Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. --John Muir Our National Parks, 1901

Content:

TAKE ACTION: WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR ON REG REFORM

1. THE RIGHT-TO-KNOW ROLL-BACK RACE IS ON!

2. SARO-WIWA'S FAMILY SUES SHELL

TAKE ACTION

Reg Reform LTE

It's sad but true. Regulatory reform provisions which would strangle environmental agencies in red tape and allow anti-environmental votes to be hidden behind procedural shenanigans is still looming. Please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper -- help raise public awareness about this stealth attempt to put obstacles in the path to protecting and our environment and our health!

1. JUNE 21 - THE RIGHT-TO-KNOW ROLL-BACK RACE IS ON!

Do you know what Bromotrifluoroethylene would do if released into our environment? How about Trichloromethanesulfenyl chloride, or Dimethyldichlorosilane? I don't. But thanks to the Clean Air Act, the facilities that use them have to figure that out. They have to determine what the worst-case-scenario release of those, and dozens of other dangerous chemicals, would be. And they have to inform the public, and public safety officials, about those risks, and how to handle them in case of an accident.

Over 60,000 facilities have to report these plans to the EPA by June 21. But some in Congress are staging a last-minute push to roll back your right-to-know about the dangers in your backyard. Allentown, Pennsylvania recently learned the hard way. Parents only learned that there was a chemical manufacturing plant next to their day-care center after it blew up. Fortunately, the crushed cribs were empty. All the children had already gone home.

Both the House and the Senate are busy at work putting together a bill that will limit your ability to get these risk management plans. Representative Waxman (CA), and Senator Lautenberg (NJ) are working hard to keep Congress pointed in the right direction - protecting your right-to-know, and striving for hazard reductions.

Stay tuned! There is sure to be legislation soon, and we will need your help protecting our right-to-know! For more information, contact Mike Newman at mike.newman@sierraclub.org

2. Saro-Wiwa's Family Sues Shell

From Nigeria P.M. News (Lagos) May 24, 1999

Lagos - The family of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995 by order of the Nigerian government, is seeking millions of pounds in damages from Shell in a US lawsuit alleging that human rights violations perpetrated by the Abuja government are partly the responsibility of the oil company, Britain's Sunday Independent has reported..

"We believe Shell facilitated Saro-Wiwa's execution," said Jenny Green, a lawyer for the family at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. "We believe there is a basis in US law to hold Shell accountable."

Shell denies all wrongdoing and is appealing on a technicality to stop the lawsuit from being heard.

The New York District Court ruled in January that it had jurisdiction, but said the case would be better heard in London. Shell is contending in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that the US does not have jurisdiction for this case. Saro-Wiwa's family is cross-appealing that New York is a better venue than London. Oral arguments are scheduled for this autumn.

The existence of the lawsuit emerged last week as a result of demonstrations outside the annual general meeting of Premier Oil in London. Activists from The Burma Campaign UK and the World Development Movement want Premier to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline running from the Andaman Sea through Burma to Thailand.

Activists say the pipeline is being built with forced labour. Premier Oil denies this and says it has a policy of constructive engagement with Burmese authorities to stop human rights abuses by linking the local economy to the outside world.

US activists working along side the campaigners are suing Unocal, a US oil company also building a natural gas pipeline in Burma.

The Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International say Unocal is responsible for the Burmese Army forcing locals to work on the pipeline.

Unocal denies this charge and is appealing a decision in a California court which says the US has jurisdiction to hear the case.

If successful, the legal initiatives against Shell and Unocal could have far-reaching implications. US human rights activists want to extend legal precedents established in the US to make multinationals financially liable for human rights abuses in the Third World.

Jenny Green at the Center for Constitutional Law claims that the Saro-Wiwa family and a second group of defendants from the writer's Ogoni tribe have affidavits in which Shell said to the Saro-Wiwa family, when Ken Saro-Wiwa was in custody: "If you call off the international campaign maybe there's something that can be done to help."

May 25, 1999

The Clinton Administration "overstepped the boundary of seemliness when it let Seattle literally sell next November's ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization to corporate interests."

"The Selling of the WTO," Editors, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1999

1. TAKE ACTION: Stop the Selling of the WTO

2. FROM THE FIELD: Alabama Sierrans Fight for Hurricane Creek

Sierrans Sue to Save Black Hills National Forest

Dakotah Chapter Fights for Roosevelt National Park

OK Sierrans Make Democracy Work

TAKE ACTION

1. TAKE ACTION: Don't Trade Away our Environment, Stop the Selling of the WTO

The Clinton Administration, "overstepped the boundary of seemliness when it let Seattle literally sell next November's ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization" declared a Los Angeles Times editorial last week (Wed., May 19, 1999)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) will decide environmental issues of global significance at next November's Summit in Seattle, Washington. On the table, for instance, will be a proposed new trade agreement for forest products that could increase wood consumption and clearcut logging worldwide. Environmentalists will also be pressing for review and reform of trade rules such as those that allowed a successful challenge to US sea turtle protections last year as "an illegal barrier to trade."

