3/24/01
2:42:19 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
EXXON VALDEZ ANNIVERSARY ENERGIZES OPPOSITION TO ARCTIC DRILLING
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, March 23, 2001 (ENS) - Twelve years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, oil drilling and transport still threaten to contaminate pristine Arctic ecosystems. This year, President George W. Bush will press to open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, despite warnings that more drilling will lead to more air and water pollution.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-23-06.html
CAR CRASH CLAIMS LIFE OF GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDER
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, March 23, 2001 (ENS) - One of the most influential figures in the environmental movement, the man widely credited with the first campaign to save whales and to end French nuclear testing, David McTaggart died in a head on car crash near his home in Umbria, Italy, this morning.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-23-12.html
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE GRIPS EUROPE
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, March 23, 2001 (ENS) - European leaders gathering in the Swedish capital for the European Union summit today put the official agenda on the backburner as foot and mouth spread to France, the Netherlands and Ireland this week.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-23-11.html
High Level Officials Link Environment and Trade
BERLIN, Germany, March 23, 2001 (ENS) - Ministers and officials from over 70 countries said here Thursday that environmental considerations need to be taken into account in the negotiation of new trade agreements.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-23-01.html
REPORT LEAVES UK WASTE STRATEGY IN SHREDS
LONDON, United Kingdom, March 23, 2001 (ENS) - The UK government's targets for household recycling are "depressingly unambitious" and "leave the door open to a big expansion of large scale incineration," said a highly critical report this week.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-23-10.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MARCH 23, 2001
Newfound Gene Could Revolutionize Agricultural Biotechnology
$125 Million will Curb Sprawl Outside Atlanta
Population, Poor Planning Lead to Sprawl
Experimental Gear Improves Salmon Survival
States Get $50 Million for At Risk Wildlife
Texas' Renewable Energy Policy Is Nation's Most Effective
PBS Expose on Chemical Industry to Air Monday
Editorial: Bush Budget Out of Balance
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-23-09.html
Healing Our World: Weekly Comment
By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
Killing the Future - Pesticide Spraying in Schools
As predicted, many critical environmental protections are falling, one by one, to the ultraconservative, industry backed administration of President George W. Bush. In the last couple of weeks, the plan to improve pollution controls for arsenic in our drinking water has been eliminated, worker health and safety has been compromised, and plans were put into place to suspend the rule that would hold mine owners responsible for the terrible toxic pollution they create.
3/24/01
2:32:17 PM
NATURAL LAW PARTY NEWS FLASH!
TELL THE FDA THAT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY!
The Food and Drug Administration is now accepting public comment on its proposed new rules on genetically engineered (GE) foods. Despite overwhelming consumer demand, the FDA has failed to require health and ecological safety testing or mandatory labeling, and thus puts your health and our environment at risk and deprives you of the right to know or choose what you are eating.
The proposed rules:
Do not require mandatory pre-market safety testing
Do not require pre-market environmental review
Do not require mandatory labeling of GE foods
Restrict voluntary labeling of non-GE foods
Require a mere letter of notification prior to the marketing of a GE food
Fail to ensure public access to adequate information for independent review
Are supported by industry and opposed by consumer groups
The FDA needs to hear from hundreds of thousands of Americans that:
* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market comprehensive environmental review. Unlike conventional pollutants, where a given amount of pollutant causes a limited amount of damage, a small number of mutant genes could have a population explosion and reproduce forever, causing unlimited and irreparable damage.
* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health testing. GE products could be toxic, cause allergic responses, have lower nutritional value, and compromise immune responses in consumers.
* The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products. Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction was the result of a genetically engineered food. Consumers would be deprived of the critical knowledge needed to hold food producers liable should any of these novel products be hazardous.
* The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries it purports to be regulating. People have been allowed to work for a biotech company, then work for the FDA writing the regulatory rules on that company's product, then go back to working for the company. Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.
PLEASE ACT TODAY. THE DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS TUESDAY, APRIL 3.
Email your comments to: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov with "Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598" in the Subject line
Mail your comments to:
Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852
For more information: 218-226-4164
www.organicconsumers.org
3/24/01
2:24:46 PM
Wilderness
As if allowing higher concentrations of arsenic in America's drinking water and loosening restrictions on hard-rock mining were not enough for one week, on Wednesday the Bush administration essentially abdicated its responsibility to defend our national forests.
In a stealth move that signals tacit cooperation with the timber industry, the Bush administration offered an anemic defense to industry arguments that the Roadless Area Conservation Rule - the most significant national forest conservation measure of the past 100 years - should be overturned.
For more information, please go to:
http://www.wilderness.org/eyewash/forests.htm
BACKGROUND
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule would protect 58.5 million acres of unspoiled national forest land from commercial logging, road construction and other damaging activities. More than half of national forest land is already open to logging, mining and other extractive industries. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service issued the rule after a three-year administrative process that involved more than 600 public meetings and 1.6 million public comments.
Almost immediately following the inauguration, the Bush administration ordered that all recent Clinton administration rules and policies be suspended and subjected to review. Accordingly, in early February the administration announced that the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, scheduled to go into effect March 13, would be delayed until May 12.
But the rule could be further delayed - or even rescinded - depending on the outcome of several pending lawsuits.
WEAK RESPONSE BY ADMINISTRATION SIGNALS ROLLBACK
Earlier this year, the Boise Cascade Company, the State of Idaho and others filed two separate lawsuits against the federal government to overturn the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Boise Cascade and the State of Idaho also asked that the court issue an injunction to prevent the rule from being implemented while the case is being tried.
On Wednesday, in response to the request for an injunction, and despite pledges by Attorney General John Ashcroft to the contrary, the Bush administration offered absolutely no defense of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. In fact, the 5-page response did not attempt to address any of the legal claims raised by Boise Cascade and the State of Idaho, namely that the Roadless Area Conservation Rule lacked specific details, there was insufficient time for the State to respond and public participation was inadequate.
As Jon Owen from the Washington Wilderness Coalition told NPR Radio, "Our natural heritage is on trial and our defense attorney just walked out of the courtroom and started oiling up the chainsaws of the prosecution."
"The Bush administration showed its cards," said Tim Preso, attorney for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which is representing the eight environmental groups arguing in favor of the road ban. "This appears to be a calculated first step by the administration to avoid offering any defense of the [Roadless Area Conservation Rule]."
Rather than the anemic response given by the Bush administration, the court should have been told the simple truth: that the injunction should not be granted because the Roadless Area Conservation Rule complies with all legal requirements.
"By pulling its punches at this point, the administration is indicating that it may simply throw in the towel," said Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society. "Their strategy seems to be either to use the lawsuits as an excuse to delay implementation of the rule or, by mounting so weak a defense as to lose the case, allow the rule to be rescinded."
The Judge will likely determine whether the injunction should be granted sometime in early April, following a March 30 hearing. If he grants the injunction, the implementation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule will be again delayed.
The Wilderness Society, along with a coalition of organizations, has been granted standing in the lawsuit. Through the efforts of lawyers at Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and National Resources Defense Council, the conservation community is working to uphold the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and protect our national forests.
3/24/01
2:17:14 PM
Peace All,
The Peace Conspiracy is hosting a Peace Festival Benefit Concert June 15th ~ 16th ~ 17th, 2001
Bird Island Amphitheater in central Missouri has graciously offered to help and host this wonderful event by providing their amphitheater.
http://www.peaceconspiracy.org/events.html
http://www.peaceconspiracy.org/birdisland.html
We are looking for kind bands with a Spirit of community and peace to help with the benefit. The benefit is to help support and fund the Peace Conspiracy land trust project. The Peace Conspiracy is a non-denominational Spiritual network founded in 1998 by a counsel of energetic light warriors. The Ideology of the conspiracy is to promote peace, harmony and goodwill by being proactive in networking causes that uplift the human condition.
http://www.peaceconspiracy.org/frame.html
The land trust project will be an egalitarian intentional community offering a host of educational classes, workshops and learning opportunities, with a goal to set aside land so that it has no private or government ownership and would thus be set free for all to use peacefully and cooperatively. A commUnity organization owned, operated and governed by its member body, everyone, you!
http://www.peaceconspiracy.org/501.html
The Land Trust will be scheduling entertainment venues in the future, on the land, for which we will be sharing the gate proceeds, offering printing, promotion and access to an email data base that is gathered and maintained from around the United States and local regions. We want to support your group in any way we can, keep an active Spirit alive and well through commUnity, and share our collective talents and hearts to create peace. Your band has been add to the Peace Conspiracy Network. Many folks look here to see what's going on in their area, I'm sure you will see some kind new face now that we got you linked up.
http://www.peaceconspiracy.org/bands.html
But what is really important is this opportunity to pro-create a peace movement that is full life learning, in a way that uplifts and supports, teaches and heals. If you would like to share your gift and time to build something really good and with the help of many other hearts, Were looking for you! Please contact us and let us know if you will be able to help support this venue by performing or just by coming on down and relaxing for awhile. The Peace Conspiracy web server belongs to everyone, so if you need hosting, some pages built,or some help spreading the word just let us know. We will do what we can. Peaceconspiracy@peaceconspiracy.org We have scheduled many workshop host, vendors and activism groups to join us.If you know of anyone who would like to help out have them contact us. May peace prevail on Earth and in your circle.
