Why won't they LEAVE THE ARCTIC ALONE!?!

Your action is needed immediately to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling. We have just learned that the U.S. Senate is likely to vote next Wednesday on a budget resolution that could doom the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to massive oil development and destruction.
That vote is now too close to call. Congressional leaders are planning to try to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development by sneaking a measure into the upcoming budget.

President Bush knows full well that the vast majority of Americans oppose 
drilling in the Arctic Refuge. That's why he's working with his pro-oil allies 
in the Senate to hide their assault on the Arctic Refuge in the massive budget 
bill. This cynical ploy to bypass the democratic process of public scrutiny and 
debate can only work if they succeed in keeping the American people in the 
dark.

Both the Senate and the House will be voting on the budget next week, so please take one minute right now to send your Senators and Representative a message, urging them to vote against ANY budget measure that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Click on the link below to take action now!

SaveArcticRefuge.org

Drilling in the Refuge is not a path to America's energy independence or lower prices at the pump. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the Refuge has less than a single year's supply of oil that would not reach the market for at least 10 years. Meanwhile, the harm to wildlife and to our greatest wildlife refuge would be irreparable. Please take action now to save this national treasure.  The NRDC is also seeking money immediately to begin printing/airing ads in key battleground states like Hawaii & Louisiana. You can aid their efforts by clicking here.  PLEASE DO SOMETHING NOW!!

EPA WILL USE POOR KIDS AS GUINEA PIGS IN NEW STUDY ON PESTICIDES

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Bush appointees, plans to launch a new study in which participating low income families will have their children exposed to toxic pesticides over the course of two years. For taking part in these studies, each family will receive $970, a free video camera, a T-shirt, and a framed certificate of appreciation. In October, the EPA received $2 million to do the study from the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry front group that includes members such as Dow, Exxon, and Monsanto. The EPA's Linda Sheldon says the study is vital, because so little is known about how small children's bodies absorb harmful chemicals. As of press time, none of the EPA's employees are offering to have their own children take part in this research project. The Organic Consumers Association is calling on the nation's citizens to demand the EPA forgo this project before its scheduled launch in early 2005. Sign petition by clicking here and forward this email to family and friends... http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm

White House favoring Halliburton over clean water

OK, you might want to sit down, because we've got a real shocker 
here: The Bush administration, headed by two former oil executives, 
one of whom was the CEO of Halliburton, from which he still receives 
payments, may be pulling strings to help shield the company against 
environmental regulation. Imagine how important Halliburton must be to old Georgie boy to try and pull this during an election.  0nThe issue in question is "hydraulic fracturing," a relatively new technique for extracting oil and gas 
that generates about a fifth of Halliburton's energy-related revenue 
-- $1.5 billion a year. Since a group of Alabamans sued in 1995, 
saying the practice fouled their drinking water and seeking to have 
hydraulic fracturing regulated under federal drinking-water law, 
Halliburton has lobbied aggressively to avoid such regulation. The 
U.S. EPA recently finished a study of the practice, concluding that 
it is benign, but agency insiders have heaped scorn on the report, 
saying it was produced by a highly biased panel containing at least 
one Halliburton employee. One 30-year EPA veteran last week 
submitted a statement to Congress and the EPA inspector general 
seeking whistle-blower protection and calling the report 
"scientifically unsound and contrary to the purposes of the law."

Differences between Kerry & Bush on Environment ALONE Make Voting for Kerry Imperative

We just don't understand how the race for President can be so close...and according to polls Bush gains ground every day.  George Bush has lied to us, and as a result THOUSANDS of people have died in his harebrained folly in Iraq.  He continues to lie to us about the situation there, painting a rosy picture while even conservative analysts are much more grim in their prognostications.   He plays to our fear in an effort to divide us and get us all to be suspicious of each other in an effort to take away our right, and ultimately even our desire, to oppose what's being done; labeling those who disagree as "unpatriotic" or worse!  He's laid waste to the public education system with unfunded mandates under the guise of being the "education president."

