling intro-duced before both the House and
Senate in the coming days.
In the meantime, we could use your help! Please contact
your lawmakers
and urge them to oppose H.R.39 and any
other measure that would open the
pristine Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge to harmful and destructive oil
and gas drilling. To immediately identify and communicate
with your
lawmakers on this issue, please click here to
be connected to Audubon's
TAKE ACTION site,
http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/
And if we can ask you to do one
more thing: when you hear back from your
lawmakers,
please send us a copy of the letter or e-mail so we can
better identify where they stand on this issue - plus make
sure they are
telling you the same thing they are
telling our lobbyists!
--Juvenile North Atlantic Swordfish Still at Risk--
Late last week, newly confirmed
Secretary of Commerce Don Evans,
announced the National
Marine Fisheries Services' (NMFS) decision to
delay
implementation of the Southeast Atlantic Area Closure Rule.
This regulatory rule, announced on
August 1, 2000, sought to close
several areas in the
Atlantic ocean to longline fishing - the practice
of
setting out fishing lines up to 40 miles long with hundreds upon
hundreds of bait hooks attached to them - in an effort to
reduce bycatch
of juvenile swordfish and other species.
The planned closures were a
direct result of the
enormous amount of bycatch -the catching and
killing of
undersize or non-target fish and other marine animals during
fishing operations - generated by longline fishing gear in
these areas.
The commercial
fishing industry was granted a 30-day reprieve from
implementation of the closures after NMFS ostensibly
identified the need
to make minor technical corrections
to the rule. Delaying the rule,
however, has little to
do with technical corrections, but is rather a
direct
result of pressure from the powerful commercial fishing industry,
who apparently would rather deplete a species of fish, than
give the
species time to replen-ish itself in both size
and number. Swordfish
populations have declined
approximately 40 percent in the past twenty
years.
Reducing bycatch and bycatch mortality through implementation of
the
now delayed area closures
would help speed rebuild-ing of this
magnificent
species.
Audubon, through its
Living Oceans program, is fiercely opposed to this
postponement, and is concerned that this will be only the
first of many
delays imposed by the new Bush
Administration. Delaying implementation
of these area
closures will adversely impact the resources it was
intended to benefit, specifically saving the overfished
North Atlantic
swordfish from further decline. It would
also undermine the public's
process by which these
closures came about.
Over the
last two years, thousands of com-ments were sent to NMFS from
the general public, urging the agency to close specific
areas along the
Southeast Atlantic coast to longline
fishing. Such significant public
input resulted in NMFS
finaliz-ing the regulations to close these areas
on
August 1, 2000. After such a significant investment of time and
taxpayer dollars, we are hard pressed to under-stand why a
minor
technical correction in the boundaries of the
closed areas requires a
full month to address and why
the correction was announced less than a
day before the
closed areas were to be implemented.
Audubon and our coalition partners are working with
Congress who have
the power to stop the delay,
reinforce the closures immediately, thereby
forcing the
longliners to fish elsewhere along the Atlantic. As we're up
against a powerful foe, we need your help if we're going to
succeed.
Please contact your lawmakers and urge them to
contact Secretary Donald
Evans and demand that
the South Atlantic pelagic longline area closures are
implemented no
later than March 1, 2001. You can reach
you lawmakers by calling (202)
224-3121, or click here
to instantly identify and send a letter to your
lawmakers: http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/
--Family Planning Funding
Restricted--
As Audubon has
often noted, human popula-tion growth is one of the most
pressing environ-mental problems facing the world. The
failure of the
U.S. to live up to its international
family planning obligations results
in widespread
habitat destruction while imperiling the lives of women
and children in the developing world.
Each year as part of its foreign
policy, the U.S. dedicates funding to
various programs
aimed at providing educational and informational
materials and resources to families in developing nations.
Last year,
Congress appropriated $425 million for
international family planning - $40 million more than was
appropriated
in FY 2000. However, this is $100 million
less than what was
appropriated in FY 1995.
It was widely believed that
President Bush would move to cut family
planning
funding under the guise of reinstating the "global gag rule"
which bans family planning organizations that receive U.S.
funds from
using their own money to perform, advocate
or discuss abortion overseas.
The good news is that Ari
Fleischer, the President's Press Secretary,
issued a
statement that said, "The Presi-dent is committed to
maintaining the $425 million [family planning] funding
level provided
for in the FY 2001 appropriation because
he knows that one of the best
ways to prevent abortion
is by providing quality voluntary family
planning
services." This
suggests that the Bush Administration
will not use the Rule as political
cover for cutting
funding for family planning services.
