NEXT PAGE -->
|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
November 15
You hope that you can give these kids something to reach for. You hope that you can broaden their mind-set by showing them the mountains, the outdoors.?
Eirik Collins, a Sierra Club Inner City Outings (ICO) volunteer, quoted in a Washington Post article about the program
[1] INNER CITY OUTINGS: Sierra Club?s Inner City Outings (ICO) program opens up a new world for Washington, D.C. youngsters and children across the nation
[2] ANNUAL SPRAWL REPORT: ?Clearing the Air? Ranks America?s Fifty Largest Cities, continued media coverage
[3] WAR PROFITEERING CREATES BACKLASH: Interesting New Website Addresses Actions of Congress and Corporations Post-September 11
[4]PATRIOTISM AND CONSERVATION: Los Angeles Times op-ed ?Hooray for the Red, White, Blue and Green? addresses how to break the oil habit [5]ACT UP: Ask Your Senators to Co-Sponsor the Leahy-Reid Farm Bill
[1]INNER CITY OUTINGS: Sierra Club?s Inner City Outings (ICO) programs opens up a new world for Washington, D.C. youngsters and children across the nation
Sleeping in tents, eating s?mores, seeing wildlife, hunting for arrowheads and sharks? teeth, and hiking along mountain trails are just some of the outdoor activities outlined in today?s Style section of the Washington Post in an article about Washington?s Inner City Outings group, a program of the Sierra Club. The article, ?For Star-Crossed Kids, A Better View of Life; Sierra Club Program for At-Risk Youngsters Opens Up a World Beyond the City?s Limits,? gives great insight into the program and the experiences of the volunteers and children involved.
Inner City Outings (ICO) is a community outreach program of the Sierra Club that provides low-income, inner city youth with trips to wilderness. ICO volunteers introduce all people to the natural world and teach them how important it is to protect and restore wild places. The program, which includes 50 chapters nationwide and in Canada, affords children an escape from rocky home situations and often dangerous neighborhoods for day-long adventures and an annual overnighter.
For the complete article, go to http: //www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31773-2001Nov14.html
For more information on the Sierra Club?s Inner-City Outings program, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/ico/
[2]ANNUAL SPRAWL REPORT: ?Clearing the Air? Ranks America?s Fifty Largest Cities, continued media coverage.
Released earlier this week, the Sierra Club report ?Clearing the Air with Transit Spending: Sierra Club Grades America?s Fifty Largest Cities? continues to receive significant media coverage. The report, which is available at www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report01/, found that cities that invest in public transit see a payoff with cleaner air.
Media outlets across the nation have been covering the report and its local , regional and national implications throughout the week. The following are a few examples:
Daily Press, ?Hampton Roads, Va., Are Rebuked by Sierra Club for Lack of Mass Transit Funds? https://www.dailypress.com
The Cincinnati Post, ?Region receives a ?F? for Smog? www.cincypost.com/2001/nov/13/smog111301.html
Salt Lake Tribune, ?Utah Planners Turn Attention to Mass Transit? https://www.sltrib.com/2001/nov/11142001/utah/148672.htm
Ann Arbor News, ?Sierra gives low marks; Club says metro area, including Ann Arbor, ranks low in public transportation spending and air quality? https://www.annarbornews.com
The Capital Times, ?Investments in trains pay good dividends? https://captimes.com/opinion/column/zweifel/7698.php
Oakland Tribune, ?California scores ?C? on smog? https://www.oaklandtribune.com
Union Leader, ?New Hampshire chapter attacks Manchester Airport road project? https://www.unionleader.com/Articles_show.html?article=6697&archive=1
San Jose Mercury News, ?Anti-Smog Grade C-? https://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/pollute14.htm
Detroit Free Press, ?Environmental Group Flunks Michigan Cities? https://www.detroitfreepress.com/news/statewire/sw44610_20011113.htm
[3] WAR PROFITEERING CREATES BACKLASH: Interesting New Website Addresses Actions of Congress and Corporations Post-September 11.
