Please scroll to the bottom of this page for UPDATES.
WWF & Earth Day
http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/
Welcome to Earth Day 2004 Online.
http://earthday.envirolink.org/
Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org/earthday/index.asp
Please note News of the Sierra Club at the end of the News from Canada.
"ENVIRONMENT WEEK 2004 WEBSITES GO LIVE"
OTTAWA, April 22, 2004 - The 2004 Environment Week and Clean Air Day Web sites are now live. These sites feature news about Environment Week and Clean Air Day events and activities across Canada, as well as links to the Commuter Challenge site where individuals and teams can participate in the annual contest. There are also tips on what Canadians can do for the environment, and ideas for children and youth interested in putting together a special project.
Individuals, organizations, communities, government departments and neighbourhood groups across Canada can use the sites to tell others about their plans for Environment Week 2004, to be held this year from May 30 to June 5 and for Clean Air Day on June 2.
As a major activity of Clean Air Day, last year, nearly 50,000 Canadians in 42 communities across Canada participated in the Commuter Challenge. They walked, biked, used transit and arranged carpools as ways of getting to work that reduced the emissions leading to air pollution and climate change.
E-week site: http://www.ec.gc.ca/e-week/index_e.htm
Clean Air Day: http://www.cleanairday.com
Commuter Challenge: http://www.commuterchallenge.net/
One-Tonne Challenge: http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/onetonne/english/
For further information on Canada, please visit: http://www.ec.gc.ca/media_e.htm
"LES SITES DE LA SEMAINE DE L'ENVIRONNEMENT 2004 SONT EN LIGNE"
OTTAWA, le 22 avril 2004 - Les sites de la Semaine de l'environnement 2004 sont désormais en ligne. Ces sites offrent des renseignements sur les activités et les événements marquant la Semaine de l'environnement et la Journée de l'air pur partout au Canada. Ils offrent aussi des hyperliens vers le site du Défi transport dans le cadre duquel des personnes et des équipes peuvent participer au concours annuel. Des trucs et des astuces pour aider l'environnement sont aussi offerts, ainsi que des idées pour les enfants et les jeunes intéressés à réaliser un projet spécial.
Individus, organismes, collectivités, ministères et groupes communautaires peuvent utiliser les sites à l'échelle du Canada pour faire connaître ce qu'ils préparent pour la Semaine de l'environnement (30 mai - 5 juin) et pour la Journée de l'air pur qui aura lieu le 2 juin.
L'année dernière, dans le cadre de la Journée de l'air pur, près de 50 000 Canadiens et Canadiennes dans 42 collectivités du pays ont participé au Défi transport. Ils ont marché, pris leur vélo ou les transports en commun, organisé du covoiturage pour se rendre au travail et ont ainsi réduit les émissions contribuant à la pollution atmosphérique et aux changements climatiques.
Site de la Semaine de l'environnement:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/e-week/index_f.htm
Journée de l'air pur: http://www.journeedelairpur.com/html/accueil.php
Défi transport: http://www.defitransport.net/
Défi d'une tonne: http://www.changementsclimatiques.gc.ca/onetonne/français
Pour plus d'information, sur le Canada, consultez: http://www.ec.gc.ca/media_f.htm
PLEASE READ
GROUNDSWELL SIERRA CANDIDATES WIN BY HUGE MARGIN;
SIERRA CLUB BOARD TAKEOVER AVERTED
The results of today's Sierra Club elections are a major victory for grassroots democracy. In a turnout unrivalled in the Club's 112-year history and by a large margin, Sierra Club members rejected a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups and elected the five candidates for the Board of Directors endorsed by Groundswell Sierra.
The winners announced today and their vote totals are:
Lisa Renstrom 141,000
Jan O'Connell 132,000
Nick Aumen 123,000
Sanjay Rachod 123,000
Dave Karpf 110,000
Groundswell Sierra, a diverse group of Sierra Club volunteers, organized and implemented an intense person-to-person, member-to-member campaign using phone, e-mail and mail to spread the word about the attempted takeover by groups who wanted to force the Sierra Club to adopt an anti-immigration agenda.
Groundswell Sierra's get-out-the-vote effort involved hundreds of volunteers in chapters and groups across America and contributed significantly to the 171,000 vote total -- nearly triple the prior record.
