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May 6, 1999
"If environmentalists had their way, anything not yet mangled by mankind would be allowed to stay just the way it is, thank you very much." BOISE WEEKLY May 6, 1999
I. Take Action -- Victory for United Nations Population Funding
II. Making livable communities -- one step at a time
TAKE ACTION
UPDATE AND ALERT: United Nations Population Funding
Victory!
In a surprising turn of events, the House International Relations Committee voted on April 14th, 23-17, to reinstate funding for UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in the State Department reauthorization bill (H.R. 1211). The Campbell/McKinney amendment was supported by all Democrats present (including Crowley), and the following Republicans: Gilman, Leach, Campbell, Cooksey. Absentees included Houghton, Lantos, Faleomaevega, Hastings, and Danner.
Cooksey was the biggest surprise. He made a statement expressing his great concern about the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) that he had become familiar with on a trip to Africa. He stated that his vote would turn on which position would do more to help eradicate FGM. He voted to fund UNFPA.
ALERT!!
The State Department reauthorization bill is now expected to reach the floor of the House in the next couple weeks. Family planning opponents in the House are likely to try to eliminate its funding provisions for UNFPA. And while they have not yet tried to attach the Gag Rule, that always remains a possibility.
Please contact your Representatives and urge them to oppose any amendment to the State Department reauthorization bill (H.R. 1211) that would eliminate or restrict the US contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) or funding for family planning assistance.
Thank you! For more information, e-mail jennifer.kurz@sierraclub.org
II. Making livable communities one step at a time -- on sidewalks!
North Carolina EPEC organizer, Mary Kiesau reports that Sierra Club activist, Lisa Renstrom and the Central Piedmont Group have been working on a range of livability issues in Charlotte, North Carolina. A recent article highlighted an important ally in their effort to make Charlotte more "walkable."
Republican Mayor Pat McCrory, a self-proclaimed conservative, is an outspoken supporter of safe, convenient ways for people to walk in his community -- sidewalks.
In an article by Neal R. Peirce of the Washington Post Writers Group, Mayor McCrory colorfully explains why he has fought for sidewalks, against some of his biggest former political supporters, "You could put in the best mass transit system in the world and people couldn't walk to it," argues McCrory. "With no sidewalk to stand on, you're obliged to walk down the middle of street or in a drainage ditch."
Mayor McCrory points out the obvious, we need cities where citizens can choose, and safely use, the oldest form of transportation -- our own two feet.
Today I went walking in the amber wind, There's a hole in the sky where the light pours in I remembered the days when I wasn't afraid of the sunshine.
But now it beats down on the asphalt land Like a hammering blow from God's left hand What little still grows cringes in the shade like a bad vine. - GRATEFUL DEAD
1. TAKE ACTION: WORK TO PROTECT ROADLESS AREAS, CALL YOUR REP.
2. SPRAWL FIGHTERS IN THE LIMELIGHT!
3. BIG PIG HIT IN POCKETBOOK BY ACTIVISTS
TAKE ACTION
1) WORK TO PROTECT ROADLESS AREAS!
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 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.
Now is the time for the Clinton Administration to take strong action to permanently protect all remaining roadless areas of 1000 acres and larger from all destructive activities.
WHAT TO DO:
1) Please call or write your Representative today and ask him/her to support a final plan that will *permanently* protect all remaining roadless areas of 1,000 acres or more from all destructive activities, including road building, mining and logging.
2) You can also ask your Representative to sign the "Hinchey/Horn letter" to support roadless area protection. This letter is addressed to the Clinton Administration and urges the Administration to protect roadless areas.
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
2) SPRAWL FIGHTERS IN THE LIME-LIGHT:
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME!
As Sierra Club activists around the country have learned, new highways rarely give you much to cheer about. Commuters quickly find the new roads, and your trip to work goes from a barely-tolerable twenty-five minutes to a mind-numbing hour. Strip malls sprout like noxious weeds on a summer lawn. Meanwhile, your air and water get dirtier, and more farmland gets franchised.
But there is hope! New roads that once were rubber stamped are being challenged by hard working activists like you! "We're on the case, pushing for intelligent growth management. That doesn't mean that everyone has seen the light, though. New roads are being proposed in Atlanta even thought they haven't examined the "impact to natural water, wetlands, ecological, and natural resources, how these options could change development patterns, as well as the cost of any of these projects." That's a lot of loopholes, from this Writer's perspective. (see Georgia story below)
2a) Olga was country when country wasn't cool
A great story ran in the May 1st Tampa Tribune, highlighting the Sierra Club's fight against the Suncoast Parkway. At stake? The parkway will ruin wetlands and displace scores of wild animals, including wood storks, bears and snakes. Oh, and don't forget Olga Blanco's back yard. Her 100-acre farm is right next door. "`It's going to bring in development a lot quicker,' said Blanco, who has lived on the farm since 1958. `It's not going to be country anymore.'"
Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop construction of the 42-mile toll road. "`The highway is destroying a way of life Florida can't afford to lose,' said Joyce Dosier, president of the Odessa Civic Club. `Why would any rural community want this monster in their back yard?' "Club members did what they could - at least for a few minutes - to make the area seem more country. They marched from Blanco's farm to the site of an entrance ramp for the $507 million parkway and planted three oak trees there."
2b) Georgia Lake Threatened by Road; Sierrans Fight to Save It
Two stories in the Daily Tribune April 28 put a spotlight on the danger interstate highways are causing local treasure Lake Allattona, as well as hunting, fishing and wildlife in the area. To avoid a slow death for the lake, members of the Sierra Club Tuesday called for an end to highway building in the area. The group said the proposed northern arc of the Outer Perimeter could destroy Allatoona."
Sierra Club regional representative Sam Collier pointed out that two highways already running near the lake have allowed intensive development. "`A third interstate across the northern part of the lake will bring strip malls and subdivisions to the last open space left, completely surrounding the lake with suburbs,' said Collier. `The streams feeding Lake Allatoona are already being severely degraded from polluted runoff from strip mall parking lots, suburban lawns and construction activities.'"
The highway-loving Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) has put together a group to study transportation options for the region. Unfortunately, the options seem to mostly be building a new highway, OR, widening an existing one. The kicker? The Georgia DOT study group hasn't looked at the impacts of these highways yet. When you are building a road, how important could these impacts be? It's only the "impact to natural water, wetlands, ecological, and natural resources, how these options could change development patterns, as well as the cost of any of these projects."
Nothing too important, right?
3) BIG PIGS' STENCH FINALLY COSTS IN COURT
Corporate hog factories last week took a hit in the pocketbook-- the only place they seem to have nerve endings. According to a Columbia, MO, Tribune story, a jury awarded hog factory neighbors $5 million for having to live around one of the state's largest hog producers. The plaintiffs accused the hog operation of creating odors so terrible that they make people physically ill. The jury awarded $100,000 each to 52 families living nearest the farms owned by Continental Grain Co. in Davies, Gentry, Grundy and Worth counties.
Missouri attorney general, Jay Nixon spoke out about the case. "It is good to have a jury confirm what we have held all along - that this type of megafarm, as currently operated in Missouri, constitutes a nuisance," Nixon said. "This verdict sends a clear signal that factory farms must pay a price if they are not good neighbors."
The hog farms being challenged in northern Missouri are now owned by Premium Standard Farms. The people's attorney said that the corporation used the cheapest and quickest techniques to set up its farms in 1994 and that since then, waste spills and strong odors have been common. The odor, from 28 lagoons, each about 4 acres in size that holds the waste from 8,000 hogs, is overwhelming. Nixon filed his own lawsuit against Premium Standard Farms, accusing the company of allowing waste to spill from its hog farms, failing to report 11 spills and over-applying hog waste as fertilizer on nearby farmland. Sierra Club's own Scott Dye, who assisted the community, said that the case would have "implications to a corporate swine industry that is out of control. The message has been sent - loud and clear. Rural America will no longer tolerate the destruction of its clean air, clean water and rural values for the sake of corporate greed." Good stuff, Scott-- as always. But what did the corporate flacks have to say for themselves? "We are disappointed that the jury did not have the opportunity to tour our farms and obtain a firsthand impression of our operations," Gerard Schulte, assistant general counsel for Continental Grain, wrote in a statement released after the verdict. That's mighty neighborly of you, Mister Schulte, but you seem to have missed the point! The truth is, nobody could have tolerated the stench.
"Does Nature know best, as the environmental organizations insist? The fact is, Nature knows nothing. Nature is deaf, dumb, blind, and unconscious."
Karl F. Wenger, President, Society of American Foresters "Journal of Forestry," Jan. 1998 in explaining his belief that "managed forests" are better than "unmanaged forests"
1. TAKE ACTION: CALL YOUR SENATOR -- IMPROVE FUEL EFFICIENCY
2. MISSISSIPPI BOVINE MADNESS!! SIERRA CLUB FIGHTS BACK!
TAKE ACTION
URGE YOUR SENATOR TO IMPROVE FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
Please encourage your Senator to sign a letter to the President urging him to work with Congress to implement new fuel economy standards. Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Bryan (D-NV) and Gorton (R-WA) are circulating an important letter and 25 Senators are already signed on! Is your Senator on the letter? Take a look at the list below.
Raising miles per gallon standards is the single biggest step to curbing global warming. But since 1995, friends of the auto and oil industries in Congress have attached stealth "riders" to Department of Transportation's budget that have blocked the Administration from improving the standards.
The Feinstein/Gorton letter shows that Senators with a range of political views all support the goals of curbing global warming and protecting our environment. Please help us in our final push to urge more Senators to sign this important letter.
Your calls and letters urging your Senators to sign the Feinstein, Bryan and Gorton letter to President Clinton have been swamping Senate offices and getting results! We still need your help!
