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EarthWINS Daily 5.4
October 7, 2000
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 22:20:44 -0500
From: EarthWINS Daily <EarthWINS-Daily@earthwins.com>
Contents
1. URGENT ACTION Needed for Burma in US Senate
2. Final Push for Eagle Creek - Please call Gore
3. Demonstration at Lockheed Martin in Eagan, MN part
of International Day of
Protest against the Militarization of Space
4. Corporations Behave As If They Are More Human Than
We Are
5. Ozone Depletion Reaches Record Level
6. Authorities assess damage from oil spill in Peruvian
river
7. Initiative launched to improve worldwide fresh water
supplies
8. CNN Environmental Message Boards
9. Why I'm Voting for Nader
10. Crops for Sustainable Enterprise - Free report
11. A Bear Votes on November 7?!
******************************
1. URGENT ACTION Needed for Burma in US Senate
From:
"Jeremy Woodrum" <jeremy@freeburmacoalition.org>
Date sent:
Fri, 6 Oct 2000 11:10:32 -0700
Dear friends,
We have the biggest opportunity to strengthen U.S. policy toward Burma
since
the Burma Sanctions law, but urgently need your repeated support over
the
next few days. In the last few weeks Burma activists have succesfully
defended Burma sanctions in the House International Relations Committee,
targetted child labor in Burma, and rallied hundreds of activists to
defend
the Massachusetts Burma law. Let's add this to our list of major
efforts!
**********************************************
1) Explanation of Issue
2) How to Contact Your Member of Congress
3) Sample Phone Script
4) **Copy of Bill**
5) List of Main Target Senators
**********************************************
As you might know, imports from Burma have skyrocketed over the last
year--mostly in the form of garments such as sweatshirts, shoes, backpacks,
etc. Unfortunately, almost all of the garment factories are owned
by the
SPDC, which means they are making a massive profit from the trade.
Of
course, they turn around and pump the money into the military, which
then
abuses the people of Burma. If you want to know more, check out
the
National Labor Committee's in-depth report www.nlcnet.org
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is currently looking for co-sponsors for a
U.S.
Senate bill to bar these imports. He has written to several Senators
looking for their support, and it would be hugely helpful if you can
contact
your Senators and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. We literally
only have
about 3 days to put this together since the Congress is about to end,
so
please do call right away. We need interested Senators to contact
Harkin's
office to find out how to co-sponsor. So far, Mitch McConnell
(R-KY), Tom
Harkin (D-IA), and Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota)are all on board.
We are
mainly targetting the list at the end of this page, so check that list
first
**********************************************
Don't know your U.S. Representative or U.S. Senators? Check:
<http://thomas.loc.gov/> for
your Member's names and contact information.
**********************************************
Sample Phone Script
1) Check the list at the end of this page to find out who the main
targets
are, but don't necessarily restrict calls to these people.
1) Call the office and ask for the foreign affairs staff member.
Make sure
you get their name.
2) Inform them that you live in their state and want the Senator to
co-sponsor Tom Harkin's bill banning the import of apparel from Burma.
Tell
them that Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Paul Wellstone
(D-Minnesota)are all co-sponsors already.
a) apparel imports from Burma only subsidize the military regime in
power,
the same government that has recently rearrested Aung San Suu Kyi,
1991
Nobel Peace Prize winner.
b)Burma was kicked out of the International Labor Organization for
its use
of forced labor and it uses more "modern slave labor" than anyone in
the
world
c)The people of Burma have asked that international companies not support
the Burmese regime until their is democracy.
4) Tell them that if they need more information they can contact Bill
Goold
in Sen. Tom Harkin's office at 202-224-3254.
5) ***Tell them that you would like to be informed of the Senator's
decision***, and leave your phone number. You may have to call
a few times
to find out the Senator's decision.
6) Thank them.
7) Write to the Free Burma coordinator nearest to you to inform them
of what
happened and copy the email to jeremy@freeburmacoalition.org
**********************************************
**DRAFT DRAFT**
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
S.----------------
j
-------------------------------------------
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. HARKIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee
n -------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
A BILL
To prohibit the importation of aby textile or apparel article
that is produced, manufactured, or grown in
Burma.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SANCTIONS AGAINST BURMA.