"This was a hotly debated and vigorously contested election. All sides got their views out. The Club itself spent incredible energy, time and care
to ensure it was a fair election. Our members clearly understood what was at stake, and they said "no"! We do not want to turn our organization over to
people who want to restrict immigration. Members do not want the Sierra Club's good name, reputation, and assets hijacked by outside immigration groups,"
said former Sierra Club president and Groundswell Sierra leader Larry Downing.
Nathan Wyeth, a Sierra Student Coalition and Groundswell Sierra leader added, "Our members said resoundingly that they want Directors who know the Club best and who've put in countless hours volunteering at all levels of the Club. Voters rejected those candidates with little or no experience who thought that by paying $35 to join, they could take control and impose their own agendas."
"We're really proud of the way Sierra Club members came through and participated in this election. We've been diverted, but it's clear from this vote that Sierra Club members want their organization to get back to the Sierra Club's number one priority -- stopping the Bush administration's assault on the environment," said Groundswell campaign manager Clayton Daughenbaugh.
Robbie Cox, a current member of the Board of Directors and Groundswell Sierra leader concluded, "We welcome the opportunity next year to finally put the immigration dispute behind us --our members spoke clearly this year, and they will again next year when there is an anti-immigration initative planned for the ballot. The Sierra Club already has a mission, and it's not tearing down the Statue of Liberty."
Please also see:
U.S.: Proposed Laws Would Lead to Abuse of Immigrants
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/21/usdom8476.htm
UPDATES
Marking Earth Day Inc.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/opinion/22JOHN.html?ex=1083211200&en=ce6d9cda2280d2ba&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
U.S.: Earth Day Report Documents Local Impacts Of Bush Administration Environmental Policies On States Across The Country
WASHINGTON, DC—America's environment faces a long list of challenges because of the Bush administration's environmental policies, according to a new Earth Day report released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The report — "America's Environment at Risk" — details local impacts of recent decisions at the federal level to weaken environmental protections.
http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=13026&id3=USPIRG&
"Our message for this Earth Day is clear—the Bush administration continues to allow big corporations to weaken our environmental laws so they can pollute our air and poison our water, cut down our national forests and make taxpayers, rather than polluters, pay to clean up toxic wastes," said U.S. PIRG Executive Director Gene Karpinski.
U.S. PIRG's report highlights Bush administration policies that have the greatest local impacts on the environment and public health. Specifically:
- More than half of the population lives in areas where the air is unhealthy to breathe. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued two rules that eliminate the primary enforcement mechanism for cutting soot and smog pollution from the nation's dirtiest power plants. This will cause more smoggy days, more asthma attacks, and more acid rain.
- Forty-three states now have fish consumption advisories in effect because of mercury pollution in local waterways. While EPA and the Food and Drug Administration warned women and children just weeks ago to limit their consumption of tuna because of mercury contamination, EPA has proposed a new plan to weaken and delay efforts to clean up mercury emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants.
- More than 2.5 million people have submitted comments to the Forest Service about the widely popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule, enacted in 2001 to protect 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from most commercial logging and road-building. Instead of protecting these wild places, the Forest Service has failed to implement the Roadless Rule and removed protections for the Tongass National Forest.
- More than 40 percent of U.S. waterways are too polluted for safe fishing or swimming. The Bush administration instructed EPA and Army Corps of Engineers staff to stop using the Clean Water Act to protect so-called "isolated" waterways, allowing polluters to dump more toxic chemicals into streams and developers to drain and fill more wetlands. The administration also has proposed allowing wastewater treatment facilities to dump inadequately treated sewage into our waterways.
- This year, America's taxpayers will pay almost $1.3 billion to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites, more than four times the amount they paid in 1995, the year Superfund's "polluter pays" fees expired. The Bush administration has failed to support reinstating the "polluter pays" fees that help fund cleanup of abandoned toxic waste sites, slowed the pace of cleanups, and forced taxpayers to pick up more of the bill for the cleanups that are happening.
U.S. PIRG also pointed to a number of upcoming decisions that offer the Bush administration the opportunity to protect the environment and public health.
"We need to work together for cleaner air and cleaner water, for a new clean energy future, and for permanent protection for America's special places," said U.S. PIRG Research Director Alison Cassady. "But the Bush administration and their special interest allies are finding ways to cut short the progress that we have made over the past thirty years, by weakening our environmental and public health protections."
