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Environment Action
Alerts for
July 16 - July 24, 2000
Senate Approves Mifepristone NRDC Action Alert Sierra Club Action #235
Sierra Club Action #233
Nature Conservancy News
Urgent Alert! to help
Indigenous Pakistanis
LCV Update July 18 ENS News July 19 News from RAFI
Coke Spotlight Campaign
NRDC Legislative Watch
Global Warming
Threatens Wildlife
ENS News July 17
Urgent Alert! concerning
Save Our Environment
Pak Mun Dam in Thailand
Action Center Update
ENS News July 18 LCV Update July 20 ENS News July 21
Sierra Club Endorses Gore
California's Zero
Help Protect Bears from
Emission Program
Illegal Trade and Poaching
Sierra Club Action #236 ENS News July 24
from Zero Population Growth July 17, 2000
On Monday, July 10th the
House voted by a slim margin to
reject (187-182) an amendment offered by
Rep. Tom Coburn.
The amendment would have prohibited the FDA
from approving
any drug that induces medical abortion and was specifically
intended to block approval of Mifepristone or RU-486.
The House
voted in favor of this amendment in both 1998
(223-202) and 1999
(217-214). Because the Senate never
agreed to it, though, it
never became law.
Thank you for faxing your Representative and asking
her/him
to oppose this amendment. Your efforts payed off and we
won!
Find out how your Representative voted:
http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/issue.pl?dir=zpg
If you have any questions, please contact Scott McNiven
(scott@zpg.org) or call
1-800-POP-1956.
from Sierra Club July 17, 2000
SC-ACTION Vol. II, #233
DEFENDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
July 14, 2000
------------------------QUOTE OF THE
DAY-----------------------------
"My sense
is there are few issues that are less partisan or less
geographic, because the National Forests
belong to all Americans."
- Representative
Jim Leach, a Republican from Iowa and a lead sponsor
of legislation to end the commercial logging
program on federal public
lands.
(See item #4)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEATURED ACTION ITEM: INTERIOR FUNDING
BILL COMING UP EARLY NEXT WEEK!
1) URGENT
ACTION:
TIME RUNNING OUT TO PROTECT WILD
FORESTS: SEND A FAX TODAY!
2) URGENT
ACTION:
WEIGH IN ON SPRAWL IN YOUR
NEIGHBORHOOD
3) URGENT ACTION:
MEXICO'S ATTORNEY GENERAL USES BACKHANDED
COURT TACTIC TO SEEK THE
CONVICTION OF MEXICAN
EARTH DEFENDERS
4) TAKE ACTION:
PROTECT OUR WILD HERITAGE - STOP LOGGING OUR
NATIONAL FORESTS
5) TAKE ACTION:
SENATE VICTORY ON CAFE
6) TAKE ACTION:
PROTECT OUR WATER FROM ANIMAL FACTORIES
______________________________________________________________________
FEATURED ACTION:
ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS POLLUTE INTERIOR
DEPARTMENT FUNDING BILL
TAKE
ACTION: Please call your senators and urge them to oppose
anti-environmental riders to the Interior
Appropriations bill.
Debate on the bill to
fund the Interior Department and other related
programs will resume on Monday, July 17, with
votes occurring on
Tuesday. We
expect a number of important votes on amendments that
would undermine protections for endangered
species, new National
Monuments, and our
National Parks.
Please urge your senators
to oppose anti-environmental riders.
Specifically urge you senators to vote
against:
A rider to be offered by
Senator NICKLES ON NATIONAL MONUMENTS. We
believe his amendment may be similar to the
rider that was stricken on
the House
floor. It would block any funding for the study, planning
or implementation of new National Monuments
designated by the
President after 1999.
SENATOR DOMENICI EXTINCTION RIDER to ban
the implementation of
emergency conservation
measures to prevent extinction of an endangered
species, the silvery minnow. The
amendment would block actions by the
Bureau of
Reclamation designed to maintain water in a certain stretch
of the Rio Grande.
SENATOR THOMAS SNOWMOBILE RIDER- We think
this rider would block funds
for the
implementation of the new regulations aimed at reducing
snowmobile activity in our National
Parks. However, the latest rumor
is
Senator Thomas will offer his amendment, have a colloquy on the
floor, and then withdraw it.
Two other pro-environment amendments--a
Senator Boxer amendment
dealing with
pesticides and a Senator Feingold amendment regarding a
wilderness study area--are expected to be
debated on Tuesday. We also
support an
amendment by Senators Bryan and Fitzgerald to shift money
from the Forest Service timber budget and
place it into fire
reduction.
Please urge your Senators to oppose
anti-environmental riders and
support
amendments to improve environmental protection. Thanks for
your work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1) TAKE ACTION:
ONLY 72 HOURS LEFT TO COMMENT. SEND A FAX WITH
YOUR COMMENTS TODAY
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
forest roadless areas
from all damaging activities. If you have
already written a letter - encourage your
family, friends, children,
neighbors and
colleagues to write a letter too! The comment period
ends this Monday, July 17th!
Here are some points to address in your
letter: Over half of our
National Forests have
already been hammered by road building, logging
and other damaging activities - we should
protect the still-wild areas
that
remain. Put these 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
road building. Letters
should also
address why wild forests are important to you.
Since time is running out, sending a fax
is your best bet. E-mails are
still good,
however the Forest Service has been overwhelmed with
e-mails lately so your message might get
returned. If it does please
keep trying. The
fax number and e-mail address are below.
By e-mail to: roadlessdeis@fs.fed.us
By fax to: 877-703-2494
For more information, visit our
website
http://www.sierraclub.org/wilderness/WildForest/Index.asp
___________________________________________
2) URGENT ACTION:
WEIGH IN ON SPRAWL IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
What does sprawl mean to you? What about
smart growth?
As part of our Challenge to
Sprawl Campaign, we are asking you to
nominate
projects and developments that exemplify sprawl or smart
growth to you for inclusion in an upcoming
sprawl report. Sprawl and
smart growth are
relatively new additions to the environmental
community's vocabulary.
Please visit the sprawl section of the
Sierra Club website at
www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/ and click 'Nominate
a development'. Please
fill answer
as many questions in the survey as you can. It should
take you no more than 20 minutes to fill out.
Please read all
directions and provide as much
detail as possible. If you don't have
all the information requested below please
submit what you do have and
we'll contact you
if we need more. ***We have extended the deadline
for submissions to FRIDAY, 7/14*** Please send
us your nominations as
soon as possible.
If you have any questions, or want to find
out more about our
Challenge to Sprawl
Campaign, please call Deron Lovaas at 202-547-1141
or by e-mail at deron.lovaas@sierraclub.org;
or George Sorvalis at
202-547-1141 or by
e-mail at george.sorvalis@sierraclub.org
-----------------------------------
3) URGENT ACTION:
MEXICAN ANTI-LOGGING ACTIVISTS NEED YOUR
SUPPORT: WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL
NEWSPAPERS AND
URGE THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT TO RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF
ENVIRONMENTALISTS
On June 20, the Mexican Attorney General's
office filed its final
conclusions, urging the
Judge to convict Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro
Cabrera on charges concocted by local
landowners and soldiers. To
date,
the only evidence that the prosecution has been able to produce
are "signed confessions", which the two
environmentalists signed after
two days of
continued torture by the military.
Montiel
and Cabrera have spent the last 14 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.
Learn more about this case:
Read John Ross' article on the July/August
2000 issue of Sierra!
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
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) TAKE ACTION:
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 cosponsor HR 1396, the National Forest
Protection and Restoration
Act. **
___________________________________________
5) TAKE ACTION:
SENATE VICTORY ON CAFE
A
victory in the Senate has resulted in a proposal to kick-start a
study of CAFE
standards. Congress has directed 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. DOT can recommend a CAFE increase in FY
'01, and barring further
barriers, DOT can promulgate new standards in
FY '02.
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.
___________________________________________
6) TAKE ACTION: PROTECT OUR
WATER FROM ANIMAL FACTORIES
The EPA is in the process of
developing a "Guidance Document" for a
permitting system for large
concentrated animal feeding operations
(CAFOs). These massive animal
factories have fouled America's water
and air from coast to coast,
and have run family farmers off the land.
Several court cases have
clearly found that these facilities,
including land application of
wastes, are to be regulated under the
federal Clean Water Act.
But
the US EPA seems not to understand the import of the court
decisions or the impact of
the CAFOs on water quality. There are
three major positions that
the Sierra Club (and allied groups) have
been asserting:
1)
Every CAFO with more than 1000 "animal units" (2500 hogs, 30,000
chickens, and 750 dairy cows)
must OBTAIN a federal wastewater
discharge permit.
2)
The permits must contain binding, enforceable and water-quality
protective conditions.
3)
CAFOs must land apply wastes at agronomic rates, as determined by a
soil test and the optimal
rate of growth (or production) of the
specific crop. (EPA is
proposing to allow rates of application based
on "soil assimilation" which
essentially means wastes can be applied
right up to the point where
runoff occurs).
