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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
October 11
"My conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, preempting Sierra Club's motto of "For our families, for our future," by over 60 years, in 1937
Table of Contents:
[1] GOOD NEWS FOR ENVIRONMENT: Environmental Champion, Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) Gets Promotion
[2] ENERGY: Another Thwarted Attempt to Open Arctic to Drilling
[3] CAFO: Sierra Club Shines Light on Michigan's Failure to Protect Family Farms and Public Health
[4] END COMMERCIAL LOGGING: Homegrown Training Held in Fayetteville, Arkansas
[5] TAKE ACTION: Stop Anti-Environmental Fast-Track Bill
[1] GOOD NEWS FOR ENVIRONMENT: Environmental Champion Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) Gets Promotion
On Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was elected as House Minority Whip, making her the #2 Democrat in the House. Rep. Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, has long been a champion of environmental causes and the Sierra Club praised the move.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope had this to say in response to the election, "Rep. Pelosi's election is among the best news for America's environment this century. Rep. Pelosi is a treasured friend of the environment and we look forward to continuing to work with her to protect our most fragile places and defend human rights around the world. We are thrilled that House Democrats selected her as their second in command and we want to extend our warmest congratulations to her."
For the full Sierra Club statement, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/politics/pelosi.asp
[2] ENERGY: Another Thwarted Attempt to Open Arctic to Drilling
This afternoon, the Senate thwarted another attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling by amending national security bills. This time the responsible party for a drilling amendment was Senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.). Sen. Gramm attached his secondary amendment to an amendment by Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-MO). Carnahan's amendment to the airline safety bill would have aided airline workers who have lost their jobs due to Sept. 11. The attempt to drill the Arctic Refuge by Sen. Gramm died when Sen. Carnahan pulled her provision.
This is the third attempt in the last few weeks made by conservative Republican Senators to attach an Arctic amendment to a national security bill. In a letter to the Senate, Carl Pope wrote, "Senator Gramm's amendment is irrelevant to airline security, and merely represents a cynical effort to exploit divisions about the Arctic to deny aviation workers the economic security that Senator Carnahan's amendment would provide."
In a twist of irony, Senator Gramm's effort killed an amendment that would have financially aided many members of the Teamsters Union, the most vocal union in support of drilling in the Arctic.
[3] CAFO: Sierra Club Shines Light on Michigan's Failure to Protect Family Farms and Public Health
Animal factories in Michigan are releasing animal sewage into waterways. The result--diseases in drinking water, destruction of fisheries, and significantly less fun to be had on those weekend boating excursions. So why isn't the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the body in charge of enforcing the Clean Water Act, doing anything about it?
That was the question posed by Sierra Club's Michigan staff director, Anne Woiwode, in an op-ed published in the Grand Rapids Press. Her answer--the state is bowing to political pressure from Michigan's industrialized agricultural interests. The Sierra Club currently has suits pending against two grossly polluting animal factories in Michigan. Meanwhile, Anne and the Mackinac chapter are campaigning to convince the state to do their jobs themselves.
Look for the full text of Anne's op-ed, entitled "Farm runoff threatens Michigan waterways," at: https://gr.mlive.com/
[4] END COMMERCIAL LOGGING: Homegrown Training Held in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Last weekend, 54 Sierra Club activists from Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Mississippi descended on the sleepy town of Fayetteville, Arkansas for a weekend End Commercial Logging Training. In addition to workshops led by Sierra Club staff and veteran volunteers on such topics as matrix planning and media, there was apparently a little homegrown flavor as well. Attendees of the conference reported some late-night banjo picking, and even a bonfire on Fayetteville Mayor Cootie's yard (which was authorized).
If you are interested in learning about upcoming trainings, contact Liz Pallatto at liz.pallatto@sierraclub.org.
[5] TAKE ACTION: Stop Anti-Environmental Fast-Track Bill
In a near party-line vote, the Ways and Means Committee late Tuesday approved H.R. 3005, Chairman Bill Thomas' (R-Calif.) controversial bill granting the Bush administration "fast track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements that Congress can approve or reject, but not amend.
Rep. Thomas is trying to use the crisis created by terrorist attacks on our country to ram through Congress a divisive, environmentally-destructive fast-track trade bill. The House could vote on Thomas's bill early this fall. Thomas' fast-track bill would expand controversial "investor" rules that empower foreign corporations to sue over our environmental laws. And it denies Congress an effective decision-making role in shaping future trade deals that undercut our environmental laws.
This is not the time for Congress to complicate trade policies that will affect our quality of life and democratic institutions for years to come. The Sierra Club is urging members of the US House of Representatives to oppose the Thomas fast track bill if it comes up for a vote.
