NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
March 29, 1999
"To punish me for my contempt for authority, Fate made me an authority myself." Albert Enstein
Contents:
TAKE ACTION #1: Cheers and Boos on Environmental Spending Votes
TAKE ACTION #2: Don't Trade Away Africa's Environment
IN THE STREETS: Sierran Organizes Behind Hope for Africa
ON THE HILL: How Congress Voted on Environmental Spending
TAKE ACTION
TAKE ACTION #1: Cheers and Boos on Environmental Spending Votes
On March, 25, the House and Senate passed budget resolutions that would devastate the environment. The budgets would slash environmental spending by 10% next year, and by 28% in 2004.
Unless they hear from us, the members of congress who voted for this budget will make the cuts in the appropriations (spending) bill that would reduce funds for clean air and water, enforcement, toxic waste clean up, parks, and other environmental programs. The most effective way to get our message out is to write a quick letter to the editor highlighting the potential impact of the cuts on the local environment, and the vote that the local congressman/woman cast in favor of these cuts.
Also, write a letter thanking those members that voted against the budget cuts. In particular, thank those who voted for the Spratt substitute that would have restored funding for environemntal programs and fund the Lands Legacy and Liviable Communities initiatives. These folks are listed below. ("HOW CONGRESS VOTED ON ENVIRONMENTAL SPENDING")
For a complete list of how congress voted on these crucial budget issues, also click on our web site at www.sierraclub.org.
TAKE ACTION #2:
Don't Trade Away Africa's Environment
In a vote that could come early in April on African trade policy, Congress faces a choice between the failed trade policies of the past and a new, progressive alternative.
TAKE ACTION: Call your Representatives today and urge them to oppose the so-called African Growth and Opportunity Act (HR 434) and to support the HOPE for Africa Act (HR 772) instead. Then write a letter to the editor to your local newspaper. For more information, check out the Club's web site at www.sierraclub.org/trade.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (the Sierra Club calls it the "NAFTA for Africa") would open up Africa to increased foreign "investment" by transnational oil, mining, and logging companies by threatening to raise tariffs on Africa's exports unless Africa accepts the bill's investor-friendly rules. But without strong environmental laws, the increased "investment" would destroy the natural resources -- the farmland, pure water, and forests -- that the vast majority of Africans depend on for survival. Tropical deforestation in Central Africa, already more serious than in Brazil, would only accelerate if the NAFTA for Africa becomes law and opens the region to increased resource extraction.
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. of Illinois has a better idea. His Hope for Africa legislation would provide generous new access to the US market for African products. But by requiring a high level of African content in these goods, Rep. Jackson's bill would ensure that the benefits go to Africa's working people and not to transnational clothing companies that use Africa to tranship goods made in China. The HOPE for Africa Act would also relieve Africa's crushing $230 billion in foreign debt, reducing pressure to rapidly exploit the region's precious natural resources to pay off foreign creditors.
SIERRAN ORGANIZES BEHIND HOPE FOR AFRICA.
Arthur Freyer, one of the Sierra Club's top fair trade activists in San Francisco, knows a good organizing opportunity when he sees one. He helped the California Fair Trade Campaign, the San Francisco Central Labor Council, and the United Steelworkers of America organize a conference called 5 Years After Nafta: Enough is Enough on Saturday, March 6.
The two hundred fifty plus in attendance heard an impressive array of panels and speakers:
* Steelworkers reps described their lawsuit to overturn NAFTA on constitutional grounds. (Shouldn't trade agreements really be handled as treaties?)
* Three young women from Lick Wilmerding High School described how their "reality tour" to an abandoned lead recycling plant in Mexico prompted an investigation by NAFTA's environmental commission, and
* Union officials from the US explained how NAFTA rules will open US borders to Mexican trucks that don't meet US safety standards while Mexican unionists from the Cananea mine in Sonora, Mexico described a brutal government crackdown after workers demanded clean up of the ancient copper smelters.
Arthur took advantage of the pumped up crowd to set up a Sierra Club booth, complete with banners, and got over 50 folks to write hand-written post cards to Rep. Nancy Pelosi and other Reps urging them to oppose the NAFTA for Africa and to support HOPE for Africa instead.
WAYTAGO Arthur!
