|
|
We need your help to
convince New York City to set an international
example by shifting to using
eco-certified wood. The New York City
council may soon pass
legislation requiring such a shift, and send it
to the mayor for his
signature.
If the mayor signs this landmark legislation, other cities
may follow
suit. Let's show the mayor that conservationists from
around the
world recognize the significance of this step.
The bill
would use New York City's enormous purchasing power to help
conserve the
world's forest ecosystems by promoting the use of
responsibly harvested wood
products and wood alternatives.
Encouraging consumers to use
eco-certified products is a critical
component of a comprehensive approach
to forest conservation, along
with strict protection for certain forests and
restoration of denuded
areas.
Please forward this alert to your
friends and encourage them to take
action.
**************************TAKE ACTION NOW! ************************
If you are a World Wildlife Fund Conservation Action Network member,
you can take action by following the simple steps below. If you
received this email from a friend, visit
http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/action.asp?step=2&item=1690
to take action.
TO TAKE ACTION QUICKLY -- hit "reply" to
this email and then "send"
and we will automatically send the message below,
as is, to the mayor
of New York City.
BETTER YET, ADD YOUR OWN
THOUGHTS AND GREATLY INCREASE YOUR IMPACT --
Log in to your Personal Action
Center --
http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/login.asp
-- with your email
address (alerts@earthhopenetwork.net) and your
password. Once you are in your
Personal Action Center, click on
"Push New York City to Use Eco-Wood"
and follow the instructions for adding
your own thoughts to your
message.
If you have any questions or
problems with taking action, contact us
at
actionquestions@takeaction.worldwildlife.org for help.
****************************LETTER TEXT******************************
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
I write to urge you to support Int. 108,
New York City's "good wood"
legislation. This landmark
legislation would make New York City an
international leader in linking
municipal purchasing practices with
responsible forest management and
conservation.
The bill would help ensure that wood used in New York City
building
projects has been independently certified as meeting the standards
of
the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC is the strongest
global
system of certification. Production forests certified
under the FSC
system adhere to strict environmental, economic, and social
standards.
Across the globe, forest ecosystems are being systematically
mismanaged, degraded, and destroyed. Municipalities use
significant
amounts of the wood consumed worldwide, which makes cities major
players in the future of our forests.
New York City is a leader in
many areas of municipal policy; I urge
you to be a leader on this matter as
well. Please sign this
legislation and give its implementation
your strongest support.
Sincerely,
Your name and address
will be inserted here
***********************END OF LETTER
TEXT*********************
______________________________________________________________________
Direct any questions about the WWF Conservation Action Network to
actionquestions@takeaction.worldwildlife.org
______________________________________________________________________
The Conservation Action Network is sponsored by World Wildlife Fund-
US. Known worldwide by its panda logo, WWF is dedicated to
protecting the world's wildlife and the rich biological diversity
that
we all need to survive. The leading privately supported
international conservation organization in the world, WWF has
sponsored
more than 2,000 projects in 116 countries and has more than
1 million
members in the United States. WWF calls on everyone --
government, industry, and individuals -- to take responsibility by
taking action to save our living planet.
World Wildlife Fund
1250 Twenty-fourth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.worldwildlife.org
http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org
Thanks
to the leadership of Senators Harry Reid (D-NV)
and Olympia Snowe (R-ME),
the U.S. Senate will soon
vote on the Equity in Prescription Insurance and
Contraceptive
Coverage Act (EPICC), as an amendment to S. 812, a
generic
drugs bill now being considered on the Senate
floor. The vote could come as
early as tomorrow, Thursday,
July 25. Please contact your Senators TODAY to
urge
them to support the Reid-Snowe (Contraceptive Coverage)
Amendment!
You can take action on this alert either via email
(please see
directions below) or via the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/contraceptive_coverage_senatefloor/ee3bxz4bd5t
Visit the web address below and tell your friends to
take action on
this important campaign!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/contraceptive_coverage_senatefloor/forward/ee3bxz4bd5t
We encourage you to take action by October 1, 2002
Tell Congress
to Support Contraceptive Equity Legislation!
----------------------
First introduced in 1997 by Senators Olympia Snowe
(R-ME) and Harry
Reid (D-NV), the Equity in Prescription
Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage
(EPICC) Act -
S.104, would secure, as a matter of federal law, contraceptive
coverage for all women with insurance throughout the
United States.