Please call EPA Administrator
Carol Browner at 202-564-4700 (FAX -
202-501-1450) and urge her to
issue a Guidance Document incorporating
the above points.
------------------------------------------------------------
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 League of Conservation Voters July 18, 2000
===================================
LCV. s Weekly Congressional Update
Week of July 17th, 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 killed Sen.
Craig's anti-environment rider to stop the
administration's roadless policy. This week the
Senate will continue
voting on amendments to the fiscal
year 2001 Interior Department funding
bill. They will also markup land conservation
legislation similar to House
bill H.R. 701, the
Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 1999, in the Senate
Energy and Environment committee. A Senate
Energy subcommittee will hold a
hearing on Clinton's
roadless policy initiative. The House is not
scheduled to take up any major environment actions or
votes this week.
===================================
ACTIONS AND VOTES LAST WEEK
===================================
**SENATE**
SENATORS REACH COMPROMISE ON LANDS
FUNDING BILL
Senator Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman of the
Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, and
Senator Bingaman (D-NM) ranking minority member of
that
committee, last week reached a compromise on legislation that would
provide hundreds of millions of dollars for land
acquisition and wildlife
conservation. The
House passed a similar bill, H.R. 701, in May; since
that time, Murkowski and Bingaman have been working to find
a compromise
between their respective bills. S. 25 and
S. 2181. Their compromise will go
to markup
before the Senate Energy committee on Tuesday and Wednesday of
this week.
SENATE UPHOLDS GRAZING RIDER; CRAIG ROADLESS RIDER FAILS
Last Thursday the Senate rejected a Durbin (D-IL)
amendment to strike a
provision that would allow BLM to
renew grazing permits without new
environmental review
by a vote of 38-62. There is no need for this
automatic renewal of grazing permits, as the Bureau of Land
Management will
complete the processing of all permits
set to expire in 2001 by the end of
that
year. Further, this provision could actually encourage permit holders
with poor environmental records to delay compliance
with permit
requirements in order to take advantage of
this automatic renewal.
Also
last Thursday, Sen. Larry Craig (D-ID) offered an amendment that would
have interfered with the administration. s proposed policy
to protect
roadless areas. However, Senators
Pete Domenici (R-NM), Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM), and Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA) offered a substitute amendment dealing
with fire prevention which passed by voice
vote. The Domenici substitute
earned some
criticism from environmental groups who fear that the timber
industry could use the guise of fire prevention to justify
increased
commercial logging on federal lands; however,
the Senate. s failure to pass
the Craig roadless policy
rider should be considered an environmental
victory. Craig said that he may still offer his
rider later this year.
**HOUSE**
HOUSE PASSES FOREIGN OPERATIONS BILL
On Thursday July 13 the House passed its bill to fund U.S.
foreign aid
programs for fiscal year
2000. During debate of the bill, Rep. Greenwood
(R-PA) offered an amendment to strike so-called . gag rule.
language that
would preclude U.S. family planning aid
going to organizations that use
their own funds to
provide legal abortion services or participate in public
debates over abortion laws or
policies. Long-standing restrictions already
prevent the use of U.S. foreign assistance funds to fund
abortion-related
activities.
LCV regards global population
stabilization as crucial for environmental
sustainability. Rapid population growth
exacerbates pollution and
accelerates the depletion of
natural resources. The global gag rule
restriction would interfere with the ability of private
organizations to
participate in the political process
in their own country using their own
funds. LCV believes that using the leverage of
U.S. assistance to silence
discussion of any issue that
is a legitimate subject of public debate is
inconsistent with American values. Greenwood. s
amendment to strike this
language failed to pass by a
vote of 221-206.
During
consideration of the foreign operations bill the House agreed to a
Waters (D-CA) amendment to increase funds for debt relief
to developing
nations by $156
million. Severe debt burdens can lead poor countries to
slash environmental protection budgets and liquidate
natural resources.
The Waters amendment
passed by a vote of 216-211.
HOUSE PASSES AGRICULTURE FUNDING BILL
On Tuesday, July 11, the House passed its bill to fund
Department of
Agriculture programs by a vote of
339-82. The House rejected a DeFazio
(D-OR)
amendment to cut funding for the Wildlife Services livestock
protection program, under which more than 100,000 coyotes,
black bears,
mountain lions, and other predators are
killed each year. The amendment
failed to
pass by a vote of 190-228.
===================================
ON THE FLOOR THIS WEEK
===================================
**SENATE**
The Senate has set an ambitious
schedule for itself this week. hoping to
clear a number
of funding bills for fiscal year 2001 as they move towards
the August recess, set to begin on July 31.
SENATE TO FINISH CONSIDERATION OF
THE INTERIOR BILL
The Senate last week began
consideration of the bill to fund Department of
Interior and U.S. Forest Service programs for fiscal year
2001. Several
amendments have not yet been
considered. These include a Bryan
(D-NV)/Fitzgerald (R-IL) amendment to reduce funding for
the wasteful and
damaging timber program and use the
funds for fire planning and
preparedness in our
national forests. Proposed anti-environment amendments
include a Nickles (R-OK) amendment to restrict funding to
manage new
national monuments such as the new Sequoia
National Monument and a Domenici
(R-NM) rider to
prevent the Bureau of Reclamation from going forward with
plans to increase water flows in the Rio Grande River to
help the
endangered silvery minnow.
SENATE AGRICULTURE FUNDING BILL
MAY FINALLY REACH THE FLOOR
The Senate is scheduled to
vote this week on its version of a bill to fund
the
Department of Agriculture for 2001 (although this bill has been on the
Senate calendar for a number of weeks, consideration has
been postponed
several times). The bill
includes three anti-environment . riders.. One
rider will prevent any efforts to reform the Army Corps of
Engineers, which
has been the topic of investigative
articles in The Washington Post in
recent months for
alleged financial and regulatory mismanagement. Another
rider will prevent the administration from putting new
regulations on the
environmental impact of hardrock
mining into effect. these regulations would
protect
groundwater from contamination, ensure that mining companies have
the money to pay for toxic cleanup when mining is
completed, and allow BLM
to refuse mining permits when
it would harm the wildlife and resource
values of the
land. A third rider would remove land from Pea Island
National Wildlife Refuge and the Cape Hatteras National
Seashore in North
Carolina for the building of two
massive, environmentally unsound jetties.
**HOUSE**
No major environmental legislation is scheduled for
consideration in the
House this week.
===================================
IN COMMITTEE THIS WEEK
===================================
**SENATE**
CONSERVATION BILL GOES TO MARK-UP
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will
mark-up legislation
to provide for a permanent source
of conservation funding derived from
off-shore oil
drilling receipts. The legislation under consideration is a
compromise reached between Senators Murkowski (R-AL) and
Bingaman (D-NM)
and is similar to legislation (H.R.701)
that passed the House earlier this
summer. (See the description above for more
information)
FUNDING FOR NOAA,
ENERGY AND WATER PROGRAMS UNDER REVIEW
The Senate
Appropriations Committee will consider legislation to provide
funds for the Department of Commerce, including the
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). A variety of environmental initiatives
are included in this annual appropriation
bill. The Committee will also
consider
legislation to fund Energy and Water programs for next year.
HEARING ON CLINTON. S ROADLESS
POLICY
The Senate Energy forests and public land
management subcommittee will hold
a hearing on the
administration's proposal to ban road construction in 43
million acres of inventoried roadless areas on federal
lands.
**HOUSE**
RESOURCES COMMITTEE TO HOLD
HEARING ON SNOWMOBILE USE
The House Resources parks and
public lands subcommittee will hold a hearing
on the
administration's proposal to ban snowmobile use in most national
parks.
===================================================================
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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League of Conservation Voters
1920 L Street, NW Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
(202)785-8683
fax: (202)835-0491
email:
lcv@lcv.org
from Greenpeace July 18, 2000
Thank you for supporting the CokeSpotlight campaign. You
and
thousands of others worldwide have helped achieve a
tremendous
victory for the planet.
Yesterday Coca-Cola announced that
it would meet Greenpeace demands
by adopting a new
refrigeration policy to reduce its impact on global
climate change before the world's first Green Games.
Coca-Cola's new policy is to phase
out potent greenhouse gas
hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) in
refrigeration by the Athens Olympic Games
in 2004. It
will expand its research into refrigeration alternatives
and insist that suppliers announce specific time schedules
to use
only HFC-free refrigeration in all new cold
drink equipment by 2004.
This
result couldn't have happened without your support of our global campaign.
Coca-Cola's policy change shows
that big industry can be made to
abandon dirty
practices when people raise the alarm.
The announcement by Coca-Cola fulfils most of the demands
we set and
sets a strong environmental benchmark for
other industries.
Greenpeace will work to ensure that
Coca-Cola delivers on its new
policy and provides
adequate verification and independent monitoring
of
action. While it does not address our concerns relating to
refrigeration equipment at the Olympic site and shift in
global
policy, it will have a huge effect and
substantial longterm benefits
for the planet.
