NEXT PAGE -->
|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
July 3, 2003
"I told them that I know that this is a battle of the ant against the elephant, but we have to fire at least one arrow, or there is no way we can face our descendants." Japanese activist Shozo Aki, reflecting on his 25-year effort to clean up toxic waste near his home on Teshima Island.
(1) FORESTS: Now That's a Fire!
(2) PRETZEL LOGIC: Road Trip to Fantasyland
(3) CLEAN WATER: Land of Milk and Poopy
(4) TAKE ACTION: Stop the Public Land Giveaway!
1. Now That's a Fire!
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Judge Morrison England Jr. Judge England, a President Bush appointee to the Eastern District of California, issued a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the US Forest Service from logging the Duncan Canyon Roadless Area in Tahoe National Forest. Like the Bush Administration in general, the Forest Service used smoke and mirrors to claim it needed to log the forest to prevent a fire. The Sierra Club and the John Muir Project countered with clear evidence that the logging operation would itself create a major fire hazard. In his order, Judge England explained: "As trees will be cut, extreme levels of flammable slash will be generated, wildlife habitat for species dependent upon burned forest will be removed, (and) wildlife habitat for sensitive species such as the California spotted owl will be threatened by future severe fire." Translation: "When you mess with the truth, you're gonna get burned."
Read more about the ruling in the San Francisco Chronicle: https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/03/MN87689.DTL
2. Road Trip to Fantasyland
In the fantasyland we like to call the White House, anything is possible if you just believe. Back in the real world, we prefer common sense. Take for example, the Bush Administration's efforts to qualify any hiking trail or abandoned prospecting trail in Utah's wilderness as a full fledge highway. Once designated as a highway, of course, the area surrounding a trail becomes disqualified from wilderness protection. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver thinks the White House pretzel logic doesn't hold any mustard. Instead, the Court recently upheld a common sense standard that basically says, "If it wasn't constructed as a road and if it doesn't have an identifiable destination, it's not a road." Maybe now the Bush Administration can get back to more important things, like convincing us that polluters pollute more will actually make our air and water cleaner.
Read the following article in the Deseret Morning News: https://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,510036913,00.html?
3. Land of Milk and Poopy
The corporate dairies down in Texas have a great new marketing strategy. Pollute the water enough and people won't have any choice but to drink milk. That's more than the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter can stomach. This week, the chapter released a report entitled "Murky Waters," which documents just how bad pollution from dairies has become. The report shows a disturbing pattern of serious, recurring violations including overflowing waste lagoons, waste discharges into streams, over-application of waste and sludge to disposal fields, and improper disposal of dead animals. And to wash it all down, the state agency responsible for enforcement has turned a blind eye to the problem. Instead, the state ought to send a clear message: don't mess with the water in Texas.
Read about the "Murky Waters" report in the Houston Chronicle: https://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1974456
4. TAKE ACTION: Stop the Public Land Giveaway!
The Bush Administration through the Department of the Interior has initiated a program to hand over rights-of-way affecting millions of acres of National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, National Monuments and Wilderness-quality lands. By issuing a disclaimer rule on January 6, 2003, the Interior Department could giveaway tens of thousands of miles of hiking trails, cowpaths, wagon ruts, and even dry washes claimed by some western states and counties as "highways."
Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) has introduced "the R.S. 2477 Rights-of-Way Act of 2003" (H.R. 1639) to bring common sense to this controversy once and for all. The bill would allow the government to honor valid and legitimate right-of-way claims but also establishes sound criteria for determining their validity while upholding environmental review.
Find out how you can help by going to: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/rs_2477/help.asp
"If the game is pretending to protect national forests while at the same time making it easier for loggers to chop down more trees, then the Bush administration plays the game very well." St. Petersburg Times (FL) Editorial, June 30, 2003
(1) TRADING PLACES: And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt
(2) GREEN LIGHT: Free Your Map and the Rest Will Follow
(3) CLEAN WATER: You Can't Do the Backstroke in a Cornfield
(4) TAKE ACTION: Help Protect America's Wild Temperate Rainforests
1. And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt Summer's here, so pack your bags and head out to see America's great outdoors. Don't forget to bring your camera and take lots of pictures. Many of the places you'll want to see- like Giant Sequoia National Monument, Yellowstone National Park or the mountains of West Virginia- won't look the same this time next year if the Bush Administration gets its way. The Sierra Club has documented 20 outdoor destinations that hang in the balance because of mining, logging, and development proposals, some of which are already underway. Check out the report to guide your travel plans by going to: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/summer2003
And by the way, be prepared for some unexpected company while visiting America's forests, parks, and beaches this summer. Take a look at the latest Sierra Club ad: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/#julyfourth.
