Global Response

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TEL: 303-444-0306

FAX: 303-449-9794

Email: paula@globalresponse.org

Website: http://www.globalresponse.org

At the request of indigenous peoples and grassroots organizations, Global Response organizes international letter-writing campaigns to help communities prevent environmental destruction. Young people and adults in 92 countries participate in these very effective campaigns.

To request Global Response Action alerts by mail or email, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit http://www.globalresponse.org

Dear NRDC BioGems Defender, As the year draws to a close, we are facing a decisive moment in the struggle to save some of America's last wild places from imminent destruction. Despite overwhelming protest from concerned citizens like you, the Bush administration is pressing ahead with unthinkable plans to exploit and destroy three endangered BioGems that you and I have worked so hard to protect. Unless we intervene and block those plans now, the administration will proceed with open-pit mining in the historic Everglades, clearcutting in the pristine Alaskan rainforest, and drilling in Utah's world-renowned Redrock Wilderness. They are also finalizing a plan for commercial logging in the awe-inspiring Giant Sequoia National Monument, which is not a BioGem but needs our help just as urgently. These crown jewels of our wilderness heritage -- safeguarded by generation after generation of Americans -- stand on the very brink of ruin. In each of these cases, the only thing blocking an invasion of chain saws, oil rigs or bulldozers is NRDC legal action -- or the threat of our legal action. The sheer number and importance of these cases requires us to raise significant new funds immediately. Your financial support right now can make a big difference in these legal battles to save our last wild places. Please help stop the Bush administration onslaught by going tohttps://www.savebiogems.org/donate/ye03.asp and making a special year-end donation to NRDC. Over the past year, your online action and generous contributions have enabled NRDC to block the president's plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . . . to go to federal court and stop the Navy's worldwide deployment of a sonar system that can maim, deafen and kill whales . . . and to challenge the Bush administration's plan to let thousands of noisy, polluting snowmobiles run roughshod over Yellowstone National Park. Now, we urgently need your support once again to help save some of America's greatest natural treasures:* * * The Everglades * * * The Bush administration has approved permits to let mining companies bulldoze 5,000 acres of the world-famous Everglades and then dynamite them into open-pit rock mines for limestone rock that can be turned into roads and parking lots. Eventually, mining corporations want to blast a 30-square-mile hole in the middle of the historic Everglades, destroying vanishing habitat for the endangered wood stork and other rare species. Why we need your help: NRDC is fighting in federal court right now to block this illegal assault on the world's most famous marsh habitat and its endangered wildlife.* * * The Alaskan Rainforest * * * The Bush administration is reviving an appalling policy that would systematically liquidate the Tongass National Forest -- our planet's largest remaining temperate rainforest and home to wolves, bald eagles and grizzly bears. The administration is preparing to sell off vast stretches of the Tongass in 10-year contracts -- virtually assuring that timber companies will be decimating this irreplaceable rainforest far into the future, no matter what happens in the next presidential election. Why we need your support: NRDC has filed suit in federal court to stop the next round of roadbuilding, clearcutting and rampant destruction in this magnificent rainforest.* * * Utah's Redrock Wilderness * * * The Bush administration has given the green light for oil and gas companies to plunder millions of acres of redrock wildlands that had already been declared eligible for wilderness status. The world-renowned Book Cliffs and other beautiful canyonlands -- including critical habitat for bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope -- could soon be blighted by roads, pipelines, drill pads, waste pits and compressor stations. Why we need your support now: NRDC and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance are going to court to stop this giveaway of America's redrock canyons. * * * Giant Sequoia National Monument * * * The Bush administration has issued a draft plan to allow commercial logging in California's Giant Sequoia National Monument and two nearby national forests -- home to awe-inspiring trees that can live more than 3,000 years and grow over 300 feet tall. Their plan would allow timber companies to cut down enough trees to fill more than 3,000 logging trucks every year. Why we need your support now: The Forest Service is due to issue its final, pro-logging plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument any day now. When it does, we must be fully prepared -- and fully funded -- to take legal action against the Bush administration and stop the destruction of the giant sequoias! As you can see, the next few weeks are critical to all of these cases. And the outcome of these legal battles may well determine whether America's natural legacy, as we know it, survives intact -- or whether it is sacrificed in our lifetime to enrich a handful of giant corporations. We simply cannot fight on so many legal fronts at once unless we have the immediate and generous financial support of BioGems Defenders like you. I hope you'll go to https://www.savebiogems.org/donate/ye03.asp right now and make a special, year-end contribution to NRDC. Your gift will be put to work right away by the nation's most effective environmental action team. On behalf of everyone here at NRDC, I want to thank you again for working with us in 2003 to help save our planet's most endangered wild places.
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
. . .
BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org

UNITED NATIONS HORROR SHOW:
Covering one mistake with another one is more than stupid !
ITS CRIMINAL !

"Green light" for GM trees
Wednesday 10 December 2003, 9:27 Makka Time, 6:27 GMT

UN diplomats have reached an agreement in principle on Tuesday to
include genetically-modified trees in forests planted for the specific
purpose of soaking up greenhouse gases.