Check out Coca-Cola's new policy
at http://www.thecocacolacompany.com
We will update the CokeSpotlight
very soon.
Once again many
thanks,
Rupert Posner
Greenpeace Olympics campaigner
from Environment News Service July 17, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
HOSPITAL PLASTICS MAY PUT SICK
INFANTS AT RISK
ARLINGTON,
Virginia, July 17, 2000 (ENS) - A government panel has expressed
"serious concern" that chemicals used in vinyl medical
products may harm the
reproductive organs of critically
ill male infants exposed during medical
treatments.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-17-07.html
******************************************************************
QUEBEC CHEMICAL FIRE FORCES
THOUSANDS FROM THEIR HOMES
By
Neville Judd
MONTREAL, Quebec,
Canada, July 17, 2000 (ENS) - Thousands of people were
evacuated Sunday night after noxious fumes were released by
a chemical
plant blaze in Vaudreuil-Dorion, about 40
kilometers (25 miles) west of
Montreal. The fire
continues to blaze today as firefighters work to contain
it.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-17-10.html
******************************************************************
BIPARTISAN SENATE COMPROMISE
PLEDGES $3 BILLION FOR CONSERVATION
WASHINGTON, DC, July 17, 2000 (ENS) - Royalties generated
by underwater oil
and gas development on the outer
continental shelf around the United States
may soon be
flowing into coastal and inland conservation programs now that a
breakthough has occurred in a formidable political logjam.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-17-06.html
******************************************************************
PROTECT MEDITERRANEAN BEFORE
SPECIES ARE LOST, WARNS WWF
ROME, Italy, July 17, 2000 (ENS) - The cradle of European
civilization, the
Mediterranean Sea, needs protection
from over fishing, pollution and coastal
construction
if its unique environmental heritage is to survive, says a new
report from the international conservation organization
Worldwide Fund for
Nature (WWF).
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-17-11.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JULY 17, 2000
Chemical Company Will Pay $250,000 for Fatal Hazwaste
Shipment
Sheep Found With
Disease Similar to Mad Cow
40
New Superfund Redevelopment Projects Chosen
GAO Report Criticizes EPA. s Radiation Standards
Fisheries Council Votes For
Tortugas Ecological Reserve
Michigan to Preserve 80,000 Acres of Farmland
Electric Postal Vehicle Debuts in
Los Angeles
New Hunting,
Fishing Programs Proposed for Wildlife Refuges
Marine Conservationist Named Environmental Hero
Student Mural Depicts Recovering
Anacostia River
For full text
and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-17-09.html
Copyright Environment News
Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.
***************************************************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
***************************************************************************
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LAS
VEGAS, NV July 18, -/E-Wire/-- NTS Development Corporation has
announced the return of GlobeEx 2000 Conference and
Tradeshow, the first
truly integrated conference on
energy in the Americas, being held July 23
through 28
at the Riveria Hotel and Convention Center.
CONTACT:
Elizabeth Trosper of MassMedia (702) 433-4331, email:
Elizabeth@massmedialv.com
/Web site: www.GlobeEx.com
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/17July0002.html
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
Pratt
& Whitney Joins Blue292's Early Adopter Program With The IT Group
Environmental Business-to-Business
e-Marketplace to Help Streamline Pratt
& Whitney's Environmental, Health & Safety
Procurement and Processes
DURHAM, N.C., July 17
-/E-Wire/-- Blue292, the world's leading
business-to-business e-marketplace for environmental,
health and safety
(EHS) products and services, today
announced that Pratt & Whitney, a
division of
United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), has joined its
Early-Adopter Pilot Program. Pratt & Whitney
is a leader in the design,
manufacture and support of
aircraft engines, industrial engines, and space
propulsion systems. Pratt & Whitney will
participate in the program in
conjunction with The IT
Group (NYSE: ITX), a leading environmental
consulting
and engineering firm, with whom Pratt & Whitney has an existing
e-Business agreement.
/CONTACT: Anita
Bose, 212-484-7699, or abose@rlmnet.com, for Blue292/
(UTX ITX)
/Web site: http://www.blue292.com
/Web
site: http://www.theitgroup.com/
For
Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/17July0001.html
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from Environment News Service July 18, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
BRAZILIAN OIL GIANT APOLOGIZES
FOR 2ND SPILL IN SIX MONTHS
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, July 18, 2000 (ENS) - Workers in
the southern
Brazilian state of Parana are trying to
contain the country's worst oil
spill in 25 years.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-18-12.html
******************************************************************
THOUSANDS OF PORPOISES LOST IN
UK's "HAUL OF SHAME"
LONDON,
United Kingdom, July 18, 2000 (ENS) - Europe's harbour porpoises
are dying by the thousand and may not live to see another
century if fishing
practices are not changed, says a
report released by the world's largest
animal welfare
agency.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-18-11.html
******************************************************************
DEATH DUMP POLLUTING MANILA'S
DRINKING WATER
By Michael
Bengwayan
MANILA, Philippines,
July 18, 2000 (ENS) - The garbage slide and fire July
11 at the Payatas garbage dump in the northern Manila
suburb of Quezon City
has now claimed 193 lives. At
least 760 other people are still missing and
presumed
dead.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-18-02.html
******************************************************************
EUROPE TO BAN POWERFUL
INSECTICIDE ON CROPS BUT NOT IN HOMES
BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 18, 2000 (ENS) - The controversial
insecticide
lindane could be subject to a partial ban
by the Europe Union's 15 member
countries within 18
months.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-18-10.html
******************************************************************
RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE LAS
VEGAS SPOTLIGHT
LAS VEGAS,
Nevada, July 18, 2000 (ENS) - A five day international conference
on renewable energy that starts this Sunday in Las Vegas is
expected to draw
700 delegates from more than 70
countries.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-18-03.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JULY 18, 2000
Motor
Vehicle Emissions Tests to be Performed from Space
Attack on Free Speech Hidden in Fish & Wildlife Service
Bill
Congress Considers
Oversight Review for Army Corps of Engineers
Bluewater Network Tries Legal Maneuver to Limit Ship
Emissions
Climate Change Puts
Health of Washington State Residents at Risk
New York City Gets Cleaner Buses in 2001
Real Time Smog Movies for
California
Internet Index to
Minimize Impact of Animal Waste
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-17-09.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
Griffin Supplies Biodiesel for Bus
Fleets
CINCINNATI, OH. July
18, -/E-Wire/-- Griffin Industries has been
selected to supply TANK and Metro buses with biodiesel, an
environmentally
friendly fuel throughout the
summer. 500,000 gallons of B20, a blend of 20%
biodiesel mixed with 80% petroleum diesel will power over
280 buses through
July and August. The buses
are expected to run 2,500,000 miles on tri-state
roadways using the alternative fuel.
CONTACT: Rick Geise, Director of Marketing, Griffin
Industries, (859)
572-2558
/Web site: http://www.griffinind.com
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/18July0004.html
***************************************************************************
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RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
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TO BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENTAL AND
SCIENCE EDITORSS:
Apyron Hires
Another Leading Scientist to Boost Product Development,
Commercialization
A Holder of Three Patents, Dr. Wei-Chih W. Chen Joins
Science Technologies
Company
ATLANTA, July 18
-/E-Wire/-- Apyron Technologies, Inc., the developer
of next-generation science technologies, has hired Dr.
Wei-Chih W. Chen as
director of product
development. Dr. Chen holds three U.S. patents and
brings more than 13 years in product development for the
water industry to
Apyron.
CONTACT: Sherry Odom of Apyron, 678-405-2707, or
slodom@apyron.com /
/Web
site: http://www.apyron.com /
For
Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/18July0001.html
***************************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS
RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
***************************************************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Texaco's Chief Technology Officer,
Jim Metzger, To Address Delegation At
GlobeEx 2000,
Conference and Tradeshow
LAS VEGAS, NV, July 18,
-/E-Wire/-- Jim Metzger, Vice President and
Chief
Technology Officer of Texaco Inc., will be addressing a delegation
comprised of dignitaries and celebrities at the GlobeEx
Conference and
Tradeshow, being held July 23 through 28
at the Riveria Hotel and Convention
Center in Las
Vegas, NV. The dinner banquet will be held during the course
of the conference. Invited guests include Vice President Al
Gore, Secretary
of Energy Bill Richardson and President
Jimmy Carter as well as various
International Ministers
of Energy.
CONTACT: Elizabeth Trosper,
MassMedia (702) 433-4331, Email:
Elizabeth@massmedialv.com
/Web site: http://www.GlobEx.com
For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/18July0002.html
***************************************************************************
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RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
***************************************************************************
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Free Online Resource Helps
Companies Merge Environmental and Economic
Success
OAKLAND, CA, July 18
-/E-Wire/-- A new online resource center is
offering a wealth of free information to help
companies "align
environmental responsibility with business
success," say its creators.