And yet, for all the bad he's done in so many areas, his record on the environment alone should be enough to have anyone reaching for the Kerry lever in November.  The Bush administration has rolled back presidential orders establishing wilderness areas so that oil & gas could be drilled for in pristine wilderness areas; not just the Artic...but all over the country.  He's actually the first president since Teddy Roosevelt to have LOST protected area!  More than 60 million acres of national forests are now at risk to destructive logging, mining, and drilling. He's rolled back clean air and clean water statutes that have existed for almost 40 years saying that industries can "police themselves."   Nuclear waste storage in Yucca flats, substantial investment in fossil fuels research rather than alternative fuel research...the list goes on and on.  

Perhaps most telling is this excerpt from the journal NATURE, which asked each candidate to respond to 15 questions about Science & Nature.  The answers were written out so they are not off the cuff statements which can be denied later.  They are well thought out...perhaps too well in the Bush case.  Their responses on Global Warming as an issue: Bush says, "In 2001, I asked the National Academy of Sciences to provide the most up-to-date information about the science of climate change. It found that considerable uncertainty remains about the effect of natural fluctuations on climate and the future impacts climate change will have on our natural environment." This is, at best, misleading. The NAS reported overwhelming consensus that humans are responsible for climate change and that it is a problem worth worrying about. Or, as Kerry put it, "The scientific evidence is clear that global warming is already happening and rising levels of global warming pollution are making the problem worse."  We just do not understand how any reasonable person could consider voting for Bush again...hasn't he done enough?

Bush/Cheney Campaign Supports Sweatshops & Forced Labor 

Vote with your dollars AND your Vote

We talk a lot about sweatshops, fair trade & labor, etc.  Usually we say "Vote with your dollars to end sweatshops."  That is true...asking where and under what conditions products are made, not buying products with questionable origins and telling the store why you're not buying is one way to make a difference on sweatshops.   Boycotting habitual offenders such as Wal-Mart (2003 "Sweatshop Retailer of the Year!!) is another.  That's voting with your dollars and you can learn a LOT more about it from Coop America's Sweatshop website.  

However, sometimes your actual vote can count too!  According to Newsday, the Bush/Cheney campaign has had made for their campaign MILLIONS of dollars worth of clothing imported from Burma with their campaign logo proudly displayed.  Workers in Burma earn as little as seven cents an hour, 56 cents a day and $3.23 a week. Any worker in Burma daring to ask for her most fundamental rights would be imprisoned. The garment workers in Burma were paid approximately four cents for each $49.95 Bush / Cheney fleece pullover they sewed.  Worse, these shirts arrived here 10 days before trade with Burma was BANNED, yet millions of dollars more in shirts came into Vancouver Canada AFTER the ban went into effect.

All of this shameless support of what amounts to Slave Labor overseas just compounds the horrendous record  this administration has as far as Labor and jobs...especially textiles!  Since President Bush came into office in January 2001, the U.S. has lost 337,000 textile and apparel jobs. The U.S. had a $70 billion textile and apparel trade deficit last year, as imports shot up 10.3 percent.  Newsday has the full story here!  But now is the time to get angry, spread the word, and VOTE to end oppression and Sweatshops.

The Energy Industry wants to buy your children's health

Under energy industry pressure, President Bush’s EPA plans to defer controls on mercury emissions by power plants for at least a decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 4.9 million women of childbearing age in the U.S. -- that's 8 percent -- have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood. The people hit hardest will be new-born infants -- every year over 630,000 infants are born with levels of mercury in their blood so high they can cause brain damage.

From a public health standpoint, the EPA's new policy is a disaster. But for Bush's energy industry allies, who are responsible for most mercury pollution, it's yet another bonanza. Increased pollution levels will allow these companies to save millions, while their top managers keep writing big campaign checks to support George W. Bush -- it's a sick cycle.

