PROTECT THE ARCTIC
NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

CALL OR WRITE CONGRESS TODAY!

Good News - 05/01/01
Thanks to the tremendous outpouring of public opposition, plans to drill for oil in the unspoiled coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) appear to be receding. Even Alaska Senator Ted Stevens says that drilling in ANWR is dead in Congress for now - the votes to open it simply aren't there.

Conservationists are not backing down, however, and some believe that this latest news may be a ploy to raise more pro-development dollars. Also, predicted high gasoline prices will be surely be capitalized by Big Oil to convince Americans' of our "energy shortage" and the need to find more oil in the Arctic.

But, the overall feeling is that round one has been won by the majority of Americans who want ANWR closed to development. With this momentum, it's time to continue the push to get a wilderness designation for this wild and special place, and end forever the unrelenting efforts by Big Oil to exploit it.

Wilderness Bills In Congress!

HR 770 and S 411 seek to designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. These companion bills, introduced by Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) and Senator Joseph Leiberman (D-CT), are similar to legislation introduced in previous Congresses. This year's House bill includes a new findings section and language instructing that the new wilderness area be managed as part of the existing nine million acres of wilderness in the refuge. Wilderness designation for the refuge's coastal plain will permanently protect this diverse ecosystem from imminent oil and gas development.
Our position: Support!

What You Can Do! Write or call your legislators today and let them know that you support adding the coastal plain area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the Wilderness Preservation System.

Write to:

The Honorable ____________________
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable _____________________
U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

Need information? Capital Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

or go to ... Who to Write

Important Links:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain: American Seregenti.

Sierra Club Protect the Arctic

Alaska Wilderness League

Defenders of Wildlife Save the Arctic Refuge Campaign

from Save Our Environment Action Center May 21, 2001

SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT ACTION CENTER UPDATE

By using the Save Our Environment Action Center
[http://www.saveourenvironment.org] , you are working
together with the nation's most influential environmental
advocacy groups in the crucial battles to protect our air
and water, forests and oceans, climate, wilderness, and
wildlife.

May 21, 2001

************************************************************
President Bush's proposed energy strategy will not help
consumers, but would undermine basic environmental and
public health protections to benefit his administration's
coal, oil and nuclear allies. Help us fight back now.

To send a free fax to your senators, just reply to this
email.
************************************************************

On Thursday, President Bush announced his proposed national
energy policy -- a plan that would lead us down an
unbalanced path that threatens public health, the
environment and our public lands. Drafted behind closed
doors with heavy input from industry representatives who
donated substantial amounts to President Bush's campaign,
the plan is dominated by an emphasis on energy supply while
doing little to significantly improve energy efficiency or
help consumers.

For example, the plan includes proposals to:

** open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other
public lands to drilling;
** increase air pollution by weakening Clean Air Act and
other pollution requirements;
** increase subsidies to coal and nuclear industries;
** increase global warming pollution;
** encourage construction of new nuclear power plants; and
** override local land use decisionmaking.

To make matters worse, while the president's plan pays
modest attention to energy efficiency, his proposed budget
drastically cuts energy efficiency and renewable energy
programs -- technologies that will provide the fastest,
cleanest and least expensive energy.

Congress will now consider President Bush's plan as it
develops energy legislation and sets national budget
priorities. Tell your senators that we deserve better than
the president's plan to "Drill America First."
Send your senators a message today. We've made it easy for
you -- just reply to this email and we'll automatically fax
the message below to both your senators. Or, if you prefer
to call your senators, the Capitol Hill switchboard number
is 202-224-3121.

Once again, thanks for being part of the Save Our
Environment activist network and for taking action to help
preserve and protect the Earth's natural treasures and
quality of life. Remember, you can increase the impact of
your support by encouraging your family and friends to
visit the Save Our Environment Action Center as well. We've
made it easy for you with our "Tell a Friend" feature which
allows you to send an electronic postcard right from the
site.

Save Our Environment Action Center --

http://www.saveourenvironment.org/

************************************************************
Fax message -- just reply to this email and we'll send this
message to your senators.

Subject:  Oppose President Bush's 'Drill America First'
energy policy

Dear Senator ,

I am writing to ask you to oppose President Bush's plan
to "Drill America First." Far from offering a balanced
solution to our nation's energy needs, the president's
energy policy will not help consumers and heavily
emphasizes polluting coal, oil and nuclear production with
only limited energy efficiency and clean energy incentives.

We must do better. Rather than simply increase the use of
these old, failed approaches, we should instead
dramatically increase investments in conservation,
efficiency and renewable energy sources, and end subsidies
for old, dirty power sources. A balanced, thoughtful energy
strategy should move us away from reliance on fossil fuels
and nuclear power, not increase it.  

Reject harmful proposals from the oil, coal and nuclear
lobbies, and lead us toward a cleaner, healthier, more
secure energy future. Oppose efforts to weaken
environmental laws, open up sensitive public lands to
exploitation, and reward polluters at the expense of
consumers.

Sincerely,

[your name and address]

from Environmental Defense May 22, 2001

Bush Energy Plan Just Released. Take Action!

You can take action on this alert either via email
(please see directions below) or via the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A21333B0521092518C223

Visit the web address below and tell your friends to
take action on this important campaign!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/fmwbush_energy/forward?rk=8pqUq8d14pqrW

We encourage you to take action by June 20, 2001

Bush Energy Plan: No Guide to a Clean Energy Future

----------------------

***************************  
ForMyWorld Action Center Alert
***************************  

The Bush Administration's newly released energy plan
calls for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
in Alaska to oil and gas exploration, and for increased
production of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy. One
of the biggest problems with the policy is that it
fails to address the issue of climate change, and could
add to already dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental Defense supports efforts to develop a
balanced energy plan for the nation. However, the few
positive aspects of the Bush Administration's plan
-- for example, tax credits for fuel-efficient vehicles
and alternative energy supplies -- are overwhelmed
by threats it poses to the environment, contributing
to air pollution, global warming and threats to public
health. The plan includes recommendations that could:

* open up our coastlines, public lands and wildlands,
including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska,
to oil, gas and coal development;
* increase our dependence on fossil fuels and increase
greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming;
* weaken Clean Air Act requirements for refineries
and large coal-fired power plants, increasing air pollution
from these sources;
* speed the construction of expensive and unproven
new nuclear power plants.  

However, its not too late for the U.S. to steer a more
responsible energy path.  

Take action now! Contact Congress and let them know
you support energy policies that do not increase emissions
of greenhouse gases and that do not undermine our basic
environmental and public health protections. Urge them
to support S.556 in the Senate and H.R.1256 in the
House, strong clean air legislation that will reduce
all major pollutants, including carbon dioxide, a major
greenhouse gas, from power plants and utilities.

For more information about the Bush Administration's
energy plan, visit:
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/bushenergy

----------------------

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action
on this alert by going to the following URL:

http://actionnetwork.org/take-action.tcl?key=419220A21333B0521092518C223  

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your email
program, and edit the letter below as you wish. Do
not delete "-YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW-" and "-END
OF LETTER-". Please do not add your name and address
to your letter. Our system automatically does this
for you.  

We STRONGLY encourage you to make edits directly to
our sample letter below, and put the alert talking
points into your own words. An individualized letter
is worth ten computer generated letters. Of course,
hundreds of unedited letters will still create a large
impact, so please reply even if you don't have time
to personalize the letter.

Your letter will be addressed and sent to:
Senator Hillary Clinton
Senator Charles Schumer
Representative Maurice Hinchey


-------YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER BELOW---------

The Bush Administration has just released its national
energy plan which relies too heavily on increased production
of gas, coal, oil (much of it from protected public
lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge),
and nuclear power.  

We must do better. Rather than simply increase the
use of these old failed approaches, we should instead
dramatically increase investments in conservation,
efficiency and renewable energy sources, and end subsidies
for old, dirty power plants. A balanced, thoughtful
energy strategy should move us away from reliance on
dirty fossil fuels and nuclear power, not increase
it.  

In particular, I am concerned about the plan's total
lack of focus on the link between climate change and
electricity generation. I urge you to instead, support
efforts to lead us toward a cleaner, healthier future.
As the energy debate goes forward, please co-sponsor
S.556 in the Senate or HR 1256 in the House, strong
clean air legislation that will reduce all the major
pollutants, including carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse
gas, from the utility sector. Let's meet our energy
needs and clean up our environment.

Thank you.

-------END OF LETTER-------------------------

from Alaska Wildlife Alliance May 22, 2001

=====  A message from the 'alaskaction' discussion list  =====

A WIN FOR THE TOKLAT WOLVES OF DENALI!

Today, the Alaska Board of Game approved an approximate 100 square mile no
hunting and
trapping zone on the northeastern corner of Denali National Park to protect
the world-famous Toklat wolves.  This is the first time ever that the Game
Board has offered significant protection for any wolves in Alaska.  We hope
that this
action marks the beginning of recognition for the non-consumptive values
of wildlife a vast majority of people hold, including Alaskans.

This unprecedented move on the part of the Game Board is a step in the right
direction and greatly appreciated.  We will continue to review the status of
the Toklat family to
determine if the buffer zone on state lands is adequate to protect these
wolves from further destruction by hunting and trapping.