The agreement made at an Environmental summit in Milan will allow
scientists to develop fast-growing trees with a maximized capability
of storing carbon dioxide, one of the gases thought likely to be
responsible for the heating of the earth's atmosphere.

Under the terms of the UN Kyoto Protocol on global warming, rich
countries will be able to plant forests in the developing world and
offset the amount of gas absorbed against their own greenhouse emissions.

The agreement in principle was scheduled to be sent to environment
ministers at a meeting of the 180-nation UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change in Milan.

Draft plan

As part of the compromise draft plan, countries who have proposed to
plant genetically-modified forests must carry out detailed risk
assessments and avoid the planting of what are known as invasive
species trees - those that drive out species native to the region.

An Italian spokesman, Aldo Iacomelli, said the agreement was thrashed
out by the German and Brazilian co-presidents of the conference.

Environmental groups have been campaigning against such an extension
of biotechnology. And scientists say that growing trees is only a
temporary solution to the CO2 buildup.

Greenpeace and the WWF environmental groups, who had opposed GMOs
(genetically modified organisms) in Kyoto, said the forest rules were
"two steps forward, one step back".

Forest deal

The forest deal was the last to define the mechanisms of Kyoto.
Remaining issues include a fund to help developing nations adapt to
the feared impact of global warming, ranging from desertification to
the melting of polar icecaps.

Under Kyoto, rich nations will be allowed to store up to one percent
of their annual emissions of carbon dioxide in such forest sinks.
Kyoto seeks to cut rich countries' emissions of carbon dioxide by 5.2
percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The agreement has to be ratified by Russia before going into effect,
and delegates were hoping that an agreement on forest carbon sinks
would persuade Russia to stop dragging its feet over the agreement.The
Kyoto protocol was severely limited by the walkout in 2001 of the
United States, the world's biggest polluter.
 

SOURCE: http://english.aljazeera.net

EPILOG: So far UN stood for many as in UnNecessary, now the
United Nations seem to become the UN-bearable burden of u all.
Let do away with it and come back to state and individual
responsibility.

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 Action features important steps YOU can quickly take 
to help make the world greener. Check out our alerts below.
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1. Smart prevention: help reduce threat of a terrorist attack!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/9481/1052 
The threat is real. Terrorists are racing to get nuclear, biological, 
and chemical weapons and we are not yet racing to stop them.
** Some nuclear weapons materials around the world are protected by 
just a chain link fence. 
** Dangerous biological materials are available in laboratories all 
over the world because the same technology used to cure can be used to kill. 
** Millions of deadly chemical weapons are also at risk; storage 
facilities are often poorly secured and the weapon canisters are old and in danger of 
leaking.

When terrorists want to acquire nuclear, biological and chemical 
weapons or materials, they will go where the materials are the least secure. That 
means that we must work with other nations to secure nuclear weapons 
and materials at the source; improve biological defenses; and secure and 
destroy chemical weapons and materials.

Right now the US spends less than one percent of the defense budget on 
cooperative efforts to keep nuclear, biological and chemical weapons 
out of the hands of terrorists. (Source: Matthew Bunn, Harvard University, 2003)

Sign this petition to show your support for accelerating efforts to 
lock down and destroy these materials before terrorists can get them. 
SIGN NOW! http://www.care2.com/go/z/9481/1052

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2. Public Support Needed Today: Strengthen Protection of the 
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem

A beautiful, remote string of islands, reefs and atolls lies some 120 
nautical miles west of the main Hawaiian Islands. The Northwestern 
Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) encompass close to 70% of our country's coral reefs, 
including some of our most pristine shallow-water reefs. These islands 
are an irreplaceable national treasure, but there are serious threats to 
this incredible ecosystem. Sign this petition to strengthen protection of 
the NWHI ecosystem: http://www.care2.com/go/z/9497/1051

Endangered green sea turtles, the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, and a 
myriad of bird species rely heavily on the islands and surrounding 
waters for survival. But lobster and finfish fishing, proposed coral harvests, 
and marine debris all threaten the fragile island chain.

The federal government is now considering designating the area a 
National Marine Sanctuary. We need your help and comments today to ensure that 
the designation will include the strongest possible protections for these 
islands and their magnificent ecosystem.

Please sign this petition and help ensure we leave a legacy of wild and 
healthy oceans! http://www.care2.com/go/z/9497/1051

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3. ACTIVIST TIPS
Reduce waste in gift-wrapping
Here we are, all gearing up for the holiday, when it is estimated that 
between Thanksgiving and the New Year an extra million tons of waste are 
generated nationwide each week. Our tip for the day: reduce your holiday waste 
through creative gift-wrapping! Wrap in brown paper bags or newspaper and 
decorate with stamps, crayons, anything you think of! And if you do need to buy 
wrapping paper, buy paper with the highest amount of post-consumer 
recycled content you can find.

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4. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE
 "The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after 
all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to 
foster its renewal is our only hope."  - Wendell Berry

Thanks for your help today,

Rose Liston
The PetitionSite and Care2.com