Even with the full FY 2001 funding, however, the U.S. is
last among the
20 top contributing countries for
overall development assistance that
includes family
planning programs. In the coming months, it will be
important that the Bush Admin-istration
and Congress hear from Audubon mem-bers that to conserve
and protect the
environment, the U.S. should increase
its investment in, and not
restrict funding for,
international family planning programs overseas.
Stay
tuned for more on how you can help!
Questions or comments about the Advisory?
Audubonaction@audubon.org
Phone: (202) 861-2242
from the Green Party February 9, 2001
1) Press Release February 8,
2001
Contact: Theresa Amato
For
Immediate
Release
(202) 265-4000
Nader Wins Motion on Physical Exclusion from Boston
Debates;
Lawsuit Against Presidential Debate Commission
Will Go Forward
Washington,
D.C., February 8 -. A federal judge in Boston today
denied a motion by the Commission on Presidential Debates
to
dismiss Green Party presidential nominee Ralph
Nader's lawsuit
challenging the Commission's use of
police to exclude Nader's
attendance at the first
presidential debate on October 3rd at
the University of
Massachusetts. The lawsuit against the
Commission, its co-chairmen and security consultant, and
three
state police officers, alleges that the
defendants used threats
and intimidation to prevent
Nader from entering a separate
viewing auditorium
adjacent to the debate for which he had a
transferable
ticket of admittance. The lawsuit contends that
these acts occurred because of Nader's political views and
were
in violation both of his First Amendment and Equal
Protection
rights under the U.S. Constitution and of
the Massachusetts
Civil Rights Act. The defendants also
prevented Nader from
appearing at a pre-scheduled
interview with Fox News at a media
trailer at the
debate site.
U.S. District
Court Judge William Young said he was "troubled by
excluding someone because of their political views" and
ruled
that there were no grounds to dismiss the
lawsuit. The judge
denied the Commission on
Presidential Debate's motion to dismiss
and the motions
of the other defendants in the case and
"suggested
picking a trial date," according to Boston-based
Nader
counsel Howard Friedman.
Throughout the campaign, Mr. Nader exposed the unfair
practices
of the bipartisan, corporate-sponsored
Commission on
Presidential Debates and the outrageous
hurdles the Commission
had established for presidential
candidates to be allowed to
participate in broadcasts
that reached tens of millions of
citizens. Nader said he was pleased by Judge
Young's decision
and "looked forward to the discovery
process that will
illuminate this private corporation's
misuse of police power to
further the exclusionary
abuses by the Republican and Democratic
Parties who
created and control this Debate Commission."
Prior to the complaint, the Commission had refused to avoid
litigation by extending a written apology and making a
donation
to the Appleseed Center for Electoral Reform
at Harvard Law
School. The lawsuit was filed
on October 17, 2000 and announced
from the site of the
third presidential debates in St. Louis
where he was
again excluded by the Commission and where Nader
intends to bring a similar suit.
# # #
P.O. Box 18002 | Washington, DC 20036 | www.votenader.org |
202-265-4000 | fax: 202-265-0183 Paid for by the Nader
2000
General Committee, Inc.
2)
Looking for Mr. Nader
by Doug Ireland
Published in the March 5, 2001 issue of In These
Times
Since
Election Day, Ralph Has Been Missing In Action
Where's Ralph? That's what many enthusiastic supporters of
Nader's 2000 presidential campaign have been asking.
Even though
more people were paying attention to
politics during the Florida
election mess than they
were during the campaign, Nader chose
not to go to the
Sunshine State. Nor has there been a
coordinated effort
to mobilize the tens of thousands of active
Naderites
recruited during the campaign to take their energy
into
the Green Party, let alone any serious attempt to enroll
rank-and-file Nader voters as Greens. Indeed, Nader himself
is
still not a Green Party member. Nor has any
organization been
formed to give those Nader supporters
who are not prepared to
join the Greens another vehicle
for independent, issues-
oriented political action. So
what's going on?
Ask Nader,
and he maintains he has been doing a lot. "It's very
hard to get press attention, much more so than in the
campaign,"
he says. Undoubtedly true--but Nader gave no
press conferences
of his own in December or January,
and sent out only two press
releases; nor did he stage
any media events with pizzazz.
And what about Florida? "Medea Benjamin represented the
Greens
in Florida," he says, "and she did a great job."