We will also step up our efforts to protect a second visible wolf pack in
the eastern entrance area of the Park.  In the last 20 years, two wolf packs
in this area have been wiped out by hunting and trapping.  With just a
single wolf pup left after this year’s trapping season, Denali’s Sanctuary
pack will likely be the third pack destroyed in this territory.

Our sincere thanks to EVERYONE who has helped to bring this tremendous
accomplishment about.  Your support of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, and
your comments to the Alaska Board of Game has truly made a difference!

For more information on the Toklat wolves, or to see a copy of our press
release, go
to www.akwildlife.org.

Many many thanks!

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance
Letting Nature Run Wild
P.O. Box 202022
Anchorage, AK  99520
(907) 277-0897
(907) 277-7423 Fax
www.akwildlife.org
email:  awa@akwildlife.org

from Defenders of Wildlife May 22, 2001

1. SMOKE AND MIRRORS: Bush energy plan is no solution    The Bush energy plan emphasizes increased burning of dirty   fossil fuels rather than common-sense efficiency and conservation. It rolls   back environmental protections and results in more pollution of the air we   breathe and the water we drink. The plan calls for building up to 1,900 new   coal, gas and nuclear power plants over the next 20 years -- more than one a   week -- and for exploiting millions more acres of our vanishing wilderness.   John Walke, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the   plan "represents capitulation to an industry effort ... to weaken the   Clean Air Act as they've been asking to do for quite some time."   Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen said, "There's a   cleaner, cheaper, faster way to solve our energy problems. We need a balanced   national energy plan that combines increased production with improved   efficiencies and new technologies." If you haven't already, go to http://www.denaction.org to send a free message urging President Bush and Congress to support a plan that balances increased production with improved efficiency and conservation.  2. A BETTER WAY: Why not a clean energy future?       The Bush-Cheney energy task force all but ignored a U.S.   Department of Energy report that concluded that improved efficiencies and   renewable power could meet 60 percent of the nation's need for new electric   power plants over the next two decades. Increasing the fuel efficiency of cars   and SUVs by only 3 miles a gallon, for example, would save more oil within 10   years than could ever be extracted from the Arctic refuge. And scientists at   the country's five national laboratories have concluded that a   government-led efficiency program emphasizing new technologies could cut   growth in electricity demand in half without sacrificing our quality of life.  3. PROTECTING FORESTS: Environmentalists go to higher court                                                       Defenders of Wildlife has joined other environmental organizations in   appealing a judge's ruling that has blocked the new federal rule protecting   58 million acres of prized national forests from road-building.                     Defenders President Schlickeisen said Judge Edward Lodge "struck   down one of the most extensive, inclusive public rule-making efforts ever   seen, ignoring the input of more than 600 public hearings and more than 1.6   million official public comments."  Schlickeisen said the Bush   administration "set the stage for this court ruling by essentially   agreeing with the arguments of the rule's opponents, even as they were   claiming to support roadless protections." Before the judge made his   decision, the Bush administration said it would permit weakening amendments to   the roadless rule purportedly to allow more "local control." But as   Jim Scarantino, executive director of Republicans for Environmental Protection   put it in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Somehow ‘local control' always  finds room for the influence of logging, mining and drilling interests, even   if their headquarters are in faraway cities." 4. MAKING  A DIFFERENCE: Thanks to you, Wisconsin wetlands are saved With DENlines members and other concerned citizens demanding action, Wisconsin became the first state to restore wetlands protections stripped by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The legislation -- backed by a broad, bipartisan coalition -- gives the state the authority to save more than 4 million acres of isolated wetlands from development. The state lost that authority in a Supreme Court ruling on the federal Clean Water Act. "It's because of the public input that we were able to craft the policy," said Rep. Neal Kedzie, chairman of the state Assembly's environment committee. Wisconsin's vanishing  wetlands are a vital habitat and spawning place for fish and wildlife. Their progressive loss has led to the steady decline in our populations of ducks, geese, swans and other migratory waterfowl. 5. BRAINY DOLPHINS: They can recognize themselves in mirrors New studies report that dolphins are able to recognize themselves in mirrors, lending credence to the notion that they can develop awareness of themselves and others as distinct individuals. Those are abilities associated only with humans and great apes before now. In one study at the New York Aquarium, researchers marked dolphins. Then in separate trials, each dolphin repeatedly swam to a mirror to investigate the place where it had been marked, often twisting and turning to see the spot. Dr. Irene Pepperberg, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, said the study demonstrates that dolphins are "capable of doing something only primates were believed capable of." 6. ADOPT A POLAR BEAR: Save a cub like ‘Snowflake'    The Bush energy plan calls for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife   Refuge, and that poses a threat to polar bears. They dig dens in snow drifts   on the coastal plain of the refuge and give birth to one or two cubs in   December. At this time, the bears are especially sensitive to noise or   vibrations. Wildlife biologists fear sows will abandon their young cubs if oil exploration disturbs them.                                                                    This cuddly plush bear is yours                 when you "adopt a polar                 bear" today!           You can help by "adopting" a polar bear cub today. You'll receive   your own polar bear cub adoption action kit and a huggable plush polar bear   cub named Snowflake. Or give a special child, grandchild, or friend who loves   wildlife the gift of polar bear sponsorship. Become   a sponsor today! 7. DISPATCH FROM YELLOWSTONE: Tracking wolves and bison                                                DENlines correspondent Nathan Varley reports from the deep backcountry of Yellowstone National Park. On a 10-day expedition, Varley joined two wildlife biologists studying the complex interactions of wolves and bison.  Confrontations between these two species have not been observed in the wild in this country for more than a century. Now that wolves are back in Yellowstone, researchers are seeing again how these large animals cope with one another. And on this trip, grizzly bears were never far from the action. Click here to read Varley's dispatch: http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/wolf/yellowstone.html             *   FORWARD THIS ISSUE TO A FRIEND.   HELP SPREAD THE NEWS   ABOUT WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION. *     CLICK     HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO DENLINES        DENlines is a bi-weekly publication   of Defenders of Wildlife, a leading national conservation organization   recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and   its habitat. It is known for its effective leadership on endangered species   issues, particularly predators such as brown bears and gray wolves. Defenders   also advocates new approaches to wildlife conservation that protect species   before they become endangered. Founded in 1947, Defenders is a nonprofit   501(c)(3) organization with more than 400,000 members and supporters. To   unsubscribe, send an e-mail to denlines@defenders.org   and put the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.      Defenders of Wildlife   1101 14th Street, N.W.   Suite 1400   Washington, DC 20005   Copyright Defenders   of Wildlife 2001

from Global Response May 22, 2001

The New York Times article posted below is being circulated to the JustEarth
Network, of which Global Response is a member.  The May 16 article profiles
the human and environmental impacts of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline
project (please see http://www.globalresponse.org/gra_index/gra0499.html for
the text of the Global Response Action Alert to stop construction of this
pipeline).

The New York Times article also addresses broader concerns
associated with the impacts that the discovery of oil and other natural
resources, like diamonds, has had on developing countries such as Nigeria,
Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea. Despite the promise of greater wealth for the
majority of the population, often times only a few power elites benefit
from the exploitation of natural resources leading to civil unrest, while
profits from such projects are used to maintain rights repressive regimes.
For example, Chadian President Deby used the signing bonus he received from
the oil consortium for weapons purchases.

The article underscores the need to keep the pressure on governments in
countries such as Nigeria, Burma, Chad and Cameroon and the multinationals
corporations extracting natural resources in them to address the
environmental and social impacts of their operations and ensure that local
communities are openly consulted on projects that affect them without
having to fear human rights abuses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/16/world/16CHAD.html

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

May 16, 2001

Chad's Wait for Its Oil Riches May Be Long

By NORIMITSU ONISHI with NEELA BANERJEE

KOMÉ, Chad ? A dozen men waited under the one giant tree that stood ?
luckily for them, given the brutal midday sun ? just across from the front
gate of ExxonMobil's office here. They were waiting for lunch time, and one
of the new Toyota Land Cruisers carrying an expatriate boss, who might, at
long last, stop at the gate and offer them work.

A couple of them said they had been here nearly three years. None had
worked a single day so far.

Yet many more job-hunters joined them after Oct. 18, the day the presidents
of Chad and Cameroon came here with officials of the World Bank and a
consortium of three of the world's biggest oil companies ? ExxonMobil,
Chevron and Petronas of Malaysia ? to begin one of the biggest projects in
African history: a $3.7 billion, 665- mile pipeline to carry crude oil from
landlocked Chad, through neighboring Cameroon, to the Atlantic coast.

The new arrivals have swelled the population of a village of straw huts
that has sprung up next to the headquarters of the project. Its hopeful
denizens have named the new village Ça Attend ? It's Waiting, in French.

"They tell us to wait ? `Wait, wait, be patient' ? so we are waiting," said
Julien Djimasdé, 31, who has stood at the gate every day since October.
"Me? I have not lost hope. We are waiting and hoping that one day luck will
smile on us."

A generation ago, the prospect of oil in a desperately poor former French
colony like Chad would have been regarded as an indisputable stroke of good
luck. But intervening years have bared an enduring paradox: sudden wealth
does not lift poor nations out of their poverty, but instead creates
societies afflicted with a wealthy, corrupting elite, and widespread
poverty that caused endless conflict.

