NEXT PAGE -->
|
March 9, 1999
"The land, the earth God gave to man for his home...should never be the possession of any man, corporation or society...any more than air or water." --- President Abraham Lincoln
TAKE ACTION: Protect and Restore Our National Forests
I: MN Paper To Congress: "Stop the Senseless Rape of Our Forests"
II: Activists in Colombia Murdered
III: Sierra Club Activists Do Good on Hog Farms - THANKS!
TAKE ACTION!
END LOGGING AND RESTORE OUR NATIONAL FORESTS - WRITE A LETTER TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!
The US Forest Service commercial logging program continues to dig itself into a deeper hole and create more environmental and fiscal damage. The commercial logging program holds the legacy of a destructive network of clearcuts and 440,000 miles of logging roads, the more than $2 BILLION lost by American taxpayers in the last six years, and the long-term damage done to wildlife and fish habitat and clean drinking water sources.
The Forest Service still finds that the incentives to sell trees and retain the timber receipts outweigh and override its mission of "caring for the land and serving people." The commercial timber program has clearly reached it's time to go.
The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act will end commercial logging on our National Forests and create a "Restoration Corps" to repair the decades of damage done by the logging program. Congressional leaders Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) are now gathering co-sponsors for the re-introduction of this visionary legislation - and your representative has the opportunity to be a forest protection leader!
TAKE ACTION: You can help end the destructive commercial logging program and restore our damaged National Forests. Write a letter to your representative and urge them to support the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act and put an end to this wasteful and destructive program.
Send letters to: The Honorable Rep. ______ US House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
THANKS for your support!
Minneapolis Star-Tribune Tells Congress To Protect Forests
Opinion leaders across the country are increasingly making the case that protecting forests and wilderness is good for the economy, good for the country - and good politics!
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune editorial board declared in a January 22nd piece entitled "The Forests Still Wait" that a temporary moratorium to stop building roads in National Forest roadless areas was a no-brainer. The Star-Tribune continued on to say that during the 18-month long moratorium, "Congress might see the wisdom of Iowa Congressman Jim Leach's proposal to quit wasting public money on logging roads that result in selling public trees at a loss."
And that's not all! The editorial also includes this sage advice:
"Congress might be persuaded to expand 'wilderness areas' designations to include far more of the yet-uncut forests, to protect not only the wildlife habitat and the stream purity, but the entire ecosystems that timberlands maintain...too much of (the National Forests) has been stripped by the loggers, in too many cases exposing thin mountain soils to erosion.
"It has also exposed a good share of the public to photos showing the devastating impact of clear-cuts. That's why Congress could win votes by stopping the senseless rape of our forests."
Environmentalists Murdered in Columbia
We were saddened by the tragic news of the three American environmental activists murdered in Columbia this past weekend. Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok, and Lahe'ena'e Gay had distinguished themselves in the United States and around the world as passionate defenders of the rights of indigenous communities. The three were in Columbia to help the U'wa tribe organize schools when they were kidnapped February 25th.
Freitas, a California native, was the coordinator of the U'wa Defense working group, an organization devoted to focusing attention on the U'wa tribe's battle to protect its land from oil development. In 1998, Freitas traveled with U'wa leaders to San Francisco and Washington, DC when the tribe received a Goldman Environmental Prize. Gay, who was the chairwomen for the Hawaii-based Pacific Cultural International, and New York-native Washinawatok, long a champion of the rights of American Indians, were members of a coalition of environmental and human rights organizations helping to defend U'wa territory from multinational oil development.
An indigenous community of 5000 living in the cloud forest of the Colombian Andes on the rim of the Amazon Basin, the U'wa have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the Occidental Petroleum Company's application for a drilling license and other future oil related projects on their land.
The Sierra Club supports the call by the U'wa Defense Working Group for a full investigation by the U.S. government and independent human rights observers into the deaths. This terrible incident underscores the need for immediate steps to peacefully end the escalating violence, instability, injustices and environmental degradation perpetrated against local communities in oil producing regions around the world.
This is yet another tragic and distressing example of the risk activists around the world sometimes face in their battle to protect the environment. Protecting the planet for future generations should not be a dangerous occupation. Let's hope that these tragic deaths somehow bring attention to this very important issue.
