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Plutonium Campaign Update
On 19 August,
Greenpeace crew aboard the MV Esperanza sighted the Pacific Teal and the Pacific
Pintail, ships carrying a deadly cargo of plutonium, off the coast of South
Africa.
These ships are carrying plutonium, an extremely toxic substance
that can be used to make nuclear weapons, half way around the world from Japan
to Europe.
Thank you to the more than 5000 people who joined our first
virtual flotilla action and sent letters to the Japanese foreign minister
opposing these shipments.
We have now set up a second action alert to
send letters to South African President Mbeki to ask him to oppose these
dangerous shipments off the coast of his country.
The action alert link
is:
http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=vf2&s=vf
As with the previous virtual flotilla alert,
your action will be represented as a virtual ship and you will have the
opportunity to add a comment to be read by other cyberactivists.
However, before doing this action, we suggest that you register your own
personal virtual ship with our new virtual flotilla system. You can do this by
visiting http://act.greenpeace.org, and then log-in. If your account is not set up to
automatically log you in and you have forgotten your account information, you
can have it emailed to you using the link towards the end of this message.
Once you have logged-in, you will see a new "virtual ship" tab near the
top right of the page. Click on this link and you can launch your own virtual
ship. You can then use this ship for future actions as well as the plutonium
action mentioned above.
The new virtual flotilla system serves as a
cyberactivist directory, a new home page system and a way to get to know other
cyberactivists. Your virtual ship can be a yacht, catamaran, fishing boat,
Polynesian raft or Chinese junk and is available in a number of colours. See the
virtual ship link for more information.
If your account automatically
logs you in, you may be able to reach the virtual ship page directly at:
http://act.greenpeace.org/vf/launch.html
If you would like to comment on the virtual
ship system, you can do so here:
http://act.greenpeace.org/1029592799
You can find more information about our plutonium campaign here:
http://archive.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/bnfl/ and
here:
http://archive.greenpeace.org/earthsummit/esperanza/index.html
VISIT THE CYBERCENTRE
Please don't
forget to visit the Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community at:
http://act.greenpeace.org
To: All Activists
From: Randi Spivak
RE:
URGENT - Senate Fire Logging Rider Expected September 4th
The Senate
Interior Appropriations bill is scheduled to be considered on
September
4th - the first day that Congress returns from August recess.
We expect to see a rider offered by Senator Craig (R-ID), Senator
Domenici (R-NM) and others that seeks sweeping exemptions from
environmental laws to expedite "thinning" of millions of acres of
National Forest land under the guise of fire prevention.
We have not
seen the language of the Craig/Domenici fire rider so it
remains unclear how
far the exemptions from law will go and what parts
of the landscape would be
at risk. But if Senate Bill 2427 introduced
in May by Senator
Craig is any indication, the bill could be the worst
logging rider ever.
Craig's solution is to limit or eliminate meaningful citizen
participation, judicial review and exempt appeals for timber/fire and
bug infestation projects and Section 7 Consultation under the
ESA. The
rider may also call for permanently authorizing the
stewardship
contracting authorities including goods for services, so that
large
merchantable trees could be logged to pay for hazardous fuel thinning.
The specifics of the rider will be become clear later this week when
President Bush unveils the Administration's "Forest Vision" this
Thursday in Oregon. Bush will be visiting the Squire fire and
holding a
fundraiser for Senator Gordon Smith.
Calls are urgently
needed to alert your Senators to this threat. Please
contact your
Senators at 202.224.3121 or at their district office and
urge them to:
1. Make community protection from fire risk the #1 Forest Service
priority.
2. Oppose any riders that suspend environmental laws or
limit public
involvement for forest management decisions. The
last time this
happened under the Salvage Logging Rider, the Forest Service
abused
their authority to cut green trees under the guise of salvage and to
cut
old growth forests in the name of forest health. There is no
need to
suspend or weaken environmental laws to carry out legitimate fuels
reduction to protect communities.
