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Environment Action
Alerts for
June 16 - June 24, 2000
NRDC Earthsmart
Just Earth
Network
Emergency for
Cars
Bulletin
for Environmental Activists
Global Response
DENlines Issue
#17
ENS News June
19
Earth Network Alert
ENS News June
16
Right Whales Endangered
Nature Conservancy
News June 21
SC Action #221 ENS News June 20 ENS News June 21
Aid to Columbia
Debate
'What's Missing
From
Vote Environment
News
Your
News?'
ZPG Alert LCV Update June 21 Urgent Alert from EDF
SC Action
#222
Critical Habitat
Endangered
ENS News June
22
American Automakers need
Good News about
to Enter Hybrid Market
Maheshwar Dam
Roadless Area Update ENS News June 23
from Natural Resources Defense Council June 16, 2000
Natural Resources Defense Council's
EARTHSMARTCARS BULLETIN
NRDC's earthsmartcars campaign
aims to convince U.S. automakers that the
key to
cleaner cars (or "earthsmartcars," as we call them) is new
technologies. Just as computers have transformed the world,
technology can
transform the auto industry.
June 16, 2000
******************************************
Contents
1) NEWS
a) Honda still leading the way in clean-car technology
b) Santiago limits driving to combat pollution problems
2) ACTION alerts
a) Speak up to dump dirty diesels
NOW!
b) Californians: Join the "Don't Mess with ZEV"
campaign to fight air
pollution and global warming
3) ABOUT OUR BULLETINS
4) ABOUT NRDC
******************************************
1) NEWS
Honda still leading the way in
clean-car technology
As part
of its continuing effort to position itself as the auto industry. s
technology leader, Honda Motor Co. recently announced it
will soon offer
its hybrid gasoline-electric engine in
the Civic, the best-selling small
car in the United
States. Honda became the first automaker to sell hybrid
vehicles in the United States when the two-passenger
Insight, which gets
61 mpg, went on sale in December
1999. The hybrid Civic will first be sold
overseas and
will appear in U.S. showrooms either in model year 2002 or
2003. The company also announced that by 2005 all Honda
four-cylinder
gasoline engines worldwide will meet
California's super-ultra-low-emission
vehicle standard.
. . .
Santiago limits driving to combat
pollution problems
Santiago,
Chile, home to five million people and one million cars and
trucks, is seeking new solutions for dealing with its
increasingly poor
air quality (air pollution in
Santiago has already reached a level serious
enough to
cause schools to cancel physical education classes and people to
don face masks outdoors). President Ricardo Lagos has
resorted to banning
private vehicles on major roads
during critical air quality days, and some
local
governments are reducing the number of available lanes on major
roads to discourage driving.
...........
2) ACTION alerts
Speak up to dump dirty diesels NOW!
Diesel pollution contributes to
ground-level ozone formation, summertime
smog,
increased asthma attacks, bronchitis and other cardiopulmonary
ailments, cancer, and heart disease. Responding to this
critical problem,
the Clinton administration recently
announced what may become the most
significant vehicle
pollution reduction news since the removal of lead
from
gasoline.
On May 17, the
Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules that
will slash smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 95 percent,
diesel particulates
that trigger asthma attacks by 90
percent, and sulfur levels in diesel
fuel by 97
percent. Reducing the high sulfur levels in diesel fuel is the
key to the proposal's success -- the near-elimination of
sulfur in diesel
fuel will allow the use of advanced
emission controls on diesel trucks and
buses, just as
eliminating lead from gasoline allowed the use of catalytic
converters on cars in the 1970s.
The EPA estimates that these
pollution cuts will be equivalent to taking
13 million
trucks off the road. Predictably, however, the oil industry is
attacking these steps as unnecessary and expensive, even
though EPA
calculations show that the rules will cost
less than four cents per gallon
of fuel. This month,
the EPA will hold hearings on the proposed rules.
== What to do ==
If you live in or
near a city listed below, come testify at one of the
EPA's public hearings. We've included several specific
talking points you
can raise. The hearings are
scheduled from 10:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., but
everyone
who signs up to speak by 6:30 will have the opportunity to do so.
If you know ahead of time that you. ll attend and want to
testify, it. s
best to notify Margaret Borushko at
(734) 214-4334 or Diesel@epa.gov prior
to the date of
the hearing. (Requests to testify or hearing-related
questions submitted via email should include the word
"hearings" in the
message's subject line.)
Even if you can't make it to a
hearing you still have an opportunity to be
heard. The
EPA is accepting written comments on the proposed rules. We. ve
included a sample letter below.
== Hearing schedule ==
New York City:
Monday, June 19
Crowne Plaza
Hotel, 1605 Broadway, New York, NY
Chicago:
Tuesday, June 20
Rosemont Convention Center, 5555 N. River Rd., Rosemont, IL
Atlanta:
Thursday, June 22
Renaissance
Atlanta Hotel, 590 W. Peachtree St, NW, Atlanta, GA
Los Angeles:
Tuesday, June 27
Hyatt Regency, 711 S. Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA
Denver:
Thursday, June 29
Doubletree
Hotel, 3203 Quebec St., Denver, CO
== Talking points ==
** Diesel pollution has been linked to many serious health
problems,
including increased asthma attacks, chronic
bronchitis, decreased lung
function and other pulmonary
disease, heart disease, and cancer.
** Over 130 million Americans live in areas that fail to
meet national
health standards for smog and soot. In
some cities, over half of the soot
comes from diesels.
** If the EPA implements the
proposed diesel rule, new diesel trucks and
buses will
be more than 90 percent cleaner than they are today, starting
in 2007.
** The EPA's diesel rule would mean longer, healthier lives
for many
Americans, and could lead to the biggest
public health advance in a
generation. The agency needs
to hold firm against oil industry lobbying
for weaker
sulfur and emission limits.
**
The EPA can make the proposed rule even better: the agency should not
give the industry an extra four years to phase in the
nitrogen oxides
limits, and should create new
incentives for fleets to switch from diesels
to
advanced vehicles that are powered by cleaner alternatives like natural
gas, electric batteries or fuel cells.
== Contact information (for
written comments) ==
You can email the EPA directly
from NRDC's Earth Action Center at
http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information below to send
your own message.
Att. n: Margaret Borushko
U.S. EPA, National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory
2000 Traverwood
Ann Arbor MI
48105
Fax: (734) 214-4816
Email: Diesel@epa.gov (If you send your comments by email,
you should
include your comments in the body of the
email message rather than as an
attachment.)
== Sample letter ==
[Date]
Dear Administrator Browner, Ms.
Borushko and the EPA:
Every
year, smog sends more than 150,000 Americans to emergency rooms and
40,000 more die prematurely from breathing particulate soot
pollution. We
can. t solve our national smog and soot
problems without cleaning up the
nation. s diesel
trucks and buses.
Nitrogen
oxides from diesel engines are a large part of our smog problems.
Particulate soot from diesel engines haves been linked with
increased
asthma attacks, bronchitis, cancer and heart
disease.
Diesel trucks and
buses must be cleaned up as soon as possible to protect
public health. To do so, however, you must first clean up
the diesel fuel
that powers them.
Therefore, I urge the EPA to:
** Reduce diesel sulfur levels to
a national cap of no more than 15 ppm
nationwide by
2006.
** Cut smog-forming nitrogen oxides pollution
from big trucks and buses by
95 percent, and
particulate soot pollution by 90 percent by no later than
2007.
** Ensure that big trucks
are meeting emissions standards on the roads,
not just
during emissions tests.
** Add incentives that will
increase the use of non-diesel alternatives
like
natural gas, electric batteries, fuel cells and other advanced
technologies.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
. . .
Californians: Join the "Don't Mess with ZEV" campaign to
fight air
pollution and global warming
As we all know, traditional
fuel-powered automobiles contribute to air
pollution,
global warming and our dependence on foreign oil. In 1990, the
California Air Resources Board first instituted the Zero
Emission Vehicle
(ZEV) regulation, requiring major
automakers to offer for sale vehicles
that produce no
exhaust emissions. The board reviews this regulation every
other year, and in each of the past two reviews the big oil
and auto
companies successfully pressured the board to
delay and weaken the ZEV
program. Nonetheless, 20,000
new electric vehicles and 30,000 gas-electric
hybrids
would be produced by 2003 under existing law.
In September, the Air Resources Board again will review the
ZEV mandate
and the car and oil companies are once
again teaming up to further weaken
or even to kill the
ZEV program. If Governor Davis and the board stand
firm
against industry pressure, however, automakers would have little
choice but to begin serious production of the 2003 models
in order to meet
the ZEV mandate. That means the
September board meeting is the last chance
for the auto
and oil industries to try to bury the clean car requirement.
The "Don't Mess with ZEV" campaign
is staffing public information tables
throughout the
state, asking concerned members of the public to sign a
short letter to Gov. Davis in support of the ZEV mandate.
So far the
response has been very encouraging, but the
campaign needs your help.
==
What to do ==
Please volunteer a few hours of your time
and help staff one of the "Don't
Mess with ZEV" public
information tables. Contact Ken Masterton to sign up
today. Even if you aren. t able to volunteer, please send a
message to
Governor Davis.
== Contact info ==
To volunteer:
Ken Masterton
Phone: (415) 868-1431
Email:
campmw@well.com
To send a
message to Governor Davis:
Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Bldg.
Sacramento, CA
95814
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 445-4633
Email:
graydavis@governor.ca.gov
==
Sample letter ==
[Date]
Dear Governor Davis:
I am writing to urge your support
for California. s Zero-Emission Vehicle
(ZEV) program.
The program is critical to reduce California. s air
pollution, global warming emissions and costly dependence
on foreign oil.
Motor vehicles
cause the majority of California. s air pollution, not only
from tailpipe emissions, but from oil refinery emissions
and evaporation
during transport, refueling and
storage. Gasoline contaminates our water
supplies and
puts the state. s coastline at risk of oil spills. Motor
vehicles also cause more than half of California. s global
warming
emissions.
In addition, gas-guzzling motor vehicles cost consumers
billions of
dollars a year at the gas pump and make the
state vulnerable to oil price
increases and shocks.
Californians pump over 14 billion gallons of
gasoline
each year and another two billion gallons of diesel. At current
prices, consumers will spend over $20 billion at the gas
pump this year
and will likely spend more in future
years.
California needs a
strong ZEV program to move the state away from its
costly and harmful dependence on oil. As the number of
vehicles and
vehicle miles double in the next few
decades, the costs will only
increase. California can
avoid those costs by encouraging the development
and
sale of cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles such as battery
electrics, hybrid electrics and fuel cells.
The ZEV program can take credit
for bringing battery electrics and hybrid
electrics to
market and is helping to spur the development of fuel cell
vehicles. Continuing a strong ZEV program will encourage
the auto makers
to improve existing technologies,
develop new technologies and put more of
these clean,
advanced vehicles on the road.
For all these reasons, I strongly urge you to support a
strong ZEV
program.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
...........
3) ABOUT OUR BULLETINS
This bulletin is distributed monthly by request to people
who have joined
NRDC's earthsmartcars campaign by
signing our petition urging automakers
to manufacture
hybrid gasoline-electric cars. To sign the petition and
receive the bulletin, visit our website at
http://www.nrdc.org/earthsmartcars. To unsubscribe from
EARTHSMARTCARS
BULLETIN, follow the instructions at the
very end of this email.
Other
NRDC Bulletins:
EARTH ACTION
is sent biweekly and calls out urgent environmental issues
requiring individual action. To subscribe to EARTH ACTION,
send a blank
email message from the email address at
which you wish to receive the
bulletin to
nrdc-action-subscribe@igc.topica.com. To unsubscribe from
EARTH ACTION, send a blank email message to
nrdc-action-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com.
LEGISLATIVE WATCH is sent biweekly
when Congress is in session and tracks
environmental
bills moving through Congress. To subscribe to LEGISLATIVE
WATCH, send a blank email message from the email address at
which you wish
to receive the bulletin to
nrdc-news-subscribe@igc.topica.com. To
unsubscribe from
LEGISLATIVE WATCH, send a blank email message to
nrdc-news-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com.
CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK ACTION
ALERT is distributed bimonthly to
members of NRDC's
California Activist Network and provides action tools to
Californians and others concerned with protecting the
state's natural
resources and the health of its
citizens. To join the network, visit
NRDC's Save Wild
California website at http://www.nrdc.org/wildcalifornia
or send an email message to
join-california-activist-network@earth.lyris.net. To
unsubscribe, send a
message to
leave-california-activist-network@earth.lyris.net.
...........
4) ABOUT NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a non-profit
environmental
organization with 400,000 members
nationwide and a staff of scientists,
attorneys and
environmental experts. Our mission is to protect the world's
natural resources and improve the quality of the human
environment.
For more
information about NRDC or how to become a member of NRDC, please
contact us at:
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY
10011
212-727-2700
General
email: nrdcinfo@nrdc.org
Earthsmartcars email:
earthsmartcars@nrdc.org
from Defenders of Wildlife June 16, 2000
DENlines Issue #17
Defenders
Electronic Network (DEN)
Friday June 16, 2000
1. SHARKS: Anti-Finning
Bill Passes House, Moves to Senate
2. PYGMY OWL: Activists
Help Protect Sonoran Desert Species
3. CONGRESS:
Conservationists Fight Sneak Attack on the Environment
4. RED WOLVES: Legal
Victory in North Carolina
5. CREATURE FEATURE:
Florida Black Bear
6. FOR THE RECORD:
Global Warming and Climate Change
=================================================================
1. SHARKS: Anti-Finning
Bill Passes House, Moves to Senate
By a vote of 390 - 1, the U.S. House of Representatives
approved
the Shark Finning Prohibition Act (H.R. 3535)
which prohibits, in
waters off the U.S. coast, the
inhumane and wasteful practice of
cutting off the
valuable fins of a shark and throwing the animal
back
in the water to bleed to death or drown. The bill now moves to
the Senate where it is expected to meet more opposition.
Urge your
Senators to pass this important legislation.
Send them a free e-mail
by going to the DEN Action
Center at http://www.denaction.org .
2. PYGMY OWL: Activists
Help Protect Sonoran Desert Species
Since our last DENlines, President Clinton announced the
designation
of the expanded 129,000-acre Ironwood
Forest National Monument to
protect permanently some of
the last remaining stands of ironwood
trees, a species
found only in the Sonoran desert. Hundreds of
Arizona
DEN activists sent e-mails pushing for more than the initial
96,000-acre proposal in order to protect additional
critical habitat
for the endangered cactus ferruginous
pygmy owl. Thanks to all who
responded. You
made a real difference!
3. CONGRESS: Conservationists
Fight Sneak Attack on the Environment
This week on the House floor, conservationists were
successful in
striking four anti-environmental riders
attached to a number of
federal spending bills. Riders
are an increasingly popular back-door
tactic for
members of Congress to push through controversial
legislation, often without hearings, floor votes or media
attention.
Nearly 30 other environmentally destructive
riders are still pending,
including provisions that
would limit funding for endangered species,
destroy
pristine beach habitat in coastal North Carolina, prohibit
funding for America's wild rivers and block efforts to
combat the
impact of global warming. For a complete
list of all FY2001
anti-environmental riders and their
current status, visit our
website at http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/riders/riders.html
4. WOLVES: Legal Victory
in North Carolina
A federal
appeals court upheld a regulation that forbids the
indiscriminate killing on private property of the
approximately
60 remaining endangered red wolves. Two
North Carolina counties
and local landowners filed the
suit in an attempt to have the
regulation declared
unconstitutional. In 1987, Defenders helped
lead
recovery efforts to release endangered red wolves into two
national wildlife refuges in North Carolina in a bid to
save the
species, which had been driven to the brink of
extinction.
For more on this
story click here:
http://www.defenders.org/releases/pr2000/pr060700.html
5. CREATURE FEATURE:
Florida Black Bear
Most people
are surprised to learn that a unique subspecies of the
American black bear lives in Florida. The bear faces
serious threats
related to Florida's growing human
population including habitat loss
and fragmentation and
fatal collisions with vehicles. At one time,
up to
12,000 black bears roamed Florida from the Keys to the
panhandle. Today, an estimated 1,500 struggle to survive.
To learn
more about the Habitat for Bears Campaign, a
joint effort by
Defenders of Wildlife and the Florida
Sierra Club, see an online
slide show or find out what
you can do to help, visit our web site
at http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/flbears/flbears.html
6. FOR THE RECORD:
Global Warming and Climate Change
"Sea-level rise will very likely cause further loss of
coastal
wetlands ... and put coastal communities at a
greater risk of storm
surges, especially in the
Southeast. Reduction in snowpack will
very likely alter
the timing and amount of water supplies, potentially
exacerbating water shortages and conflicts, particularly
throughout
the western US. The melting of glaciers in
the high elevation West
and in Alaska represents the
loss or diminishment of unique national
treasures of
the American landscape. "
--
conclusions on the effect of globalnwarming from the June
12
report entitled "Climate Change Impacts on the United
States."
The report represents four years of research by
the
U.S. Global Change Research Program including input
from
more than 300 scientists. For more information
on
global warming, visit our web site at:
http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/globalwarming/globalwarming.html
* TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!
