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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
"I'd like to dedicate this statuette to all the children in the world who saw that movie. In 2041, [today's children] will decide to ruin you or not, the treaty that protects Antarctica...Maybe the March of the Penguins will inspire them." - March of the Penguins director Luc Jacquet upon winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. In his acceptance speech he voiced concern about the 2041 expiration of the treaty that protects the penguins' habitat in Antarctica.
(1) Environmental Justice: Walking the Line
(2) Endangered Species: National Call-in Day for a Strong Endangered Species Act
(3) Take Action: Tell Your Representative to Defend Food Safety for Consumers
(4) Take Action: Tell the Bush Administration that America's National Forests are Not for Sale
1. Environmental Justice: Walking the Line As the border organizer for Sierra Club's Environmental Justice program, Oliver Bernstein bounces back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border supporting grassroots environmental activists. More than the food, language, or currency, the biggest difference from one side to the other is what issues are considered "environmental." Perhaps nowhere else on earth is there such a long border between such a rich country and such a struggling one, and this disparity seems to carry over to which issues take priority. Oliver shares his contrasting set of experiences in Grist Magazine.
Read "Walking the Line: What Mexican activists can teach the U.S. about poverty and the planet" in Grist. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,iokq,o7l,fvfc,dle5,dazy,eylb
Learn more about Sierra Club's campaigns along the border. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,iokq,o7l,k87a,2xgn,dazy,eylb
2. Endangered Species: National Call-in Day for a Strong Endangered Species Act
For 30 years the Endangered Species Act has provided the
safety net for fish, wildlife, and plants at the edge of
extinction. Thanks to the protections afforded by the
Endangered Species Act, bald eagles still grace our skies,
grizzly bears are making a comeback in Yellowstone, and
wild salmon still spawn in our waters. But Congressman
Richard Pombo (R-CA) is rushing forward with his effort to
gut the Endangered Species Act. The Pombo bill was voted
out of the House of Representatives late last year, and
developers and other special interests are now looking to
pass a similar bill in the Senate.
This Thursday, March 9, thousands of concerned citizens are taking part in Endangered Species Protection Call-In Day. Call your Senator on Thursday and ask him/her to maintain a strong Endangered Species Act. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,iokq,o7l,ds8z,3vdl,dazy,eylb
3. Take Action: Tell Your Representative to Defend Food Safety for Consumers
State food safety and warning label requirements are critical to protecting the public from food that can cause illness. Consumers have the right to know about health risks, such as mercury in fish or lead in cans. But some Members of Congress are threatening to pass legislation that would eliminate state food safety laws and labeling requirements unless these requirements are identical to federal rules.
Tell your representative that the federal government should not intervene with food safety and warning requirements passed by state legislatures. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,iokq,o7l,cd61,iq2f,dazy,eylb
4. Take Action: Tell the Bush Administration that America's National Forests are Not for Sale
The President's latest FY 2007 Budget Proposal includes the auctioning off of hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest and other public lands. Our government should be in the business of protecting our natural heritage, not selling it off to the highest bidder. National parks, forests, and other public lands belong to everyone, and are held by our federal government in the public trust -- they should be managed with the highest stewardship.
Tell USDA Undersecretary Mark Rey that you strongly oppose this proposal and other efforts to open public forest lands to private development. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,iokq,o7l,ed9w,hymb,dazy,eylb
"To imply that we're flattening Appalachia is so untrue. We're creating level land for Appalachia." - Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, claiming that the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining- blowing the tops off mountains to get at the coal beneath- performs the "necessary" function of creating flat land for development.
(1) Lands: Not For Sale
(2) Factory Farms: Chicken Not-so-Little
(3) Take Action: Tell the EPA to Protect Americans from Soot in our Air
(4) Take Action: Tell the Bush Administration that America's National Forests are Not for Sale
1. Lands: Not For Sale
Last week, the Forest Service announced withdrawal of a controversial old growth timber sale in the Grand Canyon Game Preserve, just three miles from the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Under the guise of increasing forest health and decreasing fire risk, the Forest Service proposal would have permitted the logging of at least 8 million board feet of timber (enough to fill 1,800 logging trucks) 48 miles from the nearest community, including tens of thousands of large, fire-resistant trees. The Sierra Club challenged this controversial timber sale, and calls its withdrawal a wake-up call for the Forest Service. The agency needs to fund projects that actually protect communities from wildfire, instead of logging in remote areas.
