President Attempts to Turn Down the Heat

Sierra Club Currents - President Attempts to Turn Down the Heat
Volume VI, #64
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

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Quote of Note:

"Once species become extinct, no corrective legislation can bring them back-they are gone forever."

-- Allen M. Solomon, Senior research global ecologist, Environmental Protection Agency (retired); and former senior policy analyst, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

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(1) Global Warming: President Attempts to Turn Down the Heat
(2) Trade: New Deal Protects Wildlife
(3) Take Action: Stop Attacks on the Endangered Species Act!
(4) Take Action: Protect Appalachia from Destruction!

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(1) Global Warming: President Attempts to Turn Down the Heat

Thanks to global warming, our rarest and most precious wildlife have never faced greater odds against survival. It is fitting that the President has chosen to finally show interest in combating global warming just prior to National Endangered Species Day. Yesterday the President called on federal agencies to increase fuel economy standards and the production of alternative fuels in an effort to address our energy and global warming problems by 2008. However, there is no need to wait until 2008. There are actions that we can take right now to start combating global warming.

Learn how global warming is affecting our wildlife and find out how you can be a part of the solution.

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(2) Trade: New Deal Protects Wildlife

The tropical Andes is the richest and most diverse region on Earth. Many of the tens of thousands of plant and animal species in the Andes are irreplaceable. Unfortunately, far too many are also threatened with extinction. A new deal announced last week would help protect this special region by adding enforceable environmental standards to the U.S. -- Peru trade agreement.

While the deal makes progress, there is still much work to be done to achieve the reforms necessary to form a U.S. trade policy that supports sustainable development and environmental protection.

Learn more about trade policies that protect the environment.

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(3) Take Action: Stop Attacks on the Endangered Species Act!

Recently leaked documents reveal that officials at the Interior Department have been rewriting Endangered Species Act regulations, unraveling the federal law that has protected them for the past three decades by making them friendlier to big timber, developers, and industry, and less friendly to the animals they are supposed to protect. Without the Endangered Species Act, many of America's wildlife would have disappeared over the past 30 years. This law is more important now than ever before.

Tell Congress to stop the Administration from gutting the Endangered Species Act behind closed doors!

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(4) Take Action: Protect Appalachia from Destruction!

Mountaintop removal is the nation's most destructive form of coal mining. Mining companies clear-cut native forests and use explosives to blow off mountain tops to uncover thin seams of coal.

This devastating practice destroys ancient mountains, buries streams and lays waste to wildlife habitat, like that of the cerulean warbler. Because mountaintop removal mining is decimating its habitat, the cerulean warbler population is less than one-fifth of what is was 40 years ago and is continuing to decline faster than any other warbler species in the U.S.

Tell Congress to stop this destruction!

Photo courtesy Mdf, copyright Free Software Foundation