FORWARD THIS ISSUE AND HELP SPREAD
THE
NEWS ABOUT WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION *
As a thank you for taking action and staying informed on
important
wildlife and conservation issues through
DENlines, Defenders invites
you to send a FREE wolf
e-card to your friends telling them about
DEN. The
e-cards feature a photo of a wolf and a personal message
from you.
To send a free wolf e-card go to:
http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/ecard.pl?dir=defenders&group=wolves
====================================================================
To subscribe, visit Defenders' website at
http://www.defenders.org/den
or send an e-mail to
denlines@defenders.org and put
the word SUBSCRIBE in
the subject line.
====================================================================
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to
denlines@defenders.org and put the
word UNSUBSCRIBE in
the subject line.
====================================================================
If your e-mail address has changed, send an e-mail to
changeaddress@defenders.org and put your new e-mail
address in the
subject line. Make sure you put nothing
in the subject line other
than your new e-mail address.
====================================================================
DENlines is a biweekly publication of Defenders of
Wildlife, a
leading national conservation organization
recognized as one of the
nation's most progressive
advocates for wildlife and its habitat and
known for
its effective leadership on saving endangered species such
as brown bears and gray wolves, Defenders advocates new
approaches
to wildlife conservation that protect
species before they become
endangered. Founded in 1947,
Defenders is a nonprofit 501(c)(3)
organization with
more than 380,000 members and supporters.
Defenders
of Wildlife
1101
14th Street, NW, Suite 1400
Washington,
DC 20005
http://www.defenders.org
http://www.kidsplanet.org
Copyright
(c) 2000 by Defenders of Wildlife.
from Environment News Service June 16, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARIES
NOT SAFE FOR FISH
By Donald
Sutherland
WASHINGTON, DC, June 16, 2000 (ENS) - Marine
conservationists claim the
government of the United
States is permitting commercial fishing that is
damaging to essential fish habitat in national marine
sanctuaries in
violation of federal laws.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-02.html
******************************************************************
WEAK PIPELINE SAFETY
ENFORCEMENT CLAIMS 22 LIVES EACH YEAR
WASHINGTON, DC, June 16, 2000 (ENS) - A new federal report
finds that
pipeline regulators are not enforcing many
pipeline safety rules, and
letting violators slip by
with a slap on the wrench. The report released
Thursday
by the investigative branch of Congress warns that inadequate
regulation may be contributing to the increasing number of
pipeline
accidents each year.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-07.html
******************************************************************
CLIMATE CHANGE COULD WIPE OUT
MIGRATING SONGBIRDS
HANOVER, New
Hampshire, June 16, 2000 (ENS) - Global climate change could
greatly reduce the number of songbirds migrating between
North and South
America. Researchers from Dartmouth
College and Tulane University have shown
that El Niño
cycles, which could worsen due to global warming, reduce the
birds. ability to survive and reproduce.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-06.html
******************************************************************
EARTH'S SPREADING DESERTS GET
WORLD ATTENTION
BONN, Germany,
June 16, 2000 (ENS) - Public concerts, theater performances,
seminars, workshops, special training sessions, visits to
field projects,
and media campaigns are some of the
initiatives that countries affected by
land degradation
and drought will organize on Saturday to mark the 6th World
Day to Combat Desertification.
For
full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-04.html
******************************************************************
MERCURY FROM PERUVIAN GOLD MINE
DUMPED IN TRANSIT
CHOROPAMPA,
Peru, June 16, 2000 (ENS) - Eight people have been hospitalized
including a woman in critical condition following a mercury
spill near the
Minera Yanacocha mine, 600 kilometers
(375 miles) north of Lima, Peru.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-01.html
******************************************************************
CYANIDE SPILL MINE REOPENS IN
ROMANIA
BAIA MARE, Romania, June
16, 2000 (ENS) - A gold processing facility in
northeastern Romania has reopened less than six months after
a cyanide spill
from the plant contaminated drinking
water for 2.5 million people and wiped
out aquatic life
in Central European rivers.
For full text and graphics
visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-03.html
******************************************************************
WEAK PIPELINE SAFETY ENFORCEMENT
CLAIMS 22 LIVES EACH YEAR
WASHINGTON, DC, June 16, 2000 (ENS) - A new federal report
finds that
pipeline regulators are not enforcing many
pipeline safety rules, and
letting violators slip by
with a slap on the wrench. The report released
Thursday
by the investigative branch of Congress warns that inadequate
regulation may be contributing to the increasing number of
pipeline
accidents each year.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-07.html
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
***************************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JUNE 16, 2000
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000. All rights reserved.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-16-09.html
***************************************************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
***************************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
***************************************************************************
TransAlta and HEW complete
world's first trans-Atlantic emissions reduction
trade
CALGARY, Alberta, June 16,
-/E-Wire/-- TransAlta announced today the
first ever
trans-Atlantic trade of carbon dioxide emissions reductions with
the German electric company Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke
AG (HEW). The
24,000-tonne emissions reduction trade was
brokered by New York-based
Natsource®
LLC. The 24,000 tonnes represented in the trade is equal to the
annual emissions from approximately 3,000 cars.
CONTACT: Peter Symons, (403)
267-7577, Pager: (403) 213-7041 or Dr.
Helmuth-M. Groscurth, +49-40- 6396-3086, Fax:
+49-40- 6396-19 3086
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/16June0001.html
***************************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
***************************************************************************
TO NATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
EDITORS:
EPA Seeks Comment on
Title VI Proposal
WASHINGTON, June 16
-/E-Wire/-- EPA today released for public comment
combined draft civil rights and environmental protection
guidance in its
effort to protect public health and
economic progress while ensuring that
pollution does not
unfairly and disproportionately affect minority
communities.
/CONTACT: Tanya
Meekins of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
202-564-7819/
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov.civilrights/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/16June0002.html
******************************************************************
TRANSMIT YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON
E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS
******************************************************************
from Sierra Club June 19, 2000
SC-ACTION Vol. II, #221
DEFENDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL
AGENDA
June 16, 2000
-------------------------QUOTE
OF THE DAY-----------------------------
"Caribou like pipelines
because it gives them a place to scratch."
- Senator Ben Nighthorse
Campbell on why drilling will not effect
wildlife in the Arctic Refuge,
6/15
---------------------CONTENTS:
FRIDAY ALL-SC-ACTION----------------
*FEATURED ACTION ITEM: HELP
STOP GLOBAL WARMING *
1) HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
2) ONE MONTH
LEFT TO PROTECT WILD FORESTS
3) END COMMERCIAL LOGGING
CAMPAIGN
4) CAFOs
5) SPRAWL
6) POPULATION
*****************FEATURED
ACTION**********************
GLOBAL WARMING: SENATE VICTORY
ON CAFE
With the Senate CAFE vote
looming, the auto industry was running
scared and cut a deal to
kick-start a study of CAFE standards. The
deal jump-starts the fuel
economy process by having the Department of
Transportation (DOT) and the
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) do a
joint study on miles per
gallon standards and make a recommendation to
Congress by July 1,
2001. This will get DOT going on collecting the
data and looking at the issues
involved. It will also put information
together that will be
essential to a rulemaking process next time
around.
This
is a huge victory for the environment and consumers, and is a
direct result of your
relentless phone calls and letters to your
senators. The study
would not have happened without the outstanding
efforts of all of you telling
the Senate to get moving on cleaner
cars. The auto
industry knew that we were going to get more votes
than last year-- and now we've
got the ball rolling on better CAFE
standards. WE WON,
THEY LOST!
TAKE ACTION: Call and write
the White House and urge them to take
advantage of the opportunity
that Congress has given them to improve
miles per gallon
standards. State that you're counting on them to
make sure that this study
leads to tougher miles per gallon standards
and you hope they will take
the lead on the biggest single step we can
take to curb global warming,
raising CAFE standards. Raising CAFE
standards will reduce our
dependence upon foreign oil, slash pollution
and will save us money at the
gas pump.
1) HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE
ENVIRONMENT URGENT ACTION
Mexico's Attorney General Uses
Backhanded Court Tactic to Seek the
Conviction of Mexican Earth
Defenders
On June 14, in a backhanded
and deceitful maneuver, Mexico's Attorney
General's office refiled its
conclusion with the court urging the
conviction of anti-logging
environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel and
Teodoro Cabrera on the charges
of drug-trafficking and illegal
possession of weapons. In so
doing, the prosecution broke a verbal
agreement with defense
attorneys to refile nonaccusatory conclusions.
The contemptible maneuver was
necessary due to irregularities in the
original conclusions filed
June 6. The defense now has a period of
about three weeks to file
their rebuttal.
Montiel and Cabrera have spent
the last 13+ months in prison since
their arrest May 2, 1999.
After their detention, they were beaten and
tortured until they confessed
to concocted charges of drug-trafficking
and illegal possession of
weapons. In reality, their only "crime" was
organizing their community to
protest excessive and possibly illegal
logging of old growth forests
in the Southern Sierra Madre.
TAKE ACTION: Since the Mexican
Attorney General has responded to our
well-reasoned arguments for
the immediate and unconditional release of
Montiel and Cabrera with
detestable court trickery, we are asking
concerned activists write or
call your local papers urging them to
cover this story.
Environmental activism is not a crime and
environmentalists are not
criminals.
For a copy of talking points
and a letter to the editor, please call
or e-mail Sam Parry at (202)
547-1141 or sam.parry@sierraclub.org. You
can refer to our Web site at
www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
2) ONE
MONTH LEFT: WRITE A WILD FOREST LETTER TODAY
Right now, the Forest Service
is considering plans that could protect
the last wild areas in our
National Forests. The Forest Service is
asking American citizens to
answer basic questions like: should our
last wild forests be logged?
Should the Tongass National Forest in
Alaska - the largest pristine
temperate rainforest on the planet - be
protected or remain open to
clearcut logging and roadbuilding.
For the next five weeks -- the
door is open to make conservation
history! Please
take the time to write a hand written, personal
letter to the Forest Service
calling for the protection of all of our
last wild forests roadless
areas from all damaging activities. If you
have already written a letter
- hold a letter writing party. Encourage
your family, friends,
children, neighbors and colleagues to write a
letter too!
Here
are some points to address in your letter: Over half of our
National Forests have already
been hammered by roadbuilding, logging
and other damaging activities
- we should protect what's left. Put
these last, untouched areas
roadless areas of our National Forests
off-limits to roadbuilding,
logging and other destructive activities;
Please protect our nation's
last temperate rainforest -- the Tongass
National Forest in Alaska,
from logging and roadbuilding. Letters
should also address why wild
forests are important to you. Send your
letters to:
Chief
Mike Dombeck
U.S. Forest
Service
c/o Sierra Club
408 C Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
3)
PROTECT OUR WILD HERITAGE - STOP LOGGING OUR NATIONAL FORESTS
Protecting forests make
environmental and economic sense. The Forest
Service predicts that in the
year 2000, recreation, hunting and
fishing in National Forests
will contribute 38 times more income to
the nation's economy than
logging, and will create 31 times more jobs.
More than 3,000 species of
fish and wildlife and 10,000 plant species
-- including 230 endangered
plant and animal species -- rely on
National Forests for habitat.
The National Forest Protection
and Restoration Act would eliminate the
commercial logging program on
federal public lands, promote
restoration, and help
communities that receive logging revenue develop
a more diverse and stable
economy.
** Call your Member
of Congress through the Capitol switchboard at
(202) 224-3121 and urge them
to co-sponsor HR 1396, the National
Forest Protection and
Restoration Act. **
4) CAFOS: Keep Water Clean
from Factory Farms!
CAFOs (Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operations) are giant
corporate-owned livestock
factories that churn out cattle, hogs,
chickens, and turkeys in
staggering numbers and produce massive
amounts of animal waste in the
process (2.7 trillion pounds per year).
Too often this waste ends up
in our rivers and streams, contaminating
drinking water and spreading
disease. According to the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), hog,
chicken and cattle waste has polluted
35,000 miles of rivers in 22
states and contaminated groundwater in 17
states.
You
can take action to help protect America's lakes, stream and rivers
from the animal waste produced
by CAFOs by telling Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman to stop
protecting factory farms from the Clean
Water Act. It is crucial that
he hears how important clean water is to
you. If possible, please call
or email him so he hears from you as
soon as possible.
For
more information and a sample letter or message please visit
http://www.sierraclub.org/takeaction/cleanwater/cwemail.asp.
His
address: The Honorable
Dan Glickman, Secretary U.S. Department of
Agriculture, 14th &
Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250. His
email: agsec@usda.gov. His
phone: 202-720-2791
5) Protect America's Open
Space and Farmland From Sprawl
Every American is feeling the
consequences of sprawl. Across America
"sprawl" --- scattered
development that increases traffic, saps local
resources and destroys open
space --- is taking a serious toll on our
environment, our health and
our quality of life. The Senate can take
steps to curb some of the
effects of sprawl by supporting S. 1558, the
Community Open Space Bonds
Act.
The Community Open Space Bond
Act introduced by Senators Baucus (D-MT)
and Hatch (R-UT) would give
state, local and tribal governments up to
$1.9 billion annually for five
years in bonding authority to combat
sprawl. The program allows
states and local governments to carry out
their own conservation
priorities by using zero interest bonds to
purchase open space, protect
water quality, improve access to parks,
and help communities
re-develop abandoned industrial city centers. The
program is voluntary,
grassroots-driven and community-focused.
Call or write your Senators
and tell him or her to cosponsor S. 1558,
the Community Open Space Bonds
Act. For more information and a sample
letter visit http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/sprawl/bonds.asp.
6) POPULATION
Improve global health: Contact
your Senators and Representative
The Sierra Club's Population
Program is committed to environmental
protection and population
stabilization and works for these goals by
advocating for increased U.S.
funding for international family
planning
programs. Progress has been made. More women are receiving
family planning services
around the world. But, it is estimated that
more than 150 million married
women in developing nations request
modern methods of
contraception, but do not have access to them.
According to the World Health
Organization, as a result of lack of
access to proper prenatal care
and safe motherhood programs nearly
600,000 women die each year
from complications of pregnancy and
childbirth. Annually,
18 million women suffer from pregnancy-related
health problems that can be
permanently disabling.
The Global Health Act of 2000,
introduced by Congressman Joe Crowley
(D-NY) and Senator Leahy
(D-VT), is legislation that addresses these
critical
issues. The Global Health Act increases assistance to
developing nations with high
levels of premature death, by improving
children's health and
nutrition and by reducing unintended
pregnancies. It
calls for an additional $1 billion dollars for
health, child survival, and
voluntary family planning programs in the
existing budget.
TAKE
ACTION: Contact your Representative and Senators and ask them to
endorse HR 3826 and S 2387, to
help protect the lives of women around
the world. Capitol
Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Clinton's
e-mail - president@whitehouse.gov
Gore'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 Rainforest Action Network June 19, 2000
COLOMBIA INFOinBRIEF ALERT 06/16/00
Please post and distribute.
_____________________________________________________
SENATE SCHEDULED TO DEBATE / VOTE ON
THE U.S. AID PACKAGE to COLOMBIA MONDAY, JUNE 19
COLOMBIA CIVIL SOCIETY SENDS A
MESSAGE REJECTING PLAN COLOMBIA
______________________________________________________
After extensive delays, the Senate
is scheduled to begin debate on the U.S.
aid package to
Colombia on Monday, June 19, 2000 at 2:00pm. The majority
of this package, amounting to over $1 billion, will go to
the most abusive
military in the Western Hemisphere and
pull the United States further into
an un-winnable
counterinsurgency war. Moreover, it will promote an
ineffective drug policy that has failed for over a
decade. The Senate
could VOTE on the
package, attached to the foreign operations
appropriations bill, as early as Monday evening.
At the same time, numerous Colombian
civil society organizations have come
together to reject
Plan Colombia and U.S. assistance. They are asking U.S.
groups and individuals to join them in their efforts to STOP
U.S. military
assistance from exacerbating the
conflict. Included in PART 2 below, is a
declaration from over 80 Colombian human rights, social, and
peace
organizations rejecting U.S. assistance.
A POSITIVE ALTERNATIVE
When the Senate considers the package, Senator Wellstone
(D-MN) will offer
an amendment to shift funds from
Colombian military aid to drug treatment
at
home. This amendment gives you the opportunity to help prevent
the
United States from exacerbating Colombia's internal
conflict and make
positive steps toward an effective
drug policy.
YOU CAN MAKE A
DIFFERENCE by CONTACTING YOUR SENATORS
______________________________________________________
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:
Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard:
202-224-3121
Or look up your Senators on the
Internet: www.senate.gov
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
PART 1: CALL YOUR SENATORS
AND ASK
THEM TO:
______________________________________________________
1) Oppose military aid to Colombia.
To avoid getting the United
States more deeply involved with Colombia's
infamous
armed forces, I ask you to oppose aid to the Colombian army due to
human rights concerns, especially army links to brutal
paramilitary forces.
Instead, I urge you to support a
substantial positive aid package for
Colombia,
including: humanitarian relief; crop substitution programs;
economic assistance; programs to strengthen Colombia's
judicial system; and
aid for civil society human rights
and peace initiatives.
2)
Support Senator Wellstone's amendment that shifts funds for military
assistance to drug prevention and treatment programs in the
United States.
