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"Advocates of fast track authority repeat the mantras of `free trade' and `leadership.'.... But it is precisely leadership that the President's critics are demanding.... 'The question,' says [AFL-CIO President John] Sweeney 'is not whether America must lead, but were we must lead. It is not whether we are internationalist, but what values our internationalism serves.'" "On the `Fast Track' to Nowhere: Clinton has Lost His Way in the Debate Over Trade" Robert L. Borosage, Washington Post, 9/21/97
CONTENTS:
ACTION # 1: STOP NAFTA FAST-TRACK
ACTION # 2: SAVE THE EVERGLADES
IN THE FIELD: FIGHTING FAST-TRACK
IN THE WOODS: Quincy Library -- Coming to a National Forest Near You!
* TAKE ACTION *
ACTION # 1: STOP NAFTA FAST-TRACK
The brawl begins over fast-track trade legislation, when President Clinton returns to Washington, DC this week from South America. After a slow start, the corporate pro-fast track coalition, America Leads on Trade will mount a full-court, $3 million media blitz. So far, Sierra Club vote counts show that the Stop NAFTA fast-track forces are ahead -- but not by much. We've got to turn up the pressure!
Please start by sending a letter to the editor of your local news paper!
ACTION # 2
EVERGLADES IN PERIL !!! CALL THE PRESIDENT !!!
Write or call the White House (Call the White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111). Urge President Clinton to save the Everglades by requiring a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the entire airport planned for the former Homestead Air Force Base.
Across the nation, Sierra Club is involved in a series of skirmishes with the Clinton White House and the powerful Federal Aviation Administration. We want the national park service to enforce the law protecting the natural resources of our national parks: including our right to enjoy our parks in peace and quiet. That right is being blasted, in many parts of the country, by noise pollution from aircraft.
As in so many other instances, the US Department of Interior is cowed by powerful economic interests who control the White House. Now, within days, President Clinton could set an alarming precedent: at Homestead, Florida, the President is about to authorize a major commercial airport in the midst of the Everglades.
Recently, the New York Times editorial board supported our position that the billion dollar airport could severely undermine the important goal of Everglades restoration. Leading the way is Sierra Club Miami Group, where activists are providing a surge of adrenalin to the decade long struggle to control the buzz of air tour operators in places like Grand Canyon.
Unless activists from around the nation speak loudly, within days the President could authorize "conveyance" of the air base, enabling a plan already approved by the FAA to generate more than 230,000 annual flights per year, within a few miles of Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Sierra Club has asked the President to require a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement before that happens, but the President apparently has many promises to keep in Miami.
Sierrans around the nation need to persuade the President that promises in Miami must not take precedence over promises to the American people who have already paid a great price to protect our national parks.
Sierrans should write or call the White House (see top of SC-ACTION for contact information), asking President Clinton to require a Supplemental Environmental Impact statement for the full scale of the airport rt planned by Dade County at the former Homestead Air Force Base.
Additionally, in support of our skirmished at other places like the Grand Canyon, ask the President to give the National Park Service, and not the Federal Aviation Administration, clear authority to establish rules to protect our parks from noise pollution generated by aircraft.
For further information, contact: Alan Farago, conservation chair Sierra Club Miami Group afarago@ix.netcom.com
IN THE FIELD: FIGHTING FAST-TRACK
"In the heart of Wall Street," reports today's AP wire (10/17), "where the Dow Jones average can take a roller-coaster ride on any given day, a crowd gathered Thursday to protest a fast-track of a different sort - the one President Clinton wants to use to create a hemisphere-wide free- trade zone."
Susan Holmes, a Sierra Club Director, took advantage of the one-week congressional recess to deliver the Club's Stop NAFTA Fast-Track message to the New York media and a crowd of 500 trade unionists, environmentalists, and stock brokers on their lunch break. Joining John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, and Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt, Susan spoke from the steps of Federal Hall, where George Washington was sworn in as the nation's first president in 1789.
