home of the wildlife conservation environmental and freedom activist

Good Morning,

I just received this news this morning.

Thank you,
Donna


The Alpha male of the Kongsvinger -Arjang pack (on the border betveen
Norway / Sweden) has probably been shot illegally.

It's been missing since May 13 and so has the radio collar it was
wearing.

Since 4 of the pack were collared 3 have vanished in thin air.

Officials are sure that they are being killed illegally.

The last couple of years they have noticed an increased nightly activity
in the packs territory.

They know of a lot of people who are willing to go very far to get the
chance to kill a wolf.

Good Morning,

I just received this information from one of my contacts in Norway.

Last night a sheep farmer shot and wounded a wolf in Trysil, Hedmark
county in Norway.

The farmer claims the wolf was attacking a lamb and claims he shot the
wolf to save the lamb.

Police have started an investigation and trackers are looking for the
wolf to decide if they must kill it due to injuries or if it will
survive.

This is the second wolf shot by farmers in Hedmark, Norway in just a
couple of days.


"On a personal note if I may....."

This is a sad day indeed for the wolf in Norway.  

These killings are escalating and we all know with the onset of winter
that it will worsen because then they will be able to track the wolf
easier due to the snow.

I thank you for your time.

Donna

1. UPDATE:  GOOD NEWS - AMERICANS OVERWHELMINGLY CALL FOR MORE WILDERNESS IN TONGASS! FROM FLORIDA TO ALASKA, PEOPLE ASK FOR MORE WILDERNESS IN THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST

2. ACTION NEEDED: STILL MORE VOICES NEEDED TO STOP ONGOING EFFORTS TO ROLL BACK ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS! CALL YOUR SENATORS AND ASK THAT THEY OPPOSE EFFORTS TO ENACT MISGUIDED FOREST FIRE PROTECTION POLICY.

3. IN THE NEWS: RESPONSES TO THE BUSH FOREST FIRE POLICY

****
1. UPDATE:  FROM FLORIDA TO ALASKA, PEOPLE ASK FOR MORE WILDERNESS IN THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST

Thank you to every individual and organization that called on the U.S. Forest Service to protect more wilderness in the Tongass. The American public – by way of nearly 170,000 comments sent to the U.S. Forest Service – have called for strong protection of the Tongass National Forest and in doing so soundly rejected a Bush Administration’s proposal to offer no new wilderness protection for our nation’s largest national forest. On August 17, the Bush Administration officially closed its public comment period on its review of wilderness in the Tongass National Forest and must now evaluate submitted comments before issuing a final decision.

This May after conducting a court-ordered wilderness review of over 9 million acres of the Tongass, the nation’s wildest, most pristine forest, the Bush Administration decided that not even one acre was worthy of permanent protection and made, instead, a clear cut choice to side with the timber industry. The Administration put forth a “no-action” preferred alternative for wilderness recommendations in the Tongass.

In addition to the overwhelming number of individual comments, over 100 organizations and more than 70 Members of Congress also called on the Bush Administration to do the right thing.

You can continue to educate Congress about your support for more wilderness in the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests by taking action at www.akrain.org.


2. ACTION NEEDED: CALL YOUR SENATORS AND ASK THAT THEY OPPOSE EFFORTS TO ENACT IRRESPONSIPLE FOREST FIRE PROTECTION POLICY
Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-2131

With much fanfare, President George W. Bush announced last month a “Health Forest Initiative” to respond to this year's devestating forest fire season occurring in the western United States. Alarmingly, this latest move is just another entry onto a growing list of environmental rollbacks.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that will make the Bush policy proposal law. The so-called “healthy forest initiative amendment” – which is expected to be introduced by Senators Craig (ID) and Domenici (NM) - will DO LITTLE to protect homes and communities from forest fires! Instead it will suspend environmental laws on public lands; remove public participation from public land management; provide incentives for the timber industry to log healthy forest areas in the backcountry, miles away from at-risk communities; and allow logging “without-laws” in mature and old-growth forests.

Please call your Senators today (202-224-2131, U.S. Capitol Switchboard) and ask that they oppose the Craig/Dominici amendment. The Craig-Domenici amendment is a Timber Give-Away which would allow timber industry profits, rather than fire risks to home and communities, drive forest thinning efforts.

No matter what forest conservation issue that you care about - whether it is Alaska wilderness designation, roadless area protection, forest and watershed restoration, wild fish, or old growth protection - the pending vote on the Senate Interior Appropriations Bill could impact your ability to protect and defend your forest.


3. IN THE NEWS: RESPONSE TO THE BUSH FOREST FIRE POLICY
Reports and newspaper editorials from around the country have questioned the soundness of President Bush’s “Healthy Forest Initiative.” Below are just two editorials (New York Times and the Tennessean)  which have been printed in the last few weeks.