Because the
United States "War on Drugs" is one that must be fought at
home, I ask you to increase funding for drug treatment and
prevention
programs here in our own country. Treatment
is 10 times more cost effective
than interdiction in
reducing the use of cocaine in the United States.
Yet, a
recent study by researchers at Substance Abuse Mental Health
Services Administration has indicated that 48% of the need
for drug
treatment, not including alcohol abuse, is
unmet in the United States. **
3) Support amendments that increase humanitarian assistance
for Colombia's
estimated 1.8 million internally
displaced persons.
4) Retain
strong human rights conditions already included in the bill.
Every day, at least 250 to 300 U.S.
military personnel and advisors train
and share
intelligence with Colombia's security forces in ways that support
counterinsurgency efforts. Our government has already funded
the creation
of a 950-troop counternarcotics battalion
that is being trained to operate
in Southern
Colombia. This U.S. aid package will help to equip and train
two more battalions already in the works. We must
ensure U.S. dollars do
not support human rights abusers.
5) SPEAK-OUT! The more senators
that speak out during the Senate debate,
the better.
Please ask your senators to share their concerns regarding
human rights in Colombia during the vote.
_____________________________________________________
PART 2: FAX A LETTER TO SUPPORT CIVIL SOCIETY
GROUPS
IN COLOMBIA REJECTING U.S. ASSISTANCE
_____________________________________________________
1) Cut and paste the following
declaration from Colombian NGOs into a
separate document
2) Write a cover letter supporting the declaration and
rejecting U.S.
assistance to Colombia
3) Fax it to your Senators' offices this weekend!
--------------cut &
paste -----------------------------
COLOMBIA ANSWERS
PLAN COLOMBIA: A
PLAN FOR PEACE, OR A PLAN FOR WAR?
A DECLARATION FROM SOCIAL and
Human
Rights NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS,
AND THE PEACE
MOVMENT IN COLOMBIA
BOGOTA, MAY 31, 2000
We would like to express our support
for those offers of international
assistance that
contribute to resolving the armed conflict through a
process of political negotiation, and that strengthen and
unite Colombian
society and the economy. We
support proposals that include viable and
integral
solutions to the problem of drug trafficking, the design of a new
development model agreed to by the people, and the
strengthening of a new
kind of democratic
institutionality.
However, Plan
Colombia, presented by the Government of President Pastrana,
has been developed with the same logic of political and
social exclusion
that has been one of the structural
causes of the conflict Colombians have
experienced since
the time of our formation as a Republic.
In this same vein, because we feel it is a mistake, we are
obliged to
reject the fact that Plan
Colombia includes, as one of its strategies, a
military component that not only fails to resolve the
narco-trafficking
problem, but also endangers the
efforts to build peace, increases illicit
crop
production, violates the Amazonic ecosystem, aggravates the
humanitarian and human rights crisis, multiplies the problem
of forced
displacement, and worsens the social crisis
with fiscal adjustment
policies. In its
social component, the Plan is limited to attending to
some of the tangential causes and effects of the conflict.
What we are proposing is the
need for a concerted agreement between
different actors
in Colombian society and the international community, one
where civil society is the principal interlocutor, where
solutions to the
varied conflicts are found, and where
stable and sustainable peace is
constructed. We are ready and willing to design
strategies, to define
forms of implementation and to
monitor a plan that reflects these
intentions.
TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THE
ARGUMENTS PUT FORTH ABOVE, WE THE UNDERSIGNED
ARE GIVEN
NO CHOICE BUT TO REJECT THE U.S. ASSISTANCE FOR COLOMBIA THAT YOU
ARE CONSIDERING AT THIS TIME.
Sincerely,
*
Asamblea Permanente de la Sociedad Civil por la Paz * Asamblea Nacional
de Jóvenes por la Paz * Red de Iniciativas contra la Guerra
y por la Paz -
REDEPAZ * Organización Nacional Indígena
de Colombia * Plataforma
Colombiana de Derechos Humanos,
Democracia y Desarrollo * Red Nacional de
Mujeres
Regional Bogotá * Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres * Mandato Ciudadano
por la Paz, la Vida y la Libertad * Partido Comunista
Colombiano *
Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos
- ANUC-UR * Central Unitaria de
Trabajadores CUT *
Federación Sindical Agraria FENSUAGRO * Frente Social y
Político Amplio * Red de Universidades por la Paz y la
Convivencia *
Instituto de Estudios para la Paz INDEPAZ
* Asociación Nacional de
Estudiantes Universitarios ACEU
* Asociación Nacional de Estudiantes de
Secundaria ANDES
* Unión Sindical Obrera * Asamblea por la Paz de la USO *
Asociación de Trabajo Interdisciplinario - ATI * Colectivo
de Abogados José
Alvear Restrepo * Corporación para el
desarrollo social Alternativo - MINGA
* Comité de
Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos * Corporación Región *
Benposta, Nación de muchachos * Centro de Investigación y
Educación Popular
CINEP * Comisión Colombiana de
Juristas * Fundación Cultura Democrática *
Juventud
comunista JUCO * Casa de La Mujer * Consultoría de Derechos
Humanos y el Desplazamiento * ASMEDAS * Grupo de Apoyo a
Organizaciones de
Desplazados (GAD) *
Instituto Latinoamericano de Servicios Legales
Alternativas, ILSA * Proceso de Comunidades Negras * Vamos
Mujer * Viva La
Ciudadanía * Asociación Nacional de
Ayuda Solidaria ANDAS * Corporación de
Promoción Popular
* Corporación de Luchadores de la Paz y la Democracia *
FUNCOP * CENSAT AGUA VIVA * Coordinación Nacional de
Desplazados *
Corriente de Renovación Socialista *
Comisión Intergregacional JUSTICIA Y
PAZ * Unión de
Ciudadanas de Colombia * FAUSALUD * Comité Local de Derechos
Humanos * Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris * Corporación Centro
de Promoción y
Cultura * Red Nacional de Salud * Unión
Patriótica * Fundación para la
Educación y el Desarrollo
FEDES * FIDHAP * Movimiento Cimarrón *
Confederación
General de Trabajadores Democráticas CGTD * ULTRADEC *
Colectivo de Abogados Guillermo Marín * Corporación Madre
Tierra *
Fundación Parcomún * Fundación Mencoldes
* Centro Cleber * Asociación de
Familiares de
Detenidos y Desaparecidos - ASFADDES * Corporación Centro
Cleber * Corporación Utopías * Humanidad Vigente Coporación
Jurídica *
Funprocep * Corporación Jurídica Libertad *
Fundecima - CIMA * Pastoral
Social Villavicencio *
Comité Permanente para los derechos Humanos Regional
Caldas * Confederación Nacional de Pensionados * Corporación
Región *
Presbiterio de la Costa Norte * Instituto
Popular de Capacitación - IPC *
Confederacion de
Pensionados de Colombia - C.P.C. * Fundación Sol y
Tierra - Popayan * Corporación AVRE
-------------------cut & paste
------------
___________________________________________
NEED MORE INFO ON THE
U.S. AID
PACKAGE OR U.S. DRUG POLICY?
___________________________________________
** For more info on effective drug
policy, please contact Common Sense for
Drug Policy http://www.csdp.org **
*** For up-to-date info on the U.S.
aid package including details on the
dollar amounts
included in the Senate version of the bill, visit the CIP
web-page http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/aid/ ***
__________________________________________________
For general information contact:
Latin America Working Group: (202) 546-7010, lawg@lawg.org
U.S. Colombia/Coordinating Office (202) 232-8090:
agiffen@igc.org
---------------------
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from Global Response June 19, 2000
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
Global Response has joined
Amnesty International, the Sierra Club and other
organizations to form the Just Earth Network. The
Just Earth Network
issues Action alerts
concerning violations of the human rights of
environmental activists and of communities that are
struggling to prevent
environmental
destruction. Global Response will circulate Just Earth
Network alerts to our Quick Response
Network. Thanks for participating in
these
international letter campaigns to protect the rights of environmental
activists everywhere.
Greetings to all Just Earth Network Members:
Below is an action circular issued
by Amnesty on Colonel Pratap Save, a
human rights
defender in India who died on April 20, 2000 as a result of
excessive police force. Colonel Save was
organizing community opposition to a
proposed port in
Umbergaon at the time of his death. The government of Gujarat is
engaged in negotiation with US-based Unocal and NATELCO, an
Indian company
to construct the port. Unocal
is one of the companies being targeted by our
joint
campaign for its role in the construction of the Yadana gas pipeline
project in Burma. India is also a country being
targeted by this campaign for alleged
human rights
violations by its police against activists opposed to the
construction of the Narmada Dam project.
Please take action on this
circular. Write to the Indian authorities and
express concerns about the actions of members of the State
Reserve Police
in beating peaceful
protesters. Urge the authorities to ensure an impartial
and independent investigation into the death in custody of
Colonel Save and
bring those responsible to
justice. Thank you all for your activism around this
program and our campaign to defend those who give the earth
a voice.
Best regards, Folabi
India: Excessive Police Force
Results in Death of Human Rights Defender
Colonel Save
On April 20th Human Rights Defender
Colonel Pratap Save, President of
Kinara Bachao Samiti
(Save the Coast Committee), died after surgery to remove a
blood clot in his brain that was the result of excessive
police force used
against him when he helped organize
community protest to stop the construction of a
proposed
port in Umbergaon at the border of the Indian states of Maharashtra and
Gujarat.
On
April 7th, approximately 2,500 local people, including women and
children, were involved in a peaceful demonstration against
the construction of the
port.
The State Reserve Police (SRP) reportedly set up tents on
private lands
used by the locals to prepare for the
entry of private parties entrusted with
surveying the
areas for the proposed port. As demonstrators began protesting, the SRP
started to lathi charge the crowd, throwing tear gas shells
at the
demonstrators. The police reportedly
arrested 47 people and took them to
the Umbergaon police
station where they were detained overnight.
In the early morning of April 8th, leaders of the Kinara
Bachao Sangharsh
Samiti, lawyer Bhupendra Macchi and
Colonel Save were picked up by the
police. According to
reports, police arrested Colonel Save without an arrest
warrant. At the police station, all the activists were
reportedly beaten by police
with lathis [long wooden
sticks] while in custody. They were also threatened by
the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Bulsara district that
they would be
"done away with". Colonel
Pratap Save was reportedly held by policemen and
repeatedly struck with several blows from a lathi on his
chest till he collapsed on
the ground.
In the afternoon of April 8th, those
arrested were taken to Paldi where the
magistrate
granted them bail. However the police rearrested the detainees
under section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which
provides for preventive
detention and activists were
detained for a further 24 hours before being
released
again. Upon re-arrest Colonel Save's health started to
deteriorate and he was taken to the local hospital where on
April 9th he underwent an
emergency operation to remove
a blood clot in his brain. However, he never recovered
from the operation and on 20 April 2000 Colonel Save died.
The Mamlatdar [administrative
head of the sub-district] is reported to have
given
orders to the police to use "any means necessary" to suppress
protests against the construction of the port. He has
subsequently claimed that he
had direct orders from the
Chief Minister and reportedly apologized to
villagers
for the police violence. According to a press report, a fact finding committee
into the death of Colonel Save has been set up by the
state Government, but they
have refused to take action
against the senior police officer. In response to
this
refusal, several human rights activists have filed a petition in the
Gujarat High Court. In addition, a state Congress
delegation has also met with the
Governor, Mr Sunder
Singh Bhandari to urge him to set up a judicial
inquiry.
The project is proposed for
construction within the Coastal Regulation Zone
which is
an environmentally fragile area. Local people claim that they
have not been consulted about the construction of the port
which it is estimated
will affect several thousand
fishermen and their families who rely on the
fishing
trade in the area for their livelihood. In response to the proposed
construction the local community formed two groups, the
Save the Coast
Committee and the Umbergaon District
Action Committee to Stop the Port, which have
conducted
studies of the impact of the project and peacefully agitating
against the construction for over 15 months.
Activists from both groups assert
that the construction of a port would
destroy the
livelihoods of the fishermen. The reclamation of land and heavy
traffic of ships would destroy breeding grounds and
dramatically affect marine life in
the
area. They argue that dredging of the land to construct the port
would
lead to the ingress of salinity in the groundwater
and a fall in the agricultural
yield. Farmers who live
off the land through growing paddy, mangoes etc would be
deprived of their livelihood as studies give evidence that
the rich and
fertile soil would be dramatically
affected. Poor fisherman would be especially
impacted
since they can?t afford boats and normally fish for creeks prawns, crabs
etc in the marshy lands that would be reclaimed for
construction of the lagoon
harbor. Furthermore, they
argue that constant dredging through setting up of the
port would destroy the ecology of the wetland.
Amnesty International is concerned
about regular reports of attacks by law
enforcement
officials against those defending their economic and social
rights in the context of development or industrial
projects. Whole communities
who often unite
to protest against projects report that rather than being
consulted and provided with access to information,
repressive tactics are used
against them to expedite
projects.
Take action!
Write to Indian state
authorities:
expressing grave concern about the actions of members
of the State
Reserve Police in beating peaceful
protesters. Expressing grave concern at the
role of
local police in Umbergaon sub-district in detaining local people and
activists and beating them in custody - resulting in the
death of
Colonel Save;
urging the authorities to ensure that there is an impartial
and
independent investigation into the death in
custody of Colonel Save and bring those
found responsible to justice; expressing grave
concern about threats made by the Deputy Superintendent
of Police of Bulsara district to activists of the
Kinara Bachao Sangarsh
Samiti and calling on the
authorities to ensure their safety;
urging the
authorities to ensure a prompt independent and impartial
investigation into the incidents of April 7th and 8th
including the
threats made against activists and to
ensure that those found responsible for
using excessive force against local people and
activists or of threatening and
torturing
activists, are brought promptly to justice;
urging the authorities to ensure the right of
individuals to peacefully
protest against
industrial and other projects without fear of
suppression by the state;
Appeals
to: Copies
to:
Shri Keshubhai
Patel Mr
L.K. Advani
Chief Minister of
Gujarat, Minister
of Home Affairs
Block No.
1, Ministry
of Home Affairs
New
Sachivalay, North
Block
Gandhinagar
382010 New
Delhi 110 001
Gujarat India
India
Telegrams: Chief
Miinister,
Gandhinagar, India
Fax: +91 ++ 2712 - 22101
Salutation:
Dear Chief Minister
--------------------------------------
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 Environment News Service June 19, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
WORLD EXPO 2000 HEARS URGENT
WARNING TO LIMIT RESOURCE DEMANDS
HANNOVER, Germany, June 19, 2000 - A pioneering analysis of
the world's
ecosystems reveals a widespread decline due
to increasing resource demands.
The analysis was
released today at the World Exposition in Hannover, an
international exhibition of new technologies and sciences
running from June
1 to October 31, 2000.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-01.html
******************************************************************
FARMER v. MONSANTO: GM SEED
FIGHT IN CANADA'S HIGHEST COURT
By Fred Bridgland
SASKATOON,
Saskatchewan, Canada, June 19, 2000 (ENS) - On the Great Plains
of Canada, farmer Percy Schmeiser has engaged in a David v.
Goliath battle
which could save farmers and consumers
around the world from a genetically
modified food
nightmare beyond anything they have experienced so far.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-04.html
******************************************************************
New Zealand, Australia Propose
South Pacific Whale Sanctuary
AUKLAND, New Zealand, June 19, 2000 (ENS) - New Zealand and
Australia will
propose that a whale sanctuary be
established in the South Pacific Ocean.
The proposal
will be tabled during this year's International Whaling
Commission (IWC) meeting in Adelaide next month.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-03.html
******************************************************************
CLIMATE TALKS HEAT UP AS
DEADLINE NEARS
BONN, Germany,
June 19, 2000 - (ENS) - Talks aimed at curbing global warming
have left environmental groups warning of impending failure.
But United
Nations organizers say the two week meeting,
which ended Friday in Bonn,
Germany, made
progress on difficult technical issues.
For full text
and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-05.html
******************************************************************
NUCLEAR WASTE BARRELS FOUND IN
ENGLISH CHANNEL
PARIS, France,
June 19, 2000 (ENS) - Corroding, broken and disintegrated
barrels of radioactive waste were among images released by
Greenpeace today
after a two week inspection of the Hurd
Deep, in UK territorial waters of
the English Channel
off Cap de La Hague, France.
For full text and graphics
visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-03.html
******************************************************************
LOS ANGELES BARS NEW DIESEL
GARBAGE TRUCKS, BUSES
LOS
ANGELES, California, June 19, 2000 (ENS) - Los Angeles has become the
first major American city to ban the use of diesel fuel in
municipal buses
and garbage trucks. The region. s air
quality agency voted Friday to require
almost 11,000
transit buses and garbage trucks to convert to cleaner burning
alternative fuels.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-06.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JUNE 19, 2000
Warmest
Spring on Record Continues to Parch U.S.
61,000 Acres in Tennessee Deemed Unsuitable for Coal Mining
Americans Support Tracking of
Environmental Disease Factors
Ethanol Could Solve High Gas Prices, Corn Grower Says
Dusty Oceans Could Slow Global
Warming
New Fishing Rules
Protect Grouper in Gulf of Mexico
Big Automakers Enter New Fuel Cell Engine Partnership
Foam Core Homes Could Slash Energy
Costs 50 Percent
House
Subcommittee Boosts Missouri River Restoration Funding
Rio Grande Highlighted in
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-19-09.html
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000. All rights reserved.
