NEXT PAGE -->
|
|
|---|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
September 8, 2004
"The proposed rules would be devastating to Georgia's landowners as well as a rip-off of taxpayers, a blow to clean water supplies and a setback to the tourism and recreation industries. The proposed rules also would burden state governments with the thankless and expensive task of setting policy for national land." - Mark Woodall, a Georgia tree farmer, sharing his concerns in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the Bush administration's changes to the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
(1) GLOBAL WARMING: Eye Level
(2) TRANSPORTATION: We're All Congested
(3) TAKE ACTION: Off-Road Vehicle Rule Needs Strengthening
1. GLOBAL WARMING: Eye Level
Labor unions and environmentalists haven't always seen eye to eye but the shared interests are becoming more evident every day. The introduction of the first American-made hybrid car is a case in point, and the new Ford Escape Hybrid sport-utility vehicle has labor and environmental leaders standing together in support of fuel-efficient vehicles and other clean energy technologies. The Escape is being built at a plant employing more than 5,600 UAW members and will see an average mileage of 33 miles per gallon. Contrast that with the Bush administration, whose economic policies have shipped good union jobs overseas and whose environmental policies have weakened protections for clean air and water.
Read the op-ed "American Industry: Hybrid Ingenuity from Hybrid Thinking" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8aqy,km3,f4jw,5aeo,irqz,5w4u orialcommentary/story/EAD071EA13AA162086256F05003A2CF6 ?OpenDocument&Headline=AMERICAN+INDUSTRY%3A+Hybrid+ing enuity+from+hybrid+thinking&highlight=2%2Chybrid
2. TRANSPORTATION: We're All Congested
Traffic congestion is growing at an alarming rate nationwide, costing the public $63 billion and 3.5 billion hours of delay and elevating the urgency for more public transportation according to The Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Report released today. Despite this, the Bush administration refuses to approve a transportation bill that protects clean air, keeps local citizens involved in transportation planning and maintains strong funding levels for public transit. The administration has proposed spending only $1 on transit for every $4 on highways which could put hundreds of transit projects across the country in jeopardy and undermine a key solution to curbing the traffic problem.
Tell your Senator or Representative to fight all attempts to weaken our environmental protections: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8aqy,km3,kyme,gtc0,irqz,5w4u
Read The 2004 Urban Mobility Report: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8aqy,km3,5opy,jxfd,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Off-Road Vehicle Rule Needs Strengthening
The Forest Service has issued their plan for off-road vehicle use in national forests. The plan is designed to govern use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) on America's 176 National Forests and Grasslands. Although some changes are positive, they alone will not solve this growing problem. The Bush administration must include additional measures in the final rule to ensure basic protections for public land, wildlife and other types of recreation.
Send a message to the Forest Service: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8aqy,km3,aqw3,6gva,irqz,5w4u
"The Bush administration acts as if they're oblivious to any value of the land other than the oil and gas underneath and quick profits for industry. Their philosophy seems to be 'cut, drill, mine, run' with no regard for other uses and values of the land that are trampled in the process." - Trisha London, a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico, who is concerned about proposed drilling in nearby Otero Mesa. Trisha is profiled in the Sierra Club's New Mexico Communities at Risk report, which is available at: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,88pw,km3,5fq3,4eea,irqz,5w4u
(1) COASTS: No Day at the Beach
(2) LANDS: Tuning into Wilderness
(3) TAKE ACTION: The Clean Water Act Should Protect All Waters
1. COASTS: No Day at the Beach
As Americans head out to the coasts this Labor Day weekend, the Sierra Club is releasing a report on how and where Bush administration policies are threatening America's coastal treasures and what we can do to save them. "No Day at the Beach: How the Bush Administration Is Eroding Coastal Protection" is a comprehensive look at the Bush administration policies that threaten America's four coasts: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and America's Freshwater Coast, the Great Lakes. The report details the administration policies and philosophies that threaten the safety of the fish we eat, the beaches where children learn to swim, and the beauty of the backdrop along 95,000 miles of America's coasts.
Read the report: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,88pw,km3,le25,ipcz,irqz,5w4u
2. LANDS: Tuning into Wilderness
Listen to NPR's Radio Expeditions as Elizabeth Arnold marks the anniversary of the 40th Wilderness Act with a visit to one of the nation's first protected places: the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, straddling the border between Idaho and Montana. Arnold interviews Doris Milner, a Montana resident who got angry when she stumbled on a bulldozer in a favorite place near the Selway-Bitterroot boundary she thought should be protected. Milner is just one of many Americans who have successfully petitioned to add their own special areas to the U.S. wilderness system, which now protects 106 million acres of land.
