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from Greenpeace February 1, 2005
from Sea Shepherd Seal Campaign February 4, 2005 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (www.seashepherd.org) is about to embark on our “Seal Campaign” against the brutal slaughter of over 350,000 seals off the East coast of Canada. The slaughter traditionally begins on March 15, 2005. It is the largest single mass slaughter of mammals anywhere in the world. We want it to end. This year, we are embarking on an ambitious campaign and we need your help! Captain Watson will be returning to the ice with our flagship, R/V Farley Mowat , where we will have a crew of photographers, film-makers, celebrities, and direct-action crew who will place themselves in harms way on the ice when the killing is happening. Sea Shepherd is unique because we are the only organization with a ship going to the ice! But, in addition to our on-site efforts, we need to fight from onshore as well. This is where you come in! We are looking for people and organizations that would be willing to join in or lead a protest in their area for the “International Day of Protest Against the Seal Slaughter in Canada ” on Tuesday, March 15, 2005, to coincide with the first day of the slaughter. The protests are an integral part of the campaign to bring international pressure to bear on the Canadian government to end this horrific slaughter. Facts about the seal hunt: * The Canadian harp seal hunt is the largest single mass slaughter of mammals anywhere in the world. * It is grossly inhumane . Credible witnesses, including Sea Shepherd volunteers, have seen seals skinned alive and tortured. These incidents have been documented and sealers themselves have bragged and written about how much fun it is to torture a seal. A postmortem survey concluded that 42% of the slaughtered seal pups were skinned alive. * It is an incredibly wasteful hunt . Canadian author and naturalist, Farley Mowat, estimates that for every seal landed, another is shot and lost under the ice, not to be included in the quota. * It is a slaughter done almost entirely for vanity and luxury and therefore unnecessary * 95% of the seals killed are newborn seal pups less than three weeks old and they are killed in front of their mothers. We will have pictures available for signs, informational brochures to distribute, a petition to sign, and we are open
to creative and unique ways to draw media attention to this issue. from The Ocean Conservancy February 3, 2005 ****OCEAN ALERT**** from The Ocean Conservancy's OCEAN ACTION NETWORK Along our Atlantic coast bottlenose dolphins and sea turtles are becoming entangled in fishing nets and drowning at rates that threatens their ability to maintain and recover their numbers. This alert is the same one featured in the "Take Action" section of our online newsletter sent to many of you yesterday. If you have already responded we thank you, and apologize for the extra email. But if you have not yet had a chance to respond you can do so now. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is now taking public comment on plans to reduce this loss of depleted dolphins and threatened and endangered sea turtles. The agency is taking comments until February 8th, so please respond as soon as possible. And please try to find time to edit our sample message to put it in your own words, including telling the agency why these creatures are important to you. Take Action! http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/R?i=NpI7_JEeFtPaP6Dya-c2BA.. Go here for background on this issue and links to more information on these creatures. http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/R?i=eQEszMsKDQ_aP6Dya-c2BA.. If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up to receive e-mails from The Ocean Conservancy. http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/R?i=gNwFQt2lkoraP6Dya-c2BA.. from Care2 Alerts February 3, 2005 There's a lot of talk of "reform" in Washington these days. We heard it last night in President Bush's State of the Union address. It's funny - to me, the word "reform" suggests changes meant to improve people's lives. But I'm not so sure that those in power agree. from Center for Biological Diversity February 7, 2005 Biodiversity Activist, No. 358 Center for Biological Diversity February 7, 2005 www.biologicaldiversity.org _______________________________ EFFORT TO KILL SOUTHWEST WOLVES AND END RECOVERY PROGRAM DEFEATED JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BUSH DECISION TO ABANDON NATIONAL WOLF RECOVERY, INCREASE WOLF KILLING PUGET SOUND KILLER WHALES PROPOSED FOR FEDERAL PROTECTION ARIZONA PLANT INCHES TOWARD FEDERAL PROTECTION _______________________________ EFFORT TO KILL SOUTHWEST WOLVES AND END RECOVERY PROGRAM DEFEATED On 1/31/05, a federal judge sided with the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife in rejecting a lawsuit by cattle industry groups