For more information on the U'wa, please visit the Project Underground website at www.uwa.moles.org. For more information on the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment Campaign, visit our website at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights or e-mail ira.hersh@sierraclub.org. You can also visit the Rainforest Action Network at www.ran.org
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!
Thank you to everyone who contacted their Representative asking them to sign onto Rep. Lane Evans letter on pig and chicken factories. Vice President Al Gore announced a new federal strategy today at the White House. The good news is that the owners of the pigs and chickens will now be responsible for the waste their animals produce - not just the contractors who raise them. Most of these animals are owned by huge corporations like Tyson and Murphy farms.
The bad news: their won't be much positive action in the short term - Sierra Club has been calling for a moratorium on any new factories until regulations are put in place. Furthermore, the plan provides no real protection of groundwater and will do little to address air pollution from these facilities.
Once again, Sierra Club activists made a difference. The Representative Evans letter to Administrator Browner and Secretary Glickman ended up with 29 signers! All that in only three days! If your member signed on, please call them and thank them. The signers:
Blumenauer (OR), Brown (OH), Clay (MO), Cook (UT), DeFazio (OR), DeGette (CO), Delahunt (MA), Evans (IL), Gutierrez (IL), Hinchey (NY), Holt (NJ), Inslee (WA), Kucinich (OH), Lantos (CA), Lewis (GA), McKinney (GA), Maloney (CT), Markey (MA), Meehan (MA), Menendez (NJ), Miller (CA), Nadler (NY), Pallone (NJ), Rivers (MI), Sanders (VT), Schakowsky (IL), Stark (CA), Waxman (CA)
"Frankly, I'm never going to make the Sierra Club happy." ---Senator Chris 'Kit' Bond (R-MO). Senator Bond introduced legislation to prevent the EPA from suspending Missouri highway money because the air in St.Louis is too polluted. The Sierra Club was not happy that little kids couldn't breath.
TAKE ACTION: Who is Going to Clean up This Mess??!!
I: I Have an Idea, Let's Try and SAVE The Forests..
II: Land And Water Are Good Things
III: Air is Good Too
TAKE ACTION!
GORE SET TO RELEASE BIG PIG POOP PLAN!
Your Help Still Needed!
Tomorrow the Clinton Administration will announce the joint EPA and USDA strategy for controlling pollution from industrial-style animal factories. Rep. Lane Evans (D-IL-17) is circulating a letter to his House colleagues, and we urgently need help recruiting members of Congress to co-sign. This letter will be sent to EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.
Just this past week, a New Mexico dairy operation spilled 40,000 GALLONS of manure onto a road. The EPA has found groundwater contamination from animal factories in 17 states already. The new strategy needs to take urgent actions to protect our health and our safe water.
The details of the plan are outlined in our press release below. Though their are some encouraging parts to the plan - like making the owners of the pigs and chickens responsible for the waste they produce - it doesn't go far enough. The Evans letter will let the Administration know that they still need to make improvements. Please call your member of congress, and ask them to get signed on! If they haven't heard of it, tell them to call Lynh Nguyen in Congressman Evans' office, at (202) 255-5905.
Your calls will make the difference!
For more information, contact Mike Newman at [mike.newman@sierraclub.org]
I. Montana State Lawmaker Hopes To Stop Road Removal ......But Damaged Forests Need Rest and Restoration
Decades of irresponsible logging have devastated and depleted America's Natonal Forest System. Our National Forests are in dire need of some rest from the commercial logging program and active restoration for damaged watersheds. Removing logging roads is one important step we can take to reclaim and restore damaged watersheds in our National Forests.
Now, the Billings Gazette reports a Montana state lawmaker is attempting to stop federal efforts to close roads and rehabilitate damaged areas in Montana's National Forests. Representative Rod Bitney is introducing a bill to require a state council to approve all water quality permits, which the US Forest Service must have before it can begin road removal. This bill hopes to put a moratorium on the permits and halt the needed restoration work. Thankfully, this bill can't apply to the rest of the country.
Nationally, Representatives Cynthia Mckinney (D-GA) and Jim Leach (R-IA) will soon re-introduce the "National Forest Protection and Restoration Act". This visionary bill would not only protect our National Forests and other federal public lands by ending the ecologically destructive timber sales program. More importantly, it revitalizes our forests and those who depend on the forest by redirecting timber subsidies into worker retraining and ecological restoration of our damaged forests. Oh yeah, it will also save taxpayers at least $300 million annually. Sounds good to me!!