On January 30th, the EPA announced its intention to weaken its own earlier proposal that would have required a 90 percent reduction in mercury pollution by power plants by 2008. The new proposal doesn't force every power plant to limit mercury pollution, leaving many communities vulnerable. It would also delay implementation of even these weaker requirements until 2018, leaving a whole new generation of kids needlessly at risk.  We have just a few weeks to get public comments to the EPA on this plan to defer mercury controls. It's time to tell the EPA and the White House that our kids come first.  Both the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF and Move On have sites where you can make your voice heard.  Do it NOW!

It's Baaaaaack and I guess It's just gonna keep coming back!

One More Time: Oppose Disastrous Energy Bill 
The energy bill is back! This disastrous bill, laden with tax
breaks for special interests and polluters, gives short shrift
to energy conservation and efficiency in favor of more oil
dependence, air pollution and global warming. In late November,
in a temporary victory for the environment, the Senate failed to
force through a vote on this bad bill. But now the Senate
leadership is trying to push it through once again now that
Congress is back for the new year. Here we go again. Send a
message today letting your senators know that you still want
them to reject this bill and to push for a new energy bill that
brings us to a clean, energy efficient future.
Click here to take action NOW!

Help farmers to STOP Sprawl & help the environment

Here in the Berkshires, if you open your window or door and listen carefully, you can almost hear Greed consuming farmland and producing "development" as its by-product!  Progress is one thing...if it is realized in cogent, thoughtful fashion.  However, progress in the form of ugly, blighting sprawl is much more likely.  You can help farmers help the environment and fight sprawl. Urge your senators to support legislation that makes federal funding available to farmers that conserve and protect their land.  This is money they've already been promised which is in danger of being diverted to cover "administrative costs", and we all know what that means!  Click here to learn more and help now.

NRDC Lawsuit puts Sonar System on Hold...Whales get a Reprieve!

A federal court has just handed down its decision in the NRDC case against the U.S. Navy. In a resounding victory for whales and other marine mammals, the court ruled that it will bar the Navy from deploying its high-intensity LFA sonar system across most of the world's oceans.  Read more here.

Navy Sonar System Threatens Whales & Dolphins

The Bush administration has given the Navy the green light to use Low Frequency (LFA) Active Sonar technology despite outcry by people all over the world.  This sonar is SO incredibly loud that it deafens and even kills marine mammals.  If the piercing sound doesn't kill them, they become deaf, disoriented and end up beaching themselves in large numbers.  This technology will further endanger species already on the endangered species list.  To find out a lot more about it, and how you can help, CLICK HERE.

You won't believe this..."Low-Impact" Nuclear Weapons

There are four words that NEVER belong together in a sentence, and yet...!  You guessed it!!  We now know that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
And while most nations are trying to control the spread of such weapons globally, the Bush administration is pursuing the invention of even more dangerous portable weapons -- including "usable"
mini-nukes -- that could make arms control impossible.
Our Senators are about to vote on supporting the Administration's request to repeal current law banning the creation of new, low-yield nuclear weapons. "Low-yield" is defined as less than five kilotons -
approximately one-third the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The development of new low-yield weapons will also require nuclear
testing, which hasn’t been done in over a decade. 

Please call now and ask your Senator to oppose lifting the ban on building new nuclear weapons in the Defense Authorization Bill.  Check above to find out who to call.  To read more about this chilling proposal, click here.

Media Monopolies will own "Truth"!

The Federal Communications Commission is planning on authorizing sweeping changes to the American news media. The rule changes could allow your local TV stations, newspaper, radio stations, and cable provider to all be owned by one company. NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox could have the same corporate parent. The resulting concentration of ownership could be deeply destructive to our democracy.  If a single company owns all the outlets for news, then they effectively control & own "the truth."  As good citizens of this country, we can't stand by and let this happen! Click here to ask congress to stop this dangerous deregulation and let's keep what's left of the truth in the hands of the people!

