Take our...

*Dog Dayz of Summer Global Warming Petition Challenge*

Some 325,000 people have signed our Emissions Petition demanding congressional action to undo global warming. But more signatures are needed. Why?

* As the dog days of summer send senators home for summer recess, the congressional session concludes without another hoped-for vote on the Climate Stewardship Act. To keep the heat, let's let senators know this hot issue is important to Americans. One million signatures send a powerfully heated message.

* With the presidential election gearing up and the Democratic and Republican Party conventions nearly upon us, we have another opportunity to turn up the HEAT on the presidential candidates. As a Pentagon-commissioned report revealed earlier this year, global warming is not just an "environmental" issue; it is an immensely important geo-political issue with national security ramifications.

Check out:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/CpaYwHs1_aUF/

How can you help?

Take our Dog Dayz of Summer Global Warming Petition Challenge: Help Environmental Defense get at least 25,000 new Emissions Petition signatures before the summer is out. Our goal is to have a total of at least 350,000 signers before Congress gets back to work on September 7th.

1) Send Ecards:
When tanning by the glow of your computer screen, stay cool by e-mailing your friends and family Undo Global Warming postcards. It's quick and easy, and if you get enough points, we'll send you a free earth-friendly global warming T-shirt. Find out how:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/VdaYwHs1_aUQ/

2) Post Some Flyers:
Download Undo Global Warming pull-tab flyers and post them to lampposts and telephone poles, bulletin boards in your neighborhood laundromat, your favorite bookstore, at the gym ...anywhere. Check out our flyers (pdf):
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/CdaYwHs1_aUH/

3) Face to Face Petitioning:
As you troll through this summer's wide array of fun events in your area -- fairs, concerts, 10k runs, festivals, etc., -- you'll be in prime areas for petitioning. Print out copies of the Emissions Petition and bring it with you to these events and see how many like-minded, ("cool") people you can meet in the process. Download petitions here:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/C1aYwHs1_aUT/

So take our Dog Dayz of Summer Global Warming Petition Challenge. Help us get 25,000 new petition signatures by September 7th. Keep the heat on!


What Else You Can Do While Your Senators Are out of the Beltway:
With senators home during the August recess, you have a unique opportunity to turn up the local home-state grassroots pressure. Here are a couple things you can do to express your support for the Climate Stewardship Act.

1) Call Senators' State Offices: Visit the Senate's web site
( http://actionnetwork.org/ct/V7aYwHs1_aUR/ ) for your senators'
state office phone numbers and ring them up. Let them know how you feel about global warming and the Climate Stewardship Act.

2) Write a letter to the editor of your local paper: Voicing your opinion is a great way to raise awareness of the global warming issue. Write your own or find sample letters online:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/C7aYwHs1_aUG/

3) Schedule a meeting: Set up a meeting with your senators or representative. Interested? Email us at
volunteer@environmentaldefense.org.

4) Sign up as an Environmental Defense volunteer:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/V1aYwHs1_aUP/

5) Global Warming: Undo It! Visit us online at
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/11aYwHs1_aU-/ for more ideas about
how to keep cool this summer.

(excerpt)

Please pay very close attention to this message. A little more than three years ago, the US government while still under Clinton approved $40,000,000 for the the establishment of over 100 'mental health courts' to be ready by 2005. Just recently the US government has approved $20,000,000 to 'screen' the US population for 'mental illness'. Forced psychiatric medication is just around the corner.
(Remember the Bush family are major shareholders in Ely Lilly)

For action check Article #2 in this message


Article #1

SOVIET STYLE MENTAL HEALTH COURTS IN U.S.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a6dd4d47fc8.htm


Article #2

IAHF Webmaster: Breaking News, Urgent Alert, Whats New, What to Do,Eugenics Agenda

IAHF List: Americans- please follow the urgent alert below to protest
Congress's evil appropriation of $20 Million to "Screen" the entire US population for "mental illness."

This is a nightmare come true- the Eugenics Agenda of the New World Order is going into high gear and this is NOT a joke or a hoax.

Encourage more people to sign on to the IAHF email distribution list at http://www.iahf.com and to join you in forwarding this URGENT ALERT. Live outside the USA? Forward this anyway to as many people as you can world wide.