Now, as a latecomer to the ranks of the oil-rich, Chad stands as a critical
test of whether its government, the oil corporations and Western backers
have learned from the past, and whether Chad can escape the curse that oil,
diamonds or other fabulous resources have brought to so many neighbors.

"Together, we need to demonstrate that petroleum resources can be used to
lift people out of deep poverty," said Callisto Madavo, a Zimbabwean who is
the World Bank's vice president for sub-Saharan Africa. "The world is
watching this experiment closely."

The ceremony in October was the culmination of an unusually sharp debate.

Environmentalists and human rights and antiglobalization activists have
opposed the pipeline because it cuts through politically sensitive tribal
lands, and they focused their ire on the World Bank. In the Clinton
administration, officials at the State and Commerce Departments backed the
plan, pitting them against their counterparts at the Agency for
International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Now a deep suspicion remains among Chadians, leveled not only at their
government and the oil consortium, but also at the World Bank.

Though the pipeline represents the World Bank's single largest investment
in sub-Saharan Africa, the bank's $200 million in loans to the governments
of Chad and Cameroon are relatively small.

More important is the bank's moral backing, without which the oil companies
might have abandoned the project.

"The World Bank has invested a lot of its credibility in this project, and
so if it fails in Chad, it will have to find another development formula,"
said Soumaine Adoum, a Chadian who is the representative for SuisseAide, a
private Swiss organization. "I think it will do anything it can, not to
fail."

At its peak, according to early estimates, Chad will pump about 225,000
barrels a day of oil and earn more than $125 million a year at current oil
prices. Whatever the figure, the money will have a huge impact on Chad's
tiny yearly budget of $230 million.

Over the next quarter of a century, more than $2 billion is expected to
fill Chad's coffers ? small change by Western standards, but an
unfathomable sum for a country where 80 percent of the eight million people
live on less than a dollar a day.

Based on experience in the developing world, Chad could well expect those
millions to create a tiny yet extremely wealthy circle of business and
political power brokers, while the remaining 95 percent of Chad's citizens
would find their lot no better, and possibly even worse.

They might see oil money diverted to almost anything but the public good,
from monumental,
white-elephant projects like the re-routing of rivers to fighting civil
wars. The initial signs in Chad have not been promising. Last year,
President Idriss Déby secretly used the first chunk of oil money ? $4.5
million ? to buy weapons to use against rebels in the northern desert.

Chad holds a presidential election on May 20, pitting Mr. Déby against six
other candidates. While the vote is likely to go to a second round, Mr.
Déby is the clear favorite to win a second five-year term.

"Oil is the devil's gold," said Leonidas Drollas, chief economist at the
Center for Global Energy Studies, a London consulting firm, "because when
you have a commodity selling at a price that is around four times its cost
of production, it is easy money, like winning the lottery. It's just human
nature. If you haven't had to work hard for your money, you tend to
underestimate its value. And countries are no different than people."

That is not to say that oil is a universal curse. Countries like Norway or
Britain, which had developed economies and political systems long before
oil flowed from the North Sea, were capable of absorbing, managing and
benefiting from their bonanza.

But now most of the world's largest oil deposits lie under poor countries
with little political
accountability. The United States has only 2 percent of the world's proven
reserves, and North Sea production, after a long run, is declining.

Under the tree across from the gates of EssoChad, the ExxonMobil
subsidiary, was Jacques
Ngondingaogoto, 29, who had left farming in his village about 25 miles away
to try his luck at finding work in Ça Attend.

"What we're really waiting for is the oil to come out of the ground and
then everything will change for us," he said. "Let it come out! Let it come
out!"

The Nation

A Bleak Expanse, Sand and Poverty

With the oil actually scheduled to come out of the ground only in 2003, the
World Bank and the Chad government are rushing to put in place a complex
system of controls that will track the revenues and ensure that the money
is well spent.

There are seven levels of oversight built into the project, and a group of
international advisers for the bank will follow the money trail for the
entirety of the project's expected 25- to 30-year life.

"I view the Chad project as a clean sheet of paper," said Rex Tillerson,
executive vice president of the ExxonMobil Development Company. "We have
the opportunity to put things in place perhaps the way you'd like to see
them carried out from the very beginning."

Oil was discovered in Chad in 1973, but a fierce civil war has blocked
production ever since. In that time Chad's largest industry, cotton, grew
ever more unproductive. Lake Chad, the largest body of water, shrank by 90
percent because of the advancing Sahara. Chad essentially became a ward of
France and the United States.

Only about 250 miles of road are paved. The harsh climate effectively shuts
down N'Djamena, the capital city, in the afternoon. Riding in a car with
the windows rolled down, a passenger's face is struck by a dusty wind as
hot as a blow-dryer.

Against this shines the winning lottery ticket of a billion barrels of
crude oil reserves. After the World Bank finally endorsed this project last
year, President Déby came to Komé to celebrate and gleefully fired shots in
the air.

Back in N'Djamena oil workers and contractors, speaking in French and
American- accented English, poured into the best hotel, a two-story Novotel
motel. And Air France tripled its weekly flights between Paris and
N'Djamena, to three.

Away from the capital, here in Chad's oil country, even the lowest jobs are
filling Africans with hope that the oil will lift them from their poverty.

Oil, after all, has already changed some of their lives in inconceivable
ways. About 10 miles from Komé, oil is bringing the construction of an
airfield near a hamlet called Béro. To free the needed land, EssoChad has
been compensating some residents for the loss of property. The land itself
is considered the government's.

Matthieu Nadjihoutayo, 31, who received almost $6,000 and a new house,
bought a small grain mill, a bike and a sewing machine. He expressed a
sentiment shared by most ordinary Chadians interviewed: "Oil is good.
That's why I was willing to let go of my land. It's for the good of the
country."

The Precedents

From Gulf to Africa, Lost Opportunities

Even countries like Saudi Arabia, whose gleaming facade of shopping malls,
airports and universities suggests universal prosperity, is a troubled
land.

Saudi Arabia struggles under a domestic debt that exceeds its gross
domestic product. Its infrastructure is crumbling, its unemployment rate
climbing and the ruling Saud family is trying to make sure that the popular
discontent in other Muslim countries does not overwhelm the country.

Although Venezuela began developing oil more than 60 years ago, it has yet
to build a diversified economy with its oil revenues, and the country's
fortunes still rise and fall with each petroleum shortage and glut.

Iraq has used its oil wealth to finance belligerent regional expansion.
Critics of Kazakhstan, a new oil power, say the government has embezzled
millions of dollars of oil revenues and cracked down on opponents who
demand an accounting.

But it is probably Africa's oil producers that have fared the worst.

Nigeria made $300 billion during the last 25 years, but 60 percent of the
people live on less than $2 a day. Angola, whose production is expected to
surpass Nigeria's soon, has been destroyed by a quarter-century war fed by
arms bought on oil and diamond money.

Among new members to the African oil club, the record is no better. At one
extreme, the Arab-dominated Islamic government of Sudan has been using its
new oil money to intensify a brutal war against Christian and animist
blacks in the south.

And in tiny Equatorial Guinea, the family in power has kept a tight grip on
oil production and revenues. One of the government's major construction
projects was a presidential wing for the airport.

At least the precedents identify the pitfalls, Mahamat Ali Hassan, the
Chadian minister of economic promotion and development, said in an
interview: "We have an advantage over them ? we are late in exploiting oil
and we can capitalize on their experiences."

But skeptics, in Chad and abroad, say this country is doomed to repeat the
mistakes of the past. They point out that the government of President Déby
is really a cabal of his ethnic group, the Zaghawa, which fought a
devastating civil war to grab power a decade ago, and not a real government
with the checks and balances to manage a budget, much less an oil windfall.

Corruption is everywhere. On the streets of N'Djamena and in the southern
cities, gasoline stations stand deserted. Gas is smuggled into the black
market ? clearly with the complicity of the authorities. Then at a 50
percent markup over the official rate, the gasoline is sold in whiskey
bottles along the road.

Police officers and soldiers stop drivers, make a pretense of checking
their papers, and declare, "A page is missing." The missing page amounts to
a 500-franc note, a 70- cent shakedown.

The Boom Town

Maybe, Just Maybe, Roads Will Be Paved

Moundou, the town nearest the oil fields, is seeing one of the biggest
economic booms in Africa. Already the center for cotton, beer and tobacco ?
three of the country's four industries ? Moundou is also fast becoming an
oil city.

On the narrow dirt roads leading out of town, trucks carry giant tractors
past mud huts and half-naked children. Newcomers have pushed Moundou's
population from 130,000 to 150,000, city officials said. Surely the roads
to Moundou will soon be paved; surely cellular phones will soon jangle
here.

Yet Mayor Laoukein Kourayo does not look like a happy man. He fears that
oil will transform Moundou into an urban monstrosity.

Already, many of the newcomers mill around all day in front of the office
of David Terrassement, a French firm working on the pipeline, but none get
jobs. Housing has become scarce. The price of a 220-pound bag of millet,
the local staple, has doubled, to $23.

"I fear we will be worse than Nigeria," Mr. Kourayo said.

The Money

Hard-Learned Lessons in Accountability

During the oil boom of the 1970's, Nigeria's military and civilian rulers
not only tucked away petrodollars abroad, but also indulged in vast
spending ? and even borrowing ? to finance construction. Today Nigeria is
the world's sixth-largest oil producer and has about $30 billion in debt.
Access to oil and its revenues remains in the grip of an elite.