II.Help Support the Land and Water Conservation Fund
Recently, two companion bills have been introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative George Miller regarding the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). These two bills call for the LWCF to be fully funded at its authorized level. The first step for this to happen is to get the Budget Committees to draft the budget resolution with the LWCF fully appropriated.
Currently, a Senate Budget Committee "Dear Colleague" letter to fully fund the LWCF in this year's budget resolution is circulating. This first step is the the biggest one. Please ask you Senator to sign on to the this important letter. In order to get the LWCF fully funded, we MUST have it written into the budget resolution that way. The plan is to have the letter done by Tuesday March 9. We are down to the wire, so let's have a big push to get the LWCF fully funded THANKS!!!!!
* Original Co-Signers: Senators Leahy, Chafee, Bob Smith and Feingold * Staff contacts: Susanne Fleek (Leahy) 224-4242 Jason Patlis (Chafee) 224-8216 Mary Francis Repko (Feingold) 224-5323 Chris Russell (Smith) 224-2841.
* Senators on so far: Bryan, Cleland, Jeffords, Warner
III. TOXIC AIR: Start Holding Your Breath!
A new congressional report indicates Los Angeles residents may be exposed to hazardous air pollutants hundreds of times worse than the goals of the Clean Air Act. The alarming report is the first to measure the carcinogenic dangers of breathing.
How bad is breathing L.A. air? You may want to start holding your breath. Exposure to toxics is a full 426 times higher than EPA standards, which aim to reduce cancer incidences to one in a million.
Henry Waxman, Congressional hero from Los Angeles, stresses the importance of stronger standards in order to maintain public health. "The level of toxic pollutants in the air is much too high. There is a real risk to public health unless we intensify our efforts to reduce toxic emissions." The report was conducted from 1995 to 1998 by analyzing samples of air from different areas of L.A. and they were found to contain high levels of three harmful carcinogens.
Nasty substances like butadiene, formaldehyde, and benzene are all created by mobile sources including cars, trucks and off-road vehicles - and then find their way into your lungs.
Los Angeles has made strides in cleaning its air, but this report serves as a wake-up call that much more needs to be done. EPA has already said that more studying needs to be done at cities around the country.
*****PRESS RELEASE ON BIG PIG CLEAN-UP PROPOSAL*******
SIERRA CLUB CALLS CLINTON PROPOSAL TO CURB BIG PIG POLLUTION "A MIXED BAG" Strategy for Cleaner Factory Farms Takes Small Steps to Protect Streams and Drinking Water, Holds Owners Responsible for Manure Spills
WASHINGTON -- The Sierra Club today welcomed parts of the Clinton Administration's plan to curb water pollution from Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), but expressed disappointment that the proposal doesn't go farther to clean up the industry's practices. The group applauded the Administration's proposal to hold corporate animal owners -- not just the farmers contracted to raise the pigs -- responsible for waste spills and other pollution.
In addition to holding corporate owners responsible for pollution, the plan also earned praise for requiring all new CAFOs to obtain an operating permit. On the other hand, the plan fails to protect groundwater, curb air pollution, ensure citizens can participate in granting permits to new CAFOs, and deal with livestock factories' giant lagoons of raw pig manure.
"The Clinton Administration's proposal for livestock factories is a mixed bag," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "The Administration plan tackles a terrible problem, but fails to offer solutions for the most troubling air and water pollution aspects of these livestock factories.
"Sierra Club is happy the government is acknowledging that the corporate hog and poultry industries are polluters out of control who need to be reigned in," Pope continued. "Sierra Club is particularly pleased that the Clinton Administration will be holding corporate owners responsible for pollution -- that's one of the first important steps toward cleaning up the livestock factory industry."
Currently, CAFOs contract small farmers to raise their animals, but only the farmer is held responsible for the animals' waste. Under the new plan, animal owners who have substantial control over the farmers' practices would be prevented from passing the buck onto the small contractors. Instead, the corporate owners would share responsibility with the contract farmer for pollution clean-up. In addition, the plan will require that new livestock factories obtain operating permits.
