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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
December 20
Over the river and through the woods, the Sierra Club Currents is taking a hiatus to visit grandma. Have a very happy holidays, and best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy, safe and peaceful 2002. Your environmental updates will return on Jan. 3.
"You are not permitted to oppress the working man because he is poor and needy."
Biblical quote that guides Malden Mills CEO Aaron Feuerstein, maker of Polartec. Columnist Mary McGrory pointed out the differences between him and Enron CEO Kenneth Lay in today's Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3963-2001Dec19.html
[1] END COMMERCIAL LOGGING: Ohio Logger Sentenced to Prison
[2] IMMIGRATION: Tyson Foods busted for Hiring Illegal Immigrants
[3] LEGACY HIGHWAY: Utah Republicans Threaten to Cut Mass-Transit Funds
[4] TAKE ACTION: Protect Rudolph's Cousins! [1] END COMMERCIAL LOGGING: Ohio Logger Sentenced to Prison
Late last week a logger in Ohio was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years of probation for illegally chopping 112 trees from Wayne National Forest. He was indicted for two theft charges. Some of the cut trees were up to 100 years old and included maple and red and white oaks.
"It's important that environmental crimes are treated with the same seriousness as other criminal cases," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Marous, who prosecuted the case. The guilty logger must also pay the government $7,520 in restitution for the value of the trees and the cost of restoring the 8 acres of national forest land.
Visit the Columbus Dispatch's story on the case at: https://libpub.dispatch.com/cgi-bin/documentv1?DBLIST=cd01&DOCNUM=54642&TERMV=213:6:367:6:
To get involved with the Sierra Club's End Commercial Logging campaign visit: https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/
[2] IMMIGRATION: Tyson Foods busted for Hiring Illegal Immigrants
The world's largest poultry producer, processor and marketer, Tyson Foods Inc., was charged with smuggling illegal immigrants to work at company poultry plants. A vice president and five managers were charged with hiring the workers for 15 plants in nine states. The indictment came after a two and half year undercover investigation by the INS. According to indictment, Tyson aided the immigrants by obtaining false documents such as social security cards so they could work at the processing plants. "This case represents the first time the INS has taken action against a company of Tyson's magnitude,'' said James Ziglar, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
See the New York Times Tyson Story: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Tyson-Alien-Smuggling.html?ex=10
Visit the Washington Post article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3583-2001Dec19.html
[3] LEGACY HIGHWAY: Utah Republicans Threaten to Cut Mass-Transit Funds
Republican leaders of the Utah House are considering cutting state-funds allocated to commuter rail systems. Supposedly, the money is to be used to meet the costs of the Legacy Highway construction delay. House Majority Leader Kevin Garn said Legacy's cost overruns due to delays "could be the issue that kills commuter rail" in northern Utah.
The Sierra Club politely reminded GOP leaders that pulling support for commuter rail could jeopardize the state's compliance with the federal Clean Air Act. "Threatening clean-air projects like commuter rail is a bad risk," said Marc Heileson with the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club. "The state stands to lose a lot more by not conforming to air-quality standards."
[4] TAKE ACTION: Protect Rudolph's Cousins!
OK, so the caribou who calve in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge aren't quite reindeer, but they're close enough that your kids can consider them Rudolph's cousins. And they live fairly close to the North Pole. Drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge won't give us energy security, but it will decimate crucial caribou habitat.
With 24-hour darkness in the Arctic Refuge, please celebrate tomorrow night's winter solstice by working to save the caribou.
To send a letter to your Senators, please click here: https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=18
For a tour of this beautiful place (in a warmer time of year), please see https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/slideshow/
"I think it's ethically repugnant. It's a general principle of medical ethics that you don't test a chemical on people unless there is the potential of some direct benefit to the person himself or herself." --Philip Landrigan, chair of the department of community and preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in response to the Bush Administration's consideration of testing pesticides on human patients.