"Normal business in places like Nigeria went to hell in a handbasket," said
one Western oil executive. "Why grow food yourself when you can buy it? Why
be a farmer when you can be a well-paid civil servant? Parts of the economy
shrank and never recovered."

The problems multiply when oil prices fall. With little else in their
economies, oil revenues shrink
drastically when world petroleum prices slip. The fight over a small pot of
money encourages greater corruption, the executive said.

All of a sudden, the welfare state becomes harder to support. Inflation
spirals, unemployment rises and the issue of oil becomes a flash-point of
popular discontent.

The hard fact is that the oil industry adds to an economy not by creating
jobs, but by paying royalties, dividends and taxes.

Therein lies one of the major problems: the money flows from the top down,
making accountability difficult. In fact, many oil- producing states do not
even disclose how much they earn.

"The governments are not reliant on taxpayers for income," said Arvind
Ganesan, director of business and human rights at the New York-based Human
Rights Watch. "They get their wealth from elsewhere, and the political link
is broken."

At the peak of construction, the pipeline project from Chad will employ
about 7,000 people, but that will be for only a brief period, and most of
the skilled workers will be foreigners, according to ExxonMobil. When fully
functioning, the consortium will employ between 500 and 800, and it hopes
that over time 80 percent of them will be locals.

In Chad, the World Bank endorsed the pipeline project after the government
agreed to strict rules for the control and use of oil revenues. For
example, under a new law, Chad is to reserve about 80 percent of its oil
revenues for education, health, social services, rural development and
infrastructure. Another 10 percent is to be kept in a trust. The rest is to
be assigned to develop the oil- producing region or to be at the
government's discretion.

What is more, the government agreed to what bank officials describe as an
unusual check on spending: a so-called Oil Revenues Control and Monitoring
Board. The group ? nine members from government, human rights, labor and
other organizations ? will oversee the spending of oil revenues,
authorizing or vetoing plans submitted by the government.

But critics say only three or four of the nine members are truly
independent. One of them is Michel Barka, an official with the country's
largest labor group.

"Eventually, they will try to manipulate the board the same way they
manipulate many groups in civil society," Mr. Barka said. "They'll put
obstacles in our way. They'll say, `Here, Michel, here's 15 million francs,
look the other way.' That's the way they operate ? and unfortunately it
works very often."

An adviser to the president, who is of a different ethnic group, said he
believed that Mr. Déby was genuinely committed to improving the lives of
Chadians, but that he may not succeed in Africa's winner-take-all political
system.

"The people around him fought for years, suffered greatly, and have been
enjoying the fruits of power for the last decade and stealing whatever they
could find," the adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"Will they change their behavior now? Now that they are finally going to
see the oil they have been waiting for all these years?"

Still, international lenders like the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank wield
considerable power over oil-exporting countries. They can encourage change
as a condition for loans or for restructuring old debt.

The World Bank is training the Chadian government to develop long-term
strategies, to master the number-crunching to determine allocations and to
set up a system to disburse the money and verify its use.

And at the bank's urging, Parliament adopted a law stipulating that all oil
revenues first be put into foreign escrow accounts, so the World Bank and
Chadians themselves could see exactly how much money the state is
receiving.

The pipeline's supporters say the money from oil will help pave roads,
making it easier for farmers to export their goods. With the help of the
World Bank, Chad plans to privatize its cotton industry in a few years.

In N'Djamena, the country's very small group of business executives remains
skeptical, saying the government has done nothing so far but talk. Many
have complained that Chadians have benefited little, if at all, from the
project.

Oil consortium officials have set up unreasonably strict criteria to
eliminate local bidders, executives complain. And the government ? instead
of helping local businesses by, for instance, making loans available ? has
looked away, interested only in getting the oil revenues.

Boukhary B. Doudou, whose family-owned business, one of Chad's biggest, is
involved in real estate, transportation, agricultural exports and other
activities, said he had yet to win a single bid.

"They were asking that all our trucks have air-conditioning and head-rests
for the drivers," he said. "This is Africa. Where do you find that?"

Still, at Ça Attend village, their dreams fed by the jobs within the gate
of the EssoChad office, the number of newcomers is in the hundreds, and
rising fast. So have impatience and despair, prostitution and thievery,
drunkenness and fighting, ills that have grown so prevalent that some have
begun a bit of cynical word play, calling the village Satan.

Inside one straw hut that doubles as an evangelical church and clinic,
Thomas Laoudion, 45, described himself as a nurse and a preacher. He wanted
to drop the S sound from the village's name and call it simply Attend ? to
wait, not only for work, the preacher explained, but also for the Second
Coming.

Congolese music wafted cheerfully from two bar huts, effacing somehow the
gloom cast by this Beckettian waiting.

"We are waiting for our oil," the preacher said, "and we are waiting for
our Savior." 


Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy
Information

********************************
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
PO Box 7490
Boulder CO 80306
Tel. 303-444-0306
Fax. 303-449-9794
Website: www.globalresponse.org

Mission:  Global Response empowers people of all ages, cultures, and
nationalities to protect the environment by creating partnerships for
effective citizen action.  At the request of indigenous peoples and
grassroots organizations, Global Response organizes internatinoal
letter-writing campaigns to help communities prevent environmental
destruction.  Global Response involves young people as well as adults in
these campaigns, to develop in them the values and skills for global citizen
cooperation and earth stewardship.

from Global Response May 23, 2001

Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"

Here's a heart-felt and inspiring "thank you" from Pakistan, where Global
Response letters helped persuade Shell Oil to withdraw from oil/gas
explorations in Kirthar National Park (for background, please see the text
of Global Response Action Alert #6/00: Stop Oil/Gas Development in Kirthar
National Park/Pakistan, at:
http://www.globalresponse.org/gra_index/gra0600.html).

For Global Response staff and letter-writing members, it is a great
priviledge to work in collaboration with activists like Farhan Anwar, author
of the following letter, and his colleagues.  Together we are building an
increasingly effective movement of world citizens to protect our planet as a
whole.  More power to us!


Dear Global Response:

It is a lesson from history that collective and coordinated action has a
much greater chance of achieving the desired objectives than individual
efforts. The Kirthar National Park campaign proves this beyond doubt. What
was considered unthinkable in a country like Pakistan has happened. Against
heavy odds, the campaign to force Shell Oil Co. out of the protected Kirthar
National Park has succeeded ! And it is mainly due to the efforts of
organizations like Global Response.

On behalf of the Citizens Committee on Kirthar, I wish to express my great
sense of appreciation and gratitude to all the wonderful and dedicated staff
and members of Global Response for their invaluable help and assistance. The
dykes of Shell Oil could not withstand the flood of Global Response letters.
It is a great victory for conservationists all over the world.

Many thanks and the best of luck in your future campaigns.

- Farhan Anwar
  Coordinator, Citizens Committee on Kirthar
  Karachi, Pakistan


********************************
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
PO Box 7490
Boulder CO 80306
Tel. 303-444-0306
Fax. 303-449-9794
Website: www.globalresponse.org

Mission:  Global Response empowers people of all ages, cultures, and
nationalities to protect the environment by creating partnerships for
effective citizen action.  At the request of indigenous peoples and
grassroots organizations, Global Response organizes internatinoal
letter-writing campaigns to help communities prevent environmental
destruction.  Global Response involves young people as well as adults in
these campaigns, to develop in them the values and skills for global citizen
cooperation and earth stewardship.

from World Wildlife May 23, 2001

Jaguar Habitat At Risk

Dear WWF Conservation Action Network Activist:

We urgently need your help to convince the president of Peru to reject
a bill that would gut a vital nationwide forest management law.  The
bill would put at risk millions of hectares of the richest and largest
tracts of intact tropical rain forest in the world.  These forests harbor
threatened tree species of high-commercial value such as mahogany
and cedar, and also provide habitat for wildlife such as the highly
threatened jaguar, the harpy eagle, and the giant river otter.

Please go to http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/ to urge the president
to reject the new bill.  He only has until Friday, May 25 to do so;
please act now.

World Wildlife Fund, working in collaboration with local partners in
Peru, helped develop the current forestry law.  This law will help end
the unsustainable logging that has resulted in an alarming deforestation
rate of 260,000 hectares per year in Peru.

The new law undermines the current provisions for encouraging
sustainable forest management, overcoming illegal logging, combating
extensive corruption, and stopping degradation and unsustainable
harvesting, particularly of mahogany.  Please act now to protect one of
the world's most precious remaining tropical rain forests

from the Green Party May 23. 2001

Green Party of New York State E-News Vol. 1, No. 6, May 23, 2001

In this issue:

1. Introduction

2. Action and Activity alerts (AAAs)
- Groups Say No to $1 Billion Welfare Deal for New York State Exchange --
Corporate Welfare Carnival on May 25th to Highlight Broken Promises on Job
Creation (NYC, May 25)
- Oppose Reopening of one of New York City’s Dirtiest Power Plants!
(Brooklyn, May 31)
- Rally to Protest the Rockefeller Drug Laws (New York City, June 30)
- Support Intro. 915  New York City Pesticide Phase-out Legislation
- Listen to The Environment Show Webcast on Dioxin
- Attention Green Candidates  NYS Petitioning Begins June 5th!