Specifically, U.S. PIRG called on the Bush administration to do the following:
- EPA should protect the health of America's children by withdrawing its industry-written proposal to regulate toxic mercury emissions from power plants and proposing a rule that reduces mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008—as EPA itself has said is possible.
- Having already exempted Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule, the Forest Service may propose allowing governors to remove forests in their states from the rule's protections. The Forest Service should instead fully implement the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and restore protections to the Tongass.
- The Bush administration should guarantee all waterways the shelter afforded by the Clean Water Act by rescinding the guidance to EPA and Army Corps staff that lifted protections for "isolated" waterways and revoking the draft guidance that would allow more inadequately treated sewage to enter our rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
"On Earth Day, it's time to send a loud and clear message to the Bush Administration," said Karpinski. "Listen to the public, not the polluters. Let's strengthen our environmental laws, not weaken them."
U.S. PIRG is the national advocacy office for the state Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group http://www.uspirg.org
Additional Information from USPIRG
Our oceans are in crisis. Though the ocean seems limitless and bountiful, our oceans no longer sustain as much life as they used to. Overfishing, habitat destruction, and poor management have all led to this alarming decline in the health of our oceans.
Incredibly, special interests are working to convince the Bush administration to weaken existing ocean protections. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is currently asking the public to comment on how to revise the guidelines that protect essential fish habitat.
Please take a moment to tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect our oceans. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=313&id4=ES
Background
Ocean habitats, which include coral, sea grasses, sandy bottoms and rocks, all provide fish with the food, shelter, spawning areas and nursing grounds that are essential to their continued survival. The various habitats that are essential to fish survival are collectively called essential fish habitat.
Currently, under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, essential fish habitat is protected under federal law. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the agency in charge of federal fisheries, is currently considering making changes to the existing protections.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has requested that the public comment on potential revisions to the essential fish habitat guidelines. This is the second time that the National Marine Fisheries Service has requested comments in several months. Last time, only about 50 groups commented, so your voice will have a real impact.
Please take a moment to tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect our oceans. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this notice to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=313&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
GeneK@uspirg.org
http://www.USPIRG.org
WWF & Earth Day
http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/
Welcome to Earth Day 2004 Online.
http://earthday.envirolink.org/
Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org/earthday/index.asp
Please note News of the Sierra Club at the end of the News from Canada.
"ENVIRONMENT WEEK 2004 WEBSITES GO LIVE"
OTTAWA, April 22, 2004 - The 2004 Environment Week and Clean Air Day Web sites are now live. These sites feature news about Environment Week and Clean Air Day events and activities across Canada, as well as links to the Commuter Challenge site where individuals and teams can participate in the annual contest. There are also tips on what Canadians can do for the environment, and ideas for children and youth interested in putting together a special project.
Individuals, organizations, communities, government departments and neighbourhood groups across Canada can use the sites to tell others about their plans for Environment Week 2004, to be held this year from May 30 to June 5 and for Clean Air Day on June 2.
As a major activity of Clean Air Day, last year, nearly 50,000 Canadians in 42 communities across Canada participated in the Commuter Challenge. They walked, biked, used transit and arranged carpools as ways of getting to work that reduced the emissions leading to air pollution and climate change.
E-week site: http://www.ec.gc.ca/e-week/index_e.htm
Clean Air Day: http://www.cleanairday.com
Commuter Challenge: http://www.commuterchallenge.net/
One-Tonne Challenge: http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/onetonne/english/
For further information on Canada, please visit: http://www.ec.gc.ca/media_e.htm
"LES SITES DE LA SEMAINE DE L'ENVIRONNEMENT 2004 SONT EN LIGNE"
OTTAWA, le 22 avril 2004 - Les sites de la Semaine de l'environnement 2004 sont désormais en ligne. Ces sites offrent des renseignements sur les activités et les événements marquant la Semaine de l'environnement et la Journée de l'air pur partout au Canada. Ils offrent aussi des hyperliens vers le site du Défi transport dans le cadre duquel des personnes et des équipes peuvent participer au concours annuel. Des trucs et des astuces pour aider l'environnement sont aussi offerts, ainsi que des idées pour les enfants et les jeunes intéressés à réaliser un projet spécial.