CONTACT: Joel Makower,
President, Green Business Network:
510-451-1300, or
makower@greenbiz.com
/Web
site: http://www.GreenBiz.com
For
Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/18July0003.html
******************************************************************
TRANSMIT YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON
E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS
******************************************************************
from Natural Resources Defense Council
Natural Resources Defense Council's
CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK ACTION
ALERT
NRDC's California
Activist Network was formed to mobilize and provide action tools to Californians
and others concerned with protecting the state's extraordinary wealth of natural
treasures and the health of its citizens.
July 19, 2000
******************************************
Contents
1) alerts
a) Join the "Don't Mess with ZEV" campaign to fight air
pollution and global warming
b) Tell the Department of
Pesticide Regulation to refuse test results obtained from human experimentation
c) Urge your state representatives to vote for clean,
affordable, reliable energy
d) Tell Los Angeles Mayor
Riordan to turn a rail yard into an urban park instead of industrial warehouses
e) Urge the Forest Service to protect the Sierra
Nevada's national forests
f) Help create ocean
wilderness reserves around the Channel Islands
2) STATUS OF PREVIOUS alerts
3) ABOUT OUR BULLETINS
4) ABOUT NRDC
You will also find these alerts in NRDC'S Earth Action
Center (http://www.nrdc.org/action), which includes tools for
taking action easily online.
******************************************
1) alerts
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 gasoline-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 Governor 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 information ==
To volunteer:
Ken Masterton
Phone: (415)
868-1431
Email: campmw@well.com
To send a message to Governor
Davis:
You can email Governor Davis directly from
NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information and sample letter below to send your own message.
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, which is critical to
reducing California's air pollution, global warming emissions and costly
dependence on foreign oil.
Motor vehicles cause the majority of California's air
pollution and global warming emissions. Gasoline contaminates our water supplies
and puts the state's coastline at risk of oil spills. 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.
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.
The ZEV program can take credit for bringing battery
electric and hybrid electric vehicles to market and is helping spur the
development of fuel cell vehicles. Continuing a strong ZEV program will
encourage automakers 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]
..
Tell
the Department of Pesticide Regulation to refuse test results obtained from
human experimentation
The
California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is about to endorse
unethical and unscientific human testing of hazardous pesticides. The proposed
decision concerns a toxic organophosphate pesticide known as Guthion, a close
relative of Dursban, which was banned last month by the U.S. EPA due to
unacceptable toxicity to children.
Although not allowed for home use, Guthion is among the
most toxic of chemicals to farmworkers. One way to protect farmworkers and
consumers from excessive exposures to this chemical is the 'reentry interval,'
or the amount of time that must pass after the pesticide is applied to a crop
before anyone can enter the field to pick the fruit or vegetables. The longer
the reentry interval, the lower the residues of the chemical on the plants the
workers handle and the food we buy. Of course, growers and chemical corporations
oppose long reentry intervals as they usually mean less use of the pesticide.
The California DPR had planned
to extend the allowable reentry interval for Guthion from 14 to 45-50 days. This
month, however, DPR reversed its decision based on a test, submitted by Bayer
Corporation, Guthion's manufacturer, on young adult human subjects purporting to
show no effects from the chemical. NRDC medical doctors reviewed reports from
this test and find it both scientifically and ethically bankrupt. The tests were
performed in Scotland, most likely because no ethics committee in the United
States would approve such a study. Ten young adults were paid to swallow pills
containing various doses of Guthion, and their blood was tested for indications
of acute organophosphate poisoning. Neither neurological testing nor long-term
medical follow-up was done. Scientifically the study was too small and too
poorly designed to draw any meaningful conclusions. Ethically the study was
abhorrent.
== What to do ==
Contact DPR Deputy Director Paul Gosselin telling him
that for both scientific and ethical reasons DPR should refuse to consider any
human testing of pesticides for the purpose of setting regulatory levels.
== Contact information ==
You can email Deputy Director Gosselin directly from NRDC's
Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information and sample letter below to send your own message.
Paul Gosselin, Deputy Director
Department of Pesticide Regulation
830 K St.
Sacramento, CA
95814-3510
Phone: 916-445-4000
Fax: 916-324-1452
Email:
dpr99003@cdpr.ca.gov
== Sample
letter ==
Dear Mr. Gosselin,
I am very concerned about the
Department of Pesticide Regulation's proposed reentry intervals for
azinphos-methyl (Guthion). The current proposal rests completely on human
testing that is questionable both scientifically and ethically. From a
scientific point of view, no guidelines exist for studies that purposely dose
humans with pesticides. Such studies have not been validated or standardized and
do not follow any established government guidelines. The Bayer study on Guthion
is bad science - it used tiny sample sizes and failed to adequately assess for
neurological effects.
From an
ethical viewpoint, studies purposely dosing humans with toxic chemicals are
abhorrent. These studies offer no conceivable benefit to anyone other than the
company that manufactures the chemical. The people who agree to participate in
these studies are in an economic situation where the money they are paid renders
them unable to give true informed consent. These people should not be the guinea
pigs of multinational chemical companies.
Use of the Bayer study will open the floodgates for other
pesticide manufacturers to feed their products to other unwitting 'volunteers'
around the world. We must stop this trend before it becomes established.
I urge you to refuse to accept
studies that purposely expose humans to pesticides. At a minimum, this issue
should be reviewed by the State Science Review Panel before any such studies are
used in rulemaking.
Sincerely,
[your name and address]
..
Urge your state representatives to vote for clean,
affordable, reliable energy
The restructuring of California's utility industry in 1996
jeopardized investments in new clean energy research and technology. In
response, the Public Benefits Charge (PBC) was established to ensure investment
in energy efficiency, renewable energy, low income energy services, and research
and development of clean energy technologies. Since 1996, the PBC (usually less
than three percent of consumers electric bills) has generated about $645 million
per year which has enhanced electricity reliability and substantially benefited
the state's environment and economy.
Senator Sher (D-Palo Alto) and Assemblyman Wright
(D-South-central Los Angeles) have introduced legislation to continue
California's leadership in affordable, safe, reliable, and environmentally
sustainable electricity service by extending the PBC for the next ten years. The
bill, however, scheduled for a vote in July or August, requires a two-thirds
majority in both houses to pass.
== What to do ==
Contact your
state senator and assemblyperson and urge them to vote "Yes" on SB 1194/AB 995.
== Contact information ==
You can send an email directly to your state legislators
from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/alertpr.pl?dir=nrdc&alert=26&_state=ca
..
Tell Los Angeles Mayor Riordan to
turn a rail yard into an urban park instead of industrial warehouses
Los Angeles is park poor, with
fewer acres per thousand residents than any other major city in the country. Now
an extraordinary multicultural coalition of community, environmental, civil
rights, historic preservation and business interests has offered a proposal to
turn the so-called "Chinatown Cornfield" -- a former rail yard located between
Chinatown and the Los Angeles River and the last vast open tract of land in
downtown Los Angeles -- into a 48-acre urban parkland of open space,
playgrounds, a school, a bikeway, and, at the same time, restore a critical
section of the Los Angeles River.
Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Planning Department recently
gave the green light to a proposal, supported by Mayor Richard Riordan, for
industrial and warehouse development of the Cornfield. Without requiring an
environmental impact report, and without even considering the community
coalition's alternative proposal, Los Angeles city planners illegally approved a
site plan submitted by Majestic Realty Corporation and Union Pacific Railroad
for 32 acres of industrial development.
Instead of warehouses and industry, the community
coalition's alternative would create a badly needed park in a city in desperate
need of more parkland. It would also provide land for a middle school or high
school and recreational facilities for the neighboring communities, protect
historic resources like the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail,
recently recognized as a National Millennium Trail, and be a major building
block in a long-term plan to reclaim and restore the Los Angeles River. Plus,
thanks to the voters' approval last March of Propositions 12 and 13 -- the parks
and water bonds -- funding is available to purchase the land.
== What to do ==
Contact Mayor Riordan and urge him to reverse the city
planners' decision and to instead support the community coalition's proposal to
convert the Cornfield into an urban park.
== Contact information ==
You can
email Mayor Riordan directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information and sample letter below to send your own message, and feel free to
add your own reasons for wanting a park instead of warehouses in downtown LA.
Mayor Richard Riordan
200 N. Main Street
City Hall East,
Room 800
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213) 847-2489
Fax: (213)
485-1286
Email: rriordan@mayor.ci.la.ca.us
== Sample letter ==
Dear Mayor Riordan:
I urge you to oppose the proposal
by Majestic Realty Corporation for 32 acres of warehouses and industrial
facilities at the Chinatown Cornfield. I also urge you to support creative
alternatives, such as that proposed by the Chinatown Yard Alliance to convert
the Cornfield into a 48-acre urban parkland of open space, playgrounds, a
school, a bikeway, and, at the same time, restore a critical section of the Los
Angeles River.
Los Angeles is
park poor, with fewer acres per thousand residents than any other major city in
the country. The Chinatown area suffers not only from a lack of parks, but also
from a lack of schools, and the William Mead housing project is desperately in
need of recreational facilities. And the Cornfield is an essential building
block in plans to reclaim and restore the Los Angeles River and adjacent
properties.