The New York Times
August 26, 2002

An Inflammatory Fire Strategy

President Bush's new plan for reducing the risk of Western wildfires includes nothing to inconvenience the timber industry, and plenty to worry the environmentalists. It would ease important environmental laws designed to protect not only the forests but also the legal rights of citizens who care about them. It proposes to revisit President's Clinton 1994 Northwest Forest Plan designed to protect the spotted owl. It is, finally, curiously unfocused. It devotes far more energy to complaining about red tape than it does to figuring out ways to help local communities move forward with an aggressive strategy of thinning underbrush and fire-prone small trees at the increasingly urbanized edge of many Western forests known as the wildland-urban interface.

That strategy formed the core of a perfectly good firefighting plan devised by the Clinton administration and expanded upon by the Western governors, conservationists and the Bush administration itself last May. The biggest and most fire-resistant trees would be spared, as would uninhabited areas of the national forests, where nature's periodic, purgative fires pose no threat to life or property. The president's new plan, however, speaks of 190 million at-risk acres of federal lands, implying an enormous extension of the government's firefighting obligations. Since the main problem is the wildland-urban interface, it seems odd to spread the government's resources so thin — unless the whole point is to give the timber industry easier access to back-country forests.

Until now, there has also been general agreement that fighting wildfires did not require tampering with basic environmental laws. But Mr. Bush's proposals threaten to do just that, suspending or narrowing important statutes that require environmental review of logging projects and provide for citizen appeals. For its part, the administration says the environmentalists are hyperventilating and that all it wants to do is stop the frivolous lawsuits that block necessary projects. It is true that the appeals process can be abused, and indeed that some environmentalists exist mainly to abuse it. But surely the spirit of the agreement with the Western governors can be revived, and ways found to deal with the scourge of fire without messing with 30 years of environmental law.

The Bush plan will be offered up in legislative form in September by Senator Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican and staunch friend of the timber industry. The Senate must resist the obvious opportunities for political posturing. Any bill that trifles with basic law cannot be railroaded through.

Tom Daschle, the majority leader, bears a particularly heavy burden in this regard. In June, Mr. Daschle inserted language into an emergency spending bill that allowed for the suspension of environmental laws to accelerate a forest-thinning program on 8,000 acres of South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest. Mr. Daschle says his plan was enacted only after consultation with environmentalists. Nevertheless, it was a bad precedent. Mr. Bush twice used it as a template for his own proposals. Since Mr. Daschle helped get us into this fix, he is obliged to make sure that whatever bill comes out of the Senate is genuinely aimed at controlling wildfires that threaten communities, not making it easier for the timber companies to make a profit at the expense of the public forests.

The Nashville Tennessean
August 26, 2002

Another political fire

As vast portions of the West have been victimized by wildfires this summer, authorities are scrambling for ideas to protect forests. Congress, in fact, has authorized hundreds of millions of dollars toward an effort to clear national forest lands of brush and undergrowth that feed fires.

But the Bush administration has another slant. It wants to relax guidelines designed to protect larger trees from logging. The president claims the move is designed to protect against fires, but what it really does is help the logging industry.

The Bush plan would streamline the official reviews that are required before loggers can reap their harvest. It would therefore effectively hinder efforts meant to protect the environment. The Bush plan would make it easier to get the go-ahead on a process that would include clearing brush, non-commercial trees and ''thinning out some commercial-grade wood'' in high-risk areas, says an administration official, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. In effect, the Bush approach would undermine important elements of the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.

The West certainly needs government action to fight the devastating fires that threaten the wilderness. But making political hay by helping big business isn't exactly meant to protect forests. Proponents say it will only reduce the amount of flammable wood in the forests and that the ''thinning'' is better than putting the environment at risk. Some environmentalists believe the ''thinning'' will lead to ''runaway logging.''

The administration's arguments don't hold up. A thorough appeals process in place for environmental protection is important. It is wrong to use the recent fires as an excuse to get around those reviews and bypass environmental law.

For more information on these issues, please contact Laurie Cooper, Alaska Coalition, Forest Outreach Director (laurie@alaskacoalition.org), Tel. (202) 544-0475.




If at anytime you wish to unsubscribe please visit http://www.akrain.org/howtohelp/default.asp where you can easily remove yourself from the list.  

Thanks for your support.

Alaska Rainforest Campaign Staff.

Greenpeace: Urgent Campaign Help Needed

We are in between our monthly Activist News issues, but there are a couple of urgent issues on plutonium and genetic engineering we need your help on, as well as a final Earth Summit update, so here they are.

