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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
"If you think about all the gains our society has made, from independence to now, it wasn’t government. It was activism. People think, 'Oh, Teddy Roosevelt established Yosemite National Park, what a great president.' BS. It was John Muir who invited Roosevelt out and then convinced him to ditch his security and go camping. It was Muir, an activist, a single person." - Patagonia founder and outdoor enthusiast Yvon Chouinard in a recent Sierra Magazine interview (read the whole interview in Sierra Magazine at https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200403/interview.asp).
(1) Toxics: Tetris Anyone?
(2) Wildlands: No Act to Follow
(3) Take Action: Stop the Bush Administration's Polluting Energy Bill
1. Toxics: Tetris Anyone?
Internet solitaire, swivel chair races, NCAA tournament pools. Looks like EPA staff have some extra time on their hands these days now that the Bush Administration is asking them not to do their jobs. For the first time, the EPA's technical experts were asked not to perform normal scientific and economic research on a regulatory issue, specifically the Bush Administration's mercury emissions plan. Now that this information and the fact that the Administration's mercury plan clearly favors industry at the expense of public health, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt recently agreed to allow the studies to be done.
Read the San Jose Mercury News article for more on this story: https://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8197511.htm
2. Wildlands: No Act to Follow
Despite widespread support for permanent conservation, the Bush Administration announced last week that it would take no action to protect the Gaviota Coast - the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in Southern California and home to over 80 threatened and endangered species. Specifically, it ignored a three-year, $150,000 National Park Service Study, which concluded that the wild coastline and canyons as well as historic ranges merited protection. By failing to act to protect the coast, the Administration has opened the coast up to threats of urban development and pollution.
Join the Great Coastal Places Campaign to protect California's beautiful and fragile coast: https://california.sierraclub.org/coastalaction/
3. Take Action: Stop the Bush Administration's Polluting Energy Bill
There are some things you can just count on in this world and the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress trying to push the flawed energy bill through the Senate is one of them. This destructive bill undermines existing safeguards for clean air and water, opens up public lands and coastlines to oil and gas drilling, and fails to take America forward with clean, renewable energy and fuel efficient vehicles. Even a report from the Bush Administration's Department of Energy says the bill wouldn't increase energy supplies or lower consumer energy bills.
Tell your Senators to reject this fundamentally flawed bill by visiting: https://www.sierraclub.org/action?alid=285&st=curr
"People who couldn't even bring themselves to say the word Democrat a few years ago are now willing to join arm-in-arm with the Sierra Club to save the Eastern front." - Ryan Busse, a VP in the gun manufacturing industry, in a recent Times Record News (TX) article, discusses partnering with environmentalists to prevent the Bush Administration from opening more public lands on the Eastern front of the Rocky Mountains to oil and gas drilling.
(1) FORESTS: PR They for Real?
(2) CLEAN AIR: Soot Suit
(3) TAKE ACTION: New Draft Regulations Fail to Protect Workers
1. FORESTS: PR They for Real?
We'd bet Bono has one, maybe Madonna, possibly Pacino...but a Sierra Nevada forest plan? That's right, the U.S. Forest Service spent $90,000 of taxpayer dollars to hire a private public relations firm to sell the Bush administration's unpopular plan to triple the amount of commercial logging in the Sierras. The San Francisco-based firm OneWorld told the administration to promote the logging plan as a fire prevention strategy. The contract also included a confidentiality clause so that members of the public who don't work in PR wouldn't "misinterpret certain ideas or concepts". Gee thanks.
Read the article "Forest Service Spent $113,000 Promoting Sierra Forest Plan" in the Gazette Times: https://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/03/11/news/the_west/thuwst03.txt
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. CLEAN AIR: Soot Suit
Workers and residents in New York City are suing the EPA for neglecting to inform people of the poor air quality following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The lawsuit claims that then-EPA head Christine Todd Whitman had "a shockingly deliberate indifference to human health." A 2003 EPA Inspector General's report revealed that the Bush Administration altered an original EPA press release on air quality in order to downplay the agency's actually health concerns for workers and residents.
Take a look at a Sierra Club ad which compares excerpts from the original press release to the edited version: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/2003_oct1/2003_oct1_nycsept11.pdf
3. TAKE ACTION: New Draft Regulations Fail to Protect Workers
The Bush Administration is considering a proposal to exempt industrial laundry companies from federal hazardous and solid waste requirements for "shop towels" contaminated with toxic chemicals. On Tuesday, Sierra Club joined the labor union UNITE to urge the EPA to adopt a rule that provides real protections for the environment and for laundry workers. Citizens concerned about the safety of their rivers and drinking water, and workers who handle toxic rags, should help by calling for stronger protections during the public comment period.