3. Meetings and Events:
- June 28th -July 1st : NATIONAL PRO-DEMOCRACY CONVENTION in Philadelphia, PA.
- Sun. June 10th 4:30-6pm: ANTI-DEATH PENALTY PROTEST in Albany
4. Featured Local:      Ralph Nader’s Address Capstones a Memorable Year
for the Geneseo Greens, By Matthew Zawisky ,Contribution by Stacey Juliano

5. News, News Links, Resources
- NYC FUND RAISER FOR THE GP OF NEW YORK STATE WITH RALPH NADER A HUGE SUCCESS
- GREEN CANDIDATE SCORES BIG IN FIRST COUNCIL SHOWDOWN
- LETTER TO THE EDITOR, by Joseph DeMare
- CORPORATE WELFARE SPOILS, by Ralph Nader
- STATE GREEN PARTIES OPPOSE STAR WARS
- GEORGE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING AL WOULDN'T HAVE, by Michael Moore
- SUPREME COURT REJECTS NADER CHALLENGE TO CORPORATE FUNDING OF DEBATES
- NDP GOES ON ATTACK AGAINST GREENS
- GREENS TELL OIL FIRMS TO CUT LINKS WITH BUSH
- EIGHT GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPIONS AWARDED 2001 GOLDMAN PRIZE

1.      INTRODUCTION

Welcome to another issue of the Green Party of New York State's
E-News!  Our goal is to update Greens across the state about important
issues, news, events, and resources. We hope you will find E-News
informative and entertaining. We welcome your comments, contributions and
assistance. Send your news, events, and Alerts for the next issue to Cathy
Sadell at csadell@prodigy.net and let us know if you would like to help
write the next issue.  Special thanks to Ann Link, who is now coordinating
the News and Featured Local sections. Note that E-News will print letters
to the editor from Greens, Nader supporters, and people with something
interesting to say. Deadline for submissions to next issue: Friday, June
15, 2001. If you would prefer not to receive the newsletter, please notify
Masada Disenhouse at masada@akula.com. To learn more about the Greens in
New York or to contact your local Green chapter please visit www.greens.org/ny.

Note: Please send action alerts with plenty of notice, and from all over
the state.  People want to attend, but often don’t get enough notice. Thanks!


2. ACTION AND ACTIVITY alerts ( AAAs)

Groups Say No to $1 Billion Welfare Deal for New York State Exchange  --
Corporate Welfare Carnival on May 25th to Highlight Broken Promises on Job
Creation
Opponents of the proposed $1.1 billion corporate welfare package to provide
public subsidies to build a new trading floor for the New York Stock
Exchange will hold a Corporate Welfare Carnival in NYC on Wall Street (and
Broad) on Friday, May 25th at noon.

A growing number of human service, environmental, religious and labor
organizations are calling upon the Governor and Mayor to put a halt to the
largest welfare subsidy in state history and reinvest the funds in programs
to deal with hunger, homelessness, housing, education, AIDS, environment
and other pressing needs. The Corporate Welfare Carnival was debuted at the
State Capitol last week by the Labor and Environmental Network as part of
an effort to pass state legislation introduced by Assemblymember Marty
Luster (D-Ithaca) to provide performance and reporting standards for the
billions of dollars provided to corporations in New York State in the name
of job creation. Critics claim that existing agencies provide little
oversight to the state's mushrooming corporate welfare program.  The
Carnival includes a graveyard of broken welfare promises; the IDA shell
game, the Fortune 500 Teller Booth, Bust the Balloon, and Mr. Big Bucks
Peep Show. Groups calling for a halt to the billion-dollar giveaway to the
Stock Exchange include City Project, Community Voices Heard, NYC
Labor-Religion Coalition, West Side Campaign Against Hunger, Citizens
Environmental Coalition, Save the Earth, Brooklyn Greens, Lower East Side
Greens, United for a Fair Economy, Center for an Urban Future, Urban
Justice Center, National Employment Law Project, Fifth Avenue Committee,
and Community Food Resource Center. While the New York Stock Exchange is
technically a nonprofit corporation, it is in fact "owned" by 1,366 large
companies with gross revenues of $245 billion in 2000 and after-tax profits
of $13 billion - a 30% increase from last year. A "seat" on the NYSE
presently sells for $1.7 million. Board members include State Comptroller
Carl McCall, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and the
head of American on Line. NYSE has announced plans to convert itself to a
for-profit company and raise capital by selling shares of stock in itself.
Many observers are skeptical that a looming June 30th deadline will be met
to find a developer for a tower to be built above the new trading floor.

Oppose Reopening of one of New York City’s Dirtiest Power Plants!
(Brooklyn, May 31)
Tell Con Ed: DON'T POLLUTE OUR AIR!
JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS AT A PUBLIC HEARING ON THURSDAY , MAY 31, STARTING AT
3:00 PM AT THE BROOKLYN MARRIOTT LOCATED AT 333 ADAMS STREET BETWEEN TILLARY
AND WILLOUGHBY.

Con Ed plans to reactivate a 1950's power plant boiler at the Hudson Avenue
Station near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In just one year the boiler will spew
hundreds of tons of air pollution, including 825 tons of nitrogen oxides and
918 tons of sulfur dioxide. Right now the New York State department of
Environmental Conservation (DEC) is considering whether to approve Con Ed's
application for a permit. So far community groups and environmental
organizations have forced the DEC to hold a public hearing on Con Ed's
proposal.

JOIN COMMUNITY LEADERS AND HUNDREDS OF YOUR NEIGHBORS TO VOICE YOUR
OPPOSITION TO CON ED'S PLAN. YOU NEED NOT TESTIFY TO ATTEND. THOSE WHO
CANNOT ATTEND AT 3:00 PM BECAUSE OF WORK SHOULD PLAN TO COME AFTER WORKAS
THE HEARING WILL MORE THAN LIKELY GO ON UNTIL AT LEAST 7PM.

If you cannot male it to the public hearing write or call the DEC to
express your opposition to Con Ed's plan at: Division of Environmental
Permits, NYSDEC, Region 2 Headquarters, 47-40 21st St., Long Island City,
NY 11101, Attn: Elizabeth Clarke          OR CALL : (718) 482-4997 OR
518-457-3446


Rally to Protest the Rockefeller Drug Laws (New York City, June 30)
Rally on the Rockefeller Drug Laws in Harlem on June 30, at 12-3 pm. March
from 116th St and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. to 125th and Malcolm X Blvd,
and will rally on Malcolm X Blvd. At this Rally we will hear from
ex-prisoners, family and friends of the incarcerated and members of the
larger community. State legislators have also been invited to speak to the
Rockefeller Drug Laws and its impact on communities and families. Hosted by
the Interfaith Partnership for Criminal Justice in NY City (IFP), who have
asked Greens to cosponsor. For more information, Jessica Dias:
jessicadias@hotmail.com.

Support Intro. 915  New York City Pesticide Phase-out Legislation
At our behest, Councilman Jerome X. O'Donovan has introduced pesticide
phase-out legislation into New York City Council (INT 915). We think we
have a good chance of getting it passed but we have to act quickly.  Alone
among Staten Island Democrats, Councilman O'Donovan is supporting Speaker
Peter Vallone for mayor. If we mobilize support around the City, and Mr.
O'Donovan presses the Speaker, we may have our legislation.  NYC
Greens  Please call or write your Councilperson and Speaker Vallone to
support passage of this bill!

Now is the time to mobilize. We have flyers that you can distribute at your
discretion. We are also hoping that people will come forward to write to
their community newspapers and the Times. So folks who want to go to
organizations as well as stay at home and write are all important.  For
more information, contact Elizabeth Shanklin at  718.548.4693.

Listen to The Environment Show Webcast on Dioxin
On Friday, May 4th, 2001, The Environment Show, produced by WAMC, Albany
Public Radio, began airing a panel discussion on the topic of open waste
burning/persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contamination of animal fats.
Panelists included: Dwain L. Winters, Director of the US EPA's Dioxin
Policy Project; Monica Rohde, principal in the Center for Health,
Environment and Justice's Stop Dioxin Exposure Campaign; and Donald L.
Hassig, St. Lawrence
River Valley Greens.

The strongest indictment yet of open waste burning as a major source of
dioxin creation and release to the  environment came from EPA. Clearly, an
effort to eliminate the burn barrel and refuse heap fires of rural America
will be a high priority in the Cross-Media Dioxin Strategy (CMDS)which is
now being drafted by Director Winters. (This document will be released in
first draft following distribution of the final draft of the EPA's dioxin
reassessment,  "Exposure and Human Health Reassessment of
2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD) and Related Compounds"). Public
hearings on the Cross-Media Dioxin Strategy, the federal government's plan
for reducing human exposure to dioxins and other dioxin-like POPs, will be
conducted in EPA regional office cities across the US.

CMDS hearings held in the Region 2 EPA/New York City venue will be perfect
for emphasizing the 500 million pounds of milk produced and marketed
annually connection between open waste burning in St. Lawrence County and
metropolitan area milk drinkers.
Listen to the Environment Show on open waste burning/dioxin/milk at:
www.wamc.org/green .
Visit the website of Cancer Action and the St. Lawrence River Valley
Greens at: www.canceractionslc.homestead.com .