Please do all you
can to take advantage of available federal, state, and local funding to convert
the Cornfield from urban blight to an urban parkland that can serve the needs of
the surrounding communities and the residents of all of Los Angeles.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
..
Urge the Forest Service to protect the Sierra Nevada's
national forests
Decades of
logging, livestock grazing, and development have taken a heavy toll on the
national forests in California's Sierra Nevada. Old growth forests, which once
blanketed the Sierra's western slopes, now cover only 13 percent of the Sierra's
national forests. As a result, wildlife that live in these forests, such as the
California spotted owl and the Pacific fisher (a secretive forest carnivore that
dwells in deep woods), are threatened with extinction. The Sierra's rivers and
streams are also at risk.
After years of delay, the U.S. Forest Service has released
a proposal for managing national forests throughout the Sierra Nevada, from the
Sequoia National Forest in the southern Sierra to the Modoc National Forest in
northeastern California. When finalized, the plan will dictate the fate of the
Sierra's old growth forests and wildlife and will have a major impact on tourism
and recreation throughout the range. NRDC and other environmental groups have
developed an alternative proposal for managing the Sierra's national forests
that would preserve all remaining old growth forests and roadless areas, provide
strong protection for aquatic ecosystems, and restrict logging to thinning of
small trees in order to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire while
protecting and restoring wildlife habitat. Public support for this proposal,
described by the Forest Service as Alternative 5, is essential to convince the
Forest Service to adopt an environmentally protective plan, rather than !
one favoring logging and other destructive activities.
== What to do == The Forest
Service is accepting public comments on its proposed management plan through
August 11, 2000. Write and urge the agency to adopt a plan that will protect all
remaining old growth forests and roadless areas and provide the strongest
possible protection for streams and rivers. Use the sample letter we've
provided, edit it, or write your own.
== Contact information ==
You can
email the Park Service directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/alertpr.pl?dir=nrdc&alert=28.
Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send your own message.
USDA Forest Service - CAET
Sierra Nevada Framework Project
Att'n: Brad Powell, Regional Forester
P.O. Box 7669
200 E. Broadway,
Room 301
Missoula, MT 59807
Fax: 406-329-3021
Email:
mailroom_wo_caet@fs.fed.us [if you send your comments via email, be sure to
include "SNFP Comments" in the subject line]
== Sample letter ==
Re: Sierra Nevada Management Plan
Dear Mr. Powell,
I am writing to urge you to
strengthen the existing proposals for protecting the Sierra Nevada's national
forests. Any plan for the Sierra Nevada should protect all remaining old growth
forests and roadless areas, and protect rivers, streams, and aquatic ecosystems
from logging and road building. Of the alternatives under consideration,
Alternative 5 should be adopted because it provides the greatest protection for
environmental values.
The
Forest Service's two "preferred alternatives" are both flawed. Alternative 6
would weaken existing protection for the California spotted owl, increasing the
risk of extinction. Alternative 8 is preferable to Alternative 6 but would still
allow logging of old growth forests, while failing to include the strongest
possible protection for rivers and streams.
The time has come for the Forest Service to manage the
national forests primarily for their environmental values, not for the purpose
of commodity production. Alternative 5 would best achieve that goal and should
be the basis for the Forest Service's final plan for managing the Sierra's
national forests.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
== Background ==
For information on Alternative 5 and the Sierra Nevada
national forests:
Sierra Nevada Forest Protection
Campaign at www.sierraforests.org
For information on
the Forest Service's proposal:
Forest Service web site
at www.r5.fs.fed.us/sncf/
..
Help create ocean wilderness
reserves around the Channel Islands
Currently, less than one-hundredth of one percent of U.S.
waters are closed to mining, drilling, and commercial and recreational fishing.
Environmentalists and concerned scientists and citizens have long pressed for
laws that would protect ocean areas from further devastation in much the same
way that our wildlands are protected in national parks, monuments, and
wilderness areas. In 1999, California passed such a law. The Marine Life
Protection Act establishes a system for creating marine reserves in California
waters, which extend three miles from the state coastline. Within these
reserves, pollution would be tightly controlled, and taking marine life -- from
fish to clams to coral -- would be prohibited. To date, however, no reserves
have been established.
Just
off the coast of southern California, the Channel Islands National Marine
Sanctuary is a veritable eden of marine life. Its kelp forests are home to sea
bass and garibaldi (the state fish), sea stars and sea urchins, octopus and
squid. Visitors come year-round to see dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions,
and in July, they witness migrating humpback whales, one of the dozens of marine
mammals which either live in or migrate through the islands' waters. But
although it is called a sanctuary, fishing is allowed almost everywhere, and
pollution levels are increasing while fish stocks are going down. To reduce
pollution and restrict destructive activities, NRDC and other groups are calling
for a network of reserves to be created around the Channel Islands before the
end of this year.
== What to
do ==
Contact the Marine Reserves Working Group and
urge the agency to create a network of marine reserves in the Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary that will protect and preserve California's ocean
waters and marine life.
==
Contact information ==
You can email the Marine
Reserves Working Group directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action. Or use the contact
information and sample letter below to send your own message.
Matt Pickett, Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary
Patricia Wolf, California
Department of Fish and Game
Co-Chairs, Marine Reserves
Working Group
113 Harbor Way, Suite 150
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
Fax:
805-568-1582 (Matt Pickett)
562-590-5192 (Patricia
Wolf)
Email: Matt.Pickett@noaa.gov
pwolf@hq.dfg.ca.gov
== Sample letter ==
Dear Mr. Pickett and Ms. Wolf:
I support establishing marine reserves to help protect the
full range of ocean life around the Channel Islands. The islands' unique ocean
ecosystem is one of California's greatest natural treasures. The Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary supports a rich diversity of life, including
productive kelp forests and reefs, over two dozen kinds of whales and dolphins,
and vibrant fish such as the garibaldi, our state fish. But fishing is allowed
virtually everywhere in the sanctuary, and heavy fishing pressure and other
activities have depleted fish species and put the unusual diversity of this area
at risk.
Like wilderness areas
on land, marine reserves protect natural resources from harmful human activities
by excluding destructive practices. Once habitats and fish are fully protected,
they recover and thrive. All around the world marine reserves have been shown to
contain more and larger fish and greater diversity than unprotected areas. I
urge you to create sizable ocean wilderness areas inside the Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary before the end of this year.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
..........
2) STATUS OF PREVIOUS alerts
DIESEL POLLUTION
In the past couple of months, we've asked you to take a
number of actions to help reduce toxic diesel pollution in southern California.
We're thrilled to report the following two important victories:
On May 25 the Los Angeles
Metropolitan Transit Authority voted unanimously to buy 370 compressed natural
gas transit buses, rejecting a staff recommendation to switch to diesel buses.
This great victory was made possible by your many hundreds of e-mails, letters
and calls to MTA board members urging that they only purchase clean alternative
fuel buses. Your voices were heard, as evidenced by both Supervisor Yvonne
Braithwaite Burke's leadership in moving to buy the clean fuel buses contrary to
the staff recommendation, and by Mayor Richard Riordan's switch of his previous
vote for diesel to a clean fuel vote, which ultimately helped sway the board to
support the purchase of clean fuel buses. These purchases will bring the MTA's
fleet of clean natural gas buses to over 1,000, making it the largest clean fuel
transit fleet in the country.
And on June 16th the South Coast Air Quality Management
District adopted three new rules governing public vehicle fleets in the South
Coast Air Basin that will help rid the region (including Los Angeles, Orange,
Riverside and San Bernardino counties) of toxic diesel pollution. The first rule
requires public fleets to buy only "low emitting" (i.e., gasoline or alternative
fuel) cars and light and medium duty trucks. The second requires all cities and
transit agencies to buy only alternative fuel buses, and the third requires all
public entities and their contractors to buy only alternative fuel garbage
trucks. The alternative fuel provisions alone will impact over 10,000 heavy duty
vehicles.
These are major
victories for clean fuels and public health. Once again, your actions made a
huge difference. Thank you!
..........
3) ABOUT OUR BULLETINS
This bulletin is distributed to members of NRDC's
California Activist Network. If this message was forwarded to you and you would
like to receive the bulletin directly, visit NRDC's Save Wild California website
at http://www.nrdc.org/wildcalifornia or see the
subscription instructions at the end of this bulletin.
In addition to our California
Activist Network Action Alert, the Natural Resources Defense Council distributes
EARTH ACTION, a biweekly bulletin calling out urgent environmental issues at the
national level and from around the country. 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.
NRDC also publishes another biweekly bulletin, LEGISLATIVE
WATCH, which 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.
..........
4) ABOUT NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense
Council is a nonprofit 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
Save Wild California email: wildcalifornia@nrdc.org
from the Nature Conservancy July 20, 2000
NATURE CONSERVANCY Nature News for July 2000
Welcome to Nature News - our once
a month peek into the
state of the planet. Learn what
lands, waters, plants
and animals The Nature
Conservancy is working to save
and where to find more
information. For general information
about The Nature
Conservancy, please visit our Web site:
http://www.tnc.org.