Also, see Chapter 3 in the unauthorized biography of George Bush, about the Bush family's long standing involvement with the Eugenics Movement http://www.tarpley.net/bush3.htm

This is not a joke or a hoax, I sure wish it WAS- See the Action Alert below. Its high time people WAKE UP--- Please forward this massively:


EXTREMELY URGENT ACTION ALERT!

The House Appropriations Committee Funds President’s New Freedom Commission Initiative That Includes Plan To Screen All U.S. Citizens For Mental Illness – Tell Congress and the White House NO MENTAL SCREENINGS FOR AMERICANS AND NO FUNDING FOR THIS PLAN!

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee approved $20 million in new federal dollars to begin implementation of the plans set forth by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (NFC) to get every man, woman and child in America “screened” for “mental illness.”

Amidst broad public concern that many of the antidepressants being prescribed to Americans are under federal investigation for causing suicidal reactions, the New Freedom on Mental Health Commission’s campaign for national mental health “screening” – will result in millions more Americans being diagnosed with fraudulent and unscientific mental disorders, and prescribed dangerous and deadly psychiatric drugs.

Now, $20 million has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee for “State Incentive Transformation Grants,” in order to begin nationwide implementation of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health’s plan. It’s the beginning of a “Brave New World” should the Senate fund this.

The Commission based its entire findings on the definition of mental illness a defined by psychiatry’s billing bible, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The methods of mental health “screening” recommended by the New Freedom Commission are lists of arbitrary questions based on this DSM. If this “sweeping mental health initiative” is implemented, millions more American’s will certainly be diagnosed and drugged given the subjective diagnoses.

FACTS:

Ø The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health’s report states that “mental illnesses are shockingly common,” but neglects to address or even mention the fact that there is no medical or scientific means by which to diagnose mental “illnesses.” Psychiatrists and mental health proponents promote psychiatric “disorders” as a disease, or an illness that can be diagnosed in the same manner as real physical illness. This is a fraud. There are no blood tests, brain scans or chemical imbalance tests to validate any mental disorder as an illness or “disease.” With no scientific/medical criteria to substantiate these claims, anyone could be diagnosed as mentally ill based solely on a checklist of behaviors.

Ø The DSM contains hundreds of psychiatric mental “disorders” which are a list of behavioral symptoms that are literally voted into existence and inserted into the DSM. Such diagnoses include “Caffeine-Related Disorder,” “Mathematics Disorder,” “Disorder of Written Expression,” and the all-encompassing “Phase of Life Problem.” These “disorders” are simply a classification of symptoms that are drastically different from, and foreign to, anything in medicine.

Ø The New Freedom Commission is blatantly promoting the coercive and manipulative tactics that have led to millions of children being falsely labeled with mental disorders in our public schools. Schools have become mental health clinics where children are diagnosed based on subjective questionnaires, instead of given proven educational solutions. This fact was substantiated by a report from the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, which found that 2.4 million children had been diagnosed with mental “disorders” and placed in Special Education, when in fact these children had simply not been taught to read.

Ø The issue of coerced child drugging in public schools has become so prevalent that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Child Medication Safety Act in May 2003, to prevent schools from forcing a parent to drug their child as a condition of attending school.

Ø Due to psychiatric influence, parents have been reported to Child Protective Services and charged with medical neglect for refusing to give their child a psychiatric drug, such as those currently under investigation for causing suicidal reactions. Parents have been charged with “medical neglect” for refusing psychiatric treatment – despite the fact that there is no scientific proof that there is anything medically wrong with the child.

Ø In a recent report by Allen Jones, a former investigator in the Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General (OIG), Bureau of Special Investigations, condemning the New Freedom Commission (NFC), he states, “Despite a nearly 500% increase in American children being prescribed mental health drugs during the past 6 years, the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health found that not enough adolescents are benefiting from mental health treatment. The NFC recommendations prominently call for mandatory mental health screening for all high school students, with follow-up ‘treatment’ as required – this means more kids on mind-altering and potentially lethal psychiatric drugs.”