The Peace Conspiracy
3/24/01
2:13:50 PM
TomPaine.com
PROMOTING PROPAGANDISTS
by Jennifer Bauduy, Associate Editor, TomPaine.com
Otto Reich and John Negroponte deceived and manipulated Congress, the media, and the American public in the Iran-Contra era. Now President Bush is considering them for powerful diplomatic positions.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/03/23/1.html
THE CARIBOU IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
by Bill Shutkin
Low-income communities are hit hardest both by rising energy prices and the environmental impacts of power plants. Do environmentalists care?
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/03/22/2.html
CLOSING BORDERS IN THE NAME OF OPENING THEM
by Heather Szerlag
When international delegates meet next month to discuss a Western Hemisphere free-trade zone, protesters might be stopped at the border while corporate representatives sail right through.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/03/22/3.html
OF SHRIMPS AND SPIES
by David Corn
They want to cut Headstart, environmental and other spending, but the anti-government, anti-tax budget hawks overlook the national security establishment as a source for savings, even though the spooks have racked up some monumental failures.
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/03/23/index.html
3/23/01
4:01:09 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
1. NO NUKESKYS! Enviros claimed a victory yesterday as the Russian parliament postponed a vote on allowing imports of spent nuclear fuel into the country for reprocessing. Backers of the measure, including the Russian government and U.S. business interests, say the country would gain a huge revenue source, some $20 billion over the next decade, if it opened itself up to the 20,000 tons of spent fuel around the world. But opponents say corrupt officials would pocket most of the revenue and the country would be inviting an environmental disaster if it accepted the waste. Environmental groups last year gathered 2.5 million signatures in support of a referendum opposing the measure, but the country's Central Election Commission invalidated 600,000 signatures, denying the petition.
straight to the source: Russia Today, Reuters, 23 Mar 2001 <http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=318660>
2. HE MAY NOT BE CAPABLE OF HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE In a letter to President Bush today, European Union leaders write that progress on the Kyoto treaty on climate change is crucial to strong U.S.-European relations and that the president must find the "political courage" to move forward with treaty negotiations. The letter, signed by Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, whose country holds the E.U. presidency, and European Commission President Romano Prodi, asks Bush to agree to a high-level dialogue on Kyoto with the E.U. before the next round of international climate talks scheduled for July. The E.U. has grown increasingly concerned that Bush will try to kill the Kyoto deal. Last week, Bush broke a campaign promise and said he would not seek to limit power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Robin Pomeroy, 23 Mar 2001 <http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20010323/tCB00a8841.html>
3. DICK NUKEM Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday that the Bush administration may recommend that the U.S. expand its use of nuclear power because nuclear power plants don't emit many greenhouse gases. "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants," Cheney said on MSNBC's "Hardball" program. (Wait, does this administration think CO2 emissions are a problem or not?) Cheney went on to criticize the Kyoto treaty on climate change as "seriously flawed" because it places the burden of reducing greenhouse gases on industrialized nations and doesn't put any emissions restrictions on developing countries like China and India.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 22 Mar 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/548005.asp>
read it only in Grist Magazine: The nuclear industry offers itself up as a target of ridicule -- in our Busted! section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/busted/busted062599.stm>
read it only in Grist Magazine: More on Bush's CO2 reversal -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/thisjustin031501.stm>
4. THE TOM TOM CLUB Senate Democrats went on the attack yesterday, releasing an energy bill that focuses on conserving energy and boosting renewable fuels, rather than on drilling for more oil and natural gas. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said the U.S. "cannot drill our way out of this problem" and accused President Bush of using the country's energy problems to justify "an all-out assault on the environment." Like the GOP energy package introduced last month, the Democratic alternative would expand domestic energy production. But tax incentives to promote energy efficiency and wind and solar power lie at the heart of the Democratic bill, which also includes a provision to force the auto industry to develop more fuel-efficient light trucks and SUVs by 2008.
straight to the source: New York Times, Lizette Alvarez, 23 Mar 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/23/politics/23ENER.html>
5. MAYBE THEY JUST NEEDED TO VENTI As Starbucks executives joyously announced a stock split to shareholders during the company's annual meeting in Seattle on Tuesday, demonstrators gathered outside the meeting and stores in 100 other U.S. cities to denounce the company's use of genetically engineered ingredients in some products. The protesters, organized by the Organic Consumers Association, particularly object to the company's use of milk containing the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. Company officials said they were trying to find replacements for the products. They also noted that none of the ingredients in the company's coffees and teas is genetically engineered and that organic soy milk is available in its stores as a replacement for milk.
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Kathy Mulady, 21 Mar 2001 <http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/business/starbucks21.shtml>
read it only in Grist Magazine: Mr. Green Beans -- he's all abuzz about socially responsible coffee -- in our Out on Limb column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/limb/limb081100.stm>
The customer-is-always-right-whale -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha031901.stm>
The proof of the pudding is in the eating -- a day in the life of Eric Britton, Earth Car Free Day <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/britton032201.stm>
Electric boogie -- really fun facts about electricty use -- in our Counter Culture section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/counter/counter031601.stm>
3/23/01
3:39:22 PM
EcoNet Headlines: March 23, 2001
Trial Against Russian Environmental Journalist to Start in Vladivostok
The military trial against the Russian environmental journalist Grigory Pasko starts in Vladivostok on March 22. Its final outcome might be even more significant for the development of the rule of law in Russia than the Nikitin case. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985304371/index_html
Judge Rejects Bush Request for Delay in Hearing on Forest Plan
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a Bush administration request to delay a hearing on a lawsuit challenging former President Clinton's effort to ban road-building on a third of the nation's national forests. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985304582/index_html
Bush Administration Throws Out New Arsenic Standard
The Bush administration has opted to defer - perhaps permanently - new arsenic standards that would slash the acceptable limits for this toxic chemical in drinking water by 80 percent. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985304772/index_html
Terminator Insects Give Wings to Genome Invaders
The United States Department of Agriculture has approved field release of GM pink bollworm this summer, which are made with a mobile genetic element that can jump many species. This is tantamount to giving wings to the most aggressive genome invaders. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985305040/index_html
Biotech Corn Is Test Case for Industry
Allergic reactions have been viewed for years as the primary threat to human health posed by genetically engineered foods, which typically have proteins from other organisms spliced into them for various reasons. But the health complaints about StarLink are the first lodged by consumers against an engineered food. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985305218/index_html
Genetic Pollution Is Threatening Consumers' Right to Choose
Despite the organic movement's stringent efforts to keep GMOs (genetically engineered /modified organisms) out of organic production, some US organic farmers have found their corn (maize) crops, including seeds, to contain detectable levels of genetically engineered DNA. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985305338/index_html
Australia Gives Forests the Chop
The Australian government's policy of state sanctioned ecocide continues unabated. Grotesque mismanagement of Australia's fragile ecosystems continues, posing serious threats to continental sustainability. With some notable exceptions, the media, public and government seem to be turning a blind eye. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985305532/index_html
Forest Conservation Number One Priority for Amazon Residents
Forest industries and revenue hungry governments have been somewhat successful in propagating the myth that ecological colonialists are forcing rainforest conservation upon reluctant rainforest dwellers. WWF blows this falsehood out of the water with a recently released, rigorously implemented survey. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985305707/index_html
Exposure to Questionable Chemical Higher Than Expected
Americans' bodies harbor surprisingly high amounts of a chemical used in soap and cosmetics.... Animal studies suggest that large amounts of the chemical, diethyl phthalate, may disrupt normal hormone function and cause birth defects. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985305861/index_html
Fight Continues to Save Last New World Dry Tropical Forest
On Jan. 12 last year, one day after shelving the Hope Gardens project, Prime Minister Percival Patterson gave developers the consolation prize: Long Mountain. The choice sent shock waves through the environmental and naturalist communities. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985306098/index_html
"Sustainable" New Zealand Fishery in Troubled Waters
The accreditation as "sustainable" of a fishery scheme in New Zealand, which has led to the drowning of more than 5,000 seals over the last decade, has put in troubled waters a non- profit group that aims to use market demand to help the environment. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985306248/index_html
UN Foundation to Get Coral Reef Initiative Off the Ground
An unprecedented initiative designed to reverse the dramatic decline in the world's coral reefs has been promised up to 10 million dollars to support demonstration sites in four seas that could be used as models for conservation action elsewhere. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985306378/index_html
Biotech Food Increases Will Not End Hunger
Faced with an estimated 786 million hungry people in the world, cheerleaders for our social order have an easy solution: we will grow more food through the magic of chemicals and genetic engineering. This despite the Green Revolution lesson that increased food production by itself does not end hunger. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985306516/index_html
GREEN: Only One Norwegian Wolf Left
Hunters in helicopters shot four more wolves over the weekend bringing to eight the number of wolves killed in the government cull and "leaving just one to be slaughtered." Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/985306746/index_html
EcoNet News
This Week's Headlines and Alerts from EcoNet
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/enindex.html
3/23/01
3:38:18 PM
EcoNet Alerts: March 23, 2001
National Marine Fisheries Service Seeks Public Comment on U.S. Navy Sonar
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is seeking public comment on a request by the U.S. Navy to operate its Low Frequency Active Sonar on the world's open oceans. The controversial SURTASS sonar has been blamed for whale and dolphin strandings at test sites around the globe. Several environmental lawsuits have attempted to block further tests to protect marine life. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/985307029/index_html
Opposition Grows to Kenya's Forest Plan
At the Ogiek.org web site - http://www.ogiek.org/ - you can support the rights of an affected indigenous group and protest the removal of protected status for these large and precious rainforests by sending protest letters to Kenyan officials. Please do so. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/985307192/index_html
Hudson River Clean-up Alert-Action Needed Now!