3. Direct 90% of the fuel
reduction projects to where it is needed - in
the immediate vicinity of
homes and communities. Right now, only 39% of
the acres treated
by the Forest Service and BLM are spent in the
"Community Zone"; this number
should be increased to 90%. The latest
scientific review from top
Forest Service fire researchers Jack Cohen
and Bret Butler, indicates that a
zone of 60 meters from structures and
up to 500 meters for firefighter
safety are the maximum areas needed for
legitimate fuel reduction treatments
for community and firefighter
protection.
4. Increase funding that
would go directly to communities that need
protection through state block
grants. A substantial amount of the
Community Zone is on private
property. To get the work done, more funds
should go directly to states -
not the Forest Service - to ensure that
flammable brush is cleared and small
diameter trees are thinned in the
Community Zone.
5. Oppose
stewardship contracting authorities that would log older
forests to pay for
restoration. Logging to restore forests will
perpetuate the
problem. Congress needs to invest in ecologically sound
forest restoration,
not more logging.
We will keep you up to date over the next two
weeks. Time is very short
to defeat these riders. With
your help we can stop this "smokescreen"
and put community interests ahead
of special interests.
Randi Spivak
Executive Director
American
Lands
726 7th Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
202.547.9029randispivak@americanlands.org
*****************************************************
Thank you for taking ACTION, Care2's eco-alerts newsletter.
Care2
constantly finds the most important environmental alerts,
supported by the
worlds leading environmental nonprofit
organizations, to empower you with
action-oriented tools to help
our environment.
*****************************************************
1. Protect
Endangered Marine Mammals and Wildlife in California!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please
urge the Governor of California to protect the internationally
renowned but
depleted waters and sea life around the Channel Islands off of
Southern
California. Some fishing interests oppose a vital plan to restore
these
waters. Even if you don't live in California, please respond to this
alert
to protect this important ocean wilderness!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/2545
WHY HELP?
The waters around the Channel
Islands provide refuge for valuable fish and
sea life, including endangered
and threatened animals. Here are a few
animals that rely on the area:
-
Blue whales
- Peregrine falcons
- Brown pelicans
- 26 species of
marine mammals
- over 60 species of seabirds
WHY A MARINE RESERVE?
Fully protected marine reserves are areas where all extractive uses -
fishing, oil drilling, dredging, etc. - are prohibited. In the Channel
Islands, many marine species have declined, including abalone and rockfish.
A fully protected marine reserve will rebuild ocean habitats, prevent
ecosystem collapses, help restore depleted fisheries, and provide insurance
against management mistakes.
PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS ALERT, EVEN IF
YOU DO NOT LIVE IN CALIFORNIA!
Let California Governor Gray Davis you
support a plan to set aside 25
percent of the Channel Islands Sanctuary
waters as fully protected
marine reserves!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/2545
2. Eco Activist Tips
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Buy
organic (pesticide free) foods whenever possible. Pesticide
runoff is a huge
cause of water pollution and contamination.
- Don't pour anything down
the drain on your street. Contaminants
flow into your local waterways and
poison wildlife.
- After heavy rains, participate in a beach cleanup, or
just do
your own. Visit your local beach, take a stroll, and pack out
trash to protect wildlife!
3. Inspirational Quote
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules,
microscopic entities all come in communities. The singular cannot
in
Reality exist."
- Paula Gunn Allen
Thank you for caring to make a difference!
Support Good Environmental Policies!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/2529
This is an election year and you have a great opportunity
to
influence your representatives. Now is the time to tell
the Bush
Administration to increase environmental
protections! And if they don't...
they will lose YOUR vote!
No matter which party you support, you care
about the
environment and your vote matters! Yet, since the Bush
Administration took office, it has often sought to weaken
environmental
and wildlife protections:
**MARCH 2001: Drilling in Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge
proposed and supported.
**APRIL
2001: Budget for environmental protections and programs cut.
**MAY 2001:
Assault on protected lands.
**JUNE 2001: Reintroduction of endangered
species stopped.
**JULY 2001: Drilling off the coast of Florida Proposed.
**AUGUST 2001: Known environmental offenders get government contracts.
**FEBRUARY 2002: Superfund funding cut; decision to store nuclear
waste in Nevada.
**JUNE 2002: Clean air enforcement act
weakened.
Please do your part and send a letter to President Bush! Tell
him that protecting the environment and its wildlife is a
priority for
you, and it should be for him too!