Unfortunately, health plans still routinely
exclude prescription
contraceptives from their prescription
drug coverage. This exclusion is
largely responsible
for the fact that women pay 68 percent more
out-of-pocket
health care expenses then men. EPICC would prohibit
this
unfair exclusion of women's needs from their health
insurance plans.
Twenty states have enacted or adopted their own versions
of EPICC;
requiring equity in contraceptive coverage.
The fight for contraceptive
equity is clearly gaining
ground. Plus Congress has recognized for the past
four
years that contraceptive coverage should be part of
federal
employee's insurance plans. In addition, the
Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission determined,
in 2000, that the failure to cover contraception when
other preventive health services are covered constitutes
sex
discrimination in violation of Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of
1964, as amended by the 1978 Pregnancy
Discrimination Act.
It's time
for all working women across the United States
to have health insurance that
covers their needs. For
a majority of women between the ages of 18 and 44,
preventing an unwanted pregnancy is their most important
health care
concern, and EPICC will ensure that their
health insurance covers it.
----------------------
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/campaign/contraceptive_coverage_senatefloor/ee3bxz4bd5t
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 John Edwards
Senator Jesse Helms
-------YOU MAY
EDIT THE LETTER BELOW---------
I am writing to urge you to support the
Reid-Snowe
(Contraceptive Coverage) amendment to the generic drug
bill
now on the Senate floor. The Reid-Snowe amendment
will ensure that
prescription contraceptives are covered
by health plans in the same way as
other prescription
drugs.
At a time when fully half of
all pregnancies in the
U.S. are unintended, we should do all we can to
ensure
that women have affordable access to all forms of contraception.
This measure has the ability to reduce the number of
unplanned and
unwanted pregnancies in our state, and
to rectify a long-standing gender
inequity.
Currently, most health insurance plans routinely
exclude
contraception, even though they cover other prescriptions.
The
failure to cover contraceptives accounts for the
fact that women between the
ages of 18-44 pay nearly
70% more than their male counterparts in
out-of-pocket
health care costs. Furthermore, independent studies
point
to lower costs for insurance companies as a result
of contraceptive
coverage.
The fight for contraceptive equity is clearly
gaining
ground. Twenty states have enacted or adopted legislation
requiring equity in contraceptive coverage. Plus Congress
has recognized
for the past four years that contraceptive
coverage should be part of
federal employee's insurance
plans. In addition, the Equal Employment
Opportunity
Commission determined, in 2000, that the failure to
cover
contraception when other preventive health services
are covered constitutes
sex discrimination in violation
of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, as amended
by the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Now is
the time for Congress to ensure that all of
America's women enjoy the
benefits of contraceptive
coverage in their health plans. I urge you to vote
YES on the Reid-Snowe amendment.
-------END OF LETTER-------------------------
Dear
U.S. PIRG supporter,
The White House is attempting one of the most
significant attacks on the Clean Water Act in its history, proposing to change a
key definition of "fill material" that would be broadened to allow mining waste
to be legally dumped into streams and rivers without regard to environmental
impact.
While a judge recently ruled that the move was a violation of
the Clean Water Act, the Bush administration continues to press
forward. Congress is now stepping in, acting to clarify that the Act
never intended for waste material to be dumped into rivers and streams.
Please take a moment and follow the link below to go to a web page where
you can ask your representative to cosponsor legislation that would clarify and
strengthen the Clean Water Act.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=329&id4=ES
BACKGROUND
On May 3, the Bush
administration reversed an important and longstanding Clean Water Act
regulation that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to issue permits
authorizing polluters to dispose of mining waste, construction waste, and other
types of industrial waste by dumping them directly in our nation's waterways.
The rule centers on the definition of what constitutes "fill material"
under the Clean Water Act. Section 404 of the Act authorizes the
Corps to issue permits for the discharge of "dredged or fill material" into
waterways. Since 1977, the Corps' regulatory definition of "fill
material" expressly prohibited the use of waste as "fill." Therefore,
until now, the Corps was legally barred from issuing Clean Water Act permits to
industries that wanted to discharge pollutants composed of waste as "fill" into
waters of the United States. The Bush administration action deleted
this important waste exclusion from the Corps' definition.
