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June 16, 2000
"Caribou like pipelines because it gives them a place to scratch." - Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell on why drilling will not effect wildlife in the Arctic Refuge, 6/15
CONTENTS: FRIDAY
*FEATURED ACTION ITEM: HELP STOP GLOBAL WARMING *
1) HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
2) ONE MONTH LEFT TO PROTECT WILD FORESTS
3) END COMMERCIAL LOGGING CAMPAIGN
4) CAFOs
5) SPRAWL
6) POPULATION
FEATURED ACTION
GLOBAL WARMING: SENATE VICTORY ON CAFE
With the Senate CAFE vote looming, the auto industry was running scared and cut a deal to kick-start a study of CAFE standards. The deal jump-starts the fuel economy process by having the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) do a joint study on miles per gallon standards and make a recommendation to Congress by July 1, 2001. This will get DOT going on collecting the data and looking at the issues involved. It will also put information together that will be essential to a rulemaking process next time around.
This is a huge victory for the environment and consumers, and is a direct result of your relentless phone calls and letters to your senators. The study would not have happened without the outstanding efforts of all of you telling the Senate to get moving on cleaner cars. The auto industry knew that we were going to get more votes than last year-- and now we've got the ball rolling on better CAFE standards. WE WON, THEY LOST!
TAKE ACTION: Call and write the White House and urge them to take advantage of the opportunity that Congress has given them to improve miles per gallon standards. State that you're counting on them to make sure that this study leads to tougher miles per gallon standards and you hope they will take the lead on the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming, raising CAFE standards. Raising CAFE standards will reduce our dependence upon foreign oil, slash pollution and will save us money at the gas pump.
1) HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT URGENT ACTION
Mexico's Attorney General Uses Backhanded Court Tactic to Seek the Conviction of Mexican Earth Defenders
On June 14, in a backhanded and deceitful maneuver, Mexico's Attorney General's office refiled its conclusion with the court urging the conviction of anti-logging environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera on the charges of drug-trafficking and illegal possession of weapons. In so doing, the prosecution broke a verbal agreement with defense attorneys to refile nonaccusatory conclusions. The contemptible maneuver was necessary due to irregularities in the original conclusions filed June 6. The defense now has a period of about three weeks to file their rebuttal.
Montiel and Cabrera have spent the last 13+ months in prison since their arrest May 2, 1999. After their detention, they were beaten and tortured until they confessed to concocted charges of drug-trafficking and illegal possession of weapons. In reality, their only "crime" was organizing their community to protest excessive and possibly illegal logging of old growth forests in the Southern Sierra Madre.
TAKE ACTION: Since the Mexican Attorney General has responded to our well-reasoned arguments for the immediate and unconditional release of Montiel and Cabrera with detestable court trickery, we are asking concerned activists write or call your local papers urging them to cover this story. Environmental activism is not a crime and environmentalists are not criminals.
For a copy of talking points and a letter to the editor, please call or e-mail Sam Parry at (202) 547-1141 or sam.parry@sierraclub.org. You can refer to our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
2) ONE MONTH LEFT: WRITE A WILD FOREST LETTER TODAY
Right now, the Forest Service is considering plans that could protect the last wild areas in our National Forests. The Forest Service is asking American citizens to answer basic questions like: should our last wild forests be logged? Should the Tongass National Forest in Alaska - the largest pristine temperate rainforest on the planet - be protected or remain open to clearcut logging and roadbuilding.
For the next five weeks -- the door is open to make conservation history! Please take the time to write a hand written, personal letter to the Forest Service calling for the protection of all of our last wild forests roadless areas from all damaging activities. If you have already written a letter - hold a letter writing party. Encourage your family, friends, children, neighbors and colleagues to write a letter too!
Here are some points to address in your letter: Over half of our National Forests have already been hammered by roadbuilding, logging and other damaging activities - we should protect what's left. Put these last, untouched areas roadless areas of our National Forests off-limits to roadbuilding, logging and other destructive activities; Please protect our nation's last temperate rainforest -- the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, from logging and roadbuilding. Letters should also address why wild forests are important to you. Send your letters to:
Chief Mike Dombeck U.S. Forest Service c/o Sierra Club 408 C Street NE Washington, DC 20002
3) PROTECT OUR WILD HERITAGE - STOP LOGGING OUR NATIONAL FORESTS
Protecting forests make environmental and economic sense. The Forest Service predicts that in the year 2000, recreation, hunting and fishing in National Forests will contribute 38 times more income to the nation's economy than logging, and will create 31 times more jobs. More than 3,000 species of fish and wildlife and 10,000 plant species -- including 230 endangered plant and animal species -- rely on National Forests for habitat.