After years of fighting for a clean-up, the EPA has called for General Electric to dredge the Hudson of over 100,000 pounds of toxic PCBs it has discharged into the river. But GE is fighting back, and the Bush administration now holds the key to the future of one of our most cherished waterways. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/985307393/index_html
Yellowstone Bison Elude Capture; Two Arrested
The Montana Department of Livestock unsuccessfully attempted to capture three bison bulls on Horse Butte at 1:00 PM for testing and potential execution. Forest Service and Gallatin County Law Enforcement officers closed areas of the National Forest arbitrarily, restricting documentation of the operation, as well as public access. Two Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) volunteers were arrested.... Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/985307552/index_html
Tell Your Senator to Support Renewable Energy Today
Democrats in the US Senate, led by Senator Bingaman (NM), are preparing a comprehensive energy bill for introduction as early as next week. UCS recently learned that the bill no longer includes a Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/985307715/index_html
Environmental, Labor Alliance to Meet in Portland in April
The Second Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment (ASJE) will be held in Portland OR on Saturday and Sunday, April 7-8, 2001, with an action agenda addressing current issues including the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the U.S. Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement, corporate accountability, and creating jobs through forest and watershed restoration. Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/985307850/index_html
EcoNet News This Week's Headlines and Alerts from EcoNet http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/enindex.html
3/23/01
3:30:33 PM
Utne Reader
THE CHEMICAL PAPERS: SECRETS OF THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY EXPOSED
by Don Hazen, AlterNet
A set of once-secret chemical industry documents -- exposing decades of fraud, lies and coverups about thousands of chemical-related deaths -- has sparked both an upcoming PBS report and a wave of activism across the nation.
THE MOTHER JONES 400
Industry pumped in a record $696 million to elect George W. Bush and a GOP Congress. Just in time for Congress' debate on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, Mother Jones has launched The Mother Jones 400, a fully searchable online database that reveals the nation's top political contributors -- and what they expect in return for their largesse.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
The links are also in our archive at:
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/archive.tpl?d=03/23/2001
3/23/01
3:26:37 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
DUMPING ENDS TODAY AT WORLD'S LARGEST LANDFILL
NEW YORK, New York, March 22, 2001 (ENS) - The most infamous landfill in the United States is closing today after 50 years of accepting a growing amount of New York City's garbage. Fresh Kills on Staten Island, one of New York's five boroughs, accepted its last barge load of trash this morning.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-22-01.html
STUDY TALLIES AMERICANS' EXPOSURE TO CHEMICAL CONTAMINANTS
WASHINGTON, DC, March 22, 2001 (ENS) - Common products such as soap, shampoo and perfume are leaching dangerous chemicals into the bloodstreams of U.S. consumers, reveals a comprehensive new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, released Wednesday, also carried some good news: national blood levels of lead, and cotinine from second hand smoke, appear to be declining.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-22-06.html
CHINESE, AUSTRALIAN EYES ON TIBET MINERAL PROSPECTS
SYDNEY, Australia, March 22, 2001 (ENS) - China is increasing mining in Tibet. Australian mining companies and the University of Tasmania are set to play an integral role in the mineral future of Chinese occupied Tibet.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-22-03.html
RUNNING ON EMPTY, A REPORT ON WORLD'S WATER WOES
TEDDINGTON, United Kingdom, March 22, 2001 (ENS) - A report published today to coincide with World Water Day warns that two out of every three people will face water shortages by 2025.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-22-11.html
TURKISH DAM CRITIC PLOTS SHAREHOLDER REVOLT
LONDON, United Kingdom, March 22, 2001 (ENS) - In its fight to stop the construction of a controversial Turkish dam, Friends of the Earth has taken the unorthodox step of investing in the company building it.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-22-10.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MARCH 22, 2001
EPA Signs Agreement to Review Toxic Pesticides
Antarctic Crack Heralds Massive New Iceberg
Judge Blocks Bush Efforts to Block Roadless Rule
Comments Sought on Carcinogens Report
Nature Photographer John Netherton Dies
Vineyards Contribute to Open Space Protection
Field Guide Highlights Southern California Reptiles, Amphibians
Foresight Protects Children from Earthquake
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-22-09.html
3/23/01
3:22:56 PM
Dick Cheney and others who promote this "solution" are either badly misinformed or are lying through their teeth. To see why nuclear power is not, cannot be and never will be the solution to global warming see:
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/globalwarming2.html
The White House needs to hear from us immediately & consistently that nuclear power is NO "solution" to global warming or anything else. Please call Bush & Cheney at: 202-456-1414 and 202-456-1111. They can also be faxed at: 202-456-2461. Please call and/or fax them day after day after day. Leave no doubt in their minds that nuclear power is scientifically fraudulent when being promoted as a solution to global warming and is totally unacceptable. We need large governmental subsidies of life sustaining/supporting technologies like wind & solar power RIGHT NOW. Emphasis on conservation, too. NO more welfare/subsidies to nuclear power which to any sane society is absolutely unacceptable.
Cheney & the White House & media also need to know of Joe Mangano's study showing a very strong correlation between normal nuclear reactor operating and infant mortality:
http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/infant.html
The media at reactor sites around the country need to know about this study and the lack of any other such published studies [to the best of my knowledge]. Mangano-like studies need to be conducted at ALL reactor sites throughout the country and world for that matter. People need to know that just one of the totally unacceptable reasons for reactor operations is the amount of people that are killed both in the long term and short term and are sickened by routine reactor operationing.
To see what can be done with positive governmental expenditures of OUR $ and how 75% of electricity in the US can simply be done away with, see: World Reknown Energy Analyst & Expert Dr Amory Lovins:
http://www.ccnr.org/Lovins_figure_4.html
http://www.ccnr.org/amory.html#acc
Lastly, as if any other evidence were necessary re the danger and criminality of nuclear power, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Father of the nuclear Navy was terrified that if the whole truth about Three Mile Island came out, that would end the ENTIRE commercial nuclear power industry in the USA. This is why Rickover used his personal closeness with former President Jimmy Carter to have Carter withold the complete truth of the accident from every American: http://www.geocities.com/mothersalert/rickover.html
3/23/01
3:17:48 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm
Japan to allow some biotech crops in food - official - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10222
US sees drop in 2nd-hand smoke, child lead levels - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10230
Giuliani vows long-term NYC energy plan but stays mum - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10229
Calif. pushes power savings to avert summer blackouts - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10224
FACTBOX - Bush rolls back water, mining, forestry rules - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10223
UPDATE - Bush scraps another Clinton enviromental rule - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10213
US Arctic refuge drilling supporters unveil ad campaign - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10220
UPDATE - Cheney - Energy panel to look at nuclear power - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10219
Democrats to unveil alternative US energy bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10218
UPDATE - Looser green rules won't stop US gasoline spike - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10216
Judge denies Bush request to delay forest conservation case - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10215
UPDATE - US reaches deal to cut pollution at refineries - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10214
BP may take earnings hit in green fuel switch - study - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10225
World faces major water shortage by 2025 - UK agency - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10226
UPDATE - Thirst for water drives desalination boom - expert - SINGAPORE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10232
Russian deputies to vote on nuclear waste imports - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10231
Kyoto deal seen possible despite Bush position - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10221
Hungary plans to sue Romanian firm over spill - HUNGARY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10217
Millions dying needlessly from dirty water - WHO - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10228
UPDATE - Oil spill from sunken Brazil rig contained - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10227
3/23/01
3:15:17 PM
The Nation
United States Draconian Drug Laws
No single moment in the history of US criminal justice matches the destructive impact of the New York legislature's 1973 session. That was when Governor Nelson Rockefeller set the tone for a national wave of prison-packing schemes with the drug laws that bear his name. The Rockefeller drug laws combined two regressive criminal justice policies into a new and potent brew: They prescribe imprisonment rather than treatment for drug offenders, and they establish mandatory minimum sentences.
The outcome, repeated thousands of times daily around the country: Nonviolent drug offenders get punished out of all proportion to any presumed threat to society. With built-in incentives for police and prosecutors to concentrate on low-level users and with racial discrimination an inevitability, the Rockefeller drug laws are the ancestor of just about every regressive criminal justice policy since enacted--three-strikes laws, federal sentencing guidelines and zero-tolerance police sweeps.
Fortunately, an increasingly effective coalition of New York-based community groups and non-profits have emerged in opposition to these draconian drug laws. And next week, DROP THE ROCK will stage a day of public protest in Albany, New York, to call upon elected officials to completely repeal the Rockefeller Laws.
Taking place on Tuesday, March 27, people from around New York State will gather in Albany for DROP THE ROCK Day, a day of education and action, featuring a rally at the Capitol from 12-2 p.m. with a stirring series of speeches planned. DROP THE ROCK has organized numerous, inexpensive bus caravans leaving from Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The more people, the better. So please consider being there if you're able and please pass this note on to anyone you think may be interested. For information on transportation for March 27 and DROP THE ROCK's efforts generally, go to:
And, for more background, read "The Worst Drug Laws," from the most recent issue of The Nation. Currently available at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010409&s=editors2
3/23/01
3:09:50 PM
State Department Says No US Origin Waste to go to Russia
NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ECODEFENSE!