4 (a) IN GENERAL. - Notwithstanding any other provi-
5 sion of law, no textile or apparel article that is -
6 (1) described in chapter 50, 51,52, 53, 54, 55,
7 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, or 63 of the Harmonized
8 Tariff Schedule of the United Stated, and
9 (2) is produced, manufactured, or grown in
10 Burma,
11 may be imported into the United States.
2
1 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The provisions of this sec-
2 tion shall apply to any article entered, or withdrawn from
3 warehouse for consumption, on or after the 15th day after
4 the date of enactment of this Act.
*******************************************************
1. Leahy (VT)
2. McConnell (KY) - co-sponsor
3. Moynihan (NY)
4. Helms (NC)
5. Hollings (SC)
6. Wellstone (MN) - co-sponsor
7. Feingold (WI)
8. Jeffords (VT)
9. Kerrey (NE)
10. Biden (DE)
11. Akaka (HI)
12. Durbin (IL)
13. Feinstein (CA)
14. Murray (WA)
15. Torricelli (NJ)
16. Boxer (CA)
17. Mikulski (MD)
18. Daschle (SD)
19. Sarbanes MD)
20. Lott (MS)
21. Asheroft (MO)
22. Lugar (IN)
23. Chafee (RI)
24. McCain (AZ)
25. Breaux (LA)
26. Thomas (WY)
27. Johnston (SD)
28. Kerry of Massachusetts (MA)
***********************************************
2. Final Push for Eagle Creek - Please call Gore
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2000 15:35:43 -0700
From: "Ivan Maluski" <pseudotsuga@earthlink.net>
It's time for the final push to cancel the Eagle Creek (and other
destructive) timber sales. Our best bet in the next month is to continue
to
make it an issue in the presidential campaign. Last week, Katie McGinty,
Gore's chief environmental advisor was in the Northwest to shore up
support
for Gore from environmentalists. She got an earful from a lot of people
about cancelling the Eagle Creek and Snog timber sales and having Al
Gore
pledge to end old growth logging. She had heard a lot about Eagle due
to all
the hard work of so many of us, and we were able to clear up misconceptions
generated by the Forest Service. We should try over the next week or
two to
flood calls into the local and national Gore offices. What works best
is if
you as an environmentalist and voter express disappointment in Gore
for not
taking action to save Eagle Creek, a roadless area salvage rider timber
sale. It should be easy for him to cancel it since he supposedly opposes
roadless area logging and once said the salvage rider was the worst
mistake
of the Clinton Administration's first four years.
For those of your who don't know, Eagle will log 5,000 log
trucks worth (over 28 million board feet) from 1,000 acres, half of
which
are in an inventoried roadless area adjacent to the Salmon Huckleberry
Wilderness. The area provides some of the cleanest drinking water to
the
185,000 people who drink from the Clackamas River, which has suffered
from
erosion from logging and roadbuilding on public and private lands.
The
sales, like many others, were sold in a rush by the Forest Service
in the
final two weeks of the salvage rider in late 1996, so as to skirt the
normal
public appeals period required by the National Environmental Policy
Act.
The Gore campaign is really concerned about the fact that
environmentalists are not enthusiastic about volunteering or voting
for him.
The fact is, with one out of every six old growth trees that were standing
when Clinton came into office now cut down and with more sales coming
out
like Eagle Creek all the time, very few people trust Gore's committment
to
forest protection if he doesn't demonstrate it by 1) cancelling the
remaining salvage rider timber sales like Eagle Creek and Snog (in
the
Umpqua National Forest); and 2) pledging to end logging in old growth
forests if he is elected.
So let's turn up the pressure and make those two points:
Here's the numbers for Gore's campaign locally (in Oregon) - 503-236-3699
and ask for
Katie Sieben; also call 503-238-2404 and ask for Dick Springer
and nationally, call the Gore campaign at 615-340-2000
and the White House at 202-456-2326.
Please make these phone calls and ask your friends to do the same. Make
it your personal responsibility to follow up with the Gore campaign
daily to
check on the status of Eagle Creek, Snog and other old growth timber
sales.
We can win!!!!
SAVE EAGLE CREEK/CANCEL THE REMAINING SALVAGE RIDER SALES/END LOGGING
IN OUR
ANCIENT FORESTS
********************************************
3. Demonstration at Lockheed Martin in Eagan, MN part
of International Day of
Protest against the Militarization of Space
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 12:47:07 -0500
From: "Nukewatch" <nukewtch@win.bright.net>
Press release from Nukewatch & Circlevision
Date: Oct. 6, 2000
To: News Desks
Contact: Circlevision, Minneapolis, Tel: 651.698.9352.