But the Green
Senate candidate from California garnered
no national media
attention of the kind Nader might
have, given the thousands of
hours of airtime the cable
news networks devoted to the endless
squabbling over
the vote count.
As for the
Greens, Nader says he hasn't become a member because,
"I don't want to get involved in Green Party internal
disputes
and struggles--if I was a member, I'd have to
take sides."
Besides, adds Nader--who has made it
evident he almost certainly
intends to run another
presidential campaign in 2004--"we've got
to appeal to
the independent vote" that includes "tens of
millions"
whose concerns extend beyond the Greens' agenda "and
historically, I've never joined any party."
As to his invisibility during the
confirmation hearings for
Bush's cabinet, Nader says
the Democrats shut him out: "I sent
letters to [Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick]
Leahy--we even
had one hand-delivered --asking to testify
against John
Ashcroft, and he didn't even have the courtesy to
respond." He also tried to testify against Spencer Abraham
and
Gale Norton, but was refused.
Why, then, didn't Nader hold a
press conference denouncing the
spineless Senate Dems
for their token opposition to
Ashcroft--who lied
repeatedly without challenge at his
hearing--and their
failure to seriously contest the
anti-environmental
appointments of the reactionary Norton and
the
polluter-friendly new EPA head, Christie Todd Whitman? And
when the Democrats symbolized their moral bankruptcy by
choosing
notorious bagman and fixer Terry McAuliffe as
chair of the
Democratic National Committee, where were
the salvos from Nader?
"Well," he says weakly, "I've
done a lot of all this on radio."
Nader repeatedly emphasizes how preoccupied he has been
trying
to comply with the Federal Election Commission
regulations
governing campaign spending and the
transition out of campaign
mode, including restrictions
on how campaign staff can be
deployed to other
activities. (Nader's Washington campaign
office is
still open, but down to a skeleton staff.) "The
FEC-dictated process is very strict and very complicated,"
Nader
notes, adding, "did you know that it costs $5,000
a month just
to rent the software for FEC compliance?"
But as one who publicly
supported Nader's candidacy in 2000
(including in these
pages) and his symbolic non-campaign of
1996, I feel
compelled to be frank: These excuses sound to
anyone
steeped in politics like "the FEC ate my homework."
Clearly, there's more to Nader's absence from the public
scene
than he's willing to admit.
After discussions with a number of
Nader's closest advisers,
friends and staff, a clearer
picture emerges. For one thing,
Nader has received
conflicting counsel. Some of the influential
staffers
from the Nader-created skein of nonprofits,
particularly Public Citizen, have been reluctant to see
Nader
conduct a frontal assault on the Democrats just
before a
congressional election year.
But while the conventional wisdom
holds that the first off-year
election is always good
for the party out of power in the White
House, 2002
does not appear to be a banner year for the
Democrats.
They will likely lose at least three Senate
incumbents:
Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, South Dakota's Timothy
Johnson and Montana's Max Baucus. Georgia's Max Cleland,
Iowa's
Tom Harkin and even New Jersey's Robert
Torricelli could all
have tough races as well. In
contrast, unless the ailing Jesse
Helms retires or the
senile Strom Thurmond drops dead in
midterm, most of
the Republican senators up next year are pretty
safe,
with the best chance of a Democratic pick-up in New
Hampshire, where Gov. Jean Shaheen will run for lunatic
blowhard
Bob Smith's seat.
Things aren't much better in the House, since Republicans
control nearly two-thirds of the statehouses and
dominate the
legislatures in half of the states, which
must draw new district
lines in the wake of the 2000
census. The National Committee for
an Effective
Congress (the nation's oldest and most effective
liberal political action committee) has been working
flat-out on
the state-by-state redistricting process
for months. Says the
group's veteran director Russ
Hemenway of the battle for the
House: "When all the new
lines are drawn and depending on how
the courts
eventually decide expected challenges, in the end the
Democrats will do no better than break even or lose up to
20
seats."
Even though it ought to be clear to anyone with half a
brain
that Al Gore blew his chances with his smarmy,
inconsistent
flip-flopping--failing to carry either his
home state of
Tennessee or Clinton's native Arkansas,
for example--some
non-Green Naderites worry that an
all-out attack on the
Democrats now would only magnify
Nader's image with some
liberals as a "spoiler." As one
senior Nader strategist puts it:
"Most of the enviros
are mad at Ralph--some people didn't want
him to rub
salt in their wounds."