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NUCLEAR SHIPMENT APPROACHES IRISH SEA

British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), has launched a hazardous international shipment from Japan to the United Kingdom to return a load of 255 kilograms of mixed-uranium-plutonium oxide rejected by its customer, Japanese nuclear utility Kansai Electric. Unsurprisingly, this shipment has incited fear and anger in en route nations made vulnerable to this unacceptable risk of accidents and terrorism.

This plutonium shipment is now headed towards the Irish sea, where it will be "greeted" by a large protest flotilla.

You can read more about the Irish Sea flotilla here:

http://archive.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/bnfl/news_l3_pr_020901.htm

You can do a number of things to help:

First, if you haven't already launched your own virtual ship, you can do so here:

http://act.greenpeace.org/vf/launch.html

(you need to be logged-in to launch your own ship). This is a great way to meet other cyberactivists who also have their own virtual ships and tell others a bit about yourself. You can find out who have joined the virtual ship "elite" using the global map here:

http://act.greenpeace.org/vf/md_front_page.html

Secondly, you can sail your virtual ship into the latest virtual flotilla action by sending a letter to UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw from here:

http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=vf3&s=vf

(If you don't have your own virtual ship, don't worry, we'll lend you one for this action.) In this case, the virtual flotilla is gathering near the entrance to the Irish sea, in support of the real flotilla in the same place. You can watch the growing Irish sea virtual flotilla form here:

http://maps.greenpeace.org/maps/vf/maps/vf3/front_page.html

We invite you to visit other virtual ships and send messages to their owners.

Thirdly, we encourage you to send a second letter to Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, from here:

http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=vf3b&s=vf

Finally, Stephanie Mills, Greenpeace's international nuclear coordinator, is now hosting an open house on the Cybercentre this week here:

http://act.greenpeace.org/1031091669

We encourage you to participate in the discussion on how best to phase out this dangerous and expensive industry.

SEEDS OF TROUBLE

In the next few weeks a little-known technical committee is expected to quietly give the go ahead for massive growing of GE crops all across Europe. We need the help of designers, artists and any one with some image creation skills to help expose this plot. Please visit:

http://act.greenpeace.org/1030722664

EARTH SUMMIT

The news from the Johannesburg Earth Summit is grim, if not that surprising. You can read our analysis at our Earth Summit site here:

http://archive.greenpeace.org/earthsummit/

VISIT THE CYBERCENTRE

Please don't forget to visit the Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community at:
http://act.greenpeace.org

#1 Ad in the International Herald Tribune targets Citigroup as #1 Global Warmer

#2 Banner hung on Citibank as finale to WSSD in Johannesburg

#3 RAN denounces financial standards presented at WSSD

#4 Wrap up on WSSD

#5 Arianna Huffington on Citigroup

#6 RAN Board Chair, Jim Gollin, on Citi’s involvement in recent corporate scandals

Hi Citi Stoppers,

It has been a while since an update has been posted, but as you will see below, we have been very busy. Attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development, we have made certain that Citi’s role in global destruction has stayed front and center as world leaders debate the fate of the planet. RAN has also worked in Johannesburg to hold George Bush accountable for his administration’s subversion of the goals of the summit. Local protests have been vocal and colorful drawing much needed connections between the debt of World Bank/IMF and private banks like Citi to increasing rates of poverty and environmental degradation in the Global South.

Citi’s role in recent corporate crimes came to light and are currently being investigated in Congress. From Enron to WorldCom, Citi has been integrally involved in misdoings that victimize shareholders and stakeholders around the planet. Reactions have come from all corners and are fierce in their condemnation of Citi’s refusal to play by the rules.

#1 Last Friday, Rainforest Action Network ran an ad in the International Herald Tribune putting names to the faces of those who prevent real solutions to the issues of global warming and deforestation from coming out of summits such as WSSD. Visit the ad at www.ran.org <http://www.ran.org/>  and take action to let Sandy Weill, CEO of Citigroup, James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, and US President George Bush know that we will no longer tolerate the destruction of the planet and the oppression of the world’s poor to continue in the name of profit.

FULL PAGE AD IN INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE EXPOSES UNHOLY TRINITY BEHIND GLOBAL WARMING AND FOREST DESTRUCTION


During Johannesburg Earth Summit, Rainforest Action Network Condemns Sandy Weill, James Wolfensohn and President Bush for Obstructing Progress on Critical Environmental Issues

For Immediate Release: August 29, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO - August 30, 2002 – Rainforest Action Network today ran a full-page ad in the International Herald Tribune condemning Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, and President George W. Bush for fueling global warming and forest destruction. Citigroup and the World Bank are the largest financiers of global warming and deforestation projects, and President Bush’s environmental policies are ridiculed around the world. The ad calls on the three leaders to establish meaningful environmental policies and address the planet’s ecological crises. The ad is timed to coincide with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa where world leaders have convened to address these issues. The ad can be viewed at www.ran.org.