seeking to suspend the Mexican gray wolf recovery program and to kill or capture all wild wolves in Arizona and New Mexico. The Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties for Stable Economic Growth and the New Mexico Cattle Growers sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under numerous laws to have the successful wolf recovery program terminated. The Center and Defenders intervened on behalf of the agency and helped convince the court that there was no merit to the cattle industry's nuisance suit. The Center will continue its efforts to have the wolf recovery zone expanded and to protect the wolves from shooting, harassment, and needless recapturing. More information: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/mexwolf/index.html _______________________________ JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BUSH DECISION TO ABANDON NATIONAL WOLF RECOVERY, INCREASE WOLF KILLING On 1/31/05, a federal judged ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and 16 other environmental groups challenging a decision by the Bush administration to give up efforts to fully recover the gray wolf to non-endangered status in the continental U.S. The gray wolf formerly occurred throughout most of the United States excluding the Southeast. Decades of recovery efforts have created and protected small populations in the Gila Headwaters of Arizona and New Mexico, the Northern Rockies, and northern Midwest. Yet the wolf is still extinct or at very low numbers in most of its historic range and is far from recovered. To short-circuit additional wolf reintroductions, the Bush administration issued a decision on 4/1/03 to abandon recovery efforts outside areas where the wolf already occurs. This decision would stop efforts to reintroduce wolves to the California, the Pacific Northwest, New England, and the Colorado Plateau. The decision also reduced the level of protection for wolves in the Northern Rockies and the Midwest, allowing them to be legally killed by ranchers for little or no reason. The judge ruled that the wolf must be recovered in all areas of its historic range which are significant, not just small pockets were recovery is politically convenient. She also ruled that the decision to allow more shootings of wolves is illegal. More information: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/wolf2-1-05.html _______________________________ PUGET SOUND KILLER WHALES PROPOSED FOR FEDERAL PROTECTION On 12/16/04, the National Marine Fisheries Service reversed its earlier decision that the killer whales of Puget Sound are "not significant" and instead issued a formal proposal to protect them under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The decision came in response to years of advocacy by the Center for Biological Diversity including scientific population modeling, attracting federal monies for oil spill containment, filing of a scientific petition to have the species placed on the endangered species list, and even a lawsuit. The Puget Sound killer whale is a unique, highly intelligent, and highly endangered population. During the summer it resides primarily in Puget Sound, but in the winter can travel as far as Monterey Bay, California in search of food. After rebounding from a spate of shootings and captures for zoos and theme parks in the 1960s and 1970s, the population began to plummet again in the 1990s. While the reasons for the decline are not entirely clear, the species is known to be impacted by high levels of pollution in the food chain, decline of wild salmon runs, increased whale watching pressure, and oil spills. The Bush administration previously declared that although the Puget Sound population is going extinct, its extinction does not matter because the population is not "not significant." This is the only presidency to attempt to use this loophole in the Endangered Species Act, and it did so in clear defiance of the National Marine Fisheries Service's own scientific studies. The Center and other groups sued, winning a court order which required that a new decision be made. Under intense scrutiny by scientists, conservationists and whale lovers, the administration has now reversed itself and proposed listing the population as an endangered species. A final decision on the species' fate must be made within a year. More information: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/orca12-16-04.html _______________________________ ARIZONA PLANT INCHES TOWARD FEDERAL PROTECTION On 2/2/05 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an initial decision to list the Gentry indigo bush (Dalea tentaculoides) as an endangered species. The southwestern plant has been found in only four places - a recently discovered site in Mexico, two sites in the Baboquivari Mountains on the Tohono O'odham Reservation, and in Sycamore Canyon on the Mexican border. Intense livestock grazing appears to have eradicated the two Baboquivari