Listen to Elizabeth Arnold's report: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,88pw,km3,jdyd,gt9a,irqz,5w4u elway/
3. TAKE ACTION: The Clean Water Act Should Protect All Waters
The Bush administration has said that it will no longer enforce the Clean Water Act to protect many small streams, wetlands and other waters. This doesn't make sense. All waters should be covered by the Clean Water Act. The job of the EPA should be to protect America's waters from pollution not to abandon a significant portion of the nation's waters. The EPA's rulemaking process ignores the fact that small streams, vernal pools, prairie potholes and supposedly isolated wetlands flow into our groundwater, rivers and lakes. The EPA's rulemaking process also threatens the Clean Water Act's goals of restoring and protecting America's waterways.
Click here to send a message to your Representative to urge the administration to protect all our waters: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,88pw,km3,cwm1,jipv,irqz,5w4u
"I was very fond of Will Siri. When he succeeded me as president of the Sierra Club (in 1964), he was a dashing mountain climber, fresh from his ascent of the West Ridge of Mount Everest. He went on to provide the highest level of services to the club." - Sierra Club leader Dr. Ed Wayburn remembers friend and former Sierra Club President Will Siri. Siri, a leading researcher in biophysics, passed away Tuesday at 85. He was co-leader of the first American expedition to successfully climb Mount Everest, helped rescue Sir Edmund Hillary's climbing team from an icy crevice and hiked the Sierra with photographer Ansel Adams.
(1) POLITICS: In the Lime-Green Light (2) FORESTS: Pitching In
(3) TAKE ACTION: Register to Vote!
1. POLITICS: In the Lime-Green Light
Sierra Club President Larry Fahn gives us a bird's eye look at the Republican National Convention...
"My first day in New York for the Republican National Convention was exhilarating to say the least. Sierra Club activists began gathering Sunday morning in the Chelsea District to coordinate our message and make plans for joining the huge march protesting various policies of the Bush administration. With new bright lime-green t-shirts featuring an artistic rendition of the planet on the front, and the Sierra Club logo on the back, with the message 'The real compassionate conservatives -- Sierra Club, New York City 2004,' we were hard to miss."
Read more of Larry Fahn's notes from the Convention: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,875t,km3,4mnk,j7su,irqz,5w4u
2. FORESTS: Pitching In
In a sea of colorful backcountry tents, citizens and activists camped out in front of Colorado's Regional Forest Service in support of the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Campers ate s'mores and hung banners protesting the Bush administration's attack on the Roadless Rule. Despite unprecedented public outrage, the administration wants to reduce or eliminate decades of protections by allowing roadbuilding in National Forests and increased spending to benefit timber companies.
Only 14 days left to send your comments to the Forest Service! https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,875t,km3,2tpe,2jgt,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Register to Vote!
We all know that 2004 is a critical year for the environment. And we know that the choices we make this year will affect us for decades to come. In the 2000 election, it's a sad fact that hundreds of thousands of committed environmentalists did not vote. And the Sierra Club needs your help to make sure it won't happen again in 2004. Wherever you live, voter registration is now very easy thanks to the Internet. For most states, you can fill out the voter registration form online, print it, and then mail the form in.
Register to vote (English): https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,875t,km3,6zal,1ztd,irqz,5w4u temid=15945&ms=LWV001
"Deer, elk, sage grouse, all the charismatic mega- fauna we have tried to protect, are no longer considered to be part of the natural heritage; they're considered impediments to oil and gas development. It's like saying the Vatican and the Colosseum are impediments to urban renewal in Rome." - Dennis J. Willis, an outdoor recreation planner for Utah's Bureau of Land Management and a 28-year agency veteran, in the Los Angeles Time article "White House Puts the West on Fast Track for Oil, Gas Drilling" (August 25).
(1) TUNE IN: Lordy Lordy this Act is 40
(2) TOXICS: Water Water Everywhere and Not a Fish to Eat
(3) TAKE ACTION: Phase out Snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
1. TUNE IN: Lordy Lordy this Act is 40
No plans yet for Friday night? Tune in to PBS tomorrow when NOW with Bill Moyers presents a special essay about the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The Wilderness Act was signed on September 3, 1964 by President Nixon, and has helped to permanently protect nearly 5% of all the land in our country over the past four decades. NOW's essay will report on the big energy companies and developers that are taking aim at these millions of acres of America's untouched wilderness.