Or Nukewatch, Luck, WI 54853, Phone: (715) 472-4185.
Or Global Network against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, (352)
337-9274.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN Peace activists will picket the offices of Lockheed
Martin
Corp. in Eagan, MN Saturday beginning at noon as part of the "International
Day
of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space." There are now 63 actions
planned in 16 countries and 38 U.S. cities for the October 7 protests.
Lockheed Martin is the Pentagon s single largest weapons contractor,
with $12.7
billion in prime contracts.
In Eagan, Lockheed Martin "designs and manufactures militarized, ruggedized
and
commercial off-the-shelf defense computer systems for airborne, surface,
undersea and ground applications" [warfare], according to the company
website.
Around the world, Lockheed Martin is deeply invested in Star Wars development,
the Trident submarine nuclear missile system, and the new attack submarine
systems built to wage nuclear war.
Lockheed Martin is planning on nuclear warfare by delivering
"radiation-hardened" computer systems for the navy that are "hardened
against
electromagnetic pulse (EMP)", according to company materials. EMP is
the shock
to electric systems delivered by nuclear bomb blasts.
The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, of
which Nukewatch
and Circlevision are a part, demand that:
1) The U.S. must join in signing a global ban on all weapons in space;
2) Because Star Wars research, development, testing and deployment is
stabilizing, will lead to a new arms race, it must be cancelled;
3) Since Star Wars development is a waste of resources and will result
in more
social spending cuts, it must be halted;
4) Because "Theatre Missile Defense" is as destabilizing as National
Missile
Defense, it must be opposed before U.S. moves to deploy it in the Middle
East &
Asia; and
5) Because the Space-based laser program -- being developed by Lockheed
Martin
(along with Boeing and TRW) and now nearing a testing site decision
-- would
violate the Outer Space Treaty, it should be scrapped. end-
_______________________________
Nukewatch
P.O. Box 649
Luck, WI 54853
Phone (715) 472-4185
Fax (715) 472-4184
Web http://www.nukewatch.com
********************************************
4. Corporations Behave As If They Are More Human Than We Are
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 12:45:42 -0400
From: Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>
Published on Thursday, October 5, 2000 in the Guardian of London
Corporations Behave As If They Are More Human Than We Are
by George Monbiot <g.monbiot@zetnet.com>
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4072040,00.html
***********************************************************
5. Ozone Depletion Reaches Record Level
Ozone hole stretches to record size, exposes Chilean city
CNN Nature October 6, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/06/ozone.hole.ap/index.html
Ozone depletion at record level, U.N. agency says
October 6, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/06/un.ozone.reut/index.html
Back to top
********************************************
6. Authorities assess damage from oil spill in Peruvian river
October 5, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/10/05/peru.oilspill.ap/index.html
********************************************
7. Initiative launched to improve worldwide fresh water supplies
October 5, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/05/environment.water.reut/index.html
********************************************
8. CNN Environmental Message Boards
What do you believe are the most important environmental issues today?
How
should our societies change to live more harmoniously with nature so
that
resources are not depleted? Post your responses to the CNN Environmental
Message Boards.
http://community.cnn.com/cgi-bin/WebX?13@@.eeb0b78
*****************************
Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 22:25:50 -0600
From: John Burritt <jburritt@paonia.com>
Oct. 3, 2000
Why I'm Voting for Nader
Brian O'Leary, Ph.D., copyright 2000
I've been deeply disturbed, dismayed and sometimes depressed with the
recent
movement of folks I admire and respect with their plea to vote for
Mr. Gore,
which is spreading like wildfire on the internet. Therefore, as
never before
in my limited cyberpresence, I must protest and offer some of my reasons
for
voting for Mr. Nader.
What I hear primarily is a fear of "the burning Bush", that oilman and
his
golden-parachute henchman, Mr. Cheney, master of smart bombs that kill
people,
and could kill more. Let me say at the outset that I don't want
those
gentlemen (?) in there any more than the rest of you. They're
spoiled
fraternity boys aggrandized by the silliest most superficial media
I have seen
in my sixty years here (Sorry, Mr. Gore isn't much better).
But I also see
fear and ignorance in the anti-Nader, pro-Gore statements that
are full of
shallow myths ("A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush") ("Nader
has no
credentials besides being a consumer advocate") (etc).