WHAT TO DO:

1) Oppose any federal, state, or local plans for universal mental health screening. Contact the White House (202-456-1111), the Speaker of the House (Rep. Hastert at 202-225-2976) and the Senate Leader (Senator Frist at 202-224-3344), your own Members of Congress (go to http://www.congress.org), the House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner at 202-225-6205, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Judd Gregg at 202-224-3324 and tell them to STOP funding this New Freedom Commission on Mental Health plan in the Labor/HHS appropriations bill. Alert your state legislators and oppose school board initiatives to add psychiatric screening programs.

2) Support the Child Medication Act (S. 1390) currently stalled in the Senate by Senator Edward Kennedy - This legislation prohibits schools from coercing parents to place their children on psychiatric medications that are on the controlled substances list. Senator Kennedy, with large support from pharmaceutical companies, has not let this very modest proposal even receive a hearing, saying that it needs more study. Senator Kennedy (202-224-4543) as well as Senator Gregg (202-224-3324) the Committee chairman, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (202-224-3344) need to hear from the public.

3) Check to see if your state has a provision in state special education law that prohibits a school district from overriding parental refusal to submit their child to a special education or mental health evaluation. If yes, alert other parents, and if not, work for one.


Peter Dockx
Government Affairs
CCHR International
For Health Freedom,
John C. Hammell, President
International Advocates for Health Freedom
556 Boundary Bay Road
Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA
http://www.iahf.com
jham@iahf.com
800-333-2553 N.America
360-945-0352 World


Informant: Bea Bernhausen

In an alarming attack on public access to information, language buried deep in the Senate transportation bill would allow the government to conceal important information from the public on serious environment, health, and public safety issues. This bill is now before Congress; send a message today supporting your right-to-know about hazards in your community.

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Your Congressperson
Your Senators

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Protect the Public - Reject Secrecy Provisions in Transportation Bill

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
I urge you to protect my right-to-know about transportation safety by rejecting secrecy provisions buried in the Senate version of the transportation bill. I would prefer no transportation bill this year to one that cuts my right to know about the effects of transportation on public health and the environment, as both Senate and House bills do.

Without public hearings, the Senate bill (S.1072) would grant the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) broad new authority to withhold information it deems to be "sensitive security information."

Section 3029 of the bill allows TSA to stamp as secret information on
any "transportation facilities, infrastructure, or transportation employees" and overrides state or local open records laws. It would also restrict public input on transportation projects.

If implemented, these secrecy provisions are a threat to the public's right-to-know about hazards in their community and sets a dangerous precedent. Without mechanisms to hold TSA accountable, security problems could go uncorrected and cause public harm.

I urge you to drop the secrecy language from the transportation bill, and reject other provisions that would sharply weaken accountability and public information on the effects of transportation on public health and the environment.

Sincerely,
Jay Sweeney

Take Action!

Spread the Word:
Tell-a-Friend!

What's At Stake:
This new secrecy language is part of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) which shapes the nation's transportation investments. Examples of environmental information that could be stamped secret are:

· Environmental impacts of oil spills
· Whether nuclear waste shipments are routed by local elementary schools
· Withholding air pollution impacts of new roads and limiting public comment on new road projects.
· Criminal records of transportation workers such as drunk or unsafe
driving records for hazardous materials truckers;
· Whether routes for dangerous shipments are transported through heavily populated areas;

Send a message to your senators and representatives today to preserve your right-to-know about transportation hazards in your community.

Campaign Expiration Date:
August 13, 2004


Informant: thehydratwo

TAKE ACTION Against Electronic "Virtual Voting"

Action Opportunities for securing your VOTE:

1. Call Robert Ney and bust HR2239 out of committee.

2. Write a Letter to John Kerry and tell him to speak out on the issue.

3. Background Flyer to print out and pass around.



1. Robert Ney, the neysayer.

Congressman Robert Ney blocking HR2239 and putting democracy on hold for Diebold HR2239, the bill that would mandate a paper record for paperless "virtual voting" systems, now has 143 co-sponsors - Gosh, do you think it'll pass?

It may, but if it doesn't come to the House floor for a vote before the August recess, it's a gonner.

SO MAKE SOME NOISE NOW!

Ohio Congressman (Diebold) Blocking HR2239
Pass this on! He needs to get about a million phone calls.