The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act would eliminate the commercial logging program on federal public lands, promote restoration, and help communities that receive logging revenue develop a more diverse and stable economy.
** Call your Member of Congress through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to co-sponsor HR 1396, the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act. **
4) CAFOS: Keep Water Clean from Factory Farms!
CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) are giant corporate-owned livestock factories that churn out cattle, hogs, chickens, and turkeys in staggering numbers and produce massive amounts of animal waste in the process (2.7 trillion pounds per year). Too often this waste ends up in our rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and spreading disease. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.
You can take action to help protect America's lakes, stream and rivers from the animal waste produced by CAFOs by telling Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to stop protecting factory farms from the Clean Water Act. It is crucial that he hears how important clean water is to you. If possible, please call or email him so he hears from you as soon as possible.
For more information and a sample letter or message please visit https://www.sierraclub.org/takeaction/cleanwater/cwemail.asp. His address: The Honorable Dan Glickman, Secretary U.S. Department of Agriculture, 14th & Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250. His email: agsec@usda.gov. His phone: 202-720-2791
5) Protect America's Open Space and Farmland From Sprawl
Every American is feeling the consequences of sprawl. Across America "sprawl" --- scattered development that increases traffic, saps local resources and destroys open space --- is taking a serious toll on our environment, our health and our quality of life. The Senate can take steps to curb some of the effects of sprawl by supporting S. 1558, the Community Open Space Bonds Act.
The Community Open Space Bond Act introduced by Senators Baucus (D-MT) and Hatch (R-UT) would give state, local and tribal governments up to $1.9 billion annually for five years in bonding authority to combat sprawl. The program allows states and local governments to carry out their own conservation priorities by using zero interest bonds to purchase open space, protect water quality, improve access to parks, and help communities re-develop abandoned industrial city centers. The program is voluntary, grassroots-driven and community-focused.
Call or write your Senators and tell him or her to cosponsor S. 1558, the Community Open Space Bonds Act. For more information and a sample letter visit https://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/sprawl/bonds.asp.
6) POPULATION
Improve global health: Contact your Senators and Representative
The Sierra Club's Population Program is committed to environmental protection and population stabilization and works for these goals by advocating for increased U.S. funding for international family planning programs. Progress has been made. More women are receiving family planning services around the world. But, it is estimated that more than 150 million married women in developing nations request modern methods of contraception, but do not have access to them.
According to the World Health Organization, as a result of lack of access to proper prenatal care and safe motherhood programs nearly 600,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Annually, 18 million women suffer from pregnancy-related health problems that can be permanently disabling.
The Global Health Act of 2000, introduced by Congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Senator Leahy (D-VT), is legislation that addresses these critical issues. The Global Health Act increases assistance to developing nations with high levels of premature death, by improving children's health and nutrition and by reducing unintended pregnancies. It calls for an additional $1 billion dollars for health, child survival, and voluntary family planning programs in the existing budget.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your Representative and Senators and ask them to endorse HR 3826 and S 2387, to help protect the lives of women around the world. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
"The 20th century, a century of destruction in the people's wild forests, is ending. Let the new century, a century responding to the public's demands for protection of our wild forest, begin!" -- From an OP-ED by Jim Sconyers, West Virginia organizer, in the Charleston Gazette
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) TAKE ACTION: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND URGE THEM TO OPPOSE ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS
2) PIZZA AND PINE SCENT HELP SAVE WILD FORESTS
3) ARCTIC QUEST ARRIVES IN DC
4) FIRST WILD FOREST HEARING A SUCCESS
1) TAKE ACTION: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND URGE THEM TO OPPOSE ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS
There may be still time. The Interior Appropriations bill is being debated on the floor this evening, Wednesday, and it is not clear if they can finish votes on the contentious bill tonight. You may still have time to weigh in with your Representative to urge them to vote to strike the many anti-environmental riders that were inserted into the bill.
We expect a number of Representatives to offer amendments on the floor to STRIKE anti-environmental riders from the Interior bill. The Sierra Club urges members of Congress to support the following amendments:
An amendment or three separate amendments to be offered by Rep. Dicks (D-WA) to strike riders that:
- Prohibit the expenditure of funds to plan, design or manage any National Monuments designated by the President after 1999;
- Block the establishment of two proposed National Wildlife Refuges in Illinois/Indiana and California;
- Bar funds for completing a final decision on the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.