HOW CONGRESS VOTED ON ENVIRONMENTAL SPENDING
Vote #1: Representatives voted as follows on the Spratt substitute that would have restored funding for environmental programs and funded the Lands Legacy and Livable Communities initiatives. ("FOR" is the right vote. "Against" is the wrong vote.)
NO Republicans voted FOR Spratt. Burton IN, Cooksey LA, Hostettler IN, Metcalf WA, and Smith TX did not vote.
The following Dems voted AGAINST Spratt: Berry AR Bishop GA Boyd FL Costello IL DeFazio OR Frank MA Goode VA Holden PA Kanjorski PA Lee CA Lipinski IL Lucas KY McCarthy NY McIntyre NC Miller CA Minge MN Mollohan WV Murtha PA Owens VA Pastor AZ Peterson MN Phelps IL Pickett VA Pomeroy ND Rivers MI Schakowsky IL Stark CA Stenholm TX Tanner TN Taylor MS Tierney MA Traficant OH Visclosky IN
plus Sanders I-VT-AL
The following Dems did not vote: Barcia MI Brown CA Dingell MI Pelosi CA Stupak MI
All other Democrats voted FOR the Spratt substitute.
Vote #2: On final passage of H. Con. Res. 68, which would devestate the environment, there were the following votes. ("Against" is the right vote. "For" is the wrong vote.)
The following Republicans voted AGAINST the budget. Morella MD Quinn NY
Burton IN, Paul TX, Smith TX, did not vote. All other Republicans voted FOR H. Con. Res. 68.
The following Democrats voted for H. Cons. Res. 68: Condit CA Cramer AL Goode VA Hall TX
The following Dems did not vote: Pelosi CA Stupak MI
All other Democrats voted AGAINST the House Budget Resolution
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contents:
TAKE ACTION: Support Farmworkers: Boycotting Mt.Olive Pickle Co.
HOG MORATORIUM: Frederick County, Md., Stops an Animal Factory
HELPING A CROWDED WORLD: Healthier Fisheries, Forests and Families
TAKE ACTION
Sierra Club members in the Midwest have joined with labor, religious, social justice and student groups to support farmworkers by boycotting - of all things - pickles.
Well, not all pickles. Just those produced by the Mt. Olive Pickle Company in North Carolina. Cucumber pickers in that state are denied the right to know which types of pesticides are sprayed on the fields where they work, even when they become ill. Enforcement is too scant to ensure that workers are properly trained to apply the pesticides, which sometimes drift from the site, threatening the surrounding environment and the families of workers who live on the grounds.
The working conditions aren't much better: Housing regulations are so weak that a single washtub qualifies as a "regulation laundry facility" for 30 people.
"The Club's official policy states that all workers - regardless of immigration status - are entitled to environmental protection," said Environmental Justice Chair Marti Sinclair. Mt. Olive CEO William Bryan refuses to sit down for talks with FLOC and pickle workers.
"Obviously, he's never been the target of a well-organized Sierra Club campaign," said Sinclair. "But he's about to find out what it's like."
TO TAKE ACTION: Write a letter to Mt. Olive Pickle Co. and tell them that their business practices are not good for workers - or for the environment. Tell them that companies in Ohio and Michigan have signed contracts with pickle workers in those states, and Mt. Olive should do the same.
Send it to: William Bryan, CEO, Mt. Olive Pickle Co., P.O. Box 609, Mt. Olive, NC 28365.
For more information: Contact Marti Sinclair at marti.sinclair@sierraclub.org, or (513) 674-1983.
TAKE ACTION
FREDERICK COUNTY, Md., STOPS AN ANIMAL FACTORY THANKS, IN PART, TO SIERRA CLUB ORGANIZING
On March 16, the Frederick County Commission took its final vote to implement a one-year moratorium on hog operations that exceed 250 animals. The commission will use the time to rewrite the Right to Farm law to exclude factory-style animal production.
The vote was 5-0 for the moratorium. The high point of the meeting came when an 82-year-old hog farmer, Dan Poole, stood and spoke in favor of the moratorium. Perhaps the most respected farmer in the county, Poole described the facilities as "factories not farms." He told of how they might mean the end of the family farm instead of its salvation. He is chair of the Local Soil Conservation District Committee which voted unanimously, yesterday, to endorse the moratorium.