************************************************************
CONTENTS
1. Good Cow, Bad Cow
2. Komodo Dragons Disappearing Lair
3. Old Growth, New Insights
4.
Visit the Waters and the Wild
5. Fast Fact - Coral
Reefs
************************************************************
1. Good Cow, Bad Cow
Are cows bovine bullies or
catalysts for grassland ecosystems?
The answer may be
both. No longer is the blame for the beaten
range to be
pinned solely on the four-legged beast of burden.
Rather the solution ultimately lies with the two-legged
keeper
walking behind it.
To read more, visit: http://www.tnc.org/magazine/story1p_nav.html
************************************************************
2. Komodo Dragons Disappearing
Lair
Indonesia's Komodo
National Park is home to a living dinosaur:
the Komodo
Dragon. The park also includes islands, coral reefs,
and mangroves. The cool Indian Ocean also meets warmer seas
here,
creating a rich mix of marine life. However,
pollution and
destructive fishing practices threaten
these beautiful waters.
Thanks to the Conservancy's
partnership with the park authority,
however, solutions
are being developed to help preserve this
pristine
place.
To learn
more, click:
http://www.tnc.org/infield/intprograms/asiapacific/facts/komodo_nav.htm
************************************************************
3. Old Growth, New Insights
The Conservancy recently
protected 2,000 acres of hardwood forest
in northern
Minnesota. Sugar maples, lakes, and uncommon plants
are
all found in this old growth forest. Some trees here are
200 years old and require the arm length of two people to
encircle
their trunks. Such old growth forests are
increasingly rare and
provide important laboratories
for research on how forests function.
Find out more by going to: http://www.tnc.org/success/index_nav.html
************************************************************
4. Visit the Waters
and the Wild
Jabiru stork,
capuchins monkeys, and pink and gray dolphins are
your
likely neighbors on The Nature Conservancy's Peruvian Amazon
voyage. This is just one of several international trips
sponsored
by the Conservancy that allow members to
experience firsthand,
the Last Great Places they help
to protect.
To view upcoming
international trips, click:
http://www.tnc.org/infield/intprograms/intrips/00trips_nav.htm
************************************************************
5. Fast Fact - Coral Reefs
Komodo National Park's coral reefs
are being destroyed by dynamite
fishing and cyanide
used to stun and capture fish for aquariums.
Globally,
10 percent of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed
and another 20 percent are in grave peril.
************************************************************
from Environment News Service July 19, 2000
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
http://ens-news.com
"We
Cover the Earth For You"
******************************************************************
INTERIOR BUDGET PASSES SENATE,
MINUS RIDER BLOCKING MONUMENTS
WASHINGTON, DC, July 19, 2000 (ENS) - By a narrow margin,
the U.S. Senate
has voted against blocking presidents
from using their executive authority
to set aside lands
as national monuments. The measure, a proposed rider on
the fiscal year 2001 budget bill for the Department of
Interior, was narowly
defeated 50 to 49.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-19-07.html
******************************************************************
COLOMBIAN COCA CROP TARGETED
FOR FUNGAL CONTROL
NEW YORK,
New York, July 19, 2000 (ENS) -Cocaine, an addictive drug linked
to crime and human tragedy, is also bad for the
environment. The United
Nations is considering
developing a natural herbicide that could destroy
coca
crops and prevent the release of tons of toxic substances into the
environment of Columbia, the largest coca producer in the
world.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-19-06.html
******************************************************************
PENGUINS RETURN TO SOUTH
AFRICAN ISLANDS AFTER OIL SPILL
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 19, 2000 (ENS) -
</b>African penguins that
were evacuated and treated after the world's
worst oil spill to affect
coastal birds, are
returning to clean nesting grounds off the southern
coast of South Africa.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-19-10.html
******************************************************************
AUSTRIAN TRANSIT FIGHT CENTERS
ON ECOPOINTS
BRUSSELS,
Belgium, July 19, 2000 (ENS) - The European Commission has
threatened chaos for haulage firms crossing Austria by
refusing to hand out
new transit permits until EU
transport ministers agree to a general
reduction in the
number of "ecopoints."
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-19-03.html
******************************************************************
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AMERISCAN: JULY 19, 2000
Energy, Water Budget Bill Passes Senate Committee
Pennsylvania Mandates Big Cut in
Smog-Causing Emissions
Washington Scientists Study Ecosystem Changes in Africa
Patented Process Packs Depleted
Uranium in Plastic Nutrient
Pollution in Lakes Creates Complex Problem
Minnesota Battles Rising Tide of
Waste, Runoff
Public Private
Partnership Keeps Pesticides Off Wisconsin Potatoes
Lake Sturgeon Reintroduced to French Broad River
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-19-09.html
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All
Rights Reserved.
***************************************************************************
SEND
NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com
******************************************************************
TRANSMIT YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON
E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS
******************************************************************
from Natural Resources Defense Council July 20, 2000
Natural Resources Defense Council's
LEGISLATIVE WATCH
July 20, 2000
******************************
Contents:
1) LEGISLATIVE WATCH
2) ABOUT OUR
BULLETINS
3) ABOUT NRDC
The information in this bulletin -- and more -- is also
available at our website -- http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/legwatch.asp. The web
version links to the text of bills and Congressional web pages. If you'd like to
take action on legislative and other environmental issues, see below for
instructions on subscribing to EARTH ACTION, our biweekly activist bulletin, or
visit NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action, where you can contact
legislators and other decisionmakers directly from our website.
1)
LEGISLATIVE WATCH
This is a
status report on Congressional action on the environment. To make the changes
from week to week easy to find, we've highlighted them with:
= N O T E ! =
7/20/00
During the past couple of weeks, a number of
anti-environment provisions made their way through the Congressional
appropriations process. Legislative riders attached to recently advanced funding
bills would block EPA enforcement of new water protection rules, allow
environmental damage from grazing on public lands to continue, and potentially
impede international efforts to address global warming. Also worth noting, the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is currently considering a major
land and water conservation bill that would authorize substantial funds for
federal and state land acquisition and coastal and marine protection.
..
Budget
=
N O T E ! =
This week, the Senate is expected to vote
on its version of the Agriculture spending bill. The bill contains provisions
that would block new hardrock mining regulations and transfer land from a
coastal wildlife refuge and a national seashore to allow the construction of
environmentally damaging jetties.
= N O T E ! =
On 7/18, the Senate
passed the Interior spending bill, which fails to adequately fund conservation
programs. Moreover, it contains provisions that would allow grazing to continue
on public lands without environmental review and could interfere with efforts to
combat global warming. The bill would also allow mining in a national forest in
the Ozarks and impede the creation of a wildlife refuge on the border of Indiana
and Illinois. On a positive note, an amendment offered by Sen. Nickles (R-OK) to
prohibit funding for national monuments designated by President Clinton was
rejected by the Senate on 7/18. A similar provision was removed from the House
bill on 6/16. An amendment to block the President. s roadless forest protection
plan was also withdrawn, representing an additional victory for
environmentalists.
= N O T E !
=
Also on 7/18, the Senate Appropriations Committee
considered the Energy and Water spending bill. The bill includes a rider that
would block implementation of emergency conservation measures aimed at
preventing the extinction of the silvery minnow in the Rio Grande, one of the
river. s last remaining endemic species. Both House and Senate bills also
eliminate all funding for the California Bay-Delta Restoration program. The
House passed its version of the bill on 6/28.
= N O T E ! =
On 7/13, President
Clinton signed the Military Construction spending bill into law. After the bill
had passed both the House and the Senate, and while it was being considered in
conference committee, several members of Congress managed to slip a provision
into the bill that blocks implementation of the EPA. s new clean water rules
meant to reduce levels of polluted runoff in rivers and streams.
= N O T E ! =
Also on 7/13, the House passed the Foreign Operations
spending bill, which includes provisions that could burden international efforts
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the federal government. s
participation in international efforts to curb global warming. The Senate will
begin consideration of its version of the bill sometime this week and is
expected to pass the bill before the August recess.
= N O T E ! =
On 7/11, the House
passed the Department of Agriculture funding bill. The full House approved an
amendment offered by Rep. Kelly (R-NY) and Rep. Kanjorski (D-PA) to remove a
rider that would have prohibited funding for the American Heritage Rivers
Initiative, a Clinton administration initiative to coordinate local, state, and
federal river management. Rep. Knollenberg (R-MI) was forced to substitute more
narrow language in place of broad restrictions on domestic and international
climate change activities funded by the Department of Agriculture that he and
Rep. Emerson (R-MO) had tried to attach this year to the House Agriculture bill.