The ad spotlights Citigroup (Citi), under the leadership of Sandy Weill, as the largest private funder of destructive fossil fuel projects around the world. Citi lacks basic environmental and social policies, unlike top European Banks such as ABN AMRO that have policies prohibiting the financing of extractive industries that clear or degrade primary forests. Instead, Citi uses consumer dollars to provide the money behind oil, gas and mining projects that destroy fragile ecosystems, accelerate global warming and displace communities. These controversial projects include the Camisea gas project in the Peruvian Amazon, the Chad-Cameroon pipeline in the African rainforest, and the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests. The ad calls on Citi customers to cut up their Citi credit cards and tell Sandy Weill, “Not with My Money” until Citi meets the financial industry’s ecological best practices.

“As the world gathers in Johannesburg to focus on critical ecological issues such as global warming and forest destruction, it is imperative that they recognize financial institutions as part of the equation,” said Ilyse Hogue, global finance campaigner, Rainforest Action Network. “As head of the world’s largest financial institution, Sandy Weill has the fate of the planet in the palm of his hand. He has a responsibility to lead the finance industry toward ecological sustainability.”

- more -

The ad removes World Bank President James Wolfensohn’s phony “green banker” mask. The Bank's fossil fuel funding is a major contributor to climate change and forest destruction. Currently, Wolfensohn’s team is gutting the World Bank’s existing forest policy for a new policy that provides less protection for forests and allows old growth logging. The ad calls on Wolfensohn to stop the current forest policy rewrite process and make sure that any new policy protect forest ecosystems from old growth logging and foster community based economic development in non-timber products.

“Follow the money and it’s easy to find the real causes of the environmental crisis,” explained Ms. Hogue. “Reckless lending practices by Citigroup and the World Bank are accelerating global warming and deforestation. It’s time these financial institution address the social and environmental impacts of their investments and establish policies that support a sustainable global economy.”

Finally, the ad highlights President George W. Bush’s contributions to global warming that have resulted from his rolling back of environmental laws to increase corporate profits. Specifically, Bush, as the leader of the most powerful country in the world, refuses to support the Kyoto treaty designed to help curb global warming, has reversed protection for America’s old growth forests despite overwhelming public support for old growth protection, and refuses to attend the most important environmental summit of the decade. The ad calls on President Bush to attend the Summit and address the crises of global warming and forest destruction.

The ad features photos of the three environmental villains under the headline, “Put A Face On Global Warming.” The ad then reads, “Put An End To It,” followed by copy detailing each of the three leaders’ roles in destroying the planet by driving global warming and forest destruction. A pair of scissors cutting a Citibank credit card with the caption, “Finance Global Warming? Not With My Money!” is featured at the bottom of the ad to instruct the public how to take action to help curb global warming and forest destruction.

The ad is the latest move in Rainforest Action Network’s Global Finance Campaign to transform the funding practices of the corporate financial system. The campaign has included hundreds of demonstrations, a boycott of Citibank credit cards and non-violent direct actions. As part of the campaign, Rainforest Action Network and a broad coalition of groups and individuals are calling on Citi to lead the corporate financial sector in ending destructive investments in fossil fuel and deforestation.

###

#2 Today, a banner was hung on the Citi headquarters inside the security zone at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The press release is below and pictures should be available shortly on www.ran.org <http://www.ran.org/>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:  

Rainforest Action Network          

Ilyse Hogue, South Africa, 082 507 4549

Sara Brown Riggs, San Francisco, (415) 398-4404

CITIBANK Exposed As

#1 Funder of Global Warming and Deforestation

Rainforest Action Network Banner Hang Targeting Citigroup’s Lending Grand Finale at World Summit  

Johannesburg, September 4 –Today two activists from Rainforest Action Network (RAN) hung a banner from Citibank’s local headquarters as a grand finale to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.  Dangling from Citibank’s familiar logo, the banner pointed to Citigroup as a top funder of destructive fossil fuel projects that destroy fragile ecosystems, accelerate global warming and displace communities.  The banner read “Citibank: The Face of Global Warming.” A pair of scissors cutting a Citibank credit card was displayed on the banner in reference to RAN’s “Not with My Money” consumer boycott of Citi’s credit card.  

