NEXT PAGE -->
|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
November 21
"It is some of the most beautiful country in California. It is just rugged in the extreme." - Dave Westmun, a conservation organizer for the Sierra Club commenting on the California Wilderness Bill waiting for the President's signature
(1)GLOBAL WARMING: Dismal Fuel Economy Package Proposal
(2)WILDLANDS: The First Step for California Wilderness
(3)AIR: Clean Air, the Future Depends on It
(4)TAKE ACTION: Prevent Your Tax Dollars from Polluting the Peruvian Rainforest
1. Dismal Fuel Economy Package
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing a dismal fuel economy package. The proposal sets SUVs' fuel efficiency, starting in 2005, up 0.5 gallons per year for three years. The Bush Administration is short-changing the public because the technology is available now to make cars, small trucks, and SUVs go much farther on a gallon of gas.
Increased fuel-efficiency is the biggest single step the US can take to decrease global warming, increase our oil independence, and save consumers at the gas pump. However, if the Administration was serious about this effort it would tell the automakers to reach a fleet average of 40 miles per gallon--which can be done right now with existing technology.
Fuel-Efficiency read solutions at the Sierra Club's Clean Car Campaign website: https://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/cleancars/
See the Sierra Club Press Release regarding the proposal: https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0211&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F &S=&P=977
2. The First Step for California Wilderness
A Congressional-approved bill sits on the President's desk waiting to be signed to set 55,000 acres of wildlands off-limits to off-road vehicles, mountain bikes, and oil and gas drilling. The land is located in the coastal mountains near the Big Sur coast and part of the Pinnacles National Monument. This area is part of the larger California Wild Heritage proposal written by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) that is still pending in Congress.
Protection of California wilderness has been a goal of the Sierra Club since 1892. The California Wild Heritage Act would not only protect 2.5 million acres of pristine California wilderness but it would save 400 miles of wild and scenic rivers. Currently, only one percent of California's rivers is protected from dams and other harmful action. The bill waiting for the President's signature is the first step for California wilderness.
Read an article about this victory at https://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/4571602.htm
3. Clean Air, the Future Depends on It
ChevronTexaco claims it wants clean air in San Joaquin Valley, CA, but no one wants it as much as Kevin Hall and the Sierra Club. Business leaders in the Valley formed the Clean Air Now campaign, funded by $2 million from the international Oil and Energy Company. Hopefully, the money will be spent appropriately, assuring that air quality rules already on the books are enforced.
Clean air is the healthy right of all Americans and especially important for children's health. Children spend more time outdoors than adults and inhale more pollutants per pound of body weight. Shortness of breath, asthma and other complications come as a result of dirty air. Hopefully, ChevronTexaco will follow Kevin Hall's lead and help protect air for our future.
Read about Kevin Hall, the eco-guy in the Fresno Bee: https://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/story/5235348p-6242035c.html
4. Take Action to Prevent Your Tax Dollars from Polluting the Peruvian Rainforest
Two Texas oil companies are pushing the President for $900 million worth of public financing to support two natural gas pipelines through the Peruvian tropical rainforest and near Peru's only marine sanctuary. The pipelines would be over 1,000 miles long. The project is underway and is already a mess, including oil spills, erosion, landslides, and development in a protected nature deserve.
Read the Washington Post front-page story at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12381-2002Nov19.html
There is no doubt that the indigenous people and biodiversity would be negatively affected by the project. Already, it has been reported that erosion has filled rivers where local people get their drinking supplies and forest destruction has lead to habitat loss. What can you do to stop funding this project? Write a letter to the bank chair and tell him the international oil companies do not deserve a loan for this disaster and that you object to your tax dollars being used to support this immoral project.
Your letter will have most impact if you put a stamp on it and mail it; fax is second best; send email if necessary! Philip Merrill, Chair Export-Import Bank of the U.S. 811 Vermont Avenue NW Washington DC 20571 Fax: Int'l code+202 565-3505 Email to Ex-Im Board Member Dan Renberg, dan.renberg@exim.gov
"This is a crisis in God's creation at the hands of God's children." - Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, talking to the New York Times about the link between fuel efficiency and morality
(1)CAFO: What's that Smell?
(2)TOXICS: Superfund Not Flying High
(3)AIR: Dirty DC
(4)TAKE ACTION: Support Women and Family Planning
1. What's that Smell?
November 16th was a smelly day in Alabama when the Sierra Club led its "Tour de Stench." The tour-visited communities affected by large hog concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). In one local town a woman cannot build the house she intended to because fans from a CAFO are blowing straight at the land, causing an unpleasant odor. The tour visited another town where a couple can see down into a meat processing plant from their deck and hear pigs squeal as their dragged to slaughter.