Contact the EPA to discourage a new proposal which fails to protect workers from dangerous solvents on shop towels: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=298&st=curr
"...growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell, and South Florida has become the poster region for runaway sprawl, with most residents living in suburban subdivisions that are much less cool (but no less expensive) than my urban skyscraper." -Michael Grunwald discusses life in Miami, sprawl and the Everglades in a March 2 New Republic article, "Hotenfreude".
(1) WASTE: Super Duped
(2) CLEAN WATER: Cin City Scratch and Win
(3) TAKE ACTION: March for Women's Lives
1. WASTE: Super Duped
Congratulations! As a tax payer, you may have won the chance to fund 11 new toxic waste site cleanups! This week, the EPA proposed adding 11 new sites to the Superfund National Priority list. While these sites certainly merit the attention, the Bush Administration is charging taxpayers for cleanups that used to be covered by the polluters themselves. Even worse, the cleanup rate has fallen 50% since Bush's term began and a new report reveals the Administration has provided misleading and even false information regarding Superfund to reporters and the public.
Read the report to get the real deal on how the EPA is misleading the public about Superfund: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5l6j,km3,l3rr,h8sn,irqz,5w4u
2. CLEAN WATER: Cin City Scratch and Win
The Bush Administration has often adopted a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" relationship with big industry so it is of little surprise that the Administration recently proposed exempting industrial laundry companies from federal hazardous waste requirements. Cintas, the nation's largest industrial laundry, has repeatedly violated its wastewater permits for toxic solvents, sometimes at 20 times the permitted levels. Many injured Cintas workers have handled towels soaked in hazardous waste without basic protective equipment like gloves and masks.
Read the Sierra Club press release here: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5l6j,km3,4t8y,h8c3,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: March for Women's Lives
Celebrate the week of International Woman's Day, March 8th, by committing to come to Washington DC for the "March for Women's Lives" on April 25th! Thousands of women, men and youth from around the country and around the world will gather, united in their outspoken opposition to Bush Administration policies that deny women around the world access to rights and healthcare. Come out for a day of support for women's choices.
To find out more about the march, visit https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,5l6j,km3,l4vf,dsc3,irqz,5w4u or contact Cristina Mestre at cristina.mestre@sierraclub.org or 202.548.4599.
"It's hard to decide what is more demoralizing about the [Bush] Administration's politicization of the scientific process, its disdain for professional scientists working for our government or its willingness to deceive the American public." -Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service, expresses disdain over the Bush Administration distorting scientific research that might discredit its political agenda.
(1) WASTE: Elephants and Poodles
(2) SPRAWL: Beginning to See the Light Rail?
(3) TAKE ACTION: Stop the Flawed Energy Bill
1. WASTE: Elephants and Poodles
Just because you call an elephant a poodle doesn't make it one. And just because the Bush Administration says polluters are paying for toxic clean up doesn't make it so. The EPA under the Bush Administration claims it's still committed to the "polluter pays" principle. But a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Sierra Club demonstrates that taxpayers will pay the entire cost of cleaning up abandoned waste sites this year, compared with only 18% in 1995.
The complete report is here: https://www.sierraclub.org/toxics/factsheets/cleanups.pdf
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. SPRAWL: Beginning to See the Light Rail?
Many Americans spend the equivalent of a full week just commuting to work in traffic, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report ranking commute times. Giving commuters more transportation choices, like light rail or rapid bus service, would result in getting more cars off our congested roads. The Bush Administration has proposed changing the formula for new transit project, making it harder for cities to get new projects off the ground. By diverting even a fraction of the money spent on new, often unnecessary, highways to transit, we could dramatically improve commute times.
View the Census Bureau rankings here: https://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/2002/R04T160.htm
3. TAKE ACTION: Stop the Flawed Energy Bill
The Bush Administration and Senate Republican leadership are resurrecting the flawed energy bill that was successfully blocked in the Senate last November. This destructive bill will not solve America's energy problems and deserves to remain where it is - dead in the water. The bill puts our communities at risk to more air and water pollution, increases the country's oil dependence, fails to modernize the electricity grid, and saddles taxpayers with billions of dollars in corporate giveaways.