I wish to not only
dispel these myths, but to also point outfrom my own considerable
Washington
experience, that not only is Mr. Nader superbly qualified, but
we have a clear
choice independent of the unprecedently inordinate influence
of big money
interests that are destroying our environment and individual
freedom. Mr.
Nader
therefore needs our support. We are in a revolution of
human affairs, a
paradigm shift, where defensive voting has no place...sorry,
it's too late for
that.
A week ago I keynoted a Forum to Convert to a Hydrogen Economy in Ft.
Collins,
CO. We discussed what it would take to get off our life-destroying
fossil
fuel economy. The only standing ovation I got was when I said
I'd vote for
Ralph Nader. These were professors, technical people, no
dummies. The
support came only because of the simple fact that Mr. Nader is
the only
candidate who supports the rapid conversion to a clean energy
economy.
Recently my colleague Dennis Weaver and I heard Nader speak here in
Montrose,
CO. Nader epitomizes honesty, intellectual rigor, compassion,
the desire to
get off fossil fuels, universal health care, legalizing commercial
hemp in
order to save our forests, and busting the awesome power of international
corporatations. Gore has been bought out. This is important
stuff, the
essence of my entire research over the past two years,
Over the past four
decades, I have advised and written speeches for McGovern, Kennedy,
Mondale,
Udall and Jackson.The Gore people also asked me to help, but
I refused the
oppportunity for the following reasons: he has all but abandoned
the precepts
of "The Earth in Balance", has accepted campaign contributions
from the likes
of Occidental Petroleum, who won the bid for the pipeline to
the pristine
Arctic Wildlife Refuge, advocates the largest peacetime military
budget in
American history, oversees the largest incarceration rate in
the world for
victimless crimes, and is basically bought out. So what if Gore
has the
support of the Sierra Club and other "environmental" groups?
My new book in
progress well documents how those groups have sold out too. Those
endorsements
mean absoloutely nothing to me.
Perhaps most importantly, I cannot vote for someone defensively.
I'd rather
live with four years of Bush, then switch to Nader (whom I'll be
heartily
supporting in future years, if he has the courage to run again)
than to buy
into the lesser evil of the unprecedently money-ridden neopolik
of America; I
feel we need to expose this outrageous corruption and cooption
of the media,
and not vote defensively. A 10-15 % showing could go a
long way in hearing
Nader's voice, so far considered a joke by the media of the likes
of Pat
Buchanan..
We need a revolution here, not more of the same; I shocked at how the
fear of
Bush would have created so much defensiveness and pretty much a
guarantee of
the same shameful American "prosperity" which is leading the
world down the
tubes. Whatever has happened to democracy, where we vote our
consciences?
We're collectively crazy!!!
I told an audience of 4000 in Houston last week that the next time I
would
have a temper tantrum is when someone tells me that a vote for Nader
is a vote
for Bush. No, a vote for Nader is a vote for Nader. Nader happens
to be en
excellently qualified candidate who refuses to be bought out, and
could make a
big difference. Gore is just another mish-mash of decadent
(although
admittedlly morally better) of Clintonism, of Blairism, etc.
So you have a choice to join the revolutionary team, or sell out again!
Being
a revolutionary might take another four years but will be much
better on the
other side.
I've also heard from various quarters that Nader doesn't have the
credentials. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nader
is a much
misunderstood man. In fact, he is more of a Washington insider
than the
insiders themselves, but he's incorruptable. He has maintained
the same
modest studio apartment for decades. I worked with him briefly
on nuclear
power issues during the 1970s while I was consultant to the U.S. House
subcommittee on energy and the environment headed by Mo Udall who was
running
for president. Nader tirelessly drafted legislation, worked endlessly
with the
committee congressmen (and myself) day and night creating a leveling
off of
nuclear power plant new starts. More than any "lobbyist"
he was always in the
public interest and against the corporate, big money interest,
an interest
which has totally corrupted our culture, including Mr. Gore himself.
The fat
cats have taken over Washington, it's so obvious, and Mr. Nader
is one of a
handful of
public interest advocates (much, much more than just a consumer
advocate). He
will be remembered in history as a great selfless American hero,
well-versed
in Washington affairs, while Nero fiddles as Rome burns, and
as the current
Administration or a truly awful Bush administration figure out ways
of
rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic, taking their oil
profits (the
analogue to the iceberg awaiting) and figuring out ways to get
to the first
lifeboat.