2. Free Your Map and the Rest Will Follow
For centuries, all of the great philosophers have wrestled with the eternal question: "If a city has 361 bus routes, but no one knows where they are, do those bus routes really exist?" Last year, Sierra Club activist Dennis Jaffee decided to take this question up directly with Washington, DC's Metro transit agency, which had been charging $1.50 for bus maps and making them available in only a few locations. This week, he and his fellow Sierrans were able to take a victory lap after getting the agency to make bus maps free and more widely available to riders. Next, Jaffee will be taking up the question of "free will" with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Read a Washington Post article about Dennis Jaffee's "Winding Quest for Free Bus Maps": https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42923-2003Jun27.html
3. You Can't Do the Backstroke in a Cornfield
Future generations in Kansas may paddle without pollution now that the Sunflower State must clean up its 1,065 streams, rivers and lakes which are unsafe for swimming. The Kansas Sierra Club and the Kansas Natural Resources Council had successfully sued EPA in December 2000 for not enforcing the Clean Water Act, which requires waterways to be swimmable and fishable. And last Friday, in one of her last acts as EPA Administrator, Christie Todd Whitman decided not to appeal the suit and instead issued a ruling that would require the state to clean up its rivers and streams. But don't get out your water wings yet. Expect municipal sewage treatment plants and livestock operations among others to resist clean up. When they do, count on the Kansas Sierra Club to be there.
Read more from the Wichita Eagle: https://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/local/6207738.htm
4. TAKE ACTION: Help Protect America's Wild Temperate Rainforests
>From the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia to the wild forests of the Rockies to the Sequoias of California, the Bush administration is reducing forest protections and unleashing the timber industry chainsaws. Now the White House has targeted the wild Tongass temperate rainforest in Alaska with more than 50 commercial timber sales in remote old growth forests.
On June 9, Mark Rey, former timber industry lobbyist and current Undersecretary of Agriculture, announced that the Bush administration will strip the Tongass National Forest from the highly popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule. He also stated the administration's intent to "reconsider" roadless protection in the Chugach National Forest -- ultimately leaving open to commercial logging and development the heart of America's last great temperate rainforest. The proposed rules are expected to be released in the next week for public comment. If the US Forest Service can't keep clearcuts out of the wild forests of Alaska, what areas of our National Forests are safe from industry intrusion? Urge the Forest Service to do a whole lot better! Send them a comment letter on their proposed plan and a letter to your local newspaper.
For more info, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/wildforest/tongass_roadless_alert.asp Go to "send an official comment." Then check out "send a letter."
"Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton came off as charming and pleasant, but she hardly delivered a major policy address. When she spoke of her opportunities to visit the Florida Everglades, Big Bend National Park in Texas, the Grand Canyon and 'shivering in a minus-75 windchill on Alaska's North Slope,' all I could picture was her standing there saying, 'Where do we drill?'" Chicago Tribune Outdoor Reporter Lew Freedman, writing about Interior Secretary Gale Norton's speech to the Outdoor Writers Association of America ----
(1) CODE RED: 25 U.S. Cities Get Bad Air Alert
(2) COLLATERAL DAMAGE: Alabamians Fight Mass Destruction of Weapons
(3) BACKGROUND CHECK: EPA Rumors Put Spotlight on Kempthorne Record
(4) TAKE ACTION: Stop the Bush Energy Plan
1. 25 U.S. Cities Get Bad Air Alert
The Environmental Protection Agency is issuing a "Code Red" for 25 U.S. cities because the air is "unhealthy" to breathe today. Don't bother reaching for your duct tape though. It won't do anything to help, and neither will the Bush Administration. They've already given a free pass to America's worst polluting power plants and refineries, and they are actively pushing a bill that would allow 50 percent more sulfur dioxide pollution, not to mention three times more mercury pollution. At least the corporations that create the pollution can breathe easier, even if we can't.