"In the debate over US trade policy, the choice is really very simple," said Holmes. "Will we leave our children a world where the values of the unbridled market outweigh all other human values? Or will we leave our children a world which also values community, jobs, and clean water, air and safe food?"
The Sierra Club opposes fast-track trade legislation (HR 2621) now making its way through Congress on grounds that it could strip environmental protections, even toothless side agreements, from future free trade deals. Moreover, the legislation would encourage "optimizing the use of the world's resources" -- as if the United States does not already consume more than its share of the world's dwindling forests, energy, and minerals.
The Wall Street rally was just one of many coalition events joined by Sierra Club activists across the country to highlight NAFTA's broken environmental promises -- and to pressure Representatives who haven't yet decided to oppose the NAFTA fast-track. In Fort Lauderdale on October 16, Rod Tirrell spoke to a crowed of 100, including trade unionists and farmers driven from the land by cheap food imports. "If our farmers go under," said Tirrell, "Miami will lose a green belt that helps contain urban sprawl." Frank Jackalone picked up the theme at a press conference the next day in Tampa. "The conversion of our farms in central and south Florida into towns and suburbs would devastate many of our remaining wilderness & wetland areas, including the Everglades," he said.
At a San Jose, California press conference on the 16th, Barry Boulton recounted NAFTA's broken promises -- including rising food safety risks, more pollution on the US-Mexico border, and new threats to California environmental laws. Boulton noted that even the conservative Western Governors Association admits that a new investors' accord modeled on NAFTA could overturn such important California state laws as development controls that protect sensitive coastal zones and tax incentives to encourage use of renewable energy. In San Francisco, Fred Beddall, Michele Perrault and Sharon Donavon rallied Club activists for a debate on fast-track sponsored by Rep. Nancy Pelosi at the Commonwealth Club. And, in Portland, Marcia Anderson broadcast the Club's not-this-fast track views on Oregon Public Radio.
National media picked up the story with the Wall Street Journal (10/16) reporting on Sierra Club's organizing efforts and another story in the Journal citing Sierra Club lobbyist Daniel Seligman on the failed promise of NAFTA's toothless environmental commission (10/15). "They whimper, they don't even bark," said Seligman. "What environmentalists got is a well-endowed think tank. And they do a lot of thinking."
IN THE WOODS: Quincy Library -- Coming to a National Forest Near You!
Have you checked your local library lately? In Quincy, California, a few dozen people -- some county politicians, officials from California's largest timber corporation, and a few "local" environmentalists -- got together and developed what they called a "community consensus" proposal to manage vast tracts of nearby National Forests. Their proposal became the "Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery and Economic Stability Act," (HR 858) by Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), which steamrolled through the House of Representatives. Now as S. 1028 introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- and co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) -- this dangerously misunderstood bill is moving forward in the Senate.
Perhaps if Senators Boxer and Feinstein learned what we know about this bill, they will reconsider their support for a bill that would set dangerous precedents for America's National Forests and would provide a special sweetheart deal for one timber corporation, Sierra Pacific Industries. America's National Forests are federal public lands which should be managed for all Americans under federal environmental laws. Consequently, S. 1028 is an inherently bad model for setting future public policy, as well as bad policy for the National Forests directly affected.
***YOU CAN HELP: Call Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and tell them they should drop their support of S. 1028, more aptly called the "Quincy Logging Bill."***
***YOU CAN HELP FURTHER: S. 1028 is scheduled to be considered by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday (October 22). This is the last procedural step before the bill moves to the floor for a vote -- unless the Committee votes to stop it. Call the following key Senators on the Committee, and ask them to oppose S. 1028 at Wednesday's hearing: Senators Dale Bumbers (D-AR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Bob Graham (D-FL), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). PLEASE ACT NOW!!! ****
S. 1028 would replace existing forest management plans with an experimental "pilot project" of unprecedented scale -- a vast area covering more than 2 entire National Forests in California (the Plumas, Lassen and one-quarter of the Tahoe National Forests) and over 2.5 million acres. Under the Quincy Library Group ("QLG") proposal mandated by the bill, logging on the affected forests would more than double. The QLG project calls for up to 60,000 acres annually of so-called "defensible fuel profile zones" (i.e., "fuel breaks") and nearly 10,000 acres of group selection "openings" (i.e., patch clearcuts). These timber practices are experimental and have not been proven to reduce fuels or fire. To the contrary, current forest management science reveals that the QLG plan would increase fire risk and harm the forest ecosystems.