[1] WILD FORESTS: Bush Administration Shuts Off Public Comments, OKs Logging in Bitterroot National Forest
[2] WILD FORESTS: Forest Service Neuters Clinton "Roadless Rule"
[3] SPRAWL: Legal Experts Warn Utah Officials, Keep It Up and You Might Get SLAPPed
[4] TAKE ACTION: Stop Administration From Weakening the Clean Air Act
[1] WILD FORESTS: Bush Administration Shuts Off Public Comments, OKs Logging in Bitterroot National Forest
Yesterday, the nation's number two forest official issued a precedent-setting decision that could greatly impact America's National Forests. Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, a former top timber industry lobbyist, approved logging on 46,000 acres of forest on Montana's Bitteroot National Forest, threatening prime habitat for the imperiled bull trout and other wildlife.
In an ironic twist, the Bush Administration, which has for months been calling for more local input on forest policy, is cutting off the right for local citizens to appeal the decision. The timber sale, which is designed to log portions of the Bitteroot National Forest that were burned in the summer of 2000, will allow timber companies to log more than 181 million board feet from the forest. The Administration will likely be taken to Court over the decision, and at this time, environmental groups are planning to sue for an injunction.
The New York Times wrote a piece about the decision today, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/18/politics/18FORE.html
You can see the Sierra Club's response at: https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A1=ind0112&L=ce-scnews-releases
Not only is the Bush Administration shutting out public comments, but they are caving in to the industry myth that logging is a sensible response to fires. Check out the Sierra Club's response to that logic, a report issued this summer entitled, "Forest Fires: Beyond the Heat and Hype": https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/report01/
[2] WILD FORESTS: Forest Service Neuters Clinton "Roadless Rule"
The Forest Service moved yesterday to change Clinton-era policies intended to protect undeveloped portions of national forests. The revisions, to what is known as the Roadless Rule, essentially allows logging and road building in roadless areas subject to the approval of the Forest Service Chief or Regional Foresters. The new rules eliminate the requirement to prepare an environmental impact statement prior to building roads in roadless areas, and the Forest Service no longer has to show "compelling need" to legitimate road construction. The Bush Administration's new policy opens the door to logging in roadless areas such as the Tongass National Forest, the largest remaining temperate rainforest on earth.
"Instead of listening to the two million public comments in favor of fully protecting wild forests, the Forest Service is opening the door to the timber industry to trash our nation's forests for private profit," said Melanie Griffin, director of the Sierra Club's Land Protection Program. "The least the Forest Service could do is protect these last wild areas of our National Forests."
Visit the San Francisco Chronicle's December 17th, article: https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2001/12/17/national1953EST0742.DTL
See the Sierra Club's Press Release regarding the Administration's changes: https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0112&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F &S=&P=651
[3] SPRAWL: Legal Experts Warn Utah Officials, Keep It Up and You Might Get SLAPPed
Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and State Senator Terry Spencer are very angry that a federal appeals court halted construction of the sprawling Legacy Highway until a hearing in March. Spencer has even threatened to hold the Sierra Club financially responsible for the holdup, even though the Court clearly declared that any money lost was the state's own fault.
Not only is it pathetic that a public official is trying to intimidate the Sierra Club out of using the courts to make sure that the law is followed, but now legal experts are saying the plan may backfire. George Pring, a Law Professor in Denver, believes that Spencer's threat is analogous to a SLAPP--a "strategic lawsuit against public participation." According to Professor Pring, these SLAPP suits almost always lose, whereas counter-suits have a high rate of success.
"SLAPPs are loser lawsuits," said Pring. "The state of Utah can go ahead...and foolishly follow a lawsuit through but they will lose. SLAPPs are losers, but SLAPPbacks are winners. We've seen $10 million recoveries. If the state of Utah and all the others follow through and sue the Sierra Club, they might very well end up financing the Sierra Club's activities in Utah for the next 10 years."
For the full article from the Salt Lake City Weekly, search for "Slapping Together a Legacy" at : https://www.avenews.com/index.html
[4] TAKE ACTION: Stop Administration From Weakening the Clean Air Act
The Bush Administration, possibly as early as this week, is likely to announce plans to weaken the Clean Air Act, one of our country's most effective environmental laws.
The Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) provision requires major pollution sources to install state-of-the-art pollution controls whenever they undertake major plant modifications that result in significantly increased emissions. The Administration changes will provide electric utilities, refineries, and other polluters with a host of new loopholes to avoid installation of modern pollution controls when they modify their plants and increase pollution.