Check your local listings: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,84wy,km3,an0d,hvrg,irqz,5w4u
Find out more about the Anniversary of the Wilderness Act: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,84wy,km3,eqc,doxk,irqz,5w4u
2. TOXICS: Water Water Everywhere and Not a Fish to Eat
On Tuesday, the EPA announced in its 2003 National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories that over 700,000 miles of America's rivers and 13,000,000 lake acres are contaminated with so much poisonous mercury that the fish aren't safe to eat. That's a more than 60% increase for river miles and an 8% increase for lake acres since the 2002 report! This is astounding considering the technology exists now to put us on the road to cleaning up 90% of toxic mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2008. As America's waters get more contaminated, the Bush administration continues dragging its feet, endorsing a plan to delay cleaning up mercury emissions from power plants for at least a decade.
Read "Mercury in fish in 48 states:" https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,84wy,km3,dflb,8jux,irqz,5w4u bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/25/MNGU78DSKB1.DTL
Tell friends about currents! Visit this link: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,84wy,km3,d67b,h50q,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Phase out Snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
The National Park Service released a new three-year plan allowing up to 720 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone and 140 a day into Grand Teton National Parks. The new plan is disappointing for Americans who have shown overwhelming support for phasing out snowmobiles which are a threat to public health and wildlife in our parks. The Park Service's analyses have three times confirmed that providing visitors access on snowcoaches are a better option and less intrusive to visitors and wildlife in America's most- loved National Parks.
Tell the Park Service to support multi-passenger snowcoaches (comment period ends September 20): https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,84wy,km3,hqhn,j4f9,irqz,5w4u
"The nerds have flung down their protractors and rolled up their lab coat sleeves. They're sick of being bullied, and they're ready to take down President Bush for his perceived mistreatment of science." - Susan Nielsen in the Oregonian op-ed entitled "Bush Attack is Revenge of the Nerds" that chronicles the scientific community's fight against the Bush administration for continuing to censor and suppress scientific data for preordained political purposes.
(1) NATIONAL PARKS: Snowing Pains
(2) ENERGY: Roll Out the Barrels
(3) TAKE ACTION: Stop the Attack on the Roadless Conservation Rule
1. NATIONAL PARKS: Snowing Pains
Last week, The National Park Service released a new three-year plan allowing up to 720 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone and 140 a day into Grand Teton National Parks. Although the proposal would require the use of a newer variety of snowmobiles that met the government's pollution and noise requirements rather older varieties, the new technology is not sufficient enough in the special context of Yellowstone to protect the park's air quality, wildlife and other resources, or even the health of Yellowstone's visitors and employees. The noise levels under this proposal will still be above what the Park Service has found to be acceptable in previous studies. The new plan is disappointing for Americans who have shown overwhelming support for phasing out snowmobiles to protect these parks for future generations to enjoy.
Read the August 21 New York Times editorial "No Snowmobiles:" https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,833y,km3,i5az,e5vn,irqz,5w4u
2. ENERGY: Roll Out the Barrels
Oil prices are expected to hit a record high at $50 a barrel this week. Spurred on by the escalating conflict in Iraq, supply disruptions in Russia, and rising world demand, oil prices are now 49 percent higher than they were a year ago! The Bush administration has failed to give the country what it needs: an energy policy with real solutions like making our cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas, increasing our use of clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, and aggressive measures to increase energy efficiency. Taking these steps would not only protect the environment and increase America's energy security, but it would save consumers billions of dollars.
See which countries are responsible for turning up the heat on global warming on this map: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,833y,km3,dcza,6mdr,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Stop the Attack on the Roadless Conservation Rule
The Bush administration's latest effort to reduce or eliminate decades of National Forest protection and increase spending to benefit timber companies must be stopped. Already, 440,000 miles of roads are carved into America's National Forests. The wildly popular Roadless Rule helps protect our remaining wild forests and the clean water, wildlife habitat and outstanding backcountry recreation opportunities from more taxpayer-subsidized commercial logging. The Bush administration's proposal is misguided and should be abandoned.
Tell the Forest Service to keep the Roadless Area Conservation Rule intact: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,833y,km3,2tpe,2jgt,irqz,5w4u
NEXT PAGE -->
|
|
|---|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|