Call Congress Toll Free:
1-800-839-5276

What/Who is holding up HR2239??????
The Committe Chairman of the House Administration:, thats who!
A republican whose state is the home for DIEBOLD Election Systems!
Bob Ney, Republican for Ohio.

Call Bob Ney or his office and tell him you want a Voter Verified Paper Ballot in time for November 2004! Tell him you hold him personally responsible for impeding YOUR democracy!

Call toll free at 1-800-839-5276

I DONT HAVE TO LIVE IN OHIO TO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HIS HOLDING UP DEMOCRACY FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.

H.R. 2239 is presently in the Committee on House Administration: Republican Rep. Robert W. Ney,(OH) is the Chairman. Here is Rep Bob Ney's March 3rd statement as to his opinion of a Voter Verified Paper Ballot:

Dear Colleague:

As the principal authors of the Help America Vote Act (Public Law 107-252) (HAVA), signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002, we feel compelled to express our concerns about recent legislative efforts that promise enhanced electronic voting system security. Various proposals have been introduced in the House and Senate, but a common feature of these bills is they would amend HAVA to require that all voting systems, including electronic and computer-based systems, produce or accommodate a "voter verified paper record."

"Not only are such proposals premature, but they would undermine essential HAVA provisions, such as the disability and language minority access requirements, and could result in more, rather than less, voter disenfranchisement and error..."

http://www.house.gov/cha/dearcolleaguemarch3-04.htm

District Offices Contact:
E-mail: bobney@m...
District Offices TOLL FREE: 1-866-4-OHIO-18

DC OFFICE
Phone: 202.225.6265 | Fax: 202.225.3394 | E-mail: bobney@mail.house.gov

http://www.americanether.net/Kerry.html

2. Send a letter to John Kerry
Tell Kerry to protect your vote against the threat of electronic voting.

Send a Free Fax by putting this in your email's "send" box and click "send". Sometimes the fax doesn't work, if it doesn't try again later or call Kerry's office.

remote-printer.sen_kerry/304_Russel_Bldg@12022248525.iddd.tpc.int

remote-printer.sen_kerry/PO_Box_34640@12022248525.iddd.tpc.int

http://www.americanether.net/Kerry.html


Dear Senator Kerry,

Recently you and Senator Edwards visited Florida and pledged to its voters, that every vote will be counted. I've also read that you have been organizing a legal task force to deal with any voting irregularities. While dealing with voting irregularities and voter disenfranchisement "after the fact" is necessary, I encourage you to take more pro-active measures to make sure that every vote is counted and every voter is allowed to vote.

In Florida and in many other parts of the country, many counties are using paperless electronic voting systems, 'virtual voting' as I like to call it. When these machines have no paper record of the voter's intent, it is only the virtual data that decides the end count. It's hard to imagine a rigorous recount done with only virtual data and I wonder how accurate the vote counts will be using paperless systems.

Some say that paperless voting is reliable, but I find that hard to believe. Recently, it's been reported that a popular kind of E-Voting system in Florida and elsewhere, the iVotronic from ES&S, has a problem with the accuracy of its internal audit procedures.

When the battery is low, the machine scrambles its serial number, making the distinction as to 'which machines had how many votes' impossible. ES&S says that this 'audit bug' does not affect the actual vote count, only if we want to double check and do an audit. This is but one of many serious problems that are being discovered each day with these systems.

Many election officials are telling the people to trust paperless voting, but how can we trust these systems, when it is impossible to prove our votes actually exist.

Senator Kerry, time is running out for any meaningful safeguards to be implemented before November. If you want all of our votes to be counted and counted accurately, one thing you can do is to co-sponsor S1980, which would mandate a paper record for every vote cast on E-Voting machines.

You need to speak out now about the need for better security standards and auditing procedures for electronic voting systems, otherwise the problems of 2004 will make 2000 look like a walk in the park.

If S1980 and HR2239, its House counterpart, do not pass, the results of the election cannot be seriously validated. Without these bills immediately enacted to safeguard our most fundamental democratic right, voter confidence in the US electoral process, will greatly diminish.

I hope you will speak out about this issue to your colleagues in the Senate to provide leadership in securing the integrity of our votes.