The rule change is an attempt to legalize the destructive practice of
mountaintop removal coal mining, where the tops of mountains are literally blown
apart and the millions of tons of waste generated are dumped into nearby
streams. In Appalachia, this form of mining has already buried and
destroyed more than 1,000 miles of streams.
Unfortunately,
the devastating environmental effects of this rule change will not end with
mountaintop mining. Removing the waste exclusion will now allow
polluters to seek permits to dump hardrock mineral mining waste, construction
and demolition waste, plastics and other forms of industrial waste in waters
across the nation.
The Pallone-Shays bill (H.R. 4683) would simply
insert a definition of "fill material" into the Clean Water Act
itself. Currently, the Act does not contain a definition of fill -
the definition of fill has always been in the regulations. The
proposed definition in the bill states that "fill material" means any pollutant
which replaces portions of the waters of the United States with dry land or
which changes the bottom elevation of a water body for any
purpose. The term does not include any pollutant discharged into the
water primarily to dispose of waste. This definition contains the
"waste exclusion" language that was in the Corps' own rules for many years.
A judge in West Virginia recently ruled that the agencies' rule change
is beyond their legal authority, and his decision is strongly grounded in the
letter, history, and spirit of the Clean Water Act. However, the Bush
administration and coal companies will continue to try to overturn his
decision. Allowing wastes - including coal mining wastes, hardrock
mining tailings, construction and demolition debris, and other industrial wastes
- to be discharged into the nation's waters as "fill" is a goal of the Bush
administration that they are likely to pursue in court for some time.
Passage of the Pallone-Shays bill would settle the matter and strengthen
the Clean Water Act by creating a definition of fill right in the Act
itself. Please take a moment and follow the link below to go to a web
page where you can ask your representative to cosponsor this legislation.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=329&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S.
PIRG Executive Director
http://www.USPIRG.org
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Overfished Atlantic spiny dogfish, or "cape
sharks,"
along the east coast of the United States are at serious
risk
from excessive fishing in state waters. Thanks
in large part to your
support, there is a strong recovery
plan in federal waters and the Atlantic
States Marine
Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has taken emergency action
to
close state waters to dogfish fishing. The ASMFC
will soon replace the
emergency measure with a long-term
plan for which comments are being
accepted until August
5th. Unfortunately, at a time when these depleted,
small coastal sharks need the most protection, efforts
to use this plan
to dramatically increase fishing for
dogfish are gaining momentum. Please
respond to this
alert and let the ASMFC know they must end directed
fishing in state waters and allow dogfish to recover.
You can take
action on this alert either via email
(please see directions below) or via
the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/protectdogfish/wkwxs5rl78xm8i
Visit the web address below and tell your friends to
take action on
this important campaign!
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/protectdogfish/forward/wkwxs5rl78xm8i
We encourage you to take action by August 6, 2002
Support Needed
for Cape Shark Protection
----------------------
What's at Stake
Dogfish are especially susceptible to overfishing.
Female dogfish,
the principle target of the commercial
fishery, reach maturity at around
thirteen years of
age and give birth to only about six young after a
two-year gestation period. More than a decade of overfishing
and years
of management delays have taken their toll
on these vulnerable sharks.
Mature females are severely
depleted and the number of pups has been at
record
low levels for six years in a row. In 2000, the federal
government imposed measures to end the fishery directed
at dogfish in
federal waters (beyond three miles from
shore) and allow the population to
rebuild. Recovery
may take decades and complementary state measures are
crucial to the plan's success. The federal recovery
plan contains a
quota for the incidental capture of
dogfish in other fisheries, which was
exceeded by 67
percent in 2000 mostly because of catches in state
waters
off Massachusetts.
Fishermen and Massachusetts state representatives are
now proposing that the ASMFC adopt lenient and risky
dogfish catch
limits, known as "constant harvest strategies,"
in order to continue
directed fishing on depleted large
female dogfish in Atlantic state waters
(within 3 miles
of shore). One such scheme includes quotas that are
more
than double those allowed by the federal plan.
There is also a move to adopt
a rebuilding target that
is less than that advised by scientists as a means
to justify more fishing.
The ASMFC will consider public comment when
they decide
on whether to accept a risky constant harvest strategy
that
increases targeted dogfish fishing or to adopt
more stringent measures to
protect depleted females
and rebuild the dogfish population in line with the
federal plan.
