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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
August 29
"We can't just have uncontrolled growth like we've had in the past" Maureen Gallardo, President of the Millikin Woods Preservation Association
CORRECTION: Tuesday's edition of Currents inaccurately listed the Senate sponsor of a bill to protect wetlands. The bill is being sponsored in the Senate by Russ Feingold (D-WI). Currents regrets the error.
(1)SMART GROWTH: A Sprawling Dialogue
(2)CLEAN WATER: Fighting Dirty Dairies in the Lone Star State
(3)TAKE ACTION: Protect Communities, Not Promote More Logging
1. A Sprawling Dialogue
Let's talk about smart growth. That's what residents of northern Kentucky and the Cincinnati area did yesterday at a community-wide forum designed to explore alternatives to sprawling development. The event was sponsored by the Smart Growth Coalition, an alliance of local organizations, including the Sierra Club, that believes growth doesn't have to mean more cars, highways, and traffic.
The meeting featured a slide-show displaying existing development patterns, which participants were asked to evaluate. Unsurprisingly, most felt lukewarm at best about the current sprawling situation. Potential remedies were offered, like mass transit and preservation of open space. As the air quality in the Cincinnati area gets steadily worse, these options are looking more and more attractive. And talking about the problem can mean you're half way toward solving it.
For more information on growing smarter around the Queen City, go to https://www.journal-news.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2002/08/28/1030591905
2. Fighting Dirty Dairies in the Lone Star State
Earlier this year, Wildcat Dairy, a central Texas industrial-scale milk producer, received a permit to expand from 900 cows to 4000. What's the big news? The expansion is illegal, according to Sierra Club and allies. Nearby waters, including the Bosque River, are already polluted by the huge amounts of manure that come from the area's many factory dairy farms. And the Clean Water Act expressly forbids adding pollution to an already impaired waterway.
A coalition of environmentalists, landowners, and city officials is making that case to local authorities. They're taking care to stress that they're not picking on Wildcat Dairy. But the proliferation of these milk factories in central Texas poses a severe threat to the area's supply of clean drinking water. Stay tuned...
For more information on the struggle for clean water in Texas, go to https://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleFileName=020719_d2.htm
3. Take Action to Protect Communities, Not Promote More Logging
Last week, President Bush announced a plan that used this summer's wildfires as an excuse to weaken environmental safeguards and allow more logging of our wild forests. The plan is great news for corporate special interests, but it fails to protect communities from fire. Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and Pete Domenici (R-NM) are expected to introduce a version of President Bush's plan as soon as the Senate returns from the Labor Day holiday.
That's where you come in. Contact your senators, and tell them they should: 1) make protecting communities from fires the number one priority. 2) provide meaningful funding - at least $2 billion a year over five years, to go directly to fireproofing homes and removing hazardous fuels in the area 500 yards around communities-- the Community Protection Zones. 3) protect our forests from logging and road-building. 4) stop the attacks on forest safeguards.
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224 3121. Ask for your senators. Deliver the message. Help protect our wild forests.
"It is not good enough to preach about the trickle-down effect if your house is being washed away, your child has skin cancer, you can't get clean water, and the weather is changing beyond recognition, forever." Thom Yorke, lead singer of the rock band Radiohead
(1)POLITICS: Bringing It All Back Home
(2)INTERNATIONAL: Make Some Noise for the Earth Summit
(3)TAKE ACTION: To Protect Wetlands
1. Bringing It All Back Home
Sierra Club is once again taking to the airwaves to educate voters on where their candidates stand on key environmental issues. The Club released radio ads in eight states yesterday, each featuring a local citizen explaining why environmental issues matter to them. The ads then ask listeners to call their elected official and urge him or her to vote to protect the environment.
The ads will be running in 8 states: Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, and South Dakota. They focus on local issues like clean air, clean water, and toxic waste. "Environmental protection isn't an abstract issue," said Margaret Conway, Sierra Club's Political Director. "It's about the rivers and lakes we swim and fish in, the water we drink, and the air we breathe every day."