Moreover, Nader habitually has a long gestation period
(witness
the crippling late start to his 2000 campaign,
which sent out
its first direct-mail fundraising letter
so tardily that returns
didn't start to come in until
last July). "Ralph always plays
his cards close to the
vest," says one key adviser. "And after a
tough,
rigorous campaign, he needed recuperation time--he is,
after all, 66."
There's also the major problem of how to approach and deal
with
the Greens, with whom Nader has had a
sometimes-prickly
relationship. Local Green parties
vary tremendously from state
to state. The culture of
the Greens is still heavily impregnated
with what one
might call a politically vegan disdain for
electoral
politics. And in some states the leaders from this
mindset are reluctant to turn over the party apparatus to
the
scads of freshly minted Nader campaign cadres from
2000,
regardless of their enthusiasm, energy and
skills. The Greens
need to decide whether they want to
become a truly alternative
electoral force, one that
could in many places decide the
balance of power and
help discipline the Democrats into
abandoning their
money-dominated drift into corporate centrism,
and thus
begin the process of realigning American politics to
the left.
Especially with Jesse Jackson's co-optation by the Clinton
White
House and the Gore campaign, his cozying up to
Wall Street, and
his self-destruction by using
Rainbow/PUSH funds to pay off his
pregnant mistress,
Nader is still the most visible and valuable
asset of
the real left (as opposed to the "left" in the debased,
Crossfire sense of the term). And there's a real danger
that
well-meaning liberals will, in the wake of the
Florida debacle,
skew the national debate to one about
process (electronic
scanners versus chads, weekend and
computer voting, and the
like) rather than the more
fundamental one about power--the
corrupting influence
of wealth and corporate control of
governance, a
systemic critique that Nader is uniquely
positioned to
make and which was the groundbreaking hallmark of
his
national campaign.
To
galvanize an organization, one top Naderite told me, "there
either has to be an issue or the recruitment of credible
and
attractive Green candidates around whom people can
be
mobilized." Another Nader adviser says, "Ralph
really has only
two choices: shut up or build the Green
Party."
At this point, it's
obvious that Nader has not yet firmly fixed
his course.
"I've been trying to encourage the Green Party to
establish a national presence, a lobbying office, here in
Washington," Nader says, "and to help recruit hundreds
of
candidates in 2002--we had over 260 in 2000, and we
want over
1,000 in 2002." He adds: "The students have
prepared an
initiative to establish 900 campus Green
chapters--we had 900
campus coordinators last year.
I've been on six or seven
campuses since the
campaign--there's lots of energy--it's like
the '60s,
very alive."
But while Nader
says he will establish a new national
organization to
do lobbying and issue mobilization, this new
organization as yet has no name, no director, no set
agenda,
and--rather astonishingly--it will not be a
membership group.
While Nader says he has "been doing
local fundraisers for the
Greens--that's the best way
to recruit new members, and it's
easier to get local
press," in fact he has only done two of them
(in
Providence and Hartford). He says his new group will be
announced several months hence, as will his plans in
relation to
the Green Party. "Wait for the spring--the
time of rebirth," he
chuckles. He also envisions a
series of major rallies--but the
first one won't be
until July.
In the hard-nosed
real world of electoral politics and
communications,
however, timing is everything. Hamlets don't
last long
in national politics--just ask Mario Cuomo. And the
attention span of the electorate is a notoriously short
one. If
Nader does not make up his mind soon about what
he should do,
there's a real danger he will have missed
his moment, if he
hasn't already.
Steve
Krulick
kryolux@ulster.net
845-647-8809
Ellenville NY
12428-130727
http://dem101.org
http://egroups.com/group/Democracy101
--------------------------
"Nothing can stop
the power of
an informed citizenry
when it is
empowered, organized, and
motivated." (Ralph Nader)
--------------------------
from EarthNet News February 9, 2001
EarthNet News
...a project of the
Center for Environmental Citizenship
February 9, 2001
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In response to all the "So, what the hell happened?"
questions, we bring you the 2000 Year in Review, or "the final days of the
Clinton Administration." Savor the successes because we may have a
tough year ahead! Also, it's time to apply for our summer trainings
-- this year we're focusing on Environmental Justice and Environmental
Journalism.
The Washington, DC
office of CEC has moved! Check out our new digs at 200 G St. NE,
Washington, DC 20002 (near Union Station) or at http://www.envirocitizen.org/newoffice.html.