Please Respond before August 5th
ASMFC Commissioners are public servants that need to
hear your
concerns. Strong public support is absolutely
essential to balancing
influential, short-term, economic
interests and securing effective,
long-term state conservation
measures for dogfish. Please respond to this
alert
and let the ASMFC know that you want them to adopt
a plan that
will complement the federal plan and allow
this small coastal shark
population to recover.
Thank you for your help.
----------------------
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/campaign/protectdogfish/wkwxs5rl78xm8i
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:
Ms. Megan Gamble
-------YOU MAY EDIT THE LETTER
BELOW---------
I am writing to comment on the draft spiny dogfish
fishery management plan. I am deeply concerned about
the health of our
coastal and ocean resources and distressed
that, despite strict federal
controls, Atlantic spiny
dogfish sharks remain at serious risk from
overfishing
in state waters. I urge the Atlantic States Marine
Fishery
Commission (ASMFC) to adopt a final plan that
is consistent with the federal
fishery management plan
for dogfish and allows this severely depleted
coastal
shark to recover. An unsustainable dogfish fishery
throughout
the '90s led to severe depletion of the
targeted mature females and a record
low number of
pups - damage that will now take decades to repair.
A directed fishery for dogfish in state waters will
undermine
the federal rebuilding plan. In 2000, dogfish
fishing in Massachusetts state
waters resulted in the
federal dogfish quota (for incidental take) to be
exceeded
by 67 percent. I commend the Commission for taking
emergency
action to close state waters to dogfish fishing
and urge an end to the
directed fishery until such
time as dogfish stocks have been rebuilt.
I also urge the ASMFC to reject any proposal for the
plan that falls
short of complementing the federal
plan. This includes rejection of all
"constant harvest"
schemes that would allow a directed fishery to continue
and rejection of any dogfish quota increases. In addition,
to ensure
rebuilding, the ASMFC must adopt rebuilding
targets that are in line with
scientific advice.
It is vital that as the steward of this damaged
public
natural resource, the ASFMC adopt a final dogfish fishery
management plan for state waters that is compatible
with the federal
plan and allows this small, beleaguered
coastal shark to recover. Thank you
for considering
my views.
-------END OF LETTER-------------------------
To: All Activists
From: Steve Holmer
Date: July 25, 2002
Senate Roadless Bill Introduction Today/Fire Rider Coming
This
week in Washington there is a flurry activity on forest issues that
could
have long-term consequences affecting the National Forests.
Today, Sen.
Maria Cantwell will be introducing the Roadless Area
Conservation Act, and
Sen. Jeff Bingaman will be holding a hearing on
his restoration bill, S.
2672, about which American Lands Alliance will
be
testifying. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/s_2672_testimony.htm
for a copy of our testimony.
Next week, we expect the Senate
will consider the Interior
Appropriations bill. We are now
expecting a rider on the Interior bill
to be offered by Sen. Larry Craig
(R-ID) to weaken environmental
standards and citizen involvement for
hazardous fuels projects. We
haven't seen the language of the
rider yet so it is unclear how broad or
how bad it will be.
This
rider has been prompted by a settlement agreement concerning a
number of
fuel reduction projects on the Black Hills National Forest.
Because not all
of the plaintiffs and the Justice Department did not
agree to the
settlement, it had to be legislated to take effect.
Biodiversity Associates
Inc. was one of the plaintiffs that did not
agree to the settlement, while
the Sierra Club and The Wilderness
Society did. For details of
the agreement please see
http://www.americanlands.org/section_706.htm
Unfortunately, this agreement was also
insulated with some very extreme
sufficiency language (see subsection J)
that suspends NEPA, NFMA and
other laws as well as ban citizen appeal or
further judicial review of
these projects. "To be effective, any
piece of legislation must be
crafted in a way that avoids more
time-consuming litigation, and this
deal should meet that critical test,"
said Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) who
wrote the legislative language of the
settlement agreement. The two
conservation groups that approved
the settlement did not agree to this
sufficiency language, but were unable
to convince Sen. Daschle not to
attach it to the defense supplemental
appropriations bill.
This rider sets a terrible precedent for the
management of 8,000 acres
of public lands and Sen. Craig and Rep. Scott
McGinnis (R-CO) have
seized upon this to justify their plans to gut the
citizen appeals
process nationwide.