Sincerely,


Put this in your email's "send" box and the email will turn into a
free fax.

remote-printer.sen_kerry/304_Russel_Bldg@12022248525.iddd.tpc.int

remote-printer.sen_kerry/PO_Box_34640@12022248525.iddd.tpc.int

John Kerry for President, Inc.
P.O. Box 34640
Washington, DC 20043
202-712-3000
202-712-3001 (fax
http://www.johnkerry.com/contact/contact.php


Washington D.C.
304 Russell Bldg.
Third Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax

http://kerry.senate.gov/text/contact/email.html


Background:

Print this out and take it to your local bullentin board or coffee
shop......


Election 2004:
How many bugs does it take to destroy your democracy?

Did you know that since 2002, most US election systems have been "upgraded" to paperless 'virtual voting' with faulty new systems that constantly break down?

Some produce no paper copy of votes, which makes a recount impossible. Obviously, this could cause problems if the vote is close like in Florida in 2000.

These brand-new machines have been breaking down all across the country, stopping and stalling elections, blowing circuits, and 'glitching' votes out of existence.

In the recent primaries at least 10,000 voters in California, in 5 different counties, could not vote because of a wide range of technical failures. In New Mexico in 2002, 12,000 votes failed to be counted. In Florida in 2000, one machine even registered MINUS 12,000 votes for Al Gore!

How does such junk end up counting your vote?

Michael I. Shamos, a computer expert speaking before a House subcommittee hearing, said the testing and certification process for electronic voting systems "is not only broken, but is virtually nonexistent".

Both optical scan and touch-screen election systems have severe, unresolved security and accuracy flaws that are not being remedied.

Computer scientists at John Hopkins University and other institutions have demonstrated that any amateur software programmer can hack in and out of these systems within minutes.

What about fraud?

Mike Devereaux, a salesman for a major E-voting vendor, had this to say:

"The problem with touch-screens as vote counters is that they can be easily manipulated."

How many software bugs does a paper ballot have?

In 2001, a CalTech/MIT study found that, of all voting systems used in the United States, hand-counted paper ballots have the lowest average incidence of spoiled, uncounted, and unmarked ballots.

What are you going to do when your vote disappears on election day?

It's your right as a citizen to decide who counts your vote and how. Congress is not ensuring fair and accurate elections, free from machine breakdowns or "virtual vote" manipulation.

Make a difference:

Take the election back into YOUR hands.

Please visit the following websites to find out how you can help:
http://www.americanether.net
http://www.blackboxvoting.org
http://www.votersunite.org
http://www.verfiedvoting.org


Informant: elelpho

Forest Service Opens Remarkable Roadless Rainforest Area to Chainsaws

Despite overwhelming public sentiment against it, the Forest Service announced the first timber sale in a part of the Tongass National Forest that has been protected from new roads and commercial logging.

The Threemile timber sale on lush Kuiu Island is an outrageous surrender of protection for profit. It is almost certainly only the first of many such assaults on Tongass roadless areas. Please tell the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service today how strongly you oppose this roadless area timber sale.

You can take immediate action from
http://ga1.org/campaign/tongass/wd8ks5x4hib66e


About Tongass Roadless Areas

When the last Administration signed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, America's largest national forest, the Tongass in southeast Alaska, was the major beneficiary. In all, the roadless rule declared 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest land off limits to commercial logging and to most new road construction. Together with the Chugach National Forest in south-central Alaska, our second largest, these two accounted for one quarter of the roadless lands protected under the milestone rule.

Even though millions of Americans spoke in support of the roadless area protection rule, the Bush Administration exempted the two Alaska forests from the rule a year ago. And, as we reported to you yesterday in a special WildAlert bulletin, the administration has now unveiled a scheme to repeal the rule entirely.

The Tongass sale is the first since that exemption. Combined with the plan to repeal the roadless rule, it is an ugly harbinger of what's in store for other pristine areas of our national forests across the country.

The Forest Service is planning 50 timber sales for Tongass roadless areas over the next 10 years, this at a time when the market for Tongass logs is so poor that the Forest Service is actually letting loggers surrender timber sales they've already bought.

Coastal Rainforest, Pristine No More

The Threemile timber sale would log over 650 acres of now-pristine coastal rainforest. The project entails 8 miles of new road, slashing into the Kuiu Island's remarkable Rocky Pass and Camden areas, a wonderfully scenic complex of lush green islands, deep blue fiords and rock-filled channels. Once the first logging road enters an area, it's usually just a matter of time before it is extensively clearcut.

