House Republicans Tom Delay (R-TX) and Richard Pombo (R-CA) are exploiting public fears over high gas prices to pass a bill that would permit drilling in the Arctic Refuge! We expect a vote tomorrow and we need your help right now.

These Representatives are out of touch with the American public and certainly beholden to the oil industry. According to a recent Zogby poll, only 14% of the public thinks drilling will solve high gas prices.

This vote is a political move that would not reduce our oil dependence. We should be conserving and promoting alternative energy research, not destroying the last of our pristine wildernesses! Contact your Representative today and tell them that you are one of the many Americans who oppose this senseless policy!

http://democracyinaction.org/2020vision/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=67

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the {financial} bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the {financial} separation."

-- Adaptation of the American "Declaration of Independence"

http://www.solari.com/campaign/july4th.htm


Informant: littlebrit1961

'Energy Week': Wasting Time, and Energy, on Dead-End Schemes
"Bad ideas never die." That's a famous Washington, D.C., adage whose sorry truth is on display again. The House of Representatives is using rising gasoline prices as an excuse to dredge up its dirty, destructive energy bill for another series of votes, including a renewed effort attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

The package of legislation that's on the schedule for next week, H.R. 6, would pave the way for drilling and mining on our most special public lands, from the Arctic to the Otero Mesa of New Mexico and the Red Desert of Wyoming. At the same time, it would roll back environmental safeguards that protect our air, water, land and health. And it won't do a thing to bring gas prices down.

Please Call Your Representative Before Tuesday!

The bankrupt energy bill could be before the House of Representatives as early as Tuesday, June 15. Please call your congressional representative with this simple message: vote against the dirty, dangerous energy bill and against any attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

The Capitol Switchboard, at 202-224-3121, will connect you to your Representative's office. You can look up who your Representative is at:

http://ga1.org/wilderness/leg-lookup/search.tcl?domain=wilderness&preview_p=1

You can also use the talking points below in your phone call.

If you absolutely can't call your Representative, please click here to send him/her a fax immediately:

http://ga1.org/campaign/EnergyJune/wd8ks5x4qinnn8

Talking Points:
Calling your representative's office is painless, quick and easy and our message here is a very simple one. Just ask for the staff person handling energy issues. After identifying yourself, ask that your representative to vote against the energy bill when it comes to the floor, and to vote against any attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. If the staff person seems amenable to a longer call, you can also make these additional points:

- Drilling in the Arctic will do nothing to reduce gasoline prices, but will ruin a wild and pristine place for a few months' worth of oil consumers won't see for a decade or more.

- These bills have nothing to do with helping consumers at the pump; they have everything to do with political and electoral posturing.

- This cynical, pointless game only wastes time on dead-end schemes when legislators should be insisting on solutions that would actually make a difference and set us on course to a sustainable new energy future.

June 11, 2004

You, too, can honor Diane by taking a simple actionsee below!

At a dinner banquet in San Francisco on June 10, CODEPINK honored Texas fisherwoman Diane Wilson. Diane, "infamous" for her struggles against the chemical companies polluting the Gulf Coast, is in many ways responsible for the birth of CODEPINK. At a rousing speech to a group of environmentalists called Bioneers, Diane called on the "unreasonable women" of the world to come together to fight pollution, war, and injustice. Bioneers co-producer Nina Simons was so moved that she convened a gathering of "Unreasonable Women for the Earth" in 2002, and it was there that CODEPINK was conceived. Since then, Diane has joined CODEPINK in a hunger strike in front of the White House to try to stop the war in Iraq, chained herself to the UN fence to urge the UN to stop the war, and went to Iraq weeks before the invasion to send a message of peace to Iraqi women.

On the environmental front, Diane not only fights the chemical companies polluting her bay in Texas, but she has gone half-way around the worldto Bhopal, Indiato fight the chemical companies there. In 1991 she was invited to India to a gathering looking back at the Union Carbide explosion in 1984 that killed over 20,000 people in Bhopal. She was so outraged by the chemical companys lack of accountability to the victims, and even their refusal to clean up the site, that she became active in the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.

The best way we can pay tribute to Diane is to support her latest endeavor on behalf of the people of Bhopal. In response to a suit filed by Bhopal survivors, a court in New York has agreed to consider survivors' claims for getting Union Carbide to clean up the toxic waste in Bhopal. For this to happen, the Indian Government needs to submit a letter to the New York court expressing its support for the survivors' claims. The deadline set by the New York court for receipt of such a letter is June 30, 2004. So far, the Indian Government has refused to respond.

Diane will join some of the Bhopal victims in a NO FOOD, NO WATER hunger strike starting on June 18. While Diane and her colleagues are putting their lives on the line, they are asking us to call, fax or send a letter to the Indian Consulate in New York: Mr. Ashok Tomar, New York Consul General Tel: 212 774 0600 Fax: 212 734 4980) or email the Minister of Chemicals in India (mincf.cpc@sb.nic.in).

Click here for talking points, a sample letter, and background information:
http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M6429596115109816930155&iEvent=14581

Diane, a simple fisherwoman from a small village, understands the connections between poor fisherfolk in Texas, chemical victims in Bhopal, and war victims in Iraq. Over the years she has taken incredible personal risks to stop corporate and government abuses. She is a great inspiration to "unreasonable women" everywhere, and CODEPINK is delighted to have this opportunity to salute her courage and her example.

