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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
September 23, 2004
"Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method." - Theodore Roosevelt, "A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open," 1916
(1) GET OUTSIDE: 40 more years! 40 more years! (2) POLITICS: Monumental Conservation
(3) TAKE ACTION: Ensure that the Clean Water Act Continues to Protect Our Waters
1. GET OUTSIDE: 40 more years! 40 more years!
2004 marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act - a historic piece of legislation that envisioned protecting forever some of America's most spectacular wildlands. The Wilderness Act gives the nation's wild lands a fighting chance and citizens a say in setting the agenda for wilderness preservation. So far, over 100 million acres of land have been set aside for protection, and more are added every year. So why not celebrate this eco- anniversary by experiencing some of our nation's wilderness areas up close?
Visit one of America's spectacular wilderness areas on a National Sierra Club Outing: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8lmq,km3,aihm,kagz,irqz,5w4u e_04.asp
2. POLITICS: Monumental Conservation
Ninety-eight years ago this week, President Theodore Roosevelt created America's first national monument when he used his authority to permanently protect Devil's Tower in northeast Wyoming. That proclamation ushered in a century of conservation progress in America. But while Roosevelt took the country forward by protecting American treasures, the Bush administration is going backwards. By repeatedly pushing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and opening millions of acres of National Forests to increased logging in the name of wild fire protection, the Bush administration is reversing environmental progress.
See how Bush administration policies are changing the lives of people across the nation: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8lmq,km3,ip7l,hzk9,irqz,5w4u p
3. TAKE ACTION: Ensure that the Clean Water Act Continues to Protect Our Waters
In January 2003, the Bush administration issued a guidance that withdraws federal protection from many wetlands, streams and ponds, leaving them vulnerable to pollution or destruction. The "Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003" is an important step for safeguarding these waters from pollution from industry and developers. According to the EPA, the guidance alone places 20% of the U.S.'s remaining wetlands at risk, some 20 million acres, and many more small streams and ponds could also be excluded. This action would leave communities at risk from increased flooding, degraded drinking water, exposure to bacteria, pathogens and toxics.
Ask your Senators and Representative to support the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003 to ensure that the Clean Water Act will continue to keep all of our nation's waters healthy and safe: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8lmq,km3,2ia1,pyr,irqz,5w4u
"I expect the Bush administration to continue their assault on regulations designed to protect public health and the environment. I expect the Bush administration to continue underfunding compliance and enforcement activities. I expect the Bush administration will go down in history as the greatest disaster for public health and the environment in the history of the United States." - Senator James M. Jeffords (I-VT) in the New York Times article "Bush Record: New Priorities in Environment"
(1) LANDS: Fighting Fire with Ire
(2) POLITICS: Photo Flop
(3) TAKE ACTION: Support Funding for Programs that Protect Public Lands
1. LANDS: Fighting Fire with Ire
After public criticism for giving special treatment to a Republican Congressman, the U.S. Forest Service has finally delivered a criminal notice of violation to Rep. Henry Brown (R-SC) for his role in setting a fire that burned out of control in the Francis Marion National Forest six months ago. According to a Forest Service whistleblower complaint released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Rep. Brown tried repeatedly to skirt the charges and sought retroactive changes in the law to avoid the fines. The agency's action comes on the heels of charges, filed by two of its senior criminal investigators, that the Congressman and U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey politically obstructed appropriate law enforcement.
Read the whistleblower complaint: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8jx2,km3,gko6,61ys,irqz,5w4u
2. POLITICS: Photo Flop
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) thought using a gas station as a backdrop to launch her new radio ads sounded like a great idea. The ads criticized her opponent for failing to convince President Clinton to sign a 1995 bill that would have opened Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development. Murkowski chose an Exxon Mobil station near Capitol Hill for the launch, and needless to say, many Alaskans were upset. The Exxon Valdez dumped millions of gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989 and the company continues to appeal a $4.5 billion punitive damage jury award to fishermen and others.