“The summit is ending with a step backward for the earth, making it more important than ever that people know the names and faces of who is really impeding progress,” said Ilyse Hogue, global finance campaigner for Rainforest Action Network. “As the world’s largest financial institution, Citigroup has a responsibility to end investments in destructive industries and make accessibility and affordability of renewable energy and sustainable alternatives a priority.  Until Citi steps up to the plate, we will be unable to meaningfully address the world’s environmental problems.”

Unlike top European Banks such as ABN AMRO that have policies prohibiting the financing of extractive industries that clear or degrade primary forests, Citi lacks basic environmental and social standards.  Instead, Citi ranks as the top funder of new oil, gas and mining projects around the world.  According to Bloomberg analytics, Citi’s loans and corporate bond underwriting secured its position as the number one financier of both the coal industry and the fossil fuel industry in the year 2001.  Citi’s controversial projects include the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, funding for palm oil plantations in critical orangutan habitat in Indonesia, the Camisea Gas Project in the Peruvian Amazon, and a pipeline through the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela.

The banner follows on the heels of RAN’s hard-hitting ad in last Friday’s International Herald Tribune targeting Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, and U.S. President George W. Bush for their refusal to confront the crises of global warming and forest destruction.  The ad features photos of the three environmental villains under the headline “Put a Face on Global Warming and Forest Destruction.” The ad then reads, “Put An End To It,” followed by copy detailing each of the men’s roles in fueling global warming and forest destruction.  The ad can be viewed at www.ran.org <http://www.ran.org/> .

Non-governmental organizations have criticized the summit as resembling a trade ministerial rather than an honest effort to address environmental destruction and poverty around the world.  As examples of this breakdown in process, RAN cited the lack of targets on renewable energy as well as weak proposals from the financial sector with regard to investment in sustainable development.


“Citigroup’s lack of policies mirror the lack of progress that we’ve seen at the summit,” asserted Randall Hayes, who hung the banner and is the founder and President of RAN. “It’s not just a matter of companies like Citigroup failing to do enough about the severe threats posed by climate change and deforestation - it’s the fact that they are going in the absolute opposite direction of what is necessary.”

###

#3 The Financial Sector as a whole has been busy at WSSD trying to spin its own version of sustainable finance. These principles include no substantial safeguards for the environmental and will do nothing to restore financial democracy to countries around the world. These standards were denounced by a number of NGO’s who doubt the sincerity and the efficacy of these weak promises from banks around the world.

World Bank, IMF, UNEP Greenwash International Finance


Coalition from Civil Society Demands Actions Not Words

For Immediate Release: August 28, 2002

Johannesburg, August 28, 2002: Environmental groups from Italy and the United States today condemned the new report, "Financing Sustainable Development" published by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as mere greenwash for financing business as usual and continued environmental and social destruction.

"The principles presented in the report fall far short of even industry best practice," stated Ilyse Hogue, Global Finance Campaign Director from Rainforest Action Network. "Banks such as Dutch ABN AMRO have refused to lend to or underwrite extractive industries in high conservation value ecosystems. Clearly, the UNEP initiative is inadequate to confront the current environmental and social challenges being discussed at the Summit."

US Congressman Bernie Sanders drew attention to the unholy alliance between corporate financial institutions and the World Bank and IMF in his call on August 15 for a US congressional investigation on the recent IMF bailout of Brazil. Congressman Sanders stated "This money is not going to significantly help the poor people of that country. The real winners in this situation are the large, profitable US banks such as Citigroup that have made billions of dollars in risky investments in Brazil and now want to make sure their investments are repaid."

The UNEP Financial Initiative was inaugurated at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, yet the past decade has seen a significant increase in corporate capital being used to fund destructive projects. IMF policies continue to secure access for foreign corporations to exploit natural resources in the name of growth. Recent protests in Ecuador revealed that IMF lending agreements facilitated the OCP pipeline, which will destroy 11 ecological zones, including a World Bank Global Environmental Facility project.

Friends of the Earth and Halifax Initiative Coalition last week released a new report, "Marketing the Earth", which reveals how the World Bank has used its development dollars to finance environmental destruction. Since 1992, the World Bank has financed $22 billion in dirty fossil fuel projects, but only $1 billion in renewables. Many environmental policies have been weakened, such the forest policy which has regressed to allow logging in critical tropical forests. Meanwhile the Bank’s ability to spin its activities as green has grown as the external relations budget rose by over 50% in the past ten years.

"The World Bank is supposed to promote environmentally sustainable development. What this report reveals is that its lending policies and programs have fostered greater resource use, benefiting the multinational corporations and political elites who get to exploit these resources for profit," said Carol Welch, deputy director of international programs at Friends of the Earth US.

The World Bank has been the main financier of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, the second largest water-scheme currently under construction in the world. Today 12 multinational companies are on trial in Lesotho for bribery. The project’s former director was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the High Court. The project aims to divert 40% of the water to Johannesburg, local black townships have no access to this water and Lesotho communities are waiting for compensation.