Thank you, Diane. We love you.

peace,
Andrea, Bonnie, Carol, Claire, Gael, Jodie, Lora, Medea

http://www.codepinkalert.org


Informant: Martin Greenhut

by Forests.org, http://forests.org/
June 11, 2004

Urge the World Bank to Protect the Environment, Human Rights and Local Communities - While Supporting Clean Energy

TAKE ACTION @ http://forests.org/action/world_bank/

The World Bank will soon decide whether to phase-out lending to oil and coal projects, and end support for extractive industries in internationally recognized critical habitats - key environmental recommendations made in their own "Extractive Industries Review" (EIR).

Past and present financing of coal, oil and mining activities was found to have failed to reduce poverty, and caused major environmental and social problems. Poverty reduction and sustainable development are suppose to be the Bank's mission. EIR recommendations include halting World Bank financing for coal projects immediately, phasing out support for oil projects by 2008, dramatically increasing investment in clean, renewable energy, implementing a "no go zones" policy that would bar investments in ecologically sensitive areas, providing local communities the right to clear projects, and assurances of good governance and human rights in project areas. The report also recommends greatly increasing funding for clean, renewable energy. Please urge the World Bank's Executive Directors to FULLY implement the extractive industry reforms - and in so doing to use its financial resources to transform the world's energy economy from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources.

TAKE ACTION @ http://forests.org/action/world_bank/


Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org

Hello friends -

I hope that on June 19th you can help RAN continue to push US logging giant Weyerhaeuser out of old growth and endangered forests around the world. We're focused now on getting Weyerhaeuser's large customers to cancel business contracts until Weyerhaeuser makes a public commitment for our forests. Our May Trader Joe's Day of Action put the company on notice - but they're still buying from Weyerhaeuser.

Take a minute right now to send an email to Trader Joe's CEO Dan Bane at http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=40001.

We're also doing another big public pressure push to convince Trader Joe's to sever its Weyerhaeuser contract on June 19th. Would you be interested in holding an educational event in front of a Trader Joe's store in your town to send a clear message to the company? The message: stop buying paper bags from the #1 destroyer of old growth forests in North America! You can find out more at
http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=40002.

Some folks are asking customers to take a photo with a cardboard bubble saying "Trader Joe's: Please cancel your Weyerhaeuser contract now." Those photos will be sent in to the corporate office. Others are handing out flyers to customers and collecting petition signatures to the corporate office. Others are doing creative theater pieces in front of the stores.

You can do whatever strikes your fancy. Can you help us make June 19th a success? We're hoping to get dozens of cities on the map from committed individuals like yourself. To find the Trader Joe's store nearest you, visit:

http://action.ran.org/ctt.asp?u=2844473&l=40003

To get a "Weyerhaeuser toolkit" with t-shirts, stickers, and materials, and for assistance in organizing an event, contact Sharon Smith or Jessica Bell, RAN: 415-398-4404 or grassroots@ran.org. So, are ya in? If so, please let us know as soon as you can your initial thoughts for June 19th.

Admiring your work in the field from our SF office,

Sharon Smith and Jess Bell
Old Growth Campaign Organizers, Rainforest Action Network

SEVEN ARTISTS SUBPOENAED IN USA PATRIOT ACT CASE

Sign the Letter of Support!
http://caedefensefund.org/letter_sign.html

Source: http://caedefensefund.org/


Informant: Bernard Blanc

Take Action!

Otero Mesa in south central New Mexico is one of the largest remaining areas of intact Chihuahuan desert grassland. It’s wild and rich in life, including the a robust native pronghorn herd. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released an oil and gas drilling plan for Otero Mesa and, like other such plans for other wild places, would make energy development the dominant use of the land.

Please tell the BLM you reject its "oil above everything" mistreatment of your public lands.

http://ga1.org/campaign/OteroMesa/wd8ks5xr2mktbe

Target: Theo van Boven Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the question of torture ; President George Bush

Sponsor: Emily R. Anderson

In his weekly radio address, President Bush recently declared: "One year later, despite many challenges, life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam's regime." Yet we are now beginning to learn that life for Iraqi prisoners under U.S. military rule involves torture, abuse, and humiliation.

Amnesty International has uncovered a "pattern of torture" of Iraqi prisoners by coalition troops, and has called for an independent investigation into these abuse claims. While President Bush has vowed that any soldier found to be guilty of abuse will be punished, and several soldiers have recently received administrative "reprimands," piecemeal punishments are not enough. Even worse, a report by U.S. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba suggests that as many as 60% or more of the Iraqi prisoners may be civilians who have done nothing wrong. This torture and abuse at the hands of the U.S. and coalition forces is systemic, and demands a high-level, independent investigation.

It is clear that the U.S. government and military are not taking this issue seriously enough, and the world community needs to speak up now and demand change. Sign this petition to call for an international, independent, and public investigation of these abuses at all levels of the U.S. military. .....

http://www.care2.com/go/z/15041


Informant: Eye On Human Rights

In its latest assault on Alberta's fragile Castle Wilderness, Shell Canada has proposed a six-year plan to drill up to six new "sour gas" wells in the region's Carbondale foothills. Sour gas wells contain large amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas that can leak into the environment and cause serious harm to humans and wildlife, even in small doses. In the Castle, emergency-planning zones for accidental leaks would reach for six kilometers around each new well.

While Shell claims to practice sustainable energy development, the energy giant has continued to expand its activities into critical wildlife areas. The Carbondale foothills, which produce nourishing foliage earlier in the spring than the Castle's higher alpine ridges, are key habitat for elk and grizzlies. With license applications on the table for the first two sour gas wells, Shell Canada hopes to start construction of access roads and wells this summer.

Tell Shell Canada to shelve its plans for new sour gas wells in the Castle:

http://www.savebiogems.org/castle/takeaction.asp