Since September 11, Congress has honed in on a number of legislative priorities, many of which - airline bailouts and security and economic stimulus - are being targeted by a new website sponsored by Public Campaign. ?While we have our hands on our hearts, they?re trying to pick our pockets? is the theme of the site, HowDareThey.og. TomPaine.com sells the site in the following manner: ?The people are without a party, and so their anger at the wartime profiteering going on in D.C. must find other outlets - www.HowDareThey.org is one outlet.?
Log on to https://www.TomPaine.com to read the Q&A session with Micah Sifry, a writer for Public Campaign and The Nation, and author of a forthcoming book on third-party politics.
[4]PATRIOTISM AND CONSERVATION: Los Angeles Times op-ed ?Hooray for the Red, White, Blue and Green? addresses how to break the oil habit
In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, ?Hooray for the Red, White, Blue and Green,? David Hochschild and Arlie Hochschild examine our dependence on foreign oil and its role in our current war on terrorism and the solutions to be found in renewable energy and conservation. What can we do? The authors say, ?One of the beauties of patriotic action on the home front is that we don't need to wait for leadership from on high: We can all lead. We can commit to personal acts of conservation like replacing gas-guzzling cars with fuel-efficient ones, taking public transportation or insulating our houses.?
To read the entire article, go to https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-000090120nov11.story
To learn more about renewable energy, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/energy
To learn more about the Sierra Club?s efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas exploration, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/
[5]ACT UP: Ask Your Senators to Co-Sponsor the Leahy-Reid Farm Bill
Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Harry Reid (D-NV) have introduced a new Farm Bill proposal that would significantly increase federal funding to protect clean water, wetlands, farmland from sprawl, restore wildlife habitat, and help farmers transition to cleaner, more sustainable farming.
After the House passed the dirty Farm Bill, which fails to adequately fund conservation and subsidizes industrial livestock operations and big agribusiness, the Leahy-Reid bill is our best prospect for giving farmers and ranchers the tools they need to protect land and water.
The Leahy-Reid bill would provide approximately $5 billion/year for conservation programs. It would increase the Conservation Reserve program to 42 million acres and would protect 250,000 acres/year in the Wetlands Reserve Program. Funding for the cost-sharing clean water protection program would increase to $1.3 billion/year. Please act today to urge your Senators to co-sponsor the Leahy-Reid Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is on a fast schedule in the Senate. A floor vote could occur as soon as late November.
Please visit https://whistler.sierraclub.org/takeaction/cleanwater/index3.jsp to automatically send a message to your Senators.
"New Hampshire deserves better air quality and better transportation choices...for our families, for our future." -Aline Lotter, Chairwoman of the Sierra Club's New Hampshire Chapter, quoted by today's Associated Press wire service at the release of Sierra Club's annual Sprawl Report.
[1] ANNUAL SPRAWL REPORT: "Clearing the Air" Ranks America's Fifty Largest Cities
[2] PROFILE: Lumberyard Owner & Sierra Club Member Tim Flynn Riles Industry With Environmentalist Views
[3] CAFO: Factory Farms Trying to Make Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Cleaning Waste
[4] ACT UP: Tell Your Senator to Vote to Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Promote Safe Energy
[1] ANNUAL SPRAWL REPORT: "Clearing the Air" Ranks America's Fifty Largest Cities
This morning, the Sierra Club released "Clearing the Air With Transit Spending: Sierra Club Grades America's Fifty Largest Cities," the fourth annual Club sprawl report. The report, which is available at www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report01/, found that cities that invest in public transit see a payoff with cleaner air. Of the 50 largest cities, 32 received a failing grade for their efforts to reduce smog with public transit.
