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June 25, 1999
WHAT ARE THE CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEES COOKING UP THIS YEAR? AN ENTIRE BAKER'S DOZEN (IF NOT A LOT MORE) OF THEIR FAVORITE RECIPE -- ANTI- ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS! BE SURE TO SEE MONDAY'S ACTION DAILY, AN "ALL RIDER SPECIAL" ON THE LATEST ROUND OF BACKDOOR THREATS TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. ***
Friday is the ALL ACTION edition of the SC-ACTION, including actions that you can take on each of the Sierra Club's priority campaigns. The featured campaign this week is the Sierra Club's Global Warming Campaign, but be sure to check out the rest of the campaigns to find out what else you can do to defend the environment. Current action items follow on: Human Rights and the Environment, Sprawl, Wildlands, Clean Water, Ending Commercial Logging, Responsible Trade and Population.
URGENT ACTION ALERT!
A showdown is looming on global warming in the U.S. Senate!
After years of ducking the issue through anti-environmental riders, the U.S. Senate will soon have an open debate and vote on global warming, and on the pollution spewing from gas-guzzling cars and trucks. This may be the most important vote on global warming this year -- your senators need to hear from you!
BACKGROUND: The stage was set for this showdown in May, when 31 senators signed a letter to President Clinton from Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and Richard Bryan (D-Nev.). This bipartisan letter urged the president to work with concerned members of Congress to raise miles-per-gallon standards (known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE) and cut pollution. It also calls for an end to the loophole that allows sport utility vehicles and other light trucks to guzzle more gas and spew more pollution than passenger cars.
Raising miles-per-gallon standards is the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming. It would also slash America's dependence on foreign oil, reduce pressure to drill for oil in sensitive wilderness areas and strengthen our economy.
The Senate letter was a major victory, made possible by thousands of letters, faxes, postcards and phone calls from grassroots activists around the country. But the battle is just beginning. In each of the last four federal budgets, friends of the auto industry have attached stealth "riders" barring the Department of Transportation from even considering stronger CAFE rules. Defeating this rider is the number one global-warming priority for environmental advocates.
In the coming weeks, Feinstein, Gorton and Bryan will offer a resolution urging that this anti-environmental rider be dropped. It could be offered soon -- as early as the week of June 28. This is likely to be the most important debate Congress will have on global warming this year.
TAKE ACTION: Write, phone or fax your senators TODAY -- the vote could happen as early as next week! Urge them to support the upcoming Feinstein/Gorton/Bryan clean-car resolution, and close the loophole that lets SUV's and other light trucks pollute more than cars. Remind them that global warming is one environmental threat we cannot afford to ignore!
U.S. Capitol Switchboard - (202) 224-3121 For more information on how to contact your senators visit: https://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
KEEP READING FOR CRITICAL ACTION ITEMS ON OUR OTHER CAMPAIGNS
2. TAKE ACTION ON WILDLANDS. Rep. Don Young and Sen. Frank Murkowski, both Alaskan Republicans, have introduced a new bill to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. It's just in time for the annual migration of 130,000 caribou to the coastal plain where they will bear their young. Official wilderness designation for the coastal plain is a major priority for the Sierra Club because it would permanently protect that spectacular and fragile area from attacks like this one. As we've see in the past, the public will always rise up against drilling in the refuge; instead of achieving the goals Young and Murkowski are shooting for, the bill will more likely garner even more support for the wilderness designation bill. You can help by calling or writing your members of Congress about this new threat. Or go one step further. Starting July 5, the Congress is in Fourth of July recess, so members will be back home in their districts. Call your district office and see if you can get an appointment -- then ask your representatives to co-sponsor H.R. 1239 and senators to co-sponsor S. 867 -- both bills would designate the coastal plain wilderness, and protect it once and for all!
3. TAKE ACTION ON SPRAWL. Help put the brakes on sprawl by asking your senators to support the Better America Bonds. The Clinton administration's Better America Bonds program would help communities preserve open space and clean up abandoned industrial sites. This sprawl-busting program would allow communities to get tax-free, 15-year bonds for actions like land acquisition and clean up. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has agreed to introduce the bill to make these bonds possible, but he needs help if he's going to make this great idea a reality. You can help by calling your senators and asking them to be original co-sponsors of the Baucus bill. There's no bill number yet, but it's coming, and when it does, we want it to have strong support! For more information contact The Environmental Quality Program (202) 547-1141.