Sincerely, Donald L. Hassig, St. Lawrence River Valley Greens


3. MEETINGS AND EVENTS

June 28th -July 1st : NATIONAL PRO-DEMOCRACY CONVENTION in Philadelphia, PA.
At the Pro-Democracy Convention you will: -Learn about the history of the
evolution of our democratic system of government how did things come to be
as they are? -Analysis of the flaws and failings of Election 2000 -Examine
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as it relates to democratic
participation and how various international bodies monitor elections. How
do elections in the U.S. compare? -Learn about alternative ways of
practicing democracy in countries like South Africa, Canada, Mexico, New
Zealand and nations in Europe. What can we
learn from their practices? -Discuss specific proposals for reform as
present in the Voters' Bill of Rights. How can this concept become the
centerpiece for the pro-democracy campaign/movement? Acquire knowledge,
information and skills useful to work in local communities for electoral
reform and a more participatory democracy. -Explore various ways and means
of following up and sustaining the momentum from the convention. Initiated
by the Center for Constitutional Rights, 666 Broadway, NY, NY. 10012,
212-614-6464 (tel), 614-6499 (fax). Co-sponsored by: Alliance for Democracy
www.alliancefordemocracy.net, Center for Voting and Democracy,
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Global Exchange, Independent
Progressive Politics Network, Institute for Policy Studies, Kensington
Welfare Rights Union, NAACP, National Action Network, National Black
Leadership Roundtable, National Coalition for Black Civic Participation,
Project South, Public Campaign, Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Sun. June 10th 4:30-6pm: ANTI-DEATH PENALTY PROTEST in Albany
The Center for Law and Justice and other community groups will gather to
protest the federal execution of Timothy McVeigh, the first of its kind
since 1963. A public demonstration will be held in front of the Washington
Ave Armory at Lark St in Albany. For more info Dan (518) 427-8361
cflj@knick.net Please tell your members and friends and plan to participate.

4. FEATURED LOCAL: Ralph Nader’s Address Capstones a Memorable Year for the
Geneseo Greens,
By Matthew Zawisky ,Contribution by Stacey Juliano

Corporate Welfare, abuses of political power, and what college students can
do to eliminate social injustice, were some of the key issues that former
Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader addressed in his speech in
front of one thousand in a sold out Wadsworth Auditorium on May 1, 2001.

Nader had many pieces of advice to offer college students of advice to
offer college students who want to change the social ills of this country
and the world.  He advised the students in the audience not to go through
their college careers without taking on some injustice, because college is
just a trade school if they do.  College should be a place where one’s
civic capacities are broadened, he continued, by increasing knowledge and
our responsibilities as citizens.  “Education gives you a well grounded
sense of injustice without which you cannot have a sense of justice,” Nader
said.

Nader’s visit to Geneseo was the capstone event for the Geneseo Greens. It
brought the year into full circle, for in August of 2000 I skipped my first
day of classes, and “booked it to Buffalo” to see Ralph speak for the first
time.  There I heeded Ralph’s challenge to the young people to replace our
everyday trivial talk and discuss pertinent issues in lieu of the 2000
election.

Inspired by the disenfranchisement and apathy of hundreds of my classmates
in regard to the Presidential Election, I founded the Geneseo Greens to
connect our vision and ideals with practical programs and a political voice
that is genuinely reinforced by our political party.  Our grassroots civic
group has tried to re-energize the ideas and political voice of young
voters.  I remind them that this political movement is first and foremost a
movement of thought, not belief.  There is nothing wrong with belief but it
would be better to have it preceded by thought and followed by action.  The
crux of the Geneseo Greens is to strive to deepen our democracy, developing
a civic sense of students to inform the public of pertinent issues.

Thus far, we have been the only campus in the country to host our Green
Senatorial (Mark Dunau on November 4) Vice Presidential (Winona LaDuke on
March 29) and Presidential (Ralph Nader on May 1) in one school year.  The
Geneseo Greens have been the driving force in organizing a campus wide
Progressive Coalition.  We define this organization as "a group of
individuals who are willing to actively engage in civic activities for the
betterment of local, national, and international standards and gain a sense
of justice from their work."  This newly formed coalition has united
student groups and students not currently active in progressive social
change, to work together on issues for progressive social change.  We are
currently negotiating with administration to become a model in the SUNY
system and have a chemical free campus, posing alternatives to herbicides
and pesticides.  Thus far the Geneseo Greens have sponsored and helped
co-organize programs on genetically engineered food awareness, sewage
sludge in our food supply, voter registration, discussions on the prison
industrial complex, the Rockerfeller drug laws, and SUNY budget advocacy.

We realize that this is just the beginning, but in just one short year, the
Geneseo Greens have become one of the most influential and active campus
groups.  We just received office space in the College Union and are using
our infrastructure to allow us to grow.  This summer we plan to get
officially recognized by the Campus Greens and attend their convention in
Chicago.


5. NEWS, NEWS LINKS, RESOURCES

MAY 16 FUNDRAISER WITH RALPH NADER A HUGE SUCCESS
Thanks to all the Greens who made our May 16 fundraiser at the Angel
Orensanz Center for the Arts in New York City such a huge success.  We
raised more than $17,000 at the event  money that will be used to open a
permanent Green Party office in New York State and hire a staff
person!  Special thanks to Ralph Nader, Phil Donahue, Patti Smith, Penny
Arcade, Tom Tomorrow, Leslie Nuchow and Dogbowl who gave their time to make
our event dynamic, exciting, and fun.  And our deep appreciation to the 50+
volunteers who worked their tails off to make it all happen!  The 350+
folks who showed up on a Wednesday night (not to mention those who sent in
their contributions) showed that the Green Party is alive and kicking  and
growing -- in New York.  An office will be the home base from we can
coordinate Green efforts and build our party full-time into an even
stronger organization… congratulations again to us all! If you did not send
in a contribution yet, it is not too late.....   Send to Green Party of New
York State, c/o David Wynyard, Treasurer, 172 5th Avenue, PMB #83,
Brooklyn, NY 11217. Thanks!


GREEN CANDIDATE SCORES BIG IN FIRST COUNCIL SHOWDOWN, by John
Rizio-Hamilton, Apr. 16, Brooklyn Heights Courier - Front Page

It was one of the candidates who handicappers give little chance that
ultimately made the biggest splash at an April 5th political forum, where
several City Council hopefuls vying to represent the 33rd Councilmanic
District appeared in public together for the first time.

The forum, held at P.S. 321, located at Seventh Avenue and 1st Street, was
sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council. The group of Democratic
candidates includes two well-connected District Leaders, a community board
member, and a Brooklyn Law School professor with an early fundraising lead,
but it was the Green party candidate who drew the loudest applause with his
calls for government reform and critique of civic disenchantment.

"We must change the function of government," said Craig Seeman, New York
State Chair of the Green Party and resident of Brooklyn Heights. "What we
need to do is change the City Charter so that people from the community
select the people on the community board."

Currently, members of the community board are selected by the Borough
President in partial consultation with the local City Councilmember. Seeman
said that letting local residents vote for their community board
representatives would encourage more civic involvement. Seeman also
advocated giving community boards enforceable veto power over local
development projects instead of the mere advisory power they currently hold.

As a way to make voters believe that every vote counts, Seeman proposed
a  system of proportional representation in local government. He also
pushed for instant runoff voting, where voters could chose a second-choice
candidate at the ballot box, thereby avoiding separate runoff elections
with a narrowed field.

The mainly liberal crowd, gathered in the school's auditorium, gave Seeman
nods of approval and rounds of applause as he put forth his progressive
agenda. However, the audience represented some of the most liberal voters
in the district, which includes Greenpoint, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Brooklyn
Heights and a portion of Park Slope. . . .

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, by Joseph DeMare, Apr. 9, Buffalo News (Clarence
Page's column at
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/page/0,1122,SAV-0104040291,00.html)

I have to respond to Clarence Page's column that ran on April 7. Mr. Page
has joined a growing number of professional commentators who are trying to
pin the blame for everything George Bush is doing on Ralph Nader. It is not
Ralph Nader's fault that Bush has decided to try to open the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge up for oil drilling. Nader opposes that
shortsighted policy because it would lead to irreversible damage to a
pristine wildlife area in return for about six month's worth of oil. It is
not Nader's fault that Bush has ordered any information that would help
make the case against drilling stripped from official Government web sites
and data bases. It is George Bush alone who is guilty of that KGB-style
censorship. The Green Party now exists. Its right to exist and the rights
of its members to form a political party are guaranteed by the
constitution. One might argue that if the Democratic Party had been less
willing to compromise environmental quality and workers' rights that it
might never have come into existence, but that point is moot now and the
argument fruitless. If you add Nader's and Gore's votes together, a very
clear majority of Americans want stronger environmental protections. Bush
promised to do something about carbon dioxide emissions and global warming
and then broke that promise to the American people. He is going against the
will of the people to serve the big oil and coal companies that paid so
much money to put him in power. Rather than attacking Nader, commentators
like Page should use their influence to show the millions of Americans that
voted for Bush, but still want to protect the environment, that Bush is not
serving their interests no matter what he says. Attacking Nader at this
point draws attention away from Bush and the bad policy decisions he is making.