--Amy Lesser, EarthNet editor
mailto:earthnet@envirocitizen.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Shadow Congress: Year in Review
2. Quote of the Week
3. Corporate Corner: Year in Review
4. Summer Trainings: Our 2001 Academies
5. Letters to the Editor: readers respond
6. Jobs, Conferences and Gatherings
7. Activist Phone Book & EarthNet News Info
SHADOW CONGRESS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interior Nominee, Gale Norton: The votes are
in, and Gale Norton, the anti-environmental lobbyist and lawyer, is our new
Interior Secretary. The final tally was 75 to 24. Hold your Senators
accountable for their vote by sending an email from
http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/alertpr.pl?dir=cec&alert=46.
Down with the
Dams: A much stronger salmon recovery plan was released Dec. 2000
after more than 200,000 letters were sent in support of the endangered Pacific
Northwest salmon. The final plan included specific goals for salmon
recovery and recommended dam breaching in five years if the goals aren't
met. In the meantime, we're still trucking salmon around the dams.
EVERglades: $1.4
billion was approved in 2000 as the first installment for a 36-year plan to
restore the Everglades. The project will be the largest environmental
restoration project in the world, and will help ensure survival of the
endangered American crocodile and Florida panther. In addition,
the Clinton administration rejected the plan to develop the former Homestead Air
Force Base in Florida into a commercial airport three days before he left
office. Yay!
Roadless Initiative: Clinton approved the new "roadless
rule" in Jan. 2001. The rule stops road building and logging, except
for "stewardship" projects, in almost 50 million acres of federal
forests. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska was included, but not
until 2004. Bush has stopped the ban for 60 days, however, and is
seeking ways to overturn the ruling through lawsuits or legislation.
Diesel Trucks: Clinton approved
the EPA's new clean air rules for heavy trucks and buses in Dec.
2000. The new rules will reduce smog 90% over the next decade by
limiting tailpipe emissions and forcing refiners to reduce the sulfur in diesel
fuel. The benefits are comparable to pulling 93% of the
diesel-powered vehicles off the road. Industry is already threatening
lawsuits and Bush can overturn the ruling if he chooses.
Stop the Joyrides: The
National Park Service issued its final plan to stop snowmobiles in Yellowstone
and (part of) Grand Teton parks. The plan phases out snowmobiles in three years
and replaces them with multi-passenger snowcoaches. The Bush
Administration has placed a 60-day moratorium on the rule, and has pledged to
re-evaluate the plan.
QUOTE OF
THE WEEK
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's as if they've invited the oil, coal and nuclear
industries to an all-you-can-eat buffet. This isn't a task force; it's an oil
industry dream team."
-- Adam
Kolton, Alaska Wilderness League, referring to Bush's new energy policy task
force, headed up by former oilman Dick Cheney
CORPORATE CORNER
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oxy drilling in U'wa land: The U'wa people
in Columbia have spent the last eight years working to halt Occidental's oil
drilling project, which they believe will have devastating social and
environmental repercussions for their people and their land. In Nov.
2000, Oxy began test drillling. Activists are now targeting companies
with shares in Oxy. This year, Fidelity sold 60% of its holding in
Oxy due to activist pressure. Investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein is
up next. Read about the campaign at http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/beyond_oil/oxy/ .
International Corporate
Right-To-Know Campaign: The campaign to hold corporate giants
accountable for behavior in the communities where they operate is heating up.
Check out Friends of the Earth's site at http://www.foe.org/act/irtk.html.
Kellogg's GE
Cereals: Greenpeace delivered a shopping cart full of 20,000 petition
signatures to Kellogg's during the holidays. Check out the photos and
story at http://www.truefoodnow.org/inside_scoop/archives/001220-tf-grinch.html.
Brazilian Barge Port:
American Commercial Barge Lines (ACBL), the largest shipper on the Mississippi,
is still planning to build a gigantic port in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso,
Brazil - the world's most important tropical wetlands ecosystem. But,
citizen pressure on both sides of the equator has stalled the project for
now. First, a public hearing to license the project was
cancelled. Then, Brazilian officials agreed with protesters that the
environmental impact needed to be studied. And, last month a judge
upheld the need for an environmental study.
Paper Companies: On
Nov. 15, 2000, students demonstrated at 75 Staples stores nationwide to protest
their use of old-growth wood for paper and their lack of 100% post-consumer
paper products. Plans are underway for a second day of action against
Staples on March 28, and protests against Boise-Cascade. A conference
for the "Tree Free Campus" Campaign is scheduled for March in
Idaho. Find out more at http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/old_growth/campus/index.html.