TAKE ACTION
Call or write your US Representative today. Dial 1-800-393-1082 (courtesy of the AFL-CIO).
For more information, see www.sierraclub.org/trade or contact dan.seligman@sierraclub.org.
"Our use of the Colorado River is unsustainable. We've turned the river into a plumbing system." -Steve Glazer, chair of the Sierra Club's Colorado River Task Force. On this day in 1936, the first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles from the Colorado River.
Table of Contents:
[1] TALK ABOUT TAKING WORK HOME: Sierra Club Forest Expert's Ranch Saved by Own Forest Fire Policy
[2] ADVICE TO THE SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE
[3] IN THE FIELD: Sierra Club joined by Nebraska Farmers Union in Opposition to Drilling in Arctic
[4] TAKE ACTION: Support Sea Lion Recovery in Alaska
[1] WORK BECOMES PERSONAL: Sierra Club Forest Expert's Ranch Saved by Own Forest Fire Policy
For years, the Sierra Club's Warren Alford has argued that the Forest Service must focus more on preventing forest fires before they spread, rather than on stopping them once they have begun to blaze. That lesson hit home recently when a forest fire threatened to burn down Alford's ranch, which has been in his family for three generations.
The fire was stopped by fire breaks, essentially a "defensible space" cut around inhabited areas. The success of these fire breaks is significant right now, since the policy is under review in Washington. The timber industry has been critical of fire breaks, as they prefer "thinning deep into national forests." In other words, they want to log our way out of fires.
Alford hopes that the experience will prove that the Sierra Club's policy of preventative measures, including fire breaks and prescribed burns, makes sense. As Alford said, "It'll cost less to do it sooner rather than later."
For the full story on Alford in the Los Angeles Times, go to: https://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000079849oct06.story
For Sierra Club's recent report on forest fire policy, entitled "Forest Fires: Beyond the Heat and Hype," go to:
https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/report01/
[2] ADVICE TO THE SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE
The Senate Energy Committee received some advice from Chris Robertson, a Portland-based energy consultant, that can essentially be summed up as--snap out of it!
In Robertson's words, "The security of the United States and the world depends on reducing our use of oil and transitioning to a non-threatening, renewable energy system." The time has come for a major shift in the way we think about our energy sources, a project comparable to the building of the Interstate Highway System, or the Marshall Plan after WWII.
The order of the day is a fleet of New-Generation Vehicles with better gas mileage, and an emphasis on production using domestic renewable energy resources like sun and wind.
The full text of Robertson's editorial is available at: https://www.oregonlive.com/public_commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/exclude/10021101271004397.xml
[3] IN THE FIELD: Sierra Club joined by Nebraska Farmers Union in Opposition to Drilling in Arctic
Last week, the Sierra Club was joined by the Nebraska Farmers Union and a Gwich'in Indian who lives near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in calling for the defeat of efforts to open the area to oil exploration.
"This is a wake-up call," said Laura Krebsbach, a conservation organizer with Sierra Club, "we've got to become less dependent on oil." John Hansen, president of the Farmers Union, said the events of Sept. 11 strengthen the argument for a national energy policy that invests heavily in renewable energy.
The full article in the Omaha World-Herald can be found at:
https://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_div=3&u_hdg=0&u_sid=210868
[4] TAKE ACTION: Support Sea Lion Recovery in Alaska
Your letters and faxes are urgently needed to prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service from choosing an extinction alternative for endangered Steller sea lions in Alaska. Bending to pressure from the fishing industry the agency is preparing to approve commercial fishing regulations that government scientists admit will continue to push the Steller sea lion towards extinction by allowing factory trawlers to mine the sea lion's critical habitat of the fish they need to recover healthy population levels. To stop this from happening the agency needs to hear from you by October 15th.
Under industry's preferred plan, known as Alternative 4, the National Marine Fisheries Service would implement a commercial fishing program in the waters off Alaska that will remove restrictions on the amount of fish that factory trawlers can catch in Steller sea lion critical habitat. This program will quadruple the reduction of the sea lion's food source and lead, based on the agency's own estimates, to the death of nearly 1000 additional Steller sea lions over the next 10 years. Facing intense pressure from commercial fishing companies, the National Marine Fisheries Service is looking to adopt this strategy that protects industry over endangered species.
There is another option though, a sea lion recovery alternative supported by the conservation community. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service this alternative, Alternative 2, will help the endangered Steller sea lion recover by providing enough fish to increase the number of sea lions by 1,500 over the next decade while allowing for family based and small scale commercial fishing operations to continue off the Alaskan coast.