The war against this destructive form of production is far from over in Maryland, but Maryland Chapter Chair Chris Bedford thinks the state turned a corner this week. One commissioner, in explaining her vote, spoke eloquently about the environment and our responsibility to think beyond the incessant demand for "more."
Congratulations to the Maryland Chapter!
PORTLAND, MAINE, CITY COUNCIL URGES RATIFICATION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE ELINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW)
On March 15, the Portland, Maine, city council voted unanimously for a resolution urging the United States Senate to ratify CEDAW. Thanks to Louis Sigel of both the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club and Amnesty International, the Sierra Club was alerted to the upcoming vote. By networking with allies, Sigel mobilized the collective voices of the 1,300 Portland members of the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club. Dudley Greeley, Maine Chapter Population Chair, attended the meeting and spoke on their behalf in support of the resolution.
Representing Amnesty International, Sigel gave the councilors information that made it easy for them to defend a vote in favor of the resolution. Greeley followed with a comment linking CEDAW's ratification to sustainable management of Maine's marine fisheries and the financial health of Portland's own wholesale fish pier. Sounds like a stretch?
Not really. The International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994 resulted in an international agreement on the relationship between the status of women, birth rates and sustainable use of resources. Generally speaking, women with education, women with access to reproductive health care and health care for their children, women who experience gender equity in matters political and economic, are women who choose to have fewer children. In short, women that are not discriminated against take control of their fertility and have fewer children.
On our crowded and highly interdependent world of six billion, a slower human growth rate will make it easier to manage our planet's resources sustainably: healthier fisheries, healthier forests, healthier families. CEDAW is one piece of a puzzle that must be carefully assembled if we are to succeed in planning our families for a livable future.
CEDAW can be accessed in its entirety at: www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3
"I don't know where this guy wants us to put them [hog waste lagoons and spray fields] -- in downtown Raleigh?"
North Carolina Pork Council spokesperson Walter Cherry, reacting to a study showing that minority communities in North Carolina had about six times more hog farms than white neighborhoods
Contents:
TAKE ACTION: Support Roadless Area Protection
House Budget Resolution Would Devastate Environment
Tier 2: Close the SUV Pollution Loophole
TAKE ACTION!
URGE YOUR MOC TO SUPPORT ROADLESS AREA PROTECTION
The wild, roadless areas of our National Forests are vital to a healthy environment: they provide clean drinking water for many communities, recreation opportunities, valuable wildlife habitat and they are a part of the natural heritage we want to protect for our children to enjoy.
Earlier this year, the Forest Service announced a moratorium that restricted road building in some of our nation's roadless areas. Unfortunately, the moratorium is both temporary and full of political loopholes that leave tens of millions of acres of America's scenic wilderness wide open to logging, mining, and road building. Many forests in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska's Tongass are exempt from the roadbuilding moratorium. The Clinton Administration has taken a half-step toward protecting the still wild areas of our National Forests from roadbuilding. But, we believe all roadless areas of 1000 acres and larger should receive permanent protection from all destructive activities.
This week congressional leaders Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Rep. Steve Horn (R-CA) are circulating a letter for their colleagues support to urge the Clinton Administration to protect these valuable wild forest lands.
TAKE ACTION: Here's your chance to get involved in the Sierra Club's Wildlands Campaign by urging your Representative to support the protection of all National Forest roadless areas!
Please call or write your Representative and ask him/her to support *permanent* protection of all remaining roadless areas of 1,000 acres or more from all destructive activities, including road building, mining and logging. Tell your Representative to protect our last remaining roadless forests, for our families, for our future. Thank You!!
You can call your Representative through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
You can also write your Representative at:
The Honorable YOUR REPRESENTATIVE US House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
HOUSE BUDGET RESOLUTION WOULD DEVASTATE ENVIRONMENT Spratt Substitute Would Restore Cuts, Invest in Wild Lands and Open Space
The following letter was sent to all members of the House of Representatives today. A vote is expected tomorrow afternoon. A similar letter will be sent to the Senate before a vote expected on Friday.