Read the AP story "Forest Service Cancels Logging Near Canyon." https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,icw1,o7l,ifki,9bao,dazy,eylb
2. Factory Farms: Chicken Not-so-Little
The latest installment from Grist magazine's special series, "Poverty & the Environment," features the plight of rural residents who live near poultry factory farms. Over the last 15 years, industrial chicken farming has boomed in the South, bringing with it a sickening cocktail of horrible odors, health hazards and plummeting property values. Aloma Dew, a Sierra Club organizer in Kentucky, says "These companies seek rural areas where unemployment, or underemployment, is high and people are desperate for ways to stay on the farm. They assume that poor, country people will not organize or speak up, and that they will be ignorant of the impacts on their health and quality of life."
Read "Finger-Lickin' Bad" in Grist. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,icw1,o7l,ioip,am8l,dazy,eylb
Learn about the Sierrans who fight Big Chicken, go on a virtual Tour de Stench, and take action to protect rural communities. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,icw1,o7l,l5jm,5g0y,dazy,eylb
3. Take Action: Tell the EPA to Protect Americans from Soot in our Air
The EPA's new proposal to limit soot pollution has disappointed environmental, medical, and scientific experts. Since the EPA last updated its standard in 1997, more than 2,000 scientific studies have shown that exposure to even smaller amounts of soot cause serious health damage. Scientists urged the EPA to create a standard in keeping with the deluge of scientific findings detailing the damaging health impacts of soot pollution on the respiratory and circulatory systems and the increased risks for illness and death. The EPA ignored the scientific advisors and carved out weak standards riddled with loopholes. The EPA created scientifically unsupportable exemptions for the agriculture and mining industry and excluded rural areas, small towns, and small cities from some protections. The bottom line is that the EPA ignored the best scientific evidence and proposed a new standard that fails to protect people's health.
Tell the EPA that it needs to follow the advice of the medical and scientific community and adopt tough standards to protect Americans from soot in our air. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,icw1,o7l,hrvr,kity,dazy,eylb
4. Take Action: Tell the Bush Administration that America's National Forests are Not for Sale
The President's latest FY 2007 Budget Proposal includes the auctioning off of hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest and other public lands. Our government should be in the business of protecting our natural heritage, not selling it off to the highest bidder. National parks, forests, and other public lands belong to everyone, and are held by our federal government in the public trust- they should be managed with the highest stewardship.
Tell USDA Undersecretary Mark Rey that you strongly oppose this proposal and other efforts to open public forest lands to private development. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,icw1,o7l,l9qv,4wyp,dazy,eylb
Still, things are pretty bad when, instead of fearing that our government is lying to us, we hope that it is." - Editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune responding to the Bush administration's recent proposal to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest and other public land to raise revenues. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i7nu,o7l,9n0q,gq30,dazy,eylb
(1) Lands: Everything Must Go
(2) Social: True Life Romance Stories!
(3) Take Action: Tell Congress to Kick the Habit
(4) Take Action: Keep Marine Waters and Coasts Protected
1. Lands: Everything Must Go
Something's wrong when the world's biggest economic superpower has to sell off its parkland in order to make ends meet. But that's exactly what the Bush administration is proposing in its FY 2007 Budget, which includes a provision to raise revenues by auctioning off hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest and other public lands. The $800 million they are hoping to raise might just buy a couple of shiny new Bridges to Nowhere.
Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i7nu,o7l,lxve,8tdc,dazy,eylb
Read the Sierra Club's statement: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i7nu,o7l,b9v2,2ux8,dazy,eylb
2. Social: True Life Romance Stories!
Who knew the Sierra Club was a dating service? Well, not exactly. But plenty of couples felt that first spark while sitting by the fire under a starry mountain sky on a Sierra Club backpack trip. Or as they strolled side by side next to a lake, their dogs on leashes, during a pooch-friendly hike with their local chapter. Or...while sitting across the table from each other at a committee meeting. The latter is how it happened for Maurice and Barbara Coman of Louisiana.