For Immediate Release Contact:
Michael Mariotte, NIRS, 202.328.0002
Michele Boyd, IEER, 301.270.5500
State Department Says No US Origin Waste to go to Russia
The U.S. State Department says it will not allow high-level atomic waste of U.S. origin to be shipped to Russia because of Russia's nuclear power collaboration with Iran. The United States will not even consider allowing such imports unless Russia first ends that nuclear collaboration, the State Department said in a letter to environmental groups opposed to the plan. This position could put an end to plans by Russia's nuclear agency Minatom to import nuclear waste from other countries and use the profits to build new atomic power plants. It also would stop a different project led by a U.S. group, the Non-Proliferation Trust, which has also proposed importing high-level waste to Russia under NPT's management, and using the funds for clean-up of contaminated sites and other purposes.
In a March 14, 2001 letter to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), Richard J.K. Stratford, Director of the State Department's Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs, said, ".[A]ny transfer to Russia of power reactor spent fuel subject to U.S. consent rights could only take place if the United States were to conclude an agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. We have not so far been willing to negotiate such an agreement, because of our longstanding concerns about Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran."
Stratford was writing in response to a letter signed by more than 150 organizations worldwide urging the U.S. to block any shipment of U.S.-origin atomic fuel to Russia. The letter was organized by NIRS, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and Russia's Ecodefense!.
Because most irradiated reactor fuel in the western world and Asia is either of U.S.-origin or irretrievably mixed-in with fuel of U.S.-origin, the State Department stance effectively rules out the Minatom Project. The project initially passed the Russian lower House of Parliament (Duma) in February, but a second reading was postponed today until at least late April.
The State Department promised that if the Russian situation with Iran should change, and Department consideration of an agreement with Russia were considered, a notice of any proposed decision would be published in the Federal Register, and environmental groups would be invited to meet with State Department officials.
3/23/01
2:41:02 PM
A CRY TO GOD FROM PLANET EARTH
By John McConnell - Founder of Earth Day
Earth Day -- March 20. 2001
Dear God,
As we enter a new millennium, more than ever before people of every creed and culture want an answer to the ultimate questions that have troubled civilization through its history.
What is life all about? Why are we here? Where are we going?
Science and religion have sought answers and end up with only more questions. Beliefs of every kind abound. But no one provides evidence that all fair minded parties can agree on. No one has presented a video tape documenting the existence and nature of heaven - or other dimensions of reality.
Logic demands a cause for every effect. The more we learn about the Cosmos, the more our amazement at both the chaos and order we find. Science now acknowledges there can be no creation without a Creator. Chaos cannot cause beauty, order, music and meaning.
To create art or music, human beings need intellect and emotion. The Creator of Earth and stars must be far superior to us in mind and consciousness. The greatest wisdom we know is love. The Creator must be a God of love.
Religions have at times caused wars and violence. But at their best, they have brought harmony and peaceful progress in the human adventure. I'm grateful for my Christian faith and the reverence for life it has engendered. My life experience has given me a vision of the challenge and opportunity the human family now has to rejuvenate our planet and its human cultures with an Earth Trustee agenda to eliminate poverty, pollution and violence. We have the technology and information that rightly used could make this nest in the stars a garden of Eden.
I pray and I think you hear my prayers. Sometimes miracles happen and I give you thanks. But I cannot understand the unanswered prayers and the pain and suffering that millions of people experience.
You must exist. But Dear God, why don't you show yourself in an unmistakable way and tell the whole human family why we are here and what we should do?
Strangely, my heart is filled with deep anguish -- and exhilarating hope. Please help.
Reverently,
John McConnell
Earth Day - March 20, 2001
www.earthsite.org
3/22/01
6:51:27 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2001
Kentucky Hemp Bill Signed Into Law
The Kentucky state legislature passed a bill establishing an Industrial Hemp Commission (IHC) and today the bill was signed into law by Gov. Patton. The IHC will consist of 17 members including representatives of the governor, the state legislature, state universities, law enforcement and the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association. The bill also authorizes an industrial hemp research program to be conducted at one or more selected Kentucky state universities.
HB 100 was passed by the Kentucky House on February 14th by a vote of 66 - 32. On March 8th the bill was passed in the Senate by a vote of 68 -28. HB 100 was signed into law by Kentucky governor Paul E. Patton on Thursday March 22nd. The full text of the bill can be viewed at:
<http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/record/01rs/HB100.htm>
3/22/01
6:30:33 PM
THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER
Lexington, Kentucky
Attack on hemp unfair: A return to “McCarthyism”
It appears that Jeanette McDougal of Drug Watch International mixed a few facts with a lot of misinformation in the anti-hemp commentary that appeared in Monday’s Herald-Leader (inserted below). It’s the old legal tactic: If you don’t have the law or facts, attack the person. In newsprint it’s frequently referred to as character assassination by association or “McCarthyism.”
I have known the Graves family for three generations. During World War II the federal government asked the Graves family, as well as many other Kentucky farmers, to grow hemp for the war effort. Everyone was thanking them in those days instead of attempting to malign them as McDougal did. I know of no member of Andy Graves’ family, passed or present, who would approve of or promote the production or use of marijuana.
As for Woody Harrelson, I defended him without charge in the name of liberty and justice. I didn’t know him before the trial. He came here to test a legal concept in the interest of Kentucky farmers. No one was harmed. McDougal and I have talked by telephone. She faxed me much outdated and narrowly interpreted material.
Modern technology can immediately distinguish between the industrial hemp plants and the marijuana plants, as can the naked eye. We should destroy the marijuana plant, but make every possible use of the industrial hemp plant. In an honest effort to do both, there is no need to try to destroy decent people by insinuation, slander, guilt by association or the use of outdated or misdirected information.
I admire and support McDougal’s objective, but shame, shame, shame on the course she has taken.
Louie B. Nunn Former Kentucky Governor Woodford County
Employing innuendo and specious logic, Jeanette McDougal put forth an all-out conspiracy theory of farmers, businessmen, politicians and others concealing secret identities as pot-smoking hippies engaged in the most seditious form of cultural treason: the legalization of marijuana through the re-commercialization of industrial hemp.
For those of us in the real world, hemp enjoys its current widespread bipartisan support because of its proven benefits in 31 other countries. In fact, the irony of McDougal’s hysteria is that it is completely misplaced considering that more case law and legislation now exists to grow and use medical marijuana while low-THC hemp remains illegal.
But beware of confusing McDougal with the facts, as her focus is to establish guilt by association. The mere insinuation that an individual is even indirectly linked to what still passes for cultural taboo is offered as a poor excuse for a legitimate gripe. One should note that her complaints have yet to be reconciled with the increasingly long roster of conservative politicians and industrialists who support hemp.
Apparently the crown jewel of McDougal’s conspiracy musings is a High Times article published more than 10 years ago, wishfully referring to hemp clothing as “legal pot.” Sorry, but inflating the implications of the unfortunate semantics of a biased journalist does not exactly a conspiracy make.
The informed citizen, armed with the hard facts about industrial hemp’s well-established commercial potential and environmental benefits will eventually triumph over McDougal’s pitiable campaign of misinformation, demagoguery and character smears.
Erik Rothenberg
Director, http://www.VoteHemp.com
Los Angeles
THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER
Lexington, Kentucky
Hemp a cover for legalizing pot
By Jeanette McDougal
Separating hemp reality from hemp rhetoric is like separating fleas from dogs: It’s hard to do, and it’s temporary. When one hemp fact is established, pro-hemp advocates rush in with another of their own facts. Should we really turn for facts to former CIA Director James Woolsey, who bragged about his client the North American Industrial Hemp Council, by saying there was not a tie-dyed shirt owner among the members? He neglected to check their boxers. Several of the board members were either vigorous pro-drug advocates or their close associates.
David Morris, former vice-president of the council, pushed legalization of marijuana, marijuana cigarettes for medicine and industrial cannabis hemp for years in his columns in the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. Andrew Graves, founding and former board member, was party to a lawsuit to permit the growing of industrial cannabis hemp. The two lead lawyers in that suit Michael Kennedy of New York and Burl McCoy of Kentucky are on the roster of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, an aggressive pro-marijuana legalization advocate.
Actor Woody Harrelson, an admitted pot smoker, marijuana and hemp advocate, hired Joe Hickey, executive director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Association, as a consultant, allowing Hickey to leave his former job and devote all his time to hemp. Harrelson has sponsored many Kentucky hemp events, including a hemp essay contest for Kentucky schoolchildren, some of whom received a list of hemp facts intermingled with marijuana facts [this is a totally false statement], such as, “smoking marijuana can be beneficial for emphysema, and can be used as a handy way to induce dry mouth before dental operations.”
John Howell, former hemp editor of High Times magazine [false statement - it was Hemptimes], was in Kentucky in 1998 to help Graves, Kennedy and McCoy publicize the message that there is a hemp market. Howell recently represented the cannabis hemp industry at the National Conference of State Legislatures, without disclosing his ties to High Times [false statement - it was Hemptimes]. High Times, one of the oldest and most militant pro-drug/marijuana publications in the United States, announced in its March 1990 edition an “extraordinary plan” to legalize marijuana:
“The way to legalize marijuana is to sell marijuana legally. When you can buy marijuana in your neighborhood shopping mall, it’s legal ... Anything and everything you can think of will be made from hemp ... Supporters of the hemp legalization movement will be able to buy shares in hemp manufacturing. ... Legal and financial recognition of hemp’s industrial value will mean legal marijuana, whether our government likes it or not! Pot will be legal! ... So invest in our future. Buy some legal marijuana. Buy a hemp shirt and wear it proudly!”