***************************************************************************
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MEDIA ADVISORY
ATTENTION: AGRICULTURE, ENERGY,
ENVIRONMENT AND TRANSPORTATION EDITORS
MORE BUS AND TRUCK FLEETS TURNING TO BIODIESEL TO
CURB AIR POLLUTION
WHAT: Briefing
to update media, Congressional staff and other
interested parties on the rapidly increasing use of
biodiesel fuel in the
nation's bus and truck fleets to
curb air pollution. Non-toxic, sulfur-free
biodiesel fuel made from soybean oil is the only recognized
alternative fuel
to have completed the health effects
testing requirements of the Clean Air
Act.
CONTACT: Gina DeLuca or
William Vail, 202-737-8400
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0006.html
***************************************************************************
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TO NATIONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
FOREIGN EDITORS:
Fund for
Animals to Testify for Protection of Great Apes And Foreign
Endangered Species
WASHINGTON, June 19
-/E-Wire/-- On Tuesday, June 20, at 9 AM, in room
1334
of the Longworth House Office Building, Congress will hear testimony
regarding H.R. 4320, the Great Ape Conservation Act, and
H.R. 3407, the
Keystone Species Conservation Act. Both
bills seek to establish federal
funds to benefit
endangered species, one strictly for the great apes and the
other for multiple foreign species.
/CONTACT: Christine
Wolf of The Fund for Animals, 301-585-2591 ext.
208/
/Web site: http://www.fund.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0004.html
***************************************************************************
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-- WITH PHOTO -- TO BUSINESS
EDITOR:
Army Engineers Celebrate
225 Years
CONCORD, Mass., June 15
-/E-Wire/-- June 16th is U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers
Day across the region, according to official proclamations penned
by each of the governors of the six New England
states. The proclamations
by Governors John
G. Rowland (Conn.), Angus S. King (Maine), A. Paul
Cellucci (Mass.), C. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Lincoln C.
Almond (R.I.) and
Howard Dean (Vt.) note the many
contributions of the Army Engineers to the
more than 13
million citizens within New England.
/CONTACT: Sue Douglas of U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, 978-318-8264,
susan.i.douglas@usace.army.mil/
/Web site: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/
/Web site: http://www.usace.army.mil/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0008.html
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
Blue292
Introduces First Fully-Transactional E-Marketplace Designed
Specifically for Environmental Sourcing and Project
Management
DURHAM, NC and SALT LAKE
CITY, June 19 -/E-Wire/-- Blue292, the
world's leading
business-to-business e-marketplace for environmental, health
and safety (EHS) products and services, today announced the
introduction of
its fully transactional e-marketplace
designed to streamline sourcing and
environmental
project management. The e-marketplace is located at
http://www.blue292.com.
/CONTACT: Anita
Bose, for Blue292, 212-484-7699, abose@rlmnet.com/
/Web site: http://www.blue292.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0002.html
***************************************************************************
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND
TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
ENVIRON.COM
Appoints John Bagalini as CFO
MESA, Ariz., June 19
-/E-Wire/-- Environ.com, the leading
environmental
compliance portal, today announced their appointment of John
Bagalini as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Bagalini
comes to the company
after leading two previous start-up
companies through successful Internet
launches and
subsequent financings. His extensive experience includes eight
years serving as president of the Chappell Companies, a
Canadian-owned group
of diversified investment companies
which funded over a dozen venture
capital investments,
many of which were provided with full incubation and
management services. He is returning to the
Valley where he began his
business career as an auditor
with Price Waterhouse and as an international
tax
consultant with Deloitte & Touche.
/CONTACT: Robin
Suzelis of Environ.com, 480-964-5043 ext. 24/
/Web site: http://www.environ.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0001.html
******************************************************************
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To Unsubscribe
Write: editor@ens-news.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ENERGY INNOVATIONS SMALL GRANT PROGRAM
NEXT ROUND OF FUNDING OPENS FOR
ENERGY INNOVATIONS SMALL GRANT PROGRAM
SACRAMENTO, CA June 19,
-E-Wire/-- The California Energy Commission has
announced the opening of the sixth solicitation for
proposals for the Energy
Innovations Small Grants (EISG)
Program.
CONTACT: EISG
Program Administrator San Diego Regional Energy Office
(619) 594-1049.
/Website: http://www.energy.ca.gov/contracts/smallgrant/index.html
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0005.html
***************************************************************************
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TO NATIONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
FOREIGN EDITORS:
Fund for
Animals to Testify for Protection of Great Apes And Foreign
Endangered Species
WASHINGTON, June 19
-/E-Wire/-- On Tuesday, June 20, at 9 AM, in room
1334
of the Longworth House Office Building, Congress will hear testimony
regarding H.R. 4320, the Great Ape Conservation Act, and
H.R. 3407, the
Keystone Species Conservation Act. Both
bills seek to establish federal
funds to benefit
endangered species, one strictly for the great apes and the
other for multiple foreign species.
/CONTACT: Christine
Wolf of The Fund for Animals, 301-585-2591 ext.
208/
/Web site: http://www.fund.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0004.html
***************************************************************************
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***************************************************************************
-- WITH PHOTO -- TO BUSINESS
EDITOR:
Army Engineers Celebrate
225 Years
CONCORD, Mass., June 15
-/E-Wire/-- June 16th is U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers
Day across the region, according to official proclamations penned
by each of the governors of the six New England
states. The proclamations
by Governors John
G. Rowland (Conn.), Angus S. King (Maine), A. Paul
Cellucci (Mass.), C. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Lincoln C.
Almond (R.I.) and
Howard Dean (Vt.) note the many
contributions of the Army Engineers to the
more than 13
million citizens within New England.
/CONTACT: Sue Douglas of U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, 978-318-8264,
susan.i.douglas@usace.army.mil/
/Web site: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/
/Web site: http://www.usace.army.mil/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0008.html
***************************************************************************
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
Blue292
Introduces First Fully-Transactional E-Marketplace Designed
Specifically for Environmental Sourcing and Project
Management
DURHAM, NC and SALT LAKE
CITY, June 19 -/E-Wire/-- Blue292, the
world's leading
business-to-business e-marketplace for environmental, health
and safety (EHS) products and services, today announced the
introduction of
its fully transactional e-marketplace
designed to streamline sourcing and
environmental
project management. The e-marketplace is located at
http://www.blue292.com.
/CONTACT: Anita
Bose, for Blue292, 212-484-7699, abose@rlmnet.com/
/Web site: http://www.blue292.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0002.html
***************************************************************************
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND
TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
ENVIRON.COM
Appoints John Bagalini as CFO
MESA, Ariz., June 19
-/E-Wire/-- Environ.com, the leading
environmental
compliance portal, today announced their appointment of John
Bagalini as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Bagalini
comes to the company
after leading two previous start-up
companies through successful Internet
launches and
subsequent financings. His extensive experience includes eight
years serving as president of the Chappell Companies, a
Canadian-owned group
of diversified investment companies
which funded over a dozen venture
capital investments,
many of which were provided with full incubation and
management services. He is returning to the
Valley where he began his
business career as an auditor
with Price Waterhouse and as an international
tax
consultant with Deloitte & Touche.
/CONTACT: Robin
Suzelis of Environ.com, 480-964-5043 ext. 24/
/Web site: http://www.environ.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/19June0001.html
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from World Wilflife June 21, 2000
This fall, WWF is highlighting two special voyages. All WWF
trips
Are designed with the conservationist in mind, and
provide the
Opportunity to see firsthand the many wild
spaces and species
in need of protection. Throughout
these journeys, experienced
and personable naturalists
will illuminate your experience and
guide your voyage.
Please visit www.worldwildlife.org/travel
for more
schedules, offerings, and further information.
--Spotlight on Right Whales: At one time, the global
population of
right whales (both northern and southern)
may have numbered 80,000,
and they could be found off
the coast of every continent. Today the
northern right
whale is all but extinct in the eastern North Pacific,
only a small population exists in the northwestern Pacific,
probably
in the low hundreds, and approximately 300
exist in the western northern
Atlantic. The northern
right whale is the most endangered of the large
whales.
Only in the Southern Hemisphere are right whales showing signs of
recovery. The two largest populations are found off South
Africa and
Patagonia, but the species is also found in
the waters off Australia
and some coastal areas of the
South Pacific. Right whales most distinctive
features
are their callosities - raised, thickened, patches of skin, which
grow on their head, lips, and chin. The callosities'
patterns, which vary
from whale to whale allow
researchers to distinguish individuals. To find
out more
about whales or other species, please visit our web site:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/species.cfm
--Watch for these incredible whales
up-close and personal as you travel
with WWF to
Patagonia, Falklands, Tierra del Fuego, and the Chilean
Fjords from November 22-December 8, 2000 aboard the
110-passenger
Caledonian
Star.
The trip also includes: visits to Buenos Aires, Argentina and
Montevideo, Uruguay; opportunities to observe remarkable
concentrations of
sea lions and elephant seals at Puerto
Madryn and the Valedes Peninsula in
Argentina; 3 days
exploring the Falkland Islands where many penguin
species abound; and 2 days exploring the Chilean fjords'
incredible
vistas. Special Offer: The cost of the voyage
runs from $7,990 per person,
double occupany. However,
if you register by June 22, WWF will reduce
the trip
price by $1,000 per person an excellent value for an outstanding
wildlife experience. For more information, contact the
Travel Program
by phone(1-888-WWF-TOUR) or via e-mail:
membertours@wwfus.org
--Spotlight on the Amazon: The Amazon is the world's largest
intact
rain forest. With its high rainfall, complex
topography and soils,
and meandering river systems, the
Amazon creates habitat mosaics that
contribute to the
diversity of the region. Each year, the Amazon
River
overflows its banks and floods 116,000 square miles of forest.
These forests form the most extensive system of riverine
flooded forests
on Earth and their streams and rivers
contain 20 percent of the planet's
freshwater. The
Flooded Forests of the Amazon host an extraordinary
seasonal
migration of aquatic and
terrestrial animals. Red uakari, hoatzins, pink
freshwater dolphins, Amazon manatees, giant kapok trees are
just a few of
the remarkable species found in those
forests. The Southwestern Amazon
Rain
Forests provide one of the last refuges for the highly
threatened jaguar,
the harpy eagle, and the giant river
otter. These forests also support as
many as 1,200
species of butterflies. Currently, the biggest threat to
these crucial ecosystems is overpopulation of the
surrounding lands
causing roads, logging,and agriculture
to encroach on many protected
areas.
Please visit us on-line to learn more about important
ecoregions:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/global200/spaces.cfm
--Travel through the rain forest on
the Amazon Riverboat Voyage aboard
the 26-passenger La
Turmalina - The itinerary includes exploring
a
succession of rivers (the Amazon, Ucayali, Tapiche, and Sabina Rivers)
full of remote areas that cannot be navigated by larger
ships, walking
through the rain forest to observe the
incredible diversity of life,
and visiting isolated
villages that depend upon the forest and river for
sustenance and commerce. Dates in 2000 include September
30-October 8 and
November 11-19, 2000, and cost $2,970
per person, double occupancy.
Scheduled 2001 departures
include March 31-April 8 and
April 28-May 6, 2001, and
cost $3,125 per person, double occupancy.
For more
information, contact the Travel Program by phone (1-888-WWF-TOUR)
or via e-mail membertours@wwfus.org.
This email is being sent to
everybody who accepted
World Wildlife Fund's Living
Planet Pledge, signed up for
the Earth Day Alert,
or joined our "what's new" mailing
list.
These lists are now combined into one "what's new
at WWF
online" list. The purpose of this message is to keep
you
informed about what WWF is doing, as well as what
you
can do to help save life on Earth and protect wildlife
and wildlands.
from Environment News Service June 20, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
DAIMLERCHRYSLER COMMITS $1
BILLION TO FUEL CELL VEHICLES
HANNOVER, Germany, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - DaimlerChrysler
aims to be the
first automaker to market vehicles
powered by fuel cells, promising fuel
cell buses by 2002
and passenger cars by 2004. At World Engineers Day Monday
at Expo 2000 in Hannover, chairman of the board Jürgen
Schrempp said the
company will invest $1 billion over
the next four years to develop
affordable fuel cell
powered vehicles.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-08.html
******************************************************************
TIMBER COMPANY PUTS OFF
ROADBUILDING TO CANADA'S OLDEST TREES
By Neville Judd
VANCOUVER, British
Columbia, Canada, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - The upper Elaho
Valley, an area north of Vancouver renowned for its old
growth forest, will
be spared further road building for
now. The valley, near the world famous
Whistler Ski
Resort, contains some of the oldest trees in Canada and has
been proposed as a national park.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-03.html
******************************************************************
FRESH HOPE FOR ENDANGERED
CARIBBEAN MARINE LIFE
KINGSTON,
Jamaica, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - Marine life in the Caribbean is now
better protected than it has ever been. An agreement that
took nearly ten
years to become international law came
into effect this week. It is a legal
commitment by
Caribbean countries to protect, develop and manage their
common coastal and marine resources both individually and
jointly.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-02.html
******************************************************************
ENERGY EFFICIENCY PRESCRIBED FOR
BRITISH HOUSEHOLDERS
LONDON,
England, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - Homeowners in Britain will be forced
to install double glazed windows under government proposals
announced last
week.
For full
text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-01.html
******************************************************************
UPDATED PACIFIC SALMON RULES
PROMOTE LOCAL CONTROL
WASHINGTON, DC, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - Saying it was
instituting the most
significant innovation in how the
Endangered Species Act is implemented
since it began
listing West Coast salmon in 1991, the National Marine
Fisheries Service today unveiled new rules to protect 14
populations of
salmon and steelhead from California. s
Central Valley to Washington. s Puget
Sound.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-07.html
******************************************************************
BLM HIGHLIGHTS CONSERVATION IN
NEW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
WASHINGTON, DC, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - The Bureau of Land
Management has
announced a new emphasis on conservation.
The National Landscape
Conservation System, established
by the agency on Monday, will include the
agency's
National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, and other
environmentally sensitive areas.
For
full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-06.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JUNE 20, 2000
Great
Lakes States, Provinces Ban Water Withdrawals
Emergency Water Release in Platte River
Roadless Proposal Opponent Has
Industry Ties
Chiricahua Leopard
Frog Proposed for Threatened Listing
Diesel Rule Hearing Prompts Strong Convictions
Farmer Delays Harvest to Protect
Tricolored Blackbirds
Vacationers: Offset Greenhouse Gases by Planting Trees
Florida Governor Spreads Sand on
Beach Erosion Problem
Hunting
Accident Reveals Poaching Ring
Tippy Canoe and Midler Too
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-20-09.html
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
***************************************************************************
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NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
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TO BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
EDITORS:
Blue292 Signs The IT
Group, A Leading Environmental Consulting & Engineering
Firm
The IT Group Becomes Fourth
Major C&E Firm to Join Early-Adopter Program
DURHAM, N.C., June 20
-/E-Wire/-- Blue292, the world's leading
business-to-business e-marketplace for environmental, health
and safety
(EHS) products and services, today announced
that it has signed The IT Group
(NYSE: ITX), a leading
environmental consulting and engineering (C&E) firm,
to its Early-Adopter Pilot Program.
/CONTACT: Anita
Bose for Blue292, 212-484-7699, abose@rlmnet.com/
(ITX)
/Web site: http://www.blue292.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/20June0001.html
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TO BUSINESS, ENERGY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
Hydrogen
Burner Technology to Supply Fuel-Flexible Reformers to DCH
Technology
RANCHO DOMINGUEZ,
Calif., June 20 -/E-Wire/-- Hydrogen Burner
Technology
Inc. (HBT) announced today that DCH Technology, Inc. would be
purchasing 105 of HBT's fuel-flexible reformers to be tested
in locations
worldwide. The Enable(TM) Fuel
Cell Corporation of Wisconsin, a subsidiary
of DCHT,
will be integrating its larger Enable fuel cell with the reformers
for customers who will be testing the integrated power
systems for specific
applications.
/CONTACT: David
Moard of Hydrogen Burner Technology, 310-900-0400/
(DCHT)
/Web site: http://www.dcht.com/
/Web site: http://www.hydrogenburner.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/20June0005.html
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TO BUSINESS EDITORS:
Suncor plans to pursue landfill gas
opportunities
Agreement with Conestoga-Rovers and
Associates is latest step in Suncor's
commitment to
develop alternative and renewable energy business
CALGARY, June 20
-/E-Wire/-- Suncor Energy Inc. announced today that
it
has entered into an agreement with Conestoga-Rovers and Associates of
Waterloo, Ontario to pursue opportunities to produce
alternative and
renewable energy from Canadian municipal
landfills.
/CONTACT: Darlene
Crowell, Suncor Energy Inc., 403-269-8609; Rick
Mosher,
Conestoga-Rovers and Associates, 519-884-0510, Or we can be reached
at our website:
www.suncor.com/ (SU. SU)
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/20June0004.html
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALTERNATIVES JOURNAL
LET'S GET IT RIGHT
Environmental
Journal and International Community Join to Improve Reporting
on Climate Change
WATERLOO, Ontario,
Canada June 19, -/E-Wire/- What we say matters. So
does
what we fail to say. This is especially true in reporting on global
climate issues.
