***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
US
Congress Declares War on Earth
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
August
5, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
Native Forest Network illustrates to what an extent the
current
United States Congress is dismantling environmental
protection
laws. Though the piece is harsh in its
criticisms, the
extent
to which the United States has languished in conservation
leadership
is made apparent. Ten pieces of pending
anti-
environmental
legislation are briefly discussed. This
piece was
posted
in econet's nfn.tempforest conference.
*******************************
RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
/**
nfn.tempforest: 358.0 **/
**
Topic: US Declares War on Earth **
**
Written 2:03 PM Aug
4, 1995 by nfn in cdp:nfn.tempforest **
From:
Native Forest Network <nfn>
US
Congress Declares War on Earth
The
104th United States Congress, dominated by "conservative"
radical
Republicans for the first time in 40 years, is launching
an
all-out attack on the environment and the US laws which protect
it. According to the San Francisco Chronicle,
recent legislation
"is
part and parcel of a giant national rummage sale, the effect
of
which will be to privatize, commercialize, pollute and consume
America's
natural heritage. It is a sell-out,
pure and simple."
In a
feeding frenzy of unprecedented proportions, the
multinational
corporations which now control Congress via
lobbyists
and huge donations seek to topple every statute which
stands
in the way of all-out resource exploitation.
By donating
millions
of dollars to the election campaigns of conservative
candidates,
timber, mining, and other development industries
have
gained instant access to Congress. Thousands of industry
lobbyists,
clamoring for an easing of any and all restrictions,
invade
Capitol Hill daily, while industry lawyers are actually
writing
legislation which is rapidly introduced as bills before
Congress.
Anti-environmental
forces in Congress claim they have a "mandate
from
the people," but nationwide polls show the public is more
committed
than ever to protecting the environment.
With
such laws on the books as the Endangered Species Act (ESA),
National
Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act, the US
has
been a global leader in conservation legislation. Americans
enjoy
vast areas of public lands allegedly managed for the good of
all,
including national parks, national forests, and national
wildlife
refuges. Every environmental law and
every acre of
public
land is now threatened by radical right-wingers who would
completely
deregulate industry and turn all public lands over to
corporate
plunderers.
Major
blows to the environment are already being signed into law
by a
weak-spined president Clinton. The
infamous "logging without
laws"
amendment has become law, meaning a huge mandated increase
in
logging on public lands and suspension of all environmental
laws
which regulate this logging. In
addition, a moratorium on
listing
of species under the ESA has been imposed until Sept. 30,
1996.
This
crisis has profound implications for the global environment.
US
public lands (especially ever-shrinking roadless lands) are
major
refuges of biodiversity, housing a wide range of sensitive
species,
including many migratory birds.
Accelerated development
could
mean extirpation and extinction of internationally
significant
species such as the grizzly bear and the bison. Laws
such as
the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal
Protection
Act protect species around the world by allowing for
sanctions
against countries which trade in products derived from
threatened
species.
Here's
a sickening sampler of some of the bills recently
introduced
into Congress:
1)
Idaho Senator Larry Craig's S. 391 would create "extraction
zones"
on public lands where citizen involvement and environmental
reviews
would be severely curtailed
2) New
Mexico Senator Pete Domenici's Livestock Grazing Act (S.
852)
would turn over the management of livestock grazing on public
lands
to the livestock industry. The bill
would end public
involvement
in grazing decisions and require that public lands be
managed
to increase livestock production to the exclusion of other
uses
such as recreation and wildlife habitat.
3) The
Alaska delegation's S.1054 would gut the hard-won Tongass
Timber
Reform Act of 1990 and return Alaska to the days when the
timber
industry held a "timber first" priority use over other
users
of America's largest, wildest national forest (the Tongass).
Many
permanently protected roadless areas would be opened to
logging,
and an impossibly high annual cut (418 million board
feet!!)
would be imposed on the Tongass.
4) H.R.
1745 and S. 884 endanger protected wilderness areas
nationwide
by undermining the longstanding provisions of the
Wilderness
Act of 1964.
5)
Alaska Rep. Don Young's H.R. 1675 would weaken management of
the
National Wildlife Refuge system and encourage more harmful
exploitation
of the refuges.
6)
Washington Senator Slade Gorton's S. 768 would "reform" the
Endangered
Species Act by allowing the government to plan for the
extinction
of species. The bill, like many now
before Congress,
was
written by lawyers for the timber, mining, and development
interests.
7) Rep.
Shuster's H.R. 961 would gut the Clean Water Act by
allowing
states to decide that lakes and rivers are not worth
cleaning
up, and require complex, lengthy review of all
existing
rules.
8) S.
605, the "takings" bill, would demand that if any health,
safety,
or environmental protection inhibits corporate profits or
developers
property values, taxpayers must compensate the
developer
for revenue decreases.
9) Utah
Representative James Hansen's H.R. 2032 would give all 232
million
acres of federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land over
to the
states.
10)
Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations
Committtee, has vowed to block ratification of the
International
Biodiversity Treaty.
Many
other similar proposals are brewing, such as transferring
management
of the newly created Mojave National Preserve from the
Park
Service back to the more development-oriented BLM; a five
year
moratorium on acquisition of any new land for national parks,
wildlife
refuges or forests; and selling off existing national
parks
and forests to private developers.
Under the guise of
"balancing
the budget," (eliminating the massive federal deficit),
Congress
is planning to open such sacred lands as the Arctic
National
Wildlife Refuge to developers.
NOW is
the time for a global outcry against the demolition of
conservation
in the US. PLEASE contact President
Clinton and the
US
Embassy or Consulate in your country and express your dismay
and
outrage at the plundering of America's natural wonders. Let
them
know how much you enjoy traveling to the US to visit wild
places
and that, until now, you have regarded
the US as a global
leader
in conservation law. Protest actions at embassies and
consulates
would be very welcome indeed.
Contact
President Bill Clinton, The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania
Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20500 USA phone (202)
456-1111
fax (202) 456-2461 E-mail
president@whitehouse.gov
For
more information: Native Forest
Network, PO Box 6151,
Bozeman,
MT 59771-6151 USA phone/fax (406) 585-9211 E-
mail
nfn@igc.apc.org Thanks to the Western
Ancient Forest
Campaign,
Endangered Species Coalition, and Jim Morris
Environmental
T-Shirt Co.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
You are
encouraged to utilize this information for personal
campaign
use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns and
forwarding. All efforts are made to provide accurate,
timely
pieces;
though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information
rests with the reader. Check out our
Gaia Forest
Archives
at URL=
http://gaia1.ies.wisc.edu/research/pngfores/
Networked
by:
Ecological
Enterprises/ 301K Eagle Heights/ Madison, WI
53705
USA/
Phone- (608) 233-2194/ Fax- (608)
233-2193/ Emails-
gbarry@forests.org
or switpi@igc.apc.org