As to the economics of cannabis hemp, in 1999 about 540 Canadian farmers planted 35,000 acres of hemp. About 18,700 of those acres were contracted to a company called Consolidated Growers, which went bankrupt (Chapter 7) in February 2000, leaving 232 Canadian farmers (almost half of those who planted hemp that year) holding the hemp bag for $5 million to $6 million. Much of the 1999 crop is still being stored by Canadian farmers.
In 2000, in all of Canada, a mere 13,500 acres were planted, down from 35,000 the year before. Ontario, the only province to do a costs/return per acre analysis, discovered that for fiber only, there was a $107 loss [false - $200 cnd according to Canadian farmers]; for grain only, a $24 loss [false - $200 cnd according to Canadian farmers]; and for grain and fiber, a $48 profit [false - $300 cnd according to Canadian farmers]. An agriculture ministry official also warned farmers to have a contract with a reputable company before planting hemp, or they could lose $600 an acre.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the market for hemp fibers “will likely remain a small, thin market.” The report calculates that U.S. imports of hemp fiber, yarn, fabric and seed in 1999 could have been produced on less than 5,000 acres. The hemp liability list goes on and on and on.
Jeanette McDougal, a St. Paul, Minn., schoolteacher, is chairwoman of Drug Watch International’s hemp committee.
3/22/01
6:23:36 PM
Public Citizen
ACTION ALERT:
Media Role Missing from Campaign Finance Coverage
While the McCain-Feingold campaign finance debate will often dominate political news over the next two weeks, one aspect of the story is rarely explained to TV viewers: Where does all the money go?
Many media accounts correctly draw the links between the access that big money can buy and the political favors that donors come to expect. News reports at the beginning of the Senate debate (3/19/01) over McCain-Feingold were often strongly worded: CBS's Bob Schieffer explained that "This money is like a narcotic to politicians and they're having a hard time breaking the habit," while NBC's Lisa Myers reported the issue as a case of "bigger and bigger money buying more and more influence."
But a significant portion of that money goes straight to the media themselves. Estimates of campaign spending in 2000 find that television stations took in about $1 billion in advertising revenue. One study of political ads found that 839,243 political ads were aired in the top 75 media markets during the 200 election season-- that's over 10,000 per market (USA Today, 3/21/01).
The media's front-and-center role in campaign finance goes virtually unacknowledged on the network news broadcasts. As debate on the Senate floor began on March 19, viewers would be hard-pressed to find any straight forward account of how the system actually works. On NBC Nightly News, correspondent Lisa Myers came close, reporting that opponents of McCain-Feingold argue that "this money is needed to buy expensive TV time."
Newspaper accounts are often more direct-- Washington Post columnist David Broder (3/20/01) wrote that the truth about who benefits from the current system "is suppressed in Senate debate for the same reason it was ignored on the TV talk shows: fear of antagonizing the station owners, who control what gets on the air."
It's not hard to see why broadcasters would not be interested in disclosing the extraordinary benefits they get from the current political financing scheme. Earlier in the month, a report by the Alliance for Better Campaigns accused television stations of gouging advertisers by charging more than the basic rate for political ads. The report generated some newspaper coverage (New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, all 3/6/01), but no national television coverage, according to a search of the Nexis online news database.
Broadcasters participate as campaign contributors as well. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, big media were big soft-money contributors in the 2000 election cycle:
--Time Warner/CNN: $2,004,438
--Walt Disney/ABC: $1,805,464
--News Corp./Fox: $787,980
--Viacom/CBS: $648,170
--General Electric/NBC: $309,700
This system is known well to journalists and politicians alike. Broadcast lobbies like the National Association of Broadcasters are considered among the most powerful in Washington, and the mechanics of political campaigns are all too familiar to those close to the system. "Today's Senate campaigns function as collection agencies for broadcasters," former Senator Bill Bradley explained in 1991 (Communications & the Law, 3/95). "You simply transfer money from contributors to television stations."
As the issue of campaign finance reform takes center stage, the broadcast industry's participation in the scandal demands greater scrutiny.
ACTION: Encourage the broadcast news outlets to investigate the role of the media industry itself in the campaign finance debate. Media companies have an obligation to explain their role as beneficiaries of the current system.
CONTACT: NBC Nightly News Phone: 212-664-4971 or 202-885-4259 Fax: 202-362-2009 mailto:Nightly@nbc.com
ABC's World News Tonight 47 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023 Phone: 212-456-7777 Fax: 212-456-4297 mailto:peterjennings@worldnewstonight.abcnews.com
CBS Evening News Phone: 212-975-3691, 202-457-4385 Fax: 212-975-1893 mailto:audsvcs@cbs.com
As always, please remember that your comments will be more effective if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
For more background, please see: --Alliance for Better Campaigns:
http://www.bettercampaigns.org/
--"Hidden Culprit in Campaign Finance Scandal: The TV Industry" by Jeff Cohen:
http://www.fair.org/whats-new/tvindustry.html
3/22/01
6:21:02 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
1. 10 REASONS TO DRILL ... TODAY Who doesn't want to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska? It'll be fun! We will wear special outfits, and when the oil gets in our mustaches, we'll take silly pictures and send them as postcards. Sadly, some people (generally sex offenders, future studies are likely to reveal) oppose the drilling plan. We know better. Read 10 glistening reasons to plunge a masculine drill into Alaska's "Opportunity Refuge" on the Grist Magazine website.
read it only on the Grist Magazine website: The case for oil exploration in the Arctic Refuge -- in our opinions section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho032201.stm>
2. BODY, WANNA TEST MY BODY, BODY A study released by U.S. health officials yesterday showed for the first time that most Americans carry detectable levels of plastics, pesticides, and heavy metals in their blood and urine. The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measured the presence of 27 chemicals in humans and found levels in the average person that were far below those where problems with the toxics typically occur. Previously, researchers had only been able to measure the levels of many of these chemicals in air, water, and food. Levels of mercury were found to be lower than expected in children and higher among women of child-bearing age, though still below federal standards.
straight to the source: Washington Post, David Brown, 22 Mar 2001 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40329-2001Mar21.html>
3. BLACK GOLD, FRANK "INCENSED" MURKOWSKI Dealing a blow to plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Republicans on the U.S. House Budget Committee have declined to include any anticipated revenue from the drilling in the federal government budget for the next fiscal year. The chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), said his committee would follow suit. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) and President Bush had hoped to have revenue from drilling included in a budget bill, which under Senate rules cannot be filibustered. Now, it seems likely that opponents of the drilling will be able to filibuster any bills that include a drilling provision. Sixty votes are required to end a filibuster, 10 more than Murkowski would have needed in support of a drilling provision that was part of a budget measure. In related news, nearly 500 scientists sent a letter to Bush this week, warning him that drilling in the refuge would permanently harm wildlife in the area.
straight to the source: New York Times, Lizette Alvarez, 22 Mar 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/22/politics/22ALAS.html>
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar 2001 < http://www.latimes.com:80/news/nation/20010321/t000024529.html>
read it only in Grist Magazine: When is a caribou an albatross? -- the Arctic Refuge could become Bush's gays-in-the-military -- by David Helvarg <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho030901.stm>
4. LET THEM DRINK COKE More than 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water and 3.4 million die each year from diseases linked to water contamination, according to the World Health Organization. In a report timed for U.N. World Water Day today (mark your calendar for next year), the WHO said it had registered no improvement in the numbers since 1990. A report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the U.N. warned that wars over water are expected to increase around the world, as population numbers continue to soar and environmental degradation continues.
straight to the source: BBC News, 22 Mar 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1235000/1235460.stm>
read it only in Grist Magazine: Wet's the matter -- fun with water facts -- in our Counter Culture column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/counter/counter050300.stm>
5. TURNING OVER A NEWLEAF The biotech giant Monsanto confirmed accounts this week that it will shelve its first genetically modified crop and stop selling the six-year-old NewLeaf potato to farmers in the U.S. and Canada. The potato, which contains a gene that produces a toxin to repel the Colorado potato beetle, was unable to capture more than 5 percent of the potato-seed market. Farmers were lukewarm on the product because of high prices, and food companies (the folks buying the spuds) steered clear, with consumers growing increasingly concerned about whether genetically modified foods are safe to eat. Last year, for example, McDonald's told its french-fry suppliers not to use the NewLeaf potato. A Monsanto spokesperson said the company suspended its potato plans and will focus instead on larger markets for genetically modified seeds: oilseeds, cotton, corn, and wheat.
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, Scott Kilman, 21 Mar 2001 (access ain't free) <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB985128671233949916.htm>
Why can't a man be more like a woman? -- a day in the life of Eric Britton, Earth Car Free Day <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/britton032101.stm>
The Washington Post beefs up its green beat reporting, while CNN cuts back -- in our Muckraker column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck020701.stm#news>
Lean and green -- a Colorado family welcomes the simple life -- in our Out on a Limb column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/limb/limb042600.stm>
3/22/01
6:11:32 PM
Real Goods
More Short Renewable Energy Stories:
SAY NO TO OIL DEVELOPMENT ON COSTA RICA'S CARIBBEAN COAST
Harken Energy from Houston, Texas is now poised to drill for oil in a region known as Talamanca - an extremely biologically rich area that is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The indigenous peoples that live in the area, and support themselves largely from eco-tourism, are opposed to oil development. Read More...