Despite the vital environmental issues at stake, the Clinton Administration authorized a private sector group calleed the Seattle Host Organization, co-chaired by Boeing's Phil Condit and Microsoft's Bill Gates, to raise the $9 million to pay for the Summit. With big corporations footing the bill, the LA Times worries whether the WTO can preserve "a reputation as authoritative regulator of global trade and impartial arbiter of disputes among its member countries."

As a Sierra Club spokesman told the Wall Street Journal, "[US Trade Representative] Charlene Barshevsky will be much more inclined to listen to Phil Condit and Bill Gates than to other interested parties. They might not want to bite the hand that feeds them."

Corporate heavies such as Weyerhauser, General Motors, and Ford, with major stakes in the outcome of this Summit, have already ponied up big bucks.

Their contributions will go toward renting and outfitting a convention center and transporting delegates around town.

As if to confirm citizens' concerns, Pat Davis of the Seattle Host Organization said, "We're going to have to get 400 contributors. No individual company will be able to say they bought this meeting." (Financial Times, April 7, 1999) Responded the Sierra Club, "If the whole enterprise is being funded by corporations, you've got to raise fundamental questions about how neutral, how legitimate it is." (Seattle Weekly, April 22, 1999)

Please write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper. Tell them you don't want to trade away our environment.

ALABAMA SIERRANS FIGHT FOR HURRICANE CREEK

Alabama State Sierra Club Chairwoman Peggie Griffin helped to organize a bike and canoe trip down Hurricane Creek to save its peaceful waterfalls from the eastern bypass highway around Tuscaloosa. Under plans of the Alabama DOT, the highway would place concrete piers supporting two bridges at two points in the creek set amid old-growth forests behind the Sumerville subdivision.

"The beauty of this area is very significant to me," Griffin told the Tuscaloosa News (May 17), as she pointed reporters to various plants along the path including jack-in-the-pulpit, star anise, mountain laurel, and ferns.

"It's just a very rare place that's left in Alabama," said Curtis Hallman, of the Sierra Club's southeast field office. "It's never been logged. There's really large and old trees and it would be a shame to see them cut for the sake of a road or bridge."

SIERRANS JOIN SUIT TO SAVE BLACK HILLS NATIONAL FOREST

The Dakotah Chapter of the Sierra Club joined several other conservation groups as well as tribal entities, including the Black Hills Sioux, the Oglala Sioux, the Sicangu Treaty Council, and Fire on the Prarie, in a lawsuit to block a timber sale in the Black Hills National Forest. The US Forest Service says the sale is necessary to control a growing mountain pine beetle infestation. Foresters say logging must start before the beetles fly to new locations in July.

The decision would allow logging in one of the last roadless area in the Black Hills, Beaver Park, which has been considered for wilderness designation.

DAKOTAH CHAPTER FIGHT ROAD THAT THREATENS ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK

The Dakotah Chapter is also up in arms about a proposed road near the Roosevelt National Park, according to a report in the Dickenson Press. The road would run close to a wilderness area in the park.

"Basically what the counties want to do is straighten an existing road," said the Club's Wayde Schafer. "But the conflict we have is the route they've chosen puts the road literally up against the boundary of the Teddy Roosevelt park and right through the heart of the Wannagan Creek roadless area."

SIERRANS MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK IN OK

Sierrans Keith Smith and Susie Shields were honored with the "Making Democracy Work Award" by the Oklahoma League of Women Votes. The awards are given to individuals or groups who have advanced the active participation of citizens in Oklahoma government.

Congratulations Keith and Susie!

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" Martin Luther King, Jr.

TAKE ACTION

Unnecessary Use of Drugs at CAFOs Threatens Public Health Tell the FDA to Ban the Use of Antibiotics As Livestock Growth Promoters

The increased use of antibiotics to fatten hogs and poultry has gone hand-in-hand with the development of industrial-style livestock operations. Fifty million pounds of antibiotics are produced in the U.S. every year; 40% of that is given to animals, and 80% of what is given to animals is used to promote their growth. With thousands of animals crammed into the tight quarters of a typical factory operation, antibiotics are dispensed constantly through the animals' feed.

Using antibiotics as a feed additive to fatten livestock more quickly is making disease-causing bacteria more resistant to the drugs humans rely upon to treat tuberculocis, pneumonia, staph infections, and other life-threatening infectious diseases.

Antibiotics are critical in treating infectious diseases. But repeated exposure to the drugs enables resistant strains of bacteria to evolve. Initially, some bacteria may be naturally resistant, and they survive treatment and multiply. When antibiotics are given again, more of the bacterial population may become resistant, and as that proportion increases over time, the drugs become less effective. The more antibiotics we use, the more likely it is that bacteria will become resistant. People are exposed to these antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the food supply and drinking water.