You're invited to read their story and the stories of other Sierra sweethearts -- and tell us your own, if you met through the Sierra Club: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i7nu,o7l,232b,14qb,dazy,eylb
Find out if there's a Sierra Singles group near you: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i7nu,o7l,lklu,agvn,dazy,eylb
3. Take Action: Tell Congress to Kick the Habit
In his State of the Union address, President Bush, the former Texas oil man, admitted that the United States is suffering from an oil addiction. Alas, less than one week later, he already had a relapse. Last week, the President released his 2007 federal budget request to Congress and, once again, it includes revenues from opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to destructive oil drilling. So much for kicking the habit. President Bush's drill-it-all approach is a tired proposal that was defeated in last year's budget. Congress and the Administration must stop wasting energy on these dead-end drilling schemes and chart a course to a cleaner energy future.
Call your Representatives at the Capitol Switchboard (202- 224-3121) and urge them to put the controversial issue of drilling in the Arctic Refuge to rest. Ask them to "Oppose any attempt to use the Budget to open the Arctic to drilling."
Not sure who your Representative is? Find out easily at www.house.gov.
4. Take Action: Keep Marine Waters and Coasts Protected
On February 8th, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the agency that oversees oil and gas drilling in federal offshore waters, released a new Five-Year Leasing Plan that would open vast areas off our coasts to oil and gas drilling. This plan would open up about two million acres in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for the first time, and prepare areas off Virginia's coast and in Alaska's famous salmon fishing grounds in Bristol Bay for leasing. For 25 years, drilling in these areas has been banned by both Congressional moratoria and Presidential deferral orders.
Please write the MMS and tell them to protect our marine waters, shorelines, and coastal economies by withdrawing their proposal to open up these new areas (Lease Sale 181) to drilling: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i7nu,o7l,1vom,bl6d,dazy,eylb
For background information on the new MMS plan go to: www.sierraclub.org/coasts
"At a press conference yesterday President Bush was asked if he had seen 'Brokeback Mountain.' He said he hadn't seen the movie but is interested in drilling for oil there." - David Letterman
(1) Energy: An Oil Relapse Already?
(2) Sierra Club Chronicles: Record Profits, Record Problems
(3) Take Action: Protect America's National Parks
1. Energy: An Oil Relapse Already?
In last week's State of the Union address, President Bush admitted that the United States is suffering from an oil addiction. Less than one week later, he is already having a relapse. Yesterday, the President released his 2007 federal budget request to Congress- and once again, it includes revenues from drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So much for kicking the habit.
Read the Sierra Club's statement. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i2s0,o7l,3fws,lwkv,dazy,eylb
2. Sierra Club Chronicles: Record Profits, Record Problems
The second episode of the Sierra Club's new television series tells the story of the Alaska fishermen whose livelihoods were destroyed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, and who are still waiting for compensation from the company. "The Day the Water Died" will air Thursday, February 9 at 8:30 PM EST/PST on Link TV, and is now available for viewing and download at www.sierraclubtv.org. The episode takes viewers to the still economically and emotionally afflicted fishing town of Cordova, Alaska 16 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster, where the citizens are fighting to hold Exxon to their word. Thousands of plaintiffs have died while waiting for ExxonMobil to pay punitive damages which amount to small change for the company.
3. Take Action: Protect America's National Parks
America's National Parks have a higher approval rating than the President and many members of Congress. Special natural places like the Great Smokies, Yellowstone, and Yosemite are popular travel destinations. So why is the Bush administration proposing a major rewrite of the policies that guide management of our National Parks? Under the proposed changes, the management philosophy would switch from one of conservation -- which has long protected these national treasures -- to one of commercialization.
Tell the Park Service that a rewrite of park policies is misguided and that you strongly support retaining the current management policies. https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,i2s0,o7l,6gps,bulf,dazy,eylb
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