"Private bank investments are covered by the Bank, while local communities bear all the risk. The World Bank has the responsibility to meet these basic demands today to prove its real commitment on sustainable development," stated Antonio Tricarico, director of the Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale.

Contacts in Johannesburg:
Carol Welch, Friends of the Earth US, 082 858 6073
Ilyse Hogue, Rainforest Action Network, 082 507 4549
Antonio Tricarico, Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale, 072 312 8241

#4 WSSD has produced extremely disappointing results. Aside from refusing to set targets on renewable energy, the US successfully avoided signing on to any corporate accountability clause. The final text of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation subverts environmental authority of government to the trade rules outlined in the WTO agreements. While some people lauded the removal of language in Paragraph 17 calling for “WTO consistency” with agreements made in Jo’Burg, many are overlooking the inclusion of the very next paragraph. 18, which contains the only reference to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) finds the UN bowing “in support of the work programme agreed through the WTO.” For more information see www.rio10.dk <http://www.rio10.dk/> .

Access has been an issue throughout the conference. The UN accredited 12,000 NGO’s to come to WSSD, many of whom traveled long distance at great expense to make their voices heard to world leaders. Upon arrival, these groups found that every day, the participation of civil society was to be limited in the convention center to 1,000 NGO’s a day. Lines to enter were hours long, and the NGO meeting space set up by the UN was 30 minutes away by bus and cost $100 US to enter. The agenda to silence the voices of those most affected by these multinational agreements was apparent from the start.  

An amazing and vital group of local Johannesburg NGOs united under the banner of Social Movement Indaba were ready for the global spotlight to shine on their hometown. These groups prepared a week of activities for international allies including trips into the townships to view firsthand the impact of globalization and privatization the South Africa’s poorest citizens. Privatization of electricity and water has made life unbearable for those living in the townships and some of the corporates responsible were in Jo’Burg forced to hear the critiques. The protests led by local groups on Saturday, August 31, was an amazing display of people’s resistance to being forced to shoulder the burden of economic globalization.

PRESS RELEASE

Anti-Privatisation activists expose corporate takeover of W$$D at Waterdome

Access to water is a human right not a capitalist privilege!

This morning (Tuesday 3rd September), South African anti-privatisation activists briefly disrupted proceedings at the Waterdome to further expose the corporate takeover of the entire W$$D process. More specifically, the action highlighted the continued refusal of rich nations, as well as the South African government, to give concrete meaning to the provision of water as a human right.

The action at the luxurious Waterdome, a venue that is dominated by corporate exhibits touting the commodification of water, was undertaken by activists from SMI affiliates - the Rural Development Services Network and the Survivors of the Lesotho Dams – joined by activists from the South African Water Caucus. They chose a presentation by South African Water Affairs Minister, Ronnie Kasrils, to drive home the point that millions of South Africans, and close to 2 billion people worldwide, still have no access to water. The message was clear – there can be no sustainable development as long as capitalist market forces dominate the ownership and distribution of water – water is a human right, not a capitalist privilege to be enjoyed only by those who can afford to pay.

Predictably, Minister Kasrils chose to ignore the legitimate issues raised by the activists, instead labelling the activists, “thugs” and “anti-democratic”. This is extremely ironic, given that the proceedings at the Waterdome, and at the W$$D as a whole, have been consistently anti-democratic in both character and content. Similarly, the actions of the South African government of the past two weeks in trying to intimidate and smash those who do not agree with its policies, raises the question of who, exactly, is ‘anti-democratic’ and guilty of thuggish behaviour? The simple fact is that the voices of the poor have been marginalized, replaced by those who simply see development as a means to make more money and to gain favour with the rich and powerful.

The SMI is not alone in its denunciation and rejection of the corporate agenda of the W$$D. Yesterday, members of the World Coalition against Water Privatisation and Commodification (a global umbrella body representing many different social movements and progressive NGOs) announced their withdrawal from the W$$D. They noted that, “the summit has been hijacked by corporate and national interests and market-driven jargon”, and denounced the “lack of courage and human vision” that has characterised the W$$D.

No amount of name-calling, suppression of dissent, disingenuous claims of progress or intentional ignorance of the real issues at the centre of meaningful human development will now detract from the absolute failure of the W$$D for the majority of both South Africans and humanity. If water, the most essential of all human needs, is confirmed as a commodity to be bought and sold, then there is no hope that any other ‘outcome’ of the W$$D will have concrete meaning for the majority of people who are poor.

