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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
November 19, 2004
"Nothing is ultimately as irrational as rushing with maximum efficiency in the wrong direction". - Wolfgang Sachs
(1) POLITICS: A Man with a Plan
(2) LANDS: Same Old Drill
(3) TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Senators to Oppose the Craig CAFO Rider
1. POLITICS: A Man with a Plan
Access to public lands for sportsmen and women continued to be a crucial debate in the 2004 election, specifically in Montana. Of the 971,000 people living in the state, 723,000 of them fished, hunted or watched wildlife in 2001. Brian Schweitzer came up with a 9-point plan to help preserve the Montana's heritage of hunting and fishing that may have sealed the deal on his winning the governorship on Election Day. Schweitzer called for keeping public lands in the state's hands, increasing funding to preserve the land, and vowing to preserve the Stream Access Law giving sportsmen easier access to fields and streams.
Read the Sierra Magazine column "Natural Allies": https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9nlo,km3,ex6c,kgwb,irqz,5w4u
2. LANDS: Same Old Drill
The Bush administration gave special treatment to oil and gas companies and blatantly disregarded its obligation to protect some of America's National Parks when it reversed a long-standing policy in order to allow drilling underneath certain areas managed by the National Park Service (NPS). Under a 1979 rule, the companies had to submit environmental analysis on how drilling would impact the areas. In November 2003, the administration issued a new policy allowing private companies unrestricted access to oil and gas underneath certain NPS-managed areas so long as they drill for it at an angle from outside park boundaries using "directional drilling." The new rule forces the NPS to turn a blind eye to the destruction that may occur in the areas as a result of the drilling.
Read "Sierra Club Fights Drilling Under Parks" in the New York Times: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9nlo,km3,7ueo,iizi,irqz,5w4u tml
3. TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Senators to Oppose the Craig CAFO Rider
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are capable of releasing significant--even dangerous-- quantities of toxic gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide into nearby communities. These gases have been measured near livestock operations at concentrations of concern for rural residents' health. Senator Larry Craig (ID) is trying to sneak a rider into a must-pass spending bill that would let CAFOs off the hook and deny rural communities access to critical information related to these operations. If the Craig CAFO rider passes, evaluating the health risks resulting from releases of toxic gases from CAFOs and recommending actions to minimize the risk will be difficult, if not impossible.
Please urge your Senator to oppose this dangerous rider and advocate its removal from the spending bill: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9nlo,km3,7g2w,7o1g,irqz,5w4u
"The Inuit language for 10,000 years never had a word for robin and now there are robins all over their villages." - Senator John McCain, commenting on the effect global warming is already having on Arctic communities.
(1) CLEAN AIR: Something in the Air
(2) TO SEE: Photos on Fifth
(3) TAKE ACTION: Oppose Anti-Environmental Riders
1. CLEAN AIR: Something in the Air
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that ozone smog pollution causes a significant increase in the risk of death for those in the 95 largest communities, where up to 40% of Americans live. Even a relatively small increase in ozone (a main ingredient of smog) is directly linked to an increase in deaths from heart and lung ailments in major U.S. metropolitan areas. With this troubling new evidence, the Bush administration and Congress must make it a priority to save thousands of lives by enforcing and strengthening the Clean Air Act and by providing Americans with better transportation choices.
Read "Study links smog increase, urban deaths" on CNN.com: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9lk5,km3,3ue4,hbkr,irqz,5w4u /
2. TO SEE: Photos on Fifth
The Fifth Avenue Gallery at the Empire State Building will soon feature works by the Sierra Club New York City Group's Photography Committee. The exhibit entitled "Colors of the Season" shows winter scenes and images with red-and-green foliage. Thousands of city visitors and natives will view the work in this 21-photograph exhibit shown from November 24 through January 10.
Can't make it to the New York exhibit? View the club gallery online: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9lk5,km3,ipei,911o,irqz,5w4u ndex.htm
3. TAKE ACTION: Oppose Anti-Environmental Riders
Congress is back in session for the so-called "lame duck" session. They're poised to take up an "Omnibus" appropriations bill, which funds many governmental departments including the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency. Bills like this, which are hard to block, often attract unrelated policy provisions known as "riders." Several of these threaten environmental protection.
Please contact your Member of Congress and Senators, and ask them to oppose anti-environmental riders in the Omnibus bill: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9lk5,km3,eiyo,62oi,irqz,5w4u
"It is the spirit, the energy, the dedication and the challenge that we demonstrated for the last two years that will carry us through this dark period, and the American people remain, today, as they were yesterday, committed to a brighter environmental future for their children. Together, we will rise to this challenge." - Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
(1) LANDS: On the Road(less) Again
(2) CLEAN AIR: Hog Heaven...er Hell?
(3) TAKE ACTION: Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
1. LANDS: On the Road(less) Again
It's a happy day for America's wild forests--and the people who recreate in them. Tuesday, a federal appeals court blocked construction of new roads that were to be part of Alaska's Tongass National Forest timber sale. This decision will block the sale of 380 acres of old growth timber in Alaska's beautiful Tongass Forest. "The road-building activities [would have caused] an immediate and irreparable change to the part of the now-roadless old-growth forest." the judges wrote.
Read "9th Circuit Blocks Tongass Road Construction" in the San Francisco Chronicle: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9iln,km3,dflb,8jux,irqz,5w4u bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/10/19/state1956E DT7024.DTL
2. CLEAN AIR: Hog Heaven...er Hell?
Say goodbye to piggie pollution. The Sierra Club dealt another blow to the factory farming industry recently when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Seaboard Corporation must report the pollution from their giant hog operation in western Oklahoma. As a result of this victory, massive factory farms across the nation are responsible for dealing with toxic ammonia, which can cause respiratory problems for people who live nearby. As staff attorney Barclay Rogers summed up, "This decision will force corporations to tell the public about the poisonous gases coming from these factory farms and to clean up their act."