CONTACT: Brenda
Jones, International Conference on Climate Change
Communication,
519.888.4567 x.6862,
fax (519) 746-0292, email: be2jones@fes.uwaterloo.ca,
http://geognt.uwaterloo.ca/c3confer or Environmental
Thought, Policy and
Action, phone (519) 888-4567,
subscriptions ext. 6783, editor ext. 3407
Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario
N2L 3G1, e-mail:
alternat@fes.uwaterloo.ca
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/alternatives/
/Web site: http://geognt.uwaterloo.ca/c3confer
/Web site: http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/alternatives/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/20June0003.html
***************************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
***************************************************************************
TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR:
High Yielding Crops: A True
'Win-Win' for Reducing N Loss
WASHINGTON, June 20
-/E-Wire/-- The following is a statement of The
Fertilizer Institute regarding "Draft Action Plan for
Reducing, Mitigating,
and Controlling Hypoxia in the
Northern Gulf of Mexico":
/CONTACT: Ron
Phillips of The Fertilizer Institute, 202-608-5903/
/Web site: http://www.tfi.org/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/20June0002.html
******************************************************************
TRANSMIT YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON
E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS
******************************************************************
from Sierra Club June 20, 2000
SC-ACTION Vol. II #222
DEFENDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL
AGENDA
June 19, 2000
------------------------QUOTE
OF THE DAY-----------------------------
"My center is giving way, my
right is in retreat; situation excellent,
I will attack."
--Marshall Foch, French
Commander, World War I
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1)
PROTECT OUR NATION'S AIR AND WATER FROM DIRTY RIDERS
2) RUNNING FOR ROADLESS AREAS
3)
MAJORITY SPOKANE FOR PROTECTION AT HEARING
4) GREAT DAY FOR GOOD WOOD
5)
GETTING TO THE CORPS OF THE PROBLEM
1)
PROTECT OUR NATION'S AIR AND WATER FROM DIRTY RIDERS
The U.S. House of
Representatives is about to vote on the
VA-HUD-Independent Agencies
spending bill for Fiscal Year 2001, which
also contains Environmental
Protection Agency funding. As in years
past, the legislation this
year also contains several dirty
anti-environmental riders that
would undermine our nation's
environmental protection
programs. Today, take a few moments to call
or email your Representative
and urge him or her to oppose all
anti-environmental riders
attached to the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies
spending bill.
Several amendments will be
offered that can remove some of the most
egregious riders. One by
Representatives Hinchey (D-NY) and Waxman
(D-CA) would to strip three
anti-environmental riders from the bill.
The amendment would remove one
rider that would prevent EPA from
completing regulations to
reduce levels of arsenic in drinking water
and a provision to stop EPA
from issuing a new standard for drinking
water containing
radon. It would also remove a third rider that is
designed to halt EPA's cleanup
of contaminated sediments in waterways
until the completion of a
National Academy of Sciences report,
delaying action that could
endanger the environment and public health.
Also within this spending bill
is a rider that is being offered by
Representatives Linder (R-GA)
and Collins (R-GA) that would delay
designation of regions not in
attainment with more protective soot and
smog
standards. This rider would be a major step backwards for the
Clean Air Act and would put
people who live in smog areas at higher risk
for respiratory diseases and
keep information about health risks from
the public.
So,
call today and urge your Representative to vote for the
Hinchey-Waxman amendment to
protect our drinking water and cleanup our
rivers, against the
Linder-Collins rider that would delay new air
standards and against all
other anti-environmental riders the bill may
contain. Also urge them to
oppose the final passage if these
anti-environmental riders are
not stripped.
For more information, contact
Dirk Manskopf at 202.675.7915 or
dirk.manskopf@sierraclub.org.
2) RUNNING FOR ROADLESS AREAS
At
least one Minnesota activist is going the extra mile for roadless
areas... well, actually, an
extra 26.2 miles. North Star Chapter
Sierran Ken Bradley is going
to run the annual Grandma's Marathon in
Duluth, Minnesota, on
Saturday, just days before the Forest Service
hearing being held there June
22nd.
Our Marathon Man Ken is
running to commemorate the late GREAT
Representative Willard Munger,
one of our state's most cherished
environmental heroes, who
recently passed away and is already sorely
missed at the
Legislature. Ken will wear a T-shirt that says "Thank
You Willard Munger" on the
front and "Thank You for Protecting Our
Forests" on the
back. And, yes, he will be sporting one of our green,
embroidered Wild Forest caps.
He... could... go... all...
the... way...
Now... will the Forest
Service?
3) MAJORITY SPOKANE FOR
PROTECTION AT HEARING
The Sierra Club and Kettle
Range Conservation Group did a good job of
getting folks out to the
Spokane, Washington hearing. As of about
8:30 pm 71 people had
testified with 66-67 being ours.
The press conference before
the hearing went well with one TV (KREM)
and two radio stations (KGA
and KPBX-Public Radio). The Conference
included John Roskelly-Spokane
County Commissioner, Steven
Corker-Spokane City
Councilman, Chase Davis-Sierra Club, and Hal
Rowe-Kettle Range Conservation
Group.
The hearing was a bit
strange. The FS clearly anticipated some kind
of circus
event. They had two separate rooms and divided folks
(even/odd) when they signed up
and sent them to the respective rooms
for their 3
minutes. There were 12-15 Forest Serice staff, and half
dozen security
police. They did an internal briefing before for
staff/security before the
hearing to talk about handling incidents and
crowds. Neither of
which as an issue.
Because of the long time frame
for the hearing 2-10pm, we never really
had a "crowd" of folks at the
hearing. We had a steady dribble of
folks coming in all day long
doing written comments and then
testifying. We had
a small bubble of folks around 6pm. The
cumulative number added up to
a very respectable turnout with 71
speaking. Only real
opposition was from a couple of ORV folks on
access
issues. Otherwise they were all ours.
4)
GREAT DAY FOR GOOD WOOD
On Thursday, June 15, after a
long year of public education, bill
writing and lobbying, Sierra
Club's Good Wood Campaign rolled out
"Good Wood" legislation at a
press conference in City Hall Park, New
York
City. Alongside Carl Pope and Susan Holmes stood four of the
most influential City Council
members to announce the introduction of
the Selective Purchasing bill
into the City Council. The bill would
protect forests by making NYC
the first major city country to go to
wood alternatives and FSC
certified wood. The sponsoring Council
members
are: Speaker Peter Vallone; Contracts Committee Chair,
Kathryn Freed; Finance
Committee Chair, Herb Berman; and Council
Member A. Gifford Miller.
Following a meeting with
Speaker Vallone, Pope, Holmes and
representatives from other
eight other national environmental
organizations, Sierra Club
joined with members of the City Council in
City Hall Park at a press
conference. The Good Wood Volunteer
Committee (led by Stephan
Chenault) stood behind the podium with a 20
foot long banner filled with
letters from around the country --
generated from the PLANET --
asking New York to adopt the policy. We
also placed a blow-up of a
clearcut on a non-FSC certified bench and a
blow-up of sustainable
forestry on an FSC-certified bench showing that
the difference is in the
forest, not the bench. In addition to the
press (which included
Bloomberg News, Voice of America, WCBS,
WFUV-Radio, the Christian
Science Monitor and the New York Post), in
attendance were the executive
directors of the Rainforest Alliance,
FSC-US, the Consumers' Choice
Council, representatives from LCV,
American Lands Alliance,
Rainforest Foundation, Rainforest Relief, EPA,
Feldman Lumber, NRDC and
National Audubon Society.
But the work is only
beginning, by 10:00am on the 16th, Forest
Alliance of BC-- an industry
group -- was calling the City Council!
A very special thanks to the
yeoman work of Maiya Shaw -- lead
campaigner -- and Lori Herpen
who came in from NJ to help out!
5)
GETTING TO THE CORPS OF THE PROBLEM
Continuing efforts to bring
greater accountability to the Army Corps
of Engineers was aided on
Friday by a rally staged by the Sierra Club
and other environmental
organizations on Friday in St. Louis.
The rally, outside a Corps
meeting, was picked up in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch and Carl
Zichella cited numerous examples of the Corps'
untrustworthiness, including
altered studies and illegal spending on
locks. He refused
to work with the Corps until it is brought under
civilian control.
Creative use of puppets and
costumes was key in gaining prominence for
the story... not to mention a
photo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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
Clinton's
e-mail - president@whitehouse.gov
Gore'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 Mother Jones June 20, 2000
Bay Area MoJo readers take note: Mother Jones Publisher To
Speak at San
Francisco's Commonwealth Club
Mother Jones publisher Jay Harris
will be the featured speaker at San
Francisco's
Commonwealth Club on Tuesday, June 20. His speech, "What's
Missing From Your News," is adapted from an essay by the
same name in "The
Business of Journalism," just
published by the New Press. Jay will offer
an insider's
view of the business pressures that push the mainstream
press to neglect stories of critical importance in favor of
celebrity
reporting and sensationalistic stories that
don't offend the interests of
powerful advertisers.
The Commonwealth Club is at 595
Market Street in San Francisco. The 6:00
p.m. speech, to
be taped for later broadcast by C-Span, will be preceded
by a 5:15 reception. Tickets are $7 for members, $10 for
non-members.
Reserve a spot by calling 415/597-6705 or
online at
http://www.commonwealthclub.org.
from Zero Population Growth June 21, 2000
You can take action on this alert either by
email or preferably on the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A8568B961591700C40464.
Here's what this alert is
about:
Congressional extremists
attempt to block approval of RU-486. Act NOW!
----------------------
For the third year in a row, extremists in Congress are
attempting to block FDA approval of the drug mifepristone,
also known as RU-486. This drug has
already been found by
the FDA to be a safe and effective
method of early
abortion.
On June 21, Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is expected to offer an
amendment to the 2001 Agriculture Appropriations bill to
prohibit the FDA from approving any drug that induces
medical abortion. The Coburn amendment
would slam the door
on this important reproductive
health gain for American
women.
This vote is expected to be
extremely close! Please tell
your
representative that politics should be kept out of the
drug approval process and to oppose the Coburn amendment.
----------------------
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on
this
alert by going to the following URL:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A8568B961591700C40464
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email program, and edit
the letter below as you
wish. If your email program does not have
a
"reply to sender" option, you can copy and paste the letter below into
a new email message and mail it to
alert-response-419220A8568B961591700C40464@actionnetwork.org.
You must include the whole letter in your response including
"-YOU MAY
EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END OF
LETTER-". Please do not
add your name and
address to your letter. Action Network automatically
does this for you.
We STRONGLY encourage you to make edits directly to our
sample letter
below, and put the alert talking points
into your own words. An
individualized letter is worth
ten computer generated letters. Of
course, hundreds of
unedited letters will still create a large impact,
so
please reply even if you don't have time to personalize the letter.
Your letter will be addressed and
sent to:
Representative Maurice Hinchey
-------YOU
MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW---------
I am writing to urge you to oppose
the Coburn amendment when
the House considers the fiscal
2001 Agricultural
Appropriations bill (H.R.
4461). The Coburn amendment would
prohibit
the Food and Drug Administration from using
government
funds to test, develop or approve any drug for
the
chemical inducement of abortion, including mifepristone.
Mifepristone, also known as RU-486,
offers women an early,
safe, and effective medical
alternative to surgical abortion
and has been available
to women in Europe for over a decade.
It has been shown
to be a safe and effective alternative to
surgical
abortion following extensive clinical trials. It
is a safe, effective method of early abortion and early
abortion means safe abortion. The drug also holds
promise
for the treatment of other health conditions
such as breast
cancer, endometriosis, and Cushing's
disease.
The availability of
mifepristone would greatly expand
women's options and
allow them to exercise their right to
choose in privacy,
making it more difficult for those who
oppose abortion
to single out women for harassment and
intimidation. Finally, politics has no
place in the drug
approval process. Science
and medicine should be the
factors on which this
decision is made not politics. Don't
slam the
door on this important reproductive health gain;
oppose
the Coburn amendment.
I look forward to hearing from you on this issue.
-------END OF
LETTER-------------------------
Sincerely yours,
from League of Conservation Voters June 21, 2000
===================================
LCV. s Weekly Congressional Update
Week of June 19th, 2000
===================================
The League of Conservation Voters
(LCV) continues to monitor Congressional
activity and
hold members of Congress accountable for their actions on
important environmental issues. See the information below
for a concise
look at what happened in Congress last
week and what we anticipate for the
coming week.
===================================
SUMMARY
===================================
Last week the Senate struck a
compromise deal during debate on the
Corporate Average
Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for better fuel economy for
light trucks such as the popular SUVs. In the
House, Representatives spent
the week debating
appropriations bills. LCV monitored passage of the
Interior Appropriations bill and votes on many riders to the
bill. On June
13th, LCV sent a letter to
Capitol Hill to urge pro-environment votes on
the
Interior bill. See LCV. s Action Center
(http://www.lcv.org/actioncenter/) to view the letter.
===================================
ACTIONS AND VOTES LAST WEEK
===================================
**SENATE**
SENATE TAKES ONE STEP CLOSER TO
BETTER FUEL STANDARDS
During debate on the FY 2001
Transportation Appropriations bill, H.R. 4475,
the
Senate made a compromise on an effort to increase the fuel economy of
cars and trucks, or the Corporate Average Fuel Economy
(CAFE). The
compromise will allow a study to
determine if changes should be made to the
nation. s
vehicle fuel economy standards. For the past five years, the
Department of Transportation has been restricted from even
attempting to
raise CAFE standards. With last
week. s compromise, the National Academy of
Sciences
will study fuel economy to determine whether changes should be
made to the current standards. In recognizing
that the agreement falls
short of actually implementing
stronger CAFE standards, LCV called this
action a step
in the right direction for the American consumer and the
efforts to reduce pollutants. Look for LCV. s
complete statement on the web
at: http://www.lcv.org/news/062000release.htm
**HOUSE**
The House took several votes on
amendments to the Interior appropriations
bill last
week. We have included a summary of final passage and a brief
summary of several amendments to the bill:
FINAL PASSAGE OF INTERIOR BILL
The House worked through the night on Friday of last week to
pass the FY
2001 Interior Appropriations bill, H.R.
4578, by a vote of 204-172. The
bill
appropriates $14.6 billion for the Interior Department, related
agencies and cultural programs and agencies in fiscal year
2001. The bill
also provides funds for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, the National
Parks Service and the
Minerals Management Service.
LCV
has issued many Weekly Congressional Updates concerning the Interior
Appropriations bill and the anti-environment riders attached
to the bill.
Many of these riders came to a
vote last week. Here is the outcome of the
most significant ones:
Columbia Basin . Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) introduced a
rider to
restrict funding for the Interior Columbia
Basin Ecosystem Management Plan
in the Pacific
Northwest. The environmental community opposed this
rider.
It was adopted 197 to 180.
National Monuments . Rep. Jim Hansen
(R-UT) lost his battle to amend the
bill to prohibit the
Interior Department from using funds to designate
federal lands as new national monuments. All of
the Clinton
administration. s announcements after 1999
would be affected, including the
four recently
announced. The environmental community opposed this rider.
It was rejected 187-234.
Yolo Bypass in California . This rider restricts funding to
establish a
wildlife refuge at Yolo Bypass in California
and on the Kankakee River in
Illinois and
Indiana. The environmental community opposed this rider and
Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA) worked to strike this
rider. His amendment to take
this rider off
the bill passed by voice vote.
Funding Cut to the Land Water Conservation Fund . With the
final passage
vote, the bill will now head to the Senate
with a 56 percent reduction to
the Land and Water
Conservation Fund. The House debate did not center on
funding. LCV will monitor the Senate version of
the bill to see if the
LWCF gets its fair share of
money.
Grazing Permits . Rep.
Jay Inslee (D-WA) worked to strike a rider to allow
grazing permits on federal lands to be renewed without
environmental
review. During the debate, Rep.
Ralph Regula (R-OH) and Rep. Inslee worked
out a
compromise and Inslee withdrew his amendment. The environmental
community supported Inslee. s attempts to amend the Interior
bill.
Rider to Prevent Clinton.
s Roadless Policy . Before the bill came to the
floor
for final passage, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) indicated that would offer
an amendment to prevent funds for the Clinton
administration. s roadless
policy initiative in national
forests. In the end, Stupak did not
introduce
his rider. The environmental community opposed his idea.
Tree Harvesting . Rep. David Wu
(D-OR) offered an amendment to increase
funding for the
Forest Service's wildlife and fish habitat management
program by $15 million and offset the increase by reducing
the Forest
Service's forest products
account. The environmental community supported
this amendment. It was defeated 173-249.
LABOR . HHS FUNDING BILL PASSES
HOUSE
The FY 2001 Labor-HHS Appropriations bill, H.R.
4577, passed the House last
week on close vote of
217-214. The bill would appropriate $351.8 billion
for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
departments and a
related agency, which is a $12.3
billion increase in discretionary spending
and $11.5
billion increase in mandatory spending. The bill includes $18.8
billion for the National Institutes of Health and $1.1
billion for the Low
Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP). The environmental
community
did not object to those funding levels.