PENNSYLVANIA TO BUILD LARGEST WIND FARM IN EASTERN U.S.
A ridge of pastureland southeast of Pittsburgh will be the site for the largest wind energy facility in the eastern United States. Full coverage, click here.
U.S. SOLAR MANUFACTURERS REPORT HIGHER SHIPMENTS
The shipment of solar thermal collectors in the United States reached a total of nine million square feet in 1999, an increase of 11 percent from the 1998 total of eight million square feet, according to 'Renewable Energy Annual 2000' released by the Energy Information Administration. Read More...
DOE TO FUND $12 MILLION IN THIN-FILM PV WORK
The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to fund $12 million in research for the development of thin-film solar photovoltaic technology. Click here, for full coverage.
COSMETIC COMPANY TO INSTALL $1.4 MILLION SOLAR SYSTEM
A large beauty products firm will become the first major company to install a solar electric system in Los Angeles. To read more, click here.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BACKS RENEWABLE ENERGY
The British government will provide additional funding of £100 million to support renewable energy technologies and to make Britain a leader in the adoption of green power. For full coverage, click here.
Unique and Shocking Electricity Factoids
 12,133 -- per capita annual electricity consumption (kilowatt-hours) in the U.S. in 1997
 1,381 -- per capita annual electricity consumption (kilowatt-hours) in the rest of the world in 1997
 21.5 -- percent increase in U.S. electricity consumption from 1990 to 1999
 43 -- percent decrease in utility funding for energy efficiency from 1993 to 1998
 90 -- percent of total U.S. coal consumption used to generate electricity in 1998
 33 -- percent of all mercury emissions in the U.S. that came from coal power plants in 1999
 30,000- number of lives cut short in the U.S. each year due to pollution from electric utilities
 37 million -- number of cars necessary to produce the amount of smog-forming pollution that comes from U.S. coal power plants each year
 7.5 -- percent of total U.S. energy consumption from renewable sources in 1998
 94 -- percent of total U.S. renewable energy consumption from hydropower and bio-mass (trash and wood incinerators)$216.7 billion -- revenue of the U.S. electric utility industry in 1999
 $216.7 billion -- revenue of the U.S. electric utility industry in 1999
 $124 billion -- approximate combined revenues of all the governments in Africa
 90 -- percent of total electricity used in a regular lightbulb that is wasted as heat
 1,000 -- reduction in pounds of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by replacing one traditional lightbulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, over the bulb's lifetime
- Todd Hettenbach
Julia Butterfly Hill, Mark Dubois, Ram Dass, Randy Hayes, and Sat Santokh...
Invite you to join us for a 3 day weekend exploring Spirituality & Social Change
A Creating Our Future Memorial Weekend Workshop: (7 PM, Friday, 5/25 - 2 PM, Monday, 5/28)
This workshop is for spiritually oriented and socially concerned citizens, for activists of all kinds, and is open to all age groups. It will be held in Marin County, California on 1,740 acres of rolling hills, open grasslands, creeks, bay laurel forests; with clean and comfortable dormitory & semi-private lodging.
As Julia Butterfly said about this workshop: "Religion, politics, science or activism without the deep, heartfelt connection to the Sacred is a dying effort, a dying ecosystem of disharmony. My prayer for this workshop is that in the joining of our diverse perspectives, we will be able to see and articulate what a healthy world and future look like as well as the steps necessary to promote this positive, vibrant vision. Equally important, we will leave with a renewed inspiration to live our heart’s calling and our spirit’s passion."
For more information, email satsantokh@home.com, or call 510 895 2813
"Sometimes I wonder, with all our supposed progress, what we're rushing toward and what we're leaving behind." Donella Meadows, from the Global Citizen, January 2001.
3/22/01
6:06:49 PM
Real Goods
Bipartisan Emissions Bill Counters Bush's Broken Promise
WASHINGTON, DC, March 15, 2001 (ENS) - A bipartisan group of U.S. Congress members introduced a bill today that would set emissions limits for carbon dioxide and other power plant pollutants that contribute to global warming and pose a risk to public health. The bill was released two days after President George W. Bush's controversial decision not to support limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Read more...
Short Renewable Energy Stories:
PBS AIRS TRADE SECRETS OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
On March 26 PBS will air "Trade Secrets," a report on the chemical industry produced by the Peabody Award-winning duo of Bill Moyers and Sherry Jones. A newly formed environmental campaign hopes to use the broadcast to spark national awareness and action on the issue. To read more, click here.
SATELLITE PICTURES SHOW GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Observations from satellites support a new theory that carbon dioxide and other emissions are to blame for global warming, confirming what some climate models have been implying, that Earth's "greenhouse" effect increased between 1970 and 1997. Click here to read more.
SALMON PROTECTION SECOND TO POWER PRODUCTION
Salmon protection must be second to power production if the Bonneville Power Administration is to keep its electricity prices from doubling this fall, the federal agency's acting administrator said Monday. Read more...
A GENERATOR IN EVERY BACKYARD?
Not-in-my-backyard could become one-in-every-backyard if technology for distributed generation - micropower - is perfected. Micropower is generally considered an electrical operation that produces no more than 10 megawatts, and is powered by a refined form of the internal combustion engine. Read more...
WORLD'S FORESTS DEPEND UPON JUST TEN COMPANIES
WWF states that if well managed, one fifth of the World's forests could meet global demand for wood and fiber, and that just 10 companies could make this a reality. Click here...
3/22/01
6:02:35 PM
Real Goods
Nuclear Industry Alive and Well
The U.S. nuclear power industry said yesterday that it produced more power in the year 2000 than ever before. The announcement came just one week after Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) introduced a bill to spur more use of nuclear energy in the U.S., celebrating what he termed a "safe and environmentally clean fuel." Nuclear industry watchdog groups blasted Senator Pete Domenici's (R-NM) introduction of the "Nuclear Energy Electricity Assurance Act of 2001" as nothing more than an invitation to legislate the nuclear industry's wish list. In other nuke news, Russia gave the thumbs up yesterday to a plan to build a floating nuclear power plant on the White Sea. And China said it would move forward with plans to build several new nuclear power plants in its coastal provinces. Read more...
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In Memorium – Donella Meadows – 1941 - 2001
Last month the environmental community lost one of its great leaders. Widely regarded for her work on global environmental and economic systems, Donella Meadows, known to friends as Dana, died of bacterial meningitis on Feb. 20. She was 59. Meadows is recognized for pioneering the "sustainability" movement. Her 1972 international best-seller, "The Limits to Growth," was among the first books to sound an alarm about the ecological impact of a teeming world population.
The book claims that the planet's resources will be lost within the next century if population growth is not significantly curbed. Her follow up book: “Beyond the Limits” is one of the books that inspired me in my early days with Real Goods, and the book that first let me understand the depth of the mess the Earth is in. As a member of the faculty at Dartmouth College for 29 years, Meadows gently pointed her students toward sustainable living for the future.
For the full story, click here.
New Homes Offer Solar Power As Standard Feature
In San Diego, Shea Homes is building the largest development of solar-powered, energy-efficient houses in the country. One hundred houses will have 12 solar panels as a standard feature, providing 1,500 kilowatt hours of solar-generated energy a year, in addition to conventional electricity. An additional 160 homes offer the panels as an option. The panels add about $6,000 to the cost of the homes, which are valued between $400,000 and $600,000. Shea had been considering including solar panels in a development but couldn't do so until last year, when it found technology that would cost buyers about 1 percent of their total home cost.
The homes' efficiency features include a reflective coating under the roof tile to repel heat, "smart" window glass that blocks infrared and ultraviolet rays, extra-efficient ductwork to reduce air-conditioning leakage, and solar-powered water heaters to cut the need for natural gas. The solar-panel system will cut the homes' electricity costs up to 80 percent, while the other efficiency features alone would cut bills by 30 percent. Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb 01, by Michelle Morgante.
3/22/01
5:58:59 PM
Real Goods
Global Warming and the California Energy Crisis – It’s all Tied Together
These past two weeks have brought several global issues to the forefront, particularly Global Warming, and our new government’s insistence on maintaining denial of it. Consider the facts:
 The hottest years in recorded history all have occurred during the past 13 years
 7.5 cubic miles of ice have eroded from a key area of the South Pole in just 8 years
 A report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the rate of climate change in this century is expected to be greater than it has been in the past 10,000 years.
 The same report warns that worldwide temperature will rise as much as 11 degrees this century unless greenhouse emissions are cut substantially (up from 3 or 4 degrees we’ve been hearing in the past).
 The deep oceans are warming, the tundra is thawing, the glaciers are melting, infectious diseases are migrating, and the timing of seasons has changed – all from one degree of warming. And if the earth warms by 11 more degrees later in this century as the IPCC warns, then what?
The Kyoto Protocol mandates only carbon reductions of 6% below 1990 levels. However most scientists estimate that restabilization of our climate will require cuts of 70%. There is only one way to effect this change: a global transition away from coal and oil to an energy economy based on photovoltaics, hydrogen-powered fuel cells, wind generators and other non-carbon based energy sources.