See some factory farming factoids: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9iln,km3,j05e,22qt,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The oil industry and its allies in Congress are looking to use the federal budget process to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling this January. This backdoor attempt at getting into the Arctic Refuge has been stopped before but with a new Congress come new challenges.
Please contact your Senators and ask them to reject this backdoor attempt at opening the Arctic Refuge to industrial development and to vote against including Arctic drilling in the Federal Budget Resolution: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9iln,km3,d3bx,ls9r,irqz,5w4u
Read "Bets Are on for Drilling in Arctic Refuge" on MSNBC.com: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9iln,km3,34bt,ficz,irqz,5w4u
"This country can never permanently be a good place for any of us to live unless it is eventually a good place for all of us to live." - President Theodore Roosevelt
(1) COASTS: Use Caution When Swimming
(2) GLOBAL WARMING: You Say You Want an Evolution
(3) TAKE ACTION: Tell the Bush Administration "Hands Off Our Wild Forests"
1. COASTS: Use Caution When Swimming
A day at the beach shouldn't mean a trip to the doctor. But, once again, the Bush administration is ignoring science by announcing a plan that would weaken safeguards for coasts and fail to protect beachgoers. Using outdated data, the administration proposed a plan that waters down the existing protections and makes it easier for some states to avoid letting beachgoers know when the water is not safe for swimming. The administration is proposing to allow some states to test whether waters are safe for swimming by using 18-year-old standards that were recognized as outdated when the Beach Act of 2000 was passed.
Read the Sierra Club's coastal report: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9gpp,km3,j5xo,3ll9,irqz,5w4u t.pdf
2. GLOBAL WARMING: You Say You Want an Evolution
Evolution means getting better. Fish evolved gills. Birds got wings. We need to produce energy without devastating the planet. The good news is that we have the technology to do it. But the Bush administration is fighting stronger fuel economy standards that would put more hybrids on the road. Instead of cleaner, more efficient cars, the administration's energy plan calls for more oil drilling. Instead of investing in a clean energy economy that could create 3 million jobs, it's calling for more coal power plants.
So ask yourself, is the Bush administration for evolution or against it? Check out the I Will Evolve website: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9gpp,km3,n1g,g0vf,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Tell the Bush Administration "Hands Off Our Wild Forests"
Since taking office, the Bush administration has opened up millions of acres of our National Forests to increased logging, road building and other destructive development and has now launched its assault on the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a rule designed to protect nearly 60 million acres of America's last wild and unroaded areas. In July, the administration launched a convoluted process that puts the burden on individual Governors to decide whether federal lands located in their state should receive federal protection from commercial logging and logging road construction. This announcement is one more plank in the Bush administration's platform of deciding National Forest management based on the desires of timber company executives.
Tell the Bush administration to protect our last remaining wild forests. Your letter must be received by November 15! https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,9gpp,km3,lqms,kr49,irqz,5w4u
"...The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others." - Theodore Roosevelt in an address to the Deep Waterway Convention, Memphis, Tennessee, October 4, 1907
(1) CLEAN AIR: Hair Apparent
(2) POLITICS: No Comparison
(3) TAKE ACTION: Tell the Bush Administration "Hands Off Our Wild Forests"
1. CLEAN AIR: Hair Apparent
One-fifth of women of childbearing age have mercury levels in their hair exceeding federal health standards, according to preliminary results of a nationwide survey by researchers at the University of North Carolina. Over 1,500 people responded to the Greenpeace-commissioned study by purchasing their own $25 hair test kit or getting free tests at selected salons. The research shows a correlation between the participants' fish consumption and their mercury levels. For example, one-third of people who ate canned tuna four or more times a week had mercury levels above EPA recommendation. Coal-burning power plants release mercury into the air and rains down into our waters where fish consume it and can become contaminated.
Read "Excess Mercury Levels Increasing" in the Washington Post: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,94b2,km3,iane,7hqt,irqz,5w4u 2004Oct20.html
2. POLITICS: No Comparison
Since October 27th marks the birthday of our 26th President, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, it's an appropriate time to remember his many contributions in conservation. From 1901 to 1909, he designated 150 National Forests, the first 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 5 National Parks, the first 18 National Monuments, the first 4 National Game Preserves, and the first 21 Reclamation Projects. Altogether, he set aside 230 million acres for federal protection, a land area equivalent to that of all the east coast states from Maine to Florida. In comparison, the Bush administration has removed protections from 234 million acres -- an area the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined.
Learn more about Teddy Roosevelt as a conservationist: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,94b2,km3,8chd,d078,irqz,5w4um
3. TAKE ACTION: Tell the Bush Administration "Hands Off Our Wild Forests"
Since taking office, the Bush administration has opened up millions of acres of our National Forests to increased logging, road building and other destructive development and has now launched its assault on the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a rule designed to protect nearly 60 million acres of America's last wild and unroaded areas. In July, the administration launched a convoluted process that puts the burden on individual Governors to decide whether federal lands located in their state should receive federal protection from commercial logging and logging road construction. This announcement is one more plank in the Bush administration's platform of deciding National Forest management based on the desires of timber company executives.
Tell the Bush administration to protect our last remaining wild forests. Your letter must be received by November 15: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,94b2,km3,2tpe,2jgt,irqz,5w4u
Read the Roadless Rule fact sheet: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,94b2,km3,dic,kqjf,irqz,5w4u oadlessfactsheet.pdf
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