The island is within the traditional territory of the Kake Tlingit people who have long depended on its splendid habitat for hunting, fishing and gathering wild food and medicines.

Rocky Pass, with its unusual and scenic rock formations, is a world-class sea-kayaking area and a popular destination for guided kayak tours. Productive saltwater bays in the targeted area provide local commercial fishers from surrounding communities crab, shrimp, salmon and halibut. Its wildlife roster is a mini-catalog of Alaskan species: wolf, moose, bear, marten, river otter, beaver, Sitka black-tailed deer, goshawk, bald eagle. Sandhill cranes, Canada geese and several other species of waterfowl use and nest in the area.

Propping Up An Industry To Cut It All Down

It is tragically ironic that logging on the Tongass is a large-scale money-loser without taxpayer subsidies for building logging roads. The House of Representatives voted in mid-June to end precisely those subsidies on the Tongass. (The Senate has yet to pass a similar measure.)

A second roadless sale, the Gravina Island timber sale, is lurking in the wings and is likely to be announced shortly. It, too, would have been prohibited by the roadless rule and would be similarly uneconomic without your tax dollars.

How You Can Help: Contact The Forest Service Today

It is terribly important to register our strong disapproval of this decision with the man who made it, Dale Bosworth, the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. You can send that message to him immediately at
http://ga1.org/campaign/tongass/wd8ks5x4hib66e

If you'd like to write your own message, in your own words (and we hope you will!) there's a sample message below with the major points.

You can also call Chief Bosworth's office and tell him that you oppose ALL logging projects in roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest, including the Threemile sale and the proposed Gravina Island timber project.

Contact Information

Dale Bosworth
Chief, U.S. Forest Service
201 14th Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
E-mail: dbosworth@fs.fed.us
Phone: 202-205-1661
Fax: 202- 205-1765

Sample Letter

Dear Chief Bosworth:

I strongly oppose your decision on the Threemile logging project in the Tongass National Forest and I urge you to reconsider it. I support, equally strongly, the protection of all roadless areas remaining on the Tongass. I urge you to reject any proposal to clearcut and develop pristine areas of the Tongass.

The Threemile project hurts taxpayers, harms our nation and should not proceed. The Tongass is both our largest National Forest and the largest temperate zone rainforest on the planet. We should guard its values jealously and pass these wild and unroaded places on to the next generation in the hope that they will be wiser than we seem to be about their care. The Forest Service should not allow logging in the beautiful Rocky Pass or Camden areas.

Logging roadless areas of the Tongass is a supremely bad decision. It is one that Americans should not have to pay for, either in subsidies or through the loss of irreplaceable wildness and wildlife.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
(Your name and address)

I wanted you to know that the Bush administration is using the recent rise in gasoline prices as a pretext to sacrifice one of America's greatest natural treasures -- the Western Arctic Reserve of Alaska -- to massive oil development.

We have a very narrow window in which to block this corporate-sponsored raid on our natural heritage. Over the next 30 days, the Bush administration is taking public comments on its plan to put 96 percent of the reserve's wildlife-filled northeast region on the auction block.

I am asking you and hundreds of thousands of others to join me in flooding the Bush administration with messages of protest over the next critical weeks.

Please do your part by going to
http://www.savebiogems.org/westernarctic/takeaction.asp?RR0407
and sending an electronic message telling the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw its destructive plan and to permanently protect the reserve's world-class wildlife habitats.

Then please forward my message to as many people as you can.

The Western Arctic Reserve may be less well-known than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- which lies directly to the east -- but its wildlife populations are every bit as unique, spectacular and endangered.

I am especially concerned about the Western Arctic Reserve's Teshekpuk Lake region -- one of the most important tundra-wetland ecosystems left on our planet. This vast network of coastal lagoons, deep water lakes, sedge grass meadows and braided streams provides the critical calving grounds for the 45,000-member Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd.

Thirty percent of all Pacific black brant also take refuge in these safe and remote wetlands, remaining flightless while they replace their old feathers. Steller's eiders, northern pintails, tundra swans and rare yellow-billed loons are just a few of the other amazing species that flock to Teshekpuk Lake to nest, free from disturbance. Come fall, some of these birds will migrate as far south as Antarctica.