Please contact the National Marine Fisheries Service today and urge them to adopt Alternative 2!
Send your letters and faxes by October 15th to:
Ms. Lori Gravel National Marine Fisheries Service P.O. Box 21668 Juneau, Alaska 99802 FAX: 907-586-7557
"In my view, we need to know that vast natural areas such as the Arctic Refuge exist as we cope with the events of the past month. Nature reminds us of the eternal rhythms of life of which we are a part and which will endure over time. Ensuring an enduring refuge in the Arctic, no matter how uncertain other parts of our life may seem right now, provides us solace and perspective in these trying times. This crisis has reawakened us to the importance of protecting our values, and I believe that the Arctic wilderness has a place on that list." -Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), quoted on October 2nd
Table of Contents:
[1] VICTORY IN THE SEQUOIAS: Judge Stands Tall in Defense of National Monument
[2] SURVIVOR: Sierra Club Member to be Contestant on Survivor Africa
[3] A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A GWICH'IN: Sandra Newman Speaks Out Against Drilling in Arctic [4] SIERRA CLUB VINDICATED IN CLEAN AIR DISPUTE
[1] VICTORY IN THE SEQUOIAS: Judge Stands Tall in Defense of National Monument
On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit seeking to dismantle the Clinton administration's designation of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The National Monument designation, which protects 328,000 acres of Sierra Nevada Forest in California, prohibits logging, mining and off-road vehicles in a section of the Sequoia.
Judge Ricardo Urbina upheld Clinton's authority to create national monuments, a far-reaching decision that helps protect six million acres recently designated national monument land.
These very monuments were featured on the cover of last month's Sierra Magazine. You can find pictures and descriptions of the monuments on page 40 of the magazine, or online at:
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200109/mcmanus.asp
[2] SURVIVOR: Sierra Club Member to be Contestant on Survivor Africa
It shouldn't be hard picking a favorite for the next SEASON of the CBS show Survivor. One of the contestants on the new program is Linda Spencer -- a Sierra Club member from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Linda is an Assistant Director of Career Services at Harvard University. According to her biography, "In December 1999, Spencer was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent a thyroidectomy the following January. She received radioactive iodine treatments in May 2000, and is now completely cancer free. In September 2000, a mere eight months after being diagnosed with cancer, she successfully reached the summit of Mt. Rainier."
Does this Mom of two kids sound tough or what? Her tribal members include an ardent NRA member, a former makeup artist, and a dentist. Talk about bragging rights!
The first episode of Survivor Africa, which is aimed at introducing the contestants, will air tonight at 8 p.m. ON CBS. The premiere of the show will air a week from today at 8 p.m. ON CBS.
To check out Linda Spencer's full biography, go to:
https://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor3/survivors/linda_b.shtml
Want to join them? Find out more about Sierra Club outings to Africa, at:
https://www.sierraclub.org/outings/
[3] A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A GWICH'IN: Sandra Newman Speaks Out Against Drilling in Arctic
The Gwich'in Nation are a tribe of 7,000 American Indians, who live 15 small villages scattered across Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada. Their culture and livelihood is intricately tied to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a fact that makes the current debate over drilling even more personal.
So what's a Gwich'in from Alaska doing in Nebraska? If you're Sandra Newman and you're concerned about your home, then you are trying to spread the word about why drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is such a bad idea. Sandra is sharing her personal knowledge of the land by hosting and speaking at events with Sierra Club organizers. In one day this week, Sandra spoke at a press conference outside the Indian Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, and hosted a brown bag lunch with students at the University of Nebraska, appeared at an evening slide show in native Gwich'in dress, and conducted a radio interview at 10pm!
Even if you can't see the slideshow in person, you can see pictures of the Refuge on our website at:
https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/slideshow/
[4] SIERRA CLUB VINDICATED IN CLEAN AIR DISPUTE
A federal appeals court has agreed with the Sierra Club, and has decided that Cincinnati has not met federal air quality standards for the pollution that causes smog. Smog has become a serious problem in Cincinnati according to Glen Brand, Sierra Club's director of the Cincinnati office, who reported that "we had 32 days during which it was unhealthy for elderly residents and people with asthma to be outside."
Brand is now looking into whether the decision could stop highway expansion plans that would promote sprawl and worsen air quality. The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce called the decision a "technicality." Whatever you call it, it's good news for those who have a distaste for dirty air and sprawl.
For the full article on the court decision in the Cincinnati Business Courier, go to:
https://cincinnati.bcentral.com/cincinnati/stories/2001/10/01/story1.html
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