Damming the Macal
River: Duke Energy and Fortis Inc. had plans to dam the Macal River
in Belize. After 20,000 letters from activists, Duke has pulled
out. Fortis is still forging ahead. Find out more at http://www.savebiogems.org/macal/.
SUMMER ACADEMIES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Summer Training Academy
Tired of politicians ignoring your
community? It's time to build political power and make your voice
heard! Learn how at the 2001 Environmental Justice Summer Training Academy (EJ
STA). This June, join other community and student organizers of color who are
leading the charge to make environmental justice a priority in the 2001
elections and beyond. The EJ STA is an intensive six-day program that trains
young people in political skills to protect our communities. Through skill
sessions and campaign simulations you'll learn how to run a winning campaign,
impact critical social and public health issues, and organize online and in the
media.
Rolling
Admissions -- APPLY NOW for your best chance to get in! Apply online
and learn more about environmental justice at http://www.ejnow.org.
2) ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM Academy
Calling all journalists! Gain hands-on
experience as you collaborate with top professionals from print, radio and the
Web to produce stories that explore environmental issues. Network
with fellow college reporters, editors and photographers from across the nation
and discover how social justice relates to urban environmental issues and public
health concerns during the Community Environmental Tour.
The 2001 Environmental Journalism
Academy will be held at American University in Washington, DC from June
14-18. $75 includes housing, food, and training. Rolling
admissions -- APPLY NOW at http://www.envirocitizen.org/news/eja/.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responses to Elizabeth Vance's letter:
I agree with you. However, I still feel we are going
backwards instead of forwards with the Bush administration. I'm sorry, but his
cabinet selection is appalling, not to mention disappointing. Many good programs
under Clinton's administration will be shunned, or worse, weakened, by the new
administration. Unfortunately, their focus is not what we hope for, and what we
hold as our treasured values. I know we have to work harder, with more vigilance
than ever, so our voices will be heard, etc. But, money is power. And who has
the most money? I watched the news last night and Tom Brokaw mentioned a few
members of Bush's cabinet and disclosed their assets... Unfortunately, these
guys are millionaires or billionaires (yes, the richest 1%). So, don't come
crying to the world if our needs aren't met.
- Jackie
Rodriguez, another disappointed Democrat
People who only vote their values do not know enough about
politics to vote intelligently. There are really only two parties in the US. It
is unfortunate that this is the case, but it is a fact. When you vote for any
third party you cannot vote for one of the main two. By voting for Nadar instead
of Gore you put Bush in the white house. That's the facts. Any thing else is
foolishness.
-- William Olkowski, Santa Barbara, CA
I also heard the quote "A vote for
Nader is a vote for Bush." I voted for Nader in hopes it would create
a catalyst movement, showing not just those of us who actually educate ourselves
on pressing environmental and world issues, but also your everyday Joe that
neither Bush nor Gore is the man for the job. With Bush in office many, many
mistakes will be made -- he has shown blatant disregard for the environment with
the cabinet he has appointed, but while doing so it has opened many eyes to the
need for an environmental revolution. So, for those people out there who feel
Nader is the reason Bush is in office, do you actually think that a corrupt Gore
would have been that much better at being the head of the United States? A
drastic change is in need for the US, and putting people and the environment
before profit is the only way that change will occur.
-- Earthdefense@aol.com
I am deeply disappointed inBush'snomination of Gale Norton.
But the way to oppose her (or anyone!) is not to try to cast them using the
extreme language of the uninformed. Calling someone an 'extremist' almost
immediately turns off the majority of listeners, even sympathetic ones! We, as
people seeking more responsible environmental stewardship, should do our best to
educate people with facts, not accusations and name-calling.Let's stick to
unsensationalized facts and we will get more respect.
-- John DiDiego, Director, Blue Ridge Outdoor Education
Center, Toccoa, GA
**Editor's
reply: EarthNet never used the word "extremist" when referring to
Gale Norton. Unfortunately, her views aren't extreme, and we like to
save the word for the real wackos -- like Ashcroft, for example.
Got something to
say? Send your letters to earthnet@envirocitizen.org. We
reserve the right to edit for length, clarity, and purpose.
JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS
------------------------------
These are a sampling of the over 100 environmental and
activist jobs and internships listed at
www.envirocitizen.org/enet/jobs/index.asp!