"Clearing the Air" gave New York State the highest grade in terms of its spending on public transit, and found that New York is the only state that spent more money on providing people with transportation alternatives than on new roads. At the same time, New York City had the least amount of smog per person from cars and trucks. On the other end of the spectrum, Oklahoma flunked for having a high amount of smog from cars and trucks per person and spending a paltry $5.80 on public transit to every $100 it spends on highway and road construction.
Already, wire services and evening papers are writing stories of the report. Check out the following articles...
Cincinnati Post: https://www.cincypost.com/2001/nov/13/smog111301.html
Deseret News (Salt Lake City): https://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,345007620,00.html?
Las Vegas Sun: https://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2001/nov/13/512612388.html
[2] PROFILE: Lumberyard Owner & Sierra Club Member Tim Flynn Riles Industry With Environmentalist Views
If a lumberyard owner strikes you as the last person to be an environmentalist, then you haven't met Sierra Club member Tim Flynn. Tim is an active member of Michigan's Sierra Club chapter and president of the lumberyard his father and uncle started in 1946.
Flynn became an environmentalist when he began to notice years ago that the lumber he was selling was declining in quality. He interpreted it as a sign that logging companies weren't practicing sustainable forestry, and weren't allowing the forests time to re-grow.
"To me," Flynn said, "it made no sense to be cutting 1,000 year-old forests."
More and more, people like Tim are realizing that over-logging makes little economic sense. That's why the Sierra Club recently wrote a report called "Seeing the Forests for their Green: The Economic Benefits of Forest Protection, Recreation, and Restoration." For a copy of the report, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/report00/
For more information on our End Commercial Logging campaign, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/
[3] CAFO: Factory Farms Trying to Make Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Cleaning Waste
As if it's not egregious enough that many CAFO's (confined animal feeding operations, better known as "factory farms") aren't cleaning up their waste, now they want us to clean it up for them. The House recently passed legislation that would give millions of dollars to CAFOs to subsidize their compliance with laws regulating animal waste.
This legislation is little more than corporate welfare. CAFOs, which are owned by mega-corporations like Tyson and Purdue, are already squeezing smaller family farms out of the picture and polluting the environment in ways traditional operations do not. In the near future, Sen. Harkin will introduce a Senate farm bill. In an attempt to urge her Nebraskan Senators to say no to this unjust provision, Sierra Club's Laura Kresbach published an op-ed in the Grand Island Independent.
To take a look at her op-ed, entitled "Large livestock operations want taxpayer bailout to meet standards," go to: https://www.theindependent.com/stories/111001/opi_col10.html
[4] ACT UP: Tell Your Senator to Vote to Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Promote Safe Energy
Oil industry allies in the Senate will make an all-out effort this week to attach the destructive House-passed energy bill (H.R.4) to the Economic Stimulus package. The Sierra Club strongly opposes H.R. 4, particularly its provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Drilling in the Refuge or other sensitive public lands will not make a dent in our dependence on foreign oil, nor will it do anything to help improve national security. But it will forever destroy one of America's greatest natural treasures.
Please contact both of your senators right away, and ask them to vote against any effort to add H.R. 4 to the economic stimulus bill. It is likely that senators will filibuster Senator Murkowski's amendment to drill the Arctic Refuge. Senators should be asked to vote to sustain a filibuster against the Murkowski Energy/Arctic Drilling amendment.
For your Senator's office, call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121
"What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!" -Henry David Thoreau, "The Allegash and East Branch" (1864) in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 3, p. 214, Houghton Mifflin (1906). ["They" refers to sparrows.]
Table of Contents:
[1] GLOBAL WARMING: Sierra Club Energy Guru Dan Becker Challenges Ford in New York Times Op-Ed
[2] SPRAWL: Clubbers Generate Coverage Around Sprawl & Public Health Across U.S.