Check out the daily air quality forecast on EPA's website: https://www.epa.gov/cgi-bin/airnow.cgi?MapDisplay=FOREMAP
2. Alabamians Fight Mass Destruction of Weapons
The Bush Administration is moving ahead with plans to start burning more than 2000-tons of chemical weapons in July at an incinerator in Anniston, AL, despite strong objections from the local community. But local residents and Sierra Club activists are hunkering down to protect themselves and their neighbors from the toxic pollution that would result. This past week, Sierra Club volunteers from around the region along with other local citizens and community leaders turned out by the busload to give testimony and march in front of the incinerator. The event turned up the heat in this brewing controversy, and one thing remains certain: the people of Anniston and Sierra Club won't be giving up without a fight.
Read a transcript from a local NBC News story about the event: https://www.cwwg.org/nbc06.22.03.html
3. EPA Rumors Put Spotlight on Kempthorne Record
Governor Dirk Kempthorne, quietly campaigning to be the next EPA Chief, may want to get himself a new campaign slogan. The old "He'll do for America what he's done for Idaho" line doesn't seem to be working so well. The Associated Press in Idaho reports that residents in the town of Magic Valley have tried repeatedly to get the Governor's help dealing with foul odors from giant dairy operations, even meeting with him back in January. While Kempthorne has said all the right things, local residents are still living with what one resident simply called "that nasty smell." That's not exactly what Collin Powell meant when he referred to the last EPA Chief as the Administration's "Wind Dummy."
4. TAKE ACTION: Stop the Bush Energy Plan
Every American deserves a safe, clean, and affordable energy future. But the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress are taking us down the wrong path with a destructive, expensive, and polluting energy bill. The Bush energy plan takes us backward by threatening our coastlines with damaging oil and gas exploration, and by placing our communities at risk by building new nuclear power plants. Additionally, the Bush Administration fails to provide Americans with higher fuel economy standards, consumer protections and more renewable energy. Join the Sierra Club in calling on the Senate to reject this irresponsible and environmentally destructive legislation.
As Congress returns home for the July 4th recess, it is a perfect time to place letters-to-the-editor in your local paper opposing the Bush energy bill. Click here for talking points to help you get started:
https://www.sierraclub.org/energy/bush_plan/editor.asp
"God didn't invent the dams, he invented the river." -Bill Arthur of the Sierra Club, Greenwire, 6/23/03.
(1)POLITICS: We Can Do Better
(2)HELP WANTED: Pitching in to Find a New EPA Chief
(3)LEWIS AND CLARK: Hooked on Exploration
(4)TAKE ACTION: Maintain Funding for Public Transportation Programs
1. We Can Do Better
This week, the Bush Administration released its State of the Environment Report and left out one very important part: global warming. The Administration also left out the part about how it's weakening the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act and slowing the cleanup of toxic waste sites. While our air and water is cleaner than it was thirty years ago, the Bush Administration is taking us backwards by dismantling these protections.
Read the story from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/19/politics/19CLIM.html
2. Pitching in to Find a New EPA Chief
Remember last week's special edition of Currents that promoted a job search for the new EPA Administrator to replace Christie Todd Whitman? In an effort to keep the process moving along at the underfinanced EPA, where staffing levels in the enforcement division have sunk to their lowest level since 1986, the Sierra Club is running job ads this week in Roll Call.
Check it out here: https://www.sierraclub.org/epajob
3. Hooked on Exploration
The Sierra Club's national effort to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition paddles on with the latest release of the "Fishin' Along the Lewis and Clark Trail: A Guide to 10 Spectacular Spots." The booklet offers ten spots where you can still fish, hike, camp, and help the Sierra Club protect Lewis and Clark's wild America.
Find out more here: https://www.sierraclub.org/lewisandclark/fishing_guide/
4. TAKE ACTION: Maintain Funding for Public Transportation Programs
Transit programs alleviate congestion by getting significant numbers of cars off the roads and reduce pollution caused by vehicle emissions. Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee are proposing to significantly alter how the nation's public transportation programs receive funding in order to free up resources for more highway funding. This mad grab for more highway funds will undermine the long-term viability of public transportation programs. Please oppose the Baucus-Grassley proposal to take much needed funds away from public transportation.
Take Action here: https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=271
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|