For further information contact: Dale McKinley on 072 429-4086

For more info, seehttp://www.ran.org/

Many groups were part of this protest including Rural Services Development Network, Anti Privatization Forum and Jubilee 2000 South Africa. Jubilee 2000 has called for cancellation of debt forced on the country by World Bank and IMF and private banks including Citigroup. These groups do excellent work and deserve more attention in the US. Please check them out at

Jubilee 2000 South Africa    http://aidc.org.za/j2000/

#5 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON’S RESPONSE TO CITI SCANDAL

Redefining The Bottom Line: The Coming Corporate Revolution?

By Arianna Huffington

Goaded by a rash of bad press, a very public lashing at the Congressional whipping post, and a 38% drop in the company's stock this year, Citigroup announced last week a major change in the way the banking giant does business.  CEO Sandy Weill characterized the move as part of Citigroup's campaign "to be a leader in defining and adopting higher standards".

Notice he didn't say "high," but, rather, "higher."  Relative to what the standards have been, yeah, I guess "higher" shouldn't be too much of a problem.  And what exactly were these higher standards, deemed worthy of such public self-congratulation?  The headline-grabber was that Citigroup will no longer provide financing to companies that conceal debt from shareholders.  In other words:  it's no longer going to aid and abet the fraudulent acts of corporate crooks.  How noble.  What's next, a splashy press release touting the fact that Citigroup will be raising Osama bin Laden's ATM fee?

Meanwhile, the company continues to defend its role in helping Enron hide billions in debt by claiming that it never knew that Enron was using such shady transactions to defraud shareholders.  It's a bit like the driver of the getaway car proclaiming his innocence because the guys running out of the bank with masks and bags of money never told him they were robbers. Maybe they were just really shy and didn't like carrying wallets.

Saint Weill also vowed that Citigroup will start expensing stock options in 2003, and gave himself another proud pat on the back for complying with the SEC's demand to certify the accuracy of his company's financial reports. It's an indication of how low corporate America has sunk that Weill's pale concessions earned major coverage around the country.  I guess we're living at a time when "Big Corporation Announces It Will Do The Right Thing" really is news.

But while the media are focusing on these belated corporate mea culpas, there's a truly important movement among American companies that is hardly getting any attention.

More than a hundred companies in America are seeking to redefine the bottom line -- moving away from conventional corporate accounting, where the only consideration is profit, to one that also includes the social and environmental impact the company is having.  It's called the Triple Bottom Line.

Yes, stock price is important, say Triple Bottom Liners, but so is how you treat your workers, the effect you're having on the environment, and whether the McNuggets you sell are made from chickens raised in deplorable conditions.

The key idea is that corporations need to pay attention to both their stockholders and their stakeholders -- those who may not have invested money in the company but clearly have a de facto investment in the air they breath, the food they eat, and the communities they live in.

Among the leading crusaders for this shift in corporate priorities is Ray Anderson, the founder and chairman of the board of Interface, Inc., the world's largest commercial carpet company, and the co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development during the Clinton administration. A corporate polluter and single bottom liner for two decades, Anderson became a devoted convert to the Triple Bottom Line after reading "The Ecology of Commerce," Paul Hawken's visionary book about socially responsible businesses.

Deciding that he wanted to "pioneer the company of the next industrial revolution", Anderson set out to remake Interface into what Fast Company magazine hailed as "the most highly evolved big company in the country"  -- a $1.2 billion model for "social responsibility and economic growth".

He now travels the country giving speeches about this new kind of corporate responsibility.  "There is a real hunger," he told me, "for companies that stand for something other than the conventional bottom line.  Beyond profits, there must be purpose.  Beyond success, there must be significance. And by doing good, you'll end up boosting your bottom line, as well." Anderson estimates that his company has saved $185 million on waste reduction efforts alone.

But Ray Anderson remains the exception -- not just among CEOs but even among triple bottom line CEOs.  Most of them have made the shift not because of a personal conversion but because of public pressure and protest.

Nike, for instance, has moved to the cutting edge of environmentally conscious production techniques -- phasing out the use of the controversial carcinogenic chemical PVC in its products -- but only after facing boycotts and reams of bad PR over its unfair treatment of overseas workers.  And Starbucks began aggressively marketing Fair-Trade Certified coffee -- a line that pays its coffee farmers far more than the going rate -- after it became the target of human rights activists.

However these yuppie stalwarts came to change their ways, they are now at the forefront of a growing movement.  And with corporate America under siege, there has never been a more opportune moment to adopt better business practices.  But for this change to occur, pressure will have to come from three sources:  the government, the media, and, above all, the public.