Calls are urgently needed
(202-224-3121 for the Capitol Switchboard) to
both your Senators and to your
Rep. asking them to oppose any riders
that would weaken environmental laws
or citizen involvement on fuel
reduction projects, which often include
extensive logging far from homes
and communities.
Other timely items
to discuss with your Senator include:
1. Cosponsor the
Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2002. Sen. Maria
Cantwell
(D-WA) will introduce legislation today to codify the Roadless
Area
Conservation Rule. Cantwell will be joined by an all-star team of
original sponsors including Sen. John Warner (R-VA), Sen. Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM), Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Sen. Earnest Hollings (D-SC), Sen.
Max Cleland (D-GA), and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV). Activists
from
these states should please thank these Senators for their outstanding
leadership. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/timber.htm
for additional
information or http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/press.htm
for our
press release.
In the Interior Appropriations Bill:
2. Support directing hazardous fuels funding to the immediate vicinity
of homes and communities. Removing fuel loads near communities
and
creating defensible spaces around homes has been shown to be the most
effective treatment to protect lives and property in areas at high-risk
of wildfire. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/fire_plan_implementation.htm
for more
information.
3. Oppose additional stewardship
pilot projects. At a recent House
hearing, witnesses from across
the spectrum, including the Forest
Service, indicated that not enough was
known to justify permanent
authority for the program at this
time. We urge additional pilots be
deferred until all of the 84
existing pilots can be monitored and
analyzed. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/stewardship_facts.htm
for more information.
4. Support a $10 million earmark of the Forest Service law
enforcement
line-item for off road vehicle enforcement. Lack of
adequate
enforcement of off road vehicles is causing user conflicts and
environmental damage, incurring liabilities on the government to restore
and mitigate the impacts. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/enforcement.htm
for more information.
Thanks for all your efforts.
Dear
Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network:"
Another social
and environmental activist in the state of Para, Brazil, has
been murdered.
Last fall Global Response initiated an international letter-writing
campaign
to bring to justice the murderers of Ademir Federicci ("Dema"), who
was
organizing protests against the construction of huge dams on the Xingu
River
(see http://www.globalresponse.org/gra_index/gra0501.html
Although we were
successful in persuading the Brazilian government to order
a federal
investigation into the murder, Dema's associates say there's been
no
progress on the case.
Last Sunday, rural union leader Bartolomeu
Morais da Silva ("Brasilia") was
found brutally
murdered. Brasilia was a leader in the small farmers'
struggle to
stop illegal logging, land fraud, and destructive large-scale
infrastructure
projects. His organization, the Altamira Union, calls for
creating two very
large protected areas to be managed by local communities.
Such proposals
directly conflict with the interests of large ranchers who
are seizing and
clearing huge areas for soy plantations and cattle ranches.
Farmers
unions and other community organizations in Para state report an
atmosphere
of impunity, where the wealthy are getting away with murder and
the poor are
terrorized for opposing large-scale environmentally destructive
development
projects.
Please write again to the president of Brazil and demand
immediate and
complete federal investigations into the murders of Dema and
Brasilia. Let
him know that the international community expects
him to guarantee the
rights and safety of community activists in Para state,
and their full
participation in decision-making concerning development of
the region.
Thanks to Environmental Defense for drafting the following
Action Alert:
**************
-URGENT ACTION-
Rural Union
Leader Brutally Murdered in Brazilian Amazon
Government road project
unleashes violence, deforestation on lawless
frontier
July
23, 2002
On July 21, 2002 rural union leader Bartolomeu Morais da
Silva, "Brasília",
was murdered in the town of Castelo dos Sonhos, Pará
state in the Brazilian
Amazon. The activist's body was found by
the side of the Cuiabá Santarém
highway with 12 gunshot wounds and broken
legs. Brasília had denounced
large ranchers and their gunmen to state and
federal authorities for a
campaign of threats and violence to take small
farmers' land. The federal
government has promised to pave 1,000
kilometers of the Cuiabá - Santarém
road to increase soybean exports, and
mega-ranchers are taking over and
declaring themselves the owners of vast
expanses of forest lands along the
road in the expectation of price
increases and expansion of soy farming.
Many of these areas are already
occupied by small farming families. State
and federal governments have
essentially abandoned the region to
environmental devastation and feudal
rule by the soy and cattle barons.