Protect the environment TODAY!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/2529
Rachel Saunders
ThePetitionSite &
Care2 Eco-Activism Manager
*************************
* WILD ALERT
*
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
*************************
This issue
contains:
1. Good news regarding Canyons of the Ancients National
Monument in
Colorado;
2. A request for your help with Upper Missouri
River Breaks National
Monument in Montana.
**************************
1. GOOD NEWS ON CANYONS OF THE
ANCIENTS NAT'L MONUMENT
A federal judge yesterday granted a temporary
restraining order (TRO)
to halt oil exploration in Canyons of the Ancients
national monument
in southwestern Colorado. The judge cited a
substantial threat of
irreparable harm.
Environmental groups,
including The Wilderness Society and the San
Juan Citizens Alliance, had
filed for a temporary restraining order
because the BLM did not evaluate the
potential impacts of oil
exploration on the land and wildlife. A
hearing will be held August
27th to determine whether the groups will get a
chance to seek
permanent protection for the monument. WildAlert
will continue to
report to you on this issue.
**************************
2. PLEASE TAKE ACTION TO
PROTECT FUTURE OF UPPER MISSOURI RIVER
BREAKS
The Upper Missouri River
Breaks National Monument in Central Montana
protects a landscape remarkably
unchanged since the Lewis and Clark
expedition passed through it 200 years
ago. Whether it remains that
way depends on how the Monument is
managed, and the management
blueprint is now underway. Your
comments today will help ensure that
the plan protects the resources for
which the monument was set aside.
Please take action by Aug. 31
from
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=1814
A WINDOW TO THE OLD WEST
What is now the
Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument may be
the single remaining
place along their route that Lewis and Clark
would still recognize today.
The Monument remains rich in the sweep of
its scenery, its history and its
wildlife. Its 377,000-plus acres
encompass river bottoms and
upland breaks and provide intact habitat
for 230 bird species and 60 mammal
species-deer, elk, pronghorn,
bighorn sheep among them.
A measure of
its remaining wildness is the fact that the Monument
includes six wilderness
study areas and the rugged Bullwhacker area
that many consider to be the
heart of the Breaks. The Wild and Scenic
Missouri River generally bounds the
Monument on the west and it
extends to the Charles M. Russell National
Wildlife Refuge on the
east. The Monument is still wild, remote and
beautiful; the goal of
the management plan must be to keep it that way.
THE PROCESS
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the
Upper Missouri Breaks,
as it does most of our other new national
monuments. The BLM is now
writing a Resource Management Plan that
will decide how the Monument
is managed for the next 20
years. During the important present phase,
called "scoping," the
agency will decide the range of issues the plan
will address and will base
the plan on the comments it receives. This
is our best chance to help frame
the issues and to tell the BLM how we
want the Monument protected.
TAKE ACTION
The BLM needs to hear from you by Aug.
31. Please take a minute to
send a letter from
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=1814
or send your own letter directly. Please include
in your letter these
four important points:
-The first goal of the
RMP should be to preserve and restore the
Monument's wild, undeveloped
character. A plan that achieves this
goal will simultaneously
protect all the other resources for which the
monument was set aside.
-The RMP should provide for a Monument transportation system that
relies on science for decisions on road retention and closure and must
focus on protection of natural and historic resources. There are
too
many roads in the Monument today and too little management of
motorized use. The RMP should include solid provisions for
monitoring
and enforcement.
-The RMP must protect the Monument's
wilderness study areas and other
wildlands and core areas and must set out a
program and timeline for
inventorying additional lands that may qualify as
wilderness.
-The RMP must protect the quality and
tranquility of the river
experience by requiring that all travel in the
Missouri River corridor
be non-motorized throughout the year.
Gary
Slagel, Monument Manager
Bureau of Land Management
Lewistown Field
Office
P.O. Box 1160
Lewistown, MT 59457-1160
Email: monumentrmp@blm.gov
Fax: (406) 538-1904.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument
is part of the
National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), created in
June 2000 to
protect some of the American West's most treasured
places. It is a
system the children of the 21st century will
cherish as much as we
cherish the National Park System today.