On 6/21, the House passed the
VA/HUD spending bill, which inadequately funds the EPA. In particular, funding
for enforcement action has been cut. Efforts to remove provisions in the bill
that could block new protections against arsenic in drinking water and prevent
the cleanup of contaminated sediments in rivers across the country were
unsuccessful. The bill also contains a provision that would impede stronger
clean water protections. In addition, the House added a provision offered on the
floor by Rep. Linder (R-GA) and Rep. Collins (R-GA) that would delay the EPA's
implementation of the Clean Air Act.
On 6/15, the Senate passed the Transportation spending
bill, which includes language encouraging Congress to authorize a study on the
impacts of raising fuel efficiency standards for cars. This language is a
response to a rider included in the House Transportation funding bill, passed on
5/19, which would prohibit the federal government from considering the
possibility of raising these important standards. The bill awaits consideration
by the House-Senate conference committee.
..
Clean
Air and Energy
= N O T E ! =
In a move applauded by environmentalists, Reps. Lazio
(R-NY) and Boehlert (R-NY) introduced a bill (H.R. 4861) designed to reduce
mercury, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide emissions from old
coal-fired power plants. Rep. Lazio. s bill joins several other bills that would
reduce these four pollutants.
= N O T E ! =
On 7/18, Sen.
Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Gramm (R-TX) introduced a comprehensive electricity
restructuring bill. Environmentalists have criticized this bill for its failure
to address the environmental impacts of electricity generation, the largest
industrial source of air pollution in the country. Although electric power
plants create over two-thirds of sulfur dioxide pollution and about one-third of
the pollution from carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury, the bill lacks
national emissions standards for these pollutants. It also lacks provisions for
energy efficiency and fails to promote the use of renewable resources. In the
House, Rep. Bliley (R-VA) recently postponed consideration of a similar bill to
deregulate the electric power industry (H.R. 2944). This bill also lacks
environmental protections.
On
6/30, the Senate unanimously passed S. 2071, a bill that seeks to improve the
reliability of the national electric grid to avoid brownouts and power failures.
The bill contains no environmental safeguards or energy-efficiency provisions.
Environmentalists are pressing for provisions to protect air quality and
encourage the use of renewable energy sources in any electricity legislation
that advances this year.
On
6/13, Sen. Smith (R-NH), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, introduced a bipartisan bill to provide tax incentives for
energy-efficient schools and commercial and residential buildings (S. 2718). The
Smith bill is supported by environmental groups because it could dramatically
reduce energy use in buildings, saving consumers and building owners money. It
would also cut emissions of air pollutants in the United States by 6 percent by
the year 2010, which is the equivalent of removing 40 percent of the cars from
the nation's roads.
..
Coast and Ocean Protection
On 6/15, the Senate Commerce
Committee approved S. 1534, which reauthorizes a popular program that provides
federal grants to states for coastal management. Environmentalists support the
Senate bill because it provides dedicated funding to reduce coastal nonpoint
pollution -- pollution not from a single industrial source but from diffuse
sources such as agricultural runoff and city sewer overflows. The House
companion bill, H.R. 2669, which passed the House Resources Committee in
November, does not include a nonpoint pollution provision. Further, it contains
a provision that would severely undermine the coastal zone program by altering
the legal standards that apply to the taking of private property in coastal
areas.
..
Environmental Enforcement
= N O T E ! =
On 7/13, the Senate passed the Department of Defense
authorization bill after reaching a compromise on a contentious provision that
would have impeded the ability of federal and state governments to assess fines
and penalties for environmental violations at military facilities. At the urging
of Sen. Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Stevens (R-AK), who authored the original provision,
agreed to compromise language that ensures that military facilities will pay
fines for violations of state environmental laws. Congress would nonetheless
have the right to a three-year review period for federal fines over $1.5
million. While this is an improvement over the original provision, the
environmental community opposes language that undermines the ability of the EPA
to enforce large environmental fines at military facilities.
..
Everglades
On 6/28, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
approved legislation (S. 2797) authorizing a massive public works project led by
the Army Corps of Engineers that includes water projects that may help restore
the Everglades. The Clinton administration's Everglades plan, if properly
implemented, could restore waterflows and bolster declining wildlife populations
in south Florida and represent a significant step toward reversing severe
ecological damage that has been caused by water diversion. To be effective,
however, Everglades legislation must ensure adequate water flow for the
restoration and authorize the Department of Interior to play a central role in
overseeing the project, which S. 2797 does not yet do.
..
Forests
=
N O T E ! =
On 7/12, the House passed a Senate bill to
authorize the purchase of the 95,000-acre Baca Ranch in New Mexico. The bill (S.
1892), introduced by Sen. Domenici (R-NM) and Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) and passed in
the Senate on 4/13, would authorize the Forest Service to purchase the ranch as
a national preserve. Environmentalists are concerned about provisions in the
bill that would create a multi-member "trust" to manage the ranch and impose a
requirement of financial self-sufficiency, which could lead to increased
economic exploitation of the ranch. The bill would also establish a new program
for disposal of federal lands.
On 5/9, the Department of Agriculture released its plan to
protect up to 60 million acres of national forests from roadbuilding. This plan
has two huge loopholes that could leave millions of wild forest acres open to
development. First, the plan does not prohibit logging in these "protected"
areas. Second, it exempts the crown jewel of the national forest system and the
forest most in need of protection, the Tongass rainforest in southeast Alaska.
..
Hazardous Waste
On 6/29, a Senate subcommittee
held a hearing on S. 2700, a bipartisan bill introduced on 6/8 by Sens. Smith
(R-NH), Baucus (D-MT), Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Chafee (R-RI) that would fund
cleanup of brownfields, which are former industrial sites contaminated with
toxic waste. Environmentalists generally support brownfields cleanup when it
encourages revitalization and redevelopment in urban areas without creating
risks to public health and the environment.
..
Public
Health
On 6/15, the Senate
Commerce Committee passed Sen. McCain. s (R-AZ) pipeline safety bill, S. 2438.
Although modest improvements were made to the bill, environmentalists remain
concerned that the bill does not go far enough to provide strict liability and
strong penalties for pipeline ruptures, allow citizen suits for pipeline
accidents, develop federal guidelines for hazardous liquid pipelines, enhance
community right-to-know laws, and add enforcement and whistleblower protections.
..
Public Lands
= N O T E ! =
On 7/19, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
began consideration of S. 2567, a compromise bill that would provide funding for
state and federal land and water conservation programs. Although provisions on
federal land acquisitions have been improved, environmentalists are still
concerned about negative impacts on coastal areas including incentives for
increased oil and gas drilling off the coast of Alaska, and the potential for
funding environmentally destructive activities such as beach nourishment
projects and the construction of bulkheads and coastal roads.
= N O T E ! =
On 7/13, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
passed S. 2048 to establish the San Rafael Western Legacy District and
Conservation Area in a unique and starkly beautiful area in southern Utah known
as the San Rafael Swell. The legislation omits numerous spectacular parts of the
Swell and does not adequately curb the extensive off-road vehicle activity that
is damaging the area's fragile resources. Further, as introduced, the bill would
not designate a single acre of wilderness. On 6/17, the House began
consideration of the companion bill, H.R. 3605, introduced by Rep. Cannon
(R-UT). But because the House could not agree on amendments to the bill, it was
withdrawn from consideration.
On 6/7, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
approved S. 729, introduced by Sen. Craig (R-ID), which seeks to impede the
President from designating new national monuments. The momentum for this
legislation was undercut by a recent Senate vote defeating a similar proposal to
limit funding for national monuments designated by President Clinton.
On 5/11, the House passed the
Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 2000 by a vote of 315-102. Developed as a
compromise between Rep. Young (R-AK) and Rep. Miller (D-CA), the bill would
provide landmark levels of critically needed funding for land, wildlife, marine
coastal, historic and cultural conservation needs. The bill was amended to
eliminate the provision that would create significant incentives for increased
oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast and to establish a framework for
acquisition of non-federal lands of regional or national interest. However, a
number of problems remain in the bill that need to be fixed before it is signed
into law, including removing remaining incentives for offshore drilling and
ensuring that the millions of federal dollars that will flow to coastal states
are spent in ways that help, not harm the environment; ensuring that non-game
and vulnerable wildlife species receive funding; and guaranteeing that all
eligible federal land and water!
conservation funds
will be spent and that new procedures established for land acquisition will not
hamper agency efforts to protect important areas. The Senate version of this
bill is discussed above.
..
Regulatory Reform
On 6/29, the House Government
Reform Committee approved by a party-line vote a bill (H.R. 4744) to add an
additional review by the General Accounting Office of major rules proposed by
federal agencies. H.R. 4744 is opposed by environmentalists because it could
create significant obstacles to the rulemaking process that could be used to
delay important new public health and environmental protections. It calls on the
GAO to conduct its own analysis of the costs and benefits of an agency's rules
rather than evaluating the agency's analysis. On 5/9, the Senate unanimously
passed a less damaging version of this bill (S. 1198).
..........