Read more about the threat of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8jx2,km3,h18p,ef62,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Support Funding for Programs that Protect Public Lands
The Department of Interior's annual funding bill may come up for a vote this week in the U.S. Senate. As usual, the bill is being used to move unrelated measures that would otherwise never stand a chance of passing Congress on their own. Urge your Senators to support efforts to increase funding for programs that protect public lands and to remove any dangerous, unrelated measures would cause irreparable harm to our environment.
For more information and to send a message to your Senators, visit: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8jx2,km3,feyw,i2mr,irqz,5w4u
"Edgar Wayburn has worked to preserve the most breath-taking examples of the American landscape. In fact, over the course of more than a half-century, both as President of the Sierra Club and as a private citizen, he has saved more of our wilderness than any person alive." - President Bill Clinton upon presenting Dr. Edgar Wayburn the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999
Tomorrow, Dr. Edgar Wayburn, an environmental defender whose conservation achievements have spanned 50 years of activism, will celebrate his 98th birthday. Dr. Wayburn played a central role in the establishment of Redwood National Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and in the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. For his visionary achievements, he was honored with the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1995 and the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. His book, Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist, was published by Sierra Club Books last spring and offers an engaging portrait of an important and inspiring American life.
This Sunday, Dr. Wayburn will be honored at a 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration as the recipient of the first-ever Howard C. Zahniser Lifetime Achievement Award, given to someone whose life of achievement in protecting wilderness most closely parallels those of the person principally responsible for the Wilderness Act.
"I have often been asked why I devoted my life to conservation. Such a question implies a choice; yet I never felt as though I was presented with one...Simply put, however, I feel that protecting wildness is absolutely necessary. Whenever we encroach on the natural world, we crop the boundaries of our own existence as humans, cut off our fields of solace and sensation...In destroying wildness, we deny ourselves the full extent of what it means to be alive." - Dr. Edgar Wayburn, from his book Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist
Read more about Dr. Edgar Wayburn, a key figure in Sierra Club history: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8hfb,km3,i0um,asiz,irqz,5w4u
Read the press release "Wilderness Act and Conservation Champion Celebrate Birthdays": https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8hfb,km3,awr6,9d8a,irqz,5w4u 09-16.asp
TAKE ACTION: Support Colorado's RPS Initiative
We all want clean energy from sources like wind and solar power. A Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) gives the government the power to require energy companies to use these clean energy sources. While a nationwide RPS is stalled in Congress, a number of forward-thinking states are picking up the slack. This fall, the voters of Colorado will decide on a statewide RPS that will require 10% of Colorado's energy to come from renewable sources by 2015. If the referendum passes, this RPS would reduce Colorado's dependence on oil, save consumer's money, and cut air pollution. Additionally, by using clean wind and solar power, Colorado would reduce the pollution that causes global warming - the equivalent of taking 600,000 cars off the road. Unfortunately, a major energy producer in Colorado, Xcel Energy, is attempting to block this energy initiative.
Support renewable energy in Colorado and tell Xcel Energy's CEO to withdraw Xcel's opposition to the RPS Initiative: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8hfb,km3,edfz,gdoa,irqz,5w4u asp?id=796&id3=renewableyes&id4=SIERR
"This administration seems to make no accommodation for anything besides humans' economic desires. Any creature in the way may find itself legislated, litigated or regulated out of existence." - From the 9/14 New York Times editorial "Junking Science"
(1) LANDS: Buy Low, Cell High
(2) PEOPLE: Monument of Man
(3) TAKE ACTION: Support Clean Air and Clean Water in the Transportation Bill
1. LANDS: Buy Low, Cell High
Half Dome, Old Faithful Geyser, Joshua trees, a 100- foot tower of steel and concrete. The first few we already associate with America's treasured national parks. But more than 30 parks also give space to cellphone towers and antennas that many critics say interfere with the aesthetic value of park landscapes. According to a recent L.A. Times article, after the Park Service approved erecting a cell tower on a hill above the Old Faithful Historic District without sufficient public input, a dispute ensued. Cellular service providers are turning their attention away from cities and into rural areas while environmentalists fear that without stricter mandates, the Park Service "may trade splendid landscapes for a monthly antenna check" from service providers.