The Ruckus Society is seeking a Grassroots Coordinator in
Berkeley, CA. Find the job description at http://www.envirocitizen.org/enet/jobs/detail.asp?id=2263.
The Clean Air Council is
seeking a paid Transportation Intern in Philadelphia, PA. Find the
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WHERE: DePaul
University, Chicago, IL
WHEN: March 3-4,
2001
FOR MORE INFO: http://www.envirocitizen.org/enet/events/detail.asp?id=657
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Globalization
WHERE: Boulder, CO
WHEN: March 8-11, 2001
FOR MORE
INFO: http://www.envirocitizen.org/enet/events/detail.asp?id=676
WHAT: "Progress, at what
cost?" Student Pugwash Conference
WHERE: Johns Hopkins
University, Homewood, MD
WHEN: March 9-11,
2001
FOR MORE INFO: http://www.envirocitizen.org/enet/events/detail.asp?id=673
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from Environment News Service February 9, 2001
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
(ENS) http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
************************************************************
UNEP AIMS FOR STRONGER GLOBAL
ROLE
NAIROBI, Kenya, February
9, 2001 (ENS) - The Governing Council of the
United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has ended its latest biannual
meeting Nairobi with agreement to strengthen the agency
with a view to
developing it into a global
environmental governance body.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-02.html
************************************************************
CANADIAN GOVERNMENT FAILS TO
PROTECT WILD SALMON
OTTAWA,
Canada, February 9, 2001 (ENS) - In a review of British Columbia's
salmon farming industry, Canada's auditor general has
concluded that the
federal government is not protecting
the wild salmon population from farmed
fish.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-10.html
************************************************************
BAJA TOWNS STRUGGLE AFTER
SAVING WHALE SANCTUARY
MEXICO
CITY, Mexico, February 9, 2001 (ENS) - Communities surrounding
Laguna San Ignacio in Baja, Mexico, will receive money from
environmental
groups that helped stop a plan to convert
the last undisturbed nursery for
the Pacific gray whale
into the world's largest industrial salt facility.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-12.html
************************************************************
RAPTORS BETTER PROTECTED IN
UK's NORTH PENNINES
LONDON,
United Kingdom, February 9, 2001 (ENS) - The United Kingdom has
created its largest Special Protection Area to cover more
than 147,000
hectares of internationally important bird
habitats in the North Pennine
Moors.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-11.html
***********************************************************
ARGENTINA WILL POWER THE
FUTURE WITH WIND
BUENOS AIRES,
Argentina, February 9, 2001 (ENS) - A wind energy production
proposal has been presented to the Argentine government by
the Spanish
companies Endesa and Elecnor. If the
proposal is accepted, within a decade,
15 percent of
the total Argentine energy needs, some 3,000 megawatts, could
be produced by wind power.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-01.html
************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: FEBRUARY 9, 2001
Texas Citizen Suit Settled With Crown Central Petroleum
Scientists Discover New Keys to
Arctic Ozone Loss
Energy
Efficiency Could Decrease Demand by 40 Percent
California Logging Waste to Be Burned for Power
Los Angeles is Planting Trees to
Save Energy
Landfill Gas To
Energy Project Earns Award
Missouri Dam Reform Delay Ignores Endangered Species
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-09.html
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
************************************************************
HEALING OUR WORLD: WEEKLY
COMMENT
By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
Energy Crisis or Greed Crisis?
Whatever the cause of the current
energy crisis, a major goal of the new
conservative
administration in Washington has been achieved. Air quality
controls have been suspended and the stage has been set for
massive
industrial expansion.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09g.html
***********************************************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
***********************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
***********************************************************************
TO FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENT
EDITORS:
Alliance Forest Products Inc.
Receives Major National Forest Management Award
MONTREAL, Canada, Feb. 9
-/E-Wire/-- Alliance Forest Products Inc. is pleased to
announce that it received the "Forest Stewardship
Recognition Award", under
the Eastern Canadian
companies category, from Wildlife Habitat Canada. The
Company earned this award for the extensive application
since 1995 of an
innovative forest harvesting method
known as mosaic cutting.