The good news is that with rebates from the California Energy Commission and other state agencies around the country, PV is becoming economically viable. The payback period is often 10 years or less when everything is factored in. And if electric rates double in the next few years, as most expect, that payback period decreases to only five years and a 20% ROI (return on investment), which makes solar PV attractive to almost all folks currently on the electric grid.
I had hoped to report on some of the bills before the California Legislature in this issue, but the task is daunting. There are currently over 100 bills before the Legislature dealing with conservation rebates, additional PV rebates, all kinds of buydowns, and numerous ideas to incent Californians to begin to use renewable energy. This is good news! When it all shakes out, we can only hope that California will set the tone for the necessary changes needed to curb the deadly serious problem of global warming that our government seems unwilling to confront.
Global Warming Update
The Global Warming issue has been seriously heating up since our last issue. With all the brouhaha in the news about GW Bush’s reversal on carbon dioxide emissions and regulation thereof, we thought we’d give our Solar Times readers an opportunity to read the whole definitive story on the subject as reported by Leonie Haimson, a climate change columnist extraordinaire, in the latest Grist Magazine. For the full story, the best summary I’ve seen, click here.
Rest of the World Reacts to Bush Decision
The European Union expressed disappointment with President Bush's decision not to regulate carbon dioxide, and Japan said the decision could undermine the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Germany went so far as to say the rest of the world might have to leave the U.S. behind and begin implementing the treaty alone. E.U. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said she was especially concerned about Bush's "remarks that more research is needed into the causes of climate change before we know what the solutions are."
In the view of the great majority of the world's climate scientists and governments, the facts are clear that humans are helping to cause global warming by spitting greenhouse gases like CO2 into the atmosphere. Indeed, a study published today in the journal Nature adds to the evidence that humans are changing the atmosphere. For more details on the story, click here.
Greenpeace Walks The Talk in New Headquarters Office
Greenpeace USA proudly boasts that its new headquarters office in Washington, DC, "is a prototype of both ideals and practice with the Earth in mind...an example of their commitment to a green today and better tomorrow." Designed by Envision Design, the 15,000-square-foot renovation project includes pantry countertops made from recycled yogurt containers and rubber flooring made from recycled tires. All woods used are FSC-certified as sustainable, including the wood in the lounge chairs made especially for this project by Knoll. Greenpeace wrote into its lease that the base buildingnot just its own spacewould be PVC-free except for the electrical wiring, for which no viable alternative exists.
Daylighting and light sensors reduce energy consumption, and rooftop solar panels provide electricity and heat water. By going with an open floor plan rather than private offices, the project realized a 45 percent savings in drywall not used; a 61 percent savings in unused doors; a 39 percent reduction in lighting energy consumption; and a 65 percent increase in the number of workspaces, from 57 to 94. A large sliding wall and oversized pivot doors, both made from wheatboard panels, separate the main conference room from the reception area and provide flexibility for many types of gatherings. Interiors & Sources, Jan-Feb 01, by Penny Bonda. [For full text, click here.]
3/22/01
5:47:44 PM
Public Citizen
California "Community Choice": An Easy Option to Protect Consumers
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Community choice legislation being proposed in California today is a good consumer-oriented step toward providing more leverage for the state's beleaguered consumers, according to Public Citizen.
"Community choice" enables consumers to join together and negotiate with utilities for cheaper electricity rates. California Assembly Bill 48x, introduced by San Francisco Assemblywoman Carole Migden, will have its first public hearing today. The legislation won't solve California's energy crisis but would enable households to decide whether they want their town to join a municipal aggregation. Citizens of a town that votes to do so could opt out of the buying group and choose their own suppliers.
"The one striking aspect of California's energy crisis is that households are defenseless," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "This proposed community choice legislation, while not the solution to the state's energy crisis, would provide more options currently denied to California consumers to negotiate for cheaper, more reliable, and more environmentally friendly electricity."
As California's electricity deregulation crisis continues, consumers have few options to choose new energy suppliers that can provide cheaper, more reliable and more environmentally friendly electricity. Two states - Ohio and Massachusetts - have adopted the community choice approach to help consumers, with successful results.
One of the fundamental problems of deregulation is that it doesn't provide true retail choice. Less than two percent of residential consumers in deregulated states have switched their utility. That's because the low volume of electricity usage consumed by households forces utilities to operate on slim per-house profit margins. These narrow profit margins effectively prohibit potential competitors from serving residential customers. For example, Houston-based power marketing firm Enron dropped out of the residential retail market just three weeks after competition began in 1998, claiming it was unable to profit. Before the crisis hit, fewer than 5 percent of Californians have switched providers. Now, all the competitors have dropped out, leaving only the incumbent utilities.
Conversely, large commercial users of electricity are much more profitable for utilities due to their economies of scale. As a result, more utilities jump into the market. Commercial consumers have more options and switch providers at much higher rates than do residential consumers.
Community choice allows residential consumers to band together with other households in their town to increase their economies of scale, placing them on par with industrial consumers. After Ohio adopted community choice in 1999, those cities that have elected to sign on have enjoyed great success at negotiating cheaper electricity deals with alternative providers and choosing providers with a focus on green energy.
An aggregation of more than 400,000 consumers in 90 Ohio cities just signed a deal with Green Mountain Energy that features a rate reduction and offers deals to provide residents with renewable energy. Representatives for each town form aggregations with other towns and negotiate contracts with alternative suppliers on behalf of all residential consumers in their jurisdiction.
"Community choice is good for consumers, and more states should commit to it," Hauter said. "We urge California in particular to institute community choice. California consumers need any relief they can get."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit www.citizen.org
3/22/01
12:11:50 PM
Taken from the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin #44 published by Teresa Perez <teresap@wrm.org.uy> More articles at
- International Day for Forests and Against Free Trade
The so called "free trade" is in reality but the granting of unlimited power to transnational companies to govern the world to the detriment of the vast majority of humanity and nature. Forests worldwide are menaced by the process of liberalization of the economy which tends to weaken yet more the already feeble public controls on logging.
Within such context, Native Forest Network (NFN) International --a global network of forest protection organizations and representatives committed to protecting the world's remaining forest ecosystems, as well as indigenous forest communities-- is calling for an International Day for Forests and Against Free Trade, to take place on April 19th in the Northern Hemisphere and April 20th in the Southern Hemisphere. The event will coincide with the activities that will be undertaken in Quebec City, Canada, against the Summit of the Americas on those same days. This Summit will gather to work for the implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, an expansion of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment), strongly resisted by social and environmental organizations. Those interesting in learning more about the organization of this global protest are invited to contact the organizers at the following addresses:
Northern Hemisphere e-mail: nfnena@sover.net
http:// www.nativeforest.org
Southern Hemisphere e.mail: aburling@nfn.org.au
http:// www.nativeforest.org
3/22/01
12:09:18 PM
#1 most censored story: corporatizing water worldwide
Our New Resource Crisis
By Peter Phillips
Imagine, that we are beyond the energy crisis - in that we are used to paying double or triple prices for what in the previous century was a small part of the family budget. But now we are faced with a new shortage that taps another precious resource. Water only comes through the tap fours hours a day and we are forced to pay ten to hundred times what we paid in the 90s. Welcome to the world of privatized water, where fresh water is treated like a commodity, traded and sold in the international market to the highest bidder.
No longer can you assume a God-given right to drink from a mountain spring, but instead you will have to pay a toll to drink from Enron Springs, Monsanto Wells or receive tap water from Bechtel Water Works. Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 percent more than the amount of water that is currently available.
Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are trying to monopolize water supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel, Enron and other global multinationals are seeking control of world water systems and supplies.
The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. This policy is causing great distress in many Third World countries, which fear that their citizens will not be able to afford for-profit water.
Last year in a little known case of high scale international water marketing, a supertanker was reported to have filled up with water from Lake Erie and after paying the Canadian Government they shipped the water to Southeast Asia.
More details:
Special Report 6/99, The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the World's Water Supply by Maude Barlow
In These Times, Water Fallout:
Bolivians Battle Globalization 5/15/00
byJim Shultz
Canadian Dimension, 2/2000, Monsanto's Billion-Dollar Water Monopoly Plans
http://www.purefood.org/Monsanto/waterfish.cfm
San Francisco Bay Guardian, 5/31/00, Trouble on Tap, by Daniel Zoll
http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/35/bech2.html
3/22/01
11:49:11 AM
I just discovered this fantastic web site, and I wanted to let you all know about it.
It's called "A-Infos Radio Project," at http://www.radio4all.net, and contains radio programs from all around the world on many progressive topics. I don't know about you, but I often miss programs like TUC Radio, Alternative Radio, WINGS, This Way Out, etc. because of their program schedule on local stations. Well, you can find at least some of their programming on line, plus many others that we don't get locally, such as Renewing The Anarchist Tradition, ResistenzRadio from Germany (Switzerland?); Thin Air from community radio stations across the Rocky Mountains, Labor Express, Earth First! Radio, The Weekly Freak Show, Radio Active Productions, People's Tribune Radio, Unwelcome Guests, and numerous others.
You can listen online, or you can download the entire show for personal use or to re-broadcast it through local community radio channels. And you can upload programming to share on the website! What a great way to get around the mainstream media ban on truth talk! This is a tremendous resource for global liberty and social justice.
Hope you will check it out and enjoy it!
