E-NEWS
Bush White House Grants Mining on Native LandsDecember 30, 2008Reporting by Roddy Scheer
“We are looking into our options for how to stop this process from moving forward, including legal action,” said Enei Begaye, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition, a Navajo and Hopi citizens’ group. “The permitting process was flawed and clearly rushed through before President Bush leaves office,” he added. The group has vowed to stop Peabody from causing further harm at Black Mesa, which is regarded by Native Americans as sacred land. This recent decision—announced on a Friday evening before a holiday break—is one of several controversial last-minute calls by the Bush administration which don’t bode well for the president’s environmental legacy. While the Obama administration can roll back some of these decisions, its focus may be on more pressing timely issues, such as steadying the U.S. economy. Source: Black Mesa Water Coalition |
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Groups Ask Fed to Replace Photo of Killed WolfDecember 30, 2008Reporting by Roddy Scheer
One of only about 50 Mexican gray wolves in the wild, the so-called “poster wolf”—an alpha female researchers had named Brunhilda—died as a result of stress and overheating only a few weeks after she was trapped and taken into captivity in 2005. Brunhilda was trapped for having left the arbitrary bounds of the Mexican wolf recovery area. Environmentalists contend that her death, as well as the inadvertent deaths of ten other Mexican gray wolves—could have been prevented if the Fish and Wildlife Service had followed its own scientists’ recommendations to overhaul the agency’s wolf reintroduction program. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a responsibility to accurately portray its management of the Mexican gray wolf,” said Michael Robinson of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “The agency’s heavy-handed tactics have resulted in dozens of Mexican gray wolf deaths and a struggling population.” “The Fish and Wildlife Service originally exterminated the gray wolf from the western United States on behalf of the livestock industry, and the Bush administration has led the agency back to its bad old days,” he added. Source: Biological Dversity |
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COMMENTARY: The Everglades’ Critical Turning PointThe historic restoration of the Everglades must get moving nowBy Sara Fain
Sixty-eight species of plants and animals, including the Florida panther, American crocodile, wood stork, snail kite, and Cape Sable seaside sparrow are threatened or endangered with extinction. For years now, the Everglades ecosystem and within in it, the first national park established in the U.S. due to its unique biodiversity, have been on life support. The patient is dying. This well-documented devastation is a result of the federally-mandated Army Corps of Engineers-designed system of 1,400 miles of canals and levees constructed to control flooding and provide water supply for South Florida. The water entering the canal system from Lake Okeechobee, polluted with agricultural runoff and high levels of mercury, is pumped down the peninsula and through ocean outfall pipes along the southeast coast, creating an overabundance of nutrients causing algae blooms smothering offshore coral reefs and seagrass beds. Recreational and commercial fisheries continue to decline because fish and crustaceans cannot breed as successfully in the coastal areas along Florida and Biscayne bays. The Calvary came to the rescue in the form of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which was passed by Congress in 2000. It was a bold step--the most ambitious ecological restoration program ever undertaken in the history of the world! But during the past eight years, there have been many missteps. The good news is that on December 9, 2008 the Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District voted to endorse an historic agreement to purchase 181,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corporation’s land in the Everglades Agricultural Area for restoration. The Everglades Coalition was in enthusiastic favor of this purchase, as a fundamental flaw in the restoration plan was a lack of land for storing and cleaning water to send south into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. Due to the tremendous loss of wetlands within the Everglades ecosystem, the system can no longer hold enough water during the wet season to then slowly deliver it further south during the dry season.
Without the new administration’s backing, broken processes, funding shortfalls, and development pressures will continue to compete with restoration, all while the “Glades” and its inhabitants increasingly decline. A recent report by the National Research Council (NRC), an independent body directed by Congress to review restoration progress, found that, “CERP is bogged down in budgeting, planning, and procedural matters and is making only scant progress toward achieving restoration goals.” Although some projects have begun construction, not one has been completed. Even worse, Congress has not given any funding for construction of CERP projects. On January 8-11, the Everglades Coalition will hold its 24th annual conference in Miami. Hosted by the National Parks Conservation Association, the open-to-the-public conference will bring together leaders, elected officials, community and environmental activists, and the general public to discuss the opportunities and challenges in 2009 and beyond in efforts to restore this great “Wetland of International Importance.” At the conference the hard work yet to be done will become very clear to all in attendance. Sessions will focus on topics such as growth management, political and public partnerships, endangered and invasive species, wildlife habitat, energy policies, and water quality. We urge you to join us at the Hilton Miami Downtown to learn more. In leading the charge, Governor Crist and now the South Florida Water Management District have set a high bar. If their vision for the Everglades is to be successful, the state of Florida needs President-elect Obama and the federal government to sustain their commitment to a strong federal-state partnership. The world is watching to gauge its success, both politically and ecologically. Will the Everglades--an International Biosphere Reserve, Unesco World Heritage Site, ecosystem found nowhere else on the planet, and place visited by people from all over the world, be rescued in time? CONTACTS: Everglades Coalition To have a registration form faxed or mailed to you, contact Pat Carr (954) 942-3113 or patriciacarr@evergladescoalition.org SARA FAIN is national co-chair of the Everglades Coalition and Everglades Restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.