TAKE ACTION! Please CALL Mr. James Connaughton, Chairman, White House Council on Environmental Quality, 202-456-5147. Please call today. Tell Mr. Connaughton that:
President Bush needs to uphold the Clean Air Act's New Source Review provision to protect our health. Enforcement of New Source Review results in cleaner air that is vital to the enjoyment, productivity and integrity of our national parks and wilderness areas. These plants must upgrade their equipment to meet current Clean Air standards - they should not be given a pass to pollute. The Clean Air Act has been instrumental in reducing pollution from refineries and power plants, which pump millions of tons of pollution into communities.
For more background on New Source Review and the Clean Air Act, please visit: https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/factsheet7-01.asp
"It is important not to be fatalistic about the threats posed by abrupt climate change." --Text of a new National Academy of Sciences report, which argues that global climate change, often seen as a process stretching over thousands of years, could in fact occur abruptly and unexpectedly, quickly pushing up temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Celsius. "It's like being blindfolded and walking toward the edge of a cliff." --Wallace Broeker, professor of environmental sciences at Columbia University, at a press conference for the new report.
[1] BOOKS: Scientific Experts Deconstruct Bjorn Lomborg's Controversial Book The Skeptical Environmentalist
[2] WILDLANDS: House Passes Bill to Protect Colorado Wilderness
[3] FARM BILL: Senate Rejects Amendment to Sweep Away Environmental Laws
[1] BOOKS: Scientific Experts Deconstruct Bjorn Lomborg's Controversial Book The Skeptical Environmentalist
Danish Statistics Professor Bjorn Lomborg made waves this summer with the release of his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Lomborg essentially argues that the environment is getting better, not worse. In his opinion, "We will not lose our forests; we will not run out of energy...Our oceans have not been defiled, our rivers have become cleaner...The problem of the ozone layer has been more or less solved. The current outlook on the development of global warming does not indicate a catastrophe. ... And, finally, our chemical worries and fear of pesticides are misplaced and counterproductive."
Unfortunately for the environmental movement, a number of book reviewers from well-respected newspapers glowed about the book. Unfortunately for them, scientific experts across the world are coming out and blasting the book for faulty science and biased manipulation of numbers. Experts such as renowned Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson and Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider, have submitted responses to Lomborg in the latest edition of Grist Magazine. Seems that all those frikadeller's* went to Lomborg's head.
For the full story from Grist Magazine, go to: https://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/
To read a piece on Lomborg by Colin Woodward, called "The Tabloid Environmentalist," go to: https://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/12/07/index.html
* A frikadeller is a Danish meatball. For the record, we can't prove that Lomborg has ever eaten a frikadeller but it's the only kind of Danish food we know. You can find a recipe at: https://prs.us.ohio-state.edu/~steen/dk/food/frikadel.html
[2] WILDLANDS: House Passes Bill to Protect Colorado Wilderness
The Sierra Club and members of the Colorado Wilderness Network are celebrating Congressional approval of the James Peaks Wilderness and Protection Area Act. The bill protects nearly 20,000 acres of Colorado's high country, which is known for sweeping tundras, deep forests and high mountain lakes. If the bill passes the Senate, the land will be designated as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
According to Sierra Club's Associate Regional Representative Steve Smith, "This vote affirms the details of a delicate compromise that itself is the result of many, many hours of thoughtful conversations that spanned nearly seven years." Conservationists in Colorado have long advocated wilderness protection for all of the James Peak area and say that they will continue to work for it.
For an article on the bill in the Boulder Daily Camera, go to: https://www.thedailycamera.com/news/worldnation/13ljames.html
For a brief on the passage of the bill in the Denver Post, go to: https://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E271914,00.html
[3] FARM BILL: Senate Rejects Amendment to Sweep Away Environmental Laws
This morning, Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) introduced an amendment to the Farm Bill to give the President broad authority to waive environmental, health and safety laws if proposed agency actions have a significant adverse economic impact on farmers or jeopardize their personal safety. Fortunately, the amendment failed by a vote of 54 to 43.
According to Ed Hopkins, Director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program, "Senator Bond's Amendment would have set a terrible precedent of allowing the President to pick and choose which, if any, environmental, health and safety laws to enforce." The amendment would have permitted the President to override our most basic protections such as the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act if he found that federal agencies' actions to carry out these laws would have a "significant adverse economic impact on...agricultural producers."
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