A separate motion by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) to strike the rider that prohibits the expenditure of funds to plan, design or manage any National Monuments designated by the President after 1999;
A possible amendment by Rep. Hoeffel (D-PA) to strike the rider that prohibits funding for the protection of America's rivers through the Heritage River Initiative;
A possible amendment by Rep. Inslee (D-WA) to strike the rider that prohibits environmental review of grazing permits that are due to be renewed;
We also expect members of the House to try to attach additional riders designed to undermine environmental protections during debate on the House floor. We urge you to oppose efforts to attach new anti-environmental riders such as:
- Possible amendments by Rep. Stupak (D-MI) that aim to derail the popular Forest Service Wild Forest/Roadless Initiative and the road management and transportation strategy;
- Possible amendment by Rep. Stupak to block enforcement of new National Park Service regulations which restrict damaging snowmobile use in most National Parks;
- Possible amendment by Rep. Rick Hill (R-MT) to block an future regulations restricting snowmobile use in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, and the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.
- An amendment by Reps. Young (R-AK) and Shuster (R-PA) to strip bill language assuring adequate water will be provided to meet the needs of the ecosystem under the Everglades Restoration Initiative.
We also urge your support for the following pro-environmental amendments:
- An amendment by Representative DeFazio (D-OR) to prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from approving new commercial farming leases that are causing harm to the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges.
- An amendment by Rep. Defazio (D-OR) to prohibit the Forest Service from using taxpayer funds to enforce the controversial recreation fee demonstration program, making it a voluntary program instead.
- An amendment by Reps. Wu (D-OR) and Smith (R-NJ) to shift $14.7 million in Forest Service logging subsidies to pay for critically underfunded fish and wildlife habitat protection programs.
- An amendment by Reps. Sununu (R-NH) and Andrews (D-NJ) to cut funds from the failed Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles Program that has already wasted $1 billion and will cause, not cut pollution.
- An amendment by Reps. Sanders (I-VT), Boehlert (R-NY), Allen (D-ME), Kind (D-WI), Udall (D-CO) to reduce subsidies for research and development for polluting fossil fuels and shift these funds to important energy efficiency measures
- An amendment by Reps. Royce (R- CA), Ryan (R-WI) and Sanford (R-SC) to defer funds for the wasteful "Clean Coal" Technology Program.
***TAKE ACTION***Congress must end the practice of using must-pass funding bills to advance anti-environmental riders. Please Call Your Representative to vote to strip these harmful riders from the Interior Appropriations bill and support amendments that may be offered to strengthen environmental and natural resource protection programs.
2) PIZZA AND PINE SCENT HELP SAVE WILD FORESTS
People across the country are doing a great job on outreach for the Wild Forest campaign. Some of our organizers have been very creative. For example, what better way to reach students in a college town than through pizza? That's what David Agranoff in Bloomington, Indiana figured. He got the hip local Pizza Express "natural pies" to distribute his flyers free of charge! In Texas, Larry Freilich realized that nothing turns out Wild Forest hearing attendees like the smell of the forest. He suggests the smell of pine on your mailing can dramatically increase the likelihood that your mailing will be opened and read. All it takes is filling a spray bottle with pine essential oil diluted with alcohol, fan the letters and spray lightly, or apply a small amount of the full-strength Pine oil directly along the edges of stacked envelopes. Keep up the amazing work that's happening all across the country through the end of the Forest Service comment period on July 17th.
3) ARCTIC QUEST ARRIVES IN DC
The Sierra Club welcomed friends of the Arctic Refuge Jeff Barrie and Alex Tapia to DC today to celebrate their cross-country bicycle trek in support of Arctic Wilderness.
Jeff rode his 7-speed beach cruiser over 4,000 miles since leaving southern California in February, stopping in communities along the way to screen his film, "Arctic Quest: Our Search For Truth." He was supported by Alex, who drove the new Toyota hybrid electric vehicle, the Prius. Jeff's and Alex's mission has educated thousands of people about the importance of wilderness protection for the coastal plain of the Refuge, and the need for better fuel efficiency as an alternative to increased oil drilling. They were joined this morning by a group of cyclists who escorted them on the final leg of their journey. After a bicycle parade through DC, the group converged on Capitol Hill for a press conference. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representatives Ed Markey (D-MA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Steven Kuykendall (R-CA) attended the event, praising Jeff and Alex for their commitment to such an important cause.
4) FIRST WILD FOREST HEARING A SUCCESS
The first of the more than 100 public hearings on the roadless initiative was held in Asheville, North Carolina on Monday. Sierra Club organizer Peter Baker reports that environmentalists wearing green hats and stickers outnumbered the opposition by a margin of more than 2-1. Special guest President Teddy Roosevelt addressed the crowd and reporters imploring the US Forest Service to protect all roadless areas from logging, mining and other commercial extraction. In the next three weeks, the Forest Service will hold more than a hundred additional meetings across the country, and we need to build crowds of Sierra Club activists at all of them! To find out if there is a hearing near you check out our website, or contact Julie Hudson at Julie.Hudson@sierraclub.org
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