March 24, 1999
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the Sierra Club's more than half million members, I strongly urge you to vote against the House Budget Resolution, H. Con. Res. 68 because it would devastate protection for our air, water, land, parks, and wild places. Instead, please vote for the substitute budget resolution expected to be offered by Rep. John Spratt that would restore the drastic cuts in H. Con. Res. 68. In addition, the Spratt substitute would provide funds for the Lands Legacy and Livable Communities Initiatives without busting the spending caps The votes on H. Con. Res. 68 will be some of the most critical environmental votes in 1999.
The Budget Resolution passed by the House Budget Committee and pending on the House floor would slash funding for environmental programs by an estimated 12 percent in FY 2000 and 28 percent in FY 2004. These extreme cuts would, in effect, undo years of progress in our efforts to provide a clean and safe environment for all Americans.
* H. Con. Res. 68 would stop up to 135 toxic waste site clean ups under Superfund -- more than 90 percent of the federally planned clean ups.
* H. Con. Res. 68 would eliminate funding for the Clean Water Action Plan, needed to clean up the 40 percent of our waters still too polluted for fishing and swimming.
* The cuts would cripple EPA's ability to protect public health by enforcing public health standards.
* Visits at national parks would be significantly curtailed, and visitor safety would be jeopardized because of cuts in vital maintenance and repairs.
* The budget reductions would cripple salmon restoration in the Pacific Northwest, and hurt restoration efforts for other endangered species.
* Budget reductions would hamper efforts toward cleaner, more efficient energy for homes and industry, which are critical to curbing global warming.
Besides shredding existing environmental safeguards, H. Con. Res. 68 would not fund the Lands Legacy initiative and key portions of the Livable Communities initiative. The former program would increase the protection of irreplaceable wild places in the Everglades, the Mojave Desert, New England's wildlife refuges, and many other locations. It would also provide funds to protect farm land and endangered species. The Livable Communities program would help slow urban sprawl by providing Better America Bonds and other resources to invest in the protection of open space.
Proponents of H. Con. Res. 68 might argue that its dreadful environmental budget cuts are necessary to fulfill the budget agreement made in 1997. Likewise, they would assert that funding the Lands Legacy and Livable Communities programs would bust the spending caps. Nothing could be further from the truth. President Clinton's budget proposal did not slash environmental programs, funded the Lands Legacy and Livable Communities initiatives, and were consistent with the budget caps. The Spratt amendment is also consistent with the 1997 budget caps.
In fact, the environmental budget cuts in H. Con. Res. 68 are unnecessary to meet deficit reduction requirements. In reality, these cuts are just more back door attempts to weaken protection for our air, water, and land. The budget fails to make protection of our air, water and land a priority.
The votes on this dangerous budget resolution are critical votes on the environment. We will work to ensure that the public is fully aware of the importance of these votes to the health and safety of their environment. We strongly urge you to oppose these destructive environmental cuts by voting for the Spratt amendment and against H. Con. Res. 68 as passed by the House Budget Committee. Your vote is needed to protect America's environment for our families, for our future. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Carl Pope Executive Director
Tier 2: Close the SUV Pollution Loophole
Sierra Club joined US PIRG in releasing their report on the pollution spewing from SUVs and other light trucks. Under the existing auto pollution standards, SUVs are allowed to be megapolluters, spewing out 3 to 5 times more smog- forming pollution than cars. That's bad news for our lungs!
Here's a story from the Telegram & Gazzette (3/18/99, Worcester, MA):
With sales of subcompact cars dropping fast and sales of bigger and more powerful sport utility vehicles going through the roof, environmentalists are calling for an end to a free ride on emissions that SUVs and light trucks have had for years. . . .
Environmental groups yesterday called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to choke off a federal loophole that has allowed SUVs to emit as much as three times the amount of the smog-causing nitrous oxide allowed from passenger cars.
A report released nationally yesterday by U.S. Public Interest Research Group . . . supported pending EPA rules [Tier 2 standards] that would require manufacturers of SUVs, vans and pickup trucks to meet emission standards now required for cars, starting in 2007, thereby closing the loophole. [The report] cited government statistics showing SUV sales went from 931,000 sold in 1990 to 2.8 million sold in 1998. . . .
The groups said elimination of the [SUV pollution] loophole would cut 1.2 million tons of smog forming air pollution in the country each year.
For more information or post cards urging Vice President Gore to clean up SUVs contact Michelle Artz at michelle.artz@sierraclub.org.