Physicians are finding an increasing number of cases in which antibiotics are no longer curing diseases. For example, as many as 40% of strains of streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes pneumonia and bloodstream and ear infections, are now resistant to penicillin and other commonly used antibiotics. Patients with antibiotic-resistant infections have died. The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated that annual cost of treating antibiotic resistant infections in the U.S. is $30 billion.

The World Health Organization called for a ban on using antibiotics to fatten livestock in 1997. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Public Health Association and other public health organizations have taken similar positions. The European Union heeded these concerns last year when it banned adding human-use antibiotics to animal feed.

Previous efforts to ban antibiotics as feed additives to fatten livestock have failed because of the opposition of the livestock industry and drug manufacturers. Now the Food and Drug Administration is considering a new petition to ban the use of medically useful antibiotics as growth promoters. This action would be an important step in protecting the effectiveness of drugs used to treat human diseases and in stopping industrial-style livestock production.

Please write FDA Commissioner Jane E. Henney to urge her to ban antibiotics as livestock growth promoters.

Dr. Jane E. Henney: Commissioner Food and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 14-71 Rockville, MD 20857

"Alaska has more state land, more money in the bank, and more federal appropriations per capita than any other state. Alaska needs another federal handout like Bill Gates needs food stamps."

-- Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League, regarding today's vote in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to give away federal land to the University of Alaska.

1. TAKE ACTION: Fight Riders

2. Alaska Land Giveaway

3. Hog Factory Farms Inflict Illnesses on Neighbors, New Study Shows

4. Bad Decision on Clean Air

TAKE ACTION

1. TAKE ACTION - FIGHT RIDERS

The House of Representatives passed the Emergency Funding Bill last night with several anti-environmental riders still attached. Much of the debate in the House centered around the anti-environmental riders, but in the end members voted 269-158 to pass the bill. The Senate will take up the bill tomorrow, and is expected to pass it. Please contact your Senators and ask them to speak out against the anti-environmental riders in H.R. 1141 when it comes to the floor on Thursday. Urge them to speak to the leaders of their political party and insist that the practice of attaching damaging riders to complex must-pass spending bills *must stop*.

2. Alaska Land Giveaway

Senator Frank Murkowski's (R-Alaska) efforts to undo environmental protection in Alaska don't end with his recent back-door attack on Glacier Bay [see SC-ACTION #s 83, 84 and 86, reporting on Murkowski's attempt to tack on a rider to the emergency spending bill that would stall DOI regulations for protecting Glacier Bay]. Murkowski may have been unsuccessful in his rider attempt, but this morning, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee marked up and passed Murkowski's University of Alaska Lands bill (S. 744). The bill would allow the University of Alaska to select, gain title to, and develop 250,000 acres of federal land in and adjacent to Alaska. If the state matched the land grant, an additional 250,000 acres could be selected. Under the bill, the University could claim lands in the Tongass National Forest, the Chugach National Forest, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and the Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), including OCS lands adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Murkowski claims the bill levels the playing field and provides the University much needed resources. The fact of the matter is the University of Alaska already received Federal land grants in 1915, 1928 and 1980, the last of which was intended as a "full and final settlement," for any outstanding land claims by the University. In addition, Alaska received 104 million acres as part of the 1958 Statehood Act, more than any other state. The University already has roughly twice as much land as it would have received under the Morrill Act, the original higher-education land grant bill passed 136 years ago.

Moreover, the bill sets a dangerous precedent. While the federal government presently holds and manages our public lands in trust for all citizens, the University would manage lands acquired under the bill for one purpose only - income. The University has never acted as a careful steward, and would likely seek to squeeze revenue from its new resource-rich lands through oil leasing, clear-cutting, mining or other development activities.

S. 744 is bad for Alaska's environment, and unfair to American taxpayers. The Sierra Club will continue to monitor this legislation, and with its partners in the Alaska Coalition will work vigorously in opposition if the bill gains any momentum. Stay tuned for more details.

3. Hog Factory Farms Inflict Illnesses on Neighbors, New Study Shows

A new epidemiological study by the University of North Carolina School of Public Health found that community members experience health problems due to airborne emissions from large hog operations. The study surveyed residents living near a hog CAFO and a cattle CAFO, and people who did not live a large livestock operation. It concluded that residents near the large hog facility experienced more incidents of respiratory and gastrointestinal problems and mucous membrane irritation than who lived near a cattle operation or residents who lived near no intensive livestock operation. Quality of life problems -- the inability to open windows or go outside one's home in the summer -- were similar for those who lived near swine and cattle operations. The new study, commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, generally supports the conclusions of previous research.

4. "Bad Decision on Clean Air"

That's the headline of the lead editorial in the May 19 New York Times. The Times criticized the "shaky constitutional underpinnings" of last week's "bizarre and tortured" federal appeals court decision which threatens to undermine clean air and perhaps other environmental regulation. The Times urged the Clinton Administration to challenge the decision.

On the same day, the Washington Post editorial page offered a similar view. "The panel majority in effect accused the Environmental Protection Agency of freelancing. But that's what the panel itself was doing," said the Post's editorial.

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