Polar bears roam the coastal areas of Teshekpuk Lake from summer to early winter. And people are counting on the lake for survival as well. The Inupiat Eskimos have subsisted here in balance with nature for at least 8,000 years by following the herds of caribou.

Incredibly, the Western Arctic has never been granted full federal protection. That's because it was set aside as the "National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska" nearly a century ago. But Congress also stipulated that this oil field be tapped only in time of dire national need.

Our government kept oil rigs out of the Western Arctic Reserve even during the darkest days of World War II and the oil embargo of the 1970s. As a result, most of the reserve has remained pristine -- its primeval beauty unmarred by roads, oil rigs or other signs of human interference.

Interior secretaries since the 1970s have recognized the need for special protection in the Teshekpuk Lake area. But if the Bush administration gets its way, Teshekpuk Lake will soon be stripped of most of those protections and sold to the highest bidder.

And for what? Drilling in the Western Arctic would have no effect on gas prices at the pump. Its oil would take years to get to market and would never equal more than one or two percent of America's oil supply -- a tiny drop in the bucket of our nation's oil consumption.

Only one group would benefit from destroying the Western Arctic: the oil giants. Meanwhile, they would turn one of the planet's most fragile homes for Arctic wildlife into an industrial zone of pipelines, producing wells and contaminated waste sites.

The Western Arctic Reserve is supposed to be an energy savings account of last resort. A recent poll shows that the vast majority of Americans would rather save oil and lower gas prices by adopting tougher fuel economy standards for our cars and trucks.

Please join me in telling the Bush administration to follow the cleaner and more self-reliant path of fuel efficiency -- and to put Teshekpuk Lake and other critical habitats off limits to the oil industry.

Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/westernarctic/takeaction.asp?RR0407
and tell the Bush administration to withdraw its destructive plan. And rememberto forward my message to your friends, colleagues and family.

This fight represents one of our very last chances to preserve untrammeled wilderness as we first found it. Let's speak with one voice and stop this senseless attack on one of the world's greatest sanctuaries for Arctic wildlife. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Robert Redford
Board of Trustees
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

*Too Slick: Exxon Mobil's Global Warming Misinformation
Campaign*

ExxonMobil has launched a stealth PR campaign to spread doubt about the science of global warming. Funding lobbyists and ads to misinform the public and politicians about climate change is part of the strategy. This misinformation campaign must stop.

Send an email with the over 10,000 already sent to ExxonMobil CEO Lee R. Raymond...

Take action:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/exxonmobil/i5sxe849j6e7i8

July 2004

*Clean Air for National Parks - Stop Drilling in Wyoming's
Powder River Basin*

Some 50,000 to 150,000 coalbed methane wells have been proposed for the Powder River Basin. Spanning millions of acres in Wyoming and Montana, it would be one of the largest energy developments in the lower 48 states, threatening scarce western water supplies and polluting grand vistas of the West, including Yellowstone and other national parks. Tell Interior Secretary Gale Norton to preserve our Western landscape and stop damage from Powder River Basin drilling. Take action:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/powderriver/i5sxe849j6e7i8

Tierschutz: Unterschriftsaktion kämpft für Stopp der Tierversuche in Tierversuchslabor

09.07.04

Der Bundesverband Menschen für Tierrechte will am 14. Juli zusammen mit den Vereinen „Münsteraner Initiative für Tierrechte“ und „die tierbefreier“ rund 20.000 Unterschriften für den sofortigen Stopp aller Tierversuche der Firma Covance Laboratories/Münster an Umweltministerin Bärbel Höhn übergeben. Die Unterschriften wurden im vergangenen halben Jahr gesammelt, nachdem das ZDF im Dezember 2003 in der Sendung "Frontal 21" undercover aufgenommene Bilder ausstrahlte, die einen brutalen Umgang mit den Versuchsaffen und katastrophale Haltungsbedingungen im Münsteraner Tierversuchslabor Covance demonstrierten. Bundesweit seien über 100 Strafanzeigen wegen Verstoßes gegen das Tierschutzgesetz erstattet worden...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8876