Individus, organismes, collectivités, ministères et groupes communautaires peuvent utiliser les sites à l'échelle du Canada pour faire connaître ce qu'ils préparent pour la Semaine de l'environnement (30 mai - 5 juin) et pour la Journée de l'air pur qui aura lieu le 2 juin.
L'année dernière, dans le cadre de la Journée de l'air pur, près de 50 000 Canadiens et Canadiennes dans 42 collectivités du pays ont participé au Défi transport. Ils ont marché, pris leur vélo ou les transports en commun, organisé du covoiturage pour se rendre au travail et ont ainsi réduit les émissions contribuant à la pollution atmosphérique et aux changements climatiques.
Site de la Semaine de l'environnement:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/e-week/index_f.htm
Journée de l'air pur: http://www.journeedelairpur.com/html/accueil.php
Défi transport: http://www.defitransport.net/
Défi d'une tonne: http://www.changementsclimatiques.gc.ca/onetonne/français
Pour plus d'information, sur le Canada, consultez: http://www.ec.gc.ca/media_f.htm
PLEASE READ
GROUNDSWELL SIERRA CANDIDATES WIN BY HUGE MARGIN;
SIERRA CLUB BOARD TAKEOVER AVERTED
The results of today's Sierra Club elections are a major victory for grassroots democracy. In a turnout unrivalled in the Club's 112-year history and by a large margin, Sierra Club members rejected a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups and elected the five candidates for the Board of Directors endorsed by Groundswell Sierra.
The winners announced today and their vote totals are:
Lisa Renstrom 141,000
Jan O'Connell 132,000
Nick Aumen 123,000
Sanjay Rachod 123,000
Dave Karpf 110,000
Groundswell Sierra, a diverse group of Sierra Club volunteers, organized and implemented an intense person-to-person, member-to-member campaign using phone, e-mail and mail to spread the word about the attempted takeover by groups who wanted to force the Sierra Club to adopt an anti-immigration agenda.
Groundswell Sierra's get-out-the-vote effort involved hundreds of volunteers in chapters and groups across America and contributed significantly to the 171,000 vote total -- nearly triple the prior record.
"This was a hotly debated and vigorously contested election. All sides got their views out. The Club itself spent incredible energy, time and care
to ensure it was a fair election. Our members clearly understood what was at stake, and they said "no"! We do not want to turn our organization over to
people who want to restrict immigration. Members do not want the Sierra Club's good name, reputation, and assets hijacked by outside immigration groups,"
said former Sierra Club president and Groundswell Sierra leader Larry Downing.
Nathan Wyeth, a Sierra Student Coalition and Groundswell Sierra leader added, "Our members said resoundingly that they want Directors who know the Club best and who've put in countless hours volunteering at all levels of the Club. Voters rejected those candidates with little or no experience who thought that by paying $35 to join, they could take control and impose their own agendas."
"We're really proud of the way Sierra Club members came through and participated in this election. We've been diverted, but it's clear from this vote that Sierra Club members want their organization to get back to the Sierra Club's number one priority -- stopping the Bush administration's assault on the environment," said Groundswell campaign manager Clayton Daughenbaugh.
Robbie Cox, a current member of the Board of Directors and Groundswell Sierra leader concluded, "We welcome the opportunity next year to finally put the immigration dispute behind us --our members spoke clearly this year, and they will again next year when there is an anti-immigration initative planned for the ballot. The Sierra Club already has a mission, and it's not tearing down the Statue of Liberty."
Please also see:
U.S.: Proposed Laws Would Lead to Abuse of Immigrants
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/21/usdom8476.htm
UPDATES
Marking Earth Day Inc.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/opinion/22JOHN.html?ex=1083211200&en=ce6d9cda2280d2ba&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
U.S.: Earth Day Report Documents Local Impacts Of Bush Administration Environmental Policies On States Across The Country
WASHINGTON, DC—America's environment faces a long list of challenges because of the Bush administration's environmental policies, according to a new Earth Day report released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The report — "America's Environment at Risk" — details local impacts of recent decisions at the federal level to weaken environmental protections.
http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=13026&id3=USPIRG&
"Our message for this Earth Day is clear—the Bush administration continues to allow big corporations to weaken our environmental laws so they can pollute our air and poison our water, cut down our national forests and make taxpayers, rather than polluters, pay to clean up toxic wastes," said U.S. PIRG Executive Director Gene Karpinski.