CORPORATE WELFARE SPOILS, by Ralph Nader, May 7, The Nation

In one of the most foolish and cruelly ironic urban public policy decisions
in recent memory, New York Governor George Pataki and New York City Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani are planning to shower a series of subsidies, expected to
total more than $1 billion, on the high citadel of self-styled free-market
global capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange.

In December the city entered into a letter of intent to assist the NYSE in
constructing a new trading floor. The arrangement commits the city to
acquire land for the new exchange building, and for the city and state to
construct a new trading floor for the NYSE and to grant it tax and
subsidized energy benefits. In exchange, the taxpayers receive $10 million
in annual rent, which will never come close to reimbursing the city and
state for their costs.

The sole purported rationale for this corporate welfare bonanza is to
retain the NYSE in New York City. If one were to credit this claim, the
gift of more than $1 billion for the purpose of retaining fewer than 6,000
jobs--while not even ostensibly creating new ones--would, even by the
corrupt standards of job-retention- blackmail deals between corporations
and politicians, set a high-water mark for casuistry. However, the deal is
even worse than that description suggests. There is no chance that the
stock exchange would leave New York City. When I went on the NYSE floor
last year and asked veteran traders about the possibility of the exchange
moving to New Jersey, they laughed as they dismissed it out of hand. In
addition to the institutional identity and reputation of the stock
exchange, its personal connections to Wall Street firms--committed to New
York City by history, by the Manhattan residences of many of their
principals and employees and by long-term office rental commitments,
increasingly sealed by
yet other city subsidies--preclude the possibility of a move across the
Hudson to become the Hoboken Stock Exchange.

NYSE's New Jersey ploy is nothing more than a ruse for covering public
officials using what Justice Louis Brandeis once called "other people's
money." As is typical of such arrangements, the corporate-politician
conspiracy to ramrod the deal is shrouded in secrecy and in contempt for
democratic processes. The city refuses to make available to the public copy
of the letter of intent it signed with the NYSE to proceed with the
deal.  The architectural plans for the building complex--expected by
preservation advocates to generate outrage--remain concealed. The governor
forced
legislation authorizing the deal to go forward on a super-expedited basis,
leaving legislators virtually no time to review the bill. They proceeded to
pass it unanimously. New York City Council members also have failed to
object to the bill.

The Fourth Estate, perhaps inured to the issue by the steady drumbeat of
announcements regarding New York City taxpayer subsidies for big business,
has done a less than stellar job covering this boondoggle. The New York
Times editorial page endorsed the scheme years ago, when it was first being
floated. Recognizing "why some oppose on principle any concession to the
blackmailing tactics of businesses that threaten to move unless they get
public assistance," the Times concluded that New York had no choice but to
succumb. "If New York City refuses to play this game, other, hungrier
cities and states will take advantage of that passivity." Apparently, the
corporate executives at The New York Times Co. found this argument
persuasive. In February the Times and New York City completed their own
corporate welfare deal--giving the Times $29 million in tax breaks and
other incentives to maintain its offices in Times Square.

It would be hard to script a more brazen and shameless corporate giveaway
than a billion-dollar donation to the emblem of global capitalism from a
city where nearly one in three children lives in poverty, and public
investment necessities go begging. But the final act of the NYSE drama has
yet to play out: There is still time for the citizens of New York, and at
least one of the candidates seeking to replace Giuliani when his term
expires at the end of this year, to demand cancellation of this corrupt deal.

For more information on how to oppose the $1.1 billion corporate welfare
subsidy for the NY Stock Exchange, please contact Dunleamark@aol.com. Also
visit http://nys.greens.org/nyse


STATE GREEN PARTIES OPPOSE STAR WARS, ASGP Press Release, May 15 (full text
available at greenparties.org)

The Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) urges President Bush and
Congress to abandon plans to revive President Reagan's "Star Wars" pipe
dream of a missile defense shield, earlier called Strategic Defense
Initiative (SDI) and now called National Missile Defense (NMD).On June 10,
2001, many Greens will participate in a rally for the "National
Mobilization to Oppose Star Wars" to take place in Lafayette Park across
from the White House in Washington, D.C. ASGP also supports the Global
Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and will participate in
the Network's International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of
Space on October 13.

Nuclear-powered space-based missile defense represents a collaboration
among every occupant of the White House -- Republican and Democrat -- over
the past generation. Reagan introduced it; Bush Sr. tested it (at which
time its
failure and waste were revealed); Clinton revived it; and Bush Jr. now
seeks full-scale implementation. Both George W. Bush and Al Gore supported
NMD during the 2000 election campaign; Green candidate Ralph Nader strongly
opposed it. Greens demand that funding and resources for programs like NMD
be redirected towards social needs, urban revitalization, and environmental
clean-up here on Earth; that the U.S. research and implement alternative
sources and uses for energy; that nuclear power programs, which cause
threats to public safety and poisonous waste products difficult to dispose,
be dismantled; that nuclear weapons be banned and eliminated; and that the
U.S. lead the world in seeking peaceful resolution to international
conflicts, without the threat of nuclear attack and retaliation. . . .

Greens raise the following specific objections to NMD:The last attempt to
develop NMD was a failure and a waste of over $100 billion in taxpayers'
money. . . .NMD violates the Partial Test-Ban Treaty of 1963, the Outer
Space Treaty of 1967, and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with
Russia. . . .NMD will offer no defense against low-level land-based
transfer of nuclear weapons, a more likely method of delivery in coming
years as nuclear weapons technology proliferates and nations without
missile systems develop nuclear bombs. . . .Bush's "layered" land-, sea-
and space-based NMD program will cost over $200 billion. . . .NMD sets up a
"U.S. Space Command" to control "the space dimension of military operations
to protect U.S. interests and investment." . . .The development of nuclear
space technology creates hazardous working conditions on earth.

For more info on Star Wars opposition, see the Global Network Against
Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space at http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/


GEORGE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING AL WOULDN'T HAVE, by Michael Moore, May 1, 2001,
AlterNet (full text at http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10801)

Well, 101 days into the Junta and the fear mongers are having a heyday,
aren't they? Even good liberals and Democrats have joined in the mantra. To
listen to them, you'd think George W. Bush had opened the gates of hell and
unleashed the legions of Satan upon the American people.

These good people actually believe Junior has put the arsenic back in the
water, given the go-ahead to spew massive CO2 emissions into the air, torn
up our national forests, and raped the Alaskan wilderness. With all the
fury that has been whipped up, I'm sure any minute we'll also hear that
Baby Face Bush recently held up a 7-11 in Denver, and now plans to release
bubonic plague into the atmosphere over Ohio.

Now, don't get me wrong. There's no doubt that this illegal squatter in the
Oval Office is not to be trusted farther than you can throw Katherine
Harris. But, please, let's cut the crap and tell the truth: George W. Bush
has done little more than CONTINUE the policies of the last eight years of
the Clinton/Gore administration. As hard as that is for many to swallow,
that is the truth -- and the sooner you stop the scare campaign, the sooner
we'll be able to fight Bush in a way that will stop him for good.

For eight long years, Clinton/Gore resisted all efforts and recommendations
to reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and the arsenic in the water. Just
last October, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and sixteen other
Democrats successfully led the way to STOP any reduction of arsenic in the
water. Why? Because Clinton and the Democrats were beholden to the very
industries who had financed their campaigns --- and who were responsible for
high levels of arsenic in the water.

On top of that, Clinton/Gore became the first administration in twenty
years NOT to demand higher fuel efficiency standards from Detroit. Millions
of barrels of oil that did not need to be refined and spewed out into our
air were guzzled unnecessarily. It wasn't that way under Reagan. His
administration ordered that cars had to get more miles per gallon. Under
Bush I, the standards were made even stricter. Under Clinton -- zip.

Nothing. How many more people will die from cancer, how much faster will
global warming be sped up thanks to Bill and Al being in cahoots with one
of their chief patrons, the top lobbyist for the Big 3 auto companies --
Mr. Andrew Card, currently the chief of staff for the man occupying the
federal land at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Am I the only one who remembers
one of the most lavish inaugural parties thrown for Clinton after his
election? The host: General Motors and its man-about-town in DC, Andrew Card.

Yes, there is a difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. The
Democrats say one thing ("Save the planet!"), and then do another, quietly
and behind the scenes with all the bastards who make this world a dirtier
place. The Republicans just come right out and give the bastards a corner
office in the West Wing. In some ways, maybe it's better we see the evil
out in the open rather than covered up in a liberal sheep's clothing that
seems to fool a lot of people. . . .And how about those COO emission
regulations that Bush II overturned? Did I say "overturn?" Overturn what?
All Bush did was maintain the Clinton status quo. He said, in essence, that
"I'm going to pollute the air at the very same levels Clinton did during
his entire eight years, just as you are going to drink the same arsenic in
the water under my watch as you did under Clinton's."

And, like the built-in three-year delay in his arsenic reductions,
Clinton's orders on the toxic emissions in his last days specified that
they were not to be totally reduced '"until 2008, per the Kyoto agreement."
So, after violating the Kyoto accords he had signed by doing NOTHING about
CO2 in the past few years, he then tries to look good by doing NOTHING
about CO2 for another seven years! So the air that was dirty is still dirty
and will remain dirty, just as Clinton had ordered.

The list goes on and on. For eight years Clinton did NOTHING about carpal
tunnel syndrome as it relates to OSHA regulations. Then, in the middle of
pardoning some rich guys during his all-night kegger on January 19, he
decides to finally do some good for all those women who sit at keyboards
all day and who, with their crippled hands, went to the polls TWICE to make
him their President.