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Three DigitsThe 350 Campaign Has Global Warming’s NumberBy Amanda Peterka
Each wristband bears the number 350, the same as Gardner’s goal. And he wants it all to be done by December 24, 2008, 350 days before the United Nations convention in Copenhagen. The number represents the parts per million (ppm) of carbon emissions that climate scientist Dr. James Hansen says we have to return to in order to sustain life on Earth as we know it. It’s also the name of the umbrella campaign that Gardner’s work falls under—a worldwide network of people and climate change organizations committed to following Hansen’s advice. “The culture of athleticism is imitation and idolizing, and we’re hoping to take that network of people and turn them into folks who are spreading the word about 350,” Gardner says. Gardner, a Nordic skier and environmentalist, is also friends with Bill McKibben, author of the first book on global warming and founder of the larger 350 campaign. McKibben and a crew of recent graduates from Middlebury College in Vermont launched www.350.org earlier this year to make the importance of the number stick. Although there are a few offices scattered throughout the country, the largest in San Francisco with a staff of four, the campaign depends on the ground efforts of people as far-flung as India, Poland, the Maldives and Mongolia. The goal: Pound that number into as many people’s heads as possible before it’s too late.
McKibben began the campaign after the melting of the arctic ice last summer and the success of his previous effort, Step It Up, which mobilized more than 2,000 organizations around the country. The difference with 350 is that it’s on a global scale. To do that, it’s “using this new technology they call the Internet” to connect everybody, says McKibben. The campaign’s website is in 10 languages and has a 90-second wordless video to explain both the science and politics around the number. Middlebury grads in the campaign offices spend most of their time e-mailing, organizing and updating the site’s blog on what actions people are taking across the world. “It’s important that all diverse approaches have a common target. It’s a quick three-digit, go-to symbol that can be translated across different countries,” says Jamie Henn, co-coordinator who works in San Francisco. “The United States is responsible for way more emissions as a whole. It’s up to us to help, but we add an international aspect.”
The invitation asks for the president to commit the U.S. to mandatory reductions in emissions and to help developing countries build sustainable economies. The group is also in the process of choosing a day for mass mobilization around the world. “We hope it represents a climactic moment in the climate movement to show that people around the world are watching the outcome in Copenhagen,” Boeve says. “We need a strong treaty to get us to a safe level. We are ultimately building toward that point.” Getting enough people for that day probably won’t be difficult. 350 has risen faster and gotten more media attention in a shorter time than Step It Up did, McKibben says. It’s probably because the framework is already in place; 350 is just giving everyone a common denominator to rally around. “The good thing about 350 is that because it’s a universal goal, it’s not perceived as doing things in one correct way. It accepts everybody and hopes in whatever way folks are getting the word out that they’re doing it with this number in mind,” Gardner says. “It’s a clearinghouse of good ideas.”
CONTACTS 350 |
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ACTIVISM: Environmental EducationBy Amanda Peterka
The National Teach-in on Global Warming Solutions was founded by Eban Goodstein, professor of economics at Lewis & Clark College. Professors of art, biology and religion incorporate lessons about global warming into their lectures on the same designated day and tailor events to their schools. “It became apparent to me that if my own sense of urgency was at this level, it would be true of my colleagues at other universities,” Goodstein says. Unlike other initiatives, the National Teach-In works with schools, not against them. “When the idea was conceived it was reminiscent of protests during the Vietnam era,” says Kristin Blackler, sustainability analyst at UCSD. “But the teach-in is much more in line with students in higher education today. Students work with the establishment.” Goodstein wants to see 5,000 schools and five million people involved this February, up from 1,900 schools and a million people last year. This time around, he hopes to see a stronger policy focus. And February is an especially ripe time for that aim. “February is the beginning of the first 100 days of the new administration. It’s a critical moment for the planet,” Goodstein says. “If Congress doesn’t pass climate legislation in 2009, it’s pretty much a window that’s closed for the future and for today’s young people.”
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