Tell your Senators to stand up once and again and reject this energy bill: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=285&st=curr
"There was some flowers that smelled wonderful. I saw one salamander, a lot of lizards, and a few squirrels. It was good going on the hike because we were away from other people and the wind was fresh and I loved the trip." -A young girl from Los Angeles who visited Topanga State Park through the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings, a community outreach program that provides low-income, inner city youth with trips to wilderness.
(1) WASTE: Resigns on Designs
(2) ENDANGERED: Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Fish Gone?
(3) TAKE ACTION: Keep Mercury Out of Our Air and Water
1. WASTE: Resigns on Designs
Paul Craig, physicist and professor, recently resigned from a federal panel of experts on Yucca Mountain so he could more freely discuss the dump's dangers. The Nevada site is the only design the Bush Administration is considering for the storage of around 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste. Craig says that science clearly states that the metal storage canisters would corrode and "eventually lead to leakage." The waste would travel via truck or rail shipments through 43 states within a half mile of millions of homes in over 100 of America's largest cities.
Read more about the dangers of the proposed Yucca Mountain plan here: https://www.sierraclub.org/nuclearwaste/yucca_factsheet.asp
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. ENDANGERED: Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Fish Gone?
We're taking more than the sea has to give when it comes to seafood. According to the journal "Nature", 90 percent of the large predatory fish - the giant marlin, swordfish, and sharks - are already gone. Those that are left are only one fifth to one half the size of the size they used to be. Consumers can do their part, though. Monterey Bay Aquarium in California releases a Seafood Watch card which is a handy guide for making wise selections in supermarkets or restaurants.
Read the Sierra Magazine article "Have Your Fish and Eat It, Too" for more information and a link to the seafood guide: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200401/food.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Keep Mercury Out of Our Air and Water
Last month, the Bush Administration published their ill-conceived mercury pollution plan. We have the technology to reduce mercury pollution by 90% or more by 2008, but this proposal would permit three times more mercury pollution than enforcement of the Clean Air Act allows - for decades longer. The proposal also includes a "cap-and-trade" program that allows industry to buy and sell the right to pollute and may leave some communities more at risk than others. On February 25-26, the EPA is holding public hearings on this plan in: Chicago, Philadelphia, and Research Triangle Park, NC.
If you can't attend one, click here to urge EPA administrator Mike Leavitt to keep mercury out of our air and water: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=299&st=curr
"The analysts may not think of NASCAR Dads as green, but a well-oiled [Bush] administration that revoked approval of the Kyoto protocols, made a scam of fuel emission standards and barely uttered a post-9/11 peep about renewable energy is offering the next generation a future as dark as the track." - Ellen Goodman in her recent Boston Globe article "Forgetting the 'Dad' in NASCAR Pitch".
(1) POLITICS: If the Science Fits
(2) LANDS: His Way or the Highway
(3) TAKE ACTION: Bush Administration Energy Bill Bounces Back
1. POLITICS: If the Science Fits
Science is the clay the Bush Administration uses to sculpt their own political agenda according to a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The group, made up of Nobel-winning researchers and political activists, accuses the Administration of distorting scientific research on global warming and air quality to prevent advice that "might run counter to the Administration's political agenda." The EPA, apparently, was so frustrated over the White House manipulating EPA documents on mercury emissions that they leaked the original version to the media!
Learn more about the report's findings in the Atlanta Journal Constitution: https://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/science/0204/19scientists.html
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. LANDS: His Way or the Highway
Country crooner Brenn Hill wrote his new song "Legacy Highway" while driving in Davis County, Utah. The Legacy Highway is a proposed 125-mile freeway that would cut across Great Salt Lake wetlands and nearby farmland. The construction of the $415 million road would degrade crucial habitat and promote sprawl while doing nothing to alleviate traffic. Hill's take is that "open spaces, wetlands and fields of alfalfa are far more beautiful than six-lane superhighways."
The refrain goes a little something like this - "The Legacy Highway - Right along the flyway - Right through the farmland and field - Don't forget to tell the children about the way it used to be - When you take them for a ride down a road called Legacy"
Get all the lyrics here:
https://www.brennhill.com/endangered.html
3. TAKE ACTION: Bush Administration Energy Bill Bounces Back
Like an Opera star singing a final aria, the Bush Administration energy bill just refuses to get off the stage and be done with it. In the latest backroom deal, the Administration and Senate Republican leadership have resurrected the flawed energy bill that was successfully blocked in the Senate last November. The new energy bill could come up for a vote on the Senate floor as soon as February 23rd.
Tell your Senators to stand up once and again and reject this backwards and dangerous energy bill: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=285&st=curr
Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.
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