4. TAKE ACTION ON CLEAN WATER. Factory farms use 16 million pounds of antibiotics each year to promote faster livestock growth and cover up unhygienic production practices. This unnecessary drug use threatens public health; through food and water it exposes people to bacteria that are resistant to the drugs used to treat tuberculosis, staph infections, pneumonia and other infectious diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and prominent public health organizations have expressed great concern about the massive use of antibiotics to increase livestock weight in light of the growing evidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The United States should follow the example of the European Union, which banned adding human-use antibiotics to animal feed last year. Ask Dr. Jane E. Henney, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to ban the use of antibiotics to promote livestock growth when those drugs are used to treat humans. The FDA's address is 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 14-71, Rockville, MD 20857. For more information, contact Ed Hopkins at ed.hopkins@sierraclub.org or (202) 547-1141.
5. TAKE ACTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT. Help stop a uranium mine in Australia's Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is a World Heritage site recognized for both its rich biological diversity and for its cultural significance to the Aboriginal people who live there. But the conservative government in Australia is proceeding with plans to open a second uranium mine in the heart of Kakadu in a place called Jabiluka. This week, 34 congressional representatives signed a letter urging President Clinton to support listing Kakadu as a World Heritage "In Danger" site. You can join them in their efforts to protect Kakadu by calling or e-mailing U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and urging him to oppose uranium mining in Kakadu. Urge him to support "In Danger" listing. Babbitt's phone number is (202) 208-7351, e-mail is bruce_babbitt@ios.doi.gov. For more information, visit the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment Web site at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights. Or e-mail Sam Parry at sam.parry@sierraclub.org.
6. TAKE ACTION TO END COMMERCIAL LOGGING. Commercial logging on national forests and other federal public lands damages fish and wildlife habitat, degrades drinking water, destroys recreation opportunities and charges the cost to taxpayers. You can help protect our wild forest heritage by urging your representative to co-sponsor H.R. 1396, Rep. Cynthia McKinney's (D-Ga.) National Forest Protection and Restoration Act. For more information contact the Associate Representative to National Forest Issues and National Parks (202) 547-1141.
7. TAKE ACTION ON RESPONSIBLE TRADE. The House of Representatives could vote before the July 4 recess on legislation that would devastate Africa's environment. H.R. 434, the African Growth and Opportunity Act -- we call it the "NAFTA for Africa" -- would pry open Africa to increased foreign "investment" from transnational oil, mining and logging companies by threatening to raise tariffs on Africa's exports. But without strong environmental laws, the increased "investment" would destroy more of the natural resources -- the farmland, pure water and forests -- that the vast majority of Africans depend on for survival. Call, write or e-mail your representatives today and urge them to oppose the African Growth and Opportunity Act, "NAFTA for Africa", H.R. 434. For more information, see our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/trade.
8. TAKE ACTION ON POPULATION. The State Department reauthorization bill (H.R. 1211) will be considered by the House in the next few weeks. Please contact your representatives and urge them to oppose any amendment to H.R. 1211 that would eliminate or restrict the U.S. contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) or funding for family-planning assistance. Providing funding to give women access to voluntary family planning, economic opportunities and education allows women to choose the size and spacing of their families, which helps to stabilize population growth and protects our environment. For more information contact the Program Assistant to the Legislative Director at (202) 547-1141 or look at our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/population.
"I know it's hard to get excited about mussels unless they are on Jesse Ventura, but they are the canaries in the coal mine." -- Scott Faber, spokesman for American Rivers, in reference to a report on the health of the Upper Mississippi River System.
CONTENTS:
1. FOX RIVER GROUP MEMBERS SPEAK OUT: Bird-Doggers Tree the WTO in Chicago
2. WRESTLING WITH SPRAWL: Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura Walks Smart Growth Talk
3. QUOTED: From Utah to Louisiana to New Jersey, Our Message Makes the Papers
1. FOX RIVER GROUP MEMBERS SPEAK OUT: Bird-Doggers Tree the WTO in Chicago
Sierra Club volunteers Ron and Marion Harding gave Clinton administration officials a piece of their minds at public hearings in Chicago on the World Trade Organization. These long-standing activists from the Fox River Group carefully explained their view that, to promote global trade, the WTO is running roughshod over hard-won environmental protections.