For an example of the coverage generated by the ads, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/politics/
2. Make Some Noise for the Earth Summit
What noise would best express your feelings about the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which kicked off yesterday in Johannesburg? The sound of a wave crashing against the coast, as global warming causes rising sea levels? A groan of frustration that President Bush didn't show up? Or maybe a holler of optimism as representatives from 189 countries, and thousands of NGOs including the Sierra Club, come together to meet the global challenges of the 21st century?
Well start thinking about it, because a new website lets you share your chosen noise with an international community of activists. It also gives you news and views from Johannesburg, and shines the light on some of the irresponsible multinational corporations that threaten the environment around the world. Check it out:
https://www.radioearthsummit.org
3. Take Action to Protect Wetlands
Wetlands and streams are the unsung heroes of our environment. They provide clean water by filtering out pollutants, and are crucial habitats for birds, fish and other wildlife. But a court ruling last year limited the government's ability to enforce the Clean Water Act to protect these vital waterways, opening the door to pollution and development.
You can help. Senator Feinstein (D-CA) and Congressmen Oberstar (D-MN) and Dingell (D-MI) are pushing a bill that would restore federal protection for wetlands. The measure makes it clear that the Clean Water Act was intended to protect ALL of the nation's waters from pollution. But it needs more support. Contact your senators and representatives immediately and urge them to co-sponsor this important bill.
Click below to send an email directly to your Members of Congress. There's a draft provided: https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=181&st=curr
"It's the smaller-diameter fuels and fine fuels that get a wildfire going. The Forest Service really needs to prioritize and concentrate the thinning in forests near communities." Jennifer Ferenstein, Sierra Club President and Missoula, Montana resident
(1)WILD FORESTS: Protecting People vs. Gutting Forest Safeguards
(2)EVERGLADES: Florida Flip-Flop
(3)FACTORY FARMS: Alabamans have had their Fill
(4)TAKE ACTION: For Cleaner Cars
1. Protecting People vs. Gutting Forest Safeguards
Which do you think is more important: making sure that communities and homes are safe from forest fires, or giving the timber industry carte blanche to log our national forests? We thought so. Sierra Club and allies proposed a new vision on forest policies yesterday, which puts people before profits. But the Bush administration countered with its own plan today, using this summer's spate of forest fires as an excuse to gut crucial forest protections.
The administration's proposal would give timber companies free rein to log even the old-growth areas of our national forests. Cutting these large, fire-resistant trees would do nothing to reduce the risk of fire, but it would mean big bucks for the timber industry. Environmentalists are tired of finger-pointing, and are looking for real solutions. The Bush administration's plan doesn't provide them.
For more information on the forest controversy, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/22/politics/22FORE.html
2. Florida Flip-Flop
The Florida Everglades is the site of the largest environmental restoration project in U.S. history. But now that project is being threatened by a limestone mining plan that would destroy a swath of wetlands the size of Miami. Before the Bush administration took office, federal officials had been vocal about the dangers posed by limestone drilling in the Everglades. But lately they've been keeping mum on the issue.
The Army Corps of Engineers approved initial permits for the plan this week, even though its own documents had said that the plan "will have an irreversible significant impact on the environmental resources of this region." Sierra Club and others are challenging that decision. We'll keep you posted...
For more information on the threat to the Everglades, go to https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42433-2002Aug20.html
3. Alabamans have had their Fill of Factory Farms
Just say no to hog farms! That was the rallying cry in Fort Payne, Alabama last week as the Sierra Club held a press conference on the steps of the county courthouse. The event was designed to highlight the environmental threats posed by massive factory farm operations in the area. These giant agribusinesses dump huge amounts of hog waste into local waterways, and create air and noise pollution in the communities where they set up shop.
TV and print media covered the event, which included a baby in a t-shirt that read, "I Love My Clean Air - No Hogs". Then organizers led reporters on a two-hour "Tour de Stench", so the media could see for itself what residents of the area already knew: massive factory farms are a threat to clean water, clean air, and quality of life for local people. Thanks to Sierra Club, alot more Alabamans found that out last week.