If you or some of your subscribers vote for Nader, it will be clean,
honest,
incorruptable, and essential for the environment. I have seen
the process of
Mr. Gore selling out. Don't trust he'll return to his "environmentalism"
any
more than existing "environmental" groups allow SUVs to pollute the
air, for
global warming/climate change to change a la Kyoto celebrated by Mr.
Gore,
which is way too little too late, or for one acre of forests per
second to be
irrevokably destroyed, while the Clinton/Gore administration
raids and arrests
native Americans for growing commercial hemp in South Dakota (Nader's
words for
these actions: "medieval")
Please vote for Nader, or we're in big trouble. Thanks.
Best, Brian
More info on Dr. O'Leary is at http://www.independence.net/oleary
*************************************************************************
10. Crops for Sustainable Enterprise - Free report
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 14:26:08 -0700
From: SD Online <susdev@eurofound.ie>
:Reply-To: ecotalk@earthsystems.org
Dear Reader,
The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions has made the following report freely available from SD
ONLINE.
Crops for Sustainable Enterprise. Office for Official Publications of
the European Communities, 2000 -92 pages.
Authors: Benjamin, Yorick & Van Weenen, Hans.
Go: http://susdev.eurofound.ie/download (PDF: 548k)
REPORT OVERVIEW
There is now a global recognition that we have to move to more
sustainable modes of production and consumption. To this end, policy
makers, industry and workers are engaged in the beginning of a
fundamental shift as to how we realise our materials for production
purposes. Slowly, we are moving from unsustainable fossil based
systems of production to ones based on renewable resources.
This publication explores the uses of fibre crops in the Non Food
Agriculture (NFA) sector and the underlying issues this raises for
the European Union. It scrutinises the agro-industry production
system that is currently emerging, and presents a model for Bionetic
SMEs - companies engaging in sustainable production within a
Bioregional framework.
The report also describes some of the concepts that support
sustainable development such as Bioregionalism, full resource
potential, Permaculture, Biorefining and industrial ecology.
The shift towards the use of renewable resources for material
purposes is very welcome. However, this publication argues that NFA
development should be carefully monitored. We must be fully aware of
all the consequences of mono-crop culture, genetic modification and
the over use of pesticides and fertilisers. Otherwise the
intellectual effort and the technology that enable us to make such
a
wide range of products from renewable resources may also serve to
undermine their sustainability.
COORDINATION GROUP
Torsten Dahlin
Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, Stockholm
Gerard Zwetsloot
TNO-Arbeid, Hoofddorp
Jan Kahr Frederiksen
FTF Copenhagen - Representing the Trade Unions' Group of the
Foundation's Administrative Board
Margareta Mårtensson
SAF, Stockholm - Representing the Employers' Group of the
Foundation's Administrative Board
Bernard Le Marchand
Representing the Employers' Group of the Foundation's Administrative
Board
Andreas Tschulik
Ministry of Environment, Youth and Family Affairs, Vienna
-Representing the Governments' Group of the Foundation's
Administrative Board
Robert Nuij
European Commission DG XI - Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection
Christina Theochari
Representing the Committee of Experts of the European Foundation for
the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
Wout Buitelaar
Representing the Committee of Experts of the European Foundation for
the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
The research manager responsible for the project is:
Henrik Litske European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
SD-ONLINE is designed and developed by EDEN B.V. on behalf of the
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions (an autonomous publicly funded agency of the European
union).
For more information on EDEN's database driven website please: Email:
eden@antenna.nl
********************************************************
11. A Bear Votes on November 7?!
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 03:22:50 +0800
From: Save Our Environment Action Center <actioncenter@saveourenvironment.org>
October 4, 2000
Ever wonder what would happen if bears could vote (or birds
or fish, for that matter)? For starters, we'd probably have
cleaner air and water, and better protection for our forests
and wildlife.
The Save Our Environment Action Center has created a funny
video about a bear who tries to vote. You can watch the
video by clicking on
http://www.saveourenvironment.org/
We hope you enjoy our aspiring bear's trials and
tribulations so much that you'll download the video and pass
it on to friends and family who also care about the
environment.
"A Bear Votes" will be available for viewing at the Save Our
Environment Action Center only through October 15, so check
it out today!
EarthWINS Daily is a project of EarthWINS
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