"If you put your nose to the grindstone rough and hold it there long enough You'll soon forget there are such things As brooks that babble; birds that sing And then your world will be composed Of you, your grindstone and your ground down nose." Jerry Goodheart Contents:
Earth to Congress: Fund environmental programs
Fun facts to know & tell: Torment your family by being a sprawl know-it-all
Wonderful wetlands: Your chance to swamp sprawl
TAKE ACTION!: Tell Congress -- Fund environmental programs
Congress is getting ready to vote on the proposed budget for FY 2000, and if you care about the environment, beware - the Leadership's budget proposes drastic cuts to environmental priorities, cuts that would stop toxic waste cleanups, shut down national parks, cripple water quality programs, and stop our efforts to challenge sprawl.
The Clinton Administration's budget -- including the important Land Legacy program -- would fund these programs, all without disturbing the sacred "budget caps." Somehow, the Leadership and the Budget Committees haven't gotten the message - Americans want their environment protected not plundered.
The leaders in the House and Senate need to hear that their proposed budget just doesn't cut it. You can help avert this cheap approach in Washington by calling your Representative and your Senators. Ask them to support a supplemental budget that funds our needed environmental programs.
Tell them to OPPOSE the Budget Committees' anti-environmental budget, but don't stop there. We need to get the word out that these programs are in danger. Write a letter to your local paper, so that your neighbors will join the fight as well.
You've probably heard that the definition of a cynic is " the person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Well, here's the price we would pay for the proposed budget:
* Cleaning up toxic waste. This budget would stop 135 toxic waste cleanups - 92% of the federally planned cleanups
* National parks - you will find reduced services and hours of operation at 378 parks, and the closing of some smaller parks
* Land protection - say goodbye to the Lands Legacy program, denying states and communities $588 million to protect coastland, urban parks, farmland and other green spaces.
* Slashing water and public health protections - get ready for the elimination of the Clean Water Action Plan, which helps communities clean up the 40 percent of surveyed waters still too polluted for fishing or swimming
* Global Warming - forget about cleaner, more efficient energy, this budget guts the Department of Energy and EPA's budget
* Wildlife Protection - Cuts to the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Army Corps of Engineers would hamper salmon restoration in the Pacific Northwest, and shut down wildlife refuges
Let Congress know - we care about our environment! Fund environmental protection, or we'll make you pay on election day.
Annoy your friends, bore your children, by memorizing facts about sprawl
Number of acres, per year, of farmland destroyed by development .........1 million (American Farmland Trust)
Number of acres of wetlands destroyed every year in the U.S...........117,000 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife)
Number of local anti-sprawl initiatives passed in November election, nationally...150
Number of hours the average Washington DC driver sits, idle, per year, in car ....82
Wasted gasoline used in 1996 by drivers, nationally, sitting in traffic...........6 billion (Texas Transport'n Institute)
$20 Parking tickets earned by Director of Environmental Quality, March, 1999 ......7
Sprawl busting opportunity
Mad about sprawl? Then fight to save wetlands!
Wetlands are magnets to migratory birds, but they also seem to attract developers, and our Challenge to Sprawl campaign is all about keeping dumb development out of our natural places.
Right now, developers and others are using a "quick destruction permit" to destroy wetlands across the country. These "rubber stamp permits," known as nationwide permits, allow developers to pave and drain our marshes and bogs easily. The permits are given out with no public say-so and most are granted in as little as two weeks.
You can help reform this sorry program, but you must act today. The tragic tradition of giving out nation-wide permits will continue if the current program, as drafted, is finalized by the Clinton Administration.
The Sierra Club believed that the program would be overhauled, and at first, the White House had made some reforms, but the developers pressed hard. They went directly to the agency in charge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which buckled to the pressure. And even the common-sense provision to limit these rubber stamp permits in floodplain areas is being weakend.
Don't let the Army Corps of Engineers turn a deaf ear to our concerns! Right now, our most effective plan is to call the White House. Tell them the proposed draft would worsen our problems with sprawl. It would allow developers to destroy up to 3 acres of wetlands at a time for residential, commercial and institutional developments. That means more mini-marts and Golden Arches, fewer spring peepers and red-winged blackbirds.
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|