CAFOs confine thousands of animals in one facility and produce tons (literally tons) of waste. Local residents, near these large factories, are losing their lakes and rivers, as well as their drinking water to leaks from waste facilities. Even the air they breathe faces contamination produced by the smelly waste, causing respiratory problems for the people who live nearby.
https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=TL&Date=20021116&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=211160336&Ref=AR&Profile=1007&SectionCat=NEWS02
2. Superfund Not Flying High
The Boston Globe agrees with the Sierra Club that it's time to clean up the toxic Atlas Tack Superfund site in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The site received no funding this year because the Bush Administration has not adequately funded the Superfund program. Chemicals left by the Tack Factory affect the health of over 7,000 people.
Since 1995, Congress has not renewed the corporate tax program on polluting industries to fund the clean up of toxic waste sites. This has relieved corporate polluters of responsibility for their actions and left the Superfund account dry of money needed to enforce clean up. This is endangering children and their families and is another example of the President leaving our communities at risk.
Read the editorial in the Boston Globe: https://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/319/editorials/Toxic_triage%2B.shtml
3. Dirty DC
Much to the surprise of the regional Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, DC's air is far from clean. The latest results from area air tests show exhaust from sport-utility vehicles, pickups and diesel trucks are the leading cause of the dirty air problem. Unless DC cleans up its act by January 2004, any road or transit projects not already under contract will not be granted federal approval.
The increased air pollution can lead to more asthma, bronchitis and other health problems. In order to combat the dirty air, regional officials must develop more public transit options and incentives not to drive. Officials will also need to reconsider their clean-air plan as it pertains to power plant emissions to clean the air of DC.
Read the story in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61332-2002Nov15.html
4. Take Action to Support Women and Family Planning
The Bush Administration actions don't support its claims to support women's rights and family planning. The current Administration has decided to rescind U.S. support for the Cairo Program of Action, a model agreement for improving women's health and helping to slow population growth. This agreement, formed in 1994 and supported by 179 countries, grants the right of all people to decide freely how many children to have and when to have them as well as the right of all individuals to reproductive health care. The past six administrations have supported family planning programs and have requested other countries do the same. What caused this sudden turnaround? We don't know.
The Cairo Program of Action has helped provide the model for affordable, safe family planning programs around the world that in turn have helped to slow population growth. It provides an important service to women around the world through affordable family planning and reproductive health programs that improve women's lives and support the environment. If you want the U.S. to continue to support this crucial agreement, call the White House at 202-456-1111 and ask the President to reconsider his decision.
"I can't even believe they still make SUVs. It's like people are unable to think about the future." Lauri Murphy, Sierra Club activist, outside a New England auto show
(1)NATIONAL PARKS: Not-so Endangered Snowmobiles Reintroduced
(2)INTERNATIONAL: Italian Activists Urge UN to Protect Historic Venice
(3)CLEAN WATER: Great News for the Great Lakes
(4)CLEAN AIR: How Can a Cave have Dirty Air?
1. Not-so Endangered Snowmobiles Reintroduced
Vrrooooommmm! That's the sound bears, wolves, bison, elk, and eagles will hear as the not-so endangered snowmobile is reintroduced in greater numbers to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Bush administration is increasing the number of snowmobiles allowed in the Parks by 1,100 per day.
Off-trail snowmobiles tear up streams and wildlife habitat, and pollute our air and water. Currently, there is over half a million miles of road available for snowmobile use, so why should snowmobiles rage all over bear country? Especially since the public does not want them in Yellowstone: about 340,000 public comments were received on the issue, and nearly 4 out of 5 were in favor of a complete ban on winter snowmobiling in the park. It looks like the will of the people lost out to the will of the snowmobile industry.
To read more about the effects of snowmobiles, visit: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/orv/factsheet.asp
2. Italian Activists Urge UN to Protect Historic Venice
The Italian city of Venice is threatened by repeated flooding. Venice is one of the world's cultural treasures, and its lagoon is a crucial wetland for the Mediterranean. In 1996, a disastrous flood awakened the world to the seriousness of the danger. And rising sea levels caused by global warming threaten to make the problem even worse.