===================================
ON THE FLOOR THIS WEEK
===================================
**SENATE**
SUMMARY OF SENATE ACTIVITY THIS WEEK
This week the Senate is scheduled to vote on two funding
bills, the Defense
Authorization bill and other
legislation previously described in LCV. s
Weekly
Congressional Updates. The Labor-HHS and Foreign Operations
appropriations bills were approved by the Appropriations
Committee in May
and could come to the floor for a vote
soon. Funding for environmental
programs in
the Labor . HHS bill is solid while the Foreign Operations bill
slashed the administration. s budget for the Global
Environmental Facility
to $50 million from $176
million. An amendment to the Defense
Authorization bill may be offered by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
to reinstate
EPA. s ability to fine the Defense
Department for violations to
environmental
compliance. Several other issues including the County
Payments bill, S.1608, and the Coastal Barrier Resources
Reauthorization
Act, S. 1752, could come to the
floor. If you are interested in these
issues,
click http://www.lcv.org/actioncenter/ to see our letters.
**HOUSE**
EPA FUNDING BILL IS EXPECTED THIS
WEEK
The bill to fund the Environmental Protection
Agency for 2001 is expected
on the floor this
week. The bill includes a number of anti-environment
riders including a rider that would interfere with the EPA.
s ability to
combat global warming and blocks the agency
from issuing a rule to limit
radon in drinking
water. The bill also cuts funding for a program to make
grants to clean up the Great Lakes and would block the EPA
from issuing new
regulations on point source pollution .
or the Total Daily Maximum Load
program.
ANTI-ENVIRONMENT RIDERS ON HOUSE
AGRICULTURE BILL
The House is also scheduled to vote on
the $75 billion appropriations bill
for the Department
of Agriculture, HR 4461 (although controversial
provisions relating to Cuba still loom). About 80
percent of the money in
this bill goes to mandatory
programs such as food stamps. The other 20
percent, or $14.4 billion, is discretionary spending for
various programs
including the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, which runs the
conservation
operations for the USDA. The bill includes funding cuts for
farm conservation programs, including a cut that would
restrict enrollment
in the Wetlands Reserve program in
2001 to 15,000 acres.
The bill
also includes a rider that would bar funding for the Kyoto
protocol including any actions to reduce greenhouse gases
under the
protocol. The administration has
expressed its strong opposition to this
rider. In addition the bill contains a provision
that will prohibit the
use of Agriculture. s
conservation funding, including funds in the
Conservation Reserve program and Wetlands Reserve program,
in support of
the administration. s American Heritage
Rivers program. Rep. Sue Kelly
(R-NY) is
working on an amendment to support the Heritage Rivers program
and allow Agriculture funding to be used in support of the
program. To see
more about the Heritage
Rivers program, see: http://www.epa.gov/rivers/.
===================================
IN COMMITTEE THIS WEEK
===================================
**SENATE**
The Senate Agriculture Committee
will mark-up several environmental bills
this
week. Among other bills, the committee will consider legislation, S.
1066, requiring the Department of Agriculture to conduct
research on
agricultural practices to reduce emissions
of greenhouse gases.
The Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to mark-up
legislation to restructure the electricity
industry. Electricity
deregulation has
significant environmental impacts with regards to
emissions of pollutants (i.e. nitrogen and sulfur oxides,
mercury and
carbon dioxide) as well as requirements for
use of renewable energy
sources.
The Senate Appropriations Committee
is expected to mark-up legislation
providing funding for
the Interior Department. The House approved its
version of the FY 2001 Interior Appropriation's bill on June
16th by a vote
of 204-172. Land and energy
conservation programs in the bill are funded
through the
U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Energy respectively.
**HOUSE**
RESOURCES TO MARK-UP TWO
CONTROVERSIAL ESA BILLS
The House Resources Committee
will mark-up two controversial bills this
week both
sponsored by Chairman Don Young (R-AK). One bill, H.R.3160, is a
controversial measure to amend the Endangered Species Act
(ESA) that is
opposed by the environmental
community. The second bill, H.R.1142, would
add a provision to the ESA that would alter the standards
for deciding when
a government action is a . taking..
Environmental groups oppose this bill
also.
The House Appropriations Committee
is expected to mark-up its FY 2001
Energy and Water
Appropriations bill. The legislation provides funding for
water resources projects through the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers as well
as renewable energy research by the
Department of Energy.
The House
Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee will mark-up its
FY 2001 Foreign Operations Appropriations
bill. The legislation contains
funding for
the Global Environmental Facility as well as monies for the
United Nations Population Fund.
===================================================================
LCV's Weekly Congressional Update is compiled using
various sources,
including Congressional Quarterly and
Congressional GreenSheets.
LCV-Update is
brought to you by the League of Conservation Voters, the
nonprofit political voice for the national environmental and
conservation
community. LCV is the only national
organization dedicated full-time to
informing the public
about the environmental records of federally elected
officials and candidates.
LCV publishes annually the National Environmental Scorecard,
which rates
members of Congress on the most critical
environmental votes cast during
that year.
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1920 L Street, NW Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
(202)785-8683
fax: (202)835-0491
email:
lcv@lcv.org
==================================================================
from Global Response June 21, 2000
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
This time the emergency action is close to
home. In fact, right at home
-- here
at Global
Response.
With less than
three months remaining in our budget year, we're $25,000
short. To pay the costs of our current Snow
Leopard Habitat/Siberia
campaign, to continue to issue
Emergency alerts by email, and to conduct
another major
letter campaign in July, we need to raise $25,000 from our
members by August 31.
Global Response currently has about 2,500 letter-writing
members -- but
only 500 have given financial
contributions. Many non-givers receive our
Action alerts by email only -- saving us the costs of paper,
printing and
postage for hardcopy
alerts. We're glad for these savings, but we still
have to recover all the costs of our research and
communications to produce
the email Alerts for
you. We hope you'll want to join other Global
Response members in providing the financial support we need
to continue to
provide our unique services.
Global Response receives many more
requests for help than we can respond
to
-- all of them from courageous and determined communities
battling against
the odds to protect the
environment. Many requests are from people who put
their lives on the line to stop environmental destruction.
The only limit on Global
Response's ability to help these communities is
our bank
account. With an annual budget under $100,000, Global Response
uses its resources very efficiently.
Your contributions make it possible
for Global Response to:
issue
hardcopy Action Alerts for
at least six major environmental campaigns
a year;
issue unlimited email Action
alerts on behalf of communities around the
world that
are struggling to prevent environmental destruction of many
different kinds;
develop and
distribute special versions of the hardcopy Action Alerts for
children, teenagers and teachers -- to help young people
develop the values
and skills for global citizen
cooperation for environmental protection.
In case you have any doubt that this
work is effective, here are excerpts
from a letter from
Alyson Ewald of Sacred Earth Network, one of the
organizations that requested our current letter campaign to
save Snow
Leopard habitat in Siberia:
"... the alerts really seem to be
working. We hear that faxes have been
pouring
in and really annoying the Siberian officials already. With the
help of you and your membership, we will show them we are
watching closely
- who knows, we may even be able to
stop this [gas pipeline] project before
it leaves the
drawing table.
"Thanks again for
your timely and dedicated work on this. It's inspiring
to be working with people like you."
Here are
some quick and easy ways to send your contribution to Global
Response:
+
Print out the RESPONSE FORM below and return it by "snail-mail" to Global
Response, PO
Box 7490, Boulder, CO
80306-7490.
+ Print out the
RESPONSE FORM below and write your credit card number and
exp. date on it and FAX it to 303-449-9794
+ Soon we will have a secure website
option to transmit your credit card
information
electronically. But even updating our website and the
capabilities of the
site, require your financial
support. If you want to designate your gift
to "technological support" we will earmark it for enhanced
web and email
functions. :)
Thank you for your careful
consideration of Global Response!
Sincerely,
Brenda A. Fraser
Development
Director
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RESPONSE FORM
If each Global Response member gives $50 today, we'll
accomplish our
program goals for this budget year (ends
August 31, 2000).
Yes! I'd like to support Global Response's work
for environmental justice
and conservation, worldwide.
I will
donate: _____$1000 (or more to become a major
donor)
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Advocate)
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Friend)
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Thank you for your support!
All contributions are tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Please make checks payable to Global Response and mail to:
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with credit card information
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Questions? 303-444-0306 ext. 3.
--------------------------------------
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
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To receive Global Response "Actions" and "Emergency Actions"
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Visit our website at: http://www.globalresponse.org
from Global Response June 21, 2000
Greetings to all Just Earth Network Members:
Amnesty International yesterday
issued an urgent action on Salvador Zuniga and
Berta
Caceres, two Honduran human rights activists who have been campaigning
against the El Tigre dam project. The indigenous
Lenca people of Honduras fear
they will be displaced
from their ancestral lands when the dam project is
completed. The two believed that they are being
harassed and intimidated by the
Honduran police in
connection with their work on the dam project. Amnesty fear
for the activists' safety and believes that they are in
danger. Below is
background information and
recommended action on the case Please take action
immediately.
UA Office POBox 1270 Nederland CO
80466 ph 303 258 1170 fax 303 258 7881
e-mail sharriso@aiusa.org http://www.amnesty-usa.org/urgact/
UA
166/00 Fear for
safety 20
June 2000
HONDURAS Salvador Zuniga
(male) ] indigenous human rights defenders
Berta
Caceres (female) ]
Two indigenous human rights
defenders have been harassed and intimidated. They
believe the police are implicated, and Amnesty International
is concerned that
they are in danger.
Salvador Zuniga and Berta Caceres
work with the Consejo Civico de Organizaciones
Populares
e Indigenas (COPIN), Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous
Organizations. Honduran human rights defenders believe the
couple are being
intimidated because COPIN is
campaigning against the El Tigre dam, which will
displace indigenous people and flood their ancestral lands.
On 31 May, an armed man was seen
standing outside the couple?s house, in the
town of La
Esperanza, Intibuca department. He ran away when their children
raised the alarm. Several cars were stationed outside over
the next few days,
apparently watching the house. COPIN
members believe that local police are
involved, working
on behalf of landowners.
The
couple?s house was apparently broken into twice shortly before this
surveillance began. The first time, on 26 May, the
housekeeper was beaten. On 30
May, the house was
searched but nothing was stolen.
The indigenous Lenca people may be displaced when the El
Tigre dam is completed.
The dam will affect the
departments of Intibuca and Lempira, near the border
with El Salvador. Indigenous people are also concerned that
the dam will leave
their ancestral lands under water.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Honduran human rights defenders face serious danger. On 26
April 2000, Julio
Cesar Pineda, an outspoken critic of
human rights violations committed by police
agents was
almost killed when he was shot in the head at close range. Several
indigenous leaders have also been killed in the last few
years. The authorities
have so far taken few, if any,
steps to investigate these crimes, bring those
responsible to justice and ensure human rights defenders are
able to carry out
their legitimate activities without
fear.
The right to defend human
rights has been recognised in international
declarations
and resolutions. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a
declaration intended to ensure that states work to protect
human rights
defenders and guarantee them the freedom to
carry out their legitimate
activities (Declaration on
the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups
and
Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted on 9 December 1998). The
Organization of
American States have undertaken to
implement this declaration, in a resolution
adopted by
their General Assembly in June 1999, and agreed to provide ?Human
Rights Defenders with the necessary guarantees and
facilities to continue freely
carrying out their work?
as well as to adopt ?the necessary steps to guarantee
their life, liberty, and integrity?.
In April 2000, the UN Human Rights
Commission requested that the United Nations
Secretary
General appoint a special representative on human rights defenders.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send
telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail letters:
-
expressing concern for the safety of Salvador Zuniga and Berta Caceres,
members of COPIN who have been intimidated because of their
legitimate human
rights activities, and urging that
immediate measures be taken to ensure their
safety and
freedom to defend human rights;
- calling for a prompt
and impartial investigation into the reported
intimidation, including reports implicating local police
agents, and asking to
be kept informed of the progress
of the investigations and when those
responsible are
brought to justice;
- urging the Honduran authorities to
adhere to the principles of the United
Nations
Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and
Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms,
adopted on 9 December 1998, and to implement the
Organization of American States Human Rights Defenders
Resolution adopted on 7
June 1999 [AG/RES. 1671
(XXIX0/99)].
APPEALS TO:
President:
S. E. Carlos Flores
Facusse
Presidente de la Republica de Honduras
Casa Presidencial
6a Avenida, 1a
Calle
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Fax: 011 504 235
6949
E-mail: law_bureau@hotmail.com
Telegrams: Presidente,
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Salutation: Sr. Presidente/Dear
President
Minister of Defense
and Public Security:
Elizabeth Chiuz Sierra
Ministra de Defensa Nacional y Seguridad Publica
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional y Seguridad Publica
Palacio de los Ministerios, 2o piso
Tegucigalpa
HONDURAS
Telegrams: Ministra Defensa, Honduras
Fax: 011 504 239
6892
Salutation: Senora
Ministra / Dear Minister
Attorney General :
Dr. Roy Edmundo Medina
Fiscal
General de la Republica
Fiscalia General, Edificio
Poujol
Contiguo a la Casa de la Enfermera
Boulevard Morazan atras de Banpro
Tegucigalpa
Honduras
Fax: 011 504 239
4750
Telegrams: Fiscal
General, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Salutation: Sr. Fiscal
General/Dear Attorney General
COPIES TO:
The Newspaper:
El Heraldo
Fax: 011 504 221
0778
Ambassador Dr Hugo Noe Pino
Embassy of Honduras
3007 Tilden
St. NW Suite 4-M
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 966 9751
Please send appeals immediately. Check with the Colorado
office between 9:00 am
and 6:00 pm, Mountain Time,
weekdays only, if sending appeals after August 1,
2000.
from the Nature Conservancy June 21, 2000
NATURE CONSERVANCY Nature News for June, 2000
Welcome to Nature News-our once a month peek
into the state of the planet. Learn what lands,
waters, plants and animals the Conservancy is
working to save and where to find more information.
For general information about The Nature Conservancy
please visit our Web site at, http://www.tnc.org
*******************************************************
CONTENTS
1.
The Nature Conservancy Loses a Leader
2. Illinois River
System Protected
3. Prairie Dog Towns
4. Take a Walk on the Wild Side
5.
Fast Fact-America's Rivers
*******************************************************
1. THE NATURE CONSERVANCY LOSES A
LEADER
John Sawhill, The Nature
Conservancy's president since
1990, died of
complications from diabetes on May 18,
2000. During his
tenure, the Conservancy protected
more than 7 million
acres in the United States alone,
initiated programs
such as the Last Great Places,
and became the world's
largest private conservation
organization. The
Conservancy will greatly miss his
visionary leadership
and rare spirit.
For
more information, visit:
http://www.tnc.org/news/sawhill_nav.html
*******************************************************
2. ILLINOIS RIVER SYSTEM PROTECTED
The Nature Conservancy recently
protected one of the
Midwest's most biologically
significant floodplain
areas, when it purchased 7,527
acres at the Emiquon
National Wildlife Refuge along the
Illinois River.
The acres are vital for recovery of the
Illinois River
system, named one of the world's "Last
Great Places"
by the Conservancy.
To learn move, click on:
http://www.tnc.org/success/index_nav.html
*******************************************************
3. PRAIRIE DOG TOWNS
Sparse, treeless plains in the
American west are home
to a surprisingly diverse
community. Grazing prairie
dogs crop grass and
wildflowers here, and in turn,
this growth attracts
other visitors including cattle,
owls, hawks, and
rattlesnakes. Once persecuted, prairie
dogs are now a
key part of conservation planning in
the
West.
If you want to
view an interactive prairie dog town go to:
http://www.tnc.org/magazine/main_nav.html and click on
Prairie Dog Village."
*******************************************************
4. TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Take a walk on the wild side in
hardwood forests, SCUBA
dive in tropical waters, kayak
along the coast, or help
repair trails, by participating
in one of The Nature
Conservancy's many field and work
trips. In locations as
diverse as Arizona aspen forests
and the Amazon, these
excursions allow you to explore
the Last Great Places
our donors are helping us to
protect.
Find field trips near
you by visiting:
http://www.tnc.org/infield/fieldtrips/index_nav.html
*******************************************************
5. FAST FACT -AMERICA'S RIVERS
American rivers such as Emiquon's
Illinois River are
under threat, with only 2% still
free-flowing and
underdeveloped.
*******************************************************
E-mail Nature News to interested
friends, families, and
associates. To learn more about
The Nature Conservancy
please visit, www.tnc.org
from Environment News Service June 21, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
FEDERAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO HIGH
GAS PRICES
WASHINGTON, DC, June
21, 2000 (ENS) - The Federal Trade Commission has
opened
a formal investigation into high gasoline prices in the Midwest,
congressional Democrats said Tuesday. The commission will
examine whether
oil companies are using new federal
requirements for cleaner burning gas as
an excuse to
sell fuel at a higher price.