sites. The Center for Biological Diversity submitted a scientific petition to protect the plant under the Endangered Species Act on 1/2/02. The population in Sycamore Canyon occurs in the Gooding Research Natural Area established to protect rare plants such as indigo bush. Despite this protection, livestock grazing on the Bear Valley Allotment in combination with an extensive road network have caused degraded watershed conditions that lead to excessive erosion and large floods, threatening the continued survival of the plant. Exacerbating these problems, trespass cattle from Mexico and Forest Service lands have been observed trampling and eating the rare native plant. More information: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/acuna5-25-04.html _______________________________ Click now and become a member of the Center for Biological Diversity, and ensure a future for wildlife and habitat... https://maxvps016.maximumasp.com/V016U45GEB/joinus/joinus.html from ETC Group February 7, 2005 ETC Group News Release 7 February 2005 www.etcgroup.org Canadian Government to Unleash Terminator Bombshell at UN Meeting: All-out push for commercialisation of Sterile Seed Technology A confidential document leaked today to ETC Group reveals that the Canadian government, at a United Nations meeting in Bangkok (Feb 7-11), will attempt to overturn an international moratorium on genetic seed sterilisation technology (known universally as Terminator). Even worse, the Canadian government has instructed its negotiators to "block consensus" on any other option. "Canada is about to launch a devastating kick in the stomach to the world's most vulnerable farmers - the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm saved seed," said ETC Group Executive Director Pat Mooney speaking from Ottawa. "The Canadian government is doing the dirty work for the multinational gene giants and the US government. Even Monsanto wasn't prepared to be this upfront and nasty. Canada is betraying Farmers' Rights and food sovereignty everywhere." Terminator technology was first developed by the US government and the seed industry to prevent farmers from re-planting saved seed and is considered the most controversial and immoral agricultural application of genetic engineering so far. When first made public in 1998, "suicide seeds" triggered an avalanche of public opposition, forcing Monsanto to abandon the technology and prompting the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to impose a de facto moratorium on its further development. According to the leaked instructions to Canadian negotiators at SBSTTA 10 (a scientific advisory body to the CBD), Canada will insist on Wednesday (9 Feb.) that governments accept the field testing and commercialization of Terminator varieties (referred to as GURTS -- Genetic Use Restriction Technologies). Canada will also attack an official UN report, prepared by an international expert group, which is critical of the potential impacts of Terminator seeds on small farmers and Indigenous Peoples. In stark contrast to Canada's position, the expert report recommends that governments seek prohibitions on the technology. In Bangkok, civil society and Indigenous Peoples are calling on the Canadian government to abandon its endorsement of Terminator and to join with other governments to prohibit the technology once and for all. Many African and Asian governments have called for Terminator to be banned and the European Union has also been supportive of the existing moratorium. "It is outrageous that Canada is backing an anti-farmer technology and shameful that it will 'block consensus' on any other outcome. Governments from around the world must not accept this bullying tactic," says ETC Group's Hope Shand from the negotiations in Bangkok. "If Canada blocks decision-making on this issue, the moratorium will be in jeopardy and terminator seeds will be commercialized ending up in the fields of small farmers." The full leaked text of the Canadian government's instructions to its negotiators on Terminator/GURTS follows. Hope Shand and Jim Thomas of ETC Group can be contacted at SBSTTA negotiations in Bangkok on cell phone +44 (0) 7752 106806 or by email jim@etcgroup.org or hope@etcgroup.org Pat Mooney (in Ottawa) +1 (613) 241-2267 etc@etcgroup.org Kathy Jo Wetter (USA) +1 (919) 960-5223 kjo@etcgroup.org The Head of the Canadian Delegation in Bangkok is Robert McLean, Environment Canada - Robert.Mclean@ec.gc.ca tel +1 (819) 997-1303 "Advice on the report of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTS); Canada has major reservations regarding the recommendations in the AHTEG report. Canada notes that the experts were unable to reach consensus and that while this is recognized in para. 15 of the report, this should have been made clear in the recommendation section of the report. Unfortunately, the report leaves the impression that consensus was achieved on all of the recommendations