[3] SALMON: Sierra Club Sues Bonneville Power Administration in Washington for Salmon Slaughter
[4] ACTION: Phony "Economic Stimulus" in Congress Bails Out Mega-Corporations at Expense of Citizens and Environment
[5] SURVIVOR: Sierra Club Member Gets Bumped Out of Picture
[1] GLOBAL WARMING: Sierra Club Energy Guru Dan Becker Challenges Ford in New York Times Op-Ed
On Friday, the New York Times published a challenge issued by Dan Becker, Director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. In an op-ed, Becker challenged Ford Motor Company's new CEO, Bill Ford, Jr. to put his environmental rhetoric into action.
Becker warned the new auto executive, "Toyota and Honda are putting clean, gasoline-electric hybrid cars on the road, and Americans are snapping them up. Today, the waiting list to buy a 50-mile-per-gallon Toyota Prius is three months. Japanese automakers aren't just selling cars, they're selling a vision of the future through modern technology. If Ford doesn't sell that vision, its shareholders could lose their money and its employees could lose their jobs."
To see Becker's op-ed, entitled "Better Cars, Cleaner Air," go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/opinion/02BECK.html
For more information on Sierra Club's campaign to increase car fuel efficiency standards, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/cleancars/
[2] SPRAWL: Clubbers Generate Coverage Around Sprawl & Public Health Across U.S.
Last week, Sierra Club staff and volunteers around the country released a new report linking sprawl with public health concerns like asthma, obesity, and traffic accidents. Due to the hard work of these Clubbers, around 25 media outlets around the country carried a story on the report.
If you want to see some of the quality coverage generated, check out the following stories.
Salt Lake Tribune https://www.sltrib.com/11022001/utah/145354.htm
Cincinnati Post https://www.cincypost.com/2001/nov/03/sprawl110301.html
[3] SALMON: Sierra Club Sues Bonneville Power Administration in Washington for Salmon Slaughter
The Sierra Club is suing the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for sacrificing salmon this summer for increased energy production. The law requires the BPA, which oversees electricity production on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Washington, is required to provide "equitable treatment" between salmon and energy.
But according to the Sierra Club's Bill Arthur, salmon trying to migrate to the Pacific this summer "took the full brunt of our water shortage and were slaughtered in record numbers. BPA treated salmon as expendable rather than treating them equitably, violating both the spirit and letter of the law."
For the full story on the lawsuit, in the Spokesman Review, go to: https://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=110601&ID=s1049946&cat=section.regional
For more information on salmon and loss of habitat, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/habitat/species/coho.asp
Water and fish lovers ought to look into the recent publication of "My Story As Told By Water," by David James Duncan, which was nominated as a Finalist for the National Book Award!: https://www.sierraclub.org/books/news.asp
[4] ACTION: Phony "Economic Stimulus" in Congress Bails Out Mega-Corporations at Expense of Citizens and Environment
IBM wants a $1.4 billion tax rebate. GM wants $833 million, GE wants $671 million. During this time of national crisis, amid calls for sacrifice, Congress has an important opportunity to develop legislation that would both stimulate our economy by creating jobs and improve the quality of our environment. Instead, the Senate is going to vote on a phony "economic stimulus" that would give $70 billion in refunds and tax breaks to major corporations and nothing for the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs since 9/11. One of our coalition partners has set up a free fax alert.
You can learn more and send faxes to your Senators at: https://action.ourfuture.org/index.asp?step=2&item=780
Learn more about the economic stimulus package at: https://www.ourfuture.org
[5] SURVIVOR: Sierra Club Member Gets Bumped Out of Picture
After sealing her fate by sparring with a temperamental tribemate, Linda Spencer, the 44-year-old mother of two and Sierra club member, was booted from CBS's Survivor.
Linda's last words were, "Integrity is very important to me. It's not if you win or lose, it's how you play the game." Sierra Club has decided to immediately start Director of Communications Allen Mattison on a rigorous training regiment in the high Andes in anticipation of Survivor 4.
For more info. on Linda's ill fate, go to: https://www.cbs.com/survivor
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|