For full text and graphics
visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-06.html
******************************************************************
BRITISH COLUMBIA FISH FARMS HIT
WITH SYMBOLIC EVICTION NOTICE
By
Neville Judd
ALERT BAY, British
Columbia, Canada, June 20, 2000 (ENS) - A flotilla of
boats led by five native war canoes protested the presence
of fish farms in
the Broughton Archipelago this morning
by serving a symbolic eviction
notice.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-11.html
******************************************************************
EXTINCTION STALKS ASIAN
ELEPHANTS
By Tara Chand Malhotra
NEW DELHI, India, June 21, 2000
(ENS) - The Asian elephant is on the run,
with
populations of healthy males dwindling rapidly according to Maneka
Gandhi, the Indian minister of social justice and
empowerment. She is
warning that India's elephant
population is on the brink of extinction.
For full text
and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-02.html
******************************************************************
CHINA'S LARGEST CITIES TO
CLEANSE AIR, WATER
WASHINGTON,
DC, June 21, 2000 (ENS) - The world's largest municipality,
Chongqing, home to over 30 million people, and China's
capital city of
Beijing, with 12 million inhabitants,
will now be able to improve their air
and water quality
with World Bank loans approved Tuesday.
For full text
and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-01.html
******************************************************************
EUROPE'S SMOGGY SEASON PROPELS
AIR QUALITY TALKS
LONDON,
England, June 21, 2000 (ENS) - Widespread smog blanketed England
this past weekend with all seven of the country's monitoring
regions
recording high levels of ozone air pollution. It
was the country's first
smog of the summer season and
prompted the UK's Environment Minister Michael
Meacher
to ask for public help to reduce air pollutants.
For
full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-10.html
******************************************************************
UK ALONE MEASURES UP TO KYOTO
EMISSIONS LIMITS
ARLINGTON,
Virginia, June 21, 2000 (ENS) - Of five European Union countries,
only the United Kingdom is likely to achieve its Kyoto
Protocol emissions
reduction target, said a report
released today by The Pew Center on Global
Climate
Change.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-12.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JUNE 21, 2000
Natural
Selection Evolves Cleaner Engines
Californians Worried About Environment, Question State
Funding
Caviar Smuggler Jailed
Over Tons of Illegal Delicacy
Agriculture Official Stresses Environmental Health
EPA May Ban Waste Dumping in
Buzzards Bay
Old Growth Forest
Tracts Hidden in North Carolina
Poor Water Quality Threatens North Carolina Fish
Comments Sought on Proposed Nuclear
Repository in Utah
Milwaukee
Utility Proposes Voluntary Emissions Reductions
Grand Teton National Park Celebrates 50th Birthday
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-21-09.html
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
***************************************************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
***************************************************************************
from League of Conservation Voters June 22, 2000
E-News, Edition 1
The 1st Edition of E-News from the
League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
Email: Ed_Fund@lcv.org Web: http://www.VoteEnvironment.org
In this Newsletter:
1. The Vote Environment Campaign
2.
We need your help to . Ask the Candidates. about the issues
3. New information on the www.VoteEnvironment.org web site
4. Look for LCV Ed Fund TV ads in your city
5. Local news from recent LCV Ed Fund press conferences
6. Encourage others to take the pledge
VOTE ENVIRONMENT CAMPAIGN .
Thank you again for taking the Vote Environment pledge and
asking to be put
on our e-news list. This is
an exciting period, following the launch of
our new
website, www.VoteEnvironment.org. We are happy to offer you news
and updates about the Vote Environment Campaign through
this, our 1st ever
edition of e-news.
The key to the Vote Environment
Campaign is you! We want every candidate
running for
elected office, from county council to state legislature to
Congress to President talking about the
environment. That means that we
all need to
be asking the candidates where they stand on the environment.
Tell us what you want us to include in upcoming editions of
this newsletter
by emailing Carrie Giddins at
ed_fund@lcv.org.
ASK THE CANDIDATES WHERE THEY STAND ON THE ENVIRONMENT .
What issues are important to you? We want to
know! Please write to us at
ed_fund@lcv.org
and tell us what you want the candidates to be discussing
in this election year.
- Do you see more and more
construction in your neighborhood and worry
that there
is less and less park and outdoor space?
- Is your commute getting longer and
do you notice more air pollution?
- Are farm factories polluting your
water, or is something else
threatening your clean water
supply?
Tell us the issues
important in your state. We. ll put environmental
questions on our state resources pages and encourage others
to ask these
questions. Please write to us so
we can answer your concerns and make your
concerns about
the environment part of the national, state and local
political debate.
NEW INFORMATION POSTED ON THE
VOTEENVIRONEMNT.ORG WEB SITE .
- The LCV Ed Fund has
posted a new ad on our web site. Please take a
moment to check out this new ad . . Our Kids. at
www.voteenvironment.org/media_tv.html. The script is also
posted for you to
read.
- We
have also recently added new regional sections and state resources
pages to our site, which will give you information on what
LCV is doing
near you. These sections offer information
about the people we have working
throughout the country,
links to other organizations working to save our
environment, state polls and questions that you can ask your
local
candidates to get them talking about the
environment. Please check back
often to see
what is going on in your state.
LCV ED FUND ADS RUNNING NOW IN A
CITY NEAR YOU .
The LCV Ed Fund has ads running across
the country encouraging Americans to
. Vote Environment.
in the 2000 election. Here is a list of the cities
where our ads are running:
Sacramento, California - June 6th thru July 11th
Minneapolis, Minnesota . May 24th thru July 1st
Billings, Montana . June 23rd thru July 14th
Seattle, Washington . June 6th thru July 14th
If you are not in one of these cities, you can always check
out the ads on
our web site at
www.VoteEnvironment.org/media_tv.html
LOCAL NEWS .
Recently the LCV Ed Fund held press conferences in Ohio,
Michigan,
Minnesota, Washington and
California. The releases can be found on our web
site at:
http://www.voteenvironment.org/whatsnew.html
We also got some great press
coverage of these events. Check out the
following link for more about the LCV Ed Fund and our work
in Ohio:
http://www.statenews.org/news/2000/May/opr-051600-01.html
This link will take you to
an article about our work in Washington State:
http://www.seattlep-i.com/national/buy201.shtml
ENCOURAGE
OTHERS TO . TAKE THE PLEDGE. .
Since you have already
signed on to . Take the Pledge. and stay informed
about
what the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund is up to, we
want you to encourage others to do the
same. Please tell someone about
www.VoteEnvironment.org or forward them this email and have
them sign up!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
E-news from the League of Conservation Voters Education
Fund is a
publication of the LCV Ed Fund.
- Please feel free to contact Carrie Giddins at
ed_fund@lcv.org with any
questions, comments or
suggestions about the web site or any of the issues
discussed above.
- If you ever want
to remove yourself from this mailing list, send an email
to <lyris@lists.client-mail.com>
that reads: unsubscribe vote-environment
- If you ever
need to get in contact with the owner of the list, (if you
have trouble unsubscribing, or have questions about the list
itself) send
email to: ed_fund@lcv.org
- If you have any questions or problems regarding the
mailing list, send an
email
to: ed_fund@lcv.org
- The League of
Conservation Voters Education Fund is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to raising
awareness about
environmental issues, increasing the
capacity and effectiveness of state
and local
environmental groups, and encouraging citizens to participate in
the democratic process. For more information,
please visit the LCV
Education Fund Web site at www.VoteEnvironment.org.
from Evironmental Defense Fund June 22, 2000
You can take action on this alert either by email or
preferably on the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A8091B961684859C97085.
Here's what this alert is
about:
Stop reckless lending by
export finance banks
----------------------
We need your help urgently,
now. Environmental Defense and
some 350 other
citizens' organizations from 46 countries are
calling
for wide ranging environmental and social reforms in
government supported Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) . (see
http://www.eca-watch.org or
http://www.environmentaldefense.org ). These
ECAs, such as
the U.S. Export-Import Bank,
the German Hermes Guarantee,
the Japan Bank for
International Cooperation (JBIC),France's
COFACE and
Italy's SACE, grant over $50 billion in middle-
and
long-term loans and guarantees for big infrastructure
schemes in developing countries. They finance -- with
minimal or no attention to the environment -- huge paper
pulp mills in Indonesia, giant coal fired power plants in
India, and huge destructive dams such as the China
Yangste
River Three Gorges project.
For five years the representatives
of the ECAs have been
discussing possible common
environmental guidelines and
standards within the
OECD-the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and
Development in Paris, with little progress.
The OECD is
a negotiating forum for the twenty-six most
industrialized countries. Despite international protests,
THESE NEGOTIATIONS ARE TAKING PLACE IN CLOSED MEETINGS,
and
the OECD recently announced it will not even
publicly
release its work plan to develop
common environmental
standards for export finance. The
secrecy of the OECD
meetings and the systematic lack of
transparency of the ECAs
themselves (for the most part
they refuse to make public
even the most basic
information about the projects they
finance) make the
negotiation process a travesty.
Next Monday, June 26 is the annual meeting of the Trade and
Economics Ministers from the OECD countries, and we are
asking you to send emails and/or faxes to Donald
Johnson,
the Secretary General of the OECD, to protest
the lack of
progress in negotiating environmental
guidelines for the
ECAs and to call for a halt for the
secrecy and lack of
openness in which the negotiations
are taking place.
Your email
letters to the head of the OECD will show them
that
citizens are watching their activities, and help
pressure these secretive international finance agencies to
correct their environmentally irresponsible lending
practices.
Best regards,
Bruce Rich
International Program
Director
Washington DC Office
Environmental Defense
PS: Tell your friend and family to join us at:
http://actionnetwork.org/add.tcl?domain=EDF_International
----------------------
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on
this
alert by going to the following URL:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A8091B961684859C97085
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA
EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your
email program, and edit
the letter below as you
wish. If your email program does not have
a
"reply to sender" option, you can copy and paste the letter below into
a new email message and mail it to
alert-response-419220A8091B961684859C97085@actionnetwork.org.
You must include the whole letter in your response including
"-YOU MAY
EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END OF
LETTER-". Please do not
add your name and
address to your letter. Action Network automatically
does this for you.
We STRONGLY encourage you to make edits directly to our
sample letter
below, and put the alert talking points
into your own words. An
individualized letter is worth
ten computer generated letters. Of
course, hundreds of
unedited letters will still create a large impact,
so
please reply even if you don't have time to personalize the letter.
Your letter will be addressed and
sent to:
Mr. Secretary General Donald Johnston
-------YOU
MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW---------
I am writing to express my concern
over the lack of
substantive progress and lack of
transparency in the OECD
discussions about common
environmental approaches and
guidelines for Export
Credit Agencies.
After five
years of discussions, the OECD Export Credit
Agency
Working Party environmental policy process has
produced
very little of substance and has lacked
transparency and
meaningful consultation with civil society,
particularly
from non-OECD countries, at the policy or
project level.
This lack of transparency of the ECA Working
Party,
particularly in refussing to make public the Work
Plan
to develop common environmental standards for export
finance is most unfortunate, and undermines the
international public credibility of the entire process.
Millions of dollars and years of meetings expended on
detailed study of environmental procedures and guidelines in
other parts of OECD, such as the Environment Directorate
and
the Development Assistance Committee, have little
effect on
the deliberations of ECA Working Party, which
appears to
conduct its discussions in semi-isolation
from other parts
of the organization.
The lack of progress, the lack of
transparency, and the
inefficient use of internal OECD
resources and experience in
the environmental area is
wasting valuable taxpayer
resources, and we request you
to personally address these
problems as a priority.
Please take action now, since the
OECD, and not just its
member governments, bears increasing
responsibility for
this lack of transparency and lack of
progress. Please take steps to ensure
that over $50
billion annually in ECA finance for
infrastructure in
developing countries does not continue
to violate minimal
international environmental and
social guidelines.
-------END OF
LETTER-------------------------
Sincerely yours,
from Global Response June 22, 2000
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
Please send a quick fax or email
to prevent destruction of critical
mangrove and wildlife
habitat in the Sultanate of Oman (model letter
provided
below). This request comes from a local organization called
Friends of Oman. It is circulated by the Mangrove
Action Project.
***ACTION
ALERT!!!***
Unique Mangrove Area Threatened in
Oman. 18 June 2000
Greetings from the Sultanate of Oman, a country on the
Arabian Peninsula
little known outside the Middle East,
but one which needs your help. The
capital of Oman is
Muscat, a hot, dry city with very few 'green' areas. One
of the only naturally vegetated parts of the city is known
as Qurum Natural
Park, a reserve built to protect a
unique mangrove lagoon. The lagoon is
one of the biggest
of its kind in the Middle East, and is home to countless
forms of wildlife. It even used to host migratory flamingoes
before man's
encroachment put a stop to this.
Eventually, this park has become overrun
with roads,
shops, carnivals, man-made lakes and even an amusement park,
all of which it has weathered more or less successfully -
until now.
The sad truth is that
the beach and mangroves of the 'Shaati Al Qurum'
area,
as it is known, will be completely destroyed if a planned road is
built right in the middle of the fragile area as planned.
The mangroves
will be starved of their vital source of
seawater and all forms of life that depend on them for
survival will
perish. The planned road is to be
constructed straight through the beach,
dunes and
mangrove lagoon of the area. As I write this, initial
construction work is already under way, so we have very
little time to stop
this unnecessary project. The road
is planned to ease traffic congestion in
the area at
peak times, a result that could be achieved through numerous
other actions of a less harmful nature.
Please help us save Qurum's unique
habitat by sending letters and emails of
protest to the
following ministers, papers and organisations.
Friends of Oman
Please write:
Dr Sadiq Bin Abdul Hussain AL-MASCATI
Director-General of Nature Protectorates
Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Environment
P.O. Box 461, P.C. 112
MUSCAT, Sultanate of Oman
fax +968 693 858
Ministry of Water
Resources Governorate
of Muscat
fax +968
703152 fax
+968 798095
Times of Oman
times@omantel.net.om
Oman Observer
editor@omanobserver.com
Oman News Agency
editorenglish@omannews.com
editorarabic@omannews.com
The Oman Maillist
oman-l@oman.org.
Al Watan
alwatan@omantel.net.om
Oman Daily Arabic newspaper
ditor@omandaily.com.
Please also send copies of your letters to the NGO, Friends
of Oman
<friendsofoman@hotmail.com>
Sample Letter:
Honorable Dr. Sadiq Bin Abdul
Hussain AL-MASCATI
I have heard
with great concern about current development plans in your
country to develop a road right through an important
mangrove area in
Oman's capitol, Muscat, where Qurum
Natural Park is located. This Park is
a
reserve built to protect a unique mangrove lagoon, which is one of the
biggest of its kind in the Middle East, and is home to
countless forms of
wildlife.
The beach and mangroves of the 'Shaati Al Qurum' area will
be destroyed if
a planned road is built in the middle of
the fragile area. The existing
hydrology will be
disturbed, and the mangroves will be starved of their
vital source of seawater and all forms of life that depend
on them for
survival will suffer or perish. The planned
road is to be constructed
straight through the beach,
dunes and mangrove lagoon of the area. We have
learned
that initial construction work is already underway. Though the road
is planned to ease traffic congestion in the area at peak
times, this same
result could be achieved through
numerous other actions of a less harmful
nature.
Please help save Qurum's unique
mangrove habitat by halting this short
sighted
development.
Sincerely,
cc: Ministry of Water
Resources & Governorate of Muscat
From: "Shati Al Qurum" <friendsofoman@hotmail.com>
--------------------------------------
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 Environment News Service June 22, 2000
CONGRESS BLOCKS CLEAN AIR ENFORCEMENT
WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 2000 (ENS)
- As a coalition of environmental groups
released a
report listing more than 300 counties across the U.S. that fail
to meet federal clean air standards, the House of
Representatives voted
Wednesday to block federal
regulators from using such information to impose
new
pollution emissions standards.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-22-06.html
******************************************************************
UK SUPERMARKET CHAIN GOBBLES 40
PERCENT WORLD'S ORGANIC VEGGIES
By Neville Judd
LONDON, England,
June 22, 2000 (ENS) - One of the largest British
supermarket chains has announced plans to switch to organic
food at no extra
cost to consumers.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-22-10.html
******************************************************************
ROADLESS OR FREE: WESTERN CROWD
DIVIDED
MISSOULA, Montana, June
22, 2000 (ENS) - To road or not to road in America's
national forests? The U.S. Forest Service's proposal to keep
43 million
acres roadless is being debated now at 300
public hearings across the
country.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-22-01.html
******************************************************************
AFRICA ENTICES TOURISTS WITH NEW
TRI-NATION CONSERVATION AREA
DURBAN, South Africa, June 22, 2000 (ENS) - Borders
separating conservation
areas of three Southern African
nations - Swaziland, Mozambique, and South
Africa - will
come down following a trilateral co-operation agreement to
promote conservation signed
today. The Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation
Area was created in Durban at the World Economic Summit by
the ministers
responsible for the environment in the
three countries.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-22-02.html
******************************************************************
HAWAI'I BANS SHARK FINNING
HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 22, 2000
(ENS) - Hawai. i Governor Benjamin Cayento
signed a bill
today banning shark finning, a wasteful practice that kills
about 60,000 sharks in the Pacific Ocean each year. The bill
prohibits the
landing in Hawai. i of any shark fins
without the entire shark carcass.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-22-07.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JUNE 22, 2000
House
Blocks Reductions in Arsenic, Radon in Drinking Water
House Committee Approves
Controversial Endangered Species Act
Revisions Bill Offers $64 M for Coral Reef Conservation
International Endangered Species
Conservation Bills Introduced
Moon Rover Could Build Solar Power Cells
Interior Department to Review
Environmental Issues on Guam
Biodiesel Passes Clean Air Act Requirements
Navy Sonar Makes Humpback Whales
Change Their Tune
Stream Gage
Will Monitor Runoff from Scorched Los Alamos
Toxic Algae May be Killing Florida Alligators
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-22-09.html
Copyright Environment News Service
(ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
***********************************
***************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BIODIESEL IS FIRST ALTERNATIVE FUEL
TO COMPLETE CLEAN AIR TESTS:
DEMAND SOARS FOR SOY-BASED
FUEL
WASHINGTON, DC,
June 22, -/E-Wire/-- It was announced on Capitol Hill
today that biodiesel - an alternative fuel made from
renewable resources,
such as soybean oil - has become
the first and only alternative fuel to have
successfully
completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean
Air Act Amendments of 1990.