"No longer will corporate factory farms be able to shirk responsibility from cleaning up the pollution they created," said Hank Graddy, a Kentucky grassroots leader who chairs Sierra Club's CAFO campaign. "Unfortunately, the Administration blew its opportunity to take other big steps to attack the pollution problem head on. This plan could have prevented environmental disasters before they happened, rather than just spreading the blame after the fact."
Of crucial importance is cleaning up the giant lagoons in which CAFOs hold tens of millions of gallons of liquid hog manure -- an issue not addressed by the EPA plan. This plan leaves the nation's groundwater vulnerable to manure contamination from lagoons. Spills from these lagoons pollute streams, and manure percolates into groundwater. Until CAFOs use technology rather than lagoons to treat their manure, our streams, air and drinking water will not be safe.
These lagoons are built on an enormous scale, with one in Oklahoma covering 11 acres and holding more than 42 million gallons of hog manure. In 1995, a North Carolina lagoon burst, spilling 23 million gallons of raw sewage into the New River -- an amount more than double the Exxon Valdez oil spill. That spill obliterated all aquatic life in the New River.
"When hundreds of thousands of pigs live in cramped quarters at a livestock factory, they produce an enormous amount of waste, and that manure should not simply flow into huge lagoons to spoil our land, air and water," Graddy said. "We wouldn't allow a large city to pump its sewage into a giant lagoon and leave it there. Just as America's clean water laws require cities to treat human waste, we should require livestock factories to treat their manure.
Another shortcoming is that the plan does not guarantee that citizens can participate in deciding whether to grant a permit for a new or larger CAFO in their community.
"When communities are faced with the prospect of having two Exxon Valdezes worth of hog manure spill into their streams, they deserve some say in whether a livestock factory can be built nearby," Graddy said. "It's essential that citizens can participate in deciding whether or not they should have to breathe the stench of hog manure day after day.
Sierra Club is continuing to call for a moratorium on new CAFOs until tough clean-air and -water standards are in place and existing operations are brought under control.
"I'm disappointed that the Administration failed to order a moratorium on new CAFOs," Graddy said. "Livestock factories are fouling our air, polluting our water and poisoning the fish we eat. We should not subject rural communities to these monstrous livestock factories unless the Big Pig and Big Chicken owners agree to operate them cleanly. If you live downwind of a livestock factory, you can't open your windows on a hot summer day, hang the laundry or sit on your porch. And when millions of gallons of manure can seep into local wells, you certainly
We've been going from crisis to crisis for four years. This is it. There is no flexibility. My advice to the company is to wrap it up with the federal government." -Sen. Dianne Feinstein, on the Headwaters deal.
TAKE ACTION: Write your Members of Congress to help save wilderness in Alaska and Utah
TRADE: Sierrans support HOPE for Africa
TAKE ACTION II: URGENT deadline on CAFO letter
TAKE ACTION
Arctic Refuge and Utah Wildnerness bills are gaining momentum and will be introduced soon. Contact your Representative and Senators and urge them to co-sponsor these crucial initiatives!
Earlier this week, 150 Wilderness activists blanketed Capitol Hill in a drive to get support for bills that will designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and millions of acres in Utah as wilderness. Everyone agrees: the solution to preserving precious wildlands in Alaska and Utah is official Wilderness designation. In Utah, such a designation will restrict allowable uses, cutting off sensitive and unspoiled areas from new development, new mining claims, logging and roadbuilding, and mechanized transport (e.g. ORVs). In the Arctic Refuge, wilderness designation for the coastal plain, a fragile tundra that is critical denning ground for the Porcupine caribou herd, will remove the persistent threat of oil drilling.
"Wilderness Week" activists in Washington this week included 50 from Utah, 50 from Alaska, and 50 from across the rest of the lower 48. Also in attendance were members of the Gwich'in tribe, who have long held the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge sacred, and rely on the Porcupine caribou herd to maintain their way of life. This dedicated and energetic group of activists, many of whom are Sierra Club volunteers, love the wilderness and made the long trip to D.C. on their own time to help make the vision of Arctic and Utah wilderness a reality.
You can help these committed activists in their efforts by by writing, calling or faxing your Representative and asking him or her to become original co-sponsors of Rep. Vento's bill to designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, and Rep. Hinchey's bill to designate wilderness in Utah. Contact you Senators too, and urge them to co-sponsor Senator Roth's Arctic wilderness bill, and Sen. Durbin's bill to designate wilderness in Utah.