Despite amendments adopted in the House designed to address the concerns of overriding existing environmental laws, the bill would still circumvent the process of substantive and procedural compliance with environmental law. The QLG "experiment" would not only have a far-reaching and devastating environmental impact on California's Sierra Nevada National Forests, it sets a very dangerous precedent for management of all National Forests in the country. Already, H.R. 2458 by Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) proposes to start QLG-like "experiments" on *all* federal public lands, and advocates more logging and grazing as ways to "*reduce fuels*." America's National Forests have already suffered through the "forest health" hoax under last Congress's Salvage Timber Rider. S. 1028 is more of the same
In good speaking, should not the mind of the speaker know the truth of the matter about which he is to speak? - Plato [from Phaedrus]
CONTENTS:
ACTION ALERT: Family Planning Under Attack
CLEAN WATER I: Happy 25th Birthday, Clean Water Act!
CLEAN WATER II: For our fish, for our families, for our future...
GLOBAL WARMING: CNN Will Again Run Advocacy Ads on Global Warming
****** Take Action ********
Family Planning Funding in Danger --- ACT NOW
House and Senate members are currently negotiating spending levels for family planning assistance. The House has pledged a pittance and attached amendments which would severely limit couples access to family planning services. There is a strong possibility that to avert another government shut-down, negotiators may agree to "metering" measures which would allocate money to family planning efforts in monthly installments. Metering means that family planning clinics must limit their spending since their funding arrives erratically which, in turn, reduces clinics efforts to reach out to those who need their assistance most.
OUR ENVIRONMENT DEPENDS UPON POPULATION STABILIZATION. WOMEN DEPEND UPON FAMILY PLANNING FOR THEIR HEALTH NEEDS AND THE HEALTH OF THEIR CHILDREN.
DON'T LET PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGN A BAD BILL. Write a letter to the editor to urge President Clinton to fund the highest level possible for international family planning.
****** Take Action ********
CLEAN WATER I: Happy 25th Birthday, Clean Water Act!
Today (10/16) the Sierra Club hosted 40 birthday celebrations nationwide in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, one of the nation's most successful environmental laws.
From the streams of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, to the mouth of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, to the beaches of San Diego, the Sierra Club joined other environmental organizations to highlight the successes of the Clean Water Act and to point out the water quality challenges America's waterways still face.
"The 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act provides us the dual opportunity to acknowledge the progress which we have made in cleaning up our nation's waterways, and to recognize the shortcomings of our efforts to make our rivers, lakes, streams and beaches swimmable and fishable for all Americans," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club.
Pope continued, "Lake Erie has been restored to life, the Cuyahoga River no longer catches fire (as it did in 1969), and the Potomac River has lost its label as a `stinking sewer'. However, polluted runoff from agricultural fields, animal feedlots, and urban streets and overflows and leaks from sewage facilities represent major pollution problems still today."
Runoff pollution is seen as the major culprit in the massive fish kills that have occurred in coastal bays and estuaries from Louisiana, to Florida, to the Carolinas, and is implicated in the recent Pfeisteria outbreak in the Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Such pollution continues to foul beaches, causing 3,685 closures and advisories at coastal beaches in 1996. In the meantime, toxic contamination of the water and sediments in many of our lakes and rivers continues to make fish from those waters unsafe to eat; 1996 saw a nationwide total of 2,193 fish consumption bans.
"We are still losing the battle to save our remaining wetlands; an average of 117,000 acres of wetlands are still destroyed annually. It is clear that we need stronger pollution controls and more diligent enforcement of the Clean Water Act if we are going to have clean lakes, rivers, and beaches for our families and for future generations," added Pope.