The government needs to reward socially conscious companies with tax credits, incentives, and subsidies while levying higher taxes on polluting and wasteful companies.  The business press needs to stop running adulatory cover stories on America's most cutthroat CEOs, and replace them with glowing profiles of the most forward-thinking ones (good-bye Dennis Kozlowski; hello Ray Anderson).

And, most importantly, the public has to keep the heat on.  We can't settle for companies like Citigroup promising to no longer help corporate crooks intent on fleecing us.

Demanding that companies stop being bad is not enough.  We have to demand that they start being good.  That has to be our bottom line on corporate reform.

#6 RAN BOARD JIM GOLLIN REACTS TO CITI’S SCANDALS

Citi's Bad Business:  From Enron to the Rainforest

665 Words

It has recently been revealed that Citigroup helped Enron and its subsidiaries misrepresent billions of dollars of debt while hiding embarrassing side-deals. Citi pushed past the limits of business ethics while pursuing tens of millions in fees.  Confronted with these facts, CEO

Sandy Weill insisted in a July 24 memo to Citi employees that "our activities with Enron were legal, met accounting standards, and reflected industry practices and our people…believed they were doing the right thing."  If Sandy is right, then laws, accounting standards, and industry practices are in need of major reform.  And he needs to demonstrate ethical leadership by telling

Citi's 230,000 employees around the world that the time has come to think twice about short-term profits that lead to long-term problems.  It is indeed time to "do the right thing."  

I was not in the least surprised to learn that Citigroup, the world's largest financial institution, has been linked to the Enron and other scandals.  As an investment banker working for Citi's competitors and as an advocate for environmental sustainability, I witnessed first-hand Citi's pattern of wanton, self-interested destruction of fragile ecosystems and indigenous cultures.  Just as Sandy's Citi helped Enron destroy the finances of countless investors and employees, Citi regularly helps giant multinational corporations and greedy despots profit from clearcuts, pipelines and other mega-projects that fracture forests and violate human rights.  Citi's "standard industry practices" leave a wake of species extinction and social destruction in their path.  Citi is the biggest backer of new oil, gas and mining projects, leading the world towards more global warming.  Operating with no meaningful social or environmental screening criteria, Citi scans the globe looking for profitable projects such as the Camisea pipeline in Peru, which threatens one of the world's most pristine rainforests and is driving the Machiguenga people into poverty.  The Citi-backed London Sumatra Company plunders much of the endangered orangutan's habitat in Indonesia. Citi funds the OCP Pipeline in Ecuador, the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline in Central Africa, and a pipeline through the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela - all of which have damaged local communities and threaten the world's remaining rainforests.  Citi's bad-boy accounting at home is a mere shadow of its tragic and dangerous business practices abroad.  

At home, Citi faces accusations of sexual harassment by more than 2000 female employees and has been fined for its predatory lending practices. At the top, it helps corporate executives treat the global economic system as their personal casino. Worldwide, meaningful solutions to environmental crises are impeded by the same patterns of behavior that are making local headlines. Yet Citi is intransigent.  Even the World Bank and the IMF, no darlings of the anti-globalization or environmental movements, routinely submit their business plans to environmental and social impact reviews before finalizing investment decisions.  Major European banks such as ABN/AMRO have established strict social and environmental criteria. They will not invest in the destruction of our few remaining primary forests even if it is profitable in the short term.  Yet Citi, the industry leader, the largest corporation on earth, continues to invest in the destruction of the Earth's life support systems, claiming that their activities are legal, in line with industry practices and that their people believe they are doing the right thing.       

It is time for laws and industry practices to change. The "Rio Plus Ten" World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in late August would be a good venue for Citi to announce that they will move beyond greenwashing and platitudes towards the establishment of firm environmental standards.  If Citi wants to win back the public trust, it should establish a comprehensive code of ethics, defining business practices based the principles of long-term sustainability.  It should undertake these tasks quickly and transparently.  It is time for some real cost accounting that puts the earth and its inhabitants back into the equation. It is time for Citi's people, led by Sandy Weill, to move beyond simply believing that they are doing the right thing.  

--James D. Gollin is Chair of the Board of Rainforest Action Network and previously worked for Morgan Stanley International in Tokyo, London, and New York.  

The new issue of E/The Environmental Magazine is now up online at e magazineand includes the following articles, among many others:

-- Buying Green
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The billion-dollar buying power of governments, hospitals, schools and corporations is a mighty force for environmental change... By Jim Motavalli and Josh Harkinson

-- Ill Winds
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In Illiopolis, Illinois, residents are beginning to confront the legacy of the chemical plant next door. Was the town’s major employer also making people sick? By Becky Bradway

-- New York City Reneges on Recycling
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Mayor Bloomberg's recent rollbacks of New York City's visionary recycling program have environmentalists hot under the collar... By James Bradley

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