***************************************************************
For a full list of Action Items, visit
http://www.wilderness.org/whatcan/takeaction.htm
***************************************************************
An archive of past Wildalerts can be found at
http://www.wilderness.org/wildalert/wildalerts.htm
***************************************************************
To make a gift online to The Wilderness Society, click here
https://secure-net.com/tws/join.asp
***************************************************************
WildAlert is an email action alert system brought to you by The
Wilderness Society to keep you apprised of threats to our wildlands -
in
the field and in Washington. WildAlert messages include updates
along with clear, concise actions you can take to protect America's
last
wild places. You are welcome to forward Wildalerts to all
those
interested in saving America's wildlands.
FEEDBACK: If you need to get
in contact with the owner of the list,
(if you have trouble unsubscribing,
or have questions about the list
itself) send email to
<action@tws.org>.
TO SUBSCRIBE: If you have been forwarded this
message and would like
to subscribe to the list, visit
http://www.wilderness.org/forms/subscribe.htm
or send a message to
wildalert@tws.org with 'SUBSCRIBE' in the subject line
and your
email address in the body of the message.
Founded in 1935,
The Wilderness Society works to protect America's
wilderness and to develop
a nation-wide network of wild lands
through public education, scientific
analysis and advocacy. Our
goal is to ensure that future
generations will enjoy the clean air
and water, wildlife, beauty and
opportunities for recreation and
renewal that pristine forests, rivers,
deserts and mountains
provide. To take action on behalf of wildlands today,
visit our
website at http://www.wilderness.org
========================================
NRDC's
EARTH ACTION:
The Bulletin for Environmental Activists
August 21,
2002
========================================
In This Issue:
--Action alerts--
1. NATIONAL FOREST PROTECTION: Tell your
senators not to use 'fire
risk reduction' as an excuse to log our national
forests
2. WATER POLLUTION: Urge your representative to press the EPA to
reduce sewage-contaminated waters
--Updates on Previous alerts--
1. Water pollution regulations
======================================================
You will also
find these alerts in NRDC'S Earth Action Center, which
includes tools for
taking action easily online, at
http://www.nrdc.org/action
(Please do not reply to this message; see
the instructions below for
how to unsubscribe or contact NRDC with questions
or comments.)
=============
Action alerts
=============
1. NATIONAL FOREST PROTECTION
Tell your senators not to use 'fire
risk reduction' as an excuse to
log our national forests
When it
returns after Labor Day, the Senate will quickly begin debate
on an expected
amendment to the Interior appropriations bill that
would waive environmental
laws and judicial review for some logging
projects in our national forests.
The amendment would allow the
logging of large trees in pristine
backcountry, including roadless
areas, to benefit the timber industry. While
the amendment's
supporters claim such logging would reduce fire risk, the
Forest
Service's own scientists have found that logging, including
"thinning," can actually *increase* the number and intensity of
forest
fires.
The Forest Service research shows that effectively
protecting homes
and communities from fire risk involves measures taken in
the
immediate vicinity of homes and other structures -- such as clearing
land and fireproofing roofs. NRDC supports these activities, and
encourages funding to ensure they are conducted quickly and
comprehensively. But the proposed amendment focuses on logging
millions
of acres in remote backcountry areas, including vital
habitat for threatened
and endangered species, prime recreational
areas, and municipal watersheds.
To add insult to injury, the
amendment would strike down a core principle of
our democracy -- the
right of Americans to seek redress in the courts for
grievances
involving the federal government.
The Senate could vote
on this amendment as early as Wednesday,
September 4th.
== What to
do ==
Send a message to your senators, urging them to vote "No" on any
amendment to waive environmental laws, and to support efforts to
provide
real assistance to homeowners at risk from wildfires.
==
Contact information ==
You can email or fax your senators directly from
NRDC's Earth Action
Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/
If you prefer to call your
senators, the Capitol switchboard number is
202-224-3121.