For more information on the dangers of factory farms, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/
4. Take Action for Cleaner Cars
Ford Motor Company has given off some encouraging signals of late. It announced it would phase out its gas-guzzling Ford Valdez...er, Ford Expedition, recently. And CEO Bill Ford Jr. strongly suggested that his company wouldn't challenge a new California law on auto emissions. We're pleased with these steps, but there's a long way to go.
Ford's "Corporate Citizenship" report, released this week, was a step in the wrong direction. It didn't lay out a clear game-plan for improving the company's environmental performance, and warned that any strategy to address global warming would be "tempered by our near-term business interests." Ford has the technology to make its vehicles go further on a gallon of gas. Urge Bill Ford to give consumers what they want, and to stay the course in making his company into a responsible corporate citizen.
Click below to send a message directly to Bill Ford Jr. There's a draft provided: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=169&st=curr
"If we say 'hello' to coalbed methane development, we can say 'goodbye' to our state's clean water." - Mary Wiper, Montana Sierra Club
(1)CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY: Ford's Annual Report Shifts the Company into Reverse
(2)STUDENT ACTIVISM: Young Activists are Just in 'Time'
(3)CLEAN WATER: Billboards with a Difference
(4)TAKE ACTION: Protect the Clean Air Act
1. Ford's Annual Report Shifts the Company into Reverse
Talk about taking one step forward and two steps back! The Ford Motor Company made no progress whatsoever in increasing the average gas mileage of its fleet, according to a report released by the company today. And rather than set concrete goals to fix the problem, the report offers only vague promises, and makes weak excuses for its failure.
In 1999 and 2000, Ford Motor Company's "Corporate Citizenship" reports raised environmentalists' hopes, with strong and responsible statements on the environmental impacts of Ford's vehicles. But this year's version, released today, points to "our near-term business interests", and "factors that influence emissions...but are not under our direct control" as justifications for Ford's inability to make its vehicles go further on a gallon of gas. Sounds to us like Sierra Club's "Freedom Options Package" is the answer.
Sierra Club's response to the report was all over the news. Click below to see: https://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=businessnews&StoryID=1348329 https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/20/business/20FORD.html
For more information on the Freedom Options Package, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/freedompackage/
2. Young Activists are Just in 'Time'
When the Sierra Student Coalition, the Sierra Club's student arm, gathered this summer at Utah's San Rafael Swell, it's main goal was to help with wilderness preservation efforts there. The budding activists didn't realize they were going to end up with their own feature on one of the most popular websites in the country!
Time Magazine's recent issue on all things green includes a look at "how the next generation will tackle threats to the environment." And who better to focus on than the precocious young men and women of the SSC.
Time.com has put together individual profiles of eight SSCers and the work they've done in Utah - complete with sound effects too! Click below to see them all: https://www.time.com/time/2002/greencentury/kids/kids1.html
3. Billboards with a Difference
Drivers in Montana are used to seeing billboards hawking everything from fast food chains to local auto dealers. But here's one that's probably new to them: Sierra Club billboards that let them know about the threat to clean water posed by coal-bed methane development. The billboards were installed by the Club in Billings, Helena, and Bozeman last week, in advance of a final decision by state and federal authorities on whether to give the green light to the controversial drilling project.
Coalbed methane drilling in Montana would mean pumping huge volumes of water out of the ground to release methane gas from underground coal seams. The salty water would then be released into rivers, threatening fisheries, wildlife, and drinking water. Sounds like a bad idea. And you can put that on a billboard.
For more information on coal-bed methane, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/cbmethane
4. Take Action to Protect the Clean Air Act
Since 1977, New Source Review has been a crucial part of the Clean Air Act. NSR ensures that when polluting factories increase the amount of soot and smog they're spewing into the air, they also need to upgrade their pollution control technology. Makes sense, right? Not to the Bush administration. They want to create loopholes in NSR that would let polluting companies keep fouling our air without having to clean up their acts.
You can help. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) is circulating a Dear Colleague letter, which urges the Environmental Protection Agency not to change NSR without studying the effects on public health, and giving ordinary people a chance to comment. Contact your representative and tell them to sign onto Rep. Markey's letter. If we want to keep breathing clean air, we need to keep the Clean Air Act strong!
Click below to send an email directly to your representative. There's a draft provided.
https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=180&st=curr
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