The Clean Water Act, signed into law on October 18, 1972 is directly responsible for removing more than a billion pounds of toxic chemicals per year and today, nearly two-thirds of the nation's lakes and rivers are safe for fishing and swimming, compared to only 36% in 1970. Recreation and tourism such as birdwatching, fishing, and hunting -- that rely exclusively on the birds, fish, and other wildlife dependent on wetlands and clean water -- generate substantial revenues.
"Everyone needs, and benefits from, clean water. We must continue to carry out our responsibility to protect America's lakes, rivers and beaches for future generations of Americans," said Kathryn Hohmann, Director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program. "We've made great progress in cleaning up our waters, but we are starting to plateau. The reauthorized Clean Water Act must confront the polluted runoff from agricultural fields and urban sources, and stop the nonsensical destruction of our nation's rapidly shrinking wetlands acreage if we are going to see a significant gain in water quality nationwide for the next 25 years," concluded Hohmann.
CLEAN WATER II: FROM THE FIELD:
For our fish, for our families, for our future...
All this week, Northern California Sierra Club activists are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Not only are they noting Clean Water Act's successes, they are highlighting California's long-running "Water Wars" saga which is once again boiling. A joint state/federal agency known as CALFED is developing a plan for saving the devastated Bay/Delta and improving the reliability of water supplies. Thirsty agribusiness and voracious developers are teaming up to grab as much water as they can, leaving a mere trickle for fish and wildlife.
Kicking off Clean Water Week was the "Rally by the Bay" on Sunday, October 12 at Pt. Isabel regional shoreline on San Francisco Bay. More than 40 volunteers, children and eco-canines gathered to eat birthday cake and learn more about California's water future. After the rally, volunteers fanned out to distribution sites and gathered 1000 postcards to the Clinton Administration and the local water agency, urging them to promote water conservation and ecosystem restoration in the CalFed process. Special thanks to staffers Jackie McCort, Jenna Olsen, Fred Beddall and Jennifer Witherspoon, as well as our sister organizations, Clean Water Action, Audubon and the California League of Conservation Voters, for their efforts in organizing this successful event.
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown declared Tuesday, October 14, official Clean Water Day in SF and celebrated at Candlestick Point State Park, also on the Bay. While Mayor Brown and other luminaries waxed ecstatic about the Clean Water Act and the city's commitment to its goals, Sierra Club Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton concluded the program by pointing out the many problems to solve the challenges ahead. The fish in the Bay are toxic and unhealthy to eat and wildlife populations in the Bay/Delta ecosystem are plummeting due to decades of ecosystem degradation. And while California has the dubious honor of having destroyed 91% of its historical wetlands, San Francisco has destroyed 100% of the wetlands that originally existed. Bruce concluded by urging the audience to work for clean water, "For our fish, for our families, for our future."
GLOBAL WARMING: CNN Will Again Run Advocacy Ads on Global Warming
"Wilting in the heat of furious criticism, CNN lifted its ban on ads dealing with global warming." CNN had canceled an ad campaign by an industry alliance that ran for three weeks. However, the company has now reversed its decision to pull these anti-environmental ads, which assailed a proposed United Nations treaty that would restrict fuel emissions. (Washington Post, 10/10)
CNN spokesperson Steve Haworth said, "We have reevaluated our position and changed it." He added that the network would resume airing the spots by the Global Climate Information Project if the group could substantiate their claims. (Washington Post, 10/10)
At the time the ads were pulled, Haworth claimed "We didn't want to run advocacy ads from either side to confuse our viewers between what is editorial and what is advocacy." (Newsday, 10/12)
CNN founder Ted Turner is a passionate supporter of measures to reduce global warming. When Haworth was questioned about whether Turner was involved in the decision to pull the ad opposing the global warming treaty, he said, "No. I have stated for the record that the challenge came to CNN. The standards and practices review was CNN's and the decision to take the ad off the air was CNN's." (Newsday, 10/12)
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