What IS "Organic"?

We all think we know what Organic means: pure, free of synthetic chemicals & pesticides, etc.  US National Organic Standards, implemented in October 2002, require that organic farmers follow strict production standards in order to sell their products as organic. Now those standards are under attack!  

Section 771 of the 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Bill is a one-sentence rider that would undo decades of hard work by allowing livestock producers to label their meat, poultry and dairy products as “organic” even if the animals are fed conventional feed rather than organic feed.  This would open the door to the erosion of "Organic" standards throughout the food industry.  You can help right now.  Click here to find out how.  

WE WIN!  Section 771 was repealed!  Call your congressperson and thank him today!

PLEASE Be Vigilant!

The current administration is CONSTANTLY seeking sneaky ways to get drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge started.  Another effort was just thwarted in Mid-March...but they are already planning to try again.  Please write your senators and congressman and keep reassuring them that this is unthinkable.  See below for all the reasons why.

War HURTS!!

War is probably the most harmful environmental disaster mankind has ever created!  And now we have MOAB, the Mother Of All Bombs, which our leaders seems downright gleeful and giddy about dropping on Iraq.  Imagine the devastation, to innocent people (the vast majority of people in Iraq are UNDER 15 years of age!) and the environment that such a thing would bring.

The majority of Americans are steadfastly AGAINST war in Iraq.  The overwhelming majority of the world is SHOCKED by our leaders' actions.  We must do something!  Go to your local peace vigils.  Call and write your Congresspeople, Senators and the president.  Go to Ramsey Clark's website, votetoimpeach.org and vote to impeach.  Wage peace in everything you do.  Lets try to Stop the Madness!

Ready or not...here it comes!!

We refer to global warming; whether you believe it or not, it's happening...and will continue faster and faster unless we DO something about it.  

We hear people all the time doubting the existence of Global Warming, smart people even whose opinions we'd often respect.  After this Winter in the Northeast, I could almost understand from where they're coming.  But the fact is...the planet in macro is getting warmer each passing decade.  The ice caps melt and the ocean levels rise subtlely but incontrovertibly because we refuse to wean ourselves from the burning of Fossil Fuels and the subsequent creation of greenhouse gases.  The United States is the world's WORST offender!  We must stop!

Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman have joined forces to sponsor a bill addressing this, and they need our help.  The Bush administration wants "voluntary trading" of emissions output which would offer no enforceable limits and actually allow increases in greenhouse gas generation! The McCain/Lieberman bill is strong legislation, with teeth, aimed at halting the destructive effects of Global Warming.  The Environmental Defense Fund is trying to get a petition with a MILLION signatures as co-sponsors of the bill.  Click here to learn a LOT more about the issues, the bill and to sign the petition.  Up to over 100,000 signatures...if you haven't signed yet, sign today.

Clean Air Act Under Attack too!

They never quit!  Who are they?  Our friends in the executive branch of our own government...who else!?! In late November, the Bush Administration announced the largest rollbacks of clean air rules in years. These new regulations will allow huge air pollution increases at power plants and other factories nationwide.  But, you can help stop this!

North Carolina Senator John Edwards will offer an amendment to a federal appropriations bill to stop EPA from implementing these rollbacks to the Clean Air Act. This critical clean air vote might happen very soon. Take action! E-mail your Senators asking them to support the Edwards amendment to block clean air rollbacks. 

To take action, or get more information, visit The National Action Network here 

Clean Water Act to lose MORE teeth!

The Bush Administration is expected to announce a rulemaking in January that could exclude intermittent and ephemeral streams, small tributaries, and wetlands adjacent to those waters from coverage under the Clean Water Act.

Since its passage thirty years ago, the Clean Water Act has granted protections to all waters of the United States. But now the Administration will propose new regulations that could strip Clean Water Act protections from many streams and wetlands across the nation.