But the Italian government, backed by powerful construction firms, wants to deal with the threat by building a controversial dyke. The dyke - which failed its environmental impact assessment - would damage the lagoon's ecosystem, take eight years to complete, and cost 2.6 billion euros. A local coalition of environmentalists and concerned citizens has proposed a less expensive alternative strategy that would reduce flooding in a matter of months, without affecting the environment. Let's hope the Italian government is listening.
For more information on global warming, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/
3. Great News for the Great Lakes
A little ray of sunshine managed to peek through the gloomy electoral skies this week: Lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that will provide funding to clean up toxic hotspots around the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Legacy Act may turn out to be a rare environmental accomplishment for the 108th Congress. Regardless, this cleanup is long overdue, and it's an important step forward for the entire Great Lakes region.
Environmentalists and ordinary people in the area have been working towards this for years. Decades of industrial pollution continue to poison the world's largest single fresh surface water system. Growing housing and commercial developments have compounded the ongoing problem by polluting runoff water. The toxins create health problems in fish, wildlife, and humans, including cancer and reproductive problems. Tuesday's vote could signal a brighter future for the Great Lakes.
For more information on clean water, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/
4. How Can a Cave have Dirty Air?
Mammoth Cave already has the third dirtiest skies of all National Parks and now the Bush administration wants to make it even hazier! The first large coal power plant proposed and expedited by the Administration has been approved for western Kentucky. The Sierra Club is appealing the Peabody Energy plant because it won't have to include modern pollution-control technology.
The proposed coal plant would spew high levels of nitrous oxide pollution, soot, and mercury into the air everyday. This pollution creates haze and low visibility and a host of health problems, such as reduced lung function and asthma. Kentucky already ranks first among states with the highest per capita deaths caused by power plant pollution. The Bluegrass State can't afford to make it even worse.
Read about the Sierra Club's action in the news: https://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/11/13/ke111302s312896.htm
(1)FORESTS: Staples Answers the Call
(2)BOOKS: Sliding into Sprawl
(3)CLEAN WATER: Fishy Proposal in Wisconsin
1. Staples Answers the Call
Congress and the White House might not be too responsive to the earth's concerns right now, but that doesn't mean the environmental victories have dried up. Staples, the world's largest office supply store, announced today that it would phase out paper products originating from endangered forests and dramatically increase its sale of recycled paper products. The move comes after a two-year campaign by a coalition of environmental groups that includes the Sierra Student Coalition.
Activists held over 600 demonstrations, dropped banners over Staples storefronts, staged guerilla street theater, sent over 15,000 postcards, generated thousands of postcards, letters, and phone calls, and garnered local and national media coverage. They even flew the Staples CEO over clear-cuts in Tennessee. As we celebrate this win, let's use it as a reminder that if we keep working hard and thinking creatively, it doesn't all have to be bad news for the environment over the next two years.
For more information on the threat to our forests, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/logging
2. Sliding into Sprawl
When the Federal Aviation Administration gave $20 million to the ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes, California, to massively expand its airport, it claimed that the fragile environment of the Eastern Sierras wouldn't be harmed. But State Attorney General Bill Lockyer finds that hard to believe. He's challenging the project, arguing that it threatens an ecologically fragile and unique region that includes Yosemite National Park and two wilderness areas.
In fact, the airport project is just the tip of the iceberg - so to speak. Intrawest, the corporate owners of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, plans to transform Mammoth Lakes into the leading mountain resort on the continent. That means a glut of mansions, condos, hotels, and other development that prices all but the super-rich out of the housing market, creates sprawl in nearby areas, and threatens the fragile high-altitude environment. It's a familiar story for our alpine communities, detailed in Hal Clifford's new book, "Downhill Slide".
For more information or to order a copy of this timely book, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/books/catalog/1578050715.asp
3. Fishy Proposal in Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Sierra Club isn't settling for the fishy plan offered by state and federal agencies to clean up the Fox River. The state Department of Natural Resources, and the EPA plan to dredge dangerous PCBs from the river, but they would leave four times more toxic chemicals in the river than environmentalists have recommended. Although the cleanup itself is much-needed, this half-baked measure falls short.
PCBs are toxins left over from large paper mills that once called the banks of the Fox River home. These toxins are thought to cause cancer and a variety of health problems, including developmental problems in children. PCBs attach to the fatty tissue of animals, making the fish from the river toxic. It is crucial to do a better job cleaning the River since tens of thousands of people regularly consume fish from its waters.
Read more about the Sierra Club's effort in Wisconsin at: https://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_1838326.shtml
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|