CONTACT: Gina DeLuca, 202/737-8400
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/22June0002.html
***************************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS
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TO BUSINESS AND ENERGY EDITORS:
Questar Baseline Announces
Sales, Marketing Agreements
LYONS, Colo., June 22
-/E-Wire/-- Questar Baseline, which makes,
sells,
installs and services a complete line of advanced gas-monitoring
instruments, has announced two recent sales and another
agreement that will
allow the company to improve the
versatility of a gas-quality analyzer known
as R.A.M.S.
/CONTACT: Jack
Schons of Questar Baseline, 801-324-5841/
(STR)
/Web site: http://www.baselineindustries.com/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/22June0001.html
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TO STATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL
EDITORS:
From Canoes to Tall
Ships: Passing the Paddle
PHILADELPHIA, June 22
-/E-Wire/-- Elizabeth Murphy, chief operating
officer of
the Delaware River Port Authority, on Friday (June 23) will be
presented with an autographed canoe paddle, a symbol of the
collective
spirit of participants in the Delaware River
Sojourn.
/CONTACT: Christopher
Roberts, 609-883-9500, ext. 205, or Clarke
Rupert,
609-883-9500, ext. 260, both of the Delaware River Basin Commission/
/Web site: http://www.state.nj.us/drbc /
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/22June0003.html
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-- NEWS ADVISORY --
TO ENVIRONMENTAL, TECHNOLOGY AND
NATIONAL EDITORS:
Latest EPA
Developments
The following are Environmental Protection
Agency developments.
For further information, call the
contacts listed below.
CONTACT: Luke
C. Hester, 202-564-7818, or Martha Casey, 202-564-7842,
both of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov/projectxl
/Web site: http://www.cec.org
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov/oeca
/Web
site: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/bees.html/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/22June0007.html
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TO STATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL
EDITORS:
High Admirals Selected
for OpSail Event
CAMDEN, N.J., June 22
-/E-Wire/-- Jeanne M. Fox, regional
administrator of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region II, and
Robert C. Shinn, Jr., commissioner of the New Jersey
Department of
Environmental Protection, have been
selected to serve on Friday as Lady High
Admiral and
Lord High Admiral of the Delaware River Sojourn.
/CONTACT: Christopher
Roberts, 609-883-9500, ext. 205, or Clarke
Rupert,
609-883-9500, ext. 260, of the Delaware River Basin Commission/
/Web site: http://www.state.nj.us/drbc /
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/22June0005.html
***************************************************************************
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RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
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TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATIONAL
EDITORS:
House Action Reverses
Course on Environment, Public Health Progress
WASHINGTON, June 22
-/E-Wire/-- The House of Representatives approved
significant cuts to core environmental protection and public
health programs
late Wednesday and added
anti-environmental riders, one of which would
restrict
the Clinton-Gore Administration from releasing air pollution
information to American communities.
/CONTACT: U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Media
Relations, 202-564-4355/
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/22June0006.html
******************************************************************
TRANSMIT YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON
E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS
******************************************************************
from Union of Concerned Scientists June 23, 2000
********** UCS ACTION ALERT **********
June 23, 2000
American Automakers Need to Enter
Hybrid Market
ISSUE: General
Motors and DiamlerChrysler should make plans
to build
and sell hybrid-electric vehicles.
ACTION: Write a letter to General Motors and
DaimlerChrysler urging them to make public plans to enter
the hybrid-electric market.
BACKGROUND: In April, Ford Motor Company announced that it
would join Honda and Toyota in introducing innovative
gasoline electric hybrid vehicles to the U.S. market,
though not until 2003. Ford says that their
compact SUV
hybrid will get 40 miles per gallon and will
meet
California's stringent SULEV (super ultra low
emitting
vehicle) standard.
Ford's announcement is encouraging because they are the
first of the domestic automakers to make a market
commitment to hybrid technology. Honda and Toyota are both
introducing gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to the
U.S.
market this year. The Honda Insight and Toyota
Prius are
exceptionally fuel-efficient and greatly
reduce tailpipe
emissions. With their great
potential for market success,
Ford's hybrid announcement
comes none too soon.
So where
are GM and DaimlerChrysler?
To
be sure, both GM and DaimlerChrysler have shown off
their latest hybrid and other advanced technology concept
vehicles at recent auto shows and special press events.
But to date, neither automaker has made a public
commitment
to putting such vehicles on the
market. That could be a
problem if they want
to remain competitive in this
critically important
revolution to clean vehicle
technologies.
With today's Action, you can send
top GM and
DaimlerChrysler officials the message that
they must act
quickly to avoid falling behind in the
clean car race. We
need all North American
automakers to be part of the clean
and efficient hybrid
vehicle market.
HOW TO CONTACT:
Mr. Richard Wagoner,
CEO
General Motors Headquarters
100 Renaissance Drive
Detroit,
MI 48265
Mr. Juergen Schrempp, CEO
DaimlerChrysler Headquarters, USA
1000 Chrysler Drive
Auburn Hills,
MI 48326
QUESTIONS: If you have questions about this
action alert,
please contact Michael Pancook in UCS'
California office by
responding to this email or by
calling 510-843-1872.
**********
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 2397 Shattuck Ave,
Suite 203, Berkeley, CA 94704. By email, send to
mpancook@ucsusa.org. Fax to 510-843-3785.
from Global Response June 23, 2000
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick
Response Network:"
Good news in the campaign to stop
construction of the Maheshwar Dam in India:
Ogden Corporation has agreed to talk with affected
communities -- better
late than never! Here's
a press release from International Rivers Network,
following a protest at Ogden's annual shareholders' meeting.
Thanks for all your letters to
Odgen Corp on this issue. You certainly
helped persuade Odgen to meet with protesters at the
shareholders' meeting
and to meet with the Indian
communities that are determined to protect the
Narmada
River and their livelihoods.
PRESS RELEASE
OGDEN COMMIT TO TALKS ON NARMADA DAM AT ANNUAL MEETING
PROTEST
New York-based Ogden
Corp. has agreed to talk with affected community
representatives before investing in the controversial
Maheshwar Dam
on India's Narmada River. In March this
year, Ogden Corp. signed a
Memorandum of Intent to take
a 49% shareholding in the 400 megawatt
Maheshwar dam, in
partnership with the Indian textile company S.
Kumars.
Patrick McCully, Campaigns
Director of International Rivers Network,
said "While we
welcome Ogden's commitment to talk to local
communities,
they should have done this before signing the memorandum
with S.Kumars. If Ogden carries out talks in good faith they
will
realise that the project can only be built by
violating the rights of
affected people."
The Maheshwar Dam will displace over
35,000 people in 61 villages. No
comprehensive
resettlement plan exists and no acceptable replacement
land is available for those who would lose their fertile
riverside
fields. Electricity generated by the dam would
cost four to five
times more than power currently
generated in the state of Madhya
Pradesh. Contractors at
the dam site are reportedly using illegal
child and
bonded labor.
Intense local
opposition to the project has resulted in numerous dam
site occupations, marches, rallies and hunger strikes which
despite
mass arrests and beatings at the hands of police
have forced long
delays in project construction. Local
opponents are part of the
Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA,
or the Save the Narmada Movement), which
has for more
than a decade been struggling for the rights of
dam-affected people throughout the Narmada Valley.
Ogden's commitment to talks was made
at a meeting with a delegation
from a protest held
outside their annual shareholders meeting in New
York on
June 14. The protest was called by three U.S.-based
organizations, the Narmada Solidarity Coalition of New York,
the
Friends of the Narmada, and International Rivers
Network.
Protestors held
placards saying "Stop Ogden Corp! Save India's
Narmada
River!", "Dam Ogden's Cash Flow!" and "Og-Den of Thieves".
They also handed out copies of a letter to Ogden
shareholders
compiled by International Rivers Network
which supports the NBA's
demand that Ogden should
immediately withdraw from the project.
Ogden Corp. Senior Vice-President, Kent Burton, and head of
Ogden's
Asia Division, Ashish Sarkar, promised the
protest delegation they
would start multilateral talks
by August with all "stakeholders" of
the Maheshwar
project, including the NBA and members of all affected
communities. The protest delegation included Venu Govindu of
the
Friends of the Narmada, Sheila Ghose and Chandana
Mathur of the
Narmada Solidarity Coalition of New York,
and Smitu Kothari of
Lokayan, an India-based
organization.
Mr Burton assured
the delegation that human rights and environmental
considerations would not be disregarded by the company, and
that they
were committed to pursuing a democratic,
transparent process in their
involvement in the project.
Mr Burton said that Ogden had already
defined a "kill
date" - a date when they would withdraw if their
stated
commitments to social and environmental principles are not
satisfied.
A
number of international investors have already pulled out of the
Maheshwar project citing social, environmental and economic
concerns.
These include San Francisco engineering giant
Bechtel, Oregon utility
PacifiCorp, Dutch Bank ABN-Amro,
and two German utilities, VEW
Energie and Bayernwerk.
Despite Ogden's statements, the
NBA remains skeptical of the
company's intentions. Ogden
has failed to reply to three separate
letters from the
NBA and an Ogden team recently visited the
dam-affected
area along with project developers S.Kumars without
contacting the NBA. The team's visit was interrupted by NBA
supporters in local villages who made them listen to the
complaints
of hundreds of affected people and showed
them the poor quality land
being offered as a
replacement to the fertile lands to be submerged.
The
Ogden team did not answer questions about the cost of electricity
from the dam and
the availability of
land for rehabilitation.
Critics
also point to Ogden Corporation's poor environmental track
record in the U.S. with its solid waste disposal and
incinerator
units.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
<www.narmada.org> <www.irn.org>
Venu Madhav Govindu, Friends of the
Narmada, New Jersey:
venu@narmada.org tel. +1 609 951
2823 (o) +1 609-799-5907 (h)
Patrick McCully, International Rivers Network, California:
patrick@irn.org tel. +1 510 848 1155 (o) +1 510 528 2930
(h)
Sheila Ghose, Narmada
Solidarity Coalition of New York
sg219@is6.nyu.edu tel.
+1 212 627-4659
from Alaskan Rainforest Campaign June 24, 2000
Dear Friends:
A few weeks back we alerted you to an attempt
by Rep. Stupak to derail the National Roadless
Areas Initiative. While Stupak's attempt failed,
Senator Larry Craig now has plans to offer an
amendment during consideration of the Interior
Appropriations to block the implementation of the
roadless policy. The Initiative, which enjoys
overwhelming public support, would protect the areas
within National Forests that are currently
unroaded from future development. While the DRAFT
plan fails to offer any protections for Alaska's
Tongass, a FINAL policy may still do so. Furthermore,
none of the roadless areas nationwide will receive
any level of protection if Craig's amendment is allowed.
Please contact your Senators at 202/224-3121 and urge
them to oppose the Craig anti-roadless area protection
amendment.
Thanks-
____________________________________________________________________________
To speak with someone
directly
please e-mail info@akrain.org or call 907-222-2552.
Thanks for your support.
Alaska Rainforest Campaign Staff.
from Environment News Service June 23, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
UK CURBS RADIOACTIVE MARINE DUMPING
LONDON, United Kingdom, June
23, 2000 (ENS) - The UK government will cut
radioactive discharges into the
sea to virtually nil by 2020, Environment
Minister Michael Meacher has
pledged.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-12.html
******************************************************************
STEEP GAS PRICES DRIVE POLITICAL ENGINES
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, June 23, 2000 (ENS) - High gas prices in the Midwest are
heating up as a major political issue. Congressional Republicans are seizing
the opportunity to press for oil drilling within the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and other natural areas, while President Bill Clinton is
promoting increased investment in alternative fuels.
For full text and
graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-07.html
******************************************************************
OIL GUSHING FROM SHIPWRECK OFF SOUTH AFRICA
CAPE TOWN, South
Africa, June 23, 2000 (ENS) - A large oil slick is
spreading off the
southern tip of Africa from the wreck of a bulk ore
carrier that sank at
dawn today about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) north of
Cape Town.
For full
text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-02.html
******************************************************************
GOVERNMENTS COLLABORATE TO CLEAR AWAY ONTARIO SMOG
By Neville
Judd
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, June 23, 2000 (ENS) - Sulphur dioxide and
nitrogen oxides, two major precursors of ground level ozone, are to be
declared toxic and subject to tougher legislation said Canada's Environment
Minister David Anderson on Wednesday.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-11.html
******************************************************************
CONGRESS WEIGHS FEDERAL LAND MANAGEMENT FUNDING
WASHINGTON, DC,
June 23, 2000 (ENS) - Clinton administration funding
proposals for
management of American national forests, parks, wildlife and
other federal
lands are being limited as fiscal year 2001 budget measures
make their way
through Congress.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-06.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 23, 2000
Senate
Considers Restrictions on Use of Ozone Depleters
Chickens Help Detect
West Nile Virus
Radioactive Drug Company Must Review Safety Procedures
Alabama Chemical Weapons Incinerator Gets Green Light
Amazon
Rainforest Research Facility Nears Completion
Fuel Cell Powered Bicycle
Tests Successfully
New Software Rates Green Building Products
League of Conservation Voters Targets Anti-Environmental Candidates
New York Schools Get Environmental Justice Grants
Goodman Oil
Slapped with $736,061 in Fines
Apples: Tasty Cancer Fighters
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000. All rights reserved.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-09.html
******************************************************************
HEALING OUR WORLD: WEEKLY COMMENT
Burgers, Pain and Slaughter
By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
For years, those of us who follow
factory farming issues have known that
animals have been butchered alive in
slaughterhouses. Finally, video footage
has been obtained from a worker in a
Washington slaughterhouse showing fully
conscious cows being skinned alive
and having their legs cut off while
struggling for freedom. It
may be this nation’s greatest shame. Billions of
pounds of meat are consumed
every day by people from all walks of life -
educators, environmentalists,
business people and children. Yet few think
about the source of the burger
or the ground meat in their tacos. Those who
do try to believe that the
animals are humanely treated. But they are not.
For full text and graphics
visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23g.html
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
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TO BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
New EPA Testing Confirms
Health Benefits of Biodiesel
WASHINGTON, June 23 -/E-Wire/--
Biodiesel industry leaders revealed
the results of a three-year, $2.2
million EPA study confirming biodiesel's
ability to reduce health risks
associated with standard petroleum diesel.
In compliance with Clean Air Act
testing, key industry players, including
leading biodiesel supplier World
Energy Alternatives, announced the results
before an audience of
Congressional leaders, the Department of Energy and
fuel and agricultural
industry officials.
/CONTACT: Angela Moschetta of The
Kunian Group, 617-232-0001,
angela@kuniangroup.com/
/Web site: http://www.worldenergy.net/
For Full
Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/23June0001.html
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TO BUSINESS, AUTO AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
New Transmission
that Reduces Soot from Diesel Trucks Gets Boost from
Investment in Torvec
ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 23 -/E-Wire/--
Torvec, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board:
TOVC) announced that it allocated $500,000
in new funds towards completing
pre-production prototypes of a transmission
that significantly reduces
diesel soot emissions and fuel consumption in
heavy-duty trucks. When
production is completed, Torvec will send
a diesel truck with the new
transmission to the Environmental Protection
Agency for emissions and fuel
testing.
/CONTACT: Jim Gleasman of Torvec,
Inc. , 716-248-8549/
/Web site: http://www.torvec.com/ (TOVC)
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/23June0003.html
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-- NEWS ADVISORY --
TO NATIONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND POLITICAL
EDITORS:
EPA Statement on Nox SIP Call
Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit Court of
Appeals made a final ruling
upholding EPA's clean-air plan for the Eastern
United States, known as the
Nox SIP call. This decision will allow EPA and
the eastern states to move
forward on a fixed schedule to reduce harmful air
emissions from the most
polluting power plants and other industrial sources.
CONTACT: U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Communications,
Education, and Media Relations,
202-564-4344.
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/23June0002.html
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-- NEWS ADVISORY --
TO NATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
EPA to Launch Innovative Program to Reward Top Environmental Performance
On Monday, June 26, senior EPA officials and
corporate and state
officials will launch a program which rewards companies
which exceed minimum
regulatory requirements and take extra steps to reduce
and prevent
pollution. The benefits to the recipients will
include assistance which
could facilitate lowering operational costs and
national recognition from
agency endorsement.
CONTACT: Luke C. Hester of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency,
202-564-7818.
/Web site: http://www.epa.gov/
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/June00/23June0004.html
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