For contact information, see the end of this e-mail. Thanks for your help!
San Fran Sierrans Protest Clinton Free Trade Speech: Demand HOPE for Africa
Tom Miller rallied half a dozen of his fellow Sierra staffers last Friday morning (Feb. 26) to protest President Clinton's speech on global economics at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco. The Sierrans joined fifteen others from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the California Fair Trade Campaign (CFTC) to call for quick congressional passage of the "HOPE for Africa Act" (H.R. 772), and opposition to the "Africa Growth and Opportunity Act" (H.R. 434), notoriously dubbed "NAFTA for Africa."
The protest was broadcast nationally on CNN, picked up on the wires, and even got the President's attention, who complained in his speech, "Some of the folks outside who were protesting when I drove up were saying by their signs that they believe globalization is inherently bad and there's no way in the wide world to put a human face on the global economy."
Actually, it's the President's NAFTA for Africa legislation that fails to put a "human face" on globalization. This bill would open up Africa to increased exploitation by transnational mining, oil, and logging companies, but would do nothing to protect workers and the environment. No wonder Nelson Mandela called the NAFTA for Africa "unacceptable" when it was first proposed last year.
For a "human face" on globalization, look to the HOPE for Africa Act, introduced by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. HOPE for Africa combines generous new trade benefits with obligations that transnational corporations respect labor rights and the environment.
So, Mr. President, globalization CAN have a human face, and the HOPE for Africa Act proves it.
The Sierra Clubbers carried Sierra Club banners and "HOPE for Africa" signs provided by CFTC, and passed out "Shell Shocked" booklets, published by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. "Shell Shocked" details how Royal Dutch Shell plundered Ogoni lands to extract billions of dollars in oil profits. Expect more of the same corporate plunder if the NAFTA for Africa becomes law.
The RAN's Erik Bronstein, and his trusty bullhorn, led the chants of "HOPE for Africa" and "Fair Trade, not Corporate Aid," backed by a 15-foot Bill Clinton puppet with a rope between his hands and the message "Don't Get Roped In!" Great back-up vocals were provided by Bill Heath, a KPFA spokesman, on the details of Jesse Jackson Jr.'s "HOPE for Africa Act." It was this raucous scene that attracted the CNN cameraman and the President.
Photos snapped by "The Planet's" own Sarah Fallon are on our web site (www.sierraclub.org/trade).
Call your Rep. today by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Urge them to co-sponsor the Hope for Africa Act (HR 772) and to oppose the NAFTA for Africa (HR 434).
LAST CHANCE TO STRENGTHEN ADMINISTRATION STRATEGY ON ANIMAL FACTORY POLLUTION - ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO SIGN ON TO EVANS LETTER
The EPA and USDA are ready to release their strategy for controlling pollution from industrial-style animal factories. As you may know, these animals don't live in a little chicken coop, or roll around in the mud. No, these animals spend their whole life in a crowded warehouse, never to see the light of day. They pack thousands of them together.
It probably isn't a surprise, but you put a thousand animals in one warehouse, and all of a sudden you have a lot of poop to deal with. A LOT of poop. Some of these facilities produce more than a major metropolitan area. It has to go somewhere - and too often it's ending up in groundwater and polluting rivers - 35,000 miles at last count!
We still have a chance to let EPA and USDA know that we need strong regulations. Rep. Lane Evans (D-IL-17) is circulating a letter to his House colleagues, and we urgently need help recruiting members of Congress to co-sign. This letter will be sent to EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.
The Evans letter is in response to a letter 36 members of the House Agriculture Committee sent to Administrator Browner on February 11. That letter challenges EPA's legal authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate huge quantities of animal manure that are polluting rivers, killing fish, contaminating drinking water, and poisoning the air. It concludes by threatening to haul EPA officials before the Committee for a hostile hearing.
The deadline for signing is MONDAY, MARCH 8!!! Please call your member of Congress in your district, and urge them to sign on today! The Evans letter can help give the Administration the courage it needs to release a stronger plan to control the largest animal factories.
Thank you for helping us move on such a tight deadline! Your calls will make the difference!
For more information, contact Mike Newman at [mike.newman@sierraclub.org]
NEXT PAGE -->
|