Are YOUR Senators on the list below? If so, please call today and urge them to sign the Feinstein, Bryan and Gorton letter to the President today! You can reach them through the Capitol Hill Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Baucus (D-MT) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Chafee (R-RI) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND Coverdell (R-GA) Daschle (D-SD) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Grassley (R- IA) Gregg (R-NH) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kerrey (D-NE) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lincoln (D AR) Mack (R-FL) McCain (R-AZ) Reid (D-NV) Robb (D-VA) Rockefeller (D-WV) Roth (R-DE) Sarbanes (D-MD) Snowe (R-ME) Stevens (R-AK)
Here are the 25 Senators signed on the Feinstein, Bryan and Gorton letter:
Sen. Diane Feinstein, Sen. Richard Bryan, Sen. Slade Gorton, Sen. Robert Toricelli, Sen. Paul Wellstone, Sen. Patrick Moynihan, Sen. Joeseph Lieberman, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Harry Reed, Sen. Fritz Hollings, Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Sen. Ron Wyden, Sen. Christopher Dodd, Sen. Tom Harkin, Sen. Max Cleland, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Gordon Smith, Sen. Jim Jeffords, Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Bob Graham, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Daniel Akaka.
Please thank these Senators for siging the letter!!
2) MISSISSIPPI CHAPTER LAUNCHES ANTI-CAFO CAMPAIGN!
On April 21-22,1999 the Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club hosted National Field Staff Director Bob Bingaman and John McCown of the Southeast Field Office as they launched their 1999 EPEC / CAFO campaign.
The campaign started with a tour of the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge to examine the impacts a hog farm located on it Northeast boundary is having on the ecosystem of this vast refuge. Refuge staff ended the tour by thanking the Sierra Club for its efforts to preserve the refuge and combating the proliferation of hog farms in the state.
After departing the refuge, the group traveled across Noxubee County to the home of two activists who have stood up to CAFOs being sited in their community. The community people in attendance heaped praise on the Mississippi Chapter for its legislative and community organizing work related to CAFOs and wanted to learn how they might work more closely with the Club.
Local folks also asked the Club's help in ensuring that the state keep its promise to hold public hearings in the impacted communities before concrete regulatory decisions are made. The meeting was covered by television station WCBI of Columbus which covers North Mississippi and parts of Tennessee.
Following the meeting with community activists in Starkville, the group then traveled to Clay County where they had the opportunity to observe an elementary school located about 500 yards from a seven thousand unit hog farm. According to local residents, children attending the elementary school can not even have recess during days when the wind is blowing in the direction of the school.
After driving by the Clay County Elementary School, we traveled a short distance to Chickasaw county (Sparta, Mississippi) where we met with ten local activists at the Sparta Opry House. Located across the street from the Opry House was another seven thousand head hog farm. On this day (according to residents) the smell was not nearly as bad as it usually is, but nevertheless, it was still unbearable. We gathered in the Opry House and listened to the concerns of the residents and worked with them to devise a strategy for organizing a state wide effort to hold the Mississippi DEQ and the hog industry accountable. After about two hours, the meeting came to a close and we began a our two return trip to Jackson.
As we made our way back to Jackson, we could not help but reflect on how powerful the days experience had been. The day was special because we spent it talking to the people whom are most impacted by these farms and are tired of the adverse impacts these facilities are having on their personal property and their families. The day was also special because we spent it working in solidarity with community people helping them address issues that are important them. By the end of the day, the Sierra Club had embarked on the long journey of becoming a part of the efforts of the rural Mississippi families who take the time from their busy schedules to fight CAFOs.
On April 22 ( Earth Day) we began the day with and 8:30 breakfast meeting with Attorney Danny Cupit who is handling CAFO litigation for the communities we visited the previous day. Attorney Cupit expressed his gratitude for the work done by Louie Miller and Debbie Dawkins to help organize CAFO communities in the state.
Smith Park in downtown Jackson which was the site of our Earth Day activities. About two Hundred and fifty activists (mostly children) were in attendance. Bob Bingaman delivered the keynote remarks and unveiled the Sierra Club's National plan to protect wild places. Bob also used this opportunity to highlight the Mississippi Chapters EPEC Program and to talk about our efforts to organize state wide to force the state DEQ to implement ordinances that do an adequate job of protecting the air and water resources of the state from the harms caused by CAFOs
The Earth Day activities attracted extensive media coverage. The Columbus Dispatch, The Tupelo Journal and the Clarion Ledger were among the news papers that interviewed Bob and covered his speech. WAPT (ABC) of Jackson was the only television station to cover the event. The Mississippi Radio (representing 110 stations) also conducted a detailed interview with Bob.
The Mississippi Earth Day event was a tremendous success. This success can be attributed to the detailed preliminary work done by Louie Miller. Louie's commitment to his work and the respect he enjoys from community activists and legislators from across the state was made abundantly clear. The Mississippi Chapter would also like to extend a special thank you to Cecily Vix who journeyed to Mississippi to help launch what is fast becoming the most exciting campaign in the country.
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