Finally, a word about that order Bush issued to ban money for abortions
overseas. Wrong again. Pro-choice Clinton, like the three presidents before
him, had already signed an order banning any American funds to pay for
abortions in foreign countries. What Bush did was to expand the order to
include cutting off any monies to foreign birth control groups that offer
abortion as an alternative. Worse, yes -- but he only got away with it
because our Democratic president had laid the groundwork in continuing the
abortion-funds cut-off, placing his "liberal" approval on a piece of the
right-wing agenda. If you give the devil a bone, he doesn't just go away --
he wants the whole damn leg.

So spare me all the hand wringing and indignant moralizing. Those who want
to turn Bush into some sort of cartoon monster have an agenda -- to keep
most of us from seeing the beast that they themselves have become. Of
course they hate Ralph Nader. He's an ugly reminder that they sold out a
long time ago -- and he didn't. Blame Nader, blame Bush, it's all part of
the same distraction, to keep you from focusing on this one, very important
fact: Republican arsenic or Democratic arsenic, it really is the same damn
crap being forced down your throat.


SUPREME COURT REJECTS NADER CHALLENGE TO CORPORATE FUNDING OF DEBATES, by
Anne Gearan, Apr. 30, Associated Press

Former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader lost his court fight
Monday to bar corporate underwriting of presidential and vice presidential
debates.

The Supreme Court did not comment in turning down an appeal from Nader,
celebrity supporters Susan Sarandon and Phil Donahue and other Green Party
candidates. Two lower federal courts also considered the case, which arose
from Nader's more general complaint that the national debates are unfair to
candidates outside the two major political parties.

Nader sued the Federal Election Commission to change the way the elections
agency governs debate funding. The FEC rules allow corporate donations to
help fund nationally televised debates so long as the debates themselves
are organized and staged by a nonprofit organization.  That "opened the
spigot of impermissible corporate influence," that Congress created the FEC
to address, Nader argued.

"The FEC's illegal regulations have permitted major corporations that have
deep financial interests in federal legislative and regulatory affairs to
sponsor presidential and vice presidential debates," Nader's lawyers
argued. Nader claimed the debate system denied him a fair shot at the
presidency. Acting Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, writing for the
federal government, urged the high court to stay out of the Nader case.
“Although the Supreme Court has upheld some restrictions on corporate
campaign spending, the FEC has latitude and is not required "to adopt the
most restrictive interpretation possible regarding corporate financial
assistance to nonprofit, nonpartisan debate-sponsoring organizations," the
government wrote.

Nader sued ahead of the October debates last year. A federal judge in
Boston turned him down in September, and the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled against him in November. AT&T, Anheuser-Busch and Sun
Microsystems were among companies that made tax-deductible contributions to
the nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates last year. Nader, a
longtime consumer advocate, carried about 3 percent of the vote nationally,
and said his main aim was to establish the Green party as a national force.

The case is Nader v. Federal Election Commission, 00-1244. On the Net:
Supreme Court site:  http://www.supremecourtus.gov
For the appeals court ruling in Nader v. Federal Election Commission:
http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html and click on 1st Circuit.

NDP GOES ON ATTACK AGAINST GREENS, by Chris Nuttall-Smith, May 14, The
Vancouver Sun

The New Democrats and the Green party turned against each other this
weekend as the race for opposition status grew fierce. While campaigning on
Vancouver Island Sunday, Premier Ujjal Dosanjh repeatedly disparaged the
Green party's chances of winning even one seat and appealed to would-be
Green voters to vote NDP if they want their voices to be heard in the
legislature.

And in Vancouver Sunday night, the Green party leader, Adriane Carr, lashed
out at Dosanjh and the NDP's new focus on her party, questioning the
premier's integrity and challenging him to a face-off.  "I think we're
talking about respect for voters and integrity and I just feel that Mr.
Dosanjh has sunk to a new low in terms of the kind of negative campaigning
that he's been doing against the Green party," Carr said.  Carr complained
that Dosanjh has refused requests for a face-to-face debate between the two
of them. And she objected to Dosanjh's claim that a vote for the Greens
will split the left-wing vote and help elect Liberal candidates.  "Their
attempt to conjure up this idea that people should not vote for what they
believe in, it's just so disrespectful of voters," Carr said.

The most recent polling numbers show the two parties with almost equal
levels of support; the NDP has the support 16 per cent of British
Columbians and the Greens have 12 per cent. Once margin of error is
accounted for, the difference in support is negligible. In an interview
Sunday evening, Dosanjh skirted around the question of why he will not
debate Carr one-on-one, saying repeatedly that he will only debate if
Liberal leader Gordon Campbell is included. But just last week, Dosanjh
faced Campbell in a radio debate that did not include Carr. In addition,
Dosanjh and the New Democrats have been harping on Liberal candidates
throughout this campaign for refusing to participate
in debates.

The premier repeated his refrain all through his 11-hour tour of Vancouver
Island on Sunday, during which he stopped at NDP campaign offices in nine
ridings."The Green party is the wrong choice in this riding," Dosanjh said
at nearly every stop.  "I want to make sure that the Greens understand they
can't win a seat anywhere in British Columbia. What they can do in our
areas of strength, if they vote Green, they can elect a Liberal MLA,"
Dosanjh warned.  Dosanjh declined to articulate exactly which ridings are
"areas of  strength."  Dosanjh's message Sunday was part of his party's new
and concerted focus on wooing Green voters, a focus that includes a new NDP
television commercial with the same message.  "Voting Green will only take
votes away from the NDP candidates who can defeat the Liberals," the spot says.

The attacks on the Greens are an escalation of the only real battle of this
election campaign.  With poll after poll showing the Liberals as
unbeatable, the Greens and the NDP are duking it out for official
Opposition status. Instead of focusing on the Liberals, the two centre-left
parties have set out instead to battle each other.

Dosanjh was careful Sunday not to alienate Green voters by attacking the
party too forcefully. In each speech, he gave a nod to the Greens, saying
that Greens and New Democrats have worked together in municipal politics
and share many of the same values. While many of the Greens' supporters are
former NDP voters, Dosanjh's campaign workers were proud to show off one of
their own in Comox.

Meaghan Cursons, a 27-year-old volunteer flipping pancakes at a morning NDP
rally, said that she ran as the Green candidate in the riding in the 1996
election, but signed on with the NDP during the leadership campaign last
year. Cursons said she still carries her Green values, but that she is
firmly with the NDP this time.  "Green values are great, but right now it's
not enough to make government in this province," she said. "What we've got
is the left sort of eating itself. That battle is tragic when the
fundamental values, I believe, are shared."  See the Green Party Of British
Columbia's platform www.greenparty.bc.ca.

GREENS TELL OIL FIRMS TO CUT LINKS WITH BUSH, by Carly Fields, Apr. 18,
Lloyd's List International

Oil companies have been given an ultimatum by delegates of the first
international Global Green party conference to detach themselves from the
Bush administration. Green party delegates, representing more than 60
countries, have met in Australia for a three-day landmark meeting to
discuss global environmental issues.

High on the agenda was President Bush's shunning of the Kyoto treaty on
global warming, which urges industrial countries to cut carbon dioxide and
other gas emissions by an average 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012. Among the
conclusions of the event, the Global Greens decided that they want to "send
a message" to the companies which they feel helped sway Mr. Bush against
signing the treaty. US oil companies - the main target - have been given 10
days to detach themselves from the Bush decision, according to the European
Greens secretary general Arnold Cassola.

European Federation of Greens Parties president Pekka Haavisto said: "Those
companies have been pressing the Bush administration not to ratify the
Kyoto protocol, so it's time to send them a message. Consumer choice is
something everyone can do," he said after in excess of 700 delegates voted
unanimously  for a boycott campaign against companies such as US major
ExxonMobil and TotalFinaElf.

The initiative is believed to have been spearheaded by Greenpeace and
although it is not clear how the Global Green delegates intend to take
action once the ten-day deadline has passed, it is expected to be supporter
orientated.

Bob Brown, Australia's Green leader and senator in the nation's Parliament,
said: "Over the last 30 years has shown that being a protest party is not
enough, if you want to attain change, you need some power."   Under a
separate conference issue, Global Green delegates also approved a charter
which included the formation of a World Environment Organisation to help
the existing World Trade Organisation.

"If you look at the 200 or so international environment conventions and
then you look at the WTO, there is no mechanism, no strength or
environmental governance to prevent attacks on those conventions," said
Pekka Haavisto of the EFGP. George W Bush: "swayed by the oil companies".

EIGHT GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPIONS AWARDED 2001 GOLDMAN PRIZE, Apr.
23,  story at www.igc.org/

Two American journalists who risked their careers to expose the dangers
of  rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), a Rwandan who fought to save
mountain gorillas amidst his country's genocidal wars, and a Bolivian
worker who won the world's first major victory in the struggle over
privatizing  public water, are winners of the 12th annual Goldman
Environmental Prize, awarded on April 23, 2001.

They are among eight environmental heroes from around the globe who
[received] the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. The award, given in
six geographical categories, includes a prize of $125,000 from the Goldman
Environmental Foundation. (Two of this year's categories have two winners
each.)