2. WATER POLLUTION
Urge your representative to press
the EPA to reduce
sewage-contaminated waters
Sanitary sewers carry
wastes from homes, commercial buildings and
industrial facilities to sewage
treatment plants. When these sewers
are overloaded, inadequately maintained
or obstructed, however, the
overflows dump raw and inadequately treated
sewage into basements,
streets, and waterways. These overflows contain
bacteria and viruses,
fecal matter, untreated industrial wastes, toilet
paper, tampon
applicators and a host of other wastes that cause beach
closings and
kill fish. Sewage-contaminated waters also can cause hepatitis
and
gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses (in fact, the EPA
estimates that every year several million people become sick with
diarrhea and vomiting from raw sewage discharges). The consequences
of
contact with sewage-infested waters are even greater for children,
the
elderly, and those with weakened immune systems.
Despite these facts,
for more than a year-and-a-half EPA
Administrator Christie Whitman has been
holding up regulations that
would, among other things, require sewer
operators to monitor sewers
and notify health authorities and the public
when overflows could
potentially harm public health. While such rules may
seem like simple
common sense, sewage treatment operators object to these
"right-to-know" regulations unless they are accompanied by a
regulatory
rollback that would allow currently illegal discharges of
raw sewage into
our lakes and streams.
A letter circulating in the House of
Representatives urges
Administrator Whitman to release the rules and not to
change the
Clean Water Act's existing prohibition on discharges of raw and
inadequately treated sewage. Meanwhile, another beach season is
almost
over, but Administrator Whitman continues to stall.
==
What to do ==
Send your representative a message urging him or her to sign on to
the
letter to Administrator Whitman.
== Contact information ==
You can
email or fax your representative directly from NRDC's Earth
Action Center at
http://www.nrdc.org/action/
If you prefer to call
your representative, the Capitol switchboard number is
202-224-3121.
== For background ==
Beach Closings and Advisories
Rise in 2001
http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/nttw.asp
==========================
Updates on
Previous alerts
==========================
1. WATER POLLUTION
REGULATIONS
In June we asked you to urge the EPA to not weaken key Clean
Water
Act protections for our rivers, lakes and streams. Even though you
sent more than 8,000 messages to EPA Administrator Whitman (thank
you!),
on August 7th the EPA announced that it would indeed move
forward with a
proposal to rewrite the rules for how states develop
pollution limits for
waterways. The EPA's plans would weaken the
existing program by making it
easier for states to redefine polluted
waters as clean and raise the bar for
adding waters to the list of
those needing to be cleaned up. The EPA is
expected to publish its
proposed revisions in November; we'll keep you
posted and let you
know when public comments are needed.
==================================================
About Our
Bulletins/How to Subscribe & Unsubscribe
==================================================
NRDC distributes
three bulletins by email. To subscribe to any or all
of them or to join our
activist networks, go to:
http://www.join.nrdcaction.org/subscribe.asp.
If you already subscribe and want to change your subscriptions or
update your email address or other information, go to:
http://www.join.nrdcaction.org/profileeditor
(or see the unsubscribe
information below).
EARTH ACTION is sent
biweekly and calls out urgent environmental
issues requiring immediate
action. To unsubscribe from Earth Action,
send an email message to
earthaction@nrdcaction.org with REMOVE in
the subject line.
LEGISLATIVE WATCH is sent biweekly when Congress is in session and
tracks environmental bills moving through the federal legislature. To
unsubscribe from Legislative Watch, send an email message to
legwatch@nrdcaction.org with REMOVE in the subject line.
The
CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST NETWORK ACTION ALERT is distributed monthly
to members
of NRDC's California Activist Network and provides action
tools to
Californians and others concerned with protecting the
state's natural
resources and the health of its citizens.
==========
About NRDC
==========
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a nonprofit
environmental
organization with over 500,000 members nationwide and a staff
of
scientists, attorneys and environmental experts. Our mission is to
protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and ensure a safe and
healthy environment for all living things.
For more information
about NRDC or how to become a member of NRDC,
please contact us at:
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York,
NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
General email:
nrdcinfo@nrdc.org
Earth Action email: nrdcaction@nrdc.org
http://www.nrdc.org
Also visit:
BioGems -- Saving Endangered
Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org
|
Urge your Senators to protect the California
coastline, home to threatened sea otters and migrating
whales, from offshore oil drilling.
Tell-a-Friend!