when this was clearly not case and in particular in terms of recommendation (b) which reads as follows, "In view of the current lack of data, recommends that Parties and other Governments consider the development of regulatory frameworks not to approve GURTs for field-testing and commercial use." Canada will suggest that the document clearly indicate in the Annex that there is no consensus on for the recommendations. Alternatively, the AHTEG report can be referred to as the "Chairs' report". Canada also believes that the AHTEG report contains scientific inaccuracies and a lack of balance in terms of reflecting both potential positive and negative impacts of this technology, and these issues should be addressed before the report is further distributed. We believe that it would be beneficial for Parties and other governments to submit comments to the Executive Secretary/CHM to represent national views to improve the accuracy of the document, and that these be made available to both the 8j working group and COP. Additionally, Canada will propose that SBSTTA adopt a recommendation for decision at COP8 based on the revised wording of recommendation "b" below and will propose this recommendation be incorporated for consideration at the 8j meeting: NEW WORDING for recommendation b) of AHTEG report (b) In view of the current lack of data, recommend that Parties and other Governments consider the development of domestic regulatory frameworks TO ALLOW FOR THE EVALUATION OF NOVEL VARIETIES, INCLUDING THOSE WITH GURTS, FOR FIELD TESTING AND COMMERCIAL USE BASED ON APPROPRIATE SCIENCE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL RISK/SAFETY ASSESSMENTS. In Canada's opinion the revised wording we are suggesting, strengthens the recommendation and provides for a strong scientific assessment of risk. If we are unsuccessful in obtaining these additions (indication that recommendations in the AHTEG report were not based on consensus OR agreement to have national views submitted) AND changes to recommendation "B" --or any other outcome which clearly addresses our concern over a defacto moratorium on GURTS-- Canada is prepared to block consensus on this issue." _______________________________________________ ETC Group mailing list http://lists.etcgroup.org/mailman/listinfo/etcgroup from Defenders of Wildlife February 7, 2005
from American Rivers February 8, 2005
from Sierra Club February 8, 2005 They're back — bigger, badder, and more determined than ever. "Big Oil" and its political cronies are launching yet another assault on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the wildlife that call this remarkable place home. The Arctic Refuge — and its teeming plains rich with polar bears, gray wolves, grizzlies, musk oxen, caribou, arctic foxes and scores of bird species — is one of those places we cannot afford to lose. If our generation is defined by what we preserve, this unique ecological gem must remain at the top of our list. Please Donate Now Of course, that's not how Big Oil sees it. But we have a message for Big Oil — we don't give up either! That's where you come in. Please take a moment to help protect the Arctic Refuge in two critical ways: * Sign our online petitionto Senator Minority Leader Harry Reid, registering your commitment to keeping the Refuge pristine and undeveloped; and * Make an urgent donation supporting the Sierra Club and its efforts to take the fight to the Halls of Congress. You can give online via our secure and paperless web page. Oil industry lobbyists are swaggering into Washington, confident that the November elections have put them over the top in pursuit of their greedy, self-serving agenda. And they want to make the Arctic Refuge the first in a long line. To us, it's one of America's last great wildlands. To them, it's one of the spoils of victory. In past years, Sierra Club has succeeded in beating back assaults like these — but only with the help of proven friends like you. We need to send Big Oil a message — that Americans care about their natural heritage, and will do what it takes to protect it. Your urgent donation will help the Sierra Club and its efforts to expose the lie behind oil industry claims that drilling in the refuge will lower gas prices; unmask their false claim that they will conduct "ecologically safe drilling," and help us advance legislation that will confer permanent protection on this Arctic gem. Please sign our petition and make your urgent donation today. Sincerely, Carl Pope Executive Director P.S. Giving online saves time and paper, and is completely secure. P.P.S. Symbolism matters. This fight is the tip of the iceberg. If we win on the Refuge, it will give us critical momentum in our efforts to repel the other greedy and short-sighted initiatives that will be come next. If we lose, they are already targeting our coasts and the Rocky Mountains for drilling. |
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- Rebecca,