This could be potentially devastating to the water most of us actually USE!  Contact your congresspeople, your local officials, check for a local rivers activist group and visit the American Rivers Organization for LOTS more info

New Forestry policy a sham?

Man appointed by President Bush to head the "Wildfire Prevention Program" doesn't believe in Ecosystems and feels extinction is not a bad thing!

Yucca Mountain Nuke Repository vote was APPROVED!

As unbelievable and scary as that fact is...it's true!  However, There's still time to call your representatives and Senators and make a change!  For more info or to get involved CLICK HERE.  This site actually allows you to make a free phone call to YOUR senator's office...and offers talking points too. 

STOP the Attack on the Clean Air Act!

Save the Dolphins!

Register your opinion. Public comments due by April 16!

One of the most successful wildlife conservation victories, dolphin-safe tuna labeling,  is now in danger.  Foreign trade interests want to turn back the clock on U.S. marine mammal protection laws passed 12 years ago.

Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans will soon make a decision that will determine the fate of labeling so IMMEDIATE action is required

1. REGISTER YOUR OPINION BY APRIL 16TH:

Go to http://www.savedolphins.org now to send an e-mail petition to Acting Regional Administrator Rodney R. McInnis of the National Marine Fisheries Service. A copy will go to Secretary Evans. Tell Mr. McInnis and Secretary Evans that you oppose any weakening of the dolphin-safe labeling standard.

2. BECOME A DOLPHIN SPONSOR:

Please go to http://www.defenders.org/adopt/dolphin/ and adopt  a dolphin today with a gift of $25 or more. Your sponsorship donation will help Defenders educate others to this deadly dolphin danger and underwrite our legal fight to keep dolphin protections.

3. TELL YOUR FRIENDS:

It was the passionate public outcry that led to the adoption of the dolphin-safe label in the first place. We must build that movement FOR continuing protection again. Tell your friends,  send them to http://www.savedolphins.org so they can send their messages as well.

It's an OUTRAGE!

President Bush's energy policy is out in total.  Want more nuclear power?  More acid rain?  More global warming?  More oil drilling and subsequent spills in pristine nature preserves?  Want NO thought given to alternatives?!?  Then this one's for YOU!!  Learn more about  the thoughtless "policy" or even read the whole thing here.  To make your voice heard, click here. 

Bush Presidency continues STILL to threaten the Arctic Wildlife Refuge!

We thought it was over, but if you cup your ear and listen very carefully you can still hear the hum of the engines on all the heavy equipment poised just outside the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.  

This is the ONLY remaining piece of Alaska's spectacular northern coast that is still off limits to the oil giants.  Right now it belongs only to you, me and the inhabiting wildlife.  It is the largest den site for pregnant polar bears, the ONLY birthing ground for the porcupine caribou and the LAST home of the 350 remaining shaggy muskoxen...a species that survived the last ice age but would not survive the Bush presidency with its invasion and drilling by the oil companies.

George W. has already promised to open this area for exploration & drilling.  He has some staunch Congressional allies who can't wait to cut the ribbon and clear the way as soon as congress convenes! 

 They MUST be stopped!  

If any oil exists there at all it would not "reduce America's dependency on foreign oil" as W. says it will.  It would generate in total only 1 to 2% of total national oil consumption.  These paltry savings could be realized just as easily through a 5% increase in auto fuel economy standards.  And the oil giants have already proven they can't handle the responsibility of drilling in environmentally sensitive areas.  The Prudhoe bay ecosystem, 60 miles west of the refuge, has already been trashed with 1500 miles of roads & pipelines, 1400 wells and 60 contaminated waste sites!  

PLEASE write the President, your congresspeople & Senators today and urge them to keep the Arctic Wildlife Refuge wild by keeping it OFF LIMITS to Multi-national Oil Conglomerates!  For more information visit the Natural Resources Defense Council. or the Environmental Defense fund.  You can take direct action there too.