Lawrence
Check out also the Field Guide to the FTAA protest at
http://www.tao.ca/~cobp/guess-what.html
3/22/01
11:45:31 AM
Weaving a Web of Solidarity
A feminist action against globalisation
Summit of the Americas on the FTAA Quebec City, April 2001
On the weekend of April 20-22, leaders of thirty four countries will come to Quebec to tie a new strand in the web of corporate globalisation: the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the regional accord that will expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the hemisphere.
If they ignore our voices and continue their deliberations, the cries of women will haunt them and undo all their plans. Though they erect a fence to stop us, we will twine our web through its mesh to be the visible symbol of the power of women, of the revolution we weave. When they try to wall us out of their meetings, they will only wall themselves in. We claim all of the world beyond their wall.
We ask our brothers to support us, to honor our women's space so that we who have so often been invisible can stand forth and be seen. We ask you to support us by looking honestly at the ways that, even within our own movements, women are ignored, suppressed, or discounted. And when you support us in this action, where we stand together as women, it will spark actions where we fight side by side. For we know that you too, are weavers of this web.
We ask the ancestors to stand with us. For the web of life links the living and the dead. We ask the generations of the future to stand with us, for we fight for the world you will inherit. We ask the spirits of the earth to support us and be our ground, for we fight for the continuance of life. We are invincible, for life itself weaves with us.
AN INVITATION TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO
Form an affinity group
An affinity group is a group of 10-20 people with whom you have "affinity", that is, a common bond (family, friends, common issue, work colleagues, etc.), that meets regularly to discuss common issues and to act. Choose one or two members to represent your group at the Council of representatives. The Council of representatives will "meet" in virtual space until the week before the Summit of the Americas, at which point meetings will take place in Quebec. The Council of representatives meetings will be the forum to decide on strategy for the action. Keep your eye on the CMAQ (Quebec Centre for Independent Media) website (www.cmaq.net) for a Women's web of solidarity action link. Initiate (or continue), in your affinity group, a dialogue on the impacts of globalisation on women in your home area.
Women around the world bear the brunt of globalisation - our voices together will allow us to add to the feminist analysis of globalisation, and to strengthen our cause. Weave your part of the web of solidarity- Take what comes out of your dialogue on women and globalisation, and, as a group, weave a section of the web of solidarity to represent your consensus. Use your imagination- use yarn, materials, photos, newspaper clippings. The sky is the limit.
Add your section of the web to the web of solidarity in Quebec City in April 2001
Here are some suggestions on the many ways to join your section of the web to the larger web of solidarity:
* Come as an affinity group to Quebec City in April 2001, to participate in the collective weaving of the web of solidarity.
A fence is being erected around the buildings where the Summit is being held in order to keep protesters out - residents inside the perimeter are required to have identity cards in order to gain access to their own homes during the Summit. This fence symbolises, for us, the anti-democratic process of the FTAA - we want to reclaim that fence, that space. Those wanting to weave (literally or symbolically and non-violently) their parts of the web into the fence are invited to do so on the 19th of April (the day preceding the opening of the meeting). Affinity groups not wanting to approach the fence are invited to plan other kinds of actions using the web parts (blocking an intersection to catch Summit negotiators in the web, or decorating a park with parts of the web, etc.). Creativity and imagination are key! The sky is the limit!
* Send your section of the web to the address below and the women present in Quebec will ensure that your section is woven into the larger web.
* Send a photograph of your section of the web to the address below, and the women present in Quebec will enlarge it and add it to the larger web.
* Get together with other affinity groups in your area and weave your sections together closer to your home.
Québec contact information:
E-mail address: toile_femme@moncourrier.com
Mailing address: Toile femme Québec 2001,
C.P. 70021, Québec,
Québec (Canada) G1R 6B1
Sincerely,
Carol Brouillet
http://www.communitycurrency.org
3/22/01
11:42:21 AM
PROTEST THE FTAA
World leaders will gather in Quebec City in April to rubberstamp a new trade agreement. This NAFTA like agreement was cooked up by corporations and the puppet politicians they dangle on the end of strings. It will adversely affect the lives of millions of people in the Western Hemisphere. The agreement disregards human rights. It is undemocratic and will reduce governments' ability to act on behalf of the people and the environment. A strong message must be sent to Canadian MPs from Canadians that the FTAA is unacceptable.
The Canadian government is working hard to shut out protest. Protesters in Quebec City will be met by the Canadian army and a concrete and barbed wire fence. Anyone who was in Windsor last June saw this disgusting display of force. This is what a police state looks like. The media will do it’s best to distort the proceedings by focusing on violence and not the issues.
WHAT TO DO?
For people not going to Quebec City, WAG (WINDSORites AGAINST corporate GLOBALIZATION) is organizing a nationwide protest against the FTAA. We want your help to send a message to every politician in their home riding. We are looking for individuals or groups to organize an action in coordination with others across the country to make sure every member of Parliament understands that Canadians are opposed to the FTAA.
This invitation to join is being distributed through civil societies, grassroots organizations and student and labour groups. To initiate or join an action happening in your riding contact WAG at FTACTION@mnsi.net WAG's intention is to send a clear message to Canadian MPs that FTAA is unacceptable and must be rejected.
JOIN US IN SENDING THE MESSAGE
Douglas Hayes Windsor area Council of Canadians
Montreal Gazette
Anti-summit activists will pay minister a visit
Anti-free-trade activists say they have lost patience after a year of trying to meet Pierre Pettigrew, federal minister of international trade. So they're going calling on him at his Ottawa office. His visitors will be from Peaceful Convergence Q-2001, an umbrella group of about 30 religious, environmental and women's groups, student associations and unions. 'Citizens' Search' The group announced yesterday it plans a peaceful blockade of Pettigrew's office and intends to make a non-violent "citizens' search" for documents about the forthcoming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
The group gave Pettigrew an ultimatum last March to publish all documents on the summit. They also wanted to meet him. Pettigrew, citing the planned involvement of Convergence Q-2001 activists in civil-disobedience actions, refused. Tomorrow the deadline of the ultimatum expires and the government hasn't published any documents.
Philippe Duhamel, president of SalAMI, an anti-free-trade group, said they will try to hand in a petition calling for publication of the documents and a group "of people specially trained in non-violent methods of civil disobedience" will try to get into the building for the symbolic search. "Only a handful of people have seen these documents, not even the MPs who are supposed vote on them," said Regine Laurent, a representative of the Quebec Federation of Nurses. However, the documents have been sent to several powerful business groups in the United States, she said.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/
3/22/01
11:27:07 AM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
MAD SHEEP SEIZED IN VERMONT
MONTPELIER, Vermont, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - A flock of sheep infected with a condition closely related to mad cow disease has been confiscated from a Vermont farm by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-01.html
WATER, POWER SHORTAGES THREATEN NORTHWEST SALMON
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - An ongoing drought in the Pacific Northwest, coupled with severe energy shortages in California, is forcing federal regulators to make tough decisions about whether to use scarce water to generate power or aid endangered fish. But a coalition of fishing and conservation groups say that is an artificial choice, and offer a plan they say would provide enough water for all users.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-06.html
SCIENTISTS DRILL PRESIDENT BUSH ON ARCTIC REFUGE
WASHINGTON, DC, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - Nearly 500 distinguished U.S. and Canadian scientists have sent President George W. Bush a lesson in the environmental consequences of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-02.html
WORLD URGED TO REMEMBER MOST PRECIOUS LIQUID ASSET
GENEVA, Switzerland, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - Under international human rights law, water is implicitly and explicitly protected as a human right, yet one sixth of the world's 6.1 billion people lack access to improved sources of water. That fact forms the backdrop to "Water and Health," the broad but apt theme for World Water Day, organized by the Geneva based World Health Organization (WHO) and marked tomorrow by events across the globe.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-11.html
SCIENTISTS OPEN NEW WINDOW ON SOUTHERN FISHERIES
SOUTH GEORGIA, South Atlantic, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - The exploitation of South Atlantic fish species will be better understood thanks to a British Antarctic Survey research station opening tomorrow on South Georgia Island.
For full text and graphics, visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-10.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MARCH 21, 2001
Petroleum Refiners Agree to Slash Pollution Emissions
New Hard Rock Mining Rules May Be Discarded
Congress Gets First Look at Cleaner Snowmobile
Asian Air Particles Subject of New Study
Forever Wild Campaign Opens in North Carolina
Right Whale Found Dead - Second This Year
New York Awards $84.5 Million for Clean Water
Easter Egg Hunts Start Early in Michigan
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-21-09.html
3/22/01
11:23:38 AM
Aloha
Aprill 22nd 2001, the Maui Earth Day Hemp Fest goes off in Kahalui. I'm on the council for sponsors and we are spreading the word that this will be a unique event on this Pacific isle that is presently a state of the USA. The governor of the state help pass a hemp bill and a medical marijuana bill this last year. The state is also going through sovereignty issues as the 1st state to seceed from the USA legally in the next 10 years.
www.freehawaii.org
The present moment a collective of individuals are producing a conscious event in which will be free to the public and is focusing on inviting many organizations, companies etc focused on self sustainability in the eco conscious product and technolgy world. Hawaii is 2000 miles from the mainland of the USA and a lot of the resources are brought in from the outside world which includes, oil, gas, tourist, building supplies, plastics and food. Hawaii was once a sovereign nation recognized by the international world until an 1893 overthrow of the legitimate