Read "Mixed Signals?" in the Los Angeles Times: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8fhz,km3,jh72,9dan,irqz,5w4u os-celltowers14sep14,1,4648867.story?coll=la-news- environment
2. PEOPLE: Monument of Man
If you've ever wondered what a single person can do against the relentless onslaught of development, wait until you see the charismatic and enigmatic David Brower push the 1964 Wilderness Act through Congress, and then go on to save the Grand Canyon from damming and help create Redwoods National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore. The legendary Berkeley native comes to life for a new generation in local filmmaker Kelly Duane's "Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America." Brower was a true rugged American original who, before extreme sports were invented, was backcountry skiing, running rivers, and climbing Shiprock with sneakers and a hemp rope.
See where Monumental is playing or contact Loteria Films to get it screened in your city: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8fhz,km3,g7v5,ecro,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Support Clean Air and Clean Water in the Transportation Bill
Congress continues to work on a final dollar amount for the TEA 21 reauthorization. While they wrangle over numbers, it is critical that they do not gut the Clean Air Act and the protections on natural resources. Inform Members of Congress that we must have a transportation bill that protects clean air, keeps local citizens involved in transportation planning, and maintains strong funding levels for public transit programs.
Tell Members of Congress to fight all attempts to weaken our environmental protections: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8fhz,km3,hzbr,ew81,irqz,5w4u
"I am always being asked to do things for environmental groups. I go, 'Yeah, I'd love to, but I drive an SUV.' So I thought I should get my act together. I can't be a hypocrite. There are too many actors who are. They roll away in their Hummers as they're saying, 'Bush is destroying the environment! Fill 'er up!'" - Actress Kirsten Dunst on what prompted her to buy a hybrid car and become an unlikely poster girl for environmental groups.
(1) GLOBAL WARMING: Full Size Nose Dive
(2) FORESTS: Flipping a Biscuit
(3) TAKE ACTION: Stop the Attack on the Roadless Conservation Rule
1. GLOBAL WARMING: Full Size Nose Dive
As gas prices continue to soar, sales of Detroit's Big Three automakers' sport utility vehicles are down. Sales of the Ford Expedition, which gets around 16 miles per gallon, dipped 23% last month and General Motors Corp's Hummer H2, which gets about 13 miles per gallon and weighs over three tons, saw a 21% decrease in 2004 sales. However despite some plummeting numbers, Ford says it already has 50,000 potential buyers for its Escape Hybrid SUV, which hits dealer showrooms this fall. Hybrid vehicles have comparable power, comfort and reliability to conventional vehicles - and can go 75 percent further on a gallon of gas.
Read about the Sierra Club's hybrid evolution tour: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8ctn,km3,fp3r,6pdb,irqz,5w4u
2. FORESTS: Flipping a Biscuit
Responding to a lawsuit filed by Sierra Club and other conservation organizations, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an emergency injunction against logging of specially-designated old growth areas as part of the "Biscuit" salvage logging project in the Klamath-Siskiyou National Forest in southern Oregon. The 'Biscuit Fire Recovery Project' is one of the largest and most destructive logging projects in the history of the Forest Service. A logging project of this size will cause irreparable harm to old growth forests, roadless areas, wild salmon and clean water while diverting federal resources away from real community protection.
Find out what you should know about wildfires: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8ctn,km3,jr33,8r3,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. Yesterday the administration announced they will extend the public comment period, originally scheduled to end September 14, to November 14. We now have more time to raise awareness of the administration's destructive National Forest policies and make your voices heard.
Tell the Forest Service to keep the Roadless Area Conservation Rule intact: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,8ctn,km3,2tpe,2jgt,irqz,5w4u
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