U.S. PIRG's report highlights Bush administration policies that have the greatest local impacts on the environment and public health. Specifically:
- More than half of the population lives in areas where the air is unhealthy to breathe. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued two rules that eliminate the primary enforcement mechanism for cutting soot and smog pollution from the nation's dirtiest power plants. This will cause more smoggy days, more asthma attacks, and more acid rain.
- Forty-three states now have fish consumption advisories in effect because of mercury pollution in local waterways. While EPA and the Food and Drug Administration warned women and children just weeks ago to limit their consumption of tuna because of mercury contamination, EPA has proposed a new plan to weaken and delay efforts to clean up mercury emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants.
- More than 2.5 million people have submitted comments to the Forest Service about the widely popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule, enacted in 2001 to protect 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from most commercial logging and road-building. Instead of protecting these wild places, the Forest Service has failed to implement the Roadless Rule and removed protections for the Tongass National Forest.
- More than 40 percent of U.S. waterways are too polluted for safe fishing or swimming. The Bush administration instructed EPA and Army Corps of Engineers staff to stop using the Clean Water Act to protect so-called "isolated" waterways, allowing polluters to dump more toxic chemicals into streams and developers to drain and fill more wetlands. The administration also has proposed allowing wastewater treatment facilities to dump inadequately treated sewage into our waterways.
- This year, America's taxpayers will pay almost $1.3 billion to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites, more than four times the amount they paid in 1995, the year Superfund's "polluter pays" fees expired. The Bush administration has failed to support reinstating the "polluter pays" fees that help fund cleanup of abandoned toxic waste sites, slowed the pace of cleanups, and forced taxpayers to pick up more of the bill for the cleanups that are happening.
U.S. PIRG also pointed to a number of upcoming decisions that offer the Bush administration the opportunity to protect the environment and public health.
"We need to work together for cleaner air and cleaner water, for a new clean energy future, and for permanent protection for America's special places," said U.S. PIRG Research Director Alison Cassady. "But the Bush administration and their special interest allies are finding ways to cut short the progress that we have made over the past thirty years, by weakening our environmental and public health protections."
Specifically, U.S. PIRG called on the Bush administration to do the following:
- EPA should protect the health of America's children by withdrawing its industry-written proposal to regulate toxic mercury emissions from power plants and proposing a rule that reduces mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008—as EPA itself has said is possible.
- Having already exempted Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule, the Forest Service may propose allowing governors to remove forests in their states from the rule's protections. The Forest Service should instead fully implement the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and restore protections to the Tongass.
- The Bush administration should guarantee all waterways the shelter afforded by the Clean Water Act by rescinding the guidance to EPA and Army Corps staff that lifted protections for "isolated" waterways and revoking the draft guidance that would allow more inadequately treated sewage to enter our rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
"On Earth Day, it's time to send a loud and clear message to the Bush Administration," said Karpinski. "Listen to the public, not the polluters. Let's strengthen our environmental laws, not weaken them."
U.S. PIRG is the national advocacy office for the state Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group http://www.uspirg.org
Additional Information from USPIRG
Our oceans are in crisis. Though the ocean seems limitless and bountiful, our oceans no longer sustain as much life as they used to. Overfishing, habitat destruction, and poor management have all led to this alarming decline in the health of our oceans.
Incredibly, special interests are working to convince the Bush administration to weaken existing ocean protections. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is currently asking the public to comment on how to revise the guidelines that protect essential fish habitat.
Please take a moment to tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect our oceans. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=313&id4=ES
Background
Ocean habitats, which include coral, sea grasses, sandy bottoms and rocks, all provide fish with the food, shelter, spawning areas and nursing grounds that are essential to their continued survival. The various habitats that are essential to fish survival are collectively called essential fish habitat.
Currently, under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, essential fish habitat is protected under federal law. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the agency in charge of federal fisheries, is currently considering making changes to the existing protections.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has requested that the public comment on potential revisions to the essential fish habitat guidelines. This is the second time that the National Marine Fisheries Service has requested comments in several months. Last time, only about 50 groups commented, so your voice will have a real impact.
Please take a moment to tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect our oceans. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this notice to them.
To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=313&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
GeneK@uspirg.org
http://www.USPIRG.org