Outside the Illinois State office buildings in downtown Chicago, the Sierra Club took advantage of the hearings to address an even larger audience - citizens of Chicago afflicted by an invasion of the Asian long-horned beetle. The world's only human-sized, English-speaking Asian long-horned beetle (costume worn by Dan Seligman, Responsible Trade campaign director) posed for the crowd, while Carl Zichella, Midwest Field office director, explained to reporters how free-trade rules allow more and more exotic pests to hitchhike into the country -- at devastating cost to our health, homes, and natural heritage.
The Asian long-horned beetle came in on wood packing crates and has destroyed 600 trees in Chicago and thousands more in New York City. If it ever spreads from these isolated urban pockets, it could wreak more havoc on America's deciduous trees than Dutch elm disease, chestnut blight and gypsy moth combined. All told, invasive pests cost the U.S. economy a whopping $122 billion per year in crop damage, termite-infested homes, and tree destruction. Yet rules of the WTO prevent countries from taking precautionary steps to stop invasives at our borders -- before small problems turn into big ones.
As Zichella explained in the Chicago Sun-Times, "To ensure that America can effectively control invasive pests such as the Asian long-horned beetle, we must fix World Trade Organization rules that discourage preventive action."
Or as the Asian long-horned beetle would say, "Humans call it the World Trade Organization. I call it the Wonderful Tree Opportunity."
2. WRESTLING WITH SPRAWL: Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura Walks Smart Growth Talk
On June 11, Gary Garczynski, vice president and executive officer of the National Association of Homebuilders, attacked the Sierra Club at the Growing Smart in Minnesota Conference. After calling for everyone to be reasonable and get along, he lambasted the Club for its Tour de Sprawl and said they had to stop distorting what was sprawl development all over the country. Little did he know that the North Star (Minnesota) Chapter started the Tour de Sprawl and they almost always highlight smart growth development and developers.
Despite repeated attempts by Sierra Club volunteers and staff, conference organizers refused to allow a Sierra Club response.
Gov. Jesse Ventura then spoke on smart growth and his experiences living in Los Angeles. He appears to have been reading the Club's "Sprawl Costs Us All" report when he outlined his four-point plan to address sprawl.
1. Use land well. Encourage development where you have existing infrastructure.
2. Provide a mixture of land uses where we want to develop.
3. Provide a mix of transportation choices. Make land use decisions that fit.
4. Make development decisions that are cost-effective. We should provide incentives for smart decisions, and consequences for shortsighted decisions.
He supported a series of measures that are good steps for fighting sprawl in Minnesota, but do not include Urban Growth Boundaries or stop floodplain sprawl. As Brett Hulsey, Midwest Representative put it, "It's a good start nonetheless."
3. QUOTED: From Utah to Louisiana to New Jersey, Our Message Makes the Papers
The following quotes by Sierra Club activists are taken from recent newspaper articles across the country.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
"This was really an emotional moment," said Anna El-Eini, coordinator for the D.C. Environmental Network, which includes Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club. "We really felt that we were heard."
(After the D.C. Zoning Commission rejected a plan that would have allowed a prison to be constructed in Southwest Washington, threatening recreational open space. Washington Post, 6/15/99.)
LOUISIANA
"This is a really great tool for a community to use to be in control, before they smell things and don't know what's happening," said Maura Wood, a Sierra Club conservation organizer.
(At an event in Norco, Louisiana where residents collected air samples near the Shell Chemical plant to send in for testing. The Sierra Club provided a grant that funded the plastic collection buckets. The Times-Picayune, 6/21/99.)
NEW JERSEY
"The Highlands is now the borderline against sprawl," said Jeff Tittle, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club. "What happened to Bergen County is starting to happen in these mountains, and we stand to lose not only woodlands, but also our water supply."
(At a New Jersey event to protect the Highlands -- a densely forested greenbelt just 40 miles from Manhattan -- from sprawl and development. The Record, 6/6/99.)
WISCONSIN
"It's the finest compilation of river data that has ever been accumulated," said Dean Rebuffoni, Midwest Regional Representative for the Sierra Club's Mississippi River Protection Program. "It points out that while we've had some improvements, particularly with water quality, we have had some problems, particularly with sediment and continual high water."
(On a recent report "Ecological Status and Trends of the Upper Mississippi River System 1998," that showed that sewage-treatment plant improvements in St. Paul, La Crosse and other areas had improved water quality but that the Upper Mississippi has nevertheless lost more than half of its mussel species. La Crosse Tribune, 6/17/99.)
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