In June of this year,
military police from the neighboring town of Novo
Progresso arbitrarily
arrested 19 rural workers, who were farming an area
claimed by ranchers. The
nineteen were imprisoned for thirty days without
being
charged. In April 2002, rancher Nilton Albuquerque de Barros with
hired gunmen attempted to force various families off of an area he claimed
to own. The farmers succeeded in disarming the gunmen, and
delivered the
weapons to the police, who took no action.
Brasilia
denounced these and similar abuses to the relevant authorities in
both the
national and state capitals, as well as reporting the repeated
death threats
he was receiving because of his work organizing small farmers
along the
Cuiabá Santarem road. No action was taken.
Rural worker's
unions in the Amazon, such as the Altamira Rural Worker's
Union that
Brasilia represented in Castelo dos Sonhos, have taken a leading
role in
fighting illegal logging, land fraud, and destructive large-scale
infrastructure projects, while proposing sustainable alternatives and
large-scale protected areas. The Altamira Union is calling for
the creation
of
two very large protected areas to be managed by local
communities
"extractive reserves" in a neighboring region. Such
proposals directly
conflict with large ranchers' interest in seizing and
clearing huge areas
for soy plantations and cattle ranches. The
paving of the Cuiabá
Santarém road is expected to result in the
deforestation of 25,000 to 53,000
square kilometers of new deforestation --
an area between the sizes of West
Virginia and Florida in the coming twenty
years, unless measures to avoid
it are taken.
Nearly a year ago,
union leader and activist Ademir Federicci, "Dema" was
assassinated in
Altamira, Pará, and essentially no progress has been made
in bringing his
killers to justice. This only worsens the climate of
judicial impunity for
the perpetrators such crimes on the frontier.
Please
Fax Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, respectfully
requesting that he charge the Federal Police with investigating the murder
of Brasilia and bringing the perpetrators to justice. A sample
text
follows:
Ilmo. Exmo. Sr.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Presidente da Republica do Brasil
Palacio do Planalto
Brasilia, DF
Brasil
fax: Int'l code+ 55-61-411-2222
Dear Mr. President,
I am deeply concerned by the brutal
torture and murder of union leader
Bartolomeu Morais da Silva in Castelo dos
Sonhos, Pará on July 21. This
brazen assassination follows the
murder of Ademir Federicci, "Dema", in
Altamira, Pará nearly a year ago, in
which police have made not even
a plausible pretence of investigating the
crime. Your government's planned
infrastructure development
program for this region, in the absence of any
organized effort to control
its social and environmental effects or instill
respect for the most basic
human rights, appears to have generated a
chaotic land boom and a climate of
total impunity for large scale ranchers
engaged in seizing huge tracts along
the road.
I urge you to assign the Federal Police to investigate this
heinous crime,
since local authorities are clearly unable or unwilling to do
so. Failure
to bring to justice the killers of Bartolomeu Morais
da Silva, and of Dema,
as you know, will inevitably lead to further violence
and repeated
atrocities.
Sincerely,
********************************
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
P.O. Box 7490
Boulder CO 80306
USA
TEL:
303-444-0306
FAX: 303-449-9794
Email: paula@globalresponse.org
Website: http://www.globalresponse.org
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 international 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
skills for global citizen
cooperation and earth stewardship.
To: Northeast Activists
From: John Demos
Date: July 25, 2002
SENATE ROADLESS BILL INTRODUCED – CHAFEE A COSPONSOR
Despite the
setback in the House on a Roadless Amendment, the Senate today introduced a bill
to protect these precious areas in our National Forest System. Introduced by
Maria Cantwell (D-WA), John Warner (R-VA), Sens. Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI), Jeff
Bingaman (D-NM), Ernest Hollings (D-SC), John Rockefeller (D-WV), and Max
Cleland (D-GA) the bill codifies the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, one of the
most sweeping land conservation measures in a generation.
Senator Chafee
is an original cosponsor of the legislation and I understand he is taking a lot
of flack from western Senators.
Please contact your Senators and ask
them to cosponsor the bill. 202-224-3121 for the Capitol Switchboard
INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL NEXT WEEK
Next week, we expect
the Senate will consider the Interior
Appropriations bill. We are
now expecting a rider on the Interior bill
to be offered by Sen. Larry Craig
(R-ID) to weaken environmental
standards and citizen involvement for
hazardous fuels projects. We
haven't seen the language of the
rider yet so it is unclear how broad or
how bad it will be.
This
rider has been prompted by a settlement agreement concerning a
number of
fuel reduction projects on the Black Hills National Forest.
Because not all
of the plaintiffs and the Justice Department did not
agree to the
settlement, it had to be legislated to take effect.
Biodiversity Associates
Inc. was one of the plaintiffs that did not
agree to the settlement, while
the Sierra Club and The Wilderness
Society did. For details of
the agreement please see
http://www.americanlands.org/section_706.htm
Unfortunately, this agreement was also
insulated with some very extreme
sufficiency language (see subsection J)
that suspends NEPA, NFMA and
other laws as well as ban citizen appeal or
further judicial review of
these projects. "To be effective, any
piece of legislation must be
crafted in a way that avoids more
time-consuming litigation, and this
deal should meet that critical test,"
said Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) who
wrote the legislative language of the
settlement agreement. The two
conservation groups that approved
the settlement did not agree to this
sufficiency language, but were unable
to convince Sen. Daschle not to
attach it to the defense supplemental
appropriations bill.
This rider sets a terrible precedent for the
management of 8,000 acres
of public lands and Sen. Craig and Rep. Scott
McGinnis (R-CO) have
seized upon this to justify their plans to gut the
citizen appeals
process nationwide.
Calls are urgently needed
(202-224-3121 for the Capitol Switchboard) to
both your Senators and to your
Rep. asking them to oppose any riders
that would weaken environmental laws
or citizen involvement on fuel
reduction projects, which often include
extensive logging far from homes
and communities.
Other timely items
to discuss with your Senator include:
1. Cosponsor the
Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2002. Sen. Maria
Cantwell
(D-WA) will introduce legislation today to codify the Roadless
Area
Conservation Rule. Cantwell will be joined by an all-star team of
original sponsors including Sen. John Warner (R-VA), Sen. Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM), Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Sen. Earnest Hollings (D-SC), Sen.
Max Cleland (D-GA), and Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV). Activists
from
these states should please thank these Senators for their outstanding
leadership. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/timber.htm
for additional
information or http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/press.htm
for our
press release.
In the Interior Appropriations Bill:
2. Support directing hazardous fuels funding to the immediate vicinity
of homes and communities. Removing fuel loads near communities
and
creating defensible spaces around homes has been shown to be the most
effective treatment to protect lives and property in areas at high-risk
of wildfire. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/fire_plan_implementation.htm
for more
information.
3. Oppose additional stewardship
pilot projects. At a recent House
hearing, witnesses from across
the spectrum, including the Forest
Service, indicated that not enough was
known to justify permanent
authority for the program at this
time. We urge additional pilots be
deferred until all of the 84
existing pilots can be monitored and
analyzed. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/stewardship_facts.htm
for more information.
4. Support a $10 million earmark of the Forest Service law
enforcement
line-item for off road vehicle enforcement. Lack of
adequate
enforcement of off road vehicles is causing user conflicts and
environmental damage, incurring liabilities on the government to restore
and mitigate the impacts. Please see
http://www.americanlands.org/enforcement.htm
for more information.
Thanks for all your
efforts.
In a lawsuit by Defenders
of Wildlife and other friends of the Florida manatee, a federal
judge ruled that Secretary Norton has been violating a
court-approved agreement to provide more safe havens from careless
boaters for the endangered sea cows. "It's amazing the lengths this
administration will go to in order to avoid protecting manatees and
other endangered species when industry asks," Defenders of Wildlife
litigation director Michael Senatore said. The judge ordered the
administration to start abiding by the agreement. To learn more
about threats against manatees, go to 
A federal judge has ruled
that the government may not kill endangered gray wolves in Idaho's
Sawtooth National Recreation Area this summer, even if they prey on
livestock. That's to give federal agencies, conservationists and
ranchers time to develop new ways to protect wildlife in one of the
nation's premier mountain landscapes. Ranchers testified that they
will work with Defenders of Wildlife to use guard dogs, electric
fences and other methods to avoid losing livestock to wolves. To
sign our petition urging Secretary Norton not to drop federal
protections for gray wolves, go to 