2) About Our Bulletins
The Natural Resources Defense
Council distributes four bulletins by mailing list:
EARTH ACTION is sent biweekly and calls out urgent
environmental issues requiring individual action. To subscribe, visit the Earth
Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action or send a message to
nrdcaction@nrdc.org with SUBSCRIBE EARTH ACTION BULLETIN in the subject line. To
unsubscribe from the EARTH ACTION BULLETIN, send an email message to
nrdcaction@nrdc.org with UNSUBSCRIBE EARTH ACTION BULLETIN in the subject line.
LEGISLATIVE WATCH is sent
biweekly when Congress is in session and tracks environmental bills moving
through the federal legislature. To subscribe to Legislative Watch, send an
email message to nrdcaction@nrdc.org with SUBSCRIBE LEGISLATIVE WATCH in the
subject line. To unsubscribe, send an email message to nrdcaction@nrdc.org with
UNSUBSCRIBE LEGISLATIVE WATCH in the subject line.
The 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 wildcalifornia@nrdc.org with SUBSCRIBE CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK in
the subject line. To unsubscribe, send an email message to
wildcalifornia@nrdc.org with UNSUBSCRIBE CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK in the
subject line.
The
EARTHSMARTCARS BULLETIN is distributed bimonthly 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
the EARTHSMARTCARS BULLETIN, send a blank email message to
leave-earthsmartcars@earth.lyris.net.
..........
3) About NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a nonprofit
environmental organization with 400,000 members nationwide and a staff of
scientists, lawyers 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
NY, NY
10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
nrdcinfo@nrdc.org
from Global Response July 20, 2000
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
In early June we issued a
first call for letters in support of thousands of
non-violent protesters in Thailand who oppose construction
of World
Bank-financed Pak Mun dam. Police
attacks and arrests continue. Please
join
this letter campaign requested by Southeast Asia Rivers Network.
URGENT ACTION ALERT! ELDERLY WOMEN AND OTHERS
BEATEN, TEAR-GASSED, AND
ARRESTED IN THAILAND FOR
BRINGING GRIEVANCES TO THE GOVERNMENT!
Please fax and email Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and the
Thai Ambassador
to the U.S., Nitya Pibulsonggram, Fax:
202 944-3611.
Let them know
that the Assembly of the Poor and other villagers from Pak
Mun are not alone in their fight for survival and dignity!
Let them know
that we are watching as Thai police
arrest children and tear-gas eldery
women...but we are not going to just stand-by!
Demand an immediate
solution to the problem by
implementing the recommendations of the plenary,
and
open the gates of the Pak Mun dam!
For more information about the Pak Mun dam, see
www.irn.org/programs/mekong.
Email addresses for the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington,
D.C.:
thai.wsn@thaiembdc.org, consular@thaiembdc.org,
officedma@dma.thaiembdc.org,
officedma@dma.thaiembdc.org, inquiries@oca.thaiembdc.org
SAMPLE LETTER TO MR. CHUAN
LEEKPAI:
INSERT DATE
The Honorable Mr. Chuan Leekpai
Prime Minister of Thailand
Fax: 662-2475417 or 662-2801443
Dear Mr. Chuan,
I am writing to express my outrage
at the treatment of members of the
Assembly of the Poor
and other villagers at the Government House on July
17,
in which hundreds were arrested, beaten, and tear-gassed, including
children and many elderly women.
This conduct is unacceptable and
deserves international condemnation. The
mere fact that
a two-year-old-child was among those arrested, and that
elderly women were gassed with chemical agents should be a
source of
immense shame.
The Assembly of the Poor and the other protestors are
acting out of
desperation because your government has
still failed to implement the
recommendations of the
panel which met on June 14. This panel recommended
that
the sluice gates of the Pak Mun dam be opened for at least four months
to allow fish migrations in the river to occur. The panel
also deliberated
on 15 other grievances of the Assembly
of the Poor.
Were the panel's
recommendations heeded, the Pak Mun villagers and the
Assembly of the Poor would be able to concentrate their
activities on
making a living, rather than having to
struggle for their survival and
their future.
I urge you to open the gates of
the Pak Mun dam immediately, and to comply
fully with
the recommendations of the of the committee set up to address
the 16 conflicts under the banner of the Assembly of the
Poor. I also urge
you to immediately release all those
arrested in connection with this
incident.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXX
***************************************
Thai Government Denying Human
Rights!
Arrest of 200 Villagers at Government House
July 17, 2000
At 14:45 (2:45 p.m.) today (Monday, 17 July 2000), the
Chuan government
ordered more than 1,000 policemen to
forcibly remove protesters of the
Assembly of the Poor
from the area around the Government House. One group
of
200 protesters inside the grounds of the Government House were arrested
and
removed by about 600 policemen
and women from the area in more than ten
vehicles.
Somparn Kuendee, advisor to the
Assembly and a staff member of the
Southeast Asia
Rivers Network (SEARIN), reported by cell phone just prior
to herself being arrested, that a representative of the
police announced to
the protesters that they had
tresspassed onto government property and would
be
arrested. While making the arrests, Somparn said that some police
harranged the protesters. At this moment, the police took
the arrested
protesters to the Police Officer Academy
located at Klong Hok in Pathum
Thainai and the Police
Officer Academy located at the Region One Border
Patrol
Police Headquarters in Salaya in Nakorn Pathom.
Most of those arrested were senior citizens, women, and
children, one of
them being only two years old.
The other group of 500 protesters
were pushed and beaten back across the
Prempracha canal
by about 500-600 police armed with batons and shields and
their the vehicle with their loudspeaker was confiscated.
About 30
villagers were injured. Two of them were so
seriously injured that they
were sent to Wachirat
Hospital for treatment.
At
3:15 p.m., a press conference was held at the SEARIN office by the
Academics for the Poor led by Professor Nidhi Iaosriwong
from Chiang Mai
University and Mr. Somchai Sirichai of
the Northern Farmer's Network.
Professor Nidhi argued
that we need to understand the historical context of
the protest staged by the Assembly of the Poor,
particularly the Pak Moon
villagers who have been
waiting for an acceptable resolution by the
government
for 16 months. But the government has shown its indifference to
the suffering of the people despite the recommendations
made by the
committee set up by the government itself
to investigate the issue.
The
actions taken by the government indicate the govenrment's apathy and
the
consistent preference for
violence in resolving conflicts with the poor.
Professor Nidhi urged that the people in Bangkok and in
Thai society in
general recognize the government's
illegitimate use of violence and the
narrow-minded and
undemocratic attitude prevalent in the Democrat-led
government. This can be used against other powerless
segments of Thai
society any time. The fact that the
affected people occupied the premises
of the Government
House should be seen as their attempt to negotiate with a
government that refuses to listen to their long-standing
problems. Denied
any other avenues to have their
grievances heard, they are given only this
limited
choice. The middle class should understand that the protesters are
not initiating any violence or merely agitating. They have,
on the
contrary, been ignored and deprived of their
right to register their
grievance.
Mr. Somchai condemned the
government and demanded the immediate release of
the
detained villagers.
We call
upon our international network of friends and those concerned to
take action. First, please stage a protest at any Royal
Thai Embassies,
especially in Washington, D.C., Tokyo,
Sydney and any country of the
European Union. Second,
please send a fax to Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai
or to
any Royal Thai Embassy abroad.
The message of any protest or fax should speak against the
use of violence,
demand the immediate release of the
arrested protesters, and call for the
government to
comply fully with the recommednations of the committee set up
to address the 16 conflicts under the banner of the
Aseembly of the Poor.
Most immediate is the opening of
the gates at Pak Mun Dam. However, the
government must
also immediately address the remaining 15 unresolved
issues, seven covering dams, another seven concerning land
rights, and a
final one concerning the negative effects
of the Chong Mek Development
Project.
South-East Asia Rivers Network
(SEARIN)
--------------------------------------
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.
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Fax: 303/449-9794
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ATT00002.html
(Text attachment)
from League of Conservation Voters July 20, 2000
================
LCV-Update 7/20
================
Senate Interior Appropriations Update: "Monuments" rider
defeated
On Tuesday, July 18,
during consideration of the Senate Interior
Appropriations bill, Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) introduced
a damaging
amendment to strip the President's authority
to designate national
monuments.
Under the Antiquities Act of 1906,
the President has the ability to create
protected areas
on lands owned by the federal government. For example, the
current administration has designated the 328,000-acre
Giant Sequoia
National Monument in northern California
to safeguard century-old trees
from development.
Sen. Nickles's proposed rider
would have curtailed the President's powers
to protect
open spaces, exercised by nearly every President since Teddy
Roosevelt's designation of the Grand Canyon National
Monument in 1908. The
environmental community was
strongly opposed to the Nickles amendment,
which was
defeated by a vote of 49-50 (see vote below; "+" is the
pro-environment vote).
LCV encourages you to write or call your Senators about
their vote on this
issue, thanking them for supporting
the environment or objecting to their
anti-environment
position. Check the list below to see how your Senators
voted.
Capitol Switchboard number: 202-224-3121
Address: Your Senator, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20515
Don't know who your U.S.
Senators are or how to contact them?