/CONTACT: Georges Cabana, Senior Vice-President,
Human Resources and Public Affairs,(514) 954-2101/
/Web site: http://www.alliance-forest.com /
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/09Feb0106.html
***********************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
***********************************************************************
TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
Without Bears and Wolves to
Hunt Them, Yellowstone Moose Have Lost Some Spring in their Step, Study Says
BRONX, NY, Feb. 9 -/E-Wire/--
As people learn to live with grizzly bears and wolves that have recolonized
areas around southern Yellowstone National Park after a 50-year absence, so too
must moose, which apparently have forgotten to recognize predators, according to
a study funded by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
/CONTACT: STEPHEN SAUTNER (718-220-3682;
ssautner@wcs.org; JOHN DELANEY: (718-220-3275; jdelaney@wcs.org)/
/Web site: http://www.wcs.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/09Feb0105.html
***********************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
***********************************************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, TO
ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
Experts Battle Over Global
Warming
Climate Change Policy Exposes Different
Opinions, Approach
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 9
-/E-Wire/-- Sharp differences on the direction of climate change policy and the
future of a controversial international treaty aimed reducing greenhouse
gas emissions were hotly debated yesterday at a National
Press Club forum
sponsored by Freedom
21. Freedom 21 is a coalition of organizations aimed
at advancing the principles of freedom in local
communities, Washington, and
throughout the world.
(www.freedom21.org)
/CONTACT: Maureen O'Brien,(202) 466-7391 ext.
1106 or mobrien@pcgpr.com/
/Web site: http://www.freedom21.org
http://www.pcgpr.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/09Feb0104.html
***********************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
***********************************************************************
TO ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL
EDITORS:
Global Survey Finds Wind
Energy's Explosive Expansion Continuing
Industry Added
Enough Generation in 2000 To Supply
1.3
Million California Households
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 9
-/E-Wire/-- The worldwide boom in wind energy slowed a bit during the year 2000,
but still remained strong, with some 3,500 megawatts (MW) being installed, or
enough to supply roughly 1.3 million California households with 3.5 million
people, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today.
/CONTACT: Tom Gray (802)649-2112, Christine Real
de Azua (202) 383-2508/
/Web
site: http://www.awea.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/09Feb0103.html
***********************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE
***********************************************************************
TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
Conservation Lawsuit Files to
Stop Potomac River Projects
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 9
-/E-Wire/-- The National Wilderness Institute (NWI), a Washington-based
conservation organization filed suit this week against five
Federal
departments and agencies, charging that they
have failed to enforce the
Endangered Species Act (ESA)
in approving Potomac River projects.
/CONTACT: Rob Gordon or Jim Streeter @ (703)
836-7404, Larry Hart (202) 547-1175/
/Web site: http://www.nwi.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/09Feb0102.html
****************************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
****************************************************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Advanced Communications
Technologies to Acquire US Venture Capital Company -- Beneventure Capital
LOS ANGELES, CA, Feb. 9
-/E-Wire/-- Advanced Communications Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:ADVC - news;
ACT-USA) today announced that it had entered into an agreement with Dr. Gil
Amelio and Beneventure Capital, LLC to acquire 100% of the stock in Beneventure
Capital, LLC.
/CONTACT: Advanced Communications Technologies,
Roger May, 011.61.3.9672.8888, CEO (in Australia), Mobile: 011.61.411 189 931,
actusa2000@aol.com; Jeremy Norton, 949/622-5566 or 949/500-6288,(Vice
President of International Business Development), jeremyn@adcomtech.net/
/Web site: http://www.beneventure.com
http://www.act-usa.net/
For Full Text
Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Feb01/09Feb0101.html
************************************************************
SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON E-WIRE --
1-888-764-NEWS
************************************************************
from Environment News Service February 12, 2001
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
(ENS) http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
************************************************************
SURVEY: HOW MUCH DO U.S.
INDUSTRIES SPEND CUTTING POLLUTION?
By Donald Sutherland
WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2001 (ENS) - For the first
time since 1994,
the United States government is back
in the business of surveying pollution
abatement costs
and expenditures (PACE).
For
full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-12-03.html
************************************************************
DIESEL SCHOOL BUSES POSE
CANCER DANGERS
By Brian Hansen
WASHINGTON, DC, February 12,
2001 (ENS) - Children who ride on diesel school
buses
may be exposed to dangerously high levels of toxic diesel fumes inside
the vehicles, according to a new report released today by
two environmental
groups.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-12-15.html
************************************************************
WIND POWER SPLITS NORWAY'S
GREEN MOVEMENT
OSLO, Norway,
February 13, 2001 (ENS) - Norway's environmental movement has
been split by state owned power utility Statkraft's plans
to develop three
wind farms with a total production of
800 megawatts along the scenic west
coast. The wind
facilities